CITRIS and the Banatao Institute

Creating information technology solutions for society's most pressing challenges

UC Berkeley

The headquarters of CITRIS and the Banatao Institute are located in Sutardja Dai Hall (SDH) on the UC Berkeley campus. Specially designed to house this interdisciplinary research institute, the building contains 141,000 sq. feet of laboratory space for collaborative research, faculty offices, the 149-seat Banatao Auditorium, conference rooms on each floor, and modern classrooms. SDH also hosts the CITRIS Invention Lab, a rapid prototyping space used by UC entrepreneurs in our CITRIS Foundry startup accelerator program and the student maker community. The Marvell Nanofabrication Laboratory occupies a two-story, 15,000-square-foot wing of Sutardja Dai Hall where academic and industry researchers develop prototypes for new biosensors, photonics devices, and other MEMS/NEMS sensors. SDH is equipped with hundreds of sensors and sophisticated systems for building management that form a living laboratory on campus for energy research and proof-of-concept demonstrations.

Contact CITRIS and the Banatao Institute, UC Berkeley

New “hyperlens” brings scientists closer to nanoscale optical imaging

Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a "hyperlens" that brings them one major step closer to the goal of nanoscale optical imaging. The new hyperlens is capable of projecting a magnified image of a pair of nanowires spaced 150 nanometers apart onto a plane up to a meter away.

PEER leading way for Tall Buildings Initiative

Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center is leading the Tall Buildings Initiative, a collaborative of universities, government agencies and the engineering community that develops design criteria to ensure safe and usable high-rises following future earthquakes.

CITRIS Newsletter Online

Read about the technology behind the dazzling holiday gala in addition to our efforts to support student research in the February/March newsletter.

All the lab’s a stage

The performance of The Reception at CITRIS's holiday party was more than entertainment; it was research.

ESEM Certificate Program launched at UC Berkeley

UC Berkeley has a new certificate program in Engineering for Sustainability and Environmental Management (ESEM) to train graduate students
to work across boundaries to achieve sustainable
solutions to pressing societal problems.

CITRIS helps Governor by “Leading the Green Dream”

On January 4, 2007, CITRIS professors and researchers attended Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s inaugural celebrations and participated in “Leading the Green Dream.” Dozens of participants, including four from CITRIS@Berkeley, presented their research on environmental causes.

ARTHUR RICHARD NEWTON

Richard was an inspiration, mentor, and close friend to a
great many of us at HP and elsewhere in the Valley.  He was a large man
with a larger smile, looking every bit the former Australian Rules footballer
that he was.  Nonetheless, his personality was always bigger. 
Richard filled a room just by entering it, and was so comfortable and at ease
with himself and the world that he made everyone, from an undergraduate intern
to the great and powerful, at ease within minutes.  It was this persona as
much as his considerable technical brilliance that let him succeed, seemingly
effortlessly, in so many positions over the course of his 30-year career: as a
professor of electrical engineering, who was a constant winner of awards for
his charismatic classroom style; as one of the
pre-eminent researchers in the field of computer-aided design of integrated
circuits (Kaufman award winner); as a founder of at least two billion-dollar
companies (Cadence and Synopsys) — I’m sure there were others; as a venture
capitalist with Mayfield; as chair of the EECS Department; as the inspiration
behind the Center for Information Technology Research in Society (CITRIS); and,
finally, as perhaps the greatest engineering dean in UC Berkeley’s storied
history.

CET Technology Breakthrough Competition winners

The two top prizes at the CET Technology Breakthrough Competition went to projects on a low-cost disposable genome chip and a portable screening device for dengue fever.

The Future of Optical Networking

Imagine an Internet connection that's 10,000 times faster. A group of
CITRIS researchers are developing the technology that will make that
goal a reality.

Berkeley Nano Opportunity Challenge 2006

Berkeley Nano Opportunity Challenge 2006 brings together scientists, engineers, and business students to evaluate potential applications and commercial opportunities for ideas and innovations in Nanotechnology and related areas. Abstracts deadline: Oct. 27

Big Idea prizes

A recent article in the Berkeleyan covers the Big Ideas competition and some of the winning and innovative CITRIS projects developed by students. 

Paging Dr. IT

Several key CITRIS initiatives are bringing information technology to the aid of this country's ailing health care system.

CITRIS Research Exchange, Fall 2006 Schedule

These popular talks are held every Wednesday at
noon in 290 Hearst Memorial Mining Building on the UC Berkeley campus and are
all free, open to the general public, broadcast live online, and archived on the
CITRIS website.

Professor Arpad Horvath

Arpad Horvath is a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley (http://faculty.ce.berkeley.edu/horvath/), Head of the Energy, Civil Infrastructure and Climate Graduate Program, Director of the Transportation Sustainability Research Center, and Director of the Engineering and Business for Sustainability certificate program (http://sustainable-engineering.berkeley.edu).

Professor Iris Tommelein

Iris D. Tommelein is Professor of Engineering and Project Management, in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at U.C. Berkeley. She teaches and conducts research developing the theory and principles of project-based production management for the architecture-engineering-construction industry, what is termed ‘lean construction.’ Current research focuses on the work specialty contractors and suppliers perform and how they can become integral participants in design-build teams in order to increase process and product development performance.

Professor David Patterson

At Berkeley, he led the design and implementation of RISC I, likely the first VLSI Reduced Instruction Set Computer. This research became the foundation of the SPARC architecture, currently used by Fujitsu, Sun Microsystems, and others. (In 1996 Microprocessor Report and COMDEX named SPARC as one of the most significant microprocessors as part of the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the microprocessor.) He was also a leader of the Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) project, which led to reliable storage systems from many companies.

Solving the Problem of Access to Clean Water

An SF Chronicle article details the efforts of three UC Berkeley engineering students who have been recognized by campus
officials for their efforts to help people in impoverished areas of India, Sri
Lanka and Mexico secure clean drinking water and save lives by reducing a
potentially devastating threat to public health.

Agricultural projects win CITRIS White paper competition

Two agricultural proposals’one on supporting
urban agriculture in Mexico City and the other on alleviating water scarcity in
California farming’are co-winners of the first annual CITRIS White Paper
competition and will receive $7500 each.