News

Scott Aaronson answers every ridiculously big question thrown at him

EECS alumnus Scott Aaronson (Computer Science Ph.D. '04) "Answers Every Ridiculously Big Question (John Horgan) Throws at Him" in a Cross-Check interview for Scientific American.  Aaronson, an Associate Professor at MIT (soon UT Austin) and an authority on quantum computation, riffs on simulated universes, the Singularity, unified theories, P/NP, the mind-body problem, free will, why there’s something rather than nothing, and more.

Jacobs Hall recognized as Top 10 Green Building

The Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation has been named one of the nation’s top 10 examples of sustainable architecture and ecological design projects that protect and enhance the environment. “It Is devoted to introducing sustainable design innovation at the core of university life."  This award is presented by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and its Committee on the Environment (COTE).

Armando Fox receives ACM 2015 Karl. V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award

Prof. Armando Fox has been selected to receive the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) 2015 Karl. V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award. Recipients of this award are recognized for advancing new teaching methodologies; effecting new curriculum development or expansion in Computer Science and Engineering; or making a significant contribution to the educational mission of ACM. Prof. Fox was selected for his contributions to computing education through leadership and curriculum development in international online education; creating innovative courses, tools and inexpensive textbooks for software engineering; and outstanding teaching.

AMPLab singled out as successful collaborative lab model

The AMP (Algorithms, Machines and People) Lab was featured in the NEA Venture Capital Firm’s blog by Peter Sonsini, in a post titled "Veriflow: The next great startup with Cal connections”. Veriflow is the 3rd and latest EECS UC Berkeley startup to join the NEA portfolio. The successes surrounding Cal’s computer science program stem from the uniqueness of its “lab” model--the open and collaborative project-based approach that focuses on specific objectives over a specific period of time.

Matthias Vallentin and Colin Scott recognized at Microsoft Research Student Summit

Microsoft Research brought together top-notch computer science PhD student researchers who are about to embark on their careers with researchers and engineers who have proven research and technology impact for the 2-day Student Summit on Mobility, Systems, and Networking. During the summit, students presented their work to an ideal audience--their academic peers and a small group of Corporate Vice President-nominated engineers and researchers from Microsoft’s worldwide labs. Out of the 4 students recognized in the “Best Of” competition, two are from Berkeley EECS: Matthias Vallentin won Best Poster and Colin Scott received Honorable Mention.

Scott Shenker elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Prof. Scott Shenker has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The strength of the Academy lies in the intellectual leadership of its members and the wide range of expertise they bring to its studies and publications. The Academy membership encompasses over 4,600 Fellows and 600 Foreign Honorary Members and reflects the full range of disciplines and professions: mathematics, the physical and biological sciences, medicine, the social sciences and humanities, business, government, public affairs, and the arts. Among the Academy's Fellows are more than 250 Nobel laureates and 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.

Paper by David Culler, Joseph Polastre, Jason Hill Receives SIGMOD Test of Time Award

The paper by Prof. David Culler and former students Joseph Polastre and Jason Hill titled “Versatile low power media access for wireless sensor networks", in the Proceedings of the 2nd international Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems has been selected as a winner of the inaugural SIGMOBILE Test of Time award for 2016. The Berkeley MAC (B-MAC) was a pioneering contribution to media access control in TinyOS-based wireless sensor networks. B-MAC and its underlying low-power listening principle became a facto standard in sensor networks. It plays a lasting role in the development of new low power wireless technologies such as IoT.