This page lists Jacobs-affiliated courses taught during spring 2021. To see Jacobs Hall course listings from other semesters, please visit our primary course listings page.
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.
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.
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 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.
This studio course introduces students to design thinking and the basic practices of interaction design. Following a human-centered design process that includes research, concept generation, prototyping, and refinement, students work as individuals and in small teams to design mobile information systems and other interactive experiences. Becoming familiar with design methodologies such as sketching, storyboarding, wire framing, and prototyping, students learn core skills for understanding the rich contexts of stakeholders and their interactions with technology, for researching competing products and services, for modeling the current and preferred state of the world, and for prototyping and communicating solutions. No coding is required.
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.
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.
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 conservation and biodiversity challenges facing our plant and animal species and their ecosystems. This course provides a space for teamwork, project-based learning, and working with industry & community partners.
Too often we are enamored in our brilliant ideas, we skip the most important part: building products consumers will want and use. Precious time and effort is wasted on engineering perfect products only to launch to no users. This course teaches product management skills such as attributes of great product managers, reducing risk and cost while accelerating time to market, product life cycle, stakeholder management and effective development processes.
Bioinspired design views the process of how we learn from Nature as an innovation strategy translating principles of function, performance and aesthetics from biology to human technology. The creative design process is driven by interdisciplinary exchange among engineering, biology, art, architecture and business. Diverse teams of students will collaborate on, create, and present original bioinspired design projects. Lectures discuss biomimicry, challenges of extracting principles from Nature, scaling, robustness, and entrepreneurship through case studies highlighting robots that run, fly, and swim, materials like gecko-inspired adhesives, artificial muscles, medical prosthetic devices, and translation to start-ups.
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.
This course provides hands-on experience in designing prostheses and assistive technologies using user-centered design. Students will develop a fundamental understanding of the state-of-the-art, design processes and product realization. Teams will prototype a novel solution to a disabilities-related challenge, focusing on upper-limb mobility or dexterity. Lessons will cover biomechanics of human manipulation, tactile sensing and haptics, actuation and mechanism robustness, and control interfaces. Readings will be selected from texts and academic journals available through the UCB online library system and course notes. Guest speakers will be invited to address cutting edge breakthroughs relevant to assistive technology and design.
This course explores the development of innovations to improve the health of populations, with a primary focus on technologies for children (ages 0 to teen) and older adults. Significant emphasis is placed on health equity in exploring these customer groups. Human-centered design is used as the overarching approach to problem solving, which contributes mindsets and skills, as well as mechanisms for collaboration. This course is part of the Fung Fellowship for Wellness & Technology Innovations.
The course introduces students to the creative/collaborative process of design for theater, dance, & performance production, and is an overview of both the history of design for the stage and basic design theory. Specific theater design fields, including scenic, costume, & lighting design are explored to create a vocabulary for the discussion, appreciation, participation & evaluation of theatrical design. The course also covers the collaborative processes involved in designing for performance. It is a project-based class, and course work consists of engaging with readings, lecture material, research, critical analysis, and rendering with basic digital tools and physical prototyping.