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NEWS

Big Ideas Team Designs Pneumonia Diagnostic; Wins Grand Prize


Tabla, a device developed by three graduate students at UC Berkeley that detects pneumonia using sound waves, won the Big Ideas Grand Prize Pitch Day. Learn more about the groundbreaking project here

Students Pitch 'Big Ideas' to Industry Experts for Grand Prize 


On April 26, seven top student teams presented their innovations in the areas of global health, food systems, and art and social change to a panel of industry experts. Learn more about the groundbreaking projects here.
 

GPP Grads Reflect on Program's Impact


Three students from the Global Poverty & Practice (GPP) minor's 10th graduating class look back at their formative experience in the GPP program.  Uncover their journey here. 

Big Ideas Team Addresses Maternal Mortality in Uganda 


A Big Ideas winning team is tackling preeclampsia in Uganda with their proposal for a diagnostic test that can be administered at home by women in low-resource settings. Discover more about their project here

DevEng: A Critical Overview


Development Engineering is a field pioneered at UC Berkeley. Learn more about the inception and growth of this field by diving into a comprehensive essay authored by two engineering PhD students at the Blum Center. Access the text version and audio version here
MigRadio Podcast Highlights Struggle of Immigrants

Big Ideas winner Levi Bridges uses prize money to tell the story of transient people living in migrant shelters. Learn more here.

AWARDS

Blum Center Lecturer Receives Distinguished Teaching Award

Khalid Kadir who currently teaches Global Poverty & Practice, political economy, and engineering courses was selected as one of five recipients of UC Berkeley's highest honor for teaching. Learn more about Kadir's distinction and his teaching here

Blum Center Student Instructors Receive Outstanding Instructor Awards


Two Blum Center graduate student instructors, Sonia Travaglini and Julia Kramer, have been honored for their commitment to incredible teaching. Read more about the graduate students and their award here
 

Big Ideas Team Chosen for AT&T Aspire Accelerator


In 2016 LiftEd, an app that enables special education teachers to measure individualized student performance, won first place in the Big Ideas IT for Society category. This spring, the team was chosen for the 2017 class of the @ATT Aspire Accelerator and will receive $100k and six months of mentorship with industry experts. The app, which analyzes student learning trends in real-time and shares progress on demand with districts and parents, is rapidly expanding into special education programs in public, charter, and alternative schools throughout California, New York, and New Jersey. Learn more here.

NEW PROGRAMS

Blum Center Launches InFews Program


The Blum Center was recently awarded a prestigious National Science Foundation grant to build on our Development Engineering program. The $3 million grant will be used to build InFEWS; a program that trains students to develop innovations at the nexus of food, water, and energy. The first cohort of 120 InFews fellows will start in the Fall of 2017. Over 50% of the fellows are women and nine academic departments are represented, including Engineering, Education, Environmental Science & Policy Management, School of Information, Public Policy, and the Haas School of Business, among others. 

NEW FELLOWS AND STAFF

Taren Heintz joined the Blum Center in February as Director of Events, Operations and Outreach. Originally from Seattle, WA, Taren Heintz relocated to the Bay Area after 10 years of living in the UK and Europe. Taren is an Associate of the International Entrepreneurship Educator’s Program, reflecting her significant contributions to entrepreneurial and enterprise education at international universities. Taren has dedicated her career to helping students achieve their potential through experiential learning and student led engagement projects. She has mentored, advised and awarded seed funding to student entrepreneurs working on both social and for profit ventures. 
Morgan Hillenbrand joined the Blum Center as Director of Communications in April 2017. Previously Director of Global Communications for Tetra Tech International Development Services, Morgan has provided media, policy, advocacy, marketing, behavior change, and crisis communications support to 50+ USAID programs in 35 countries, totaling over $1.5B in contract value. Morgan recently returned to the US from Bogota where she was supporting the government of Colombia to implement the first agreement point of the historic peace deal currently being negotiated between the government and the Federal Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC). 
Dr. Ashley Muspratt joins the Blum Center as DevEng Fellow from April through August 2017. Since receiving her PhD from the Energy and Resources Group at Berkeley in 2009, Ashley has spent the majority of the last seven years in sub-Saharan Africa – living in Ghana, Kenya, and most recently Rwanda – where she launched a dual sanitation and renewable fuel company, Pivot. While at in residence at Blum Hall, Ashley will be available for partnership building and advisory meetings with students and faculty to share lessons learned and to explore new and ongoing partnership opportunities with DIL and its researchers, including the new InFEWS program. In particular she is looking forward to connecting with students for potential research collaboration with Pivot.
Blum Center Newsletter


Blum Center for Developing Economies

The University of California, Berkeley

Blum Hall, #5570

Berkeley, CA 94720-5570

e-mail: blumcenter@berkeley.edu

web: blumcenter.berkeley.edu


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