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Berkeley Engineering in the News
Press coverage of Berkeley Engineering people and news.
2006
With rich past, lab sets bold course Contra Costa Times (12.02.06)
This year, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory is celebrating the 75th anniversary
of the birth of the first national lab in a small wooden building on
the UC Berkeley campus where a visionary young man built the first circular
particle
accelerator.
Berkeley:
Rules approved for nanomaterials SF Guardian (12.07.06)
The Berkeley City Council has unanimously approved new rules requiring handlers of nanomaterials to make annual disclosures to the city's toxics manager.
Nike+ IPod = Surveillance wired.com (11.30.06)
If you enhance your workout with the new Nike+ iPod Sport Kit, you may be making yourself a surveillance target.
Nanotubes grown from seed nature.com (11.30.06)
Growing carbon nanotubes with well-defined widths and wall structures has been a long-standing challenge. The solution may involve seeding new tubes with pieces of existing ones.
Better Metal Wall System Coming for Seismic Zones ENR.com (11.27.06)
By April, structural engineers may be able to get building department approval, on a case-by-case basis, to use generic metal shear wall panels for low-rises in high seismic zones.
Cheaper Anti-Malaria Drug Getting Closer KGO TV (11.27.06)
Researchers at U.C. Berkeley are one step closer to making a malaria drug available to people around the globe.
Berkeley
Lab's nanotechnology lectures open to all high school students SF Chronicle (11.26.06)
High school students are invited to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for the fall and spring semesters of "Nano High" -- a series of Saturday lectures by UC Berkeley professors and lab scientists on the future of nanotechnology.
Berkeley considering need for nano safety San Francisco Chronicle (11.24.06)
Berkeley is proposing what a city official says would be the world's first local regulation of nanomaterials -- engineered particles and fibers so vanishingly small and super-efficient that they promise to revolutionize industry but pose possible health risks to people if inhaled or exposed to skin.
Berkeley: New steel wall promises cheaper, stronger quake-proof construction San Francisco Chronicle (11.21.06)
Engineers from UC Berkeley and the construction industry unveiled a prototype Monday of a new kind of steel wall they say is three times stronger than wood-framed walls and has the potential to dramatically lower the cost of earthquake-resistant, multi-unit housing.
Landfill
standards strengthened Times-Picayune (11.17.06)
The decision to increase safety requirements followed concerns raised several weeks ago by Robert Bea, an engineering professor at University of California, Berkeley...
A cookstove for Darfur voanews.com (11.06.06)
Scientists have designed a cookstove that could make life a little easier for refugees in the Darfur area of Sudan. It might also help reduce the loss of forests in poor countries where trees are cut down as fuel for cooking fires. The scientists are from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley.
Engineer says landfill could compromise nearby levee Nola.com (11.03.06)
Robert Bea, an engineering professor at the University of California at Berkeley, said there is a 1 in 3 chance that the landfill, once complete, could cause serious impairment to the levee.
New levee in Yuba gives river more room Sacramento Bee (11.02.06)
On the winding Bear River in Yuba County, work is wrapping up on a new stretch of levee that gives the river a wide band of land alongside it where water can spread out should flooding occur.
McCain's farm flip
CNN Money.com (10.31.06)
The senator has been a critic of ethanol. That doesn't play in Iowa. So the Straight Talk Express has taken a detour.
A money gap and a brain drain
Los Angeles Times (10.28.06)
Corey Goodman and Carla Shatz had a grand vision for UC BERKELEY: to build the greatest neuroscience program in the world, to figure out how healthy brains work, and to use that understanding to cure disease.
Sugar fuels biotech company's work
Contra Costa Times (10.17.06)
Emeryville-based Amyris says new CEO and $20 million in funding will help it create sweet alternative to crude oil
A Ruler made of Gold and DNA
Smalltimes.com (10.11.06)
Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California at Berkeley have developed a ruler made of gold nanoparticles and DNA that can measure the smallest of life's phenomena, such as precisely where on a DNA strand a protein attaches itself.
Nurturing Creativity: 2006 MacArthur Fellows
MacArthur Foundation
Claire Tomlin, an aviation engineering who holds a joint appointment at UC Berkeley and Stanford, is one of 25 MacArthur Fellows named this year.
Science and the Gender Gap
MSNBC (09.25.06)
To get a sense of how women have progressed in science, take a quick tour of the physics department at the University of California, Berkeley.
It pays to be a genius -- $500,000 The Mercury News (09.19.06)
Claire Tomlin, 37, is an aviation engineer at Stanford University and the University of California Berkeley who uses mathematical principles to help pilots and air traffic controllers avoid mid-air collisions...
State needs private engineers Sacramento Bee (09.19.06)
A major UC Berkeley study found that, overall, engineering salaries are very similar in the public and private sectors, and that if anything public sector engineers receive higher benefits.
Stretching could be stem cell catalyst SF Chronicle (09.18.06)
The study by University of California [at Berkeley] bioengineering graduate student Kyle Kurpinski is one of several at the 232nd American Chemical Society National Meeting to show that physical manipulation of stem cells may be an important step in transforming them into tissues that could heal injuries or cure diseases.
Majoring in IBM
Wall Street Journal (*requires registration) (09.08.06)
Dissatisfied With Graduates, Companies Design and Fund Curricula at Universities.
A Berkeley Engineer Searches for the 'Truth' About the Twin Towers
SF Chronicle (09.08.06)
"From the day that I stood there and watched it collapse" on television, he says, "I was thinking that this is impossible. That there's something strange here."
The Washington Monthly's Annual College Guide Washington Monthly (09.06.06)
In a new university ranking released this week, Washington Monthly called the University of California, Berkeley "about the best thing for America we can find. It's good by all of our measurements. The same goes for the rest of the schools in the UC system, four of which make our top 10, the rest of which make our top 80."
Errors, Costs Stall Nuclear Waste Project LA Times (*requires registration) (09.04.06)
Academic experts agree the U.S. is losing its expertise in nuclear engineering. There are 35 universities in the U.S. with nuclear engineering departments, half as many as in the 1970s, said Joonhong Ahn, a UC Berkeley expert on nuclear waste.
