No previous experience or background is necessary and anyone interested is invited to join! This is your opportunity to:
Participate in immersive entrepreneurial experiences,
Build connections within the SCET and campus community + UC Berkeley alumni and industry
Learn new skills to launch your career, and
Earn the SCET Student Innovation Fellows Certificate.
“The SCET Innovation Fellow Program is, by far, the most enriching and fun activity I pursued during my undergrad years. The program is also a wonderful self-discovery process.”
Some challenges that SCET has planned for the upcoming semester include an AR Startup Product Design Challenge and Rocket Build Relay Race Networking Event! Through various challenges, students will have the opportunity to meet other Cal students, alumni, and industry professionals.
How to Play and Earn the Innovation Fellows Certificate
Register as a player anytime! All academic majors and years are welcome.
To understand generative AI’s potential in the enterprise, it helps to read Isaac Asimov. Yes, science fiction from way back in the 1940s and 1950s. For example, Asimov was the one who predicted Big Data. In his Foundation Trilogy, a certain mathematics professor by the name of Hari Seldon develops a large-scale statistical method to predict the course of human behavior, presaging much of what we see in our data-driven reality today. Asimov also posited the first set of (still-applicable) guidelines for ethical AI, enshrined as the Three Laws of Robotics, and introduced in his 1941 short story Runaround.
Another Asimov short story, 1956’s Someday, features a computer whose job is to generate stories for humans. The name of this chatbot? Bard. In the telling, Bard gets upgraded in a process that sounds just like training data, which leads to the story’s ominous conclusion. Someday ends with Bard reciting a sinister tale about a forlorn little computer named Bard, surrounded by “cruel step-people”. “And the little computer knew then that computers would always grow wiser and more powerful until someday… someday…”. (How did Google decide to name its chatbot?)
What else did Asimov foretell? With generative AI in mind, was there a numinous Princess Gen of Ai inhabiting one of his novels, predicting our today? Almost.
The Physics of Generative AI
“How can the net amount of entropy of the universe be massively decreased?”
Alexander Adell to Multivac in Isaac Asimov’s “The Last Question” (1956)
Asimov’s story above revolves around the question, repeatedly posed to a preternaturally powerful computer named Multivac, of reversing the universe’s inexorable march toward maximum entropy and eventual heat death. Multivac’s solution, after all data had been “completely correlated and put together in all possible relationships”, is generative AI at its finest, with a prompt that creates something from nothing.
Today, the potential for generative AI is, alas, almost exclusively seen through the lens of LLM-driven, consumer-focused applications: the prompt-driven generation (seemingly, “something from nothing”) of de novo text, images, video, and music. It has become a verity – whether in the national press, the financial press, or even the blog posts of major technology companies – that generative AI is ChatGPT (or its LLM brethren), when actually, the reverse is true. LLMs like ChatGPT are just one category within generative AI.
While the (increasingly commoditized) LLM-based gen-AI applications will indeed change the ways in which business gets done, what gets lost in conversation is the impact of generative AI on pure enterprise applications. Generative AI is a broad and powerful set of technologies that include not only the Transformer-based GPT, but also variational autoencoders (VAEs; Kingma & Welling 2019), diffusion, generative adversarial networks, and Poisson flow generative models. All of them have enterprise-level impact. VAEs, for example, and despite the impenetrable, technology-mouthful of a name, have shown benefit in financial trading applications via the generation of synthetic, yet realistic, volatility surfaces for pricing and hedging derivatives (Bergeron et al. 2021).
Fig. 2 Variational Autoencoder
Discriminative AI has to date been our most familiar variety of AI: models that classify input data, mapping the data’s features to its labels. (E.g., is this a picture of a cat?) Generative AI, on the other hand, predicts (generates) data features from a given label (prompt). (E.g., generate a picture of a cat.) In both cases, the underlying models are about discovering the probabilities within the training data. Generative AI is a comparatively exciting form of AI because it can generate completely novel results.
Specifically because generative AI technologies have demonstrated the ability to generate de novo results, it’s vital that we grasp their full potential and not fall into the intellectual trap of conflating gen-AI with ChatGPT/LLMs alone. Companies that understand gen-AI will be positioned for success. Those that do not will be positioned for senescence. Here we’ll present a short survey of generative AI, its technologies, and its enterprise applications, so as to better inform you for the competitive landscape that now lies ahead.
Something from Nothing
ChatGPT is seemingly everywhere, its abilities a product of its underlying Transformer technology, a 2017 invention of Google (Vaswani et al. 2017). Transformer technology has demonstrated impacts well beyond language generation, across a range of generative AI tasks in the enterprise, from the Internet of Things to robotics. Complementing Transformer-driven generative AI are two noteworthy models which draw inspiration from basic physics: diffusion and Poisson flow generative models (PFGMs).
Generative AI via diffusion, and here’s where Asimov’s “The Last Question” comes in, is based on simple thermodynamic principles. In physics, systems range between one of two states: minimum energy or maximum entropy. Our universe is of course not in a state of stasis. Since the Big Bang it has trended steadily toward maximum entropy and heat death. How this process might be reversed is the constant (“last”) question posed to Multivac: is there a prompt (in practice, a set of invertible transformations…) that would reverse entropy and recreate a “something” universe from the “nothing” of maximum entropy?
