SCET global community sends thousands of masks to Bay Area
NC Wong, Hong Kong Baptist University alumnus and member of the SCET global community, sent 3000 surgical masks to Bay Area hospitals when he learned they were in need. NC originally reached out SCET Industry Fellow Gigi Wang asking if the Bay Area was in need. He then sent the 3,000 masks by overnight FedEx.…
Startup Semester students share highlights from their experiences at the Sutardja Center
As part of the Startup Semester study abroad program, students from around the world are learning about about entrepreneurship and technology while growing their global networks. We heard from Anushka, Johannes, Jaideep, and Anant about their favorite aspects of the Startup Semester program. Keep an eye out for other upcoming student features! Anushka Purohit, Hong…
Should Social Media Be More Rewarding? Sapien Thinks So
Inspired by an idea, two friends met at Free Speech Movement Cafe, busted out their laptops, and started coding. A Sublime tab was all it took to get started. “At the time, we were just two college kids just frustrated with the state of social networks,” Bhatia said. “We thought to ourselves, you know, there’s…
Corporate Innovation: Five Lessons from Star Wars
Star Wars: mind-candy entertainment or a set of essential teachings for business leaders? Happily, it’s both. The sci-fi series is a great illustration of the entrepreneurial journey, while also illustrating (who knew?) academically-proven best practices for achieving business success. The case for binge-watching Star Wars is particularly apt in today’s corporate environment where competition from…
What Happens Next: A Roadmap to Life, Work, and Society after Coronavirus
Since January of 2020, the world has been watching the unfolding of the Covid-19 pandemic. It started with a few isolated cases in regions of the world that seemed far away. With relentless transmission, cases started to jump around the world. The infection has now reached just about every community on the planet leading to a current…
“Pandemics necessitate innovation:” Dr. Renee Wurth on COVID-19
Pandemics necessitate innovation and this is the time to act, says Dr. Renee Wurth, a population health scientist who spoke at SCET’s first remote Richard A. Newton Lecture Series on Tuesday night. Dr. Wurth believes that although the world is in the midst of a global pandemic, this is a time to stay positive and…
Cal Student Team Creates Coronavirus Tracking App
It has been just over a month since the virus has hit the globe, and much, if not everything, has changed. The Covid-19 infection has brought with it an equally viral undertone of psychological unease. People are anxious around others, and rightfully so. This pandemic is unique in that it has occurred in the most hyper-connected…
Sports Tech Inspires Elijah Hicks ‘Intercept Poverty’ Foundation
“Tough times don’t last. Tough people do.” Junior Elijah Hicks always remembers this quote. He’s worked hard for several years to get to the point where he is now; soon he will eligible to get drafted to the NFL. However, Hicks knows that his status as a student-athlete was the main reason he was able to…
How SCET is moving its largest class online
The A. Richard Newton Lecture Series has long been one of SCET’s most important courses for helping to educate and train entrepreneurs at the University of California, Berkeley. Since 2005, the Series has hosted some of the world’s most influential founders, innovators and visionaries to tell the story of how they created a disruptive startup,…
Coronavirus as a Learning Moment: How to Adapt in the Face of Rapid Change
A lot is going on in the world, particularly with the new Coronavirus. And, yes, this is a large concern for many people and firms around the world. Our programs at Berkeley are similarly impacted. Last week, upon concerns for students and guests, we offered our Innovating 5G/AI class session over Zoom video conferencing for the first time. This week,…
The Overlooked Benefits of a Fixed Mindset
There has been a lot of discussion about the value of growth mindset. If you have not heard about this, it means that you believe you can grow, learn, and do anything novel. Individuals with a growth mindset are not concerned about defining themselves. Instead, they focus on the challenge at hand or the skill…
“From Patient to Impatient Entrepreneur”: Surbhi Sarna on her journey to entrepreneurship
Surbhi Sarna, whose startup nVision Medical was acquired by Boston Scientific for $275 million, shared her journey from “patient to impatient entrepreneur” at SCET’s A. Richard Newton Lecture Series last Tuesday. Sarna’s talk was full of pointed, specific advice for college students and budding entrepreneurs. At the age of 13, when Sarna experienced the fear…
5 Stages of Innovation
There are many famous frameworks ranging from McKinsey’s Three Horizons Model to the various types of innovation (e.g. disruptive, radical, incremental, etc.) and many more. Conceptually, they are all great. However, from a real life perspective, they tend to be more descriptive and less prescriptive. This means it’s helpful if all you want to do…
SCET awards $50,000 in grants to support innovation and changemakers on campus
The Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology at the University of California, Berkeley has just awarded $50,000 to three UC Berkeley courses to support innovation on campus and build new connections to share pedagogy best practices. The Instructional Innovation Grants will help SCET share insights learned from its award-winning Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship curriculum, including…
From SCET Leadership class to TEDx stage
