Innovation for All. Impact for Good.
Bringing diverse minds together from across campus to shape solutions that matter.
The Fung Fellowship is a transformative program created by the Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership that brings together engineering and non-engineering undergraduates from across campus and disciplines at Berkeley Engineering.
A one semester program, offered in both Fall and Spring, Fellows work in student teams on projects that span ~12 weeks, closely collaborating with partner organizations to explore real-world public health or sustainability challenges through innovative technology solutions.
The Fellowship Experience
All perspectives are welcome.
We believe engineering isn’t just a technical skill set—it’s a creative approach to problem-solving that becomes more powerful when diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and areas of study converge.
As a Fellow, you’ll learn to apply design thinking, systems analysis, and technological innovation to real societal challenges, working alongside community organizations and industry partners who need fresh thinking and bold solutions. Whether you’re studying humanities, social sciences, the arts, business, or STEM, the Fellowship expands your creative capacity to envision, prototype, and build change.
This isn’t engineering for engineers alone. It’s engineering thinking, entrepreneurial creativity, and innovation practice for changemakers from every corner of campus.
Two Tracks, One Mission
Each project is framed as an open-ended design challenge that aligns with one of the two Fung Fellowship tracks: Health + Innovation and Sustainability + Innovation.
Learn more about the two tracks and hear from current and past Fellows!
Fung Fellowship News
June 9, 2026
Optimizing the Production Line at Brembo
By Caitriona Foley As a global leader in high-performance braking systems, ensuring the reliable operation of all components under various environmental and mechanical conditions is essential for…
June 9, 2026
Building Safer Vehicles With Brembo
By Caitriona Foley Braking systems are a critical safety component of cars. Brake discs are spinning rotors within wheels, and when brakes are applied, hydraulic pressure clamps down…
June 5, 2026
UC Berkeley and Starkey Rethink Hearing Aid Technology
By Lucy Wang Hearing aids are rarely thought of as health monitoring devices, but through a capstone partnership with Starkey Hearing Technologies, a…
June 5, 2026
UC Berkeley MEng Students Partner with NASA to Develop Heat Shield Coatings for Future Space Missions
By Lucy Wang A capstone partnership between UC Berkeley and NASA gave Berkeley Master of Engineering students (MEng) the chance to work on a real-world project tied to…
May 31, 2026
The Invisible Methane Crisis and What Fung Fellows Are Doing About It
By Caitriona Foley As an anthropology student, Zoe Saito had never been so central to innovation in the technology sector. That was before becoming a Fung Fellow. …
May 31, 2026
Siemens x MEng: A Partnership to Build Carbon-Smart Buildings
By Caitriona Foley As a technology and engineering conglomerate, Siemens AG seeks innovative, automated solutions to optimize the sustainability of physical spaces. A valued partner of the Fung…
May 22, 2026
Inside the Fung Institute’s MEng Capstone Program
By Caitriona Foley When Sophie Sinnet applied to Berkeley’s Master of Engineering (MEng) program, she was drawn to the opportunity to take part in a hands-on project and…
May 8, 2026
Life in Tech
By Ryan Johnson It’s waking up every morning in warm cozy sheets, questioning if Marcus Aurelius was wrong. It’s making the first cup of caffeine…
May 4, 2026
Beyond Borders: How Global Collaboration Shapes the Cars We Drive
By Henry Yin If you own a Tesla, part of the interior you interact with every day, your dashboard, seats, or cabin safety systems, may have been designed…
April 30, 2026
From One Yuan to Apple: An Immigrant’s Journey of Perseverance and Reinvention
By Crystal Zhu When my father boarded a plane from China to California in 1991, he carried a suitcase, a scholarship, and a stubborn kind of hope. At…
April 29, 2026
What It Really Takes to Be a Product Manager Today
By Qianyu Wang Why System Thinkers Like Supply-Chain Graduates Are Unexpectedly Well Positioned When we picture a product manager in the tech industry, we tend to imagine someone…
April 27, 2026
Hiring in the Age of AI: Perspectives from the MEng Employer Breakfast
Something strange has overtaken the engineering job market. Candidates spend hours tailoring cover letters and optimizing resumes, only for their applications to be parsed, scored, and filtered by…
May 31, 2026
The Invisible Methane Crisis and What Fung Fellows Are Doing About It
By Caitriona Foley As an anthropology student, Zoe Saito had never been so central to innovation in the technology sector. That was before becoming a Fung Fellow. …
January 15, 2026
Celebrating 15 Years of Engineering Leadership Innovation at the Fung Institute
In 2025, we celebrated the 15th anniversary of the Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership — a bold academic initiative that has grown into the cornerstone of Berkeley Engineering’s…
January 1, 2026
Fung Institute Redefines Fung Fellowship Track, Emphasizing Impact Through Sustainability
The Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership is evolving to meet today’s most pressing challenges, repositioning itself around sustainability and innovation. At the heart of this shift is the…
December 16, 2025
Innovative solutions to restoring the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument
Restoring the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument Fung Fellows teamed up with PMDP to remove and reimagine abandoned fishing nets Looking to tackle an exciting and impactful technical challenge, Anjana Saravanan…
May 30, 2024
Tom Lam (Health + Innovation ’24) translates in-class project to real-world impact
Tom Lam transferred to UC Berkeley driven by the vast opportunities the institution promised. With a vision to create a positive impact in society, he sought to immerse himself in…
April 4, 2024
Fung Fellowship GSI Krina Patel teaches students to express themselves through design
Having submitted her last college application, Krina Patel was mentally prepared for a career in the medical field. However, after a baking incident left her puzzled and pressed to problem-solve,…
March 8, 2024