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The Engineer, the Rat, and the Fruit Fly
Engineering student Anat Caspi has an intimate relationship with rats, mice, and flies. She listens to their deepest secrets and poses an unending number of questions about their pasts. Caspi is not as odd as she sounds though. A member of the Bioengineering Graduate Group, Caspi uses novel computer software to unravel the evolutionary mysteries of lab rats, mice, fruit flies, and humans.
A Slimy Graphics Algorithm
We live in a viscous world of bubbling and oozing fluids. From mud to blood to paint, much of the stuff that surrounds us is neither perfectly liquid nor perfectly solid. Digitally simulating these materials' changing properties is an historically difficult challenge in computer graphics. But UC Berkeley researcher James O'Brien has developed a novel way to animate viscoelastic fluids that could bring movies, videogames, and even surgical simulations much closer to reality.
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Nanopores Detect Diseases
A tiny chip developed by a UC Berkeley mechanical engineer is now being tested as a super-fast bioterrorism sensor for the battlefield. The same technology could eventually lead to a disposable disease detector that brings cheap, easy, and incredibly accurate blood tests out of the clinic and into the rural villages of developing nations. To build such a device though, professor Lydia Sohn looked to nature for inspiration. The result is a silicon chip laden with artificial nanopores that mimic the filtration system of human cells.
Cool Alumni: HOTorNOT.com founders James Hong and Jim Young
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