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Berkeley Alumnae Tackle Language Gaps in Wildfire Emergency Communication
In the Fall of 2019, Abby Yue Gao’s first semester in UC Berkeley’s Master of Architecture program, her classes had to repeatedly pause due to another severe California wildfire season. Berkeley was spared the flames, but still suffered power shut offs and dreadful air quality thanks to that year’s worst blaze, Sonoma County’s Kincade Fire. Tens of thousands had to flee their homes; hundreds of thousands faced blackouts. A quarter of the county’s population speaks a language other than English at home — a major hurdle during disasters, when critical information from first responders goes out primarily in English.
Sam Goldman
March 10, 2022
10 mins
Development Engineering
Global Poverty & Practice
News
Kris Kohler Joins Dev Eng, GPP Programs
Kris Kohler, a sociologist who has taught at universities across California and beyond, joined the Blum Center this fall to teach two courses: Development Engineering 202: Critical Systems of Development, and Global Poverty and Practice 115: Global Poverty: Challenges and Hopes.
Sam Goldman
September 29, 2021
4 mins
Development Engineering
News
Meet the Inaugural M.DevEng Cohort
Students from around the U.S. and the world — coming from the fields of finance, electrical engineering, nursing, and beyond — make up the inaugural cohort of the three-semester professional master’s program in development engineering, a transdisciplinary field founded at UC Berkeley that creates technology interventions in accordance with and for individuals living in low-resource settings.
Development Engineering
September 21, 2021
5 mins
Alumni
Development Engineering
News
Ph.D. Student Paige Balcom Turns Awards into Innovation and Social Change in Uganda
Paige Balcom was in Uganda when COVID hit. The country quickly instituted a strict lockdown—all borders and airports closed, transport stopped, a strict curfew and other restrictions were enforced by the military, misinformation spread, and many people couldn’t get food. In the fall, the UC Berkeley Ph.D. student’s classes went remote, and she dealt with the 10-hour time difference.
Sam Goldman
June 15, 2021
5 mins
Development Engineering
News
Student Teams Partner with DoD to Improve Disaster Response
Language barriers, international communiques requiring Embassy review, and disaster workers who are 6,300 miles away — not to mention a global pandemic — were just some of the challenges addressed by UC Berkeley students working with the Moroccan Royal Armed Forces Search and Rescue Unit. This incredible experience was part of a popular class supported by the National Security Innovation Network (NSIN), in partnership with the Blum Center for Developing Economies.
Sam Goldman
May 26, 2021
7 mins
Development Engineering
DevEng & InFEWS fellow Paige Balcom wins 2021 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize
DevEng PhD student and InFEWS fellow, Paige Balcom, was awarded the prestigious Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for her work on recycling plastic waste in Uganda. Together with Peter Okwoko, Paige founded Takataka Plastics, an organization that develops innovative solutions for plastic waste and social change in Uganda. The Lemelson-MIT Student Prize recognizes undergraduate teams and graduate students who have invented solutions in prize categories that represent significant sectors of the global economy.
Development Engineering
May 3, 2021
1 min

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Kris Kohler Joins Dev Eng, GPP Programs, Blum Center News, September 29, 2021

Meet the Inaugural M.DevEng Cohort, Blum Center News, September 21, 2021

Development Engineering Student Paige Balcom Responds to COVID-19 Pandemic in Uganda, UC Berkeley News, April 10, 2020

Development Engineering Scholar Woojin Jung Finds Significant Discrepancies in Global Poverty Measures, Blum Center News, March 6, 2020

Why We Are Expanding the Field of Development Engineering, Blum Center News, December 9, 2019

Development Engineering Graduates Producing Solutions Scholarship, Blum Center News, May 13, 2019

In this College Class, the Assignment Is to Solve a Local Problem, Fast Company, May 9, 2019

Joshua Blumenstock: The Knowns and Unknowns of Big Data and Poverty Alleviation, Blum Center News, March 18, 2019

Kara Nelson on Aspirational Technologies and the Sustainable Development Goals, Blum Center News, March 14, 2019

“Imagining the Future Helps Us Engineer Toward that Future”: A Q&A with Will Tarpeh, Blum Center News, February 11, 2019

Pursuing a Career in Engineering Co-Design: A Q&A with Ryan Shelby, Blum Center News, January 31, 2019

InFEWS Fellows Take on Sustainable Development Goals, Blum Center News, November 26, 2018

Digital Transformation of Development, Blum Center News, August 27, 2018

Development Impact Lab Conference Speaks to Future of Engineering for Poverty Solutions, Blum Center News, June 13, 2018

Development Engineering: A Critical Overview,  Berkeley Science Review, January 23, 2017

How to Attract Female Engineers, New York Times, April 27, 2015.

Engineering Improvements for the World, Washington Post, October 5, 2014.

Toward a New Field of Development Engineering: Linking Technology Design to the Demands of the Poor, Procedia Engineering 78 (2014) 3–9.

Keep up with our Development Engineering programs by joining our weekly newsletter — sent to your inbox every Monday morning. Learn about relevant events and fellowships, job openings and career-development opportunities, faculty appearances in the news, graduate student resources, and more.  Sign up for the newsletter below. Check the archive of past newsletters here. Share relevant event with the DevEng community by emailing Sam Goldman, DevEng Communication and Administrative Officer, samuelgoldman [at] berkeley.edu

Subscribe to the DevEng newsletter!

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