Within gen-AI, diffusion models (Sohl-Dickstein et al. 2015), also known as autoregressive models with invertible transformations, are a class of AI that learn the underlying probability distribution of input data. Unlike traditional generative models (like GPT) that directly model the data distribution, diffusion models operate by modeling the process of gradually transforming a simple distribution into the target distribution. By iteratively applying a series of invertible transformations, diffusion models can generate high-quality samples from complex data distributions.
The canonical example of diffusion at work might be to take a photographic image and apply, step by step, a mathematical noise injection function to the photo till it eventually resembles the grainy static pattern of random noise (maximum entropy) we see on disconnected TV sets. But the noise function applied at each step of the diffusion was an invertible one – i.e., it can be applied in reverse. This means that when presented with what appears to be a random noise data set (see Fig 3), we can apply generative denoising functions as a reverse process, ending with a target distribution as a product, seemingly conjuring “something from nothing”. Pure magic. (In the end, this was the prompt Multivac was striving to find to achieve its generative goal.)
Perhaps the most illustrative impact from diffusion AI on human populations (and the business of pharmaceutical companies) is in the discovery of new drugs. Drug development is lengthy, costly and difficult, countenancing 90% failure rates. Consequently, a salient promise of generative AI via diffusion has been in the drug design space. Simply, can a gen-AI application “noise” a variety of valid protein-ligand poses so that when presented with a novel protein, the denoising process may generate multiple valid ligand binding poses?
Seminal work in using diffusion for drug discovery was recently done through MIT’s DiffDock (Corso et al. 2023), yielding cutting-edge results: “DIFFDOCK obtains a 38% top-1 success rate (RMSD<2A ̊) on PDB-Bind, significantly outperforming the previous state-of-the-art of traditional docking (23%) and deep learning (20%) methods. Moreover, while previous methods are not able to dock on computationally folded structures (maximum accuracy 10.4%), DIFFDOCK maintains significantly higher precision (21.7%)”.
Similar breakthroughs in protein design have been repeatedly obtained using diffusion gen-AI (Watson et al. 2023, Yim et al. 2023). We have also now begun to see the commercialization of such efforts through projects such as OpenBioML and through Generate Biomedicines’ Chroma platform.
Multivac would be pleased to know that there’s yet another generative AI approach, one with similarities to diffusion, that also harnesses concepts of basic physics: the Poisson flow generative model (Xu et al. 2022). While diffusion is based on the fundamentals of thermodynamics, Poisson flow generative models are based on the fundamentals of electrostatics. Specifically, PFGMs treat data points as charged particles in an electric field. Though a recent breakthrough, PFGMs have already started to show their generative promise (Xu et al. 2023, Ge et al. 2023), and might soon be generalized for broader application.
Thermodynamics, Electrostatics & a VAE/GAN Diet?
“Adversarial training is the coolest thing since sliced bread.”
A final generative model worthy of mention is the generative adversarial network (GAN; Goodfellow et al. 2014). GANs initially achieved prominence via their ability to generate human-like facial images (Karras et al. 2017). GANs work under the simple principle of two competing (cooperating!) neural networks. One, the discriminator, is trained to discern actual data sets (e.g., actual photos of real people) from false data sets (generated images of synthetic people). The second neural network, the generator, is trained to generate false data that is capable of fooling the discriminator. The goal is for the GAN to reach a state where the discriminator is unable to distinguish between real and generated data. (And, as a consequence, credible images of synthetic people could now be generated by the GAN.)
Confirming the potential for GANs, in June of this year, Insilico Medicine entered human clinical trials for its drug, INSO018_055, for the treatment of chronic lung disease. “It is the first fully generative AI drug to reach human clinical trials, and specifically Phase II trials with patients,” Alex Zhavoronkov, founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine, told CNBC.
The Gen-AI Escapes the Bottle
Generative AI, as with all computing technologies, is freighted with vulnerabilities. Diffusion models present a new cybersecurity attack vector, as recently highlighted via BadDiffusion (Chou et al. 2022). In this work, the diffusion process is compromised during training. During the inference stage, the backdoored diffusion model behaves normally for normal data, but stealthily generates a targeted outcome when it receives an implanted trigger signal: “BadDiffusion can consistently lead to compromised diffusion models with high utility and target specificity.”
In addition to its better-known vulnerabilities, generative AI for images has been shown to produce biased results (Thomas & Thompson 2023), while LLMs themselves are susceptible to attack (Zou et al. 2023), not to mention the likes of BlackMamba, WormGPT, and PoisonGPT. New technologies always lead to new vulnerabilities. Defeating new attack vectors will require cybersecurity innovation, such as the “immunization via perturbation” approach proposed for images (Salman et al. 2023, Glaze), and also require new practices, such as those put forward by the Partnership for AI.
AI’s Generative Generation
“At odd and unpredictable times, we cling in fright to the past.”
