Check out our recent work on human-centered sustainable design from the Luce video just released: "The University of California Berkeley Engineering and Business for Sustainability (EBS) Certificate Program brings sustainability into product design and development in a variety of ways, from surfboards to housing. Exemplifying interdisciplinary creativity and consequence, faculty, students, and their partners in various communities show the power of innovative thinking about sustainability."

Prof. Agogino's New Product Development class in the Haas news. "Creativity is a matter of course in Managing the New Product Development Process. For nearly 15 years, this Berkeley MBA/Mechanical Engineering course has guided inter-disciplinary student teams from concept generation through prototype development in a semester-long project. Industry professionals from IDEO, Frog Design, and Google provide coaching to the teams, whose students come from Berkeley MBA and graduate engineering programs and from the California College of the Arts. Work culminates with a product tradeshow.

Alden Woodrow, MBA 12, worked on Project “Reinventing the Briefcase,” an idea from Mechanical Engineering teammate Emily Rice, MS 12, who observed that urban professional men use different bags for work, working out, and going out. A flap on the team’s “Either” bag changes the look from conservative black with a leather handle to bright print with shoulder or backpack straps. “We envisioned a young SF lawyer going from an important client meeting to drinks with friends in the Mission,” says Woodrow.

Sue Young, MBA 12, worked on PocketKey, a keychain that can charge a cell phone.”We’ve all had the moment where we can’t call our friend, reply to our boss’ email, or find the restaurant because our phone ran out of battery,” says Young. Learning the importance and the how-to of understanding customer needs was her biggest takeaway from the course. “In a corporate setting, I find the focus within problem solving is more on finding solutions and less on a deep understanding of the problem. In the design process, understanding the need is absolutely critical.”

Working with a UNAM team, the blender of the future is efficient, quiet easy to clean.

In honor of the National Native American Heritage Month,the White House honored eleven Native American Youth leaders as Champions of Change.  Watch the video to see the discussion of the Champions of Change with White House and Administration officials. Cassandra Steele worked with UC Berkeley BEST Labbers as a co-designer for our CARES project in Culturally-sensitive sustainable housing for the Pnoleville Pomo Nation. She also started her tribe’s first traditional Pomo dance group and continues to work with a youth group she started to preserve their culture by learning traditions of basket - making, fishing, gathering, beading, speaking the Pomo language, singing traditional songs and ceremonial dancing.The White House press release adds: In addition, Cassandra works to teach environmentally friendly practices to her community, including building a proto type house for their tribal citizens. In July 2011, they broke ground on their first house which will use solar energy, composting toilets, rain water catch system, grey water system and hay bale materials with a culturally inspired physical design. 

Professor Alice Agogino was invited by JPL's Director Charles Elachi as a VIP visitor to the Mars Science Laboratory Rover named "Curiosity" at the Kennedy Space Center. She brought her husband, daughter and doctoral student Kimberly Lau with her. She visited the launch site and the mission hanger for the Mars Rover Curiosity at the Kennedy Space Center on November 25.  They inspected the launch pad for the Mars Rover Curiosity as well and the Hanger and local Command center for the launch. During the pre-launch tour they were also shown the Vehicle Assembly Building where the Space Shuttle Endeavor was being decommissioned. Agogino & Lau attended the scheduled launch for the successful Mars Rover on Saturday, November 26, 2011. Several dignataries gave briefings before the launch, including NASA chief Charles Bolden. "We are very excited about sending the world's most advanced scientific laboratory to Mars," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement. "MSL will tell us critical things we need to know about Mars, and while it advances science, we'll be working on the capabilities for a human mission to the Red Planet and to other destinations where we've never been." Kimberly was delighted to meet Dean Kammen, inventor and founder of the FIRST robotics competition, and Greg Hale, Chief Safety Officer of Disney before the launch. Kimberly is taking a leave for a year working at Disney World in Orlando as a "cast" engineer. See more photos on the launch.

BEST Labber Ryan Shelby has formed a student coalition aimed at increasing student diversity in the College of Engineering at UC Berkeley. The letter and the presentation of the demands at a recent meeting of the College Executive Council (CEC) has received much publicity and support. Here is the video of the demands at the CEC meeting. Here are a few of these stories:

