COLLEGEF OF oENGINEERINGr UNIVERSITYefront OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY fall 2011 Pay it forward. Artificial intelligence outsmarts the bomb 3 cal energy corps field report 4 tr35 for robotics pioneer 12 from bench to bedside Forefront is published twice yearly to showcase the excellence Dean’s message of Berkeley Engineering faculty, alumni and students and bring their work to life through news and research, profiles and current issues and events. Learning by doing Published by Universities often draw a sharp distinction UC Berkeley College of Engineering between pure and applied disciplines—the real Office of Marketing & Communications world, not so much. Berkeley’s approach, what 312 McLaughlin Hall #1704 Phone: 510.643.6898 I call its West Coast style of engineering, is not www.coe.berkeley.edu/news-center/ only to educate engineers as superb technolo- publications/forefront gists but also to instill in them an urgent sense of the societal implications of their work. They Karen Rhodes understand which technologies can make a executive editor real difference in the broader world. Kap Stann managing editor This issue of Forefront tells the story of our new master’s program in translational medi- Rachel Shafer associate editor cine, which is designed to accelerate the bart nagel delivery of a medical treatment or device to Abby Cohn market. In the case of our featured students, the pioneering treatment is a synthetic Shweta Doshi Julianna Fleming scaffold to encourage cardiac stem cells to form healthy vascular cells. Students spend Desiree Matloob 14 months investigating not only the technology, but also the regulatory and industrial Kate Rix framework to propel their particular advance forward as quickly as is safely possible. Robert Sanders Sarah Yang Our new college-wide professional master’s of engineering program (M.Eng.) announced contributors in the spring issue also focuses on a capstone project. Rather than writing a traditional Alissar Rayes thesis, students combine leadership skills with technical knowledge to solve pressing soci- designer etal-scale problems, in consultation with industry sponsors. As our first cohort of M.Eng. S. Shankar Sastry students took its place this fall, we were excited to see the students choose from almost dean 50 capstone projects that the faculty and industry sponsors had to offer them. They are Melissa Nidever already well on their way with these projects, with mid-project reviews in early December. assistant dean college relations “That’s the type of integrative, hands-on experience critical for graduate students step- ping into industry,” says Paul E. Jacobs, chief executive of Qualcomm and chair of the send comments and letters to: college’s advisory board. “And exactly what companies like ours are looking for.” [email protected] This fall, we are looking at integrating more of this exciting pedagogical approach into submit your class note at: our undergraduate curriculum as well. As the Internet has totally transformed how coe.berkeley.edu/alumni/ class-notes students learn, we need to shift further away from supplying information towards more experiential and team-based learning, along with an early opportunity to practice send change of address to: innovative approaches to engineering design. [email protected] In the words of alum Cary Opel (B.S.’04 BioE), who became an R&D engineer at submit engineering gifts online at: coe.berkeley.edu/giving Genentech and is now pursuing a doctorate in chemical engineering, “I can’t over- or mail to: estimate the importance of undergraduate research. It helped me get my job, and the Berkeley Engineering Annual Fund publication I co-authored as an undergrad definitely helped me get into a top grad 208 McLaughlin Hall #1722 Berkeley, CA 94720-1722 school. It was a launching point for all of the things that I was able to do later.” Phone: 510.642.2487 I welcome your thoughts and ideas at [email protected]. © 2011 Regents of the University of California — S. SHANKAR SASTRY Dean and Roy W. Carlson Professor of Engineering Not printed at state expense. Director, Blum Center for Developing Economies FPO Please recycle. This material was produced from eco-responsible material. Forefront contents h h h fall ’11 e- h+ Featured in this issue h h g h g h h h g 8 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE OUTSMARTS THE BOMB Machine intelligence and the science of nuke hunting. By Rachel Shafer 7 12 FOUND IN TRANSLATION Degree by degree, bioengineers learn the patient’s world. By Abby Cohn 2 Comments The gift of gait at graduation. 3 What’s new 12 The new Synthetic Biology Institute; field report from Nicaragua; training more nuclear engineers; Janet Napolitano on tour; welcoming new students; outlook for engineering grads; Abbeel awarded TR35. 