Course Description
This lecture series recognizes the entrepreneurial vision of A. Richard Newton, Dean of UC Berkeley’s College of Engineering from 2000 to 2007, by inviting distinguished innovators to share lessons from their own successes and failures. The course features a selection of highly accomplished industry speakers, including Cal alumni, who share their unique insights on industry developments, leadership, and innovation accumulated through experience in their careers. The lecture series serves as a discovery course for topics at the intersection of technology innovation and entrepreneurship and is a requirement for two of the tracks to complete the SCET Certificate in Entrepreneurship & Technology.
This class is a great introductory class for students interested in learning more about technology entrepreneurship and innovation. SCET classes welcome students from all majors and levels.
Beginning in Spring 2021, the A. Richard Newton Lecture series became an official Berkeley Changemaker® course. Berkeley Changemaker® is a way to help engineers, humanists, and scientists on campus understand their passion and have the ability to create change and have agency in the world. The A. Richard Newton Series course helps students understand how to pursue their interests and execute them by learning from distinguished innovators.
Note: Starting Fall 2022, all SCET classes will be offered under Engineering course numbers. Prior to Fall 2022, this course was listed under INDENG 95/195/295.
Lineup of Speakers
| Week | Day | Speaker | Topic |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | January 17 | Gigi Wang, Industry Faculty, Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (Berkeley MBA) | Class Intro Always Be Creating Value |
| 2 | January 24 | Badri Kothandaraman, CEO of Enphase Energy (Berkeley MS) | Leading a Sustainable Energy Company to Profitability |
| 3 | January 31 | Bailey Farren & Noah Wu, Co-Founders of Perimeter, 2023 Forbes 30 Under 30 (Berkeley alums) | Launching a Data-Centric Startup while at Berkeley |
| 4 | February 7 | Henriette Cramer, Director of Algorithmic Impact and T&S Research, Spotify | Intersection of Algorithmic Impact/Practice and Trust & Security Online |
| 5 | February 14 | Hany Farid, Professor, EECS & School of Information, UC Berkeley, TED speaker | Ethical Computing |
| 6 | February 21 | TBD | |
| 7 | February 28 | Bill Reichert, Partner, Pegasus Tech Ventures/Garage Technology Ventures, author of “Getting to Wow!” | Getting to Wow! |
| 8 | March 7 | Sean O’Sullivan, Managing General Partner/Founder, SOSV Ventures | Impact of the Choices We Make |
| 9 | March 14 | TBD | |
| 10 | March 21 | Margaret Crotty, President, World Education, President & CEO, JSI | Doing Good Around the World |
| Spring Break | |||
| 11 | April 4 | TBD | |
| 12 | April 11 | Cher Wang, Founder/Chairman of HTC (Berkeley alum) – to be confirmed | |
| 13 | April 18 | TBD | |
| 14 | April 25 | Final Day of Class | Group Reflections Presentations |
Instructors
Gigi Wang
gigiwang@berkeley.edu
Gigi Wang is a leader in global entrepreneurship and innovation and heads up MG-Team, LLC, a consulting firm focusing on entrepreneurship and innovation programs. She is an Industry Fellow & Faculty at UC Berkeley's Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Chair Emeritus of the VLAB (formerly MIT/Stanford Venture Lab), and on the advisories board of Mobility Ventures, iGlobe Partners and others. Gigi is a frequent conference speaker and conducts entrepreneurship/innovation workshops for start-ups, corporates, incubators, and universities around the world, along with offering biz dev services to help companies scale. She has mentored and advised hundreds of of start-ups from around the world.
About A. Richard Newton
The Newton Series is named in honor of former UC Berkeley Engineering dean A. Richard Newton. The Series highlights individuals like Dean Newton, who exemplify the qualities of an innovative changemaker.
A. Richard Newton was a distinguished professor and beloved dean of the College of Engineering at UC Berkeley from 2000-2007. He received his B.Eng. and M.Eng.Sci degrees from the University of Melbourne, Australia in 1973 and 1975. In 1975, he began to work on SPICE at UC Berkeley, a simulation program initially developed by Larry Nagel and Donald Pederson to analyze and design complex electronic circuitry with speed and accuracy. In 1978, Newton was awarded his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering and computer sciences from UC Berkeley.
He joined the faculty at UC Berkeley as a professor of in 1978, and chaired the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences from 1999 to 2000. He became dean of the UC Berkeley College of Engineering from 2000 until he passed away in 2007. Robert Birgeneau, Chancellor of UC Berkeley described him as, "dynamic and entrepreneurial; he understood the power of engineering and technology in entirely new ways, and he connected them to address society's toughest problems. The vibrancy of his thinking shaped my own ideas about what engineering is and what it can be."
A. Richard Newton