Innovation with Engineering
BRETT, the Berkeley Robot for the Elimination of Tedious Tasks.
Innovation for a better world
Welcome to the UC Berkeley engineering community, where innovation happens. In research labs, design studios and classrooms, our scientists apply dynamic thinking, creativity and imagination to solve problems and work toward creating a better world.

Engineering faculty, students mobilize to help COVID-19 efforts
As the coronavirus continues to sicken hundreds of thousands of people across the United States and nearly 1 million worldwide, Berkeley researchers and students are contributing their time and expertise to combat the outbreak. 
From providing real-time localized information on infections to more efficiently resterilizing N95 masks , the engineering community is focusing on ways to inform the public and aid beleaguered healthcare workers facing critical shortages of medical supplies.

4 lessons from robots about being human
with Prof. Ken Goldberg
The more that robots ingrain themselves into our everyday lives, the more we're forced to examine ourselves as people. At TEDxBerkeley, Ken Goldberg shares four very human lessons that he's learned from working with robots.
Student Innovations
Designers and builders, mentors and educators–these students are our future leaders in engineering. Here’s a sampling of their extraordinary work...








Vibrato - a Jacobs Design Institute student project
Fun with Engineering!
Reuben (Rube) Garrett Lucius Goldberg (1883 – 1970)

Rube Goldberg was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor. Goldberg is best known for his popular cartoons depicting complicated gadgets performing simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways. The cartoons led to the expression " Rube Goldberg machines " to describe similar gadgets and processes.

Goldberg's father was a San Francisco police and fire commissioner who encouraged the young Reuben to pursue a career in engineering. Rube graduated from UC Berkeley  in 1904 with a degree in Engineering and was hired by the  city of San Francisco  as an engineer for the Water and Sewers Department. After six months, he resigned his position with the city to join the  San Francisco Chronicle  as a cartoonist.

The strip that brought him lasting fame was  The Inventions of Professor Lucifer Gorganzola Butts, A.K. , which ran in  Collier's Weekly  from January 26, 1929 to December 26, 1931. In that series, Goldberg drew labeled schematics of the comically intricate "inventions" that would later bear his name . [ Wikipedia ]

Rube Goldberg returns and wackiness ensues!
Back in 2010, Berkeley Engineering students held a contest to find the answer to a question we're all asking today: What’s the best device for dispensing a dollop of hand sanitizer?

At Berkeley, it was a 63-step Rube- Goldberg machine that also prompts the famous Bellagio fountain to erupt, Evel Knievel to crash his motorcycle and a house of cards to spring up before your eyes.
The magic and mayhem were part of a winning, Las Vegas–themed contraption built by a team of engineering students for Berkeley’s first-ever Rube Goldberg Machine Contest.

Want a fun STEM/STEAM activity to do at home for all ages? Build a Rube Goldberg Machine in 10-20 steps to drop a bar of soap into someone's hands.

Learn more about the contest, find tips for building, and check out many more cartoons of contraptions at RubeGoldberg.com

If you build one, share it with Science at Cal too!
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