Course Description

Hacking for Oceans—Lean Design Methods, CSP 281A

Syllabus(opens in a new tab)
Enrollment closed

Do you have a passion for tackling Ocean challenges and discovering how to innovate? In this one-quarter course (open to graduate and undergraduate students) you will work in a multidisciplinary student team of 4-5 students to address a coastal or ocean problem/challenges provided by a real-world sponsors or identified by student groups. Teams learn how to apply the Lean Launchpad and Lean Startup methodologies to discover and validate customer needs and to continually hone their solution ideas to test whether they understood the problem and whether the solution will alleviate it. Weekly assignments involve working outside of class on steps or skills in the design process and then sharing learnings from the week for peer-review in class. Involves reading, speaking with external partners and practitioners, and preparing a presentation describing learnings each week for class. 

All students, please complete the H4O Interest Form.

  • UCSC graduate and undergraduate students: Permission numbers will be issued based on the interest form
  • Non-UCSC undergraduates: After completing the interest form, click ENROLL above 
  • Non-UCSC graduate students: Click HERE to complete the Intercampus Exchange form. In addition to your signature, you will need to obtain the signature of your home department Graduate Advisor or Chair and the signature of your Graduate Division dean. Once your form has been signed by those individuals, please email the form to CSP@ucsc.edu for routing at UCSC. 
  • Questions: Email CSP@ucsc.edu

Key Information

Spring Quarter 2023
Instruction start date: April 3, 2023
Instruction end date: June 10, 2023
Credit: 5 quarter units / 3.33 semester units credit
UC Santa Cruz, Physical & Biological Sciences

Course Credit:

Upon successful completion, all online courses offered through cross-enrollment provide UC unit credit. Some courses are approved for GE, major preparation and/or, major credit or can be used as a substitute for a course at your campus.

If "unit credit" is listed by your campus, consult your department, academic adviser or Student Affairs division to inquire about the petition process for more than unit credit for the course.

UC Santa Barbara:
Unit Credit

UC Berkeley:
Unit Credit

UC Davis:
Unit Credit

UC Irvine:
Unit Credit

UC Los Angeles:
Unit Credit

UC Merced:
Unit Credit (see your Academic Advisor)

UC Riverside:
General Education: Elective units

UC San Diego:
General Education: GE: Seventh - fulfills High-Impact requirement

UC San Francisco:
Unit Credit

UC Santa Cruz:
Unit Credit

Section Meeting Times

  • (Seminar) Monday, 4:30pm - 6:00pm
  • (Seminar) Wednesday, 4:30pm - 6:00pm

Course Meeting Requirements

Students are required to actively participate in 3 hours/week of class meeting . Expect 9-12 hours of team/individual work outside of class for meetings with team mentors, conducting interviews, teamwork to synthesize weekly progress, preparing weekly class presentations and office hours meetings with teaching team members.

More About The Course

Fill out the course Interest Form at: https://tinyurl.com/Hacking4OceansSpring2024

Goal: Hands-on experience in understanding and working as an interdisciplinary team (4-5 students) with sponsors/mentors to solve real world problems facing the oceans and to design and evaluate solutions to pressing challenges using technology, innovation, and policy design.

Anything your team develops in doing work for this course (software, hardware, ideas, etc.) is open source. You do not give up any IP rights of anything you bring to the class. Your software, technology, or hardware IP, if not shown or uploaded as part of presentations to the class, is not considered open-sourced.

Additional Course Information

Exam Info

In lieu of a final exam, graduate students submit a final culminating report.

Relevant Website

Course Creator

Anne Kapuscinski

Core Faculty

Director and Core Faculty, Coastal Science and Policy Program

Professor, Environmental Studies

Anne R. Kapuscinski is an interdisciplinary scholar committed to finding scientifically and socially robust solutions to a major challenge: how to perpetuate healthy aquatic ecosystems while sustaining resource uses that support human wellbeing. Her past research examined impacts of dams, fish hatcheries, aquaculture and genetic engineering on fish conservation. Her current research aims to shift aquaculture, the world’s fastest growing food sector, towards sustainability. Her team uses marine microalgae to achieve fish-free feeds, thus decouple aquaculture from ocean-caught forage fish, reduce nutrient and carbon emissions and improve food security. She also pursues ecological aquaculture strategies to close water and nutrient loops and conserve biodiversity. Anne participates actively in the science-policy interface, presently as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Union of Concerned Scientists and member of the Ocean Protection Council Science Advisory Team, and has been a scientific advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (under three administrations), U.S. Food and Drug Administration, World Health Organization and Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, Global Environment Facility, European Union Food Safety Agency, state of Minnesota, and on four U.S. National Academy of Science committees. She is Editor-in-Chief of the Sustainability Transitions domain of the open-access journal, Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene. Her awards include a 2019 Ocean Award in InnovationPew Fellow in Marine Conservation, and Distinguished Service Award from the Society for Conservation Biology, among others. As Director of the Coastal Science and Policy Program, Anne guides and builds a diverse, inclusive community of students, faculty and partners to pursue scalable solutions to pressing coastal and ocean challenges.


Watch Anne describe her research here or read more about Anne and her research team at: https://kapsar.sites.ucsc.edu/.


Email: akapusci@ucsc.edu

Website: https://kapsar.sites.ucsc.edu

Core Faculty Director and Core Faculty, Coastal Science and Policy Program Professor, Environmental Studies Anne R. Kapuscinski is an interdisciplinary scholar committed to finding scientifically and socially robust solutions to a major challenge: how to perpetuate healthy aquatic ecosystems while sustaining resource uses that support human wellbeing. Her past research ...

Core Faculty

Director and Core Faculty, Coastal Science and Policy Program

Professor, Environmental Studies

Anne R. Kapuscinski is an interdisciplinary scholar committed to finding scientifically and socially robust solutions to a major challenge: how to perpetuate healthy aquatic ecosystems while sustaining resource uses that support human wellbeing. Her past research examined impacts of dams, fish hatcheries, aquaculture and genetic engineering on fish conservation. Her current research aims to shift aquaculture, the world’s fastest growing food sector, towards sustainability. Her team uses marine microalgae to achieve fish-free feeds, thus decouple aquaculture from ocean-caught forage fish, reduce nutrient and carbon emissions and improve food security. She also pursues ecological aquaculture strategies to close water and nutrient loops and conserve biodiversity. Anne participates actively in the science-policy interface, presently as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Union of Concerned Scientists and member of the Ocean Protection Council Science Advisory Team, and has been a scientific advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (under three administrations), U.S. Food and Drug Administration, World Health Organization and Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, Global Environment Facility, European Union Food Safety Agency, state of Minnesota, and on four U.S. National Academy of Science committees. She is Editor-in-Chief of the Sustainability Transitions domain of the open-access journal, Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene. Her awards include a 2019 Ocean Award in InnovationPew Fellow in Marine Conservation, and Distinguished Service Award from the Society for Conservation Biology, among others. As Director of the Coastal Science and Policy Program, Anne guides and builds a diverse, inclusive community of students, faculty and partners to pursue scalable solutions to pressing coastal and ocean challenges.


Watch Anne describe her research here or read more about Anne and her research team at: https://kapsar.sites.ucsc.edu/.


Email: akapusci@ucsc.edu

Website: https://kapsar.sites.ucsc.edu


Instructor of Term

Anne Kapuscinski
akapusci@ucsc.edu

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