Development Engineering

University of California, Berkeley

About the Program

Designated Emphasis in Development Engineering

Through coursework, research mentoring, and professional development, the Designated Emphasis in Development Engineering (DE in DevEng) prepares students to develop, pilot, and evaluate technological interventions designed to improve human and economic development within complex, low-resource settings. 

The DE in DevEng is an interdisciplinary training program for UC Berkeley doctoral students from any department whose dissertation research includes topics related to the application of technology to address the needs of people living in poverty. Students from all departments can apply

With initial support from USAID’s Global Development Lab, the program builds upon ongoing research in technological innovations, human-centered design, development economics, remote sensing and monitoring, data science, and impact analysis at UC Berkeley. The program also features a National Science Foundation Traineeship for Digital Transformation of Development, or DToD.

DevEng students are connected to an ecosystem of researchers and practitioners at Berkeley via the Graduate Group in Development Engineering, and also have access to a dynamic global network.

What is a Designated Emphasis? A “Designated Emphasis” (DE) is a campus-wide system that provides doctoral students with certification in specialties outside their home discipline, to be added to their doctorates.

Requirements

The Designated Emphasis in Development Engineering requires five courses (two core courses plus three electives). The course requirements are in addition to, but may overlap with, the Ph.D. course requirements of your home department. All course work for the DE should be taken for a letter grade.

The two core courses are:

DevEng C200: Design, Evaluate, and Scale Development Technologies (3 units): DevEng C200 is co-taught each fall term by one technologist and one social scientist. Students in the DevEng DE must complete this course before their qualifying exams. Professors from the pool of faculty in the Graduate Group in Development Engineering rotate as course instructors. The course is offered for three units credit as DevEng C200, Mech Eng C200 or MBA 290T. Master’s students will be permitted to take the core course as space permits and with permission of the instructors. Dev Eng C200 is organized around analysis and application of case studies by multidisciplinary student teams according to three thematic modules.

DevEng 210: Development Engineering Research and Practice Seminar (1–2 units): This course provides DevEng students with a context and community within which their research projects can be refined and developed. The seminar focuses on work-in-progress presentations by students, post doctoral scholars, and faculty within the DIL ecosystem.  The research seminar can be taken before or after the qualifying examination, and students can take it more than once.

Students must take their three electives from at least two of the three thematic modules within the Dev Eng program. The three modules are: Project Design, Evaluation Techniques and Methods for Measuring Social Impact, and Technology Development. Of the three electives, only one can be from the student’s home department.

Furthermore, all students must apply and be accepted to the Designated Emphasis in Development Engineering at least one semester before their qualifying examination. DevEng C200 must also be taken prior to qualifying exam. At least one faculty member of the Graduate Group in Development Engineering must participate in the qualifying examination committee, and will evaluate the exam from relevant perspectives. When all course work and designated emphasis requirements have been completed, this final report must be submitted to the Graduate Student Affairs Officer in 750 Davis Hall for verification of completion of the designated emphasis at the latest one month prior to your filing the dissertation. Lastly, the dissertation must contain themes relevant to the field of Development Engineering (e.g. technology for economic and social development). More about the DE's requirements can be found here.

Master of Development Engineering

Apply now to join UC Berkeley’s new Master of Development Engineering degree!

The three-semester Master of Development Engineering program at UC Berkeley integrates training in engineering with entrepreneurship, design, business, and policy—among others—to support students in creating technological interventions in accordance with the needs and wants of individuals living in complex, low-resource settings.

The program’s curriculum enables students to further their expertise in one of the following four predefined areas: 

  • AI/Data Analytics for Social Impact:

    Students take courses on how artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data tools and analytics give the social, civic, and international development sectors actionable insights.

  • Energy, Water, and the Environment:

    Students take courses on core natural resource challenges—water and energy systems and their impact on the environment—and on life cycle assessment, water resource management, agricultural impact, and energy technologies and policies.

  • Sustainable Design Innovations:

    Students take courses on sustainable design and social entrepreneurship, including principles of green design, the science of sustainability, resilient communities, sustainable economic models, green chemistry, product design, spatial modeling, affordable housing, public transportation, and equitable development.

  • Healthcare Transformations:

    Students take courses on the rapidly evolving landscape of global healthcare technologies and practices, including biomedical device design, health policy, health impact assessment, and the digital transformation of health care.