• Diversity urged at UC Berkeley engineering school, SF Chronicle, Jan. 4, 2012. Photo of Ryan Shelby and quote: "I don't want to sound crazy, but it's a question of national security," said Shelby, who grew up on a farm in Alabama. "One of the things that made this country great is that it invested in people who weren't necessarily born with a silver spoon in their mouth. It gave them resources, (creating) a strong, educated workforce." Undergraduate researcher Antonio Love also quoted in response to CUES being shut down and the threat to Cal NERDS: ""Why do you think Chinatowns, Koreatowns, etc. spring up in large cities?" asked Antonio Love who, with other undergraduates, fear their program, "Cal Nerds" - New Experiences for Research & Diversity in Science - could suffer the fate of CUES"
• Cal engineering dean supports diversity plan, California Watch, Nov. 22, 2011. Excerpt: "The letter argued that even though administrators have promised in years past to address the low numbers, the situation has not improved. In 2009, the college eliminated the Center for Underrepresented Engineering Students and implemented a new organization, Engineering Student Services, which aimed to increase diversity while also benefiting all students. Two years later, the numbers have dropped. At the undergraduate level in 2010, the college enrolled two African American, three Native American and 10 Hispanic freshmen out of 474 total freshmen, for example. That compares with enrollments in 2008 of three African American, two Native American and 33 Hispanic freshmen out of 563 total freshmen, according to data from the American Society for Engineering Education. “It’s nice to know that you realize there’s a problem," said Ryan Shelby, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. "But you guys realized this back in 2009. Your policies not to have recruitment and retention plans in place are causing the numbers to drop. It's not just the money." Shelby asked administrators not to “dither” on the recommendations with further reports or public statements. He called instead for action. Sastry said he couldn’t agree more."
• Berkeley Struggles with Student Diversity in Engineering, Science Insider, AAAS, Nov. 22, 2011.
• College of Engineering students send letter addressing climate for minority students, Daily Californian, Nov. 20, 2011.
• Berkeley Engineering Students Demand Greater Effort to Promote Diversity, AAAS, Science, 2 December 2011: Vol. 334, no. 6060, p. 1191. Figure upper right shows: "Berkeley had by far the smallest percentage of underrepresented minorities in its entering 2010 class among top-25 U.S. engineering programs—and the fewest students." “In 2009, the college said its strategy would work and the numbers would improve,” says Ryan Shelby, a graduate student in mechanical engineering and the driving force behind the Coalition of Underrepresented Engineering Students, whose recent letter to Engineering Dean S. Shankar Sastry prompted last week's discussion. “But in April, there was a report [from a faculty committee] saying that what they are doing is not working, and we've collected the data to show how low the numbers really are. We've put together a plan for recruitment, retention, and mentoring that we think could really make a difference if it were implemented.”

Congrats to WE CARE Solar (Women's Emergency Communication and Reliable Electricity) winning a 2011 Tech Award.  They won the Nokia Health Award category, receiving  $50,000 to continue their work.  They were one of fifteen to receive awards to recognize the use of technology to benefit humanity. Former eBay head, champion of equitable society Jeff Skoll received the Global Humanitarian honors at The Tech Awards. The Tech Awards of The Tech Museum is an international awards program that honors innovators from around the world who are applying technology to benefit humanity. We Care Solar develops "solar suitcase" to provide lighting and power to health clinics in Africa, Asia, and Central America that might otherwise be forced to deliver babies and conduct other medical care by candlelight. Co-Founder Hal Aronson  is a BEST Lab Visiting Scholar and we have worked with WE CARE Solar on a number of class projects. Hal currently serves as Technology Director of WE CARE Solar and his wife Laura Stachel is the other co-founder and is their Medical Director. WE CARE Solar was highlighted recently by the ABC World News and was featured as ABC "Person of the Week".

Congrats to all BEST labbers who worked with the Cal Prep Charter School! Cal Prep being acknowledged as top performing school in Berkeley. ABC Channel 7 News did a story on this. Professor Agogino in on their advisory board and organized a collaboration with the BEST Lab when she was teaching her course Educational Issues in Engineering Design and Problem Solving.

BEST Labber Kenneth Armijo and his team won 2nd place at the BERC (Berkeley Energy & Resources Collaborative) poster competition for his project: Calsolagua - U.C. Berkeley Advanced Affordable Solar Hot Water. The award was for $1,000. This innovative solar water heating system is designed to address the need for clean and inexpensive energy sources for households. It is fully capable of addressing the hot water needs for bathing and laundry: one of highest energy needs facing households. The Calsolagua team developed a solar water heater that retails for one quarter of the price of competing water tank heaters through detailed design work and three generations of prototyping. With an expected mass manufactured retail price of only $150, their product reduces household energy costs and provides health benefits to those households currently relying on fossil fuel generated electricity for water heating.

Achieving Social Impact through Entrepreneurship

Oct 22nd 2011, 10: 00 am - 4:00 pm (registration 9:00-10:00 am)

Speakers:

• Yahel Ben-David, Founder & CTO of AirJaldi
• Tara Chklovski, Founder Iridescent Learning
• Priya Haji, Founder & CEO of World of Good, INC
• Daniel Kammen, Nobel Laureate; Prof Energy and Resources Group, UC Berkeley
• Greg Niemeyer, Co-Founder Social App Labs; Prof Center for New Media, UC Berkeley
• Ryan Shelby, Co-Founder Community Assesment for Renewable Energy and Sustainability (CARES)

Come and join us as we transform the notion of Business as Competition to Business as Community! Explore how science, engineering, and technology is used to change our world through the practice of entrepreneurship.

Location: Banatao Auditorium, Sutardja Dai Hall, University of California, Berkeley .

Time: 9 a.m. check-in 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. program

Organized by BEST Labber Omoju Miller and Hosted by: BGESS (Black Graduate Engineering Science Students) and the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance.

For more information go to the TEDxeuclidave website.