APPROACH
UC Berkeley's College of Engineering, with generous funding from the Paul and Stacy Jacobs Foundation, is committed to establishing the new Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation at UC Berkeley's College of Engineering. This new initiative at Berkeley Engineering will integrate design thinking more fully across the educational experiences of its students, so that they can better innovate, build, and commercialize their new ideas. Ultimately, empowering young engineers to design solutions to society's biggest challenges, including technological innovation; societal issues such as privacy; and new business models. Growing the role of design in engineering education will bring key benefits including: (1) enhancing the culture of innovation; (2) fostering an integrative engineering education through interdisciplinary projects; and (3) helping to maximize the commercial impact of innovation.
With a planned launch date of September 2014, once fully operational, the Institute is expected to reach 1,500 undergraduate and graduate students per year. For the Institute's initial five-year period, the focus of this Commitment to Action, smaller, pilot student levels are projected to impact a total of 4,600 students.
Centered on innovative design, the Jacobs Institute will leverage the dynamic UC Berkeley campus and create an 'Innovation Pipeline' across the university, which includes resources within the College of Engineering; related schools, institutes, and centers; and the strong global network of industrial partners and friends. Key partners include: the Berkeley Laboratory for Manufacturing and Sustainability, the Berkeley Manufacturing Institute, the Berkeley BioMechanical Design Center, the Berkeley Center Sensor and Actuator Center, the Berkeley Institute of Design, the Biodesign Immersion Experience (BIE), the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society, the Center for Neural Engineering and Prostheses, the Marvell Nanofabrication Laboratory, and the Qualcomm Ubiquitous Swarm Laboratory. Each one of these centers will contribute to the ecosystem of laboratories and provide curriculum, courses, faculty, research, hands-on opportunities, case studies, and need requirements for design projects in the Jacob's Institute.
As part of the Jacobs Institute Innovation Pipeline, students across the campus will engage in collaborative teams to transition promising scientific discoveries into new products and processes that meet societal needs by addressing technical feasibility, performance, cost-effective manufacturing, scaling and reliability, safety, environmental sustainability, customer acceptance, and market adaptability. By providing the resources to enable such interdisciplinary efforts, the Institute will serve as a focal point for innovation at Berkeley and a pipeline for innovation to the external world. Students equipped with this holistic experience in systems design, innovation, and manufacturing will be better prepared to tackle real-world challenges in engineering the 'next big thing' in entrepreneurship and new business ventures.
The new Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation will work in partnership with key laboratories and Centers from across the University to feed into the Innovation Pipeline and enable students to gain hands-on experience in key technology innovation arenas, such as the following:
1) Rapid Prototyping: Students will have laboratories to build mechanical parts using techniques such as 3-D mechanical printers, X on Y printers, MEMS, bread boarding, and electronics assembly facilities as well as state of the art modern manufacturing tools and equipment.
2) Design Automation: Students will employ meta-modeling tools for seamless integration of domain specific Computer Aided Design/ Electronic Design Automation (CAD/EDA) design tools; for example AutoCAD, Simulink/Matlab, Pro-Engineer, DoE-2/Energy Star, etc.
3) Collaborative Teamwork: Students will evolve and test new systems and service solutions, for instance systems solutions for swarms of wireless devices, design studios for testing usability, desirability and pricing models, and market research.
4) Commercial Development: Student project teams and multiple stakeholders could brainstorm the conversion of successful prototype designs and services into sustainable business solutions. The Jacobs Institute plans to create a Venture Advisory Board to examine promising start-ups with the potential for investing in early rounds in return for the Institute receiving a small share of equity.
The Jacobs Institute also plans to provide active opportunities and outreach experiences for girls to encourage their participation in design activities in the STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) fields. Outreach at the College level will be led by the Associate Dean for Equity and Inclusion as well as through programs and initiatives led by Berkeley Engineering students via outreach by student organizations (Society of Women Engineers, the Pioneers in Engineering, Berkeley Engineering student mentors, and other related groups). UC Berkeley's College of Engineering has learned that design experiences in particular are a powerful motivator for girls engaging and thriving in technology settings and, therefore, feels that there is tremendous potential for impact in supporting the efforts of girls and benefiting from the innovative technology solutions that they will ultimately design.
ACTION PLAN
An early milestone event in March 2014 will be the groundbreaking of Jacobs Hall, which when completed, will serve as the home of the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation. A defined implementation plan, organized into the four following phases with key milestones for each phase, is outlined by year below:
2014: Phase I Pilot Stage:
Building contractor selection, ground-breaking, and start of construction for Jacobs Hall. Develop and pilot newly conceived design courses at freshman and senior levels, including rapid prototyping, manufacturing innovation, and related topics. Target for engagement in Phase I: 300 students served.
2015: Phase II Initial Ramp-Up Stage:
Construction of Jacobs Hall concludes with specialized fabrication, prototyping, and measurement equipment installed and tested in the new building. Building officially opens for student use. Preliminary curriculum structure is completed for Design Minor in Jacobs Institute. Augmentation of staffing and partners to enhance capacity for higher service levels in 2016. Target for engagement in Phase II: 500 students served.
2016: Phase III Preliminary Implementation Stage (50-60% capacity):
Implementation of higher engagement levels--target for Phase III: 800 students served. Iteration and optimization of staffing plans and systems to ensure successful scaling of Design Minor and related design, manufacturing innovation, and related courses. Additional courses developed and piloted in the areas of design, product engineering, and manufacturing innovation. Further augmentation of staffing and partners to build capacity for higher service levels in 2017.
2017 - 2019: Phase IV Full Implementation Stage (90-100% capacity):
Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation is operating at full capacity with target for engagement in Phase IV: 1,500 students served. Optimized curriculum offerings are offered and fully staffed in the areas of design, manufacturing innovation, and related areas.