COURSE
NUMBER: EWMBA290T.1
This
course is cross-listed with the FTMBA, Dev.Eng. and
Mechanical Engineering Programs
COURSE
TITLE: Design, Evaluate and Scale Development Technologies
UNITS
OF CREDIT: 3.0
INSTRUCTOR:
Jennifer Walske (Haas), Ashok Gadgil (Civil and
Environmental Engineering).
E-MAIL
ADDRESSES: jmwalske@berkeley.edu; gadgil@ce.berkeley.edu
MEETING DATES: The course will run from 8/29-12/5
PREREQUISITE(S):
None
CLASS
FORMAT: Lecture and class group work
REQUIRED
READINGS: No formal textbook. There will be weekly readings and case
studies. The case studies will involve
technologies that have been, or are currently being, developed at UC Berkeley
(e.g., mobile phone microscope, sanitation, solar powered lights for health
clinics, etc.).
BASIS
FOR FINAL GRADE:
40%
on capstone USAID DIV Letter of Interest or funding memorandum
25%
on homework assignments and group exercises
25%
class participation
10%
final class presentations on capstone project
ABSTRACT
OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES: This course provides students with key skills
that will allow them to create innovative products, targeted for developing
countries, using collaborative team-based techniques. Unique to this course, you will be working
closely with counterparts within engineering fields across UC Berkeley, using
applied science to create novel solutions. This course also incorporates design
projects and case studies, many of which are related to projects that had their
genesis at UC Berkeley.
For
an overview of course flow, student teams will first work with preliminary data
to define the social problem that they aim to address. They will then collect and analyze interview/survey
data to learn about user needs, applying many of the principles that have been
popularized through the lean startup methodology. Students will then explore how to use novel
monitoring technologies, experiments, and large datasets, both to understand
user needs and to provide rapid feedback for product improvement. Ultimately,
the teams will develop plans for scaling their idea, including how to adapt to
early user feedback, while ensuring rigorous impact evaluation. The final deliverable
will simulate the process of applying for USAID grant funding, by creating a
USAID Div letter of interest. If the team feels strongly that they will be
seeking investment funding (and not grant funding), we will consider having
them write an investment memorandum, instead.
BIOGRAPHICAL
SKETCH:
Dr. Jennifer Walske is a visiting professor at
the Blum Center for Developing Economies, UC Berkeley, and a social impact fellow
at Berkeley-Haas. She publishes with Professor Laura Tyson, Faculty Director of
the Institute for Business and Social Impact, with an emphasis on how social
startups scale. She has been the recipient of the “Best Paper” award at the
NYU-Stern Social Entrepreneurship Conference, and has led many sessions on the
same topic at the Academy of Management. Professor Walske
also sits on the boards of Fair Trade USA, Net Impact, Better VC, and the San
Francisco Ballet. She received both the Cheit Award
for Teaching Excellence at Berkeley-Haas, and the Faculty Academic Excellence
Award at University of San Francisco’s School of Management. She has also taught
with Steve Blank as part of his Lean Startup course. Prior to academia, professor
Walske was recognized by Institutional All American
as a top Wall Street analyst for her research on technical software. She was
also a product line manager in the field of electrical computer aided design
(CAD) for both Synopsys & Intergraph.
Dr.
Alice M. Agogino is the Roscoe and Elizabeth Hughes
Professor of Mechanical Engineering. Her
research encompasses wireless sensor networks; multimedia and computer-aided
design; decision and expert systems; gender equity; and design theory and
methods. Professor Agogino
won the 2015 ASME Ruth and Joel Spira
Outstanding Design Educator Award “for tireless efforts in furthering
engineering design education.” She has been named Professor of the Year, and
received Chancellor Awards for Public Service, a Chancellor’s Award for
Advancing Institutional Excellence, and a Faculty Award for Excellence in
Graduate Student Mentoring. She was elected a Fellow of the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers, has won many best paper awards, been honored with a
National Science Foundation Distinguished Teaching Award and a AAAS Lifetime Mentor Award, the latter for increasing the
number of women and African- and Hispanic-American doctorates in mechanical
engineering.
Dr.
Ashok Gadgil is a Professor of Civil and
Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley. He specializes in heat transfer,
fluid dynamics, and design for development. He also has substantial experience
in technical, economic, and policy research on energy efficiency and its
implementation - particularly in developing countries. He is best known for his
work with two developing-world technologies: "UV Waterworks" (a
simple and effective and inexpensive water disinfection system), and the
Berkeley-Darfur Stove (a low-cost stove to that saves fuelwood in internally displaced
person's camps in Darfur).