Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli has been named recipient of the 2017 IEEE TCCPS (Technical Committee on CyberPhysical Systems) Technical Achievement Award. This award recognizes significant and sustained contributions to the cyber-physical system (CPS) community based on the impact of high-quality research made by the awardee throughout their lifetime. Prof. Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli 's research interests are in design methodologies and tools for wireless sensor networks, embedded systems, hybrid systems, cyber physical systems (CPS), Systems of Systems (SoS) and electronic design automation.

EECS Prof. Emeritus Kenneth K. Mei, innovator in computational electromagnetics, passed away on Feb 16, 2017 at the age of 84.  Prof. Mei was born in China, served as an interpreter during the Korean War, earned his degrees at the University of Wisconsin, and joined the EECS department in 1962.  Prof. Mei’s work on formulating Maxwell’s equations into integral equations, now known as the “method of moments,” is one of the most important and widely used numerical techniques for analyzing scattering, antenna and microstrip circuit problems. He invented the superabsorption method in 1989 and the measured equation of invariance (MEI) in 1992. The MEI method made it possible for personal computers to handle problems previously only resolvable by a supercomputer.  Prof. Mei retired in 1994.

Alumnus Gary Dean Hornbuckle (EE B.S. '61/M.S. '62/Ph.D. '67), a pioneer in the computing industry who formed a number of his own companies, passed away on March 1, 2017.  He spent 2 years on the research staff at M.I.T. before forming Applicon, Inc. in 1969, one of the first Computer Aided Design systems manufacturing companies.  When Applicon was acquired by Schlumberger in 1980 it had over $100 million in annual revenue.  He went on to found and serve as president of five additional technology companies in Texas and California before retiring in 2000.

EECS alumna Sarah Bergbreiter (M.S. '04/Ph.D. '07) is  the subject of a profile  by the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland celebrating female engineering faculty during women's history month.  Sarah is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Institute for Systems Research, and the Director of the Maryland Robotics Center in charge of both the Micro Robotics Lab and the multi-user Robot Realization Lab.  She has received  PECASE, NSF CAREER, and DARPA Young Faculty Awards, and has also been named one of 25 women in robotics you should know about.

CS Assistant Prof. Anca Dragan and EECS alumna Yoky Matsuoka (B.S. '93) are among Interesting Engineering's "17 Awesome Women Engineers" who are revolutionizing the engineering field in 2017.  Anca is described as "one of the rising stars of the robotics scene" as the head of the InterACT Lab at UC Berkeley which specializes in human/robotics interactions, algorithms and compatible artificial intelligence systems."  Yoky is "a hot commodity among major tech companies" as the CTO of Alphabet Nest.

EE Profs. Ruzena Bajcsy and Stuart Russell appear in an article in the Berkeley Science Review titled "Automating Us," in which they are quoted discussing the impacts of recent technological developments on both robots and humans.

2016-17 Bakar Fellow Prof. Ali Javey is profiled in a Berkeley Research article titled "Physiological Changes Tracked Moment to Moment," in which he discusses his research into a network of sensors that can be embedded into a sweatband to monitor moment-by-moment changes in electrolytes and metabolites.  Prof. Javey is refining the sensor fabrication process to make it more commercially practical for fitness training, athletics, health diagnostics and even large-scale population studies.

Prof. Avideh Zakhor is featured in a video interview by bigthink.com titled “Smart Tech: Phones, Drones and Interior Mapping”. Prof. Zakhor’s research interests include digital signal processing and its applications to 2D and 3D image and video processing, and communications. Applications of her research range from helping emergency rescue teams navigate in times of crisis, to boosting our comfort with Smart Homes.

Dr. Gary May has been selected to become the 7th Chancellor of UC Davis. Dr. May is an alumnus of EECS (M.S. ’88 and Ph.D. ’92) and was one of the founding members of the Black Graduate Engineering and Science Students (BGESS) group. In 2010, he was named Outstanding Electrical Engineering Alumnus of UC Berkeley. Dr. May is currently the dean of the College of Engineering at Georgia Tech where he serves as the college’s chief academic officer, leading more than 400 faculty members and more than 13,000 students. The UC Board of Regents will vote on the terms of the proposed appointment during a special meeting at UCLA on Feb. 23. If the board approves the appointment, May will assume the chancellorship on August 1, 2017.

Prof. Tsu-Jae King Liu and Prof. Katherine Yelick have been elected to the National Academy of Engineers (NAE).  Election to membership in the NAE is among the highest forms of recognition of notable accomplishments in engineering. Prof. King Liu was recognized for "contributions to the fin field effect transistor (FinFET) and its application to nanometer complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology," and Prof. Yelick was recognized for "software innovation and leadership in high-performance computing."