The Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation is UC Berkeley’s interdisciplinary hub for learning and making at the intersection of design and technology.
From our home in Berkeley’s College of Engineering, we extend broadly across campus, serving as a welcoming hub: here, engineers, artists, and makers of all kinds can gather and collaborate. In a space designed to mix students of different disciplines, expertise levels, and modes of engagement, we provide a range of opportunities for hands-on, team-based learning, from a professional masters degree program, to courses and an undergraduate certificate, to independent tinkering and co-curricular offerings.
OUR VISION
We enable students to encounter, explore, and excel in designing emerging technologies to benefit people and planet.
Working with technologies through the lens of design requires a deep engagement with engineering advances and the needs of society and the environment. Our methodology emphasizes the intertwined nature of technical and human questions at the core of humanity’s most pressing challenges.
We believe design is an interdisciplinary and human-centered, inclusive practice that is deeply rooted in principles of equity and access as a basis for excellence. We welcome students, instructors and researchers from all fields and backgrounds to a spectrum of engagements, including:
● Discovery through Design, where students gain a critical human-centered perspective and explore the ethical dimensions of design and its relationship to social justice.
● Proficiency with Design, where students build confidence and a sense of agency through the development of technical and prototyping skills.
● Advancement of Design, where students expand what is known and what is possible through engaging with academic research.
We measure our success through our students’ learning and career trajectories as well as their agency and positive influence on communities, at all scales.
Jacobs Hall, opened in August 2015, is the Jacobs Institute’s home and a place for diverse design activity. The 24,000-square-foot building’s light-filled design studios and equipment labs offer flexible space and access to tools for prototyping, iteration, and fabrication. From sketching to cutting-edge digital fabrication, the building facilitates a diverse range of making practices under one roof.
The Jacobs Institute’s programs provide numerous ways to dive into design innovation, in the classroom and beyond. We offer and support hands-on, design-infused courses. We produce community and co-curricular offerings, from speaker series to workshops, that promote conversation and exploration across broad areas of design. We also help support and amplify the campus design ecosystem, connecting Berkeley’s community of student designers with resources and opportunities.