Modeling the Sound of Music
If a musical instrument has never been built before, how can you know what it will sound like? That's the question UC Berkeley graduate student Cynthia Bruyns is answering with Vibration Lab, software she's designing to simulate the sound of any percussive instrument, real or imagined, in a computer. Her system could someday enable musicians to play instruments that exist only on the screen, enable the interactive design of new physical instruments, and even boost the realism of immersive virtual environments for education and training.
Scoping Out the Nanoworld
UC Berkeley mechanical engineering professor Xiang Zhang is taking a close look at the nanoworld. Very close. He's building an optical microscope that's nearly ten times more powerful than today's best comparable systems. The superlens at the heart of the scope could someday be used to observe the tiniest machinations of living cells, fabricate much faster and smaller computer processors, and manufacture DVDs with thousands of movies on each disk. Already, it cast a new light on a centuries-old barrier faced by optical physicists and engineers.
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Weathering Atmospheric Flow
According to the US Department of Commerce, about one-third of this country's gross domestic product from private industry, approximately $3.5 trillion, is climate and weather sensitive. Industries like agriculture, air travel, and tourism are highly dependent on accurate forecasts while weather patterns are also intricately tied to pollution and even national security. The problem is that the models used for weather forecasting are incomplete. UC Berkeley environmental engineer Tina Katopodes Chow is helping fill the gaps.
Cool Alumni: Sit right back and you'll hear a tale...
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