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Fall 2003 PDF

Breakthroughs: Cutting-edge research
from Berkeley Engineering

We are pleased to introduce Breakthroughs, a regular column featuring brief updates on the pioneering research done by UC Berkeley College of Engineering faculty and students. See more at www.coe.berkeley.edu/newsroom.

Canary on a microchip

Professor Boris Rubinsky of ME and BioE and Berkeley Engineering alumnus Yong Huang (Ph.D.’01 ME) have developed a microchip that can instantly determine whether a cell is dead or alive. In a study published in Sensors and Actuators, the researchers used their chip to detect changes in a cell membrane’s electrical resistance milliseconds after exposure to a toxin.

"This MEMS [micro-electromechanical systems] device will be invaluable in the detection of a biochemical attack, because there you don’t have the luxury of time and analysis," says Rubinsky, a researcher with the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS). The chip, patented by UC Berkeley, was exclusively licensed to Excellin Life Sciences, a Milpitas-based biotech startup where Huang is president.

Ethanol does more harm than good

As the U.S. Senate debated a provision in the energy bill that would double the amount of ethanol used as a gas additive to five billion gallons a year by 2012, Berkeley researchers issued a report concluding that ethanol does more harm than good. Professor Tad Patzek of CEE and his students found that by the time ethanol is burned as a gasoline additive in our vehicles, the net energy lost is 65 percent, a figure that factors in the energy spent growing the corn, converting it into ethanol, and transporting it. "We’re embarking on one of the most misguided public policy decisions to be made in recent history," Patzek says.

Florentino Mota, a community outreach worker in Mexico, installs the UV Tube. LAURA MCLAUGHLIN PHOTO

Clean water for developing nations

According to the World Health Organization, as many as five million people die annually from drinking contaminated water. In the battle against bad water, the Mexican Institute of Water Technology launched a pilot project last summer to test an inexpensive water disinfecting system developed at Berkeley.

The device, known as the UV Tube, is easily installed in a home’s water system. It consists of a PVC (polyvinyl chloride) tube lined with stainless steel and an ultraviolet light bulb. As water passes through the tube, the UV light damages the DNA of bacteria, viruses, and protozoa and prevents them from replicating. The tube costs $30 to $50, based entirely on materials readily available in local hardware stores. The device was developed at Berkeley’s Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, directed by NE Professor Dan Kammen of NE, the Energy Resources Group, and Goldman School of Public Policy, with Professor Kara Nelson of CEE serving as technical advisor.

A spec of smart dust

EECS graduate students Al Molnar, Jason Hill, Ben Cook, Mike Scott, and Brett Warneke successfully tested a tiny chip outfitted with ultra-low power computation, communication, and sensing capabilities.

Without the battery required to power it, the chip measures a mere 5 square millimeters. A key ingredient in the CITRIS-developed Smart Dust platform of tiny and nexpensive sensors, the aptly named Spec chip contains a novel transceiver that is 50 times smaller than a cell phone and consumes 1,000 times less power, yet operates at the same frequency.

"This is a major step toward sensors that cost less than $1 apiece and are integrated into the products we own, the buildings we live and work in, and the freeways we drive on," says Smart Dust inventor and Professor Kris Pister of EECS.

FOREFRONT takes you into the labs, classrooms, and lives of professors, students, and alumni for an intimate look at the innovative research, teaching, and campus life that define the College of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.

Published three times a year by the Engineering Public Affairs Office. Have a comment about Forefront? E-mail your letter to the editor. Click here to learn more about the magazine.