Editorial:
Piecemeal federal response won't protect New Orleans USA Today (08.27.06)
A team study led by experts from the University of California at Berkeley found that the Army Corps of Engineers — the federal government's builder of canals, dams and levees — made errors in the basic design and structure of the levees....
New
test for liquid explosives revealed Newscientisttech.com (08.25.06)
Potential bomb attacks on aircraft could be more easily detected thanks to a new test for hydrogen peroxide, one of the liquids that have sparked dramatic security clampdowns at airports around the world, according to UC Berkeley researchers.
Berkeley Engineering ranks 2nd in the nation U.S. News & World Report
In its annual undergraduate rankings, U.S. News & World Report ranks Berkeley Engineering in a 2nd place tie with Stanford University, behind the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Professor Monteiro on NPR NPR (07.28.06)
On July 28, Paulo Monteiro, civil and environmental engineering professor, participated on National Public Radio's (NPR) Talk of the Nation: Science Friday program. Monteiro discussed the basics of structural engineering and materials.
Figures on Chinese Engineers Fail to Add Up NPR (06.12.06)
A report cited in The New York Times and quoted on the House floor claimed China graduates nine times as many engineers as the U.S. Skeptical, a Duke professor had students check the numbers.
Op-Ed: Leadership needed for better health-care research SF Chronicle (06.09.06)
Christopher Wolf is a student in the College of Engineering, department of bioengineering and the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley.
The Washington Monthly's Annual College Guide Washington Monthly (06.09.06)
In a new university ranking released this week, Washington Monthly called the University of California, Berkeley "about the best thing for America we can find..."
The NCIIA Recognizes Collegiate Biomedical Engineering Innovations Yahoo.com (06.07.06)
The National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) Presents BMEidea Awards to Four Student Teams With Breakthrough Discoveries for Cardiovascular Disease, Cancer and Anemia
Army Builders Accept Blame Over Flooding NY Times (*requires registration) (06.02.06)
Robert G. Bea, an engineering expert at the University of California,
Berkeley, who has been critical of the corps, said he was impressed
by the level of criticism in the report.
"This report has got a tone in it that is not like anything we have seen before," Dr.
Bea said. "They're coming forward now."
New ultrasound imaging material created UPI (05.31.06)
The University of California-Berkeley researchers say they used the same principles that help create a guitar's complex tones to develop the substance -- called an "ultrasonic metamaterial" -- that responds differently to sound waves than any substance found in nature.
New Orleans Sinking Faster Than Thought NY Times (*requires registration) (05.31.06)
The federal government, especially the Army Corps of Engineers, hasn't taken the dramatic sinking into account in rebuilding plans, said University of Berkeley engineering professor Bob Bea, part of an independent National Academy of Sciences-Berkeley team that analyzed the levee failures during Katrina.
An Autopsy of Katrina: Four Storms, Not Just One NY Times (*requires registration) (05.30.06)
"This is a national issue," said Raymond Seed, a professor of engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and an author of a stinging report released last week. That report has identified flaws in design, construction and maintenance of the levees that contributed to the failures. But underlying it all, the report stated, were the problems with the initial model used to determine how strong the system should be.
Levees Rebuilt Just in Time, but Doubts Remain NY Times (*requires registration) (05.25.06)
Raymond Seed, a professor of engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, who is one of the corps' most consistent critics, said he did not doubt that the system was, to use the mantra of the corps, "better and stronger" in many ways. But, he asked, "Better enough?"
Op-Ed: Corps' goal is safety USA Today (05.23.06)
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is examining the levee analysis report by the University of California, Berkeley-led investigation team. While the report is solid, it contains several conclusions we're concerned about, including references to our work to rebuild the levees and to our organizational processes.
New Study of Levees Faults Design and Construction NY Times (*requires registration) (05.22.06)
"People didn't die because the storm was bigger than the system could handle, and people didn't die because the levees were overtopped," said Raymond Seed, a professor of engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and the chief author of the report, in a weekend briefing for reporters here.
"People died because mistakes were made," he said, "and because safety was exchanged for efficiency and reduced cost."...
Are you prepared for the next Big One?
MSNBC (05.22.06)
Working with the UC Berkeley’s earthquake engineering research center, NBC's Dateline sponsored the building of a house designed to examine the effects of an 8.0 quake on a typical 1930s San Francisco house. The shake table's quake simulation was featured on Dateline Sunday, May 21.
UC Report on Levees Sees Institutional Failings in Corps LA Times (05.19.06)
The report from the UC Berkeley engineering department says the corps lacked a coherent strategy for protecting the city.
Two labs team up to create nanotubes Contra Costa Times (05.19.06)
Scientists from Lawrence Livermore and Lawrence Berkeley laboratories have created a filtration membrane smaller than a quarter riddled with a billion tiny tubes that are 50,000 times thinner than a human hair.
Replay feared if big storm hits Times-Picayune (05.16.06)
Raymond Seed, a civil engineer at the University of California, Berkeley and a leader of a 36-member team of engineers and scientists conducting their own independent investigation of the levee failures with financing from the National Science Foundation, said the 17th Street Canal wall failure can be blamed on a thin layer of slick clay that test borings failed to detect when the levee was being built.
Berkeley: Engineering students make it easy, low-tech SF Chronicle (05.13.06)
Three UC Berkeley engineering students have been recognized by campus officials for their efforts to help people in impoverished areas of India, Sri Lanka and Mexico secure clean drinking water and save lives by reducing a potentially devastating threat to public health.
Science Illustrated [Graphic] NY Times (*requires registration) (05.09.06)
Inspired by the compound eyes of insects like bees, a team of scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have devised a method of manufacturing pinhead-size artificial compound eyes, each containing thousands of light-guiding channels with their own miniature lenses. These artificial eyes could have widespread photographic, military and medical applications. Here is how the researchers did it....
Katrina report blames human errors The Times Picayune
Hurricane Katrina wouldn't have breached the region's hurricane protection system had it been properly financed, designed, built and maintained, say a group of forensic scientists lead by UC Berkeley's Ray Seed, a geotechnical engineer and professor of civil and environmental engineering. Download the report.
