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Emoticons not expressing the full complexity of your feelings? UC Berkeley psychologist Dacher Keltner and his team at the campus’s Greater Good Science Center can help. They have assisted in creating a nuanced Facebook sticker package based on a character named “Finch,” inspired by scientist Charles Darwin.
Tag: technology
Lost your keys? Your cat? The brain can rapidly mobilize a search party
April 21, 2013:
A contact lens on the bathroom floor, an escaped hamster in the backyard, a car key in a bed of gravel: How are we able to focus so sharply to find that proverbial needle in a haystack? UC Berkeley scientists have discovered that when we embark on a targeted search, various visual and non-visual regions of the brain mobilize to track down a person, animal or thing.
Haas faculty turn to crowdfunding for solar light research in Uganda
April 19, 2013:
Three Haas professors are bypassing traditional grants and going straight to crowdfunding to raise money for a study on how to get people in rural Uganda to replace dangerous kerosene lanterns with life-changing solar lamps.
Forget your password: The future is ‘passthoughts’
April 5, 2013:
Instead of typing your password, in the future you may only have to think your password, according to School of Information researchers.
In Richmond, a hands-on approach to energy tech
March 13, 2013:
Just three miles from the site of the future Richmond Bay Campus, the Northern California Workshop for Energy Technologies underscored the need for partnerships, and featured a keynote address from former Michigan governor (and current Berkeley faculty member) Jennifer Granholm.
1st 3D-printing vending machine headed to UC Berkeley
March 12, 2013:
Dreambox founding members David Pastewka, Richard Berwick and Will Drevno met at a mobile-application development class at Berkeley in 2011. Finding it difficult to get quick delivery of 3D-printed creations from online vendors, they came up with the idea of creating a network of local, accessible, automated 3D-printing vending machines.
Scientists create automated ‘time machine’ to reconstruct ancient languages
February 11, 2013:
Ancient languages hold a treasure trove of information about the culture, politics and commerce of millennia past. Yet, reconstructing them to reveal clues into human history can require decades of painstaking work. Now, UC Berkeley scientists have created an automated “time machine,” of sorts, that will greatly accelerate and improve the process of reconstructing hundreds of ancestral languages.
Larry Conrad named new chief information officer
December 20, 2012:
In a CalMessage, John Wilton, vice chancellor for administration and finance, and George Breslauer, executive vice chancellor and provost, announce the appointment of Larry Conrad as Berkeley’s next associate vice chancellor for information technology and chief information officer.
Scientists construct first map of how the brain organizes everything we see
December 19, 2012:
Our eyes may be our window to the world, but how do we make sense of the thousands of images that flood our retinas each day? UC Berkeley scientists have found that the brain is wired to put in order all the categories of objects and actions that we see. They have created the first interactive map of how the brain organizes these groupings.
USAID chief lauds Blum Center as model in search for global solutions
October 11, 2012:
USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah visited campus and encouraged students to join the search for open source solutions to pressing global problems.
Laser discoverer Charles Townes to receive first Golden Goose Award
September 11, 2012:
Charles Townes, who won a Nobel Prize in Physics for invention of the laser, will receive an inaugural Golden Goose Award Sept. 13. Presented for the first time this year, the prize honors scientists who received federal funding for seemingly arcane work that turned out to have revolutionary applications.
Berkeley takes silver in UC tech innovation awards
August 7, 2012:
Campus was honored with a Sautter award for Kuali Ready, a Web application that helps departments create a continuity plan, which is used to resume critical operations as soon as possible after a disruptive event.
UC Berkeley installing first CO2 sensor network in Oakland
June 27, 2012:
Using inexpensive detectors that can fit inside a shoebox, UC Berkeley chemists are installing carbon dioxide and other air pollution sensors in 40 sites around Oakland to explore how detailed, neighborhood-by-neighborhood information can help communities monitor greenhouse gas and other harmful emissions.
Berkeley to host UC computing conference Aug. 5-7
June 25, 2012:
UC Berkeley will host the annual UC Computing Services Conference (UCCSC) at Clark Kerr campus, Aug. 5-7. Early registration ends July 15, after which the fee rises from $150 to $200; registration is on a space-available basis.
Book it! Schedule a flash from the Golden Gate Bridge’s ‘Solar Beacon’
June 21, 2012:
Through the website solarbeacon.org, anyone can now schedule Solar Beacon – heliostats mounted on the Golden Gate Bridge by UC Berkeley space scientists – to flash sunlight in their eyes, like the glint of the sun off a car’s mirror.
