Features

Upwardly mobile: small device has big ambitions

A microscope attached to a cell phone, the CellScope is being developed by bioengineer Dan Fletcher and his team of students to make diagnosis of disease in remote locales both portable and affordable. The device has potential in both the developing and developed worlds for evaluating and monitoring infectious diseases like malaria and tuberculosis as well as cancer and sickle cell anemia.

The smart little engine that could: sensing a new automotive feature

Berkeley mechanical engineers say smart new technology can help drivers improve their efficiency, economy and environmental footprint. While Robert Dibble and team work to implement a technology that combines the low emissions of gasoline engines with the increased performance of diesel, Albert Pisano and Van Carey investigate sensors that could improve the engine’s internal controls and its ability to navigate the fuel-supply infrastructure of the future.

The prophet of Menlo Park: Douglas Engelbart carries on his vision

This year Doug Engelbart (M.S.’53, Ph.D.’55 EECS) celebrates the 40th anniversary of his landmark “mother of all demos,” where, on December 9, 1968, he demonstrated the first computer mouse and the first networked collaborative computer system, which would put the power of computing into the hands of everyday people. He is still working to raise the collective IQ and interest the world in the unrealized aspects of his vision.

Where in the world is Berkeley Engineering?

Two stories demonstrate of the reach of students and faculty from UC Berkeley College of Engineering, from contaminated tube wells in Bangladesh, which are slowly poisoning millions of villagers who have no alternative water supply, to the rubble-strewn towns of China’s Sichuan Province, where a 7.9-magnitude earthquake last May killed 69,000 and left 4.8 million homeless.