If a student has interests outside of these areas, it is possible to devise a Self-Designed Concentration in, for example, gender equity, global education, or technology, development and policy. 

Find out more about the Master of Development Engineering program here: developmentengineering.berkeley.edu

Requirements

Core courses focused on Development Engineering (18 units over the 3 semesters)

First Fall Semester

DevEng C200: Design Evaluate & Scale Development Technologies (3 units): The course provides project-based learning experience in the development of human-centered products, services, or systems. The course teaches the mindsets, skill sets, and toolsets of design thinking with a focus on its use in development. The course is focused around the following modules that cover core phases of the design process: observe and notice, frame and reframe, imagine and design, and make and experiment. Students will also learn the theory of change and methods for assessing potential impact of technology interventions. Students will be expected to learn ethnographic interviewing, webs of abstraction, ideation, and basics of both hardware and software prototyping. The course will engage social impact designers from industry as speakers and coaches.

DevEng 202: Critical Systems of Development (3 units): This course is intended to provide students in the Master of Development Engineering with the necessary background and knowledge to undertake projects and work experience of a global scope. Students will be exposed to a diversity of methodological frameworks, introduced to the skills needed to effectively participate in the sustainable development field (such as systems mapping and landscape analysis), and to understand the history and ethics of global development. Students will be required to complete an annotated bibliography and a systems analysis of a problem of interest.

Spring Semester

DevEng 203: Digital Transformation of Development (3 units): As technology use proliferates globally, there exists significant potential leverage to further understand and improve the lives and livelihoods of people in low-resource settings. Through a careful reading of recent research and through hands-on analysis of large-scale datasets, this course introduces students to the opportunities and challenges for data-intensive approaches to development. Students should be prepared to dissect, discuss, and replicate academic publications from several fields, including development economics, machine learning, information science, and computational social science. Students also will conduct original statistical and computational analysis of real-world data. They will gain an introduction to sensors as well as tools and methods for spatial modeling and spatial data analysis.

DevEng 204: Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship (3 units): Social entrepreneurship entails market-oriented approaches to address social problems for sustainable, scalable outcomes. This course will enable students to frame complex problems and devise entrepreneurial approaches for addressing them. Students study the dynamics of societal challenges and the conceptual framework of social innovation and social entrepreneurship from theoretical and practical perspectives. Students also explore technology solutions to address global social problems with a systems thinking approach. Students additionally learn how to develop appropriate business models and implementation strategies for a social venture. Student projects will integrate the development engineering goals of creating technology interventions designed to improve human and economic development in complex low-resource settings. This course is the first of a sequence of two final project courses for candidates of the Master of Development Engineering.

Second (and last) Fall Semester

DevEng 205: Development Engineering Applications (3 units): This course is the second of a sequence of two final project courses for candidates of the Master of Development Engineering. Students engage in professionally oriented independent or group projects under the supervision of an advisor. The projects integrate the development engineering goals of creating technology interventions designed to improve human and economic development within complex low-resource settings.

DevEng 206: Ethical Reflection and Portfolio Building (2 units): This course is intended to provide students with a forum for reflection on the Summer Internship component of the Master of Development Engineering as well as projects worked on to date. Topics covered by the course will include issues of power and privilege, civic engagement, political/public policy contexts, tensions between tourism vs. travel, and community service vs. engagement. Students will discuss and produce an op-ed on an issue of interest. Students will also develop a portfolio to capture their individual point of view and skill sets developed in the MDevEng.

DevEng 290: Perspectives on Development Engineering (1 unit): Development Engineering represents a new interdisciplinary field that integrates engineering, economics, business, natural resource development, and social sciences to develop, implement, and evaluate new technological interventions that address the needs of people living in poverty in developing regions and low-income areas of the United States. This seminar, offered once per year, will feature guest lecturers with insightful perspectives on the emergent field. The DevEng 290 series covers current topics of research interest in development engineering. The course content may vary from semester to semester. All topics will address the development engineering goals of developing technology interventions designed to improve human and economic development within complex, low resource settings.

Elective coursework (18 units total, of which 12 should be in the concentration area)

Two electives are required each semester in addition to the above core courses. The list of currently approved elective courses can be found here. More information on each course can be found in the Course Catalog.

