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).