This page lists spring 2016 courses. For other semesters, please visit our primary courses page.
This graduate course highlights the context and value of product development — the formalized process bridging the gap between device proof-of-concept and an FDA approved biomedical product in the marketplace. Instructor-led activities and student-led case studies form the core of the coursework.
Hayley Lam & Shyam Patel | 3 units | CCN: 06985
In this course, architecture and engineering students will work in teams to re-envision the residential unit. Throughout the semester, students will research the problem, come to understand the inefficiencies, survey emerging technologies, and document potential solution efforts. Each team will lead an integrated design effort to produce an innovative prototype residence that (i) maximizes operational energy efficiency, (ii) generates all the energy it uses on site, and (iii) incorporates recycled materials while considering durability and life cycle costs.
Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl & Gary Black | 3 units | CCN: 15181 (CEE), 03896 (ARCH)
Symmetry plays an important role in art, fashion, architecture, engineering, computer modeling, biology, and in all the sciences in general, as well as in music, poetry, and psychology. Students will explore its use in several of these domains. Topology focuses on the connectivity of objects or of abstract constructions. Students will get familiar with all surfaces of low genus, including Moebius bands, cross-caps, and Klein bottles. The goal of this course is to give the participants a good enough understanding of the basic principles of symmetry and topology, so they can put this understanding to good use in their future studies.
Carlo Sequin | 2 units | CCN: 25892
This course focuses on the design, implementation and evaluation of user interfaces. The course involves user-centered design and task analysis; conceptual models and interface metaphors; usability inspection and evaluation methods; analysis of user study data; input methods (keyboard, pointing, touch, tangible) and input models; visual design principles; interface prototyping; and implementation methodologies and tools. Working in teams, students will develop a user interface for a specific task and target user group.
Eric Paulos | 4 units | CCN: 26460
This fast-paced, collaborative course is aimed at teaching students to be more empathetic designers, able to visualize, create, present and evaluate ideas with others. Topics covered include uncovering areas for design exploration, developing empathy for end-users, framing and structuring problems, designing and developing concepts and the iterative process of refinement.
Rob Hennigar | 3 units | CCN: 18402
This hands-on course allows students to dive into the basics of prototyping and fabrication. Topics and class activities include a range of techniques, such as laser-cutting, 3D modeling and 3D printing, soldering, basic circuits and interface mockups.
Chris Myers & Michael Shiloh | 3 units | CCN: 18409
In this course, students develop visual communication skills that are essential to design processes. Topics and assignments include sketching, storytelling, storyboarding, portfolio development and more.
Rob Hennigar | 3 units | CCN: 18412
This course, ideal for students who are looking for an introduction to the broad world of design, covers design careers, design fields, histories of design and ethics in design. Students will gain language for analyzing and characterizing designs. As an introductory survey course, 90-4 is most appropriate for lower-division students.
James Pierce | 2 units | CCN: 18415
How can design better facilitate affordable, healthy and meaningful aging in our society? This class, made up of both undergraduates and elders, seeks to answer this question through the lens of mobility and interconnectedness in a user-centered, co-design context. In this hands-on course, students will choose their own projects and work in intergenerational teams to create products, services and experiences. A subset of classes will be held off-site at senior centers, shopping centers and other public and private spaces. The course will be taught by a diverse team of industry and research veterans, with guest collaborators from the consumer, health and senior service sectors.
Dan Gillette | 3 units | CCN: 18403
This cross-disciplinary pilot course is focused on redesigning slums. The class allows students to apply their disciplinary knowledge in a collaborative, cross-disciplinary effort that will teach design process, teaming and communications skills and their application to a truly “wicked problem.” Students will deeply immerse themselves in understanding the inner workings of slums, which will lead to the identification of specific project opportunities (e.g., improving sanitation, designing a birthing center, creating new governance systems).
Sara Beckman & David Dornfeld | 2 units | CCN: 18406 (DES INV) , 56409 (ME)
This course addresses all aspects of design, analysis, construction and economics of solar-powered vehicles. Students will work in teams to design, build and test a functioning single-person vehicle capable of street use. Enrollment priority is given to CalSol members, with other interested students admitted from the waitlist as space allows. For more information, contact calsol@me.berkeley.edu.
Peter Hosemann | 1 unit | CCN: 18418
This course provides Development Engineering students with a context and community within which their research projects can be refined and developed. The seminar focuses on work-in-progress presentations by students, post-doctoral scholars, and faculty within the Development Impact Lab ecosystem. The research seminar can be taken before or after the qualifying examination, and students can take it more than once.
