COLLEGEOFENGINEERING • UNIVERSITYOFCALIFORNIA,BERKELEY...
4
POP QUIZ COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING • UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY engineeringNews Aaron Chang, ME senior “Yes. I did a lot of carpooling. I made other people drive.” Romy Fain, ME junior “I didn’t really drive less because I have a disability and I have to drive to get around.” Lucy Williams, Eng. Undeclared freshman “Yes, but I also drove less because I want to help the environment. And car- pooling, biking and walking are more fun and make you feel good.” Simon Loos, ES freshman “Yeah, I drove less. Screw the oil companies.” CEE teams #1, #2 t’s the size of a theater catwalk and weighs just 142 pounds. But the gently arched bridge — designed, built and ambitiously named “Calatrava” by CEE students — is the new heavyweight champ of collegiate bridge building. The 21-foot- long span swept a field of 42 finalists to capture top honors at the 2008 National Student Steel Bridge Competition on May 23–24. The name for this year’s entry honors noted Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava while demonstrating some “Cal” school pride. The victory was UC Berkeley’s first in the con- test’s 17-year history. Sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Institute of Steel Construction, the elite competi- tion attracts engineering students from around the country vying to construct the best 1:10 scale FLOATABLE CONCRETE: Cal’s Concrete Canoe attracts attention at nationals. The team placed second overall. Did you drive less this summer to save $$ on gas? Continued on page 2 SEPTEMBER 4, 2008 VOL. 79, NO. 2F PHOTO PROVIDED BY CEE DEPARTMENT PHOTO PROVIDED BY STEEL BRIDGE METALLED: The steel bridge team took first place at the National Student Steel Bridge Competition in May (see story at right). Here the team poses with its winning entry. Members, not all pictured here, include: James Ambat, Akshay Banesh, Daniel Berson, Raman Bhatia, Paula Bran, John Carroll, Alice Chen, Helen Chow, Yoseph Gezhagne, Joanna Huey, Jason Jung, Ashley Kita, Nathan Langdon, Tran Le, Justin Legg, Jose Leon, Spencer Lin, Yuichi Maeda, Eric Michal, Ting Ng, Andrew Plumb, Daniel Sales, Alvin Sarmiento, Nathan Scheevel, Matt Vaggione, Andrew Wagner, Richard Wang, Andrea Wong, Hoi Wong, Medford Xie and Madeline Ziser. Davis Hall shop supervisor Richard Parsons (bottom row) poses with the team. NATIONAL CHAMPIONS! A roundup of summer competition results I
Transcript of COLLEGEOFENGINEERING • UNIVERSITYOFCALIFORNIA,BERKELEY...
engineeringNews
<of note>
4 engineeringNews
POPQUIZ
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING • UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
engineeringNewsGraduate Student Engineering Club Directory
AST: Students in Applied Science and Technology isled by Mike Greaves, [email protected]: The BioEngineering Association of Students isled by Mark Steedman, [email protected], andRobin Held, [email protected]: The CEE Graduate Student Society hosts socialevents and research roundtables. Contact DrewGenter, [email protected]: Visit the Computer Science Graduate StudentAssociation at www.cs.berkeley.edu/~csgsa or contactpresident Jake Abernethy, [email protected]: Visit the Electrical Engineering Graduate StudentAssociation at www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~eegsa orcontact president Josh Hug, [email protected]: Don’t miss the ME Graduate Student Council’shappy hours and intramural sports teams. Visitwww.me.berkeley.edu/megsco.MSE: Brittany Nelson-Cheeseman leads the MaterialsResearch Society. E-mail [email protected]: Graduate Women in Engineering uniteswomen in ME, NE, IEOR and BioE for networking. Visitwww.me.berkeley.edu/gwe.
Published biweekly on Thursdays during the academic year bythe Engineering Marketing and Communications Office, Collegeof Engineering, University of California, Berkeley.
Copy deadline is 4:00 p.m. on the Monday preceding publication.
