Ecosystem

Ecosystem

Ecosystem

Imagine that we could support the creation of any team of UC Berkeley students, connected to any set of faculty advisors, with any set of internal and external resources and relationships, addressing any problem or opportunity.

Below are some early thoughts on an "ecosystem" that could support the creation of high-impact, student-led projects.

1. Student-led teams: At the core are interdisciplinary, student-led teams engaged in research, education, and service activities that they are passionate about and committed to. They may be interacting in a variety of different contexts, including:

• Clubs: There are over 600 officially registered student organizations on the campus, many of which are quite active.

• Project-oriented courses and capstone projects: We could make these courses more relevant to students and increase their impact by identifying real-world clients. Some of these relationships might persist over time, allowing students to build on prior work. A project-oriented course might also be an excellent way to seed a new area of research. Through the student-run Program for Democratic Education at Cal (DeCal), students initiate and facilitate an average of 125 courses per semester.

• Student involvement in planning the next generation of research, education and service initiatives: Student-led brainstorming could provide valuable input on new campus initiatives that are currently in the planning phase.

• Contests: Some existing contests include the UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition, the Global Social Venture Competition, the Innovator's Challenge (sponsored by VERTEX, the Engineering Entrepreneurship Club, and the Berkeley Nano Opportunity Challenge), and the Bears Breaking Boundaries Contest.

• Clinics: The Boalt Law School has a series of clinics which provide students with many opportunities to work on real-world cases. The Samuelson Law, Technology, and Public Policy Clinic, for example, allows students to file friend-of-the-court briefs, comment on proposed legislation and regulations, and provide legal assistance in lawsuits that raise important issues relating to law and technology, such as copyright, free speech, privacy, and open source.

• Student publications: There are over 50 student-run magazines, newspapers, newsletters and journals at UC Berkeley sponsored by the ASUC.

2. Faculty mentors: Faculty obviously play a key role by offering ideas, evaluating the quality of student work, obtaining funding for graduate and undergraduate research, and providing continuity for longer-term research, education and service activities.

3. Supportive campus environment: Although UC Berkeley already provides many opportunities for these kinds of student-led activities, it is worth thinking about what else different actors on the campus could do. Examples include:

• The campus could develop a more sophisticated set of Internet-based services that would allow students with shared interests to discover each other and support distributed collaborations.

• Faculty could include support for student-led activities in proposals for federal or state research funding.

• Departments, colleges, or centers could allow some staff to devote a fraction of their time to supporting student-led activities.

• Departments could increase their allocation of teaching resources to new or existing project-oriented courses.

• Some student-led projects require modest financial or in-kind support, such as "frequent flier" miles for students interested in working in developing countries. An "eBay" for micro-philanthropy might allow alumni and donors to provide modest resources for these projects.

• Creating "X in Residence" programs that bring people with different talents to the campus for extended periods of time. The Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology hosts an "Executive in Residence" program. Seasoned entrepreneurs help teams of faculty and students develop a business plan, license the technology, raise funding, and even launch the start-up. UC Berkeley should experiment with other "X in Residence" programs.

4. Extended Cal Community: This includes our alumni, donors, and close corporate, foundation, non-profit, and community partners. Many would welcome the opportunity for greater interaction with our students. In some cases, UC Berkeley has programs that bring students, practitioners, and scholars from all over the world. The Beahrs Berkeley Environmental Leadership Program, for example, has provided training on sustainable environmental management for 150 mid-career environmental professionals from 35 countries.

5. The World: Some student-led initiatives may be inspired by concrete problems or opportunities at the local, regional, national, or even global level. Students may be also be interacting directly with non-profits, companies, government agencies, social enterprises, foreign universities, etc.