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Inclusive Pathways Into Tech & Entrepreneurship

Inclusive Pathways Into Tech & Entrepreneurship

The Women in Tech Initiative at UC program aims to create inclusive pathways for tech entrepreneurship. One way that we do that is by supporting classes through the UC Berkeley Decal Program. The DeCal Program is an aggregate of student-run courses where students create and facilitate their own classes on a variety of subjects, many of which are not addressed in the traditional curriculum.

Fall 2020 DeCal

Below is a previous DeCal that we supported.​

Start Date:
September 5th

Weekly Meetings:
Thursdays 5-7pm

Location:
Sutarjda Dai Hall
Room 242

Inclusive Pathways into Tech and Entrepreneurship is for students who want to get hands-on experience in creating a project that advances diversity in tech. This course engages in an innovative approach to teaching by bringing together students from tech and non-tech majors to learn what kind of diverse perspectives they need on their team to solve the world’s problems.


Students from arts, humanities, and social science disciplines will learn new pathways into technology careers where they can use their skills to enter unexpected fields and or a path to entrepreneurship. They will learn about resources like the Jacobs Institute Maker Space where they can develop a product prototype for a “big idea”.  The course provides space to collaboratively critique one another on their business pitch. This course uses innovative pedagogy as a student-centered learning, student facilitated course that brings students across campus majors and diverse life experiences to contribute to discussion-based learning rather than a single-perspective lecture. 

The course also leverages weekly guest speakers who are practitioners from diverse sectors of tech fields such as gaming design and medical technology who work finding sociological solutions using technology. Through guest speakers, students can learn about tech companies they may not know about, positions they may not know are career opportunities, network with the speakers and potentially get feedback on their big idea. 

 

The course capstone project helps students in each of their unique pathways. Students going the entrepreneurship route will be able to pitch and prototype their idea or to prepare a Big Ideas submission, students going into a research pathway will have a research proposal, students interested in social justice might propose a convening or pilot an intervention to improve inclusion, or students can propose what a part 2 of a DeCal class would look like to help scale the course across campus and future semesters. 

 

The course meets Thursdays starting September 5th from 5-7pm in Sutarjda Dai Hall. This is a 2 unit course.

 

Due to class enrollment reaching max capacity, course enrollment for Fall 2019 is now closed. For questions, please contact Nicole Cotton at ncotton@berkeley.edu

 

Syllabus

EECS 98: Inclusive Pathways into Tech and Entrepreneurship
Syllabus and Readings
Sutardja Dai Hall, Room 242, Thursdays 5 PM-7PM, 2 Credit Hours
Course Contact: Nicole-Marie Cotton, ncotton@berkeley.edu
 
Questions:
How does tech solve global issues?
How can non-tech majors support diversity & inclusion in technology?
 
This class is for students who:
  • Desire hands-on applied learning in the tech sector
  • Students from social science field who want to learn how they can enter tech fields
  • Want to have a safe place on campus to share their ideas in building inclusive spaces in
  • Silicon Valley and STEM fieldsWant to learn more about how technology can help solve sociological issues
  • Want to see underrepresented minorities in leadership positions
  • Learn from practitioners in the field
  • Leave the class with a project they can add to their professional portfolio
Course Objectives:
By the end of this course students will:
  • Identify non-traditional pathways into tech
  • Articulate strategies for fostering inclusive spaces in STEM environments
  • Learn how to execute a project or big idea
  • Understand how they can take their project or big idea to the next level
  • Be able to critique others on their ideas and projects
  • Think more broadly about who they need “on their team” in order to execute a project
  • Network with a diverse array of guest speakers

Course Schedule (subject to change)

Week 1Aug 27Course Enrollment—Students not required to come
Week 2Sep 5Early Internet Studies/Gaming
Week 3Sep 12Digital Divide/Segregated online spaces
Week 4Sep 19Humanities & Social Science Engagement with Tech
Week 5Sep 26The Corporate World
Week 6Oct 3Health Tech & Assistive Tech
Week 7Oct 10Algorithmic Oppression
Week 8Oct 17Undocumented Immigrants/Refugees
Week 9Oct 24Indigenous Nations Building Tech
Week 10Oct 31Engineering Peace
Week 11Nov 7Exponential tech – IoT
Week 12Nov 14Activism & Ethical Questions
Week 13Nov 21Pitching Ideas, Raising Capital, Entrepreneurship
Week 14Nov 28NO CLASS—THANKSGIVING
Week 15Dec 5FINAL Presentations
RRR WeekDec 12RRR week
FinalsDec 19Finals Week—No finals
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