Summer internship

All students must complete a professional internship during the summer between their first and second years in the MDevEng program. The intention is for students to have an opportunity to connect the theory and practice of development engineering. Students will gain valuable learning experiences through working with non-governmental organizations, government agencies, for-profit companies, and community projects that focus on various dimensions of development engineering.

There is no course credit associated directly with the internship. However, students will receive two units of academic credit through enrollment in DevEng 206: Ethical Reflection and Portfolio Building, a course intended to provide students with a forum for reflection on the Summer Internship in Fall of their final semester.

The internship can be arranged domestically or internationally. The amount of time is flexible depending on the opportunity, but a minimum time expected for the internship is 240 hours

Final capstone project that enables students to work in teams to extend assignments from core courses, their internships, their own initiatives, or social entrepreneurship collaborations

The capstone project is a culmination of the program and will allow you to apply what you have learned, in your coursework and in your internships, towards the design and implementation of a solution to positively impact the life of a specified community. Your capstone project which will drive your theoretical synthesis simultaneously to being a vehicle for a development goal. Throughout the capstone project you will be working as part of a collaborative and interdisciplinary team offering you an opportunity to demonstrate your capacity to work collaboratively towards bringing projects to fruition within a specific development context.

Each year a portfolio of projects will be offered to students for their capstone. Students are put into teams based on their prioritized choice of projects as well as disciplinary balance to the extent possible. Each student is supervised by two advisors, their MDevEng concentration advisor and their project advisor. Projects are submitted in printed portfolio format and comprehensive oral exam that will highlight the project’s achievements as well as the student's roles and individual achievements. Projects are evaluated based on their analytical qualities (e.g. understanding of the problem or an area) as well as their measured impact. 

Visit Program Website

Admissions

PhD Designated Emphasis

To be admitted to the Designated Emphasis in Development Engineering, an applicant must already be accepted into a PhD program at the University of California, Berkeley. Before applying for the DE, interested PhD students should arrange a consultation meeting with one of the development engineering faculty advisers. Students must apply at least one semester before their PhD qualifying examination. Admission to the Designated Emphasis in Development Engineering is determined by the development engineering faculty advisers on a rolling basis throughout the academic year.

After the initial consultation meeting, a student must submit the application by email to the Graduate Student Affairs Officer, Development Engineering Faculty Adviser, and to the Development Engineering Chair. The application must contain*:

  1. Application forms for Admission to the Designated Emphasis in Development Engineering.
  2. Letter of intent summarizing research interests and educational or employment background in issues related to development economics or development engineering.
  3. A list of courses you expect to use to satisfy the elective requirement and a timeline for completion.
  4. Letter of recommendation from a member of the development engineering faculty graduate group (or the student’s graduate adviser).

For the application and detailed information on the Development Engineering Designated Emphasis, please see its website.

For further information regarding admission to graduate programs at UC Berkeley, please see the Graduate Division's Admissions website.  

* If you have applied to DToD, you will have submitted these documents except the timeline and courses.  Please submit that within one year of the DToD application.

Master of Development Engineering

Applicants to the MDevEng program should be early- to mid-career professionals with an interest in advancing technology-driven solutions for local and global development. Applicants must meet all Graduate Division admission requirements.

As with all approved graduate-level programs at UC Berkeley, applicants will be held to rigorous academic criteria in order to be admitted to this program. A bachelor’s degree, or recognized equivalent, from an accredited institution is required. Applicants will be evaluated on:

  • Undergraduate coursework and grade point averages 
  • Previous graduate coursework and grade point averages, if applicable 
  • Quality of relevant work or research experience 
  • Performance on the GRE (recommended but not required) and, if required, the TOEFL
  • Interest in pursuing a particular problem area that will form the students’ concentration focus 

Applicants will also be required to submit a statement of purpose, personal statement, and three letters of recommendation, which will be evaluated by the Graduate Group in Development Engineering Admissions Committee for academic and professional promise, enthusiasm for the field, and academic and career interests that align with the program. Students may be invited for an interview, either in-person or remote, and should be prepared to explain their qualifications, motivations to apply to the program, and goals for the program.

For more information, check out our website and our FAQ.

