The Entrepreneurial University

University of California, Berkeley, is redefining its role in innovation and entrepreneurship. Professors Jennifer Doudna and Omar Yaghi, both Nobel laureates, discussed their experiences bridging academia and industry. Doudna co-founded her seventh startup in January, while Yaghi now sees a moral responsibility to pursue applications of his research. Ken Goldberg, a U.C. Berkeley roboticist, presented advancements in humanoid robotics. Goldberg showed videos of robots performing complex tasks but revealed that many rely on human controllers, lacking true autonomy. To overcome this, Goldberg's team is improving robots' grasping abilities using computer vision and engineering. They have trained robotic arms to hold various objects. Goldberg believes that robots need 'physical intelligence' to navigate the material world.