For my Masters of Engineering Capstone Project at UC Berkeley, my team and I (5 members) are involved in an Industry project with Brembo. We were required to sign a non-disclosure agreement so I will outline our current goals and tasks.
The project begins with a comprehensive market and literature review of existing marking technologies, including engraving, laser marking, RFID chips, and other innovative traceability solutions. The goal is to benchmark each method's advantages, limitations, and compatibility with different stages of brake caliper and pad production — from initial casting to final assembly. This project is carried out in collaboration with Brembo, the global leader in high-performance braking systems and a long-standing partner of UC Berkeley. My team works closely with Brembo’s technical teams in Italy and the Bay Area, with direct access to materials and production processes. The combined expertise of Brembo’s industrial teams and UC Berkeley’s research community provides a unique opportunity to develop advanced, cost-effective, and reliable marking solutions for brake calipers, pads, and other safety-critical manufacturing components. I’m also working in a project management role, taking lead in seeking out industry supplier to create opportunities to get the project off the ground, ensuring everybody’s skills and desires are aligned with what they’re working on, and continually doing research to ensure that our design direction actually solves a problem and will be useful. This project is ongoing and is still in the literature review and market analysis phase.