Master's Degree Requirements

The objective of the Master of Development is to enable a pathway for students with STEM or social science training to use their expertise to address health access, financial inclusion, climate resilience, and other challenges of our time. The primary learning objectives are to:

  • Master methods of problem-conception and problem-solving for implementation of technologies in low-income regions; 
  • Develop an understanding of the political and cultural complexity and place-based nature of technological interventions; 
  • Deepen and expand knowledge in one engineering or natural or social science solutions area; 
  • Gain core skills in qualitative and quantitative methods for evaluating technological interventions;
  • Improve professional skills that involve community-based approaches, teamwork, communication, cross-cultural awareness, capacity building, and sustainable design

The Master of Development Engineering (MDevEng) degree requirements are:

1. Completion of three semesters of course work as specified by the Graduate Group in Development Engineering and approved by the Graduate Council, including a minimum of two semesters in residence at the University of California, Berkeley;

2. Completion of at least 36 units as specified by the Graduate Group in Development Engineering, including a minimum of 18 units in graduate course work; These include: 

  • Core, required courses focused on Development Engineering (see below)
  • Elective coursework in area of concentration (see below)
  • Maintenance of a minimum average grade of B is required in all courses. No course in which a grade lower than C- is assigned may be counted toward the requirements for the degree.

3. Completion of a comprehensive oral exam based on the student's capstone project. The capstone project enables students to work in teams to extend assignments from core courses, their summer internship, their own initiatives, or social entrepreneurship collaborations. As part of the core classes during the last semester, students will be engaged in reflection and portfolio building to prepare for their oral exam.

Required Courses:

DEV ENG C200: Design Evaluate & Scale Development Technologies : The course provides project-based learning experience in the development of human-centered products, services, or systems. The course teaches the mindsets, skill sets, and toolsets of design thinking with a focus on its use in development. The course is focused around the following modules that cover core phases of the design process: observe and notice, frame and reframe, imagine and design, and make and experiment. Students will also learn the theory of change and methods for assessing potential impact of technology interventions. Students will be expected to learn ethnographic interviewing, webs of abstraction, ideation, and basics of both hardware and software prototyping. The course will engage social impact designers from industry as speakers and coaches.

DEV ENG 202:  Critical Systems of Development: This course is intended to provide students in the Master of Development Engineering with the necessary background and knowledge to undertake projects and work experience of a global scope. Students will be exposed to a diversity of methodological frameworks, introduced to the skills needed to effectively participate in the sustainable development field (such as systems mapping and landscape analysis), and to understand the history and ethics of global development. Students will be required to complete an annotated bibliography and a systems analysis of a problem of interest.

DEV ENG 203:  Digital Transformation of Development: As technology use proliferates globally, there exists significant potential leverage to further understand and improve the lives and livelihoods of people in low-resource settings. Through a careful reading of recent research and through hands-on analysis of large-scale datasets, this course introduces students to the opportunities and challenges for data-intensive approaches to development. Students should be prepared to dissect, discuss, and replicate academic publications from several fields, including development economics, machine learning, information science, and computational social science. Students also will conduct original statistical and computational analysis of real-world data. They will gain an introduction to sensors as well as tools and methods for spatial modeling and spatial data analysis.

DEV ENG 204:  Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship: Social entrepreneurship entails market-oriented approaches to address social problems for sustainable, scalable outcomes. This course will enable students to frame complex problems and devise entrepreneurial approaches for addressing them. Students study the dynamics of societal challenges and the conceptual framework of social innovation and social entrepreneurship from theoretical and practical perspectives. Students also explore technology solutions to address global social problems with a systems thinking approach. Students additionally learn how to develop appropriate business models and implementation strategies for a social venture. Student projects will integrate the development engineering goals of creating technology interventions designed to improve human and economic development in complex low-resource settings. This course is the first of a sequence of two final project courses for candidates of the Master of Development Engineering.

DEV ENG 205:  Development Engineering Applications: This course is the second of a sequence of two final project courses for candidates of the Master of Development Engineering. Students engage in professionally oriented independent or group projects under the supervision of an advisor. The projects integrate the development engineering goals of creating technology interventions designed to improve human and economic development within complex low-resource settings.

DEV ENG 206:  Ethical Reflection and Portfolio Building: This course is intended to provide students with a forum for reflection on the Summer Internship component of the Master of Development Engineering as well as projects worked on to date. Topics covered by the course will include issues of power and privilege, civic engagement, political/public policy contexts, tensions between tourism vs. travel, and community service vs. engagement. Students will discuss and produce an op-ed on an issue of interest. Students will also develop a portfolio to capture their individual point of view and skill sets developed in the MDevEng.

