About the Program
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 Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy, and Water Systems, InFEWS.
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.
Coming Soon: Master of Development Engineering
Apply now to join UC Berkeley’s new Master of Development Engineering degree in Fall 2021!
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 application deadline is February 1, 2021 for the Fall 2021 class.
Find out more about the program here: developmentengineering.berkeley.edu
Admissions
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*:
- Application forms for Admission to the Designated Emphasis in Development Engineering.
- Letter of intent summarizing research interests and educational or employment background in issues related to development economics or development engineering.
- A list of courses you expect to use to satisfy the elective requirement and a timeline for completion.
- 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 InFEWs, you will have submitted these documents except the timeline and courses. Please submit that within one year of the InFEWs application.
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.
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| Required Courses | ||
| DEV ENG C200 | Design, Evaluate, and Scale Development Technologies | 3 |
| DEV ENG 210 | Development Engineering Research and Practice Seminar | 2 |
Development Engineering Electives: Three electives from at least two of the thematic modules.
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| Problem Identification and Project Design | ||
| CIV ENG 209 | Design for Sustainable Communities | 3 |
| DEV ENG 215 | Global Poverty: Challenges and Hopes in the New Millennium | 4 |
| DEVP 225 | Course Not Available | 3 |
| DEVP 232 | Foundations of Public Health | 2 |
| ENE,RES 273 | Research Methods in Social Sciences (Social Science Research Methods) | 3 |
| ENE,RES 298 | Doctoral Seminar (Energy and Environmental Justice) | 2 |
| ESPM 226 | Interdisciplinary Food and Agriculture Studies | 3 |
| ESPM 230 | Sociology of Agriculture | 4 |
| ESPM 261 | Sustainability and Society | 3 |
| ESPM C282 | Health Implications of Climate Change | 3 |
| INFO 213 | User Interface Design and Development | 4 |
| INFO 214 | User Experience Research | 3 |
| INFO 272 | Qualitative Research Methods for Information Systems and Management | 3 |
| INFO 283 | Information and Communications Technology for Development | 3 |
| MBA 215 | Business Strategies for Emerging Markets: Management, Investment, and Opportunities | 3 |
| MEC ENG 290H | Green Product Development: Design for Sustainability | 3 |
| MEC ENG 290P | New Product Development: Design Theory and Methods | 3 |
| PB HLTH 200K | Environmental Health Sciences Breadth Course | 2 |
| PB HLTH 214 | Eat.Think.Design | 3 |
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| Evaluation Techniques and Methods for Measuring Social Impact | ||
| A,RESEC C253 | International Economic Development Policy | 3 |
| DEVP 222 | Economics of Sustainable Resource Development | 3 |
| DEVP 228 | Strategic Planning and Project Management | 3 |
| DEV ENG 290 | Advanced Special Topics in Development Engineering | 1-3 |
| ECON 219B | Applications of Psychology and Economics | 3 |
| ECON 240A | Econometrics | 5 |
| ECON 240B | Econometrics | 4 |
| ECON C270A | Microeconomics of Development | 3 |
| ECON 270B | Development Economics | 3 |
| ECON 274 | Global Poverty and Impact Evaluation | 4 |
| ENE,RES 275 | Water and Development | 4 |
| ENE,RES 276 | Climate Change Economics | 4 |
| ESPM 260 | Governance of Global Production | 3 |
| INFO 272 | Qualitative Research Methods for Information Systems and Management | 3 |
| MBA 292S | Social Sector Solutions | 3 |
| MBA 296 | Special Topics in Business Administration (Applied Impact Evaluation: How to Learn What Works to Lower Global Poverty) | 1-3 |
| PB HLTH 235 | Impact Evaluation for Health Professionals | 3 |
| PB HLTH 252C | Intervention Trial Design | 3 |
| PUB POL 249 | Statistics for Program Evaluation | 4 |
| PUB POL C253 | International Economic Development Policy | 3 |
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| Development Technologies (Appropriate Technologies, Sensors, Data Collection, Data Mining and Analysis) | ||
| BIO ENG 168L | Practical Light Microscopy | 3 |
| CIV ENG 210 | Control of Water-Related Pathogens | 3 |
| CIV ENG 211A | Environmental Physical-Chemical Processes | 3 |
| CIV ENG 271 | Sensors and Signal Interpretation | 3 |
| CIV ENG 290 | Advanced Special Topics in Civil and Environmental Engineering (Control Market and Privacy Tools for Participatory Sensing) | 1-3 |
| COMPSCI 289A | Introduction to Machine Learning | 4 |
| COMPSCI 294 | Special Topics (Behavioral Data Mining) | 1-4 |
| ECON 291/ENGIN 298B | Departmental Seminar (Behavior Management and Change) | 1 |
| ENE,RES C200 | Energy and Society (Energy and Society) | 4 |
| ENE,RES C221 | Climate, Energy and Development (Energy, Climate, and Development) | 3 |
| ENE,RES C271 | Energy and Development (Energy and Development) | 3 |
| ESPM 217 | Political Economy of Climate Change | 3 |
| ESPM C234 | Green Chemistry: An Interdisciplonary Approach to Sustainability | 3 |
| ESPM 261 | Sustainability and Society | 3 |
| INFO 271B | Quantitative Research Methods for Information Systems and Management | 3 |
| INFO 283 | Information and Communications Technology for Development | 3 |
| INFO 290 | Special 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.
Faculty and Instructors
+ Indicates this faculty member is the recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award.