Some industry observers have seized upon generative AI as the force that will (finally) disrupt the Big Data / AI giants such as Google. Evidence shows that this is likely not to be the case. Google, for its part, conducts not only much of the foundational research underlying generative AI (Ho et al. 20222, Agostinelli et al. 2023, PaLM 2), but is also actively bringing the technology to market (see Singhal et al. 2023, and Google’s work with the Mayo Clinic). It invented generative AI’s most protean technology, the Transformer, supplies a tensor-centric software platform, and fit-to-purpose tensor chipsets in its server fabric, all within data centers that have themselves been optimized for efficiency using neural networks (Evans & Gao 2016). As well, let’s not forget that most important ingredient in generative AI’s success, Google’s endless supply of money to fuel continuing AI research and development. Instead of viewing Google at imminent risk of disruption, we might be better advised to examine the company’s every step to see what we should prepare to emulate or prepare to protect against.
At a minimum, of course, it’s necessary that we understand that “generative AI” doesn’t narrowly mean the mere generation of text. The popular press is known to misread this, unfortunately, with headlines like “There’s No Such Thing as Artificial Intelligence”, and so too do technology company blogs and reports from financial services companies. When next hearing such pronouncements, it’s important we bear in mind all of gen-AI’s enterprise use cases that are not dependent on LLMs (with all of LLMs’ copyright baggage). Instead we need consider what generative AI really means for our businesses: AI that generates better weather forecasts, traffic flows, architectural designs, manufacturing, power utilization and cybersecurity; AI that generates better drugs to extend the quality of our lives; and even AI that generates better data(!).
We have definitively entered the AI Century. For better or worse, there will be no return to the sleepy, pre-AI days of Business As Usual. To compete, companies of all sizes must understand and grasp the essential machinery of the AI Century: generative AI. There is no future without it.
During the Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 semesters, SCET hosted the course titled ‘Future of Technology: How Innovators Critically Examine Game-Changing and Time-Wasting Technologies.‘ This special topics course equips students with skills to critically analyze startup success and failure. Through literature reviews, netnographic analyses, and case studies, students identify patterns to apply in their own research, career decisions, or entrepreneurial ventures. The culmination of each semester involves the publication of a book on Amazon, collaboratively written by nearly 100 undergraduate and graduate students.
Attention Berkeley students: Become an author! The course is now enrolling for Fall 2023.
The University of California, Berkeley’s Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 classes produced these books. The first edition, titled ‘Behind the Hype: What Makes Startups Succeed or Fail – A Student Survey of Patterns,’ and the second edition, ‘Sink or Swim Lessons for Startups: A Semester-long Analysis at UC Berkeley,’ were developed and published through student brainstorming exercises and polls. The author listed is the course instructor.
The students employed netnography and various methods to analyze and publish business profiles and case studies of dozens of startups in three emerging technology sectors: Blockchain, Healthcare IT, and Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Students from diverse majors discerned the internal and external factors contributing to the success or failure of each company. Factors such as people, marketing, technology, and funding were explored.
The students were then divided into Production, Analytical, Design, Editorial, and Marketing teams to collaborate on the book. The analytical team analyzed the profiles and success/failure factor ratings submitted by the students. The design team created the layout and cover, while the editorial team focused on style, grammar, and consistency. The marketing team developed a promotional plan, and the Production team coordinated the final assembly. The instructor contributed a preface and an overview of the course design. Conclusions drawn include insights into startup success and failure, complemented by graphs, charts, and summaries.
This collective wisdom aims to inform future entrepreneurs, empower students hesitant about their ideas, and assist founders in identifying areas of focus. Success is transient, and we hope to contribute valuable data points, experiences, analytics, and perspectives to the formula. We trust that you will enjoy this labor of love by University of California at Berkeley students, as well as international exchange students from France, Germany, and Korea, alongside undergraduate and graduate learners gathered at the Life Sciences and Hearst Memorial Mining building in Silicon Valley!
The University of California, Berkeley Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (SCET) is excited to announce a new partnership with Cherwell College Oxford (an educational arm of Oxbridge College), an institution specializing in pre-university education. This collaboration aims to focus on mentorship development and training at both institutions to further enhance their educational processes and foster a supportive environment for student growth.
Stephen Clarke, Principal of Cherwell College, highlighted the shared values between the institutions, “There is a synergy between Cherwell’s pedagogy at pre-university level and the Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship, as developed by SCET, at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Both employ a flexible approach to an educational process with the aim of creating a favorable environment for students to flourish and achieve their full potential through focusing on the development of the individual in a competitive world of academia and business.”
The collaboration will provide opportunities for faculty members from Cherwell College Oxford to learn from the experience and knowledge of the SCET team. Through workshops, seminars, and joint projects, faculty will gain valuable insights into the Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship, an award-winning curriculum that focuses on mindset training for innovators and entrepreneurs.
“What will education look like in the future? I would like to believe that education will look like what we currently provide at the UC Berkeley Sutardja Center, which is very different from what you currently find at most institutions,” says Ken Singer, SCET managing director. “Every year we invite students from around the world to come study and start companies with us, and we are really excited to have students from Cherwell join that small group to become their own entrepreneur.”
The Sutardja Center is renowned for its work in entrepreneurship and technology, with a global innovation hub at UC Berkeley’s College of Engineering. The center offers a suite of courses and programs for students, executives, and global innovators, as well as conducting research in emerging technologies. The partnership with Cherwell College Oxford will further strengthen the center’s commitment to promoting entrepreneurship and innovation on a global scale.