A former Startup Semester student was recently featured as a TEDx speaker for Insper, São Paulo, Brazil. Igor Marinelli, who was a student in Dr. Pamela Park’s Tech Firm Leadership (INDENG 171) course last fall, took the skills he learnt in class to the stage. Unlike in other classes, Tech Firm Leadership students were tasked…
11 Thoughts on the State of 5G Networks
This week in Innovation Engineering, students continued the process of combining concepts from mobile executives, technical leaders, and students. Mostafa Essa, a Vodafone engineer, was this week’s guest speaker. He discussed the intersection of Radio Access Networks, AI, and Data Analytics. After just one month, here are a few notable things the class has discovered:…
The Impact of 5G on Existing Internet Systems
This week in Innovation Engineering, Lyle Bertz, who leads R&D at Sprint came to speak to the class about 5G and IoT. The session helped students understand the network and how it affects IoT. Here are a few key outtakes from his presentation: 1. IoT will change network behavior. Currently, most networks are configured for…
12 Principles of Innovation Engineering
Innovation Engineering is a new framework developed by the Sutardja Center to apply technology and create transformation by aligning human talent in an efficient, effective, and positive manner. This framework offers practical guidance for how – large firms, research labs, new ventures, and even student projects can execute their innovation projects and make their ideas…
SCET Instructor and Former VP Product Publishes Product Management Book
In search of a job after graduation, students are increasingly looking towards product management roles. These positions have skyrocketed in popularity following the development of Associate Product Management (APM) programs meant for new grads at companies such as Google or Dropbox. Similarly, companies are investing heavily in coaching and training their existing product managers so…
Kick-off: Innovating 5G/AI Course in collaboration with GSMA
On January 24th, SCET kicked-off the first class of the Innovation Engineering 5G/AI course. In this advanced project course, students will be developing new data and AI related services that will be interesting for mobile communication companies and consumers. The class will collaborate with Global System for Mobile Communications (GSMA), who hosts the Mobile World…
“Favorite Class at Berkeley”: Alumni Reflect On Their Pathway to Plant-Based Meat
Halle Nicole Readfearn doesn’t have to worry about stray eggshell pieces in her breakfast; she doesn’t even have to crack an egg. All she has to do is twist off a black plastic cap. Readfearn, who graduated from UC Berkeley in 2019, consumes Just Eggs. Retailing at $4.99, the ‘egg’ mixture is actually a liquified…
‘Sea Warden’ Uses Satellites to Make Your Diet Healthier
How do any of us really know where our fish comes from? Sure, there are approvals and labeling tactics to make us more confident in the quality of our fish. But what if I could see data on the exact location and environment from which my fish came? Zack Dinh, currently working on a Master’s…
SCET Partners with Intuitive Foundation to Bring Redesigned Sports Tech & Human Performance Challenge Lab
Announcing Sports Tech and Human Performance ~ Spring 2020 Last year’s Sports Tech Challenge Lab received much attention from Cal students eager to dive headfirst into the fields of sports, technology, and science. In the Spring 2020 semester, this new challenge lab will be expanding in both scope and impact. The new course, led by…
Dr. Martin Potančok visits SCET, expands exchange of business and industry exposure between U.S. and Prague
Dr. Martin Potančok is interested in discovering how academic innovation programs can be best exposed to industry and help students work on pressing problems and challenges. Potančok visited SCET earlier this semester from of the University of Economics, Prague (VSE) to gain insights from SCET programs and share his knowledge and experience with the SCET…
“Don’t Be A Stranger” snags top prize at SCET’s Fall 2019 Collider Cup
More than 100 UC Berkeley students and community members gathered on Friday, December 13th in Sutardja Dai Hall to watch SCET’s top students and startups compete at Collider Cup V. The Collider Cup is an all-star showcase and competition for student teams from various classes offered by the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology. Teams…
Guests 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…
Want To Create A First-Of-Its-Kind Company? Five Tips For Success At The Front Edge Of Possible
Over 500 million years ago, a spectacular array of new species emerged over a relatively short geological period. Called the Cambrian explosion, this era brought us most of the animal phyla we know today. Fast forward to modern times, and our most explosive periods of innovation are driven by technology. Once the basic infrastructure of…
Help Deplastify the Planet! The Challenge Lab returns for Spring 2020
Plastic is a big problem. World plastic production totaled 359 million tons in 2018, and production levels have grown steadily since 1950. It is estimated that 3-4% of plastic enters the ocean eventually creating ocean garbage patches such as the infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is now twice the size of Texas. And as…
How are entrepreneurs using blockchain? Here are 13 loglines from 13 innovative startups in the Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator
The Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator is a joint venture by three premier organizations on the UC Berkeley campus: Berkeley Engineering’s Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology, the Haas School of Business, and the Blockchain at Berkeley student group. Its purpose is to move new blockchain technologies and ventures forward, through leveraging the unparalleled resources at UC…