Alice M. Agogino

Roscoe and Elizabeth Hughes Professor of Mechanical Engineering, emeritus, and affiliated faculty with the Energy Resources Group, Women and Gender Studies, Development Engineering, and Studies in Science, Engineering and Mathematics Education (SESAME), UC Berkeley.

Former Education Director and  Chair of Development Engineering Graduate Group, Blum Center for Developing Economies. Blum Hall 200E, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720. Phone: (510) 666-3704 (direct); (510) 643-5316 (receptionist). email: agogino@berkeley.edu.

CEO, Squishy Robotics, Inc., alice@squishy-robotics.com.

Twitter: http://twitter.com/agogino

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Curriculum Vitae

Alice M. Agogino is the Roscoe and Elizabeth Hughes Professor of Mechanical Engineering. She directs the BEST Lab: Berkeley Energy and Sustainable Technologies | Berkeley Expert Systems Technology | Berkeley Emergent Space Tensegrities. She currently serves as Chair of the Development Engineering Graduate Group and Education Director of the Blum Center for Emerging Economies.

Alice Agogino served as Chair of the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate in 2005-06, having served as Vice Chair during the 2004-05 academic year. She has served in a number of other administrative positions at UC Berkeley including Associate Dean of Engineering and Faculty Assistant to the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost in Educational Development and Technology. She also served as Director for Synthesis, an NSF-sponsored coalition of eight universities with the goal of reforming undergraduate engineering education, and continues as Founding Director for the Engineering Pathway digital library of engineering courseware. She is currently serving as Chair of the Development Engineering Graduate Group and Education Director of the Blum Center for Developing Economies. She has supervised 197 MS projects/theses, 65 doctoral dissertations and numerous undergraduate researchers.

Prior to joining the faculty at UC Berkeley, Dr. Agogino worked in industry for Dow Chemical, General Electric and SRI International. Her research interests include: soft robotics; community-based design; development engineering; sustainable engineering; internet of things; intelligent learning systems; information retrieval and data mining; multiobjective and strategic product design; nonlinear optimization; probabilistic modeling; intelligent control and manufacturing; sensor validation, fusion and diagnostics; wireless sensor networks; multimedia and computer-aided design; design databases; design theory and methods; MEMS synthesis and computer-aided design; artificial intelligence and decision and expert systems; and gender/ethnic equity. Dr. Agogino has authored over three hundred peer-reviewed publications in these subject areas. She is a member of AAAI, AAAS, ASEE, ASME, AWIS, IEEE, NAE and SWE and served as Chair of the AAAS section on Engineering (2001-2002). She serves on the editorial board of three professional journals and has provided service on a number of governmental, professional, and industry advisory committees, including the NSF Advisory Committee for Engineering, Engineering Directorate, (1991-96, Chair 1996-97); Guidance Committee of the “Removing Barriers to Collaborative Research” project of the National Research Council (NRC) Government-University-Industry Roundtable (1997-98); NRC Committee on “Standards for Technology Education,” (1997-98); National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Academic Advisory Board (1998-2002); NAE “Engineering of the Year 2020” Planning/Steering Committee (Co-Chair of Planning, 1999-2000; Member of Steering; 2002-2005) and Executive Committee, Digital Media Innovation Initiative, University of California System (2000-2001), Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory of the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST; 2004-2005), JPL/Cal Tech Engineering Advisory Board (2003-2005), National Academies Board on Science Education (BOSE, 2005-2007) and the Women in Academic Science Engineering Committee of the National Academies Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy (COSEPUP; 2005-2010). She is or has served on a number of university advisory boards: CMU CIT, KAUST, Harvard/Radcliffe, MIT and SUTD.