Rachel Shafermanaging editor and writer
Patti Meaghercopy editor
S. Shankar Sastrydean
Karen Rhodesexecutive director, marketing and communications
The Apple iPhone 3G debuted in July,promising to be faster than the origi-nal. EECS junior Andy Toulousereviews it for Engineering News.Basic models start at $199 and canbe purchased at an Apple or AT&Tretail store.
he original iPhone is quitecapable, so when I bought
the iPhone 3G this summer, I wascurious to see how Apple wouldimprove the user experience. Aftera couple months, I’ve found the 3Gis indeed faster, but its functionali-ty is identical to that of the original— with incremental improvements.
The original approximated itslocation based on cell towers, whilethe new model takes advantage ofAssisted GPS technology to locateitself with greater accuracy.
Both include a very capablebrowser, Safari, though due to thefaster 3G network, Safari is notice-ably quicker on the 3G.
However, the 3G shares many ofthe original’s flaws. Although mak-ing and taking calls are rock-solidon both phones, Safari and OS XiPhone are prone to crashes whenoverloaded; luckily, they crash rela-tively gracefully. That’s par for thecourse for Apple: its hardware issolid, but the software takes timeto stabilize.
Unlike its online counterpart,Google Maps for the iPhone lackspublic transit directions, a necessityin the Bay Area. Following direc-tions is also painfully manual; themap does not advance as you fol-low its directions, nor does itupdate to accommodate detours.
A couple other downsides: There is still no cut and paste,
and iTunes wastes too much timebacking up the phone.
The keyboard sometimes lags,and if you update applications,their placement on the homescreen resets — an annoying glitch.
Due to AirBears’ lack of supportfor 802.1X, logging in to the Wi-Fiis extremely awkward.
On the other hand, text auto-completion is so accurate it can bedownright creepy. (And, judgingfrom its suggestions, uses machinelearning to improve results.) TheFacebook application is indispen-sable. Visual Voicemail greatlystreamlines checking messages.And the applications in the AppStore are excellent and improving atan incredible pace.
BOTTOM LINE: If you’re lookingfor a full-featured phone and don’tmind the occasional frustrationsthat come with being an earlyadopter, there are no showstop-ping bugs here. You won’t be disap-pointed.
On the other hand, if you’re look-ing for complete stability and some-thing that ‘just works,’ this is notthe phone you want — yet. Theflaws will be ironed out in time,and a good phone will become agreat one.
—Written by Andy Toulouse
TECHNOfile is a new departmentwhere students review gadgets, devicesand technology and give us the bottomline. Want to be a reviewer? [email protected].
TECHNOfile: iPhone 3G
University of CaliforniaEngineering News312 McLaughlin HallBerkeley, California 94720-1704Phone: 510 642.5857Fax: 510 643.8882
www.coe.berkeley.edu/engnews/index.html
ANDY TOULOUSE with theiPhone 3G
SEPTEMBER 4, 2008
EECS junior reviews Apple’s newest smart phone
T
Aaron Chang, ME senior
“Yes. I did a lot ofcarpooling. I made other
people drive.”
Romy Fain, ME junior
“I didn’t really drive lessbecause I have a disability
and I have to drive to get around.”
Lucy Williams, Eng. Undeclared
freshman“Yes, but I also drove lessbecause I want to help the
environment. And car-pooling, biking and walking
are more fun and makeyou feel good.”
Simon Loos, ES freshman
“Yeah, I drove less.Screw the oil companies.”
CEE teams #1, #2
t’s the sizeof a theater
catwalk andweighs just142 pounds.But the gentlyarched bridge— designed,built andambitiouslynamed“Calatrava”
by CEE students — is the new heavyweightchamp of collegiate bridge building. The 21-foot-long span swept a field of 42 finalists to capturetop honors at the 2008 National Student SteelBridge Competition on May 23–24. The name forthis year’s entry honors noted Spanish architectSantiago Calatrava while demonstrating some“Cal” school pride.
