Engineering

Engineering a pathogen-resistant seed microbiome

Adam Arkin
Matthieu Barret
2018

The seed microbiome, the microorganisms that live on and within seeds, directly affect early stages of the plant life cycle but can also have long-term consequences on plant health and survival. We have designed high-throughput genetics and microbial ecology methods that will inform our design of engineered seed microbiomes to limit seed transmission of microbial pathogens. This project works toward new pathogen treatments for crops.

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Congratulations to the 2023 FBF Grantees!

July 12, 2023
FBF is absoltuely delighted to sponsor 21 outstanding projects for 2023-24! Congratulations to the grantees!

FBF

Project span Applied Science, Engineering, Exact Science, Humanities and Social Science and many of the projects take an interdiscipinary approach. For a full overview of this year's funded projects, click here.

The FBF would like to...

Large-scale structures in anisotropic turbulence

Edgar Knobloch
Benjamin Favier
2019

This project deals with the formation of large scale coherent structures in anisotropic turbulent flows. The main objective is to understand better the physical mechanisms at play in geophysical and astrophysical flows. The project will combine theoretical, numerical and experimental approaches to characterize non-local interactions between small-scale turbulence and large scale vortices frequently found in such flows.

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m3 Marvelous Micro-Motes

Kris Pister
Thomas Watteyne
2020

Micro-motes are a breakthrough technology which offers communication and computation capabilities in a single-chip design the size of a grain of rice. Our long-term vision is to use micromotes at the heart of micro-robots to form swarms of coordinated ant-sized micro-robots. These swarms can carry out missions in small and hard-to-reach places. One example is exploring and mapping the internal structure of a collapsed building after an earthquake. A micro-mote has no stable crystal oscillator, only an unstable internal oscillating circuit. This requires us to completely re-think time...

Analysis of the impacts of information-based routing on city congestion and optimal remediations

Alexandre Bayen
Eric Goubault
2020

The goal of this project is to co-develop joint methods in the field of control/optimization and systems verification in the context of large-scale networks. The project will apply the results to a specific problem in transportation engineering: the impact of traffic information on large scale mobility patterns in urban environments. Specifically, it will analyze the recent impacts of routing apps such as Waze, Google maps, Apple traffic etc. on residential street congestion. Finally it will apply the findings to two cities, one in the US, Fremont, CA (in a joint partnership with UC...

High Temperature Molten Salt Studies

Raluca Scarlat
Sylvie Delpech
2021

This project is motivated by the pressing questions of sustainability, energy, and the environment. Molten salt nuclear reactors have the potential to provide a carbon-free source of electricity. Our collaboration will investigate the performance of reference electrodes for fluoride salts, and the relationship between fluoroacidity and the activity coefficient of solutes in the molten fluoride salts. The research collaboration will consist in the performance of joint experimental studies, the writing of joint publications, exchanges of experiences between the research groups and...

Structural forces and nanolubrication in Polymerized Ionic Liquids

Joelle Frechette
Frederic Restagno
2022

Polymerized ionic liquids (PILs) refer to a special type of polyelectrolyte which monomeric unit is composed of one or different ionic liquid species (IL). These macromolecules have recently drawn the attention since they present a unique combination of the properties of ionic liquid and polymeric materials. An scientifically and technologically interesting properties of ionic liquids is their very low friction coefficient measured on many different surfaces. However, mechanism for the low friction coefficient is poorly understood. The objective of this project is to study the...

Machine learning-based design of shape-morphing structures for bedsore prevention

Grace Gu
Jose Bico
2022

Bedsores, also known as pressure ulcers, are formed by a long-term compression of blood vessels owing to immobilized patients’ limited capacity to shift postures in their hospital beds or wheelchairs, which can result in the degradation of body tissue, or necrosis. In this proposal, we aim to develop a shape-morphing structure that changes the patient's body pressure and posture with a single air pump. The Gu Lab at UC Berkeley plans to collaborate with the MecaWet Group, led by Prof. Bico and Prof. Roman at PMMH-ESPCI in Paris, on this project that consists of 1) inverse...