Course Description
In this course, students will learn about how innovative technologies are used to detect, prevent, and manage environmental disasters, such as those used for oil spills or wildfires. Students will learn about the technology gaps that exist at every level of disaster response, and how new solutions can help experienced individuals from industry, government, and beyond become more effective at preventing and managing disasters. By understanding the stakeholders, end-users, and problems involved, students will utilize the Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship and Lean Methodology to ideate and innovate potential solutions.
Students from all majors are encouraged to enroll in the Disaster Technology challenge lab. Students will work in teams for the majority of projects and teams with a cross-disciplinary background have the advantage of creating more holistic and adoptable solutions. Corporations, start-ups, and mentors from governmental agencies, will provide context and feedback to teams as they engineer new innovations to combat the many challenges presented by environmental disasters.
About Challenge Labs
Challenge Labs are 4 unit courses for students of all academic backgrounds who seek a rigorous, interactive, team-based, and hands-on learning experience in entrepreneurship and technology. These courses use a unique pedagogy, The Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship, that involves the use of games, industry guest speakers, team exercises, videos and labs to cover the early part of the startup lifecycle. In these highly experiential courses, students form start-up teams to create technology solutions or services to address a broadly-defined problem posed by an industry partner or social challenge.
Instructor
Thomas Azwell
https://www.thomasazwell.com/