DEV ENG 290:  Perspectives on Development Engineering: Development Engineering represents a new interdisciplinary field that integrates engineering, economics, business, natural resource development, and social sciences to develop, implement, and evaluate new technological interventions that address the needs of people living in poverty in developing regions and low-income areas of the United States. This seminar, offered once per year, will feature guest lecturers with insightful perspectives on the emergent field. The DevEng 290 series covers current topics of research interest in development engineering. The course content may vary from semester to semester. All topics will address the development engineering goals of developing technology interventions designed to improve human and economic development within complex, low resource settings.

Master of Development Engineering Concentration Areas and Elective Courses

The program’s curriculum enables students to further their expertise through elective courses in one of the following four predefined areas: 

AI/Data Analytics for Social Impact

In this concentration, you will take elective classes focused on how artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data tools and analytics give the social and civic sector actionable insights. Classes may focus on data-intensive approaches to international development, applied machine learning, mapping poverty using satellite imagery and applications of information & communication technologies for development.

Examples of elective courses in this concentration area include: 

ANTHRO 189Special Topics in Social/Cultural Anthropology4
ARCH 246Building Energy Simulations3
CIV ENG 263NScalable Spatial Analytics3
CIV ENG 295Data Science for Energy3
COMPSCI 189Introduction to Machine Learning4
or COMPSCI 289A Introduction to Machine Learning
CY PLAN 257Data Science for Human Mobility and Socio-technical Systems4
DATA C104Human Contexts and Ethics of Data - DATA/History/STS4
DEVP 222Economics of Sustainable Resource Development3
DEVP 229Quantitative Methods and Impact Evaluation3
DEVP 296Innovative Finance for Development3
EDUC 244Data Mining and Analytics3
ENE,RES 131Data, Environment and Society4
ENE,RES 273Research Methods in Social Sciences3
ESPM 157Data Science in Global Change Ecology4
ESPM 163ACEnvironmental Justice: Race, Class, Equity, and the Environment4
ESPM 260Governance of Global Production3
ESPM 271Advanced Remote Sensing of Natural Resources3
IND ENG 135Applied Data Science with Venture Applications3
or IND ENG 235 Applied Data Science with Venture Applications
INFO 188Behind the Data: Humans and Values3
INFO 203Social Issues of Information3
INFO 233Social Psychology and Information Technology3
INFO 247Information Visualization and Presentation4
INFO 254Course Not Available
INFO 251Applied Machine Learning4
INFO 257Course Not Available3
INFO 271BQuantitative Research Methods for Information Systems and Management3
INFO 272Qualitative Research Methods for Information Systems and Management3
INFO 283Information and Communications Technology for Development3
INFO 288Big Data and Development3
LD ARCH C188Geographic Information Science4
PB HLTH 272BCourse Not Available2
PB HLTH 290Health Issues Seminars1-4
PUB POL 290Special Topics in Public Policy1-4
SOCIOL 290Seminar3
 

Energy & Water Systems and the Environment

Students, choosing this concentration area, will take courses on core natural resource challenges—water and energy systems and their impact on the environment—and on life cycle assessment, water resource management, agricultural impact, and energy technologies and policies.

Examples of elective courses in this concentration area include: 

ANTHRO 140The Anthropology of Food4
ANTHRO 230Special Topics in Archaeology4
ARCH 246Building Energy Simulations3
A,RESEC 249Agricultural, Food, and Resource Policy Workshop1
A,RESEC 261Environmental and Resource Economics3
A,RESEC 264Empirical Energy and Environmental Economics3
BIO ENG C106AIntroduction to Robotics4
CIV ENG 107Climate Change Mitigation3
CIV ENG 110Water Systems of the Future3
CIV ENG 206Water Resources Management3
CIV ENG 210Control of Water-Related Pathogens3
CIV ENG 218AAir Quality Engineering3
CIV ENG 263NScalable Spatial Analytics3
CIV ENG 268EEnvironmental Life-Cycle Assessment3
CIV ENG 290Advanced Special Topics in Civil and Environmental Engineering1-3
CIV ENG 295Data Science for Energy3
CY PLAN C256Healthy Cities3
DEVP 222Economics of Sustainable Resource Development3
DEVP 227Principles of Natural Resource Management2
DEVP 229Quantitative Methods and Impact Evaluation3
DEVP 296Innovative Finance for Development3
ENE,RES 131Data, Environment and Society4
ENE,RES C221Climate, Energy and Development3
ENE,RES 254Electric Power Systems4
ENE,RES 275Water and Development4
ESPM 157Data Science in Global Change Ecology4
ESPM 163ACEnvironmental Justice: Race, Class, Equity, and the Environment4
ESPM 217Political Economy of Climate Change3
ESPM 260Governance of Global Production3
ESPM 271Advanced Remote Sensing of Natural Resources3
GLOBAL 123LPerspectives For Sustainable Rural Development4
GLOBAL 126Development and the Environment4
INFO 271BQuantitative Research Methods for Information Systems and Management3
INFO 272Qualitative Research Methods for Information Systems and Management3
LD ARCH C188Geographic Information Science4
MBA 212Energy and Environmental Markets3
PB HLTH W213Global Health Ethics3
PUB POL 290Special Topics in Public Policy1-4
SOCIOL 190-001Course Not Available
  • ENERES C100/C200
  • ENERES C176/276