Cherwell College Oxford, a subsidiary of Oxbridge College, specializes in pre-university education, preparing students for higher education at leading UK and US universities. The college’s pedagogy is based on the Socratic method of teaching, which develops reasoning, critical thinking, and erudition. Through this partnership, Cherwell College Oxford will continue to build upon its strong reputation for delivering first-class education in a positive, motivating, and rewarding learning environment. The Principal of Cherwell College Oxford (Stephen Clarke) also emphasized his associations with ATOM Festival, the Institute of Directors (IOD), the Leaders Council, and the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (OxLEP) as a testament to the commitment to innovation and growth in the educational sector.
Together, the Sutardja Center and Cherwell College Oxford are excited to embark on this partnership, leveraging their combined expertise to promote innovative educational methods and support faculty development for the benefit of students across the globe.
Team Uncracked’s journey from a group of likeminded students to the winner of the Collider Cup XII, Berkeley’s prestigious technology showcase and startup pitch event, is a testament to their shared values. Using what they learned in the SCET course AltMeat: Product Design of Plant-Based Foods (ENGIN 183C-001), they created a plant-based crab meat product that wowed the judges.
The dynamic team was comprised of all Berkeley students, including Andy Yau (Master of Engineering – Bioengineering ’23), Kate Sullivan (BS in Nutritional Sciences ‘23), Shirli Hameiri (BA in Economics and Sustainability ’23), and Edwin Oon (Master of Bioprocess Engineering ’23).
Team Uncracked posing for a photo at the SCET offices. From left to right: Andy Yau, Kate Sullivan, Shirli Hameiri, and Edwin Oon
“From the outset, we aimed to create a product that would benefit both the environment and the consumer,” explains Shirli. The team’s shared love of seafood and recognition of the sustainability issues it presented drove them to focus on creating an alternative to crab meat.
Kate Sullivan concurs. “We recognized a market gap for a sustainable, plant-based crab meat product. With the supply of real crab meat dwindling, we wanted to create an alternative that would be accessible to more people.”
Team Uncracked is focused on alleviating some of the adverse environmental effects of crab fishing, such as bycatch, overfishing, dwindling crab numbers, and pollution caused by fishing ships.
According to Edwin, the team is determined to not just produce a sustainable product, but to do so transparently. “Many companies overstate their environmental impact. We want to avoid that and ensure our process is truly sustainable.”
Their plant-based crab meat isn’t just good for the planet; it’s also a healthy alternative. Climate change and overfishing have led to price hikes in crab meat. Typical substitutes, like imitation crab, often contain artificial flavor and colors, as well as increased starch content, leading to lower protein and omega-3 fatty acid content.
“Our plant-based crab meat is protein-rich, gluten-free, low in sodium, and contains no artificial flavors or colors,” says Kate. “We’re also striving to make its omega-3 content comparable to that of real crab meat.”
However, creating a plant-based product that tastes like crab meat posed a significant challenge.
“We started experimenting with proteins from pea, hemp, and soy,” shares Kate. “Eventually, we decided on a primarily soy-based high moisture extruded protein and infused it with our novel crab flavoring.”
“The real challenge was figuring out what makes crab taste like crab,” says Edwin. “We spent a lot of time tasting and reiterating to get it right.”
So, how does this plant-based crab meat taste?
“People really enjoy it,” says Kate. “They’ve commented on how it resembles crab, especially when used in sushi. The texture has been praised, and while the color isn’t perfect yet, people accept it as it is.”
“Taste is crucial for consumers,” Shirli adds. “We’re happy with the progress we’ve made in just three months, and we’re excited about the potential to improve even further.”
In a world increasingly concerned with sustainability, Team Uncracked is an inspiring example of a values-led startup making a tangible difference.
Course coordinators Rene Martinez Doehner and Aria Yang facilitating rotating mentorship with student product teams in Product Management course
What’s the best way to learn entrepreneurship? Everyone’s journey is different, but to help aspiring entrepreneurs have the best chance of success, SCET utilizes its award-winning pedagogy, the Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship. The Berkeley Method takes a holistic and journey-based approach to teaching entrepreneurship to prepare aspiring entrepreneurs and innovators, not only by teaching frameworks, approaches, cases, and business models, but also by helping students understand the entrepreneurial mindset and practice making their ideas real in our highly immersive, game-based, hands-on, and interdisciplinary courses.
To create highly immersive classes that simulate real world professional and startup environments for students can be a lot more work to organize than classic course models that focus on one-way communication from the lecturer to the student. Our unique course structure would not be possible without the support of SCET course coordinators, which are student assistants hired by SCET to support faculty in creating our dynamic courses.
Click on the photos below to meet our Spring 2023 course coordinators and learn more about their backgrounds, ambitions, future plans and experience in the SCET classroom!
Can you share your background and any relevant experience you have in the fields of entrepreneurship, innovation, or education?
My name is Aria Yang, a graduate student specializing in the multimedia track at UC Berkeley’s School of Journalism. My academic journey has allowed me to master the art of storytelling through creative mediums like data visualizations, and interactive web design. I also serve as the innovator in Residence at the SCET Challenge Lab, where I lead workshops on storytelling and user empathy to student entrepreneurs – my passion for innovation and creativity drives me to help others in building their ideas.