The Ethanol Solution CBS.com
Can the fuel distilled from corn and other renewable materials one day take the place of the billions of barrels of oil the U.S. imports each year? Professor Dan Kammen was interviewed by Dan Rather for this report. You can watch the video from the CBS website.
Scientists try to keep Masada from falling again Florida Jewish News (05.04.06)
Using state-of-the-art monitoring devices and advanced computer modeling techniques, and armed with a four-year grant from the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation, Beersheba's Yossi Hatzor and Berkeley's Steven Glaser (left) are breaking new ground in geological engineering. Masada is their test case.
Report Links Corps' Planning to Inadequacies in Levee System NY Times (*requires registration) (05.03.06)
An expert not involved in the new report, Robert G. Bea of the University of California, Berkeley, called the panel's work "exactly right on." The failure to take new information on the local elevation into account and the choice of a "horribly flawed" standard for setting the design, Mr. Bea said, were part of "a whole string" of breakdowns.
Housefly a model for new wide-angle lens New York Times Online (*requires registration) (05.01.06)
Bioengineers at the University of California at Berkeley have created artificial compound eyes, modeled after those of insects, that could one day be used to broaden the field of vision for cameras and sensors, even beyond fish-eye lenses, according to the researchers.
The research could lead to wide-area cameras for ultrathin cell phones in the next few years, according to Luke Lee, professor of bioengineering at UC Berkeley.
Ravaged by Katrina, New Orleans still wary of levees Washington Post (*requires registration) (05.01.06)
Robert Bea, an University of California, Berkeley, civil engineering professor who is part of a National Science Foundation team overseeing the project, said the Corps appears on track to meet its own target. But he's wary of the target.
Hydrogen fuel far from ready for prime time SF Chronicle (05.01.06)
"You need to see a clear path to a commercial market," said Tim Lipman, a research engineer at UC Berkeley's Institute of Transportation Studies....
Berkeley
students take third place in bridge building Oakland Tribune (04.30.06)
Gregory Fenves, Cal Civil and Environmental Engineering Department Chair, explained that concrete cam float. "Most people don't realize it, but during World War II cargo ships were made of concrete because of the shortage of steel," Fenves said....
Insect eye inspires future vision BBC News (04.27.06)
"Even though insects start with just a single cell, they grow and create this beautiful optical system by themselves," said Professor Luke Lee, one of the authors on the paper.
"I wanted to understand how nature can create layer upon layer of perfectly ordered structures without expensive, fabrication technology," he said.
Cal cozies up to private donors SF Chronicle (04.24.06)
A. Richard Newton, the dean of Cal's College of Engineering, wants to create an endowment that would permanently supplement the salaries of all 224 engineering faculty. "If I had something north of $100 million, I could guarantee that the faculty at the best college of engineering at the best public university in the world would be paid at market forever," he said.
Levees not fully ready for hurricane season USA Today (04.24.06)
After a recent tour of levees in St. Bernard Parish, another expert said the soils being used to rebuild the earthen hills were much better than what was originally there. "Our concerns have been pretty well addressed," says Raymond Seed, a Berkeley engineer working with Bea....
Quake could devastate levees Contra Costa Times (*requires registration) (04.20.06)
"If we have an earthquake close in or a larger earthquake further out, we're going to lose a lot of our levees and probably a portion of Sacramento," Raymond Seed said Wednesday at the 100th Anniversary Earthquake Conference. "It's the Armageddon."
Academia Dissects the Service Sector, but Is It a Science? NY Times (*requires registration) (04.18.06)
Kurt Koester, a 24-year-old graduate student in engineering at Berkeley, is eager to take part. Yet engineering alone, he observes, can often be outsourced to lower-cost economies overseas.
1906 quake today could be more lethal Oakland Tribune (04.17.06)
"As a result, those buildings sit in their original conditions, even deteriorating, waiting for the next earthquake," said Jack Moehle, director of the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley....
New method found to make nanofibers UPI (04.13.06)
For 72 years, scientists have been able to use electric fields
to spin polymers into tiny fibers. But there's been just one
problem: Like worms that won't stop wriggling, the fibers tangle
randomly almost as soon as they are created.
UC
Berkeley gets gift for first nanotechnology chair SF Business
Times (04.12.06)
UC Berkeley will establish its first endowed chair in nanotechnology using a gift from the executive chairman of Nanosys Inc. and his wife.
Berkeley, Stanford underpin Bay Area success Mercury news (04.12.06)
Mike Langberg of the Mercury News, reports on Dean Newton's keynote address at this year's Berkeley in Silicon Valley. In his talk, Global Competition: How We Can Win, Newton referred to the Bay Area is a single big corporation that competes with other regional corporations in places such as Seattle, Boston, Shanghai and Bangalore.
Tech Trends: Get Ready for the Real Bionic Man Top Tech News (04.04.06)
The cyborgs are coming. Human-machine hybrids, they will carry 100-pound loads over long distances, develop artificial arms, hands and legs, and scan their surroundings with powerful bionic eyes. "Integrating machines with human life is part of the natural progression of technology," says Homayoon Kazerooni, a professor of mechanical engineering and director of the robotics and human engineering laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley.
Nuclear
Engineering Chief Powered by Genius Contra Costa Times (03.27.06)
The nuclear industry has found in Berkeley engineering professor Jasmina Vujic, someone who truly believes that nuclear power is one of the cleanest, most cost-efficient energies. In the absence of a perfect energy source, she says, nuclear power is the United States' best bet.
Fragile levees imperil Delta The Record [Central Valley] (03.17.06)
If just several Delta islands out of dozens flood, millions of Californians could be left without water for a year, said Raymond Seed, who teaches civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.
"This is an issue without precedent in modern times," said Seed, who chairs an advisory committee for the Delta Risk Management Strategy, a new state-funded research effort launched last week to identify how and why a flooding disaster might occur.
Engineers: 1985 Test Predicted Levee Break New York Times Online (*requires registration) (03.14.06)
''Not only did they have that in their repertoire of information, they failed to use it, as best we can tell,'' Seed said in a telephone interview from the University of California, Berkeley.