Dr. Agogino received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of New Mexico (1975), M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering (1978) from the University of California at Berkeley and Ph.D. from the Department of Engineering-Economic Systems at Stanford University (1984). She received an NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award in 1985; Pi Tau Sigma Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1986; Ralph R. Teetor Educator Award in 1987; SME Young Manufacturing Engineer of the Year Award in 1987/88; Best Paper Award (with S. Bradley) at the ASME-Design, Theory and Methods Conference in 1990/91; Best Paper Award at the AI Applications ’92 Conference; Most Outstanding Alumnus at the University of New Mexico in 1992; elected AAAS Fellow in 1994; Best Paper Award (with Andy Dong) at the Artificial Intelligence in Design’96 Conference (with Robert Paasch); elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1997; Best Paper Award (with Ann McKenna) at IEEE/ASEE FIE’97; John Wiley & Sons Premier Award for Quality Courseware (with David Yu) in 1997; Best Overall Paper Award at ASEE ’98 (with Ann McKenna); IEEE Helen Plants Award for “Best Non-Traditional Session” at the 1998 IEEE/ASEE Frontiers in Engineering Education Conference; and First Runner-up for the Novel Smart Engineering System Design Award (with Ningning Zhou, Bo Zhu and Kris Pister) in 2001; Fellow, Association of Women in Science, 2003; NSF Director’s Award for Distinguished Teaching Scholars, 2004; ASME Xerox Best Paper Award (with Shuang Song), 2004; IEEE Robotics & Automation Society Best Paper Award at the Symposium of Micro- and Nano-Mechatronics for Information-based Society (with R. Kamalian and Y. Zhang), 2005; elected Fellow of ASME, 2005; Chancellor’s Award for Advancing Institutional Excellence, 2006; Faculty Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring, Mechanical Engineering Graduate Student Council, 2007; Chancellor’s Awards for Public Service:CARES (Community Assessment for Renewable Energy and Sustainability), 2010; Best Note Honorable Mention, (with Kimiko Ryokai, Lora Oehlberg and Michael Manoochehri) ACM CHI (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems), 2011; Professor of the Year , UC Berkeley Pi Tau Sigma, 2011; Academy of Distinguished Alumni, University of New Mexico, 2012; and Leon Gaster Award for Lighting Technology (with Yao-Jung Wen), 2012; AAAS Lifetime Mentoring Award, 2012-13; “Reviewers’ Favourite Award” (with Euiyoung Kim, Victoria Kocsik and Cecile Basnage) International Conference on Engineering Design, 2013; Assemblymember Nancy Skinner STEM Women of the Year, 2014; IEEE Senior Member, 2014; ASME Ruth and Joel Spira Outstanding Design Educator Award, 2015; Best Paper Award (with Euiyoung Kim and Sara Beckman), Design Theory and Methods (DTM), International Design Engineering Technical Conference (IDETC), 2016; 2017 ASME Design Theory and Methodology Award: to recognize sustained and meritorious contributions to research; education; service; training of researchers or practitioners; overall leadership in advancing the field; or any combination of these in the field of Design Theory and Methodology; 2018 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring; 2019 Won First Place in the TechPlanter Silicon Valley pitch competition on Squishy Robotics; 2020 Athena Award for Academic Leadership. The award was presented on March 6, 2020 at the Reimagining Cybersecurity for All Symposium in Berkeley.

Most Recent Awards

  1. 2017 Georgia Tech’s Women in Science and Technology Distinguished Lecture Award, Feb. 28, 2017. Lecture title:Design for Social Impact:  Multiple Dimensions of Diversity in Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Medical (STEM) Education and Careers.
  2. 2017 ASME Design Theory and Methodology Award: to recognize sustained and meritorious contributions to research; education; service; training of researchers or practitioners; overall leadership in advancing the field; or any combination of these in the field of Design Theory and Methodology.
  3. 2018 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring.
  4. 2019 Won First Place in the TechPlanter Silicon Valley pitch competition on Squishy Robotics.
  5. 2020 Athena Award for Academic Leadership. The award was presented on March 6, 2020 at the Reimagining Cybersecurity for All Symposium in Berkeley.
  6. Co-authored 2020 DTM Best Paper Award, ASME.
  7. 2021 Berkeley Faculty Service Award for distinguished record of service to the Academic Senate.