But my experience doesn’t end there – As a former product management intern at Evernote, I’ve gained a deep understanding of what it takes to build and launch successful products. In the future, I hope to leverage my broad range of skills and insights make a meaningful impact on the media industry.
What is your favorite part about working as a Course Coordinator for these classes, and why?
As a Course Coordinator for these classes, my favorite part is the opportunity to engage with the students and learn about their innovative product ideas. Witnessing their passion and commitment to creating positive change is truly inspiring.
Furthermore, it’s incredibly fulfilling to observe the transformation of their initial ideas into tangible prototypes or fully functioning apps within just a few months. It’s evident that the students have invested time and effort into their work, and seeing their results is a testament to their hard work and dedication.
Overall, working with such driven and creative individuals is a rewarding experience that I cherish as a Course Coordinator.
How do you keep up with the latest trends and developments in entrepreneurship and innovation?
As a journalism student, staying up-to-date with the latest trends and developments is crucial to my learning journey. I regularly read technology articles from various reputable sources such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, which are conveniently available to me through free Cal student subscription.
In addition to these mainstream media outlets, I rely on a range of specialized resources such as a16z, YC library, TechCrunch, Lenny’s newsletters, Morning Brew, and Casey Winters’ blog posts. These resources provide me with in-depth insights and analysis on emerging technologies, business strategies, and industry trends.
Furthermore, I’m also starting my own newsletter to curate different learning resources I find useful!
What advice do you have for students who are considering taking these courses or pursuing careers in entrepreneurship and innovation?
Be adaptable, embrace change, and never stop learning.
Can you share your background and any relevant experience you have in the fields of entrepreneurship, innovation, or education?
I’m very passionate about Product Management, however, most of my professional experience has been in Data Analytics. I’m a 2-time Data Engineering Intern at Meta, and have worked in the Central Integrity and Supply Chain Insights teams. Additionally, I’m currently working at Concorde Health, a health-tec startup aiming to lower worker injury compensation. I have learned that I love being at the intersection of product and data.
What is your favorite part about working as a Course Coordinator for these classes, and why?
My favorite part about my role as a Course Coordinator was working with Derek Chan, and getting to know him personally. Derek has been a great mentor, and I’ve learned so many valuable lessons from him. From written communication frameworks, to product management prioritization and conflict resolution.
What advice do you have for students who are considering taking these courses or pursuing careers in entrepreneurship and innovation?
In my experience, success in entrepreneurship boils down to the ability to work with people. The best student groups, are those than can work well together and leverage each others strengths (in different fields of design/engineering/business).
What are your post-graduation plans?
I am actively interviewing for full-time opportunities in Data Science, Data Engineering and Product Management.
What inspired you to become a Course Coordinator for entrepreneurship and innovation classes?
Although my academic background is technical, taking this course had a profound impact on my career path. It completely changed what I wanted to do for my career from software engineering to product management. I’ve always been super passionate about teaching as well, so having the opportunity to facilitate teaching the course was a dream position.
What advice do you have for students who are considering taking these courses or pursuing careers in entrepreneurship and innovation?
Even if you don’t plan on becoming an entrepreneur, taking business courses or learning about entrepreneurship can be incredibly valuable. The skills you acquire in entrepreneurship classes go beyond just starting a business. They’re crucial for being a leader in your own life too. You truly get out of these classes what you put into them, so I would recommend to take them seriously and make the most of the experience.
What are your summer plans OR (if graduating) what are your post-graduation plans? If you are looking for opportunities, you can also state that here.
Over the summer I will be interning as a software engineer at Coinbase. I’m super excited to be joining one of my dream companies and hope to be given a chance to return post graduation or otherwise apply for their associate product manager position after graduation.
ENGIN 183A/283A: A. Richard Newton Lecture Series: A Berkeley Changemaker® Course
Course: A. Richard Newton Lecture Series: A Berkeley Changemaker® Course
What did you learn being an SCET course coordinator for Spring 2023?
The biggest thing I learned was that you can find inspiration anywhere/ everywhere you look. Entrepreneurial figures aren’t necessarily only the ones that have the unicorn companies and news headlines, but also the food cart owner selling mangoes with tajin and chamoy to help his family. Inspirational stories are everywhere, and we just have to look.
Can you share your background and any relevant experience you have in the fields of entrepreneurship, innovation, or education?
Though my entrepreneurial journey began at a young age where I’d stage art auctions at my house and force my family members to buy “one-of-a-kind” paintings sketched on tissue papers and bracelets of string, more recent entrepreneurial experience comes from being a part of the founding team at a company in Skydeck.
How do you keep up with the latest trends and developments in entrepreneurship and innovation?
One of the first bookmarks on my laptop is from Hacker News (Y Combinator), and it’s one of the first things I do every morning. Other than that, I follow a lot of VC Partners & inspiring figures on LinkedIn because they’re usually the first to post about the latest developments in any and every sector.
What advice do you have for students who are considering taking these courses or pursuing careers in entrepreneurship and innovation?