A
Hail Mary against global warming peril San Francisco Chronicle (03.13.06)
Rick DelVecchio of the San Francisco Chronicle reports on MSE Ph.D student Ilan Gur's goal to play a part in creating a new kind of solar panel, one so light it could roll off a printing press like newsprint, and so cheap that the world's poorest local economies could not only afford to buy it but also make it.
Study Describes the Circumstances for a Levee Failure New York Times (*requires registration) (03.11.06)
Another independent investigator said the corps should have known about the potential for this particular kind of failure because it studied the phenomenon directly in 1988. This expert, Robert Bea, a professor of engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, said the 1988 study, conducted by the New Orleans district of the corps, found results of high water pressure very similar to what seems to have occurred during Hurricane Katrina.
Warning Sounded About Levees Washington Post (*requires registration) (03.08.06)
Raymond Seed, an engineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley, also disclosed new details about what he described as serious flaws in the Army Corps of Engineers building practices. Seed said the problems were observed in at least three locations along an 11-mile earthen levee near Lake Borgne, east of New Orleans, that was nearly washed away by Hurricane Katrina on Aug. 29.
Experts Fault Repairs to New Orleans Levees Los Angeles Times (*requires registration) (03.08.06)
Robert G. Bea, a UC Berkeley professor who is also part of the investigation team, said in an interview that the newly repaired levees might be so weak that they would be virtually worthless in stopping a hurricane surge when the storm season starts June 1.
Levee Fixes Falling Short, Experts Warn Washington Post (*requires registration) (03.06.06)
New Orleans -- The Army Corps of Engineers seems likely to fulfill a promise by President Bush to rebuild New Orleans's toppled flood walls to their original, pre-Katrina height by June 1, but two teams of independent experts monitoring the $1.6 billion reconstruction project say large sections of the rebuilt levee system will be substantially weaker than before the hurricane hit....
Quality vs. Quantity in Engineering Insidehighered.com (03.03.06)
Every spring, Jitendra Malik, chair of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, has a sitdown with students who have been accepted to the College of Engineering and are mulling over whether to attend.
Innovations: Gene therapy: Solving delivery problems SF Chronicle (02.26.06)
Chemical engineer David Schaffer is using a laboratory version of natural selection to find a better way to deliver microscopic healing agents directly to the diseased cells of patients.
Smart Homes Control Heat, AC RedHerring.com (02.25.06)
Richard Newton, dean of Berkeley's college of engineering, said in a speech that public-private partnerships are playing a larger role than before in advancing sciences, particularly when many large corporate labs, such as Bell Labs and HP Labs, have shrunk in size.
A
1,000-processor computer for $100K? Ny Times (*requires registration)(02.24.06)
"If you can put 25 CPUs in one FPGA, you can put 1,000 CPUs in 40 FPGAs," Patterson said during a symposium here this week at UC Berkeley, where he is a professor of Electrical Engineering. Such a computer would cost about $100,000, he estimated. It would also take up relatively little space--about one-third of a rack--and consume only about 1.5 kilowatts of power.
Will Germanium Frosting Keep Moore's Law alive? CNET(02.23.06)
CNET reports on Chenming Hu's talk at the 2006 Berkeley EECS Annual Research Symposium on February 23. Hu, professor of electrical engineering, noted that in the next few years, advanced silicon chips might require an extra layer of germanium on top.
Most Lucrative College Degrees CNN.com(02.15.06)
In survey of the Class of 2006, engineers still get top salary offers, but accounting and finance majors are climbing quickly.
Environment: Professor Attacks Enthusiasm for Bio-FuelsNPR(02.02.06)
A growing number of Americans are embracing ethanol and bio-diesel as possible alternatives to gasoline. But one Berkeley Engineering Professor [Tadeusz Patzek] is waging a campaign against what he considers a delusion about bio-fuels....
Switchgrass: The Super Plant Savior? in ABC News (02.01.06)
"Corn is an OK source for ethanol," said Daniel Kammen, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley and Director of its Institute of the Environment. "But if you really want to hit a home run, you need to go to cellulose."
Iran's Civilian Nuclear Program May Link to Military, U.N. Says in New York Times (*requires registration) (02.01.06)
"The obvious technical connection is that these are all central elements of a program to develop nuclear weapons and delivery capability," said Per F. Peterson, a professor of nuclear engineering at the University of California at Berkeley
Investigators Gain Access to Levee for Soil Test in New York Times (*requires registration) (02.01.06)
It took a special agent of the Louisiana state attorney general's office and some bureaucratic sparring, but members of an independent team of engineering investigators won access on Tuesday to the site of a major levee breach from the Army Corps of Engineers.
New production method uses far less energy than it creates in USA Today (02.01.06)
Making alcohol fuel efficiently enough to help the USA move away from gasoline could involve a process with a cumbersome name: cellulosic ethanol production....
California and The West -- Report Challenges Claims About Ethanol in Los Angeles Times (*requires registration) (01.27.06)
A new study by California researchers challenges claims that substituting ethanol for gasoline consumes more energy than it creates — an argument that has dogged ethanol programs and their supporters for more than a decade.
Berkeley: Panel takes on disaster preparation planning in San Francisco Chronicle (01.20.06)
The political mess linked to Hurricane Katrina must be fixed to guide New Orleans' reconstruction and stop future natural disasters -- on the Gulf Coast, in California and elsewhere -- from becoming human-made catastrophes, members of a UC Berkeley panel said Thursday.
Custom-Made Microbes, at Your Service in New York Times (*requires registration) (01.17.06)
"We're talking about taking biology and building it for a specific purpose, rather than taking existing biology and adapting it," professor Keasling of Berkeley said. "We don't have to rely on what nature's necessarily created."
The Nation: Fatal Flaws: Why the Walls Tumbled in New Orleans Los Angeles Times (*requires registration) (01.17.06)
Experts point to defects in design, construction and maintenance that left levees vulnerable.
Most Lucrative College Degrees CNN (01.15.06)
In survey of the Class of 2006, engineers still get top salary offers, but accounting and finance majors are climbing quickly.
Drop
in foreign enrollment worries U.S. educators in Contra Costa Times
(*requires registration) (01.11.06)
at the University of California-Berkeley enrolls nearly 2,700 international students from more than 100 countries, but enrollment - particularly at the graduate level - still has yet to bounce back to its pre-Sept. 11 numbers.
