Jacobs Institute Student Newsletter: September 17th, 2025
Jacobs Institute Student Newsletter
UPCOMING@JACOBS
Jacobs Institute-organized events, news, and announcements—straight from the source.
TODAY!! TECHNICAL CAMPUS MAKERSPACE CRAWL
Wednesday, September 17 ⋅ 12:00 – 1:30pm ⋅ RSVP
🔧 Dive into the engineering side of making! This crawl highlights UC Berkeley’s more technical spaces, starting with the Jacobs Hall Makerspace and continuing through the Mechanical Engineering Student Machine Shop, Cory Student Workshop & Supernode, and the College of Environmental Design Fabrication Lab. See specialized tools in action and learn how to get involved. Bring your curiosity—and comfortable shoes!
DESIGN FIELD NOTES, FALL 2025: IN PERSON AT JACOBS HALL
Mondays at 5:30-6:30 PM ⋅ 310 Jacobs Hall (3rd Floor)
More Info & RSVP
As part of the Jacobs Institute’s course DES INV 95, Design Field Notes invites you into conversations that explore how design shapes—not just responds to—the technologies and futures we live in.
Guided this semester by host Pierluigi Dalla Rosa—designer, technologist, and educator—the series highlights makers, artists, and researchers who are crafting alternative narratives about the future. Together, we’ll ask: What role should design play in deciding which technologies emerge in the first place?
The series kicks off this Monday, September 22nd, with Afshin Mehin, founder of Card79, a design studio dedicated to exploring future forms with emerging technologies. Learn more and RSVP!
JOHN S. GERO: BEHAVIOR OF THE DESIGNING BRAIN
Monday, September 22nd, 1-2PM ⋅ 310 Jacobs Hall (3rd Floor)
Discover what happens in your brain when you design in this talk with John S. Gero, Research Professor in Psychological and Brain Sciences at Drexel University. Hosted by Kosa Goucher-Lambert (UC Berkeley Mechanical Engineering), the symposium draws on brain studies of architects, engineers, and designers to reveal how tools, methods, and training shape creative cognition.
JACOBS STUDENT INNOVATION COUNCIL INFORMATION SESSION
Friday, September 19 ⋅ 12:00 – 1:00pm ⋅ Zoom
Join us for an info session to learn about the new Jacobs Student Innovation Council, the next evolution of the Student Advisory Board. The Council represents student voices in shaping the future of Jacobs Institute programs, resources, and community. Applications for the 2025–26 Council are open now through Monday, September 22nd at 9am PST.
Intro to Rhino
Friday, September 19, 1—3 PM
Unlock the potential of 3D modeling in our hands-on educational workshop designed for beginners and enthusiasts alike. "Intro to Rhino" provides an introductory overview of Rhino 3D, a powerful and versatile software widely used in architecture, industrial design, and more. Maker Pass required.
OPSEC: Protecting Your Privacy in a Data Driven World
Friday, September 19, 10AM—noon
Jacobs Design Specialist Chris Parsell leads this free workshop. Explore how your data is collected, used and the risks it can pose. Learn how to opt out, secure your devices and take back control of your digital presence. Open to all.
CREATIVE CAMPUS MAKERSPACE CRAWL
Wednesday, September 24 ⋅ 12:00 – 1:30pm ⋅ RSVP
🎨 Explore the artistic side of making! This crawl showcases creative spaces across campus, beginning with the Jacobs Hall Makerspace and visiting the Library Makerspace, Berkeley Art Studio (Helen Diller Anchor House) and the Art Studio & Creative Lab (MLK Jr. Building). Discover hands-on resources for design and self-expression—and don’t forget comfortable shoes!
Intro to Grasshopper
Friday, September 26, 1—3 PM
Discover the power of parametric design in our beginner-friendly workshop, Introduction to Grasshopper for Rhino 3D. Learn the fundamentals of Grasshopper’s visual programming to create dynamic, complex geometries and unlock new possibilities in architecture, product design, and digital fabrication. Maker Pass required.
DESIGN OPPORTUNITIES DIGEST
non-Jacobs Institute-affiliated events, opportunities, and programs—at your fingertips.
SCET Innovation Fellows (starts Sept 15)
Curious about entrepreneurship? UC Berkeley's Gamified Entrepreneurship Challenge is starting soon. Open to all years and majors!
— The SCET Innovation Fellows Program offers students across campus the opportunity to
Explore real-world challenges
Collaborate with peers interested in Entrepreneurship
Earn recognition through the Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship
Win cool prizes
Learn more and register here now.
Understanding User Interfaces: Supporting Designers, Developers, and End Users
The Berkeley Institute of Design is beginning their seminar series starting next week, with a presentation by Yuwen Lu, PhD Canddiate from University of Notre Dame. Yuwen Lu has a few signup slots available for 1:1s during the day -- please sign up here to chat with him.
When: Tuesday 9/23, 12:10-1PM
Where: Berkeley Institute of Design
Title: Understanding User Interfaces: Supporting Designers, Developers, and End Users
Abstract: From vibe coding to design agents, AI holds great potential to transform how we design, develop, and interact with user interfaces. In my research, I have designed and developed multiple prototypes that support the stakeholders in the creation and deployment of user interfaces. Our prototype Flowy helps designers comprehensively understand the design space and make more informed design decisions. A canvas-based system Misty helps developers iterate faster by blending in inspirational examples through drag and drop interactions. Our browser extension, Dark Pita, enables end users to customize web user interfaces to avoid dark patterns. Together, they demonstrate a future where we create and deploy user interfaces more easily and thoughtfully.
Bio: Yuwen Lu is a PhD candidate in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. His research focuses on AI for UI/UX design support and the next-gen user interfaces for AI (hint: it's probably chat, plus something else). Yuwen has worked at Google, Apple, and Midjourney, where he built multiple prototype systems that adapts the latest AI models for creative workflows.
A Figma Plugin for Laser Cutting
If you’ve ever used Figma, a popular UX design tool, you can also use it for vector designs. But it lacks support for making things real-world friendly. Built by one of our MEng students, Laser Cuts is a plugin that adds support for real world units, spacers, and laser cut operations in Figma. Read more about it in this blog post, or install it from Figma Community.
For more information, please reach out to Ravi Lingineni — rling...@berkeley.edu
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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