The SEMM Graduate Student Luncheon is an annual tradition where SEMM faculty and friends gather to acknowledge the achievements of graduate students who will commence in May and to wish them well in their future endeavors.
The May 3 event at the Berkeley Faculty Club featured SEMM alumnus Emily Guglielmo (CE MS '04), Principal Structural Engineer at Martin/Martin Inc., as their technical leader on earthquake and wind engineering.
On April 24, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) hosted a banquet celebrating the end of the semester. The department awarded undergraduate student awards to exemplary students, recognizing their accomplishments in the Civil and Environmental Engineering field through coursework and extracurricular activities. It was an excellent opportunity to acknowledge our undergraduate students' hard work, and the event's highlight was celebrating everyone's achievements.
The Environmental Engineering (ENV) Program recently hosted an alumni, student, and faculty networking event on Friday, April 12, organized by CEE Professor Kara Nelson! Activities included a field day event with indoor and outdoor games such as badminton and board games and a speed networking activity with attendees grouped by specialty networking in three-minute intervals with each other through prompts, followed by dinner and socializing.
Are inventors born or made? Berkeley engineers explore that question in the award-winning documentary Pathways to Invention, premiering on PBS stations nationwide in May. The documentary, featuring CEE professor Ashok Gadgil, is a 60-minute special that follows eight "modern inventors of diverse backgrounds and their journeys as they develop life-changing innovations."
This year, UC Berkeley's Cal Seismic Design team attended the annual Seismic Design Competition hosted by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) held in Seattle, Washington, from April 9th to April 12th. The student teams had to build a complex wooden building model that could withstand simulated earthquakes by being tested on a shaking table.
Professor Arpad Horvath was selected as one of the 13 finalists for the Distinguished Teaching Award (DTA) hosted by the Berkeley Center for Teaching and Learning. More than 140 student, faculty, and staff nominations were received campus-wide. While all 13 finalists had outstanding and inspiring records and firm nomination and support letters, five instructors ultimately received the award.
In honor of Earth Day, students from Professor Tina Chow's CE105 class and MS/PhD students in Environmental Engineering teamed up with Edison High School in Southwest Stockton to build and distribute air purifiers in their community. On April 13, students from the two campuses teamed up to construct 120 box fan air purifiers from essential household items, serving to protect vulnerable community members from the effects of harmful air pollutants.
CEE Professor Shaofan Li recently published his new book, "Introduction to Computational Nanomechanics," from Cambridge University Press. The book provides a comprehensive guide to computational nanomechanics, discussing basic concepts and implications in computational physics, materials, mechanics, and engineering, among many other disciplines.
A UC Berkeley engineering research team led by Professor Kenichi Soga was recently granted $3 million by the California Energy Commission to enhance the seismic risk assessment of natural gas storage and pipeline infrastructure. Over three years, the team will use remote and embedded sensing technology and advanced data management and analysis techniques to monitor gas infrastructure continuously.
