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November 3, 2006 Vol. 77, no.
12F
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| PEG SKORPINSKI PHOTO |
Professor Minute with EECS professor Seth Sanders
EECS professor Seth Sanders received the S.B. degrees in EE and physics
in 1981, and the S.M. and Ph.D. in EE in 1985 and 1989, respectively,
all from MIT. Before joining the Berkeley faculty in 1989, he was a
design engineer at the Honeywell Test Instruments Division in Denver.
His research interests include control, robotics, biosystems, integrated
circuits, and power and electronics systems.
What first inspired you to go into engineering?
My career path was probably developed by playing with and building
as a child, in rough order: push trains, blocks, electric trains, erector
sets, radio and audio systems, bicycles, go-carts, boats and so on.
I have always loved to build things that do cool stuff.
To date, what has been the most memorable moment in your career?
The roughly one minute spin-up and spin-down test cycle of our experimental
flywheel energy system, where our machine was spun to 60 krpm, corresponding
to a peak stored energy of a few hundred kJ.
If you had a few extra hours, what would you do?
Build a complete solar-thermal-electric system with my own hands.
What should engineering students make sure they do at Berkeley before
they graduate?
Take a broad range of classes and spend some serious time getting involved
with a research group.
What are you currently reading?
The new Al Gore book, An Inconvenient Truth.
What is one thing you would like to learn how to do?
Wavesailing — sailboarding in ocean surf.
If you would like us to feature your favorite professor, please email
his or her name to engnews@coe.berkeley.edu
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