Sustainable Design Innovations

In this concentration, you will take elective classes focused on building depth in sustainable designs with a social entrepreneurship theme in products, services, and system design. Classes may focus on principles of green design, the science of sustainability, sustainable economic models for consumption, circular economy, green chemistry, and product design skill sets. At the systems level, this concentration will look at sustainable and resilient communities, studying topics such as spatial modeling, affordable housing, public transportation, and equitable development.

Examples of elective courses in this concentration area include: 

ANTHRO 140The Anthropology of Food4
ARCH 246Building Energy Simulations3
A,RESEC 201Production, Industrial Organization, and Regulation in Agriculture4
A,RESEC 241Economics and Policy of Production, Technology and Risk in Agricultural and Natural Resources3
A,RESEC C251Microeconomics of Development3
CIV ENG 107Climate Change Mitigation3
CIV ENG 111Environmental Engineering3
CIV ENG 186Design of Internet-of-Things for Smart Cities3
CIV ENG 211AEnvironmental Physical-Chemical Processes3
CIV ENG 218AAir Quality Engineering3
CIV ENG 256Transportation Sustainability3
CIV ENG 268EEnvironmental Life-Cycle Assessment3
CIV ENG 268SBuildings and Sustainability3
CIV ENG 295Data Science for Energy3
CY PLAN 254Sustainable Communities3
CY PLAN C256Healthy Cities3
CY PLAN 204CAnalytic and Research Methods for Planners: Introduction to GIS and City Planning4
CY PLAN 257Data Science for Human Mobility and Socio-technical Systems4
DEV ENG 290Advanced Special Topics in Development Engineering1-3
DEVP 222Economics of Sustainable Resource Development3
DEVP 229Quantitative Methods and Impact Evaluation3
DEVP 296Innovative Finance for Development3
ENE,RES 273Research Methods in Social Sciences3
ENVECON C102Natural Resource Economics4
ENVECON C132International Environmental Economics4
ENVECON 145Health and Environmental Economic Policy4
ENVECON C176Climate Change Economics4
ENVECON C181International Trade4
ESPM 157Data Science in Global Change Ecology4
ESPM 163ACEnvironmental Justice: Race, Class, Equity, and the Environment4
ESPM 169International Environmental Politics4
ESPM 217Political Economy of Climate Change3
ESPM 260Governance of Global Production3
ESPM 261Sustainability and Society3
ESPM 290 025Course Not Available
GLOBAL 123LPerspectives For Sustainable Rural Development4
GLOBAL 126Development and the Environment4
IND ENG 135Applied Data Science with Venture Applications3
or IND ENG 235 Applied Data Science with Venture Applications
INFO 271BQuantitative Research Methods for Information Systems and Management3
INFO 272Qualitative Research Methods for Information Systems and Management3
LD ARCH 130Sustainable Landscapes and Cities4
LD ARCH C188Geographic Information Science4
MEC ENG 290HGreen Product Development: Design for Sustainability3
PB HLTH 220CHealth Risk Assessment3
PB HLTH 290Health Issues Seminars1-4
PUB POL 290Special Topics in Public Policy1-4
  • ENERES C100/C200
  • ENERES C176/ENERES 276

Healthcare Transformations

In this concentration, you will take elective classes focused on the rapidly evolving landscape of global healthcare technologies and practices. Classes may focus on biomedical device design, health policy, health impact assessment, and the digital transformation of health care.

