The Toolkit | Building the total Berkeley engineer

ENG 1: Engineering Your Life: Skills for Leadership, Discovery and Service

The course is co-taught by Professor Lisa Pruitt, the associate dean of students, and ESS Student Programs Director Marvin Lopez. Engineering your Life has two sections, first-year and transfer students, that give tools and guidance for personal leadership, self-discovery and knowledge mastery, diversity and teamwork, and societal service.

Research poster sessions

Student poster session in the Moore Lobby, Hearst memorial Mining Building. (Photo by Ian Kolaja)

Each semester the College of Engineering and Engineering Student Services hosts the Undergraduate Research Symposium Poster Session. This provides students, currently involved in research, an opportunity to showcase and present their research projects. Presenters are given feedback on their research and presentation skills by our graduate students. All undergraduate students are invited to support their peers by attending the session.

Cupcakes and headshots

Free cupcakes and professional headshots for your professional, online profiles. Selfies are not acceptable for sites like LinkedIn, so let us help you spruce up your profile to ensure that you make a great impression!

Workshops

Students at a careers workshop. (Photo by Laura Vogt / Berkeley Engineering)

Working with campus partners, Engineering Student Services provides all undergraduate students with academic, leadership, professional development, and mindfulness workshops throughout the year.

empowHER

A student led course that aims to empower all undergraduate students in STEM majors/minors by providing them the resources necessary to navigate through the climate in the workspace and academia through a series of guest speakers. Topics include sexism in the workplace, identifying and responding to microaggressions, conflict resolution, leadership styles and strategies, and more. Past speakers have included the Chancellor Carol Christ, the Associate Dean for Equity and Inclusion Kara Nelson, UC Berkeley faculty and leaders in industry.

Student organization leadership development

Working with the Engineering Student Council and the LEAD Center, Engineering Student Services provides funding resources, leadership training and workshops to develop the leadership skills of student organizations and competition teams.

Blue & Gold Dinner

Networking at the Blue & Gold Dinner. (Photo by Ian Kolaja)

Provides an opportunity for the leaders of student organizations and competition teams to network with their peers, while gaining a new perspective on engineering leadership to relay back to their club’s members. The goal is for student leaders to interact with other clubs, learn about their activities and foster a more collaborative environment.

Emerging Leaders brunch

Newly elected student organization/competition team leadership are brought together for diversity and inclusion training aimed to equip new leadership with the communication skills to initiate dialogue about diversity and inclusion within their organization.

Alive Week

Taking time out of studying to focus on yourself is important, and Engineering Student Services helps students do just that. Alive Week (the week before finals) is a daily series of special events to help students take time to rest, relax and be mindful of what their body needs to succeed in studying and taking final.

For example, did you know just one short pet visit is proven to increase feel-good endorphins and decrease stress levels? During Alive Week’s Paws before finals, students can chill out with the most adorable and friendliest therapy dogs! (Dogs are provided by Alliance of Therapy Dogs)

Eng 157AC: Engineering, the Environment and Society

Since the 1980s academic researchers studying environmental pollution have repeatedly demonstrated what many communities of color and low-income communities have long asserted: poor people and people of color are systematically and disproportionally exposed to environmental hazards. Why is this the case? What does it mean to be a technical actor – whether an engineer, economist, planner, or scientist – trying to rectify environmental degradation given this context?

In partnerships with multiple community-based organizations, Engineering, the Environment and Society students will engage at the intersection of environmental justice, social justice, and engineering to demonstrate how problems that are commonly defined in technical terms are at their roots deeply socially embedded. Topics covered will include environmental engineering as it relates to air, water, and soil contamination; race, class, and privilege; expertise and knowledge production; ethics; and engaged citizenship.