Most Recent Research Publications (2018+)

  1. “Design Roadmapping in an Uncertain World: Implementing a Customer Experience-Focused Strategy,” (with E. Kim, S. Beckman), California Management Review, Special Issue on “Management Innovation in an Uncertain World”, Fall 2018, preview version.
  2. “Diagnosing and Predicting Wind Turbine Faults from SCADA Data Using Support Vector Machines,” (with K. Leahy, L. Hu, I.C. Konstantakopoulos, C.J. Spanos, and D.T.J. O’Sullivan), International Journal of Prognostics and Health Management, 9 (1), 2018.
  3. “Building 21st Century Skills through Development Engineering”, (with Gordon, P., J. Kramer, R. Dzombak, S. Martin), 34 (2B), International Journal of Engineering Education, in press, pp. 619-631. (journal version of conference proceedings P-187). Pre-publication (pdf).
  4. Sproutel: How Design Roadmapping Helped Improve Children’s Health and Guide a Growing Company, Berkeley Haas Case Series/ Harvard Case (with Sara Beckman and Euiyoung Kim)., April 1, 2018.
  5. “Co-Author Network Analysis of Human-Centered Design for Development,”(with N. Li, J. Kramer, P. Gordon), Design Science, 4 (10), pp. 1-24. DOI: 10.1017/dsj.2018.1
  6. “Deep Reinforcement Learning for Tensegrity Locomotion with Limited Sensory Inputs” (with J. Luo, R. Edmunds, F. Rice), To appear in the Proceedings of ICRA 2018 (Brisbane, AU, 21-25 May 2018).
  7. “Novice Designer’s Lack of Awareness to Cyber-Security and Data Vulnerability in New Concept Development of Mobile Sensing Devices,” (with E. Kim, D. Poreh). To be published in the Proceedings of Design 2018, International Design Society, Croatia, May 21-24, 2018.
  8. “What Design Practices Do Professionals Use for Sustainability and Innovation,” (with J. Faludi). To be published in the Proceedings of Design 2018, International Design Society, Croatia, May 21-24, 2018.
  9. “Characterization of Six-bar Spherical Tensegrity Lattice Topologies,” (with A. Zhang and B. Cera), Proceedings of the IASS Symposium 2018: Creativity in Structural Design, July 16-20, 2018, MIT, Boston.
  10. “Reimaginging Onboard Experiences for Autonomous Vehicles in Academic Makerspaces”, (with P. Cholsaipan, S. Hyoung, M. Kumaran, T. Liaw, K. Pham, J. Tabuada, E. Kim),  Proceedings of the 2018 International Symposium on Academic Makerspaces (ISAM), Stanford University, August 3, 2018 – Sunday, August 5, 2018.
  11. “Applying Design Roadmapping in New Product Development Education: Insights from Student Design Teams,” (with E. Kim and S.L. Beckman),  Proceedings of the International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (IDETC2018),  26-29 August 2018, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
  12. “Using ‘Why and How’ to Tap into Novice Designers’ Method Selection Mindset,” (with D. Poreh, E. Kim, V. Vasudevan), Proceedings of the International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (IDETC2018),  26-29 August 2018, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
  13. “Customization of a 3D printed prosthetic finger using parametric modeling”, (with D. Lim, T. Georgiou, A. Bhardwaj, G.D. O’Connell), Proceedings of the International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (IDETC2018),  26-29 August 2018, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
  14. “Multi-Cable Rolling Locomotion with Spherical Tensegrities using Model Predictive Control and Deep Learning“, (with B. Cera),  Proceedings of the 2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Submission number: 1534, Madrid, Spain, Oct. 1-5, 2018. DOI: 10.1109/IROS.2018.8594401.
  15. “Deep Reinforcement Learning for Robotic Assembly of Mixed Deformable and Rigid Objects“, (with J. Luo, E. Solowjow, C. Wen, J. A. Ojea),  Proceedings of the 2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Madrid, Spain, Oct. 1-5, 2018. DOI: 10.1109/IROS.2018.8594353
  16. “Building 21st Century Skills through Development Engineering”, (with Gordon, P., J. Kramer, R. Dzombak, S. Martin), 34 (2B), International Journal of Engineering Education, 2018, pp. 619-631. (updated journal version of conference proceedings P-187). Pre-publication (pdf).
