MIT Technology Review has announced the 2016 class of “35 Innovators Under 35.” Sergey V. Levine, Ph.D. (CA G ’09), was selected as a pioneer “for pushing the edge of science” and teaching robots to watch and learn from their own successes.
Dr. Levine is an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and his research focuses on the intersection between control and machine learning. Click here to read his pioneer profile and for a video of his robots. Dr. Levine earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from Stanford University.
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The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering has announced the winners of their undergraduate biomedical engineering design challenge for 2016. A team from Purdue University won first place for a pill that can be swallowed to collect a sample that can be analyzed for TB. One of the team members is a Tau Bate, Daniel R. Romano (IN A 2016). Second place went to a team from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for a disposable chip that detects biomarkers of sepsis.
Third place was a tie between two teams from Colubmia University. Their projects were for a handheld cervical cancer detection device and central venous catheters that eradicate 99.9% of bacteria using germicidal ultraviolet-C light, respectively. Read the announcement for more information on the winning teams, including honorable mentions, venture prize, and design excellence prize.
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Stephen H. Foulger, Ph.D. (CA S ’90), and his team have received a grant from the National Science Foundation to fund research “into whether the use of nanoparticles can treat brain disorders such as addiction and depression.” Dr. Foulger is endowed chair, professor, and director of Clemson University’s Center for Optical Materials Science and Engineering Technologies.
According to the article, his team will “look to create nanoparticles many times smaller than the width of a human hair that can be coated and ingested and sent to light-sensitive areas of the brain where they’ll be stimulated by X-rays to alter brain function. “Optogenetics is now experiencing a similar growth in the academic neuroscience community,” Dr. Foulger said.
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Tau Beta Pi 