Editorial:
Engineering misjudgment in Times-Picayune [New Orleans, LA] (01.03.06)
In 1990 corps officials in New Orleans provided their superiors in Vicksburg, Miss., with documents containing specifications for levees along the 17th Street Canal. Those documents, according to at the University of California at Berkeley engineering professor Robert Bea, show that designers of the levees did not adequately account for conditions in the underlying soil.
Calif. Storm Damage Tops $100M CBS News (01.02.06)
The levee system itself, built in the late 1800s, has many worried. University of California-Berkeley engineering professor Robert Bea told Hughes "it's marginal at best."
2005
Two canal breaches blamed for most New Orleans deaths San Jose Mercury News (*requires registration)(12.30.05)
Most Of The City Would Have Stayed Dry After Katrina If Walls Had Held.
California Is Surprise Winner in Bid to Run Los Alamos New York Times (*requires registration) (12.22.05)
In a surprise finish to months of battle, the University of California prevailed yesterday in its bid to run Los Alamos National Laboratory, the storied weapons research center in the mountains of New Mexico and the birthplace of the atomic bomb.
UC Wins Fight For Los Alamos San Francisco Chronicle (12.22.05)
Reaction: Opinions split over contract, but decision bodes well for Livermore.
Revises Katrina's Force
Hurricane Center Downgrades Storm to Category 3 Strength
Washington Post (12.22.05)
Hurricane Katrina will go down in the history books as the costliest hurricane in U.S. history, but not by a long shot the most powerful.
New Orleans Wonders What to Do With Open Wounds, Its CanalsNew York Times (*requires registration) (12.21.05)
"The thing that scares me about open water channels is your inability to control them," said Robert G. Bea, a professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Berkeley...
Obituary: W. J. Oswald, 86, Algae Miracle Worker, DiesNew York Times (*requires registration) (12.21.05)
William J. Oswald, a scientist who pioneered ways to use algae to address immense human problems - including treating sewage, increasing food supplies, generating energy and facilitating voyages into deep space - died on Dec. 8 at his home in Concord, Calif. He was 86.
Bush pledges more for leveesSan Jose Mercury (*requires registration) (12.16.05)
Robert Bea, an engineering professor at the University of California-Berkeley, said the funding for levees that Bush is seeking falls well short of what ultimately will be needed to boost New Orleans' hurricane defenses.
Animal Eyes Provide High-Tech Optical InspirationNational Geographic News (12.05.05)
Today's cutting-edge optical technologies could progress by leaps and bounds if scientists can better imitate animal-eye evolution spanning billions of years, two bioengineers report.
UC Berkeley's Vivek Subramanian Invents Electronic NoseIndoLink(12.01.05)
Now Vivek Subramanian, electrical engineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley, announced this week, at the Materials Research Society meeting in Boston, that he has made arrays of sensors cheap enough that they could be widely distributed for monitoring toxins in the environment.
The Big Idea
Robugs, biologically based software, the GeoWeb, transgenic art and other hot frontiers in technological innovation.
Salon.com(11.30.05)
Tomorrow's robots may look more like spiders or flies than Rosie or Robby.
Desktop manufacturing
Advances in 3-D printing and embedded electronics will revolutionize how everything from coffee makers to cellphones gets made.
Salon.com(11.30.05)
Imagine that your coffee maker breaks just before you're about to host a brunch. You go online and click on the model you want to buy. But you don't have to wait for it to be shipped...
That County-Line Jam Is No Accident
Los Angeles Times (*requires registration)(11.30.05)
Local governments' transit priorities don't mesh, so motorists often brake as they lose lanes at the borders.
Los Alamos: Plutonium could be missing from labSan Francisco Chronicle(11.30.05)
600-plus pounds unaccounted for, activist group says.
Full Flood Safety in New Orleans Could Take Billions and DecadesNew York Times (*requires registration)(11.29.05)
Amid all the arguments over how to rebuild this pummeled city, there is one universally held article of faith here: New Orleans must have a flood protection system strong enough to withstand Category 5 storms, the worst that nature can spawn....
Holes in the Dike: Long Before Flood, New Orleans System Was Prime for LeaksWall Street Journal (*requires registration)(11.25.05)
"The chain will break at its weakest link," says Robert Bea, a civil engineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who was part of the National Science Foundation team.
Page One: Talent SearchWall Street Journal (*requires registration)(11.23.05)
Google's Growth Helps Ignite Silicon Valley Hiring Frenzy; Tech Firm Battles Big Rivals To Nab Top Engineers; Bidding Wars Are Back; Math Problem on a Billboard
Obituary: Eugene E. Petersen -- UC Berkeley professorSan Francisco Chronicle(11.21.05)
Eugene Edward Petersen, a retired professor of chemical engineering at the UC Berkeley College of Chemistry, has died after a short battle with cancer. He was 81.
The Nation: Levee Engineers Were Unaware of Pooling WaterLos Angeles Times(11.19.05)
New Orleans residents say they reported the problem in their yards months before Katrina.
Fueling debate Author delivers grim assesment of U.S. energy policyContra Costa Times (*requires registration)(11.18.05)
Robert Sawyer, a professor of mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley, predicted that it could take five decades to solve the technological and economic problems with hydrogen and build an infrastructure to deliver it as fuel....
Animal eyes inspire new technology in MSNBC (11.18.05)
Researchers learn optics lessons from biology.
Inspirations from Biological Optics for Advanced Photonic Systems in Science (11.18.05)
Observing systems in nature has inspired humans to create technological tools that allow us to better understand and imitate biology.
View Points: Peter LangleyContra Costa Times (*requires registration)(11.16.05)
"A lurking predictable disaster." That is how UC Berkeley civil engineering professor Robert Bea described the pre-Hurricane Katrina condition of the New Orleans' levees to a radio station KCBS interviewer recently.
Obituaries in the NewsWashington Post (*requires registration)(11.14.05)
Berkeley, Calif. (AP) _ Hal O. Anger, a pioneer of nuclear medicine who is credited with inventing the gamma camera, died Oct. 31. He was 85.
