The Berkeley Engineering Design Scholar Program is a 10-week summer research program open to all undergraduates in the College of Engineering or with relevant experience in design innovation. During the program, Scholars participate in faculty-led research projects in areas such as Engineering Design, Design Methodology, Human Computer Interaction, and Data-driven Design. The Scholars actively contribute to the growing design ecosystem at UC Berkeley—participating in seminars, workshops, and special events with members of the design community, including their cohort of fellow undergraduate Design Scholars, graduate students, and faculty. In addition, they learn and practice critical skills of making through the Maker Pass program.
The program is led by Professor Kosa Goucher-Lambert (Mechanical Engineering), with additional mentorship and project supervision from Professor Bjoern Hartmann (Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences), Professor Hannah Stuart (Mechanical Engineering), and Professor Eric Paulos (Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences).
The program is open to all continuing Berkeley undergraduate students in the College of Engineering (COE). Students outside of COE with a track record of experience in design (e.g., Design Innovation courses at Jacobs) will also be considered. Student veterans, persons with disabilities, women, transfer students, and students of color are especially encouraged to apply.
Applicants should demonstrate their broad range of applicable skills, desire to learn about cutting-edge research in engineering design, and commitment to advancing equity and inclusion in the Berkeley engineering design community. Ideal candidates will have experience and/or interest in human centered design, qualitative data collection and analysis, electro-mechanical-software prototyping, and data science topics applied to design.
Scholars receive a stipend of $5000 and a complementary Maker Pass for the summer. Scholars will also gain academic research experience with a Berkeley Engineering lab.
The program runs for 10 weeks during the summer. The weekly commitment fluctuates, but students should be prepared to commit at least 20 hours/week towards research.
Despite unexpected challenges from COVID-19, the Berkeley Engineering Design Scholar Program successfully launched in summer 2020 as a fully remote experience, with eight inaugural Design Scholars. Meet the Scholars and learn about their research projects below.
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Juan Carrillo Major/Class Year: Mechanical Engineering 2021 Project: Lucid Fabrication: Voice Controlled Six Axis Robotic Arm Faculty Advisor: Eric Paulos |
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Ashlyn D’Orazio Major/Class Year: Bioengineering 2021 Project: Assistive Hand Exoskeleton Faculty Advisor: Hannah Stuart |
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Michelle Gantos Major/Class Year: Mechanical Engineering 2022 Project: CollageCAD Faculty Advisor: Eric Paulos |
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Rafi Hanafiah Major/Class Year: Mechanical Engineering 2021 Project: The Search for an Intelligent Design Assistant Faculty Advisor: Kosa Goucher-Lambert |
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Amy Jiang Major/Class Year: Mechanical Engineering 2022 Project: Pervasive Game Design to Motivate Sustainable Energy Consumption Faculty Advisor: Kosa Goucher-Lambert |
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Erin Kraemer Major/Class Year: Computer Science 2021 Project: VehiCal – Modeling Driver Interaction in Semi-Autonomous Vehicles Faculty Advisor: Bjoern Hartmann |
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Omotara Oloye Major/Class Year: Computer Science 2021 Project: AuthorIVE – Authoring Interactions for Virtual Environments through Disambiguating Demonstrations Faculty Advisor: Bjoern Hartmann |
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Natalia Perez Major/Class Year: Mechanical Engineering 2020 Project: Firefighting Robot Faculty Advisor: Hannah Stuart |
Please sign up for an email alert, or check this webpage in spring 2021, for information about applying to join future cohorts of the Berkeley Engineering Design Scholar Program.