UC Berkeley students are exploring the intersection of technology and democracy through a course titled “Building Bridges Between Democracy and Technology for a Better Society.” The class, part of the Challenge Lab series by the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (SCET), encourages students to create web-based platforms aimed at fostering social and political change.
The course was co-developed by Kirk Bansak, a political science professor at UC Berkeley, and Gert Christen, an entrepreneurship instructor with experience in public sector innovation. Christen emphasized the need for technology to be used positively: “I come from the technology industry, but I’ve strongly felt that us techies, we haven’t always used technology for the best purposes.”
Students formed teams to develop projects addressing various issues. The winning team, SimpleGov, proposed a platform linking legislative data with political donations to enhance transparency and accountability among elected officials. Kiara Shriqui, voted MVP by her teammates, expressed enthusiasm about combining technological and political science insights: “I like when the technological and data side meet the political science side.”
Other notable projects included Demex, which designed a social media platform inspired by dating apps to encourage cross-political conversations, and Situation Room, which envisioned a secure digital space for activists and journalists.
The course received funding from the Yardi Foundation as part of the Berkeley Discovery Initiative. Leslie Rae Harlson of the Discovery Initiative praised student efforts: “I was blown away by the student presentations.”
Christen and Bansak plan to offer another iteration of this course next year.