The victory was UC Berkeley’s first in the con-test’s 17-year history. Sponsored by the AmericanSociety of Civil Engineers and the AmericanInstitute of Steel Construction, the elite competi-tion attracts engineering students from aroundthe country vying to construct the best 1:10 scale
FLOATABLE CONCRETE: Cal’s ConcreteCanoe attracts attention at nationals. Theteam placed second overall.
Did
you drive less
this summer
to save $$ on
gas?
Continued on page 2
SEPTEMBER 4, 2008 VOL. 79, NO. 2F
PHOTOPROVIDED
BYCEE
DEPARTMEN
T
PHOTOPROVIDED
BYSTEEL
BRIDGE
METALLED: The steel bridge team took first place at the National
Student Steel Bridge Competition in May (see story at right). Here the
team poses with its winning entry. Members, not all pictured here, include:
James Ambat, Akshay Banesh, Daniel Berson, Raman Bhatia, Paula Bran,
John Carroll, Alice Chen, Helen Chow, Yoseph Gezhagne, Joanna Huey,
Jason Jung, Ashley Kita, Nathan Langdon, Tran Le, Justin Legg, Jose Leon,
Spencer Lin, Yuichi Maeda, Eric Michal, Ting Ng, Andrew Plumb, Daniel
Sales, Alvin Sarmiento, Nathan Scheevel, Matt Vaggione, Andrew
Wagner, Richard Wang, Andrea Wong, Hoi Wong, Medford Xie and
Madeline Ziser. Davis Hall shop supervisor Richard Parsons (bottom row)
poses with the team.
NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!
A roundup of summer competition results
I
3engineeringNews
Get the complete College calendar atwww.coe.berkeley.edu/events.
2 engineeringNews
<announcements>model steel bridge. This year’s event drewteams from 182 universities to regional con-tests that culminated in the finals at theUniversity of Florida in Gainesville.
“Everyone was really dedicated to win-ning,” says Raman Bhatia (B.S.’08 CEE), the22-year-old captain of the 31-memberCalatrava team. That’s no understatement:Bhatia was one of five graduating Cal seniorswho skipped Commencement 2008 in favorof a trip to the finals.
The bridge won first place in the “light-ness” and “structural efficiency” categoriesand finished second in “construction speed”and construction “economy” on its way toseizing the overall title.
Reassembled in Berkeley, Calatrava waspainted blue and goes on permanent displayin Davis Hall. Visit the team’s website:www.ce.berkeley.edu/~steelbridge.
— Visit http://innovations.coe.berkeley.eduto read more.
Concrete Canoe: Not only does it float, butit rises, almost, to the top. On June 21, thisCEE team took second overall out of 22finalists at the National Concrete CanoeCompetition. (Those CEE teams are hot!) Itscanoe, dubbed “VoCal,” was named afterBerkeley’s Free Speech Movement. The team,already regrouped, is plotting how to capturethe national title next year.http://canoe.berkeley.edu
Formula SAE: Cal’s newest car team gets bet-ter and better. It took its formula-style racecar to 25th place out of 84 cars at theFormula SAE West competition that beganon June 25 — the best it’s ever done. “We’reaiming for the top 10 next June,” saysRaechel Tan, one of the team’s leaders.http://fsae.berkeley.edu
SMV: Otherwise known as Cal’s gas-sippingcar. The Supermileage Vehicle team didn’tfinalize its vehicle in time for the Shell Eco-Marathon Americas Competition last April,but the team was back in the shop by July,discussing plans for a new car.http://smv.berkeley.edu
CalSol: The solar-powered car team withdrewfrom July’s North American Solar Challengeafter several of the vehicle’s key systemsfailed, but members plan to redesign thoseparts this fall in order to compete in nextyear’s World Solar Challenge, a race acrossAustralia. http://me.berkeley.edu/calsol
Competition resultsContinued from page 1
SEPTEMBER 4, 2008
Get in the News! Win an award? Have an event coming up that youwant publicized? E-mail news items and sugges-
tions to the editor of Engineering News,[email protected].
