This is an archived copy of the 2021-22 guide. To access the most recent version of the guide, please visit http://guide.berkeley.edu.
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 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.
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
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.
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 (M.Dev.Eng.) 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:
DevEng 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.
DevEng 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.
DevEng 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.
DevEng 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.
DevEng 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.
DevEng 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 M.DevEng.
DevEng 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.
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.
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.
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.
List of example elective classes for each concentration can be found here:
developmentengineering.berkeley.edu/program/elective-courses/
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 Interdisciplinary 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
Hany Farid, Professor. Digital forensics, forensic science, misinformation, image analysis, and human perception.
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
Grace O’Connell, Associate Professor. Biomechanics of cartilage and intervertebral disc; tissue engineering; continuum modeling of soft tissues; intervertebral disc function, degeneration, and regeneration.
Research Profile
Amy Pickering , Assistant Professor. Disease transmission.
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
+ 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