College of Engineering Announces New Changemaker Course: Transforming Brain Health with Neurotech

The UC Berkeley College of Engineering is thrilled to introduce an innovative course in the upcoming spring semester of 2024: “Transforming Brain Health with Neurotech.” Brought to you by a collaboration between the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology, Bakar BioEnginuity Hub, and Neurotech Collider Lab, this cutting-edge course is set to revolutionize the understanding and application of neurotechnology in the realm of brain health. As an interdisciplinary exploration, the course will delve into the latest advancements in neuroscience and technological innovations, aiming to address neurological disorders, enhance cognitive abilities, and explore the frontiers of brain-computer interfaces. Through a combination of theoretical learning and hands-on experiences, students will engage with emerging neurotechnologies, delve into ethical considerations, and collaborate on groundbreaking projects that hold the promise of transforming the landscape of brain health.

Course Description

The mental health crisis and the long-term impact on our brains has risen to epidemic proportions, globally. For example, in the US, one in twenty people are diagnosed with depression, with certain demographics disproportionately affected by depression, (e.g. women and Black and Latinx communities); many go undiagnosed and neglected. One in five adults, that’s 50 million Americans who live with mental illness. The Silver Tsunami is increasing at an unprecedented rate, having major cultural and economic implications. For example, one in three baby boomers are affected by neurodegenerative disease. (e.g. Alzheimers & Dementia), 40% of them also suffer from significant depression. Recently, the surgeon general reported that nearly one-half of U.S. adults reported experiencing measurable levels of isolation & loneliness, which has been found to have far-reaching consequences, from an increased risk to developing mental health to a more deleterious impact, such as shortening life expectancy by up to 15 years. On the other end of the age continuum, the negative impact of social media takes its toll on young people. Approximately 18% of youths have experienced cyberbullying in the past year, with one-third suffering from social anxiety, isolation, and depression, notwithstanding that nearly 40% are addicted. Consequently, the sharp demands for mental health care continue to exacerbate the burden on healthcare professionals. It’s estimated that the healthcare field lost ~20% of its workforce. These confluences of demographic shifts (forces) are dramatically widening healthcare disparities and mental health inequities, worldwide.

But, do not despair. The mental health crisis is top of mind among public agencies and foundations. This acute sensitivities to the healthcare inequities is fueling public outcry. Concurrently, there is a surge of interest in ML/AI and its daily application and brain-machine interfaces in deepening our understanding of the brain in academia and industry. These emerging technologies, grounded in cognitive and behavioral sciences, hold the promise of creating neurotech solutions that will close the mental health inequities gap. Hence, bring your imagination and your enthusiasm for solving big health disparities, while you embark on this entrepreneurial-journey with us. This course will challenge you to build multi-disciplinary teams of co-founders and unleash your business, technical, marketing and entrepreneurial creativity to develop a new business from the ground-up that addresses one of the key mental health challenges in modern healthcare here or abroad. All majors are welcome (science, arts, and the humanities). The goal is to build a course full of passionate students willing to push their boundaries and learn to create amazing innovations and possibly, create a start-up. Newly emerging tools in bioinformatics, quantum computing, data science, and even entire engineering and communication disciplines offer new paradigms to address what used to be intractable problems. Experienced business leaders, entrepreneurs, and technologists will mentor you in addition to the course introducing you to several methodologies, processes and tools that will guide you through company ideation and creation process; help you refine and test your business ideas, plans, and models; design and build first prototypes and collateral; and analyze markets and competitive landscapes –essentially run through a neuro-tech startup process. Maybe your team will bring ground-breaking solutions to life.