CINDY
MAN
LY-FIELDSPHOTO
MEGAN
MAN
SELLW
ILLIAMS
PHOTO
SEPTEMBER 4, 2008
<focal point>
Win a $100 Best Buygift card!
Take a short survey about Engineering News, andyou’ll automatically be entered into a raffledrawing for the gift card. Surveys can be foundin the waiting area of 308 McLaughlin Hall ortake it online at www.coe.berkeley.edu/news-center/publications/engineering-news. We want toimprove this publication to better serve you!
Northrop infosessionNorthrop Grumman Corporation will holdan employment infosession at 5 p.m. onWednesday, September 10, at the WestMadrone Room on the fourth floor of theMLK Jr. Student Union. The global defenseand technology company designs and manu-facturers ships, satellites, aerospace andadvanced defense electronics systems, andother products and services. www.northropgrumman.com
INTRO TO COE
The College welcomed 849 new faces to campus at New Student
Orientation on August 25, the biggest class in recent memory. At lunch,
Top Dog served almost 900 of its famous wieners to the crowd, and a few
courageous newcomers participated in games organized by upperclassmen.
Above left, BioE senior Tim Fei suits up to mock sumo wrestle. Above right,
upperclassmen (on the left) and underclassmen battle it out in a game of
tug o’ war. The underclassmen won.
3engineeringNews
Get the complete College calendar atwww.coe.berkeley.edu/events.
2 engineeringNews
<announcements>model steel bridge. This year’s event drewteams from 182 universities to regional con-tests that culminated in the finals at theUniversity of Florida in Gainesville.
“Everyone was really dedicated to win-ning,” says Raman Bhatia (B.S.’08 CEE), the22-year-old captain of the 31-memberCalatrava team. That’s no understatement:Bhatia was one of five graduating Cal seniorswho skipped Commencement 2008 in favorof a trip to the finals.
The bridge won first place in the “light-ness” and “structural efficiency” categoriesand finished second in “construction speed”and construction “economy” on its way toseizing the overall title.
Reassembled in Berkeley, Calatrava waspainted blue and goes on permanent displayin Davis Hall. Visit the team’s website:www.ce.berkeley.edu/~steelbridge.
— Visit http://innovations.coe.berkeley.eduto read more.
Concrete Canoe: Not only does it float, butit rises, almost, to the top. On June 21, thisCEE team took second overall out of 22finalists at the National Concrete CanoeCompetition. (Those CEE teams are hot!) Itscanoe, dubbed “VoCal,” was named afterBerkeley’s Free Speech Movement. The team,already regrouped, is plotting how to capturethe national title next year.http://canoe.berkeley.edu
Formula SAE: Cal’s newest car team gets bet-ter and better. It took its formula-style racecar to 25th place out of 84 cars at theFormula SAE West competition that beganon June 25 — the best it’s ever done. “We’reaiming for the top 10 next June,” saysRaechel Tan, one of the team’s leaders.http://fsae.berkeley.edu
SMV: Otherwise known as Cal’s gas-sippingcar. The Supermileage Vehicle team didn’tfinalize its vehicle in time for the Shell Eco-Marathon Americas Competition last April,but the team was back in the shop by July,discussing plans for a new car.http://smv.berkeley.edu
CalSol: The solar-powered car team withdrewfrom July’s North American Solar Challengeafter several of the vehicle’s key systemsfailed, but members plan to redesign thoseparts this fall in order to compete in nextyear’s World Solar Challenge, a race acrossAustralia. http://me.berkeley.edu/calsol
Competition resultsContinued from page 1
SEPTEMBER 4, 2008
Get in the News! Win an award? Have an event coming up that youwant publicized? E-mail news items and sugges-
tions to the editor of Engineering News,[email protected].
CINDY
MAN
LY-FIELDSPHOTO
MEGAN
MAN
SELLW
ILLIAMS
PHOTO
SEPTEMBER 4, 2008
<focal point>
Win a $100 Best Buygift card!