Often times the value of something is derived of it’s difficulty/ rarity. CS70 is so revered because of its grade distributions, and some of the most famous Berkeley classes are also known to be some of the difficult. Entrepreneurship and innovation classes are either P/NP, or very easy A’s if you put in the work, and hence it’s very easy to dismiss them as less important or valuable. And I would warn everyone against this fallacy. Because enrolling in these SCET classes was one of the best things I did in my time at Cal. I was able to learn weekly from some of the most renowned industry leaders/ former entrepreneurs and make a network with some of the most ambitious Berkeley students who will be the industry leaders and changemakers of tomorrow (it’s where I met my co-founder, too!) . Where else would I be able to get such a golden opportunity? The value of these classes is what you make and extract from it, and so I encourage everyone to optimize it as well
What are your summer plans OR (if graduating) what are your post-graduation plans? If you are looking for opportunities, you can also state that here.
I am looking for opportunities in banking/ PE/ VC as well as mentors to help me navigate and prepare me in the long run to run my own startup successfully! Any and all help and advice is welcome I have so much yet to learn + grow!
B.S. Business Administration and B.A. Economics 2024
Course: Richard Newton Lecture Series
What is your favorite part about working as a Course Coordinator for these classes, and why?
As a course coordinator for Richard Newton Lecture Series, I have the opportunity to network with top industry professionals, hear their inspirational journeys, and get a closer understanding of why they do what they do.
What are your summer plans OR (if graduating) what are your post-graduation plans? If you are looking for opportunities, you can also state that here.
I’ll be a M&A Consulting Intern in the Strategy and Transactions Team at EY, in SF!
“Collaborating with our course coordinators is critical for immediate and actionable course feedback, allowing us to continuously pivot and adapt to student needs. We are fortunate that the Newton Series coordinators tend to stay in their roles for multiple semesters and then share best practices with newer coordinators. Course coordination is one of the many aspects that make the SCET experience so valuable.” – Victoria Howell, instructor, A. Richard Newton Lecture Series.
ENGIN 183C-003: SportsTech, Entrepreneurship & the Future of Sports | A Berkeley Changemaker® Course
Course: SportsTech, Entrepreneurship & the Future of Sports | A Berkeley Changemaker® Course
What is your favorite part about working as a Course Coordinator for these classes, and why?
My favorite part is getting to know the students as individuals and being able to mentor them through the class so they can have the very best experience possible. Each class is always so unique and everyone involved is often so driven and motivated and ready to learn.
Can you share any memorable or rewarding moments you’ve experienced while working as a Course Coordinator?
Near the end of the semester it is super exciting to see all the hard work, time, and energy into investing in how they pitch their venture/product/solution. I’ve seen people come a really long way and grow both personally and professionally throughout these fast-paced, exciting 15 weeks of the semester.
How do you believe the courses you coordinate prepare students for their careers, whether they pursue entrepreneurship or not?
These course teaches students how to “fail forward”, talk to more people and build their network, and form teams to discover and go about a possible solutions to problems of their choice about which they are especially passionate.
What advice do you have for students who are considering taking these courses or pursuing careers in entrepreneurship and innovation?
You will learn more from these classes and the wonderful staff and faculty of the SCET that just can’t be taught in any other technical class that can and will inform your career path, relationships, and outlook on live going beyond higher education.
Course: SportsTech, Entrepreneurship & the Future of Sports | A Berkeley Changemaker® Course
Can you share your background and any relevant experience you have in the fields of entrepreneurship, innovation, or education?
I started an esports company a few years ago with a mission to connect high school gamers with collegiate resources and opportunities. Since our COVID-era acquisition, I have been all over the place exploring computer science, machine learning, biology, and more.
Can you share any memorable or rewarding moments you’ve experienced while working as a Course Coordinator?
The pitches towards the end of the semester have been so rewarding. The class started with vague and random ideas for potential innovation, but is ending with fleshed out visions, prototypes, and pitches to venture capitalists. It is great to see all of the work from our students come to fruition.
What advice do you have for students who are considering taking these courses or pursuing careers in entrepreneurship and innovation?
You really get out of it what you put in. The teams that come in eager with a vision to make change tend to put together the best presentations and look the best in front of our VC partners. Alternatively, we see a lot of teams just taking the class for the heck of it. Both are ok, but set clear expectations and goals towards the start of the class!
What are your summer plans OR (if graduating) what are your post-graduation plans? If you are looking for opportunities, you can also state that here.
I’ll be spending the summer as an intern at Roblox. However, I expect to be spending most of my time learning, exploring, and building some cool tools
ENGIN 183C-001: AltMeat: Product Design of Plant-Based Foods
What did you learn being an SCET course coordinator for Spring 2023?
I enjoyed working with each team and learning just how creative all the students are with their solutions in the alternative meat space. They each took their challenges and came up with innovative technical solutions.
What inspired you to become a Course Coordinator for entrepreneurship and innovation classes?
I myself have an entrepreneur spirit and since I have taken the course before, I felt that I could be a mentor in growing other students in their own entrepreneurship.
Can you share your background and any relevant experience you have in the fields of entrepreneurship, innovation, or education?