Storms may strike before levee repairsSan Jose Mercury News (*requires registration)(11.13.05)
New Orleans - Engineers may not have time to rebuild all 350 miles of battered levees in the New Orleans area before the next hurricane season, but they plan to shore up the structures enough to withstand another storm.
Inquiry to Seek Cause of Levee FailureNew York Times (*requires registration)(11.09.05)
...[UC Berkeley] engineering professor, Raymond Seed, told a Senate committee last week that in addition to possible design errors, "There may have been malfeasance."
Tomorrow's cars may be smarter than their driversOakland Tribune(11.09.05)
University of California, Berkeley Engineers have an experiment that tells drivers in advance that they will not accomplish a left turn without getting creamed by an oncoming car.
Traffic-easing gizmos demonstrated in S.F.San Francisco Chronicle(11.07.05)
Technology developed by UC Berkeley researchers and Caltrans would allow buses to essentially steer themselves using magnets in the roadway.
Security plans worry collegesSan Jose Mercury News (*requires registration)(11.05.05)
New federal proposals would significantly change how research is conducted at universities, placing tough restrictions on foreign-born scientists and tightening access to equipment and computers.
Bay Area partnership advances malaria R&DEast Bay Business Times(11.04.05)
A unique partnership among a San Francisco nonprofit pharmaceutical firm, an Emeryville biotech company and a UC-Berkeley chemical engineer is nearing its one-year milestone in an effort to develop an affordable antimalarial drug.
Lethal Beauty: The Engineering ChallengeSan Francisco Chronicle(11.04.05)
A suicide barrier must be effective and safe. The sixth in a seven-part series on the Golden Gate Bridge barrier debate.
Women of vision: Bay Area innovators hailed in San Jose Mercury News (*requires
registration) (10.19.05)
The Levees: Panelist on Levees Faults Army Corps Budget Cuts in New York Times (*requires registration) (10.19.05)
Budget cuts have cost the Army Corps of Engineers scientific expertise that might have helped it to prevent levee failures in New Orleans, outside experts said.
New
Orleans' levees failed in many spots in San Jose Mercury News (10.16.05)(link no longer available)
The engineers said the findings raised questions about the design of the levees and the testing of the relatively fragile soil during the construction of the walls.
No.
2 at Cal to step down, Provost Paul Gray will return to teaching in
Oakland Tribune (10-13-05)( Link no longer available)
Engineers Offer a New Explanation of How Levees Broke in New York Times (*requires registration) (10.08.05)
The engineers said the findings raised questions about the design of the levees and the testing of the relatively fragile soil during the construction of the walls.
CyberSpeak: Reading the little signals can mean big information in USA Today (10.06.05)
Instruments have gotten so sensitive and computers so powerful, that even the tiniest sound, light, flicker, or change can be reported, analyzed, and used.
Racers,
Start Your Software, and May the Best Robot Win in Los Angeles Times(10.05.05)
Cal engineering team studies New Orleans levee breaches in Oakland Tribune (10.04.05)
Civil engineers from the University of California, Berkeley, have gone to New Orleans to study why levees failed after Hurricane Katrina.
Delayed, canceled flights on upswing in USA Today (10.03.05)
There were an average of 18,700 daily domestic arrivals in the first half of 2005, up from the previous peak of 18,000 in 2000, estimates Mark Hansen, transportation professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
1990's
Contract Dispute May Explain Flood Wall's Collapse in New York Times
(*requires registration) (10.01.05)
An obscure contract dispute from the 1990's that describes questionable building practices and unstable soil at a crucial New Orleans levee may help explain why the walls that were supposed to protect the city from hurricanes collapsed under the assault of Hurricane Katrina, engineers said yesterday.
Levee Reconstruction Will Restore, but Not Improve, Defenses in New Orleans in New York Times (*requires registration) (09.30.05)
It will take years or decades to provide New Orleans and nearby communities with protection against hurricanes stronger than Hurricane Katrina.
About
the DARPA Grand Challenge in San Jose Mercury News (*requires registration)
(09.27.05)
A
race to shore up weakened levees in The Boston Globe (*requires registration)
(09.26.05)
''The water coming over the top of a levee comes down like a jet," said Robert Bea, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California at Berkeley.
Design
Shortcomings Seen in New Orleans Flood Walls in New York Times (*requires
registration) (09.21.05)
Government standards warned high flood walls were potentially unstable, documents and interviews say.
California's Levees Are in Sorry Shape in Los Angeles Times (09.19.05)
"There have been a lot of improvements of levee sections. [But] nothing has yet happened in a meaningful way to reduce the seismic risk, and that is a Damocles sword for California," said Ray Seed, a professor of civil engineering at UC Berkeley
Now, Every Keystroke Can Betray You in Los Angeles Times (09.18.05)
Last week, UC Berkeley researchers reported that a $10 microphone near a keyboard could, with sophisticated analysis of the sounds made by different keys, reveal most of what was being typed — enough that the researchers could guess 90% of five-character passwords within 20 tries....
Tuning
into passwords in San Jose Mercury News (*requires registration)
(09.16.05)
Li Zhuang, a graduate student in computer science University of California-Berkeley, came up with the idea of making audio recordings of keyboard strokes to see if words and phrases could be deciphered accurately.
Can Spies Decipher Keyboard Clicks? in PC World (09.15.05)
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have found a way to turn the clicks and clacks of typing on a computer keyboard into a startlingly accurate transcript of what exactly is being typed.
Students embrace social Web site in Oakland Tribune (09.12.05)
At Robert Birgeneau's inauguration in April, student body president Misha Leybovich showed the audience a goofy Facebook profile of the University of California, Berkeley's new chancellor.
Robot cars aim to kick up dust in San Francisco Chronicle (09.12.05)
The demonstration nearly ended before it began. Ghostrider, the robotic motorcycle built by a team of UC Berkeley engineers, had careened off course and splashed into a pond, short-circuiting the electronics that were its surrogate brain.
Familiar with disaster, UC Berkeley professor examines Katrina in Contra Costa Times (09.02.05)
Saving the World With Cell Phones in Wired News (08.11.05)
As cell phones evolve to include souped-up games, streaming video and MP3 players, some University of California at Berkeley professors and graduate students want to slip a pollution detector into the mix.
