Trainee Marc Badger and Professor Cynthia Sagers (Department of Biological Sciences, University of Arkansas) investigate the mutualistic relationship between Cecropia trees (Rosales, Urticaceae) and Azteca ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Ants defend host trees against herbivores and Cecropia trees often provide food packets and hollow cavities in which ants live. Location: Las Alturas Biological Station, Puntarenas Province, Costa Rica.

CiBER houses IB 135, a research-based teaching lab that provides dozens of undergraduate students with an opportunity to conduct cutting-edge research in teams with graduate students and CiBER-IGERT Trainees. Each team experiences the benefits of how biologists and engineers approach a problem. In this photo, Trainee Evan Chang-Siu (far left) is investigating how leaping lizards use their tail to balance their body.

Trainee Michael McKinley and Advisor Homayoon Kazerooni, of the Berkeley Human Engineering and Robotics Laboratory, have been developing AUSTIN, a device designed to provide a new level of independence for individuals suffering from lower spinal cord injury. The device assists a paralyzed individual in transferring from a wheelchair, standing up, and walking. In 2011, it enabled UCB senior Austin Whitney to walk at commencement. Graduate Student Team: Michael McKinley, Wayne Tung, Jason Reid, Minerva Pillai

CiBER-IGERT Trainee Lindsay Waldrop studies how animals sample odors in marine and terrestrial environments. Her research has led her to do two years of K-12 outreach at The Crucible, a non-profit industrial art and teaching studio in Oakland, CA. At The Crucible, Waldrop has presented her work on numerous occasions and created an outreach video for the “I Resolve to Create” campaign to be used online to show what kind of things are possible and inspire other people to take on creative projects themselves.

In a research-based interdisciplinary teaching laboratory, IB 135L, researchers including Trainees Ian Tse and Eli Patten are comparing nature’s remarkable adhesive found on gecko feet directly to a bio-inspired, engineered adhesive. With support from the National Science Foundation’s Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program, small teams of biology and engineering students are learning how to collaborate on cutting-edge research problems that require interdisciplinary involvement.

CiBER-IGERT Trainee Carlos Oroza designs robotic sensors which operate in dynamic environments and is interested in design and control of aquatic-sensor robots.

IGERT Trainee Evan Chang-Sui, IGERT PI Robert Full and their team of biologists and engineers from the University of California at Berkeley discovered that leaping lizards use their tail to balance their body. This discovery led to the development of a novel robot, Tailbot, that serves a prototype for the next generation of agile, mobile search-and-rescue robots. The IGERT team’s discovery was the cover story for the biological journal, Nature and has received numerous conference awards.