Two UC Berkeley grads launch printable battery startup
June 19, 2012:
With moral and monetary support from UC Berkeley and UC’s Office of the President, two UC grads – Christine Ho and Brooks Kincaid – have formed a company to create ‘printable’ batteries that are efficient, environmentally friendly and could be made as small as a postage stamp. The start-up is a tribute to the campus’s entrepreneurial environment and its innovative students.
Electricity-generating viruses could lead to pocket power plants
May 14, 2012:
Scientists at UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab have harnessed the electricity-generating capabilities of viruses, a development that could lead to pocket power plants for mobile devices. When researchers applied pressure to a generator made up of engineered M13 bacteria-eating viruses, they were able to produce enough current to equal a quarter the voltage of a triple A battery.
Floating robots use GPS-enabled smartphones to track water flow
May 9, 2012:
A fleet of 100 floating robots took a trip down the Sacramento River on May 9, in a field test organized by UC Berkeley engineers. The devices, equipped with GPS-enabled smartphones, demonstrated the next generation of water-monitoring technology, promising to transform the way government agencies track one of the state’s most precious resources.
Media Advisory: Engineers to toss 100 sensors downriver in Delta field test
May 4, 2012:
UC Berkeley engineers will conduct their inaugural field test of the Floating Sensor Network project on Wednesday, May 9, in Walnut Grove, Calif. They developed floating sensors that can be rapidly deployed in response to emergencies such as levee breaches or oil spills. The fleet includes robotic sensors that can swim around obstacles to target areas of interest and transmit live data to researchers using GPS receivers and mobile phone technology.
uok? Text messages — even automated ones — can soothe the disconnected soul
April 9, 2012:
Text messaging often gets a bad rap for contributing to illiteracy and high-risk behavior such as reckless driving. But a Berkeley social-welfare professor has found an upside to texting, especially for people who feel stressed out, isolated and alone.
African Americans are more apt to blog than whites and Latinos
April 4, 2012:
The blogging community is more racially diverse than one might think. Internet-connected African Americans are more likely to blog than their white and Hispanic counterparts, according to new research from UC Berkeley.
Comerio leads national roundtable on integrated disaster recovery
March 19, 2012:
Northern California experts, including UC Berkeley architecture professor Mary Comerio, are heading up a national roundtable on improving responses after major disasters.
ChronoZoom: A deep dive into the history of everything
March 14, 2012:
Working with eight UC Berkeley students and with resources from Microsoft Research Connections, geologist Walter Alvarez has created a new piece of Web-based software that allows students, researchers and the general public to cruise through cosmic timelines. Called ChronoZoom, it could help students visualize the sweep of history.
Scientists tap the genius of babies and youngsters to make computers smarter
March 12, 2012:
People often wonder if computers make children smarter. UC Berkeley scientists are asking the reverse question: Can children make computers smarter? And their answer appears to be ‘yes’ as they tap the cognitive smarts of babies, toddlers and preschoolers to program computers to think more like humans.
I School dean talks tech innovation on Canadian radio
February 3, 2012:
AnnaLee Saxenian, dean of the School of Information and author of The New Argonauts: Regional Advantage in a Global Economy, talks about what happened in Silicon Valley to make it the world’s tech innovation center, and how the future of growth and innovation will depend on the new Argonauts — experts who move information fluidly between creative hubs all over the world.
Campus adds AT&T Wi-Fi alongside Airbears in law, business schools
February 2, 2012:
The campus has added AT&T Wi-Fi Services to the wireless infrastructure in the Haas School of Business and Boalt Hall to give students, faculty and staff additional connectivity options. The rest of the campus will receive this service over the next 16 months. Both AT&T SSID (attwifi) and AirBears will be carried by the campus high-speed data network.
Professors’ innovations benefit society, economy
February 1, 2012:
Cutting-edge research is a hallmark of UC Berkeley, and it should come as no surprise that faculty members are eager to see their discoveries put to use. Many, such as chemistry dean Richard Mathies, have formed start-ups to develop their inventions to a point where they become viable in the marketplace, benefiting not only society but the university as well.
New video of how scientists reconstruct the movies in our minds
December 21, 2011:
UC Berkeley scientists Jack Gallant and Shinji Nishimoto have wowed the world by using brain scans and computer modeling to reconstruct images of what we see when we’re watching movies. UC Berkeley broadcast manager Roxanne Makasdjian has produced a video of how they achieved this breakthrough, and where they’re headed.
Home stretch for CalMail migration
December 16, 2011:
The final phase of CalMail capacity enhancement work is set to begin Saturday, Dec. 17.
Chancellor Birgeneau visits South Korea on Asia trip
November 8, 2011:
Chancellor Birgeneau and campus faculty experts are on a swing through Asia this week.
