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Stories of Impact and Change
At the Blum Center for Developing Economies, we are driven by a shared mission: to innovate, inspire, and empower solutions that tackle global poverty. Explore our latest stories, ground-breaking research, and impactful programs that bridge the gap between theory and action.
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Development Engineering
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Every summer, UC Berkeley’s Development Engineering students create global social impact. The 2024 DevEng Photography Contest showcased their work, highlighting projects from digital education in Kenya to climate justice in Nigeria. Winning submissions emphasized human-centered technology, community-driven financial practices, and sustainable development, capturing innovation and resilience through powerful visual storytelling.
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The Blum Center celebrates women innovators breaking barriers in entrepreneurship and STEM. This month’s highlights include Maria Artundauga’s Respira Labs, Jill Finlayson’s advocacy for women in tech, Vicentia Gyau’s Education Redefined for All, and Alice Agogino’s award-winning Squishy Robotics. These trailblazers inspire progress and inclusivity, reflecting the center’s enduring mission.
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“Sustainability is something innovators don’t really think about because we are so focused on how our product is going to work, how we are going to market it, and how we are going to sell it,” said Emily Huynh, a senior studying biomedical engineering at UC Berkeley.
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Dr. Bertram Lubin, a trailblazer in pediatric hematology and health equity, joins UC Berkeley’s Blum Center and College of Engineering as a senior advisor. With a 50-year career advocating for underserved communities and advancing transformative healthcare initiatives, he plans to mentor students, promote diversity, and drive interdisciplinary approaches to public health and policy.
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The Blum Center and UC Berkeley’s Anti-Trafficking Coalition are leveraging AI and machine learning to combat human trafficking and protect vulnerable populations. Panelists at recent symposia highlighted successes like automated case processing reducing turnaround times from 30 days to 24 hours and innovations in monitoring at-risk youth online. While AI accelerates data analysis and supports prevention, experts emphasized the vital role of parents and communities as the first line of defense.
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UC Berkeley's DEVENG C200 empowers graduate students to develop impactful solutions for global challenges. Projects range from transforming plastic waste into construction materials in Uganda to scaling fluoride removal systems in India. Through interdisciplinary collaboration and community engagement, students address sustainability challenges, combining innovation with cultural and social integration.
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Jill Finlayson, a UC Berkeley alumna and lifelong mentor, has been judging the Big Ideas Contest since its launch in 2006. As director of the Women in Technology Initiative at CITRIS, she champions research and initiatives that promote equity and empower women in the tech industry, fostering impactful change.
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Abraham Martey and Vicentia Gyau, UC Berkeley alumni and Mastercard Foundation Scholars, founded Education Redefined for All (ER4All) to transform Ghana's education system. ER4All addresses systemic issues by providing school supplies, career coaching, and parental empowerment programs. With a focus on critical pedagogy and practical skills, they aim to create sustainable opportunities for youth and communities.
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Maria Artunduaga, a Colombian-born translational physician and entrepreneur, embraces her experiences with racial and gender bias as motivation rather than obstacles. Driven to close gender and racial gaps, especially in Silicon Valley, she channels her journey into empowering others and fostering inclusivity in the tech and innovation sectors.
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Darryl Diptee, a former U.S. Navy officer, once considered himself a "closet innovator," constrained by a culture discouraging creativity. That changed in 2018 when he began his Ph.D. in Education at UC Berkeley, an environment that encouraged thinking outside the lines and embracing innovation as a core principle.
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The Big Ideas Contest has been named one of four university social innovation competitions to be a part of The 2019-2020 Rockefeller Foundation-Acumen Student Social Innovation Challenge.
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Shankar Sastry, Faculty Director of the Blum Center at UC Berkeley, emphasizes fostering lifelong learning by adapting pedagogy to students' evolving needs. In his robotics course, recorded lectures allow self-paced learning, transforming faculty into knowledge guides. Sastry highlights engaging curiosity through interdisciplinary classes and supporting students’ personal growth through reflective conversations and leadership workshops.
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The Blum Center reached out to Karla Tlatelpa and Leilani Gutierrez-Palominos to ask how the Global Poverty & Practice minor helped shape their understanding of and participation in the medical field.
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The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded a grant to Berkeley in July 2019 to support the scaled-up production of the LoaScope, a mobile phone-based microscope developed by Blum Center Chief Technologist Daniel Fletcher and researchers in his bioengineering laboratory, to enable mapping of Loa loa prevalence and intensity in Central and West Africa.
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Christelle Rohaut, a master’s student at UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design, was inspired to address the lack of affordable and flexible workspaces in 2016. Observing crowded coffee shops and empty living rooms during her daily commute, she identified an opportunity to bridge the gap between isolation at home and expensive co-working spaces.
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A delegation of Pinoleville Pomo Nation and Santa Clara Tribe students visited UC Berkeley as part of a summer STEAM program. Highlights included hands-on learning in maker labs and emotional moments engaging with Pomo artifacts at the Hearst Museum. The visit aimed to inspire Native youth to pursue higher education and connect with their cultural heritage.
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The Blum Center’s Faculty Salons explored interdisciplinary approaches to development challenges during the 2018-2019 academic year. From AI and automation to rural electrification and climate change, UC Berkeley professors debated solutions for global issues. These discussions emphasized the importance of technological innovation, policy design, and equitable implementation for sustainable progress.
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How do you become a social entrepreneur? The question has been the subject of many articles, books, and TED talks. For applicants to the Big Ideas social innovation contest, however, the answer is fairly simple: motivation and mentorship.
Development Engineering
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The Development Engineering PhD designated emphasis at UC Berkeley integrates technology, interdisciplinary collaboration, and social impact to address global poverty. Recent graduates' research includes projects on cookstove efficiency, nitrogen recovery, LED lifecycle management, and fluoride removal. The program trains scholars to create scalable, sustainable solutions for underserved communities worldwide.
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Recent research from UC Berkeley economists Ted Miguel and Catherine Wolfram challenges the assumption that rural electrification is a straightforward pathway out of poverty. A multi-year randomized control trial in Kenya revealed limited socioeconomic benefits from subsidized electricity connections, citing high costs, unreliable grid service, and low appliance usage as barriers.