startup
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…
Meet Leanid Palkhouski, the Entrepreneur Solving Knowledge Decay
Leanid Palkhouski, originally from Belarus, transferred to UC Berkeley as a junior. He quickly immersed himself in SCET offerings, and currently serves as the CEO of Wrodium, “a knowledge freshness infrastructure platform for AI-indexed enterprises.” A content engineering platform that optimizes for “knowledge freshness, factual consistency, and machine-readability,” Wrodium was accepted into the Berkeley SkyDeck…
Meet Finn Metz, the Founder Tackling AI Safety
Finn Metz first joined the SCET community after participating in the Startup Semester at Berkeley program at UC Berkeley in the fall of 2024. Originally from Germany, he studied computer science at the Technical University of Munich, and studied at Copenhagen Business School before attending UC Berkeley. Finn has dedicated himself to developing and investing…
How to Be a Futurist: Students Deploy AI Tools, Produce Podcasts and Write Book in SCET Course
While formally listed as ENGIN183/283, this course is affectionately known by a more descriptive title: “To Be a Futurist: How to Win (and Lose), AI and Healthcare Startups.” The class comprises approximately 70 students from all walks of life, majors, cultures, and academic levels—including undergraduate, graduate, PhD, and exchange students. Together, students from science, liberal…
Berkeley SCET presents at TechCrunch 2025
From October 27-29, Berkeley SCET students, staff, and alumni partnered with TechCrunch Disrupt, a three-day conference in San Francisco that unites venture capitalists, startup teams, and tech industry leaders. The event featured Startup Battlefield competitions, which provide emerging startups with pitching opportunities and exposure, as well as expert panels with speakers from companies like OpenAI,…
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…
IE University Students Dive into Berkeley’s Innovation Ecosystem During Immersion Week 2025
Earlier this month, a cohort of Data Science and Business graduate students from IE Universityin Spain, arrived at UC Berkeley for a transformative week of innovation, hands-on learning, andSilicon Valley exploration as part of the 2025 Immersion Week. Hosted by UC Berkeley’s Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology, the five-dayprogram combined academic sessions, company visits,…
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…
Collider Cup Winners Lead Berkeley Delegation at TechCrunch Disrupt
Between October 28 and 30, representatives of the SCET community attended TechCrunch Disrupt, a three-day conference held annually in San Francisco. The event featured keynotes from industry experts, roundtable discussions, and pitch sessions, offering attendees an unparalleled opportunity to learn about the most disruptive technologies and discover emerging startups. At TechCrunch Disrupt, four Berkeley startups—Optigenix,…