This course is supported by the College of Engineering, the (ES)2 program (Engineering Scholars as Engaged Scholars), the American Cultures Engaged Scholarship (ACES) program, and the Blum Center for Developing Economies

Eng 185: The Art of STEM Communication

This course provides engineering majors with the fundamental skills for effective technical communication. During the course of the semester, students will develop communications for public dissemination, covering a project or initiative within UC Berkeley’s College of Engineering. This work will call on students to: (a) cultivate interest in a broad range of topics related to Engineering; (b) become an engaged and critical reader of academic and general-interest science publications; (c) learn how to assess, plan for, and respond to a variety of communicative situations; (d) produce focused, and at the same time, narratively-rich, accounts of Engineering research.

CS 195: Social Implications of Computer Technology

Topics include electronic community; the changing nature of work; technological risks; the information economy; intellectual property; privacy; artificial intelligence and the sense of self; pornography and censorship; professional ethics. Students will lead discussions on additional topics.

BioE 100: Ethics in Science and Engineering

The goal of this semester course is to present the issues of professional conduct in the practice of engineering, research, publication, public and private disclosures, and in managing professional and financial conflicts. The method is through historical didactic presentations, case studies, presentations of methods for problem solving in ethical matters, and classroom debates on contemporary ethical issues. The faculty will be drawn from national experts and faculty from religious studies, journalism, and law from the UC Berkeley campus.

Eng 125: Ethics, Engineering, and Society

How should engineers analyze and resolve the ethical issues inherent in engineering? This seminar-style course provides an introduction to how theories, concepts, and methods from the humanities and social science can be applied to ethical problems in engineering. Assignments incorporate group and independent research designed to provide students an opportunity to contribute novel findings to the emerging field of engineering ethics while building their analytical and communication skills. This course cannot be used to fulfill any engineering technical requirements (units or courses).

ER C100: Energy and Society

Energy sources, uses, and impacts: an introduction to the technology, politics, economics, and environmental effects of energy in contemporary society. Energy and well-being; energy in international perspective, origins, and character of energy crisis.

ESPM 162A: Bioethics and Society

Exploration of the ethical dilemmas arising from recent advances in
the biological sciences: genetic engineering, sociobiology, health care
delivery, behavior modification, patients’; rights, social or private
control of research.

ISF 100D: Introduction to Technology, Society and Culture

This course surveys the technological revolutions of the 19th and 20th centuries, it then focuses on the development of the computer and the Internet. The final part examines the impact of the Internet on social movements.

L&S 160B: Effective Personal Ethics for the 21st Century

Ethics comes from the Greek root ethos, meaning essential character. Each ethical decision we make (or avoid) actually co-creates who we are, our lives, our relationships, and the world we live in. Readings from Aristotle through the existentialists, an exploration of comparative religion, studies in intra- and inter-personal psychology, and cases from literature to business will orient and inspire and support students’ quests to find and live their deepest values. We will investigate those characteristics and habits of human nature that hinder affirmative ethical behavior (and the realization of maximum human potential generally), and explore characteristics and practices that can foster each student’s inherent imagination, creative capacity, integration, and fully satisfying participation in life and the larger Earth adventure. Ultimately, L&S 160B will empower students to transcend basic reaction to difficult and significant challenges and instead move into a genuinely creative response, thus fostering the “response-ability,” stability, emotional intelligence, discrimination, and discerning self-awareness required of 21st-century global citizens.

Philos 104: Ethical Theories

The fundamental concepts and problems of morality examined through the study of classical and contemporary philosophical theories of ethics.

Philos 107: Moral Psychology

An investigation of central issues in moral psychology, such as: free will, weakness of will, self-deception, moral motivation, emotions, virtues, moral education.

IndEng 185: Challenge Lab

In a competition-based format, students work in cross-discipline lean start-up teams vying to create innovative products. Teams will navigate realistic weekly challenges introduced through case studies. They will understand real-world constraints, use rapid iterative build, and validate development methods. Through frequent interaction with the sponsors and mentors, student teams will develop a working prototype and a “white paper.”

Ethics, inclusiveness & societal impact

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Leadership, teamwork & emotional intelligence

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Wellness & stress management

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Entrepreneurship & innovation

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Design & design thinking

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Communication

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