Examples of elective courses in this concentration area include: 

BIO ENG C106AIntroduction to Robotics4
BIO ENG 110Biomedical Physiology for Engineers4
BIO ENG C137Designing for the Human Body4
BIO ENG 224Basic Principles of Drug Delivery3
CY PLAN C256Healthy Cities3
DEVP 222Economics of Sustainable Resource Development3
DEVP 229Quantitative Methods and Impact Evaluation3
DEVP 232Foundations of Public Health2
DEVP 296Innovative Finance for Development3
ENE,RES 273Research Methods in Social Sciences3
ENVECON 145Health and Environmental Economic Policy4
ENVECON C176Climate Change Economics4
ESPM 157Data Science in Global Change Ecology4
ESPM 163ACEnvironmental Justice: Race, Class, Equity, and the Environment4
ESPM 169International Environmental Politics4
ESPM 260Governance of Global Production3
ESPM 290Special Topics in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management1-4
INFO 271BQuantitative Research Methods for Information Systems and Management3
INFO 272Qualitative Research Methods for Information Systems and Management3
LD ARCH C188Geographic Information Science4
PB HLTH 132Artificial Intelligence for Health and Healthcare3
PB HLTH 181Poverty and Population3
PB HLTH 212AInternational Maternal and Child Health2
PB HLTH W213Global Health Ethics3
PB HLTH 220CHealth Risk Assessment3
PB HLTH 220EGlobal Health Policy3
PB HLTH 223CStrategic Management and the Health Sector3
PB HLTH 223DFoundations of Health Policy and Management2
PB HLTH 226AHealth Economics A3
PB HLTH 226CEconomics of Population Health3
PB HLTH W213Global Health Ethics3
PB HLTH W226AHealth Economics3
PB HLTH 252CIntervention Trial Design2
PB HLTH 272BCourse Not Available2
PB HLTH 290Health Issues Seminars1-4
SOCIOL 190-001Course Not Available
SOCIOL 190-002Course Not Available
SOCIOL 190-003Course Not Available
 

Designated Emphasis Requirements

Coursework/Curriculum

The Designated Emphasis in Development Engineering requires a total of five courses, comprised of two core courses and three electives. Of the two core courses, Dev Eng C200/Mech Eng C200/MBA 290T must be taken prior to the qualifying examination.  Electives must be selected from the areas listed below: 1) Problem Identification and Project Design, 2) Evaluation Techniques and Methods for Measuring Social Impact, and 3) Development Technologies. The three electives must span at least two areas. Of the three electives, only one can be from the student’s home department. Students are encouraged to take one elective prior to the qualifying examination, but this is not required. All course work should be taken for a letter grade. See the program website for more information.

Required Courses
DEV ENG C200Design, Evaluate, and Scale Development Technologies3
DEV ENG 210Development Engineering Research and Practice Seminar2

Development Engineering Electives:  Three electives from at least two of the thematic modules.
 

