Category: Blum Center News

A wide range of academic programing around food, energy, and water systems (FEWS) designed by and for Native Americans and other underrepresented student groups will expand substantially as a result of a new $10 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Arizona, in collaboration with the American Indian Higher Education Consortium and more than 20 additional partners.

The post National Science Foundation awards $10M to alliance of Native American institutions, UC Berkeley, and UArizona to increase Indigenous participation in higher ed appeared first on Blum Center.

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At the beginning of summer, the University of California brought together scientists and faculty from across the UC system for a symposium series to tackle one of the biggest threats to the state: wildfires. With expertise in forest ecology, climate change, and drought, panelists shared how innovations in understanding and modeling fire behavior and other risk factors affect our ability to prepare for, battle, and recover from ever-more-destructive blazes.

The post As Wildfires Worsen, Berkeley Students and Alumni Team Up with First Responders to Solve Information Challenges appeared first on Blum Center.

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Paige Balcom was in Uganda when COVID hit. The country quickly instituted a strict lockdown—all borders and airports closed, transport stopped, a strict curfew and other restrictions were enforced by the military, misinformation spread, and many people couldn’t get food. In the fall, the UC Berkeley Ph.D. student’s classes went remote, and she dealt with the 10-hour time difference.

The post Ph.D. Student Paige Balcom Turns Awards into Innovation and Social Change in Uganda appeared first on Blum Center.

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Blum Center Faculty Director Shankar Sastry, Thomas M. Siebel Professor of Computer Science and former dean of Berkeley Engineering, has been named the recipient of the prestigious 2021 Rufus Oldenburger Medal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).

The post Sastry wins 2021 ASME Rufus Oldenburger Medal appeared first on Blum Center.

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Frequent language translation, communications requiring Embassy review, and aiding disaster workers who are 6,300 miles away — not to mention a global pandemic — were just some of the challenges faced by a team of five UC Berkeley graduate students working on a digital transformation of the Moroccan Royal Armed Force’s Search and Rescue Unit for a course supported by the National Security Innovation Network (NSIN), housed at the Blum Center for Developing Economies.

The Royal Armed Forces are among Morocco’s top responders to major disasters, which occurred with a 22-fold increase from 2000 and 2014, the team’s research found. This spring, the NSIN course students learned that the Royal Armed Forces have to make quick life-and-death decisions in crisis situations with little-to-no context. Within one semester, the student team developed a prototype desktop application for Royal Armed Forces use to coordinate disaster operations and monitor real-time data on the ground.

The post Student Teams Partner with DoD to Improve Disaster Response appeared first on Blum Center.

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DevEng PhD student and InFEWS fellow, Paige Balcom, was awarded the prestigious Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for her work on recycling plastic waste in Uganda. Together with Peter Okwoko, Paige founded Takataka Plastics, an organization that develops innovative solutions for plastic waste and social change in Uganda. The Lemelson-MIT Student Prize recognizes undergraduate teams and graduate students who have invented solutions in prize categories that represent significant sectors of the global economy.

The post DevEng & InFEWS fellow Paige Balcom wins 2021 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize appeared first on Blum Center.

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Rediet Abebe joined the UC Berkeley faculty this spring as an assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, affiliated with the Development Engineering Group at the Blum Center. Abebe holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Cornell University and graduate degrees in mathematics from Harvard University and the University of Cambridge. Prior to Berkeley, Abebe was a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows.

The post MD4SG Co-Founder Rediet Abebe Joins Blum Faculty appeared first on Blum Center.

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At the Blum Center, 2020 was a year of unprecedented adaptation and innovation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The post COVID-19 and Unprecedented Innovation at the Blum Center appeared first on Blum Center.

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In early April, the first cohort of accepted students in the Blum Center’s inaugural Masters of Development Engineering program (M.DevEng) heard from award-winning faculty, social entrepreneurs, and student researchers and innovators, and also toured labs, Blum Hall, and iconic Berkeley landmarks – all virtually – in anticipation of reuniting in person on campus this fall.

The post Warm Visit Week Welcome for Admitted M.DevEng Students appeared first on Blum Center.

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Blum faculty Ashok Gadgil and Berkeley Lab research scientist Vi Rapp (Ph.D.’11 ME) won a “Patents for Humanity” award for their Warming Indicator, a phase-change material temperature indicator that improves the Infant Warmer’s functionality and safety, received a 2020 Patents for Humanity award.

The post Gadgil’s Infant Warmer ‘Warming Indicator’ upgrade wins Patents for Humanity award appeared first on Blum Center.

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