This course is meant for students in engineering and other disciplines who seek a challenging, interactive, team-based, and hands-on learning experience in entrepreneurship and technology. In this highly experiential course, students work in simulated start-up teams to create products or start-up ideas to address a broadly-defined need of an industry partner or social challenge.

**This course counts towards the Sutardja Certificate in Technology and Entrepreneurship. Additional information: https://scet.berkeley.edu/certificate-in-entrepreneurship-and-technology/**

Will another Initial Coin Offering alleviate global poverty? Does the world need a new protocol to avoid an environmental catastrophe?

This course will take a contrarian view and start with a social, environmental, political, or cultural problem. Only then will we look at applicable technologies, inventions, and tools to make an impact. We will present an overview of blockchain, fintech, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and other disruptive technologies that have the potential to transform society or reinvent markets. Students will also learn the basics of entrepreneurship and deploy empathy-driven, user-centered design methods to create a new product and ensure a good problem / solution fit. Guest lectures from industry and academia, hands-on group exercises, and presentation of use cases will help along the way.

The 
course 
is structured as an 
incubator 
where
 multidisciplinary student teams 
will work together on real world deliverables. Over the 
course
 of
 the semester, students will
 be
 expected to
 validate their initial ideas with users, build and launch a working prototype, and develop and present a cogent 
business 
plan. At the
 conclusion of the
 course, each
 team will pitch 
their idea to 
a 
panel 
of venture capitalists and angel investors. The top teams will have the opportunity to transition their companies into one or more Berkeley-related incubator/accelerator programs, including the Blockchain Accelerator.

This class requires that students participate synchronously (students must participate remotely at the time of the class)

Repeat Rules