Alice Agogino | 2 units | CCN: 18503
Geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T), tolerance analysis for fabrication, fundamentals of manufacturing processes (metal cutting, welding, joining, casting, molding, and layered manufacturing).
Hayden Taylor | 2 units | CCN: 27869
This class serves as an attractive and easy introduction to electronic product design elements for freshmen. It is intended to expose students at a very early stage to interesting and surprising design features inside electronic device products.
Jeff Bokor | 1 unit | CCN: 24710
In this freshman seminar, students explore the basics of optical systems by doing hands-on activities. Potential activities include taking apart cameras, building spirographs or 3D printing glasses.
Laura Waller | 1 unit | CCN: 25737
Design, build, measure: experience the full cradle-to-grave process underpinning modern observational experiment. At a meta level, students will learn the basics of experimental design —how to ask a scientific question, estimate instrument requirements, and identify components. Students will learn too how to build, calibrate, and test their instruments. Ultimately, they will deploy their instruments in the field and interpret measurements in the context of a home-brew radiative transfer model. The course will arm students with the tools and confidence necessary to tackle scientific questions that will invariably arise as they continue to explore their world.
Holly Maness | 3 units | CCN: 19017
Bioinspired design views the process of how we learn from nature as an innovation strategy, translating principles of function, performance and aesthetics from biology to human technology. In this course, diverse teams of students will collaborate on, create, and present original bioinspired design projects. Lectures discuss the biomimicry design process from original scientific breakthroughs to entrepreneurial start-ups.
Robert Full | 3 units | CCN: 42148
This course surveys topics related to the design of products and interfaces ranging from alarm clocks, cell phones and dashboards to logos, presentations and web sites. Design of such systems requires familiarity with Human Factors and Ergonomics, including the physics and perception of color, sound and touch, as well as familiarity with case studies and contemporary practices in interface design and usability testing. Students will solve a series of design problems both individually and in teams.
Ken Goldberg | 3 units | CCN: 41042
Through a competition-based format, students work in simulated lean start-up teams vying to create innovative products to further a social cause. Teams navigate weekly challenges, understanding real-world constraints, using rapid iterative build and validate development methods and frequent interaction with sponsors and mentors. The final outcome is a working prototype and “white paper.”
Ken Sandy, David Law, Ken Singer | 4 units | CCN: 41060
This upper-division class contains a substantial term-long project in which students work in teams to identify a product need, design a mechanical assembly to meet that need, and then select appropriate materials and processes for manufacturing several of the key components in their designs. Students receive feedback on their designs from panels of industrial engineers, including Cal alumni.
Ken Youssefi | 3 units | CCN: 55536
The course provides project-based learning experience in understanding product design, with a focus on the human body as a mechanical machine. Students will learn the design of external devices used to aid or protect the body. Topics will include forces acting on internal materials (e.g., muscles and total replacement devices), forces acting on external materials (e.g., prosthetics and crash pads), design/analysis of devices aimed to improve or fix the human body, muscle adaptation, and soft tissue injury.
Grace O’Connell | 3 units | CCN: 55607
Basic processing steps of metal fabrication (refining, casting, forging, welding, machining) are introduced. Small hands-on projects deploying the introduced technique are conducted using surrogate materials. A machine shop tour and guest speakers are brought to this class.
Peter Hosemann | 1 unit | CCN: 64005
Critical Making will operationalize and critique the practice of “making” through both foundational literature and hands-on studio culture. As hybrid practitioners, students will develop fluency in collaging and incorporating a variety of physical materials and protocols into their practice. With design research as a lens, students will envision and create future computational experiences that critically explore relevant technological themes.
Eric Paulos | 4 units | CCN: 63915 (New Media), 27426 (CS)
This course provides project-based learning experience in innovative new product development, with a focus on mechanical engineering systems. Design concepts and techniques are introduced, and the student’s design ability is developed in a design or feasibility study. Design optimization and social, economic, and political implications are included. All product ideas will be evaluated against the “triple bottom line”: economic, societal, and environmental.
Alice Agogino | 3 units | CCN: 08265 (UGBA), 55518 (ME)
This class is an introductory course for undergraduates in the fundamental approaches to innovation. Learning models of the design process will ground the course. The class targets students from across disciplines and will examine innovation from multiple disciplines as well.
Sara Beckman, Marymoore Patterson, Sean San Jose, Catherine M. Cole, Amanda Eicher, Stephanie Syjuco | 4 units | CCN: 08270 & 08475 (UGBA), 88199 & 88202 (Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies), 04496 & 04493 (Art Practice)