Jacobs Winter Design Showcase 2017 Lineup Announced

November 16, 2017 | 11:33 am

On Wednesday, December 6, and Thursday, December 7, join the Jacobs Institute for the 2017 Jacobs Winter Design Showcase. 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 over 20 courses, along with members of campus design clubs and other student makers, 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 eight open house sessions, is below.

Wednesday, December 6

10am-11:30am

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.

Flexible Hybrid Structures

In this course, students explore the design possibilities emerging from combining soft, flexible, and elastic materials with bespoke 3D-printed joinery. Discover the original hybrid structures they have created.

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. Engage with the thought-provoking projects they’ve created this semester.

Designing for the Human Body

In this course, students explore product design, with a focus on the human body as a mechanical machine. See how they have considered the design of external devices used to aid or protect the body.

Design Methodology

See work from this introductory course, which aims to expose students to the mindset, skillset, and toolset associated with design.

2pm-3:30pm

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.

Visual Communication and 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 — and have a chance to do some sketching yourself.

Human-Computer Interaction Research

Meet students who have delved into HCI research this semester, with topics including input devices, computer-supported cooperative work, crowdsourcing, design tools, evaluation methods, search and mobile interfaces, usable security, and help and tutorial systems.

4pm-5:30pm

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.

Nanoscale Manipulation of Materials

Explore projects from this course, in which students propose a new lithography process and build a prototype apparatus, focusing on extremely low-capital-cost, scalable techniques.

Thursday, December 7

10am-11:30am

Digital Fabrication Everywhere

Explore the future of digital fabrication with students who have spent the semester surveying the current landscape of digital fabrication and relevant research, delving into the digital fabrication stack, gaining firsthand experience on Jacobs Hall digital fabrication equipment, and developing concepts for future applications.

Thinking Like a Good Ancestor: Finding Meaning in the Technology We Build

Join students as they aim to broaden understandings of our technological ecosystem, with an eye toward the long-term impact of new technologies, including social and ethical implications. In this course, taught by Cooper co-founder Alan Cooper with support from YouTube user experience researcher Renato Verdugo, they have considered how to build a concept of “thinking like a good ancestor” into design and technology development processes.

Challenge Lab: Internet 3.0

In this Challenge Lab, students have been challenged to disrupt the biggest players in the Internet, from search engines to social networks. Taking on the role of a technology entrepreneur, they have worked to build real solutions and businesses that could take on the challenges and pitfalls of big data.

Master Class for New Ventures and Research Impact

This course is part of the Management of Technology Innovation (MTI) program, which provides a business framework to transform students’ research to fundable companies or make it more relevant in the business world. See what students have been working on.

12pm-1:30pm

Human-Centered Design Methods

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.

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.

Introduction to Control of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

In this hands-on course, students have learned theory to model, understand, and design a controller for a UAV. You can see their work in action as they conduct demo flights of mini-drones during this session!

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.

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.

Student club and DeCal projects

Check out innovative work created in design clubs and student-taught DeCal courses.

4pm-5:30pm

Prototyping and 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.

Reimagining Mobility: Design Exploration and Research

Discover how students envision meaningful interactions between people and different transportation modalities. Looking 10-15 years into the future, their creative design concepts address elements such as car sharing, public transportation, autonomous driving, and more.

Product Management

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.

RSVP for the showcase here. Questions? Please contact jacobsinstitute@berkeley.edu.