Program Structure
All classes in the certificate program are project-based and guest lectures facilitate conversations between students from many disciplines and backgrounds. No prior experience in digital infrastructure, computer science, or engineering is needed, and students from all fields–from sciences to liberal arts–are welcome to participate. None of the courses have prerequisites.
Each May-August, we offer our three core certificate courses as well as a number of specialized electives. All courses are offered online in an asynchronous format. Each class is six weeks long.
Core Classes
Take these three core courses to achieve the Certificate:
-
The digital “cloud” is a real place. It is a patchwork of subsea fiber optic cables (the highways of the internet), internet exchanges (the interconnection hubs of the internet), and data centers (the compute and storage centers of the internet), among other technologies. Central course questions include: How does digital infrastructure really work? Who built it? What challenges have they faced? The focus of the class will be on the “backbone” infrastructures that support internet traffic around the globe while also covering how these interface with middle- and last-mile technologies such as terrestrial cables, cellular networks, and satellites.
MODULE 01: The Backbone of the Internet
MODULE 02: The Evolution of the Data Center: From Enterprise to Cloud
MODULE 03: Traffic Patterns, Capacity, and Routing
MODULE 04: Inside the Black Box: Data Center Components
MODULE 05: Deep Dive: Subsea Cable Components
MODULE 06: Zooming out to the Ecosystem
-
Imagine that you are working to build the backbone of the global internet. What is required to build such massive systems and facilities? What kinds of political, environmental, and technological challenges will you face? How will you fund your project? What kinds of social and economic effects can you expect? In this class, you will learn to answer these questions. Historically, this information has been limited to a small cadre of infrastructure-builders around the world, who will share their knowledge about the design and build of the internet’s backbone.
MODULE 01: Planning a Digital Infrastructure Project
MODULE 02: Why Build?
MODULE 03: Financing Digital Infrastructure
MODULE 04: Network & Route Design
MODULE 05: Site Selection
MODULE 06: Cooling and Designing a Green Data Center
-
The internet is not only a place for sharing and interconnection, it is a site of conflict, competition, and geopolitics. This course dives deep into the security and protection of digital infrastructures. While there have been many courses on cybersecurity, this class is the first to focus on the security of hard infrastructure, issues of regulating digital infrastructure, and pathways to ensuring internet resilience. Questions include: Whose responsibility is it to protect the internet’s physical layer? How is this architecture affected by governments and national interest? What would make a truly resilient internet infrastructure?
MODULE 01: What is a Secure Digital Infrastructure?
MODULE 02: Securing the Facility: Protection of Data Centers and Cable Landing Stations
MODULE 03: Securing the Route: Cable Protection Fundamentals
MODULE 04: Geopolitics of Digital Infrastructures: National Security, Data Sovereignty, and International Politics
MODULE 05: Environmental Risk: From Community Contestation to Climate Change
MODULE 06: What is a Resilient System?
Specialized Electives
-
This class looks at the hidden labor and technical systems that keep the global internet running. Focusing on the operations and maintenance of data centers and subsea cables, the course examines energy management, monitoring, upgrades, and lifecycle renewal of infrastructure. Students study the human, environmental, and regulatory challenges of sustaining connectivity in a world of increasing disruption, culminating in Uptime: The Game—a team-based simulation of running and maintaining the cloud.
Offered starting in 2028.
-
This class covers emerging trends in leadership in the age of energy-intensive digital systems. Students examine theories of leadership, ethics, and ESG through the lens of sustainability, resilience, and equity in global digital infrastructure. Through case studies, frameworks, and a capstone Leadership Strategy Blueprint, students develop the skills to lead digital infrastructure organizations toward responsible innovation and carbon-conscious transformation.
Offered starting in 2027.
-
This class covers the digital backbone linking Earth and space—from ground stations to mega-constellations, lunar relays, and orbital data centers. Students trace how data travels across the Earth–space continuum and analyze how latency, bandwidth, and spectrum policy shape emerging architectures and business models. Case studies include NASA’s Deep Space Network, Starlink, and global quantum-satellite initiatives, alongside conflicts in building the next generation of interplanetary infrastructure.
Offered starting in 2027.
-
(3 units), Session A
This class reveals how artists and designers can reimagine the systems that shape everyday life, including not only data centers but railways, water pipes, and other foundational infrastructures. The class combines historical inquiry with studio experimentation. Students are encouraged to develop speculative artworks proposing new forms of connection and care. The class brings together readings, screenings, and generative AI projects, and develops creative practice as a method for infrastructural world-building.
-
The Human Network course asks a simple but profound question: if connection is the engine of all complexity in the universe, what does that mean for how we interact with each other? How is the Human Network essential to the success of the Digital Network?
This multidisciplinary course will focus on actual skills and tools needed to help protect and restore natural resources, conserve energy, reduce waste, preserve cultural heritage, respect local traditions and knowledge, and ensure that community needs are considered and protected. In this course, students will learn how to successfully engage with key stakeholders and manage environmental and social concerns for digital infrastructure projects using real life case studies and best practices from the industry.
Students who complete NW MEDIA 135: From Code to Carbon in addition to the three core classes will receive a Certificate with an area specialization in Sustainable Leadership. Students who complete NW MEDIA 139: The Human Network in addition to the three core classes will receive a Certificate with an area specialization in Stakeholder Mapping.
Individual courses will be indicated on UC Berkeley student transcripts and units may be transferable to both domestic and international students’ home universities. However, the certificate is not an official program offered by Undergraduate Education and will not be noted on a student’s transcript.
Learning Outcomes
The program offers a holistic approach, covering the data centers where information is stored and computation occurs; the subsea networks that transmit 99% of data traffic between continents; and infrastructures such as Internet Exchange Points (“IXPs”), Points of Presence (“POPs”) and colocation facilities, where networks are interconnected.
The curriculum covers components, business models, design/build, operations, and maintenance, alongside the impacts of/on economies, geopolitics, artificial intelligence, and the environment.
As sectors increasingly depend on digital infrastructure and services, this program offers a basic literacy of these infrastructures that can help participants ensure continuity of service, sustainability, and resilience.
All classes in the certificate program are project-based and outstanding student works are published in industry magazines.