  17. “Co-Author Network Analysis of Human-Centered Design for Development,” (with N. Li, J. Kramer, P. Gordon), Design Science, 4 (10), pp. 1-24, 2018. DOI: 10.1017/dsj.2018.1
  18. “From Innocent Irene to Parental Patrick, Framing User Characteristics and Personas to Design for Cybersecurity”, (with Kim, Euiyoung; Yoon, JungKyoon; Kwon, Jieun; Liaw, Tiffany),  Proceedings of ICED 2019, 1(1), 1773-1782. doi:10.1017/dsi.2019.183
  19. “Exploratory Study into Designing Enhanced Commute Experiences in Autonomous Vehicles with Connected Sensors and Actuators”, (with Sun, Zheng, Hugues Vigner, Shreyas Bhayana, Changhao Zheng, Ziwei Zhang, Euiyoung Kim), Proceedings of the Human-Computer Interaction International (HCII), 2019.
  20. “Reinforcement Learning on Variable Impedance Controller for High-Precision Robotic Assembly,” (with Luo, J., E. Solowjow, C. Wen, J. A. Ojea, A. Tamar, P. Abbeel), Proceedings of ICRA 2019 (IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, May 20-24, 2019, Montreal, Canada).
  21. “Projection Mapping for Implementing Immersive User Scenarios in Autonomous Driving: Insights from Expert Interviews,” (with Kim, E., Tiffany Liaw, Kevin Pham, Proud Cholsaipan, Jae Tabuada, Jaewoo Chung), extended poster abstract in Proceedings of HCII 2019.
  22.  “Towards Flexible Ridesharing Experiences: Human-Centered Design of Segmented Sharing Spaces,” (with A. Ong, J. Troncoso, A. Yeung, E. Kim), extended poster abstract in Proceedings of HCII 2019.
  23. “Embedding Cybersecurity into Design Education: Increasing Designers’ Awareness to Cybersecurity throughout the Design Process,” (with Kim, J. Kwon, J. Yoon), Proceedings of the ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conference (DETC2019), August 2019.
  24. “Machine Learning for Automated Sensor Selection for Energy Faulty Detection” (with L. Hu, J. Granderson, D.M. Auslander), Journal of Applied Energy, 235, pp. 117-128, 2019. ISSN 0306-2619.
  25. “The Sparthan 3D Printed Exo-Glove: a Preliminary Evaluation of Performance via Case Study“, (with T. Georgiou, D. Asnaghi, A. Liang),  ASME Journal of Medical Devices, September 2019; 13(3): 031007. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4043976.
  26. “Rolling Locomotion of Cable-Driven Soft Spherical Tensegrity Robots”, (with K. Kim and A.K. Agogino), Soft Robotics, 2019. DOI: 10.1089/soro.2019.00562020.
  27. “Energy-Efficient Locomotion Strategies and Performance Benchmarks using Point Mass Tensegrity Dynamics” (with B. Cera, A.A. Thompson), Proceedings of IROS (International Conference on Intelligent Robotics and Systems), 2019.
  28. “Model-Predictive Control with Inverse Statics Optimization for Tensegrity Spine Robots,”  (with A. P. Sabelhaus, H. Zhao, E. Zhu, A.K. Agogino), IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, DOI: 10.1109/TCST.2020.2975138, March 2020.
  29. “Inverse Statics Optimization for Compound Tensegrity Robots“,” (with A. P. Sabelhaus, A. H. Li, K. Sover, J. R. Madden, A. Barkan, A.K. Agogino);  IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), ISSN: 2377-3766, DOI: 10.1109/LRA.2020.2983699.
  30. “User-Centered Design Roadmapping: Anchoring Roadmapping in Customer Value before Technology Selection,”(with Euiyoung Kim, Lianne Simonse, Sara Beckman, Melissa Appleyard, Herb Velazquez, Antonio Madrigal). IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management. oi: 10.1109/TEM.2020.3030172.
  31.  “Design for Cybersecurity (DfC) Cards: A Creativity-Based Approach to Support Designers’ Consideration of Cybersecurity,” (with Vivek Rao, Euiyoung Kim, Hyun Jie Jung, Kosa Goucher-Lambert), Proceedings of the Design Cognition and Computing Workshop (DCC20) (12-16, Dec. 2020, Georgia Tech).
  32. “Method Selection in Human-Centered Design Teams: An Examination of Decision-Making Strategies,” (with Vivek Rao, Euiyoung Kim, Jieun Kwon, Kosa Goucher-Lambert), Proceedings of the ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conference (IDETC 2020) (16-19 August 2020, St. Louis, MO). Won 2020 DTM Best Paper Award.