Problem Identification and Project Design
CIV ENG 209Design for Sustainable Communities3
DEV ENG 215Global Poverty: Challenges and Hopes in the New Millennium4
DEVP 225Course Not Available3
DEVP 232Foundations of Public Health2
ENE,RES 273Research Methods in Social Sciences (Social Science Research Methods)3
ENE,RES 298Doctoral Seminar (Energy and Environmental Justice)2
ESPM 226Interdisciplinary Food and Agriculture Studies3
ESPM 230Sociology of Agriculture4
ESPM 261Sustainability and Society3
ESPM C282Health Implications of Climate Change3
INFO 213Introduction to User Experience Design4
INFO 214User Experience Research3
INFO 272Qualitative Research Methods for Information Systems and Management3
INFO 283Information and Communications Technology for Development3
MBA 215Business Strategies for Emerging Markets: Management, Investment, and Opportunities3
MEC ENG 290HGreen Product Development: Design for Sustainability3
MEC ENG 290PNew Product Development: Design Theory and Methods3
PB HLTH 200KEnvironmental Health Sciences Breadth Course2
PB HLTH 214Eat.Think.Design3
Evaluation Techniques and Methods for Measuring Social Impact
A,RESEC C253International Economic Development Policy3
DEVP 222Economics of Sustainable Resource Development3
DEVP 228Strategic Planning and Project Management3
DEV ENG 290Advanced Special Topics in Development Engineering1-3
ECON 219BApplications of Psychology and Economics3
ECON 240AEconometrics5
ECON 240BEconometrics4
ECON C270AMicroeconomics of Development3
ECON 270BDevelopment Economics3
ECON 274Global Poverty and Impact Evaluation4
ENE,RES 275Water and Development4
ENE,RES 276Climate Change Economics4
ESPM 260Governance of Global Production3
INFO 272Qualitative Research Methods for Information Systems and Management3
MBA 292SSocial Sector Solutions3
MBA 296Special Topics in Business Administration (Applied Impact Evaluation: How to Learn What Works to Lower Global Poverty)1-3
PB HLTH 235Impact Evaluation for Health Professionals3
PB HLTH 252CIntervention Trial Design3
PUB POL 249Statistics for Program Evaluation4
PUB POL C253International Economic Development Policy3
Development Technologies (Appropriate Technologies, Sensors, Data Collection, Data Mining and Analysis)
BIO ENG 168LPractical Light Microscopy3
CIV ENG 210Control of Water-Related Pathogens3
CIV ENG 211AEnvironmental Physical-Chemical Processes3
CIV ENG 271Sensors and Signal Interpretation3
CIV ENG 290Advanced Special Topics in Civil and Environmental Engineering (Control Market and Privacy Tools for Participatory Sensing)1-3
COMPSCI 289AIntroduction to Machine Learning4
COMPSCI 294Special Topics (Behavioral Data Mining)1-4
ECON 291/ENGIN 298BDepartmental Seminar (Behavior Management and Change)1
ENE,RES C200Energy and Society (Energy and Society)4
ENE,RES C221Climate, Energy and Development (Energy, Climate, and Development)3
ENE,RES C271Energy and Development (Energy and Development)3
ESPM 217Political Economy of Climate Change3
ESPM C234Green Chemistry: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Sustainability3
ESPM 261Sustainability and Society3
INFO 271BQuantitative Research Methods for Information Systems and Management3
INFO 283Information and Communications Technology for Development3
INFO 290Special Topics in Information (Data-Intensive International Development)1-4

Qualifying Examination

All students must apply and be accepted to the Designated Emphasis in Development Engineering at least one semester before their qualifying examination. At least one faculty member of Development Engineering must participate in the qualifying examination committee and will evaluate the exam from relevant perspectives. Satisfactory performance on the qualifying examination for the PhD will be judged according to the established rules in the student’s home department. Online forms must be submitted with approval from both the department and the designated emphasis, at least one month in advance of the exam. For more details, please see the website.

Note: If none of the faculty advisers/committee members on your qualifying exam or dissertation are in the Graduate Group in Development Engineering, consider encouraging one of them to apply for membership in the Graduate Group in Development Engineering. The faculty should contact the faculty chair (see Contact Information tab on right sidebar). 

Advancing to Candidacy

Students must have a designated emphasis member on the dissertation committee as well as obtaining the approval of the designated emphasis Head Graduate Advisor at the time of applying for candidacy. The Graduate Student Affairs Officer must affirm completion of the Designated Emphasis course work on the Academic Progress Report after advancing to candidacy and prior to graduation.

Dissertation

The dissertation must contain themes relevant to the field of Development Engineering (e.g., technology for economic and social development). The student’s dissertation committee must include at least one faculty in development engineering who can evaluate the dissertation from relevant perspectives.

Contact Information

Development Engineering

Blum Hall #5570

Phone: 510-643-5316

Visit Program Website

Department Chair

Kara Nelson (Civil & Environmental Engineering)

663 Davis Hall

karanelson@berkeley.edu

Department Vice-Chair

Matthew Potts (Environmental Science, Policy, and Management)

203a Mulford Hall

mdpotts@berkeley.edu

Head Graduate Advisor

Daniel Fletcher (Bioengineering)

QB3 Institute, 608B Stanley

Phone: 510-643-5624

fletch@berkeley.edu

Development Engineering Program Director

Yael Perez

pyael@berkeley.edu

Graduate Student Affairs Officer

Valerie Moss

vmoss@berkeley.edu

Career Development Manager

Adrianne Johnson

adrianne.johnson@berkeley.edu

Communications

Sam Goldman

samuelgoldman@berkeley.edu

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