Posts by Luke Kowalski
Pivoting from Adversity to Opportunity — In the Spring 2020 Emerging Tech and Social Impact Challenge Lab
The Spring 2020 semester started innocently enough. There was an epidemic at the other end of the world, but it seemed like it would not really affect us in the Bay Area. The students came up with some early ideas for their startups after going through their problem/solution exercises. The teams of 4-6 students were…
Read MoreGuests Rock the Fall 2019 Emerging Tech and Social Impact Challenge Lab!
The last couple of blog posts highlighted student projects from the respective Challenge Labs. Instead of doing it in this post, we have this amazing video showcasing outstanding projects from last semester compiled by Justin Wong. The video highlights student video blogs where they ruminate on their entrepreneurship journey, and it also includes clips of their final start-up…
Read MoreA Blockchain Halloween in New Orleans
Karin Bauer from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and Lauren Weymouth from Ripple have apparently been brainstorming about how to incorporate blockchain-based courses into programs of other universities, and also how to make this effort more inclusive. Dr. Ali Emdad from Morgan State University was also a partner, and came up with an idea…
Read MoreIt takes a (Blockchain) Village!
Spring Reflections, Fall Futures, and Student Project Highlights Spring of 2019 was the semester of collaboration and joint ventures for our Blockchain Challenge Lab. We expanded the program to include FinTech, and the new material and domain resulted in a number of novel projects, many of which are highlighted below. We saw increased teamwork across…
Read MoreUsing Blockchain for (Social) Good! Four student ventures and use cases
Blockchain is a transformative technology capable of disrupting industries and even altering the social fabric. The recent initial coin offering scandals, plummeting cryptocurrency values, and the general wild west nature of this space have scared off some early adopters and entrepreneurs, and it is a shame. Blockchain has the potential to make a truly positive…
Read More