Jacobs Institute Student Newsletter: April 22nd, 2026
Jacobs Institute Student Newsletter
UPCOMING@JACOBS
Jacobs Institute-organized events, news, and announcements—straight from the source.
FIRST-EVER Jacobs Student Town Hall
Friday, April 24 ⋅ 2:00 – 4:00pm ⋅ 10 Jacobs (Basement)
ATTENTION JACOBS STUDENT COMMUNITY! We are excited to announce that we will be hosting our first-ever Jacobs Student Town Hall on April 24th, 2026 from 2pm-4pm in 10 Jacobs, located in the basement of Jacobs Hall. This is an opportunity for students to share their opinions, concerns, and ideas about their experience in the Jacobs community. Our inaugural Jacobs Student Innovation Council will be collecting your feedback and working with Jacobs staff and faculty to formulate solutions that will foster a better experience for the Jacobs student community. Food will be provided, RSVP today!
Celebrate Design @Berkeley at the Jacobs Spring Design Showcase
Wednesday & Thursday, May 7 & 8, noon-5:30 PM
Berkeley MDes: Friday, May 9, 5:30-7 PM
Join the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation and the Berkeley Master of Design (MDes) program for the Spring 2026 Design Showcase—three days of bold ideas, hands-on prototypes, and design work that pushes boundaries.
From Wednesday through Friday, May 6-8, Jacobs Hall comes alive with projects from Berkeley’s most creative minds. Explore work from Jacobs-hosted design courses and the graduate MDes core curriculum, alongside club initiatives, independent projects, and prototypes from our Spring 2026 Innovation Catalyst grantees—all under one roof.
This is your chance to engage directly with student designers, get behind-the-scenes insight into their creative process, and see how Berkeley is defining the future of human-centered design and emerging technology.
Free. Open to the public. Don’t miss it.
RSVP and see our day-to-day schedule here.
Jacobs Spring Design Showcase: Call for Makers!
The Spring 2026 Jacobs Design Showcase will be held on Wednesday through Friday, May 6 -8 Per tradition, the Showcase will feature individuals—students, faculty, researchers and staff—AS WELL AS student groups, and DeCals in the Jacobs community to share their work at this event.
On Wednesday and Thursday, exhibition sessions are a minimum of 90 minutes long, and are "show and tell," science fair-style at a table. Through exhibiting you’ll have a chance to 1) user test and 2) receive valuable feedback, and 3) make friends and connections.
Express your interest in exhibiting by Friday, April 24. See you at Showcase!
FA26 Innovation Catalysts Applications NOW OPEN
Every semester, students bring a wide range of innovative projects to life at Jacobs Hall and throughout Berkeley’s vibrant design ecosystem. The Jacobs Institute Innovation Catalysts, made possible by Deborah Weisser, Ben Gomes, and the Eustace-Kwan Family Foundation, is a student grant program that provides an avenue for these ambitious student innovators to unlock further potential in their projects. Berkeley students are invited to propose projects that they aim to develop over the course of a semester. Selected grantees will work on their projects with the support of resources from the Jacobs Institute and as part of a cohort of fellow student innovators. Learn more, schedule a 1:1 Application Advising Appointment, and apply today! Applications close Monday, July 20th, 9AM PST
Join our upcoming information session below:
FA26 Innovation Catalysts Information Session
Friday, April 24 ⋅ 11:00am – 12:00pm ⋅ Register here
DESIGN OPPORTUNITIES DIGEST
non-Jacobs Institute-affiliated events, opportunities, and programs—at your fingertips.
Twohy Design Works - Summer Internship
Twohy Design Works is a Berkeley-based design studio that builds new innovative consumer products and brands. I'm hiring a Summer Intern for June - August 2026 (dates flexible) to help support me and the studio. You'll get real experience working on pre-launch consumer hardware/software products. Most of the work will be creative but there will also be some admin/research-type tasks (this is the nature of running a design studio). The internship is paid. Work will be mostly flexible/remote but candidates must be open to 1-2 days/week in-person in Berkeley. Apply by April 22, 2026. Contact kevin...@gmail.com for more information.
Mangrove Water Mechanical Engineering Internship
Mangrove Water, a non-profit startup partnered with the Pickering Lab here at UC Berkeley, is hiring a Mechanical Engineering Intern for Summer 2026 to help redesign the TuriTap, a passive in-line chlorination device being deployed in rural Kenya and Nigeria to provide safe drinking water.
The role is paid and will run through June-August, and will include 3D modeling, prototyping, and validation of field ready solutions. To apply, send your resume, 2–3 examples of 3D modeling or prototyping work, and a short paragraph introducing yourself and why you want to work on this project to kamron...@berkeley.edu and cc pick...@berkeley.edu by April 24, 2026. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis. More details are attached!
Invention Corps of Berkeley Design-a-thon
🎨 Calling all Berkeley designers, dreamers, and future innovators!
Invention Corps of Berkeley is hosting a design-a-thon in partnership with Quizlet!
📅 Sunday, April 26th: 11 AM – 6 PM
📍 Eshleman Hall, 5th Floor Senate Chambers
⏰ Register here by April 21st at 11:59 PM
A design-a-thon is like a hackathon, but for human-centered design! Spend the day in a team design sprint (pre-set or go random) tackling a real prompt from start to finish. Expect food, prizes, 1:1 workshops with designers, and a portfolio-worthy project, all in a day’s worth!
No experience needed, we welcome anyone curious to step their foot into the design space to join us!
Questions? Reach out to Anika at anika...@berkeley.edu or follow us @inventioncorps on Instagram!
You're invited to the 2026 Fung Institute End of Year Showcase!
Thursday, May 7, 2026 from 4-6pm PT at the Mudd Hall Lawn in Berkeley, CA
The annual Fung Institute End of Year Showcase is just one month away! This free event is open to the public and will feature Berkeley Master of Engineering (MEng) capstone teams and Fung Fellowship undergraduate teams showcasing their design, tech, and engineering innovations. Join us to experience how UC Berkeley students at the Fung Institute are shaping the future of engineering, leadership, and technology for a better world. Light refreshments will be served.
Collider Cup XVIII
May 8th, 2026 (Friday), 1-5pm, Jarvis Auditorium- Grimes Engineering Center
Berkeley's Premier Student Startup Pitch Competition
Join us at SCET's Collider Cup, where top student teams pitch their projects to professors, investors, and industry experts for a chance to win the grand prize! This event is open to all and welcomes anyone interested in seeing the innovative work of Berkeley’s brightest student teams.
SirenOpt Mechanical Engineering Internship
Join SirenOpt as a Mechanical Engineering intern starting this May until August 2026. As an intern, you will play an integral role in the R&D and production of our revolutionary plasma-based metrology products that have sparked committed interest from globally renowned manufacturing companies. This role is full-time (40 hours/week) on-site in San Leandro, CA. Please see the attached job description for more details and send your resume to rafi.h...@sirenopt.com. Also visit our website https://www.sirenopt.com/ to learn more about what we do!
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This newsletter was created with assistance from artificial intelligence to help summarize events and programs.
To add your event to the Jacobs Student Newsletter, please contact Janrey Javier at janrey...@berkeley.edu.
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