Take a short survey about Engineering News, andyou’ll automatically be entered into a raffledrawing for the gift card. Surveys can be foundin the waiting area of 308 McLaughlin Hall ortake it online at www.coe.berkeley.edu/news-center/publications/engineering-news. We want toimprove this publication to better serve you!
Northrop infosessionNorthrop Grumman Corporation will holdan employment infosession at 5 p.m. onWednesday, September 10, at the WestMadrone Room on the fourth floor of theMLK Jr. Student Union. The global defenseand technology company designs and manu-facturers ships, satellites, aerospace andadvanced defense electronics systems, andother products and services. www.northropgrumman.com
INTRO TO COE
The College welcomed 849 new faces to campus at New Student
Orientation on August 25, the biggest class in recent memory. At lunch,
Top Dog served almost 900 of its famous wieners to the crowd, and a few
courageous newcomers participated in games organized by upperclassmen.
Above left, BioE senior Tim Fei suits up to mock sumo wrestle. Above right,
upperclassmen (on the left) and underclassmen battle it out in a game of
tug o’ war. The underclassmen won.
engineeringNews
<of note>
4 engineeringNews
POPQUIZ
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING • UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
engineeringNewsGraduate Student Engineering Club Directory
AST: Students in Applied Science and Technology isled by Mike Greaves, [email protected]: The BioEngineering Association of Students isled by Mark Steedman, [email protected], andRobin Held, [email protected]: The CEE Graduate Student Society hosts socialevents and research roundtables. Contact DrewGenter, [email protected]: Visit the Computer Science Graduate StudentAssociation at www.cs.berkeley.edu/~csgsa or contactpresident Jake Abernethy, [email protected]: Visit the Electrical Engineering Graduate StudentAssociation at www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~eegsa orcontact president Josh Hug, [email protected]: Don’t miss the ME Graduate Student Council’shappy hours and intramural sports teams. Visitwww.me.berkeley.edu/megsco.MSE: Brittany Nelson-Cheeseman leads the MaterialsResearch Society. E-mail [email protected]: Graduate Women in Engineering uniteswomen in ME, NE, IEOR and BioE for networking. Visitwww.me.berkeley.edu/gwe.
Published biweekly on Thursdays during the academic year bythe Engineering Marketing and Communications Office, Collegeof Engineering, University of California, Berkeley.
Copy deadline is 4:00 p.m. on the Monday preceding publication.
Rachel Shafermanaging editor and writer
Patti Meaghercopy editor
S. Shankar Sastrydean
Karen Rhodesexecutive director, marketing and communications
The Apple iPhone 3G debuted in July,promising to be faster than the origi-nal. EECS junior Andy Toulousereviews it for Engineering News.Basic models start at $199 and canbe purchased at an Apple or AT&Tretail store.
he original iPhone is quitecapable, so when I bought
the iPhone 3G this summer, I wascurious to see how Apple wouldimprove the user experience. Aftera couple months, I’ve found the 3Gis indeed faster, but its functionali-ty is identical to that of the original— with incremental improvements.
The original approximated itslocation based on cell towers, whilethe new model takes advantage ofAssisted GPS technology to locateitself with greater accuracy.
Both include a very capablebrowser, Safari, though due to thefaster 3G network, Safari is notice-ably quicker on the 3G.
However, the 3G shares many ofthe original’s flaws. Although mak-ing and taking calls are rock-solidon both phones, Safari and OS XiPhone are prone to crashes whenoverloaded; luckily, they crash rela-tively gracefully. That’s par for thecourse for Apple: its hardware issolid, but the software takes timeto stabilize.
Unlike its online counterpart,Google Maps for the iPhone lackspublic transit directions, a necessityin the Bay Area. Following direc-tions is also painfully manual; themap does not advance as you fol-low its directions, nor does itupdate to accommodate detours.
A couple other downsides: There is still no cut and paste,
and iTunes wastes too much timebacking up the phone.
The keyboard sometimes lags,and if you update applications,their placement on the homescreen resets — an annoying glitch.
