General Information
UPM stands for Universal Planar Manipulator. It is a device made up of a single horizontally-vibrating flat plate and is capable of moving objects on its surface independently of each other. In other words, one or more objects can be moved without disturbing the other objects! If you want to see the UPM in action, see the chess demo, the beer demo, or Dan Reznik's demo page.
The inventor, Dan Reznik, got his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley for building the UPM and now works for Siemens TTB. UCB Professor John Canny was also instrumental in the development of the UPM as Dan's advisor. Be sure to take a look at Dan's UPM website, which covers all the work he did.
As for me, I am Neil Alldrin, an undergraduate at the University of California at Berkeley majoring in electrical engineering and computer science (EECS). I have been doing research involving the UPM since last summer.