A range of courses take place in Jacobs Hall. The Jacobs Institute’s expert instructors offer interdisciplinary Design Innovation (DES INV) courses, which include both lower-division entry points to design skills and project-based capstone experiences. Jacobs Hall also hosts courses taught by faculty in a range of departments, as well as student-led DeCals that focus on design. These offerings contribute to a highly diverse, frequently evolving educational environment.
Spring 2025 courses are listed below. Looking for other academic information? To learn about courses taught in other semesters, visit the course archive. For questions about enrollment in DES INV courses, consult our course enrollment policies.
Hands-on engineering design experience for creating cyber-physical systems, or more colloquially, “internet-of-things (IoT) systems” for smart cities. Projects overlay a software layer onto physical infrastructure to produce one integrated system. Student teams will identify a challenge with current urban systems, e.g. mobility, energy & environment, water, waste, health, security, and the built environment. Student teams design and prototype an innovation that addresses this challenge using maker resources, e.g. 3D printing, laser cutters, and open-source electronics. The project will be executing via the “Design Sprint” process, which is popular in agile development and Silicon Valley. Students present projects to industry judges.
The design, implementation, and evaluation of user interfaces. 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. Students will develop a user interface for a specific task and target user group in teams.
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. In this course you will be learning design both from theoretical and historical perspectives, and from studio-based design exercises and projects. The weekly assignments and final projects will emphasize foundational design skills in observation, ideation, problem finding and problem solving, formgiving, communication, and critique.
This introductory course aims to expose you to the mindset, skillset and toolset associated with design. It does so through guided applications to framing and solving problems in design, business and engineering. Specifically, you will learn approaches to noticing and observing, framing and reframing, imagining and designing, and experimenting and testing as well as for critique and reflection. You will also have a chance to apply those approaches in various sectors.
Good ideas alone are not the key to being a great designer or innovator. Rather, it is the strong process and communication skills that will make you stand out as a design practitioner and leader. In today’s landscape of product design and innovation, great visual communicators must know how to 1) effectively and confidently sketch by hand, 2) understand and utilize the basics of visual design, and 3) tell captivating and compelling stories. This course, offered in a project-based learning format, will give participants practice and confidence in their ability to communicate visually.
This course teaches concepts, skills and methods required to design, prototype, and fabricate physical objects. Each week relevant techniques in 2D and 3D modeling and fabrication are presented, along with basic electronics. Topics include a range of prototyping and fabrication techniques including laser-cutting, 3D modeling and 3D printing, soldering, and basic circuits. This course may be used to fulfill undergraduate technical elective requirements for some College of Engineering majors; students should refer to their Engineering Student Services advisors for more details.
This course teaches techniques to conceptualize, design and prototype interactive objects. Students will learn core interaction design principles and learn how to program devices with and without screens, basic circuit design and construction for sensing and actuation, and debugging. Students work individually on fundamental concepts and skills, then form teams to work on an open-ended design project that requires a synthesis of the different techniques covered. This course may be used to fulfill undergraduate technical elective requirements for some College of Engineering majors; students should refer to their Engineering Student Services advisors for more details.
In this one unit P/NP course, students will attend the weekly Design Field Notes speaker series, which features local design practitioners who share real-world stories about their projects, practices, and perspectives. Talks are scheduled most weeks during the semester; during any off weeks, students will engage in facilitated discussions.
Product Managers play an increasingly critical role in modern technology companies. They are charged with ensuring an organization is laser focused on creating valuable and highly usable products and services, to address pain-points and unmet-needs for their target customers. In this course, students will learn essential Product Management skills by putting theory into practice, on a product or idea of your choosing. You will learn techniques to accelerate product success and avoid common mistakes. You will work in a team comprising of students from engineering, design, business and other backgrounds. This will simulate real-world cross-functional environments where people with different skills collaborate to build a successful product.
The 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 chosen to emphasize ingenuity and provide wide coverage of engineering topics. Relevant software will be integrated into studio sessions, including solid modeling and environmental life cycle analysis. Design optimization and social, economic, and political implications are included.
As today’s most pressing challenges cut across disciplinary boundaries, designers need to articulate new methods for connecting conceptual knowledge with technical skills and develop new ways of integrating ideas from various perspectives and world views. Each year students in this colloquium-style course explore a topic in design. Invited lecturers present a relevant project or challenge from their professional careers at a given intersection of critical contemporary issues expressed at a particular scale of design practice. Speakers share background material or readings in advance, allowing students to arrive with thoughtful questions and discussion points. Students compose written reflections throughout and following each speaker.
This course is an intensive, project-based course that focuses on design of interactive artifacts that use emerging technologies. Students are led through a sequence of projects of varying lengths (from one week to three weeks). This serves as the first in a two part sequence of courses (with DES INV 212) intended to develop student skills in designing with technology as a material. Projects include both individual and team activities, with teams frequently changing in size and composition.
In this culminating course for the MDes degree, you compile a portfolio of work that has been completed during the MDes program, selecting at least four meaningful pieces that demonstrate the achievement of key learning objectives and highlight the underlying themes of your course of study. Two projects should be deeper investigations of projects done in previous classes. The third project featured should be a deep dive into the project pursued in studio. The fourth entry of the portfolio should reflect on Design@Large, an experience you have had outside of an MDes course or studio where you have furthered your design knowledge and expertise within a broader context.
An introduction to manufacturing process technologies and the ways in which dimensional requirements for manufactured objects are precisely communicated, especially through graphical means. Fundamentals of cutting, casting, molding, additive manufacturing, and joining processes are introduced. Geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T), tolerance analysis for fabrication, concepts of process variability, and metrology techniques are introduced and practiced. 3-D visualization skills for engineering design are developed via sketching and presentation of 3-D geometries with 2-D engineering drawings. Computer-aided design software is used. Teamwork and effective communication are emphasized through lab activities and a design project.
The Fung Fellowship course is only open to those students who applied and were admitted to the program as a rising Junior. This course is founded in experiential, project-based learning including key topics in conservation, biodiversity, human-centered design, technology, interdisciplinary teaming, and leadership. To learn more about the program, visit: fungfellows.berkeley.edu(opens in a new tab) show less
Synthesis, analysis, and design of planar machines. Kinematic structure, graphical, analytical, and numerical analysis and synthesis. Linkages, cams, reciprocating engines, gear trains, and flywheels.
The goal of this course is to provide a foundation for characterizing and understanding the mechanical behavior of load-bearing tissues. A variety of mechanics topics will be introduced, including anisotropic elasticity and failure, cellular solid theory, biphasic theory, and quasi-linear viscoelasticity (QLV) theory. Building from this theoretical basis, we will explore the constitutive behavior of a wide variety of biological tissues. After taking this course, students should have sufficient background to independently study the mechanical behavior of most biological tissues. Formal discussion section will include a seminar series with external speakers.
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 readily collaging and incorporating a variety of physical materials and protocols into their practice. Students will envision and create future computational experiences that critically explore social and culturally relevant technological themes. No previous technical knowledge is required to take this course. Class projects involve basic programming, electronic circuitry, and digital fabrication design. Tutorials and instruction will be provided, but students will be expected to develop basic skills in these areas to complete course projects.
Throughout the Fung Fellowship program, a diverse cohort of undergraduate students participate in a cross-disciplinary, experience-based curriculum that integrates design thinking and an immersive community experience. Fellows work in teams to develop technology solutions to address the real-world public health challenges facing at-risk populations. This course provides a space for teamwork and project-based learning.