Certificate in Global Digital Infrastructure
The University of California, Berkeley Center for New Media’s Certificate in Global Digital Infrastructure is the first undergraduate certificate program to introduce students to the technical, economic, legal, environmental, and social dimensions of the global Internet’s infrastructure, including both data centers and subsea telecommunications cables. It is available to students from UC Berkeley and universities around the world.
Created in partnership with industry organizations Infrastructure Masons (“iMasons”) and the SubOptic Foundation, the certificate offers a broad overview of digital infrastructure’s many components as well as cutting-edge knowledge from experts across the sector. 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.
Digital infrastructure underpins contemporary economic and social life, yet it remains invisible. This is a problem for the digital infrastructure industries: data center and subsea cable companies are deeply concerned about the next generation of their workforce. This is also a public problem: as sectors increasingly depend on digital infrastructure and services, a basic literacy of these infrastructures is needed to ensure continuity of service, sustainability, and resilience.
All classes in the certificate program are project-based and facilitate collaboration 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.
The curriculum is also supported by key industry partnerships with Data Center Dynamics, Telegeography, and the National Data Centre Academy, which ensures the content is in alignment with current digital infrastructure industry practices.
Courses will be guided by UC Berkeley Professor Nicole Starosielski and will feature regular guest lectures from data center and subsea cable experts. All courses will be offered online in both a synchronous and asynchronous format. Digital Infrastructure 101 may also be offered in-person at the University of California, Berkeley. Each class is six weeks long.
We invite you to join us in the Summer of 2025 for our inaugural cohort. There will be three courses offered. Take one, two, or all three to obtain the certificate.
-
Digital Infrastructure 101: The Hidden Foundations of the Internet (May 27-July 3, 2025)
-
How to Build a Global Internet: Digital Infrastructure Projects from Subsea Cables to Data Centers (July 7-August 15, 2025)
-
Tech Wars: Security, Geopolitics, and Resilience of Digital Infrastructures (July 7-August 15, 2025)
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.
FAQs
What is digital infrastructure?
Digital infrastructures are the physical installations that support the transmission, storage, and computation of data. Digital infrastructure underpins all Internet operations today. These infrastructures include data centers—which range from small edge facilities to expansive hyperscale operations. They also include the subsea fiber-optic cables that transport over 99% of all international data traffic. The course will cover the technology development of subsea fiber along with the complexity and challenges of the marine operations of installation, repair, and maintenance. Terrestrially, Internet traffic is supported by fiber-optic cables that run underground or are strung between utility poles. At interconnection facilities–often housed in a data center–networks are interlinked. The course will include discussions about IXPs, POPs, caching and peering.
Wait, isn’t the Internet wireless?
It is typically only in the last hop to the end-user that digital transmissions become wireless. The courses in this program will cover some of these wireless infrastructures, including cellular, microwave, and satellite. These systems will be considered in relation to the global backbone of the Internet and transforming digital architectures enabled by 5G and AI. While LEO satellites will be discussed, these systems have nowhere near the capacity of subsea systems.
I don’t know anything about technology, is this program for me?
These courses will give you an overview of technology, but they are intended to be accessible to all disciplines. It is our belief that, since everyone is dependent on the Internet, there should be education that enables anyone—from a journalist to those interested in working in government—to understand what’s going on beneath the interface.
Will I only learn about digital infrastructure in the United States? How can this help me in my country?
This certificate is a program in global digital infrastructure. The curriculum is developed not only by scholars in the United States but will include contributions and case studies from around the world.
Tentative Guest Speakers for Summer 2025
Erick W. Contag, President | Board of Trustees, SubOptic Foundation
Past roles include: CEO and Executive Chairman of GlobeNet
Dean Nelson, Chairman & Founder, Infrastructure Masons
Past roles include: Head of Uber Metal; Vice President, Global Foundation Services, ebay; CEO of Cato Digital
Vlad-Gabriel Anghel, Head of Solutions Engineering, DataCenterDynamics
Doyle Barlow, Consultant, Transoceanic Fiber Optic Cable Systems at DGB International Limited
Past roles include: Global Network Acquisition, Google
Katja Bego, Senior Research Fellow - International Security Programme, Chatham House
John Booth, Carbon3IT and the National Data Centre Academy
Past roles include: Energy Efficiency Group Chair, Data Centre Alliance; Author of EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres (Energy Efficiency)
Lane Burdette, Research Analyst, TeleGeography
Ramakrishnan Durairajan, Associate Professor in the School of Computer and Data Sciences at the University of Oregon, co-director of the Oregon Networking Research Group
Eileen Gallagher, CEO, Ireland Network Exchange (INEX)
April Herlevi, Nonresident Fellow, National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR)
Sebastian Moss, Editor-in-chief and Head of Global Publishing, DataCenterDynamics
Maxie Reynolds, CEO & Founder, SubSea Cloud
Hesham Youssef, Senior Transmission Engineer, Telecom Egypt
Certificate courses include screenings of film and video work about digital infrastructures and personal conversations with their directors:
- Brandon Gries, director of Bare Metal (2023)
- Fiona Marron, visual artist based in Ireland and creator of Proving Ground (2016)
About Us: Industry Partners
SubOptic Foundation
The SubOptic Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the SubOptic Association, focused primarily on supporting education and research within the fiber optic submarine cable systems industry. The Foundation’s mission is to advance knowledge and foster educational growth and research that drive innovation in the industry, underpinning the critical digital infrastructure serving the global community. Contributions fund programs, with current efforts supporting two key research programs—one dedicated to sustainability and the other to strategic network resilience.
iMasons
Infrastructure Masons (iMasons) is a global, nonprofit, professional association of individuals connected and empowered to build a greater digital future for all. Since its launch in 2016, the organization has brought together 6,000 individuals across 130 countries, a community representing USD 150+ billion in infrastructure projects. iMasons provides an agnostic platform for members to connect, grow, and give back across four strategic pillars: Education, Inclusion, Innovation, and Sustainability. Students receive a free membership to iMasons to network with other professionals. To learn more or to sign up, visit imasons.org.
TeleGeography
TeleGeography is a telecommunications data provider delivering trusted, independent analysis for telecom service providers, large enterprises, government agencies, and other research firms. Since 1989, telecom decision-makers have turned to TeleGeography for unbiased data that helps them gain a competitive advantage. Their research, data, and benchmarks cover a wide spectrum of telecom functions impacting the world’s largest enterprises, including submarine cable mapping, cloud and WAN, mobile/broadband/voice, data centers, IP and transport networks, network pricing, and more. For more information, visit www2.telegeography.com.
Data Center Dynamics (DCD)
DCD is the largest publication in the digital infrastructure space, with 15 million annual site visits, and 10+ events across North America, Europe, Middle East and Asia. DCD’s education division, DCD>Academy, works with companies throughout the data center ecosystem to build training programs that target all areas of their mission-critical workforce - from facility operations and design engineering to construction and sales/commercial3 team training.
National Data Centre Academy
The National Data Centre Academy is a new data centre industry training arena with a vision to provide courses with both academic and practical rigor.
About Us: Academic Partners
The Certificate in Global Digital Infrastructure is supported by key academic partnerships across the UC Berkeley campus, with the College of Computing, Data Science, and Society, College of Engineering, College of Environmental Design, Haas School of Business, and the School of Information, as well as the School of Computer and Data Sciences at the University of Oregon.