Fish Eggs Spawn a DNA Delivery Revolution
in The Scientist (07.04.05)
Atlantic salmon seems an unlikely source of inspiration for a research gadget. Yet thanks to the fish and the efforts of University of California, Berkeley researcher Boris
Rubinsky scientists have greater and more precise control over the delivery of nucleic acids to individual cells.
Jay Keasling and Bacterial Factories in MIT Technology Review (May 05)
Keasling’s efforts are an example of metabolic engineering, a field in which researchers try to optimize the complex processes whereby a cell produces or breaks down a particular substance.
Boris Rubinsky and Frozen Frogs in NOVA Science Now (04.19.05)
Freezing has a yin-yang effect on biological materials—it can both preserve and destroy tissue. This paradoxical nature has led to two different fields of science and medicine built around freezing: cryopreservation and cryosurgery.
California must keep its edge
Higher education needs active support in San Francisco Chronicle (Op-ed, Kalil) (1.02.05)
...world-class information technology companies as Google, Yahoo, Cisco and Sun have their roots in UC Berkeley or Stanford research. One- fourth of all publicly traded biotechnology firms in the United States can be found within 35 miles of a University of California campus.
2004
Panel Urges Washington to Finance Fast Computer
in New York Times (11.9.04)
Britain wins eight places in world list of 50 best universities (University of California, Berkeley ranked 2nd in the world) in Times Online(11.4.04)
Citris Allows 3-d Interactions in The Daily Californian online (10.27.04)
UC Berkeley students may soon be able to meet professors at UC Davis in ancient Sicily for lively intellectual discussions.
Intel targets developing countries in Oakland Tribune (10.25.04)
Bill Gates visit to UC Berkeley (10.01.04)
Berkeley alum helped make spacewalk possible in Trivalley Herald (Summer 2004)
America's
best graduate schools 2005 in U.S. News and World Report (04.05.04)
UC Berkeley Professor Ken Goldberg featured on PBS KQED Show: Spark on KQED (03.24.04)
Meet engineer, professor and Internet artist Ken Goldberg as he and his students design and host whimsical experiments where Internet players from all over the world jointly control games, robots and people.
Clash of the Headless Humvees in Popular Science (03.03.04)
New
Volvo Research Center at ITS in Institute of Transportation
Studies News (03.02.04)
Dean Richard Newton named to National Academy of Engineers
Dean A. Richard Newton is among the 76 new members to the National Academy of Engineering.
2004 new NAE members
All Berkeley Engineering NAE members
UC Berkeley
to Host Volvo Research Center in UC Berkeley CEE News (02.27.04)
'Smart
dust' is way cool in U.S. News (02.16.04)
Professors Kris Pister and David Culler
Small, wireless sensors called "motes" are giving many scientists the chance to observe what was previously unobservable. Because the motes are wireless and battery-powered, they can be used in previously hard-to-access places and moved around at will.
Longtime
Berkeley lab chief resigning. Charles V. Shank returning to teaching,
research in December in Oakland Tribune (02.10.04)
Lawrence
Berkeley lab chief steps down in SF Gate (02.10.04)
Reading
the soil key for grape growers in Visalia Times-Delta (02.02.04)
Yoram Rubin, a UC Berkeley professor of civil and environmental
engineering, and Susan Hubbard, a research engineer at Lawrence
Berkeley National Laborartory, have worked together on a new method
of reading soil called ground penetrating radar.
Brainy
building in Interior Design (02.01.04)
What
Dust Can Tell You in Time Magazine (01.12.04)
Google's
Eric Schmidt: a "Manager to Watch" in BusinessWeek
(01.12.04)
Berkeley engineering alum and Google CEO, Eric Schmidt (MS '79,
PhD '82 EECS), has been named one of the "Managers to Watch"
by BusinessWeek
A
very tiny breakthrough for science in Oakland Tribune
(01.10.04)
UC Berkeley researchers create microchip which may lead to even
tinier devices
Van
Winden playing ball for Golden Bears in Napa News (01.09.04)
Berkeley
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Honored
in Network World's 2003 ''User Excellence Award'' in Business
Wire (01.07.04)
Researchers
make breakthrough with ultra-small transister in San Mateo
County Times (01.08.04)
Advance could lead to 100-fold shrinkage in memory chips
Scientists
team up for nanotube breakthrough in CNet News (01.07.04)
Researchers
Develop First Integrated Silicon Circuit With Nanotube Transistors
(01.07.04) in Science Daily
Forscher
backen den Super-Chip in Germany's Spiegel (01.07.04)
First
ever integrated silicon circuit with nanotube transistors in
Science Blog (01.06.04)
Researchers create first ever integrated silicon circuit with nanotube
transistors
Spacecraft
captures comet dust in CBS News (01.02.04)
Two Berkeley engineering alums major players on Stardust project
2003
Organic
transistors painted on fabric in iTnews (12.17.03)
Professor Vivek Subramanian and graduate student Josephine Lee's research represents
an important step towards
the realization of a viable e-textile technology.
Cal
engineering students show their life-simplifying inventions
in Oakland Tribune (11.25.03)
Leading the pack in wireless, automated solutions to every day products.
Student
Inventors Showcase Their Gadgets in The Daily Online Californian
(11.25.03)
Berkeley ME students demonstrated their latest inventions.
Global
Warming Threatens Nuke Power in Berkeley Daily Planet
(11.18.03)
Paul Schwartz, Pacific News Service, quotes Per Peterson, director
of the Nuclear Engineering Department, about the devastating heat
wave that hit France and its impact on the nuclear power industry.
WWI
vets dies in Star Telegram (11.16.03)
Lynn
Beedle, 'a world engineer,' dies at 85 in LeHigh University
(10.31.03)
Civil engineering professor was a leading authority on tall buildings
and a passionate advocate for more livable cities.
Instant
Manufacturing in Technology Review (10.29.03)
Machines that create products directly from digital files can save
hours of painstaking human labor, compress production schedules,
and eliminate costly overstock.
People
on the Move in Mercury News (10.27.03)
EDA Consortium names A. Richard Newton, Dean of College of Engineering,
recipient of its Phil Kaufman award.