  33.  “A Life Cycle Analysis of Laser Cutter Embodied Impacts,” (with George Moore, Kosa Goucher-Lambert),  Proceedings of the ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conference (IDETC 2020) (16-19 August 2020, St. Louis, MO). doi: https://doi.org/10.1115/DETC2020-22677.
  34. “Framing and Tracing Human-Centered Design Teams’ Method Selection: An Examination of Decision-Making Strategies,” (with Vivek Rao, Euiyoung Kim, Jieun Kwon, Kosa Goucher-Lambert), ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, 143, Issue 3, March 2021. Revised journal version of P-212. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4049081.
  35. “Where Do Professionals Find Sustainability and Innovation Value? Empirical tests of three sustainable design methods”, (with J. Faludi and F. Yiu), Design Science, 6, E22, 2020. doi:10.1017/dsj.2020.17.
  36. “Double-Helix Linear Actuators,” (with Sabelhaus, A. P., Zampaglione, K., Tang, E., Chen, L., Agogino, A.K.), ASME. J. Mech. Des. Volume 143, Issue 10, May 2021. doi: https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4050739.
  37. “Force-Sensing Tensegrity for Investigating Physical Human-Robot Interaction in Compliant Robotic Systems,” (Andrew R. Barkan, Akhil Padmanabha, Sala R. Tiemann, Albert Lee, Matthew P. Kanter, Yash S. Agarwal), Proceedings of IEEE ICRA, 2021. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2106.07838.p
  38. “The Influence of Team Goal Alignment and Awareness on Human-Centered Design Team Decision-Making Strategy,” (with Rao, V. A. Krishnan, J. Kwon, E. Kim, K. Goucher-Lambert,) to appear in the Proceedings of ASME IDETC, DETC2021-69673.
  39. “Orientation Control of Self-Righting Tensegrity Landers,”  (with Zhang, A., D. Hutchings, M. Gupta), Proceedings of the ASME IDETC, DETC2021-70989.
  40. “Journey Mapping the Virtual Prototyping Experience,” (Moore, G., V. Rao, K. Goucher-Lambert), Proceedings of the ASME 2021 International Mechanical Congress Exposition (IMECE 2021). Paper# IMECE2021-71618.
  41. “Dynamic Placement of Rapidly Deployable Mobile Sensor Robots Using Machine Learning and Expected Value of Information,” (with R. Batra, L. Hu, I. Fang, H.-Y. Jang, F. Liso, J. Matranga, V. Rao, E. Schoichet-Bartus, R. Sood), Proceedings of the ASME 2021 International Mechanical Congress Exposition (IMECE 2021). Paper# IMEC2021-70759.
  42. “Designing for Cervical Cancer Screening in Rural Nicaragua: A case study in the informal emergence of complex human-centered service design” (Kramer, J., Rao, V., & Agogino, A., 2022), International Journal of Design, 16(2), 107-123. https://doi.org/10.57698/v16i2.08. “Force-Sensing Tensegrity for Investigating Physical Human-Robot Interaction in Compliant Robotic Systems,” (Andrew R. Barkan, Akhil Padmanabha, Sala R. Tiemann, Albert Lee, Matthew P. Kanter, Yash S. Agarwal), Proceedings of IEEE ICRA June 2021. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2106.07838.pdf
  43. “The Influence of Team Goal Alignment and Awareness on Human-Centered Design Team Decision-Making Strategy,” (with Rao, V. A. Krishnan, J. Kwon, E. Kim, K. Goucher-Lambert,) to appear in the Proceedings of ASME IDETC, DETC2021-69673.
  44. “Orientation Control of Self-Righting Tensegrity Landers,”  (with Zhang, A., D. Hutchings, M. Gupta), Proceedings of the ASME IDETC, DETC2021-70989.
  45. “Journey Mapping the Virtual Prototyping Experience,” (Moore, G., V. Rao, K. Goucher-Lambert), Proceedings of the ASME 2021 International Mechanical Congress Exposition (IMECE 2021). Paper# IMECE2021-71618.
  46. “Dynamic Placement of Rapidly Deployable Mobile Sensor Robots Using Machine Learning and Expected Value of Information,” (with R. Batra, L. Hu, I. Fang, H.-Y. Jang, F. Liso, J. Matranga, V. Rao, E. Schoichet-Bartus, R. Sood), Proceedings of the ASME 2021 International Mechanical Congress Exposition (IMECE 2021). Paper# IMEC2021-70759.

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Update: July 2020