R&D Equipment
Berkeley AI and robotics companies have access to cutting edge R&D equipment and tools such as the many UC Berkeley’s core facilities open to public use. Berkeley Lab User Facilities include the Molecular Foundry, one of the world’s premier nanoscale science research institutions, the Advanced Light Source, a specialized particle accelerator that generates bright beams of x-ray light for scientific research, and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), its flagship supercomputer designed to support large-scale high-performance computing (HPC) workload all provide useful tools.. Other resources include the Materials Project, which harnesses the power of supercomputing and provides access to information on known and predicted materials as well as powerful analysis tools to inspire and design novel materials, and the Advanced Quantum Testbed, an advanced superconducting platform for full-stack quantum computing.
Financing
Robotics and AI companies can tap into local sources of financing, from seed stage investment from the Berkeley Angel Network to connections with specialized Berkeley venture capital funds focused on high growth sectors like robotics and AI, including The House Fund, SkyDeck Fund, and Cal Innovation Fund. More than two dozen other VC funds with partners or offices in Berkeley, CA might also be valuable sources for working capital.
Talent
1 in 5 of 30,000+ undergrad students at Berkeley take a data science class each year and UC Berkeley annually awards undergraduate degrees to nearly 4,000 top-performing data and computer scientists, as well as 4,000 master’s degrees and close to 800 doctoral degrees. UC Berkeley’s newest college, The Gateway, houses the College of Computing, Data Science & Society, the top-ranked undergrad data science program. The Gateway is also home to the Berkeley AI Research (BAIR) Lab and Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS)’ Sky Computing Lab, which are crafting the models and architecture enabling breakthroughs in AI and robotics. Students learn the legal aspects of the industry at the Berkeley Law AI Institute and Haas Business School offers many AI classes and certificate programs, as do the College of Engineering, and the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology.
At Berkeley Lab, scientists and engineers are using AI and Automation to speed up science and discovery, with technologies revolutionizing the semiconductor industry and laying the foundation for modern quantum computing. Through advanced computation, network facilities, and data integration, Berkeley Lab also supports the Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission, a historic national effort to accelerate scientific discovery with AI.
Meanwhile, many of Berkeley Lab’s 1,800 scientists and engineers are enabling breakthroughs in commercialization for products built from biology, from food to plastics, as well as advancing techniques that lead to medical breakthroughs. They are developing technologies that allow the cost-effective manufacturing of new bio-based products ─ like fuels, medicine and materials ─ to advanced gene editing.