6 Breakthroughs Blood lab on a chip; world’s smallest optical modulator; a better model for treating wastewater; techniques to resist radiation 4 damage; increasing solar cell efficiency and sequencing the genome 19 of preemie Baby Doe. 17–19 Alumni profiles Christopher Ategeka’s remarkable journey from Uganda to Berkeley (starting on a bike); Robert Showen’s ShotSpotter; Alice Chen’s humanized mouse liver. 20 Engineering matters Like, join, follow and watch Berkeley Engineering across social media platforms. On the cover Computers think and reason their way through one of the United Nations’ biggest problems: how to detect clandestine nuclear weapons explosions. Read more on page 8. cover illustration by carl wiens 17 1 ! ? [ ; ( * ‘ ? ! ”, ‘ ! Comments{ , : ... ? ; “ ! } { “...” ] Chancellor Robert Birgeneau’s hand. The crowd I am a cancer survivor. I battled back from went wild. A video of the event can be seen complete neuropathy in my legs for a year at newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/05/14/ to being able to walk to getting my second paraplegic-student-stands-walks-at-graduation; degree black belt. I know what this guy is a few of the posted comments follow. going through. And I am just glad to see that life isn’t going to hold him back! Amazing work! As a mechanical engineer I am —mud91duck so proud of your accomplishments; you put the human in our profession. Congratulations I teared up. This is truly wonderful. So proud to you and the entire team at UCB (and this to be a Berkeley student. from a Carnegie Mellon grad! None the less!). —yeebrada All the best and God bless all of you. —sixaxle Those Berkeley guys are so smart! May they continue to work on that prototype! Coolio! In many ways I believe that I was part of this —kwmkc13 machinery. I was wearing a pacemaker at age Epic man. All I can say is epic. steve mcconnell 12; I am now in a power wheelchair. It would be mind-blowing if I could get a suit like —sly3571 Walking at graduation Austin to go one more step into a power suit as Iron Man. The spring Forefront told the remarkable story —RCvolunteer1978 of Austin Whitney, the paralyzed 22-year-old Berkeley student who was outfitted with an we love your comments! I’m cheering for everyone there with each Write to us at [email protected]; exoskeleton designed by mechanical engineering passing second. Congratulations to Austin and post to facebook.com/berkeleyengineering; or professor Homayoon Kazerooni and his team. the engineering department for this amazing send letters to Forefront, 312 McLaughlin Hall In May, with the help of the “Austin” exoskel- feat! Go Cal! #1704, University of California, Berkeley, CA eton, Whitney rose from his wheelchair and —xxbiucrushxx 94720-1704. Please note that we may edit for walked across the stage at graduation to shake length and clarity. Napolitano on cyberspace security U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano addressed some 250 students, faculty and staff during a visit to campus in April as part of a national university tour looking for cybersecurity innovation and a few good engineers. Speaking at Sibley Auditorium, Napolitano said government must partner with academia and business to make cyberspace safe from hacking, spamming and other threats. In ordinary times, “what we were doing in the homeland security area might be good enough to say we are safe enough,” she said. “But these are not ordinary times.” Napolitano told the assembled students that her cybersecurity department is looking for more tech- and policy-savvy people like themselves. “We, on the public policy side, we know what we don’t know,” she said. “We know we need technology-savvy people in the government.” by kap stann Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano berkeley engineering kat wade 2 What’s new AT BERKELEY ENGINEERING the engineer’s advantage As the economy struggles to regain its footing, more engineers can drive innovation and growth. Yet as Intel CEO Paul Otellini, who Nicaragua serves on President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, notes, the number of engineers graduating from U.S. colleges and BLUEFIELDS universities has stagnated at about 120,000 a year during the last decade. “By contrast, roughly one million engineers a year graduate from universities in India and China,” Otellini says. He co-leads an education task force, an offshoot of the jobs council, which aims to yield 10,000 more guillaume craig engineering graduates in the U.S. each year. Otellini sought out Dean Shankar Sastry, Field report from Nicaragua along with engineering deans at Purdue, Georgia Tech and Michigan, to help design David Olmos (B.S.’11 ME) spent his summer working with the nonprofit organization mentoring programs, internships and other blueEnergy in Central America as part of an internship with Cal Energy Corps, a program ways to connect engineering students to launched in spring 2011 to help develop sustainable energy and climate solutions industry employment. around the world.