News

Isabel Serrano knew what she enjoyed – the logic of math, the patterns of data, the power to help people through medicine – but for years she didn’t know how to make it a career. When an intern advisor proposed a PhD in computational biology, it clicked almost instantly. Serrano, who received her undergraduate degree from California State University, Fullerton, now helps increase awareness of...

UC Berkeley is joining an ambitious effort to advance open source research, education and public service across the University of California system. The Berkeley Institute for Data Science (BIDS) will lead the university’s involvement in this initiative, launching an office to house the campus’s extensive open source expertise. This program office is one of six in the UC system that will work individually and collectively...

Francisca Vasconcelos, a doctoral student in UC Berkeley’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, has been chosen as a Paul and Daisy Soros fellow. She will receive up to $90,000 to support her graduate education as part of the Paul and Daisy Soros New American Fellowship, a merit-based program for immigrants and children of immigrants. Vasconcelos, whose parents immigrated from Portugal, is the first...

Berkeley News: If left unchecked, powerful AI systems may pose an existential threat to the future of humanity, say UC Berkeley Professor Stuart Russell and postdoctoral scholar Michael Cohen. In a recent insights paper in the journal Science, they argue that tech companies should be tasked with ensuring the safety of their AI systems before these systems are allowed to enter the market. Berkeley News...

UC Berkeley’s computer science graduate program was ranked first in the nation for the second year in a row by U.S. News & World Report, according to 2024 rankings released April 8. Berkeley’s program in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences shared the top spot with computer science programs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and Carnegie Mellon University. Several other...

Thirty years after a United Nations convention combating climate change entered into force, the dangers of increasing human-caused, planet-warming emissions are on full display. Severe droughts strain water reserves, surging temperatures threaten food supplies and rising sea levels turn whole villages into climate refugees. Scientists warn it will get much worse. But climate change isn’t the only phenomena that’s accelerating. The science and technology needed...

An advanced math curriculum in high school is essential for preparing California students for science and technology majors in college, University of California, Berkeley experts wrote in a recent EdSource op-ed. The authors credited a recent report from a UC Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools (BOARS) workgroup that recommends “only courses that require knowledge of advanced algebra should validate the Algebra II/ Math...

UC Berkeley experts are developing a trailblazing infrastructure to translate cutting-edge AI and behavioral economics healthcare research into powerful real-world advances in patient outcomes and drastically reduced medical costs. The Center for Healthcare Marketplace Innovation is being launched by the College of Computing, Data Science, and Society and the Haas School of Business to act as a force multiplier for top-tier technological innovation and economic...

Three UC Berkeley experts have been named as Schmidt Sciences’ AI2050 Early Career Fellows, a cohort that will conduct ambitious artificial intelligence research to benefit society. Computer Science Assistant Professor Nika Haghtalab, Statistics and Computer Science Assistant Professor Jacob Steinhardt and incoming Statistics Assistant Professor Amanda Coston are among this year’s 19-person group. Each will receive up to $300,000 over two years to fund their...

Omar Yaghi, a UC Berkeley professor of chemistry and co-director and chief scientist for the Bakar Institute of Digital Materials for the Planet, has received the 2024 Fiat Lux Faculty Award from the Cal Alumni Association as a part of this year's Achievement Awards. The Berkeley community is filled with people pushing the edges of what's possible — business leaders whose achievements have shaped entire...