New Challenge Lab: Bio-inspired Innovation
For more details, please visit the SCET website.
Course Description
The Bio-inspired Innovation Challenge Lab, is a dynamic 16-week course that unlocks the secrets of nature to transform your entrepreneurial vision. By integrating Berkeley’s Method of Entrepreneurship with biological discoveries, you’ll learn to harness nature’s problem-solving strategies to create groundbreaking, sustainable businesses that drive success while positively impacting the planet.
In this immersive course, you’ll collaborate in diverse teams of students from various disciplines to create and present original bio-inspired design projects. This collaborative environment offers a unique opportunity to learn about team dynamics and develop the skills necessary to build a successful team. Through hands-on prototyping and interdisciplinary exchange among engineering, biology, medicine, art, architecture, and business, you’ll develop a portfolio-ready project by the end of the course. No prior biology experience is required—just a passion for exploring alternative innovation methods and understanding how biology can shape future inventions.
Lectures and hands-on workshops will guide you through the bio-inspired design process, from scientific breakthroughs to entrepreneurial start-ups, using compelling case studies. Explore how nature has inspired innovations like gecko-inspired adhesives, robots that run, fly, and swim, artificial muscles, computer animation, medical devices, and prosthetics. These examples highlight the critical roles of health, environment, and safety in bioinspired design, demonstrating how these innovations address real-world challenges while fostering sustainable solutions.
This course is your chance to lead societal change, develop creativity and critical thinking skills essential for real-world practice, and make a meaningful impact. It’s about fostering entrepreneurial growth, creating a difference, and driving innovation that transforms both businesses and the planet.
You can see other examples here!
About Challenge Labs
Challenge Labs are 4 unit courses for students of all academic backgrounds who seek a rigorous, interactive, team-based, and hands-on learning experience in entrepreneurship and technology. These courses use a unique pedagogy, The Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship, that involves the use of games, industry guest speakers, team exercises, videos and labs to cover the early part of the startup lifecycle. In these highly experiential courses, students form start-up teams to create technology solutions or services to address a broadly-defined problem posed by an industry partner or social challenge.