My passion for entrepreneurship manifest in wanting to bring innovative climate solutions to industrial scale. Thus when I took the alternative meat class, I worked on a project that compiled data on alternative ingredient sources to help streamline designers in choosing a fitting ingredient for their desired functionality. From there, I began working for a local Berkeley start up called Zestbio where we worked on processing orange peels into useful chemicals to replace petroleum based chemicals. Beyond my graduation here at Cal, I am planning on working on a project hosted in the Alt. Meat lab utilizing vertical farming to source vaccine adjuvants instead of traditional deforestation routes.
What is your favorite part about working as a Course Coordinator for these classes, and why?
I love seeing the students projects grow and develop into full fledge ideas. I enjoy encouraging them to think from different angles and supportive in taking these projects outside the classrooms.
How do you keep up with the latest trends and developments in entrepreneurship and innovation?
I keep up with trends by talking to as many different people within the biotech field. Everyone has insights on what is going well and what investors are looking for so talking to local biotech CEO is really helpful.
How do you believe the courses you coordinate prepare students for their careers, whether they pursue entrepreneurship or not?
Yes this course defiantly prepares students for their careers beyond cal. It gets them out of the classroom and into labs/development of a novel idea. This let them express what they have learned through their majors into projects that they grow themselves. That develops independent thinking and motivation.
What advice do you have for students who are considering taking these courses or pursuing careers in entrepreneurship and innovation?
Just do it. It is hard but worth the time.
ENGIN 183B: Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship Bootcamp
What inspired you to become a Course Coordinator for entrepreneurship and innovation classes?
Growing up in Hawai’i, there weren’t many opportunities to learn and practice skills in entrepreneurship, innovation, and technology. I was fortunate to have been a part of and supported the few programs that were created to help empower youth and expose them to the world of entrepreneurship and technology. A passion to practice entrepreneurship, specifically with web technologies used in a social impact context, is what brought me to Berkeley and what led me to explore the opportunities to learn and lead within SCET. My passion, along with a calling to help represent native Hawaiians in technology and entrepreneurship, has inspired me to become a Course Coordinator.
Can you share your background and any relevant experience you have in the fields of entrepreneurship, innovation, or education?
Attended then lead the Naluaki Startup Camp in Waimea, Hawai’i. Like Bootcamp, but for HS students in Hawai’i. Just been curious about startups since Sophomore year of HS.
What is your favorite part about working as a Course Coordinator for these classes, and why?
By the third night of the SCET bootcamp, startups are forming, pitches are solidifying, and folks are getting tired. They’ve spent all week tweaking and pivoting both their ideas and their presentations. It’s hard work! My favorite moments as course coordinator have come with working with teams at these moments, listening to them practice their presentations on stage, and helping teams process feedback from investors and mentors. Often a piece of feedback can throw a team for a spin and force them to reconsider what they’re even working on. It is so rewarding and intellectually challenging to help guide teams through this and most importantly get them inspired and confident to work through the adversity to achieve a great product made together.
Can you share any memorable or rewarding moments you’ve experienced while working as a Course Coordinator?
Having the opportunity to fly to Korea with Prof. Gigi Wang and present on practicing a Service Leadership mindset at a conference was a memorable experience of my SCET Course Coordinating journey. Throughout my undergraduate experience at Berkeley, I have had to work through bouts of Imposter Syndrome–not feeling like I was “good enough” to make an impact. Speaking and sharing my entrepreneurial journey throughout my time as a course coordinator has helped me build a deeper belief in myself to know that I CAN figure out what it truly takes to be an high-impact entrepreneur, founder, mentor, mentee, and contributor.
How do you keep up with the latest trends and developments in entrepreneurship and innovation?
I’m still on Twitter
How do you believe the courses you coordinate prepare students for their careers, whether they pursue entrepreneurship or not?
The bootcamp is a special five days. Equal parts learning the theory and putting it into practice. Being that the course is only a week long, the time pressure acts as a great forcing-function for students to practice being resourceful and taking initiative to solve problems quickly. I’ve found that these are the traits that differentiate some of the best entrepreneurs and employees from the rest.
What advice do you have for students who are considering taking these courses or pursuing careers in entrepreneurship and innovation?
Engage with the world! Befriend those in your SCET classes and get to know the staff. It’s been such a pleasure to have come across SCET and have made amazing professional and personal relationships through the department.
What are your summer plans OR (if graduating) what are your post-graduation plans? If you are looking for opportunities, you can also state that here.
I’ve been fortunate to have been working with Paragon (YC W20) for about a year now. I’m working as a Product Manager and am equally inspired and fulfilled by my work. I get to apply my learnings from my SCET and entrepreneurship classes daily! I will be moving to San Francisco at the end of the 2023 school year. I’m excited for the next chapter of my entrepreneurial journey.
Course: Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship (BMOE) Bootcamp
What did you learn being an SCET course coordinator for Spring 2023?
I learn so much from the speakers at bootcamp, even if I am hearing their presentation for the second or third time. Now that I am pursuing a startup myself, it is valuable to hear about someone’s entrepreneurship journey and their life lessons and be able to apply it to my own trajectory.
What inspired you to become a Course Coordinator for entrepreneurship and innovation classes?
BMOE made me rethink what kind of career I see for myself. I love being around the passion and the people. I wanted to become a course coordinator so I could continue to be in the environment that inspires me to think bigger.