Faculty
Charisma Acey, Assistant Professor. Water, sanitation, basic services delivery, poverty alleviation, environmental sustainability, environmental justice, urban governance, participatory planning, community-based development, international development, development planning, sustainable development, African studies.
Research Profile
Alice M. Agogino, Chair of Development Engineering. New product development, computer-aided design and databases, theory and methods, intelligent learning systems, information retrieval and data mining, digital libraries, multiobjective and strategic product, nonlinear optimization, probabilistic modeling, supervisory.
Research Profile
Joshua Blumenstock, Assistant Professor. Development Economics, Data Science, Econometrics, Machine Learning, ICTD.
Research Profile
Jenna Burrell, Associate Professor. School of Information.
John Canny, Professor. Computer science, activity-based computing, livenotes, mechatronic devices, flexonics.
Research Profile
Jack Colford, Professor. Public health, epidemiology, infectious diseases, biostatistics, meta-analysis.
Research Profile
Daniel Fletcher, Professor. Bioengineering, optical and force microscopy, microfabrication, biophysics, mechanical properties of cells.
Research Profile
Ashok Gadgil, Professor. Fuel-efficient stoves, indoor air quality, energy efficiency, developing countries, drinking water, buildings energy efficiency .
Research Profile
Paul Gertler, Professor. Impact evaluation, health economics.
Research Profile
Maria Paz Gutierrez, Associate Professor. Next-generation building systems, self-regulated facades, biologically inspired technologies, multifunctional materials.
Research Profile
Daniel Kammen, Professor. Climate Change, Engineering, Environment, Energy, Renewable and Clean Energy, Energy Forecasting, Health and Environment, International R&D Policy, Race and Gender, Rural Resource Management.
Research Profile
G. Mathias Kondolf, Professor. Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning, Hydrology, environmental planning, river restoration, urban river management, river-basin scale sustainable sediment management, strategic planning for hydroelectric dams.
Research Profile
David Levine, Professor. Organizational learning, economic development, management, workplace, health and education in poor nations.
Research Profile
Baoxia Mi, Associate Professor. Membrane separation, desalination, water purification, wastewater reuse, environmental applications of nanomaterials.
Research Profile
Kara L. Nelson, Professor. Water and wastewater treatment, water reuse, detection and inactivation of pathogens in water and sludge, appropriate technologies .
Research Profile
+ Kameshwar Poolla, Professor. Cybersecurity, modeling, control, renewable energy, estimation, integrated circuit design and manufacturing, smart grids.
Research Profile
Matthew D. Potts, Associate Professor. Forest management, biofuels, plantation agriculture, land use planning, land use policy, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services, tropical ecology, environmental economics.
Research Profile
Michael Ranney, Professor. Problem solving, knowledge representation and reorganization, explanatory coherence and inference, conceptual change, societal implications, science instruction, global climate change psychology, numeracy in journalism, naive/informal physics, computational models of cognition, perceptual-cognitive interactions, intelligent tutoring systems, understandings of biological evolution, Reasoning, qualitative and quantitative thinking.
Research Profile
Benjamin Recht, Associate Professor. Machine learning, data science, artificial intelligence.
Research Profile
Elisabeth Sadoulet, Professor. Economics, agriculture, labor management and policy.
Research Profile
S. Shankar Sastry, Professor. Computer science, robotics, arial robots, cybersecurity, cyber defense, homeland defense, nonholonomic systems, control of hybrid systems, sensor networks, interactive visualization, robotic telesurgery, rapid prototyping.
Research Profile
Zuo-Jun (Max) Shen, Professor. Industrial Engineering and Operations, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Integrated Supply Chain Design and Management, Data Driven Logistics and Supply Chain Optimization, Design and Analysis of Optimization Algorithms, Energy Systems Optimization, Transportation System Planning .
Research Profile
Kirk R. Smith, Professor. Climate change, public health, air pollution, environmental health science, global health, household energy.
Research Profile
+ Laura D'Andrea Tyson, Professor. High-technology competition, US industrial and technology policies, international economy, US trade policy, US competitiveness, emerging market economies, multinational companies in the US economy, gender gap (economic participation, educational attainment, political empowerment and health), research and development tax credit.
Research Profile
Sarah Vaughn, Assistant Professor. Cultural anthropology, post-colonial science, environment, climate change, vulnerability, theories of liberalism, Caribbean, Latin America.
Research Profile
Catherine D. Wolfram, Professor. Climate change, energy efficiency, regulation of business, energy and environmental markets.
Research Profile
David Zilberman, Professor. Marketing, biotechnology, water, risk management, biofuels, natural resources, agricultural and environmental policy, the economics of innovation.
Research Profile
Lecturers
+ Sara Beckman, Senior Lecturer SOE. Business, innovation, management, product development, operations strategy, environmental supply chain management.
Research Profile
Emeritus Faculty
Clair Brown, Professor Emeritus. Innovation, management, economics, labor, employment, labor market institutions, semi-conductor industry.
Research Profile
S. Leonard Syme, Professor Emeritus. Social epidemiology, community interventions.
Research Profile
Contact Information
Designated Emphasis in Development Engineering
750 Davis Hall
Phone: 510-643-8944
Department Co-Chair
Matthew Potts (Environmental Science, Policy, and Management)
203a Mulford Hall
Co-Head Graduate Advisor
Clair Brown (Economics)
507 Evans Hall
Phone: 510-643-7090
Co-Head Graduate Advisor
Daniel Fletcher (Bioengineering)
QB3 Institute, 608B Stanley
Phone: 510-643-5624
Graduate Student Affairs Officer
Shelley Okimoto
750 Davis Hall
Phone: 510-643-8944