On Wednesday, December 7, and Thursday, December 8, the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation will host the Jacobs Winter Design Showcase, an end-of-semester showcase of student work in Jacobs Hall. Featuring project displays and demos — along with conversation and refreshments — this lively open house is an opportunity to meet student makers, explore new creations, and take part in Jacobs Hall’s richly interdisciplinary community.
Over the course of two days, students in 17 courses, along with Jacobs Hall artists-in-residence and other student designers, will share their work. With projects spanning a wide range of experience levels, academic departments, and areas of interest, the showcase will highlight the diversity of the design innovation ecosystem at Jacobs Hall and at Berkeley. All are welcome to attend — the showcase is free and open to the public.
The full schedule, comprising six open house sessions, is below.
Wednesday, December 710am-11:30am
Reimagining Mobility
How might we imagine and prototype mobility futures? Check out student projects from this semester-long exploration of interactions between people and new transportation modalities, from car sharing to automation.
Visual Communication & Sketching
Students in this course gain visual communication skills that are essential to design processes. From the fundamentals of sketching to storyboarding and more, see what they have created.
Design of Steel Structures
Explore what students have learned in this introduction to steel construction, covering materials, methods, design approaches, and more.
12pm-1:30pm
Design of Cyber Physical Systems
Check out student-created prototypes of large-scale, technology-intensive systems. Working in areas ranging from transportation to smart energy use, students design systems that involve physical infrastructure, connectivity, sensing, data analysis, and actuation/visualization.
Design Methodology
After three cycles of practice with the design process — observe and notice, frame and reframe, imagine and design, make and experiment — students in this class have tackled the question, “how might we improve commuting?” They will showcase their various solutions to this wicked problem and associated business models.
Introduction to Manufacturing & Tolerancing
Students will showcase work from this introduction to geometric dimensioning and tolerancing, tolerance analysis for fabrication, and the fundamentals of manufacturing processes.
2pm-3:30pm
Interactive Device Design
Meet student makers as they demo novel smart products, which they have prototyped while gaining skills in areas from 3D fabrication and circuit board design to embedded software development and user interface programming.
Product Management Essentials
In this course, students learn product management skills such as reducing risk, accelerating time to market, managing product life cycles, and working with diverse stakeholders. See what they’ve been up to this semester.
Social Innovator OnRamp
Explore student projects focused on social impact and learn more about the local and global initiatives they have worked on developing over the course of the semester.
Human-Centered Design Methods (starts at 3pm)
This course provides hands-on, real-world experience in the development of customer-driven products, services, and systems. Check out student projects and learn more about their processes.
10am-11:30am
User Interface Design
Check out the original interfaces student teams have created in this class, in which they have taken part in needs assessment, rapid prototyping, algorithmic implementation, and more.
Gadgets Electrical Engineers Make
Get a look at the design features inside electronic device products, thanks to students from this hands-on course.
Artist-in-Residence: Shari Paladino
Meet Art Practice MFA student Shari Paladino, who has been in residence at Jacobs Hall this semester, and see the creative work she has produced using makerspace tools.
12pm-1:30pm
Critical Practices
Working at the intersection of technological innovation and socially engaged art, students in this class work to reframe notions of people, places, and participation. Explore and engage with the projects they’ve created this semester.
Bioengineering Senior Design Projects
Take a look at the biomedical innovations student teams have developed, linking advanced bioengineering design theory with needs-finding and hands-on prototyping.
2pm-3:30pm
Prototyping & Fabrication
In this introduction to the tools and methods of hands-on making, students have built bluetooth-controlled vehicles — and now they’ll take on an obstacle course! Take part in the excitement and learn more about the skills they’ve gained over the semester.
Discovering Design
Students in this introductory course have spent the semester studying the broad field of design. At the showcase, they’ll share their final projects, through which they’ve learned about core design processes, from conducting user interviews to rapid ideation.
Software-Defined PCB Design
In this class, students explore computational techniques for the design and fabrication of printed circuit boards, linking software and hardware design in new ways. See what they’ve designed this semester.
Artist-in-Residence: Nancy Sayavong
Meet Art Practice MFA student Nancy Sayavong, who has been in residence at Jacobs Hall this semester, and see the creative work she has produced using makerspace tools.
Jacobs Hall is located at 2530 Ridge Road, on the northeast side of the UC Berkeley campus. For information on campus shuttles and links to public transit, please visit Bear Transit. While RSVPs are not required for this open-house-style event, they help with planning and communication; RSVP here.
For additional information, please contact jacobsinstitute@berkeley.edu.