Due to AirBears’ lack of supportfor 802.1X, logging in to the Wi-Fiis extremely awkward.
On the other hand, text auto-completion is so accurate it can bedownright creepy. (And, judgingfrom its suggestions, uses machinelearning to improve results.) TheFacebook application is indispen-sable. Visual Voicemail greatlystreamlines checking messages.And the applications in the AppStore are excellent and improving atan incredible pace.
BOTTOM LINE: If you’re lookingfor a full-featured phone and don’tmind the occasional frustrationsthat come with being an earlyadopter, there are no showstop-ping bugs here. You won’t be disap-pointed.
On the other hand, if you’re look-ing for complete stability and some-thing that ‘just works,’ this is notthe phone you want — yet. Theflaws will be ironed out in time,and a good phone will become agreat one.
—Written by Andy Toulouse
TECHNOfile is a new departmentwhere students review gadgets, devicesand technology and give us the bottomline. Want to be a reviewer? [email protected].
TECHNOfile: iPhone 3G
University of CaliforniaEngineering News312 McLaughlin HallBerkeley, California 94720-1704Phone: 510 642.5857Fax: 510 643.8882
www.coe.berkeley.edu/engnews/index.html
ANDY TOULOUSE with theiPhone 3G
SEPTEMBER 4, 2008
EECS junior reviews Apple’s newest smart phone
T
Aaron Chang, ME senior
“Yes. I did a lot ofcarpooling. I made other
people drive.”
Romy Fain, ME junior
“I didn’t really drive lessbecause I have a disability
and I have to drive to get around.”
Lucy Williams, Eng. Undeclared
freshman“Yes, but I also drove lessbecause I want to help the
environment. And car-pooling, biking and walking
are more fun and makeyou feel good.”
Simon Loos, ES freshman
“Yeah, I drove less.Screw the oil companies.”
CEE teams #1, #2
t’s the sizeof a theater
catwalk andweighs just142 pounds.But the gentlyarched bridge— designed,built andambitiouslynamed“Calatrava”
by CEE students — is the new heavyweightchamp of collegiate bridge building. The 21-foot-long span swept a field of 42 finalists to capturetop honors at the 2008 National Student SteelBridge Competition on May 23–24. The name forthis year’s entry honors noted Spanish architectSantiago Calatrava while demonstrating some“Cal” school pride.
The victory was UC Berkeley’s first in the con-test’s 17-year history. Sponsored by the AmericanSociety of Civil Engineers and the AmericanInstitute of Steel Construction, the elite competi-tion attracts engineering students from aroundthe country vying to construct the best 1:10 scale
FLOATABLE CONCRETE: Cal’s ConcreteCanoe attracts attention at nationals. Theteam placed second overall.
Did
you drive less
this summer
to save $$ on
gas?
Continued on page 2
SEPTEMBER 4, 2008 VOL. 79, NO. 2F
PHOTOPROVIDED
BYCEE
DEPARTMEN
T
PHOTOPROVIDED
BYSTEEL
BRIDGE
METALLED: The steel bridge team took first place at the National
Student Steel Bridge Competition in May (see story at right). Here the
team poses with its winning entry. Members, not all pictured here, include:
James Ambat, Akshay Banesh, Daniel Berson, Raman Bhatia, Paula Bran,
John Carroll, Alice Chen, Helen Chow, Yoseph Gezhagne, Joanna Huey,
Jason Jung, Ashley Kita, Nathan Langdon, Tran Le, Justin Legg, Jose Leon,
Spencer Lin, Yuichi Maeda, Eric Michal, Ting Ng, Andrew Plumb, Daniel
Sales, Alvin Sarmiento, Nathan Scheevel, Matt Vaggione, Andrew
Wagner, Richard Wang, Andrea Wong, Hoi Wong, Medford Xie and
Madeline Ziser. Davis Hall shop supervisor Richard Parsons (bottom row)
poses with the team.
NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!
A roundup of summer competition results
I