The wonderful--and
frightening--potential of 'smart dust' in CBN
News (10.27.03)
Return
to smaller plants may be one grid solution in East Bay Business
Times (10.20.03)
Daniel M. Kammen, director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy
Laboratory at UC-Berkeley, believes Combined heat and power,"
or CHP, will transform the nation's troubled power grid.
EDA award
winner Newton eyes the developing world in EEDesign (10.06.03)
Want
a PC this Xmas? Then Print It. in CNN.com (09.29.03)
CNN quotes UC Berkeley professor of engineering John Canny
about the UC Berkeley team's development of 3-D printers,
dubbed Santa Claus machines.
Robotic
Invasion in Oakland Tribune (09.21.03)
This report on sophisticated robots mentions research that is being
led by UC Berkeley robotic engineering professor, and CITRIS researcher,
Ron Fearing.
UC
institute helping solve society's problems in Silicon Valley
biz inc (09.19.03)
Executive Director Gary Baldwin discusses the evolution of CITRIS
and the key areas of technology development underway.
The
man who built a better mouse trap in MSN/ CNET News.com.
(09.18.03)
UC Berkeley Professor Doug Engelbart, who invented the computer
mouse, confined to the scientific fringe.
Punch
comes to shove in SFGate.inc (09.17.03)
David Lazurus of the San Francisco Chronicle reports on
a patent for a new voting technology developed by William Rouvero,
a Berkeley grad and a former mechanical engineering professor at
Cal.
UC,
City Firefighters Test Gear Inspired by 9/11 in Berkeley
Daily Planet (09.12.03)
Botmobiles in Silicon Valley biz ink (09.12.03)
Berkeley engineering student Anthony Levandowski is quoted on the
motor-race craze that is sweeping the nation.
E-Gang
sensing opportunity in Forbes (09.01.03)
UC
Berkeley in tie for top public school in Oakland Tribune
(08.22.03)
Berkeley
in tie for top public school, in Oakland Tribune (August 22,
2003)
AINS ain't toy airplanes in Tucson Citizen (08.21.03)
Redwoods now part of wireless network in CNN.com (08.15.03)
Tiny sensors offer a treasure of data in The Mercury News (08.12.03)
3-D Printing's Great Leap Forward in Wired News (08.11.03)
UC
Berkeley tests 'smart dust' technology in Oakland Tribune
(07.31.03)
A
Gadget Geek's Dream Come True in Small Times (07.25.03)
In
sensors smaller may be smarter in United Press International
(07.14.03)
Fuel
cells may power laptops, cell phones in The Salt Lake Tribune (07.13.03)
'Soft
walls' will keep hijacked planes at bay in NewScientist.com (07.02.03)
Intel,
universities create world network in The New York Times (subscription
required) (06.24.03)
Chips
sprout bitty wires: New process brings nanodevices closer to practical
use in San Francisco Chronicle (06.24.03)
Smart
Bricks, or a Dumb Idea? in Wired (06.20.03)
Dying
cell tolls warning bell: Collapsing membrane makes 'canary on a
chip' in Nature (06.16.03)
Coal-Mine
Canaries on a Chip in Wired (06.13.03)
Researchers
create 'canary on a chip' in www.e4engineering.com (06.10.03)
Iraq
'virtual heritage' archive planned in BBC News (06.02.03)
Berkeley
plans to revive looted museum on Web in LA Times (registration
required) (06.02.03)
Self-Repairing
Computers in Scientific American (06.03)
Davis
hopes research center will find AIDS cure in Oakland Tribune
(05.31.03)
Cal
breaks ground on science facility in Contra Costa Times (05.31.03)
SJSU
professor Belle Wei joins elite group in San Jose Mercury
News (05.21.03)
Synthetic
gecko hairs promise walking up walls in New Scientist (05.14.03)
As
Qualcomm Plots Future, C.E.O.'s Son Awaits Role in The New
York Times (registration required) (04.14.03)
Smart
Dust: Mighty motes for medicine, manufacturing, the military and
more in Computerworld (03.24.03)
Start
Small. And Go from There: Dean Newton talks about on-demand computing in BusinessWeek Online (03.17.03)
Five
Reasons to Hope: New Technologies That May Help Silicon Valley Rise
Again in LA Times (03.09.03)
Nanotech
to pave way for micro-machines in The New York Times (registration
required) (02.24.03)
Obituary:
William S. Jewell, UC professor emeritus and expert at risk analysis in San Francisco Chronicle (02.04.03)
Life
in the Fast Lane: Traffic expert Pravin Varaiya knows why we drive
ourselves crazy in San Francisco Chronicle (01.26.03)
Projects
link firefighting, technology in Contra Costa Times (01.8.03)
'Gadget
Printer' Promises Industrial Revolution in New Scientist (01.03.03)
2002
Inside
tips on filtering out air pollution in LA Times (12.15.02)
Computer
Science professor David Wagner a rising star in the field of cryptography in Popular Science (12.02)
Computer
Science professor John Kubiatowicz wins 'Scientific American 50' in San Francisco Business Times (11.11.02)
EECS
Professor and CITRIS Director Ruzena Bajcsy on most influential
female scientists list in Discover (10.15.02)
Alumnus Daniel
Jurafsky named a MacArthur Fellow (09.25.02)
Dirty
water puts millions at risk for fatal illnesses: Many countries
lack clean supply, study finds in San Francisco Chronicle (08.16.02)
Engineers
take the guesswork out of freeway driving in LA Times (registration
required) (08.13.02)
Interview
with alumnus Sandeep Pandey, winner of the Ramon Magasasay Award in
rediff.com (07.31.02)
Tiny
flying robots: Future masters of espionage in CNN.com (07.27.02)
Sci-fi
turns real as Cal devices fly in Oakland Tribune (06.16.02)
Cancerous
cells isolated by freezing, then killed with drugs in London
Independent (05.15.02)
UC student draws blind into PCs in Contra Costa Times (05.01.02)
Can
Technology Foil Hijackers? in The New York Times -
registration required (04.11.02)
Graduate
Program Moves Up in US News Survey (04.08.02)
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