challenge lab
Meet Debasish Behera, the Founder Making Global Payment more Accessible
Debasish Behera, originally a student from India, joined the SCET community after participating in the Startup Semester at Berkeley in the spring of 2025. Since then, he has immersed himself in the Berkeley and SCET community, and he has recently sold his startup, Celeriz, to AVFX Capital. He is currently working on building a decentralized…
MOFarm: the ACC InVenture prizewinners turning “Farts into Fuel”
MOFarm, a student startup paying dairy farmers to capture and sell their methane emissions, made UC Berkeley history on March 27 as the first team to place in the ACC InVenture Prize. The Shark Tank-style pitch competition, hosted by the University of Notre Dame, brings together the brightest innovators from fourteen ACC universities. MOFarm won…
EquiPad’s on-campus pilot upgrades UC Berkeley menstrual health resources
Picture this: you’re taking a bathroom break during class and unexpectedly get your period. You don’t have any menstrual products on you, the basket of free pads in the bathroom is empty, and the coin-operated metal tampon dispenser has been out of order for years. Frantically, you scramble for another on-campus solution, missing a good…
Building A Better Society through Regenerative Ventures: A Conversation with Instructor Rana Kanaan
This fall, SCET will offer a new Challenge Lab, ENGIN 183C-001: Regenerative Ventures: Build Innovations for a Better Future, taught by Rana Kanaan, founder of Makai Labs and seasoned technology product leader with over two decades of experience scaling innovations from zero to billion-dollar businesses. This course aims to present students with an opportunity to…
From Lab to Launch: Mar Navarro’s Biotech Journey at SCET
Mar Navarro, originally a student from Spain, joined the SCET community after participating in the Startup Semester at Berkeley in 2023. Since then, she has immersed herself in the Berkeley ecosystem, embracing every opportunity that comes her way. She has taken numerous SCET classes, including Startup Catalyst, Technology Entrepreneurship, Connected Life Challenge Lab, Richard Newton’s…
Serendipity by Design: How Berkeley Systemically Fosters Entrepreneurial Success
When you visit the public university that created the highest number of venture-funded startups in the world, you expect it will not happen by chance. And yet, uncovering scientifically the hows and whys is as frustrating as ambitious; it’s elusive and somehow feels like magic, despite the tangible evidence. But these aren’t just academic questions…
Meet the Minds Behind SimpleCell
SimpleCell, the brainchild of Sehej Bindra and Arvind Vivekanadan, was developed in the Spring 2024 SCET course titled Transforming Brain Health with Neurotech. By the end of May, the team earned second place at the Collider Cup and was recently accepted into Forum Ventures. SimpleCell is a platform integrating large language models to streamline bioinformatics…
From Pharmacist to Innovator: Rashmi Varma’s Journey to Bridging Health Gaps
Rashmi Varma joined Berkeley’s entrepreneurial community after taking a SCET class in her first year as a master’s student at UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Since then, she has continued to share her passion for healthcare access in vulnerable communities and advocated for interdisciplinary collaboration to solve these complex global issues. Over the past…
From Berkeley to Taiwan: SCET Director Builds Bridges for the Future of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at NTU Forum
David Law, Director of Global Academic Programs at the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (SCET), recently served as the keynote speaker at the Future University Forum hosted by National Taiwan University. The Forum, themed around “Innovation & Entrepreneurship Education,” drew participation from universities across Taiwan. During his keynote address, David provided an insightful overview…
Plaksha University TLP: Challenge Lab Final Pitch Event
Tech Leaders Program: Challenge Lab Final Pitch Event Global Academic Programs Director, David Law, proudly represented SCET at the Plaksha University Tech Leaders Program Challenge Lab Final Pitch Event. Plaksha University is India’s largest collective philanthropy effort to build a new model of engineering education and research. Backed by 70+ academic and business leaders from…