Loccasion is a smartphone application that uses geo-fence technology to make the interactions between campus organizations and students more effective and sustainable. This application is intended to improve the way students receive information about clubs and groups that they are interested in because up until now, the distribution of flyers on Sproul Plaza is passive, inefficient and unintuitive. The goal of the Loccasion project is to streamline the process for campus promoters to disseminate information to a relevant audience. The team’s solution is to equip student organizations with a smartphone tool that can create events and announcements that are interactive and engaging. The user interface provides a framework for creating events – such as date, time, directions to venue and the ability to upload photos – enabling a simple way for organizations to create announcements and spread them to their targeted audience within a matter of seconds. Upon the creation of an event, a circular virtual fence with a certain radius around the student promoter’s smartphone is set up. Anyone who has installed the app on their phone can receive notifications once within the virtual border. Event organizers can tag their postings with certain keyword hash tags such as #engineering or #entertainment and users can subscribe to certain keywords to receive a stream of events on their smartphones.
Pioneers in Engineering (PiE) will begin a year-round mentorship program for UC Berkeley students to share their passion about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) with Bay-Area high school students and inspire them to pursue higher education in STEM fields. In the fall, Berkeley students from PiE will interact with students at targeted underprivileged high schools. This one-on-one mentoring program will include weekly meetings where high school students will learn about STEM majors through modules involving project-driven, hands-on activities. In the spring, the project activities will culminate with the design and construction of a robot for the 5th annual PiE robotics competition. Many of these students will be the first in their families to attend college, and will receive class tutoring, college application assistance, and career opportunity exploration. Cal students in PiE will be trained to serve as mentors and role models so they can directly handle the challenges in our education system and their protégés’ daily lives.
Many students who died during the 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech tried to text 9-1-1 for help, but their messages were never received because police departments did not have the technology to receive text reports. Crime Fighter is a technology that revolutionizes the way we report crime. Crime Fighter is the first mobile technology that allows users to be completely anonymous and report crimes in less than two minutes for any situation using a text-based application for all smartphones. The technology includes the mobile application for general users and a software system for the police department and university safety services. Currently, no comparable product exists in the market, enabling Crime Fighter to lead the path to a safer community by using the modern and popular technology of texting.
The Berkeley City College Service Community (BCCSC) connects UC Berkeley students with community college students in a leadership development program that promotes civic engagement. Community College is the fastest growing path in pursuing a degree in higher education. A major challenge for community colleges is in providing an active “college experience,” due to low levels of student engagement opportunities. With low funding of core operations in registration, enrollment, and orientation, many community college students have limited opportunities to become involved in internships, volunteer opportunities, and other career paths. BCCSC will connect Berkeley City College students to their campus and assist in easing their transition into four-year universities.
Youth Creating Change (YCC) is a program that connects inspired high school students with UCB student groups. The design of this program will includes high school students submitting proposals for projects they believe will positively benefit their community. UCB student groups will then pledge to serve as mentors, advocates, and partial funders for those projects. YCC believes community-led projects are most reflective of community needs and youth’s perspectives should be more valued. Organizing students and making them experts in their community helps youth see that they have agency and the possibilities of change. YCC gives students the financial support to work on these issues, as well as the logistical support to help them succeed. (Note: This project originally won in the Big Ideas “Social Justice & Community Engagement” category.)
This project will enhance community engagement on campus on three levels: practice, education, and research. A collaborative process between design students on campus, a nearby community, and CARES – a multidisciplinary team of designers and researchers – will be initiated through a design challenge, where students will offer design ideas to a real life design problem of an underserved community in need. The collaborative design process will provide ideas ready to be used by the community, real-life design experience, and a research platform for evaluating various methods for their ability to engage the community in the design process and produce more locally appropriate designs. (Note: This project originally won in the Big Ideas “Social Justice & Community Engagement” category.)
The goal of CAL Community Kitchen is to create a community-run kitchen which makes use of consumable leftover food goods from a network of local restaurants and small farms to creating healthy boxed meals for families in need. This work will be done by UCB undergraduate and graduate students and various community organizations dedicated to hunger alleviation and food justice. Ultimately, CAL Community Kitchen will offer a sense of community and a safe space to enjoy healthy meals. (Note: This project originally won in the Big Ideas “Social Justice & Community Engagement” category.)
Social Resources for a Healthy Community aims to take available social services and fully maximize their effects on communities. The program is designed to engage Berkeley students in service learning and immerses them in real life issues. Students will be trained through DeCal classes on campus in social work approaches and methods with the assistance of the School of Social Welfare. The ultimate goal of this project is to establish a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance site at Berkeley, establish a social resource consultant structure, and provide information regarding finance, health, education, and legal rights through workshops and educational outreaches.(Note: This project originally won in the Big Ideas “Social Justice & Community Engagement” category.)
There are countless student projects completed each year in academic classes that never get used in the real world because students do not know how to move them to the next level. Similarly, there are real causes that desperately need creative solutions. They can provide a forum for learning in class projects. “Class Projects to Social Ventures” will facilitate collaboration with social ventures to lead to a win-win situation: students will be more motivated because they will know their work can be utilized in a real world context, and the organization will benefit from a project overseen by experts: professors who are specialists in the field. “Class projects to Social Ventures” will provide the missing matchmaker that can 2 connect these parties. Through it, collaborations would be facilitated and students would have more opportunities to apply the knowledge they learn in classes in engaging “real world” projects. (Note: This project originally won in the Big Ideas “Social Entrepreneurship Category” category.)
