SELF-PACED LEARNING
OPEN ACCESS
Design Responsible Neurotech
Solutions for Youth Mental Health
Supported by The Dana Foundation | Powered by UC Berkeley SCET & Bakar Labs | Guided by SecondMuse
Course videos, toolkits, and case libraries will be released in stages. Sign up to access early materials and get notified when new content goes live.
What is ENSURE?
Equitable Neurotech Solutions for Underserved Regions Everywhere (ENSURE) program is a interdisciplinary education and innovation framework developed at UC Berkeley's Neurotech Collider Lab. It brings together multidisciplinary teams of students to co-design equitable neurotechnologies that address youth mental health challenges, with a focus on underserved communities worldwide. The framework provides a structured methodology — from empathy-driven problem discovery through ethical innovation to functional, real-world solutions.
What You'll Find Here
This site is ENSURE's open-access learning hub. Explore curated modules, course videos, methods, case studies, and tools developed through the program — at your own pace, from anywhere.
Supported by Dana NextGen
This grant supports the Dana NextGen objective to prepare early-career trainees to think critically about the ethical, legal, and societal implications of real-world neuroscience applications.
THE CO-CREATION CYCLE
3 Phases. One Playbook.
A dynamic, iterative process — from building trust to delivering scalable solutions.
Phase 01 · The Foundation
Listen & Align
Nothing about us without us.
Before you write a line of code, you build trust. Establish Youth Advisory Boards, map community assets, and ground your work in lived experience.
Phase 02 · The Build
Co-Design & Iterate
Fail fast, learn together.
Youth aren't just testers — they are co-designers. Run rapid prototyping sprints with community partners in the room, challenging assumptions in real time.
Phase 03 · The Impact
Listen & Align
Build ecosystems, not just products.
A great app is useless without a pathway to adoption. Map the care ecosystem — parents, schools, payers — and build for sustainability.
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WHO THIS IS FOR
Built for Educators & Students
ENSURE provides open source framework to anyone who wants to learn.
Students & Researchers
Undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs from all disciplines working on addressing real-world problems in the mental health space and looking to bring equitable and co-collaborative design to their innovations.
Educators & Community Partners
Program leaders, educators, and providers who want to adopt concepts from the ENSURE framework and toolkit for their own work and learn to create equitable neurotech solutions through interdisciplinary approaches.
EDUCATORS TOOLKIT
Turn Your Classroom
Into an Innovation Lab
A plug-and-play curriculum for
educators ready to lead the change.
The Neurotech Primer
"Brain 101" modules to demystify the science for non-scientists — accessible, engaging, and ready to teach.
The Challenge Lab Syllabus
A 16-week, modular curriculum adapted from UC Berkeley's award-winning Challenge course.
The Facilitator's Guide
How to manage power dynamics, foster psychological safety, and lead youth-adult co-creation sessions.
The Ethics Playbook
Critical frameworks for data privacy, consent, and responsible innovation with minors.
The "Relational Wealth" Rubric
Assess student growth not just by grades, but by the quality of their community engagement and social responsibility.
COURSE OUTCOMES
What You'll Build & Learn
Working Prototypes
Interventions, applications, or paper prototypes that address real mental health challenges in underserved communities.
Open Resource Library
A comprehensive playbook of methods, case studies, and tools that other organizations can adapt for their own programs.
Critical Thinking Skills
The ability to think reflexively about the ethical, legal, and societal implications of real-world neuroscience applications.
PARTNERS & SPONSORS
Brought to You By An Ecosystem of Changemakers®
Dana NextGen
Dana NextGen supports forward-looking training programs that prepare early-career researchers to address the ethical, legal, and societal dimensions of neuroscience through cross-disciplinary collaboration and experiential learning.
Oakland Unified School District (OUSD)
Our foundational partner. Students from OUSD’s Health Sciences & Medical Technology Pathway helped shape the program as co-creators and design partners, drawing on training that prepares them for pathways in health care, biotechnology, public health, and mental and behavioral health.
Neurotech Collider Lab, Campus Programs
A part of Bakar Labs, Campus Programs. The Neurotech Collider Lab drives breakthroughs with interdisciplinary collaboration, offering courses, events, research, thought leadership, and venture support to accelerate innovation in neurotechnology.
Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (SCET)
The premier institution for turning students into founders. SCET supports ENSURE’s entrepreneurial foundation through Challenge Lab courses, from which the program draws its interdisciplinary, hands-on approach to developing real-world solutions.
Ready to Build the Future of Care for Young People?
Join the NextGen ecosystem today.
Course videos, toolkits, and case libraries will be released in stages. Sign up to access
early materials and get notified when new content goes live.