Can you share your background and any relevant experience you have in the fields of entrepreneurship, innovation, or education?
After taking bootcamp, I competed in and won Collider Cup! After that, I was a part of Sky Deck’s pad-13. Since then, I have taken many more SCET classes. I love being around passionate people with big ideas!
What is your favorite part about working as a Course Coordinator for these classes, and why?
My favorite part about working as a Course Coordinator for BMOE is meeting the incredible people who come in, students and speakers. The class attracts people from all over campus and even all over the world. I have never been an environment with such a unique mix of people quite like this. I love hearing the ideas that the groups come up with and working with them to concisely convey those ideas in the best way.
Can you share any memorable or rewarding moments you’ve experienced while working as a Course Coordinator?
This semester, a team I worked closely with competed and placed in Collider Cup. When I was sitting in the audience, watching them pitch, I felt so proud. It is rewarding to work with such passionate people and see their hard work pay off.
How do you keep up with the latest trends and developments in entrepreneurship and innovation?
Mostly just reading the news or blogs. Twitter sometimes.
How do you believe the courses you coordinate prepare students for their careers, whether they pursue entrepreneurship or not?
One of the courses’ main focuses is pitching. Even if a student does not end up pitching to investors, being able to effectively convey your thoughts in a way that engages whoever you are speaking to is a valuable skill. I think it could be applied to any job. Beyond that, the class teaches you how to collaborate with people of all backgrounds. Teams work closely all week and create their final pitch together. Entrepreneurship or not, it is essential to be able to work well with other people. Overall, BMOE creates an environment that is different from a traditional classroom setting, a great place to polish off your networking skills.
What advice do you have for students who are considering taking these courses or pursuing careers in entrepreneurship and innovation?
Take the leap and try it out. These courses are so different than traditional classes. They are interactive and engaging, and BMOE specifically is totally immersive for a week. It is a great place to break out of your shell.
What are your summer plans OR (if graduating) what are your post-graduation plans? If you are looking for opportunities, you can also state that here.
This summer I will be working as PM intern for Tinder. In addition, I will be continuing work on my startup, Ovo Box, that I started in BMOE.
Course: Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship (BMOE) Bootcamp
What did you learn being an SCET course coordinator for Spring 2023?
College is the ultimate learning environment and I understood that firsthand while being a Course Coordinator. Even though I was not the “student” in the class, I took in an incredible amount of knowledge this past semester interacting with my peers and the mentors who supported our thought-provoking discussions.
What inspired you to become a Course Coordinator for entrepreneurship and innovation classes?
I want to build a company. I think this was the biggest motivation for me to get so heavily involved with the startup space and it is what continues to push me as a Course Coordinator. I love that everyone around me has similar passions, with their own unique twists and we can feed off each others’ ideas.
Can you share your background and any relevant experience you have in the fields of entrepreneurship, innovation, or education?
I was part of the BMOE Bootcamp my Spring 2022 semester in which I founded a startup “Via” that won the venture pitch competition. I have been a Project Manager and VP of a Berkeley consulting club, responsible for multiple projects. I have worked with Engineering Executives from the Bay Area as part of the ELPP program to create startups.
What is your favorite part about working as a Course Coordinator for these classes, and why?
My favorite part of working as a Course Coordinator is being able to interact fully with the students. I love how intense everyone gets during our class and focused on building something successful. This energy is what I love to be a part of: jumping from peer to peer, picking through their thoughts and building productive conversation that can create success. Interacting with my peers in an intense and fulfilling environment is a fuel.
ENGIN 183C-002: Challenge Lab – Redefining Success: The Unspoken Rules of Building an Entrepreneurial Career | A Berkeley Changemaker Course
What is your favorite part about working as a Course Coordinator for these classes, and why?
What I love most about being a Course Coordinator is the opportunity to work closely with students and witness their growth as they pursue their projects! It’s amazing to see them become increasingly passionate about their work and being a part of their journey as they develop their ideas. I particularly enjoy the process of providing pitch feedback and helping them navigate the practical aspects of their projects. It is the most fulfilling job I could ever ask for – it allows me to support students as they develop their creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills!
How do you keep up with the latest trends and developments in entrepreneurship and innovation?
I love listening to podcasts – they make me feel productive even when doing something as simple as walking to class or helping update grades! Some of my favorite ones include WSJ Tech News Briefing by The Wall Street Journal and Equity by TechCrunch.
What advice do you have for students who are considering taking these courses or pursuing careers in entrepreneurship and innovation?
Do not be afraid to share your ideas! Collaboration and cooperation are integral to these courses; you can gain so much from brainstorming with your classmates and engaging in constructive discussion. Please remember that our classroom is a supportive environment and from course staff to your fellow students – we are here to be a resource!
What are your summer plans OR (if graduating) what are your post-graduation plans? If you are looking for opportunities, you can also state that here.
I will be interning at J.P. Morgan under the Technology Coverage Investment Banking practice. The technology sector has always intrigued me, and I look forward to being part of the next stage of a company’s lifecycle. Whether it is M&A, debt issuance, or even taking a new tech company public – I will definitely be keeping my eye out for any SCET founders in the future
Course: Spring 2023 ENGIN 183C Challenge Lab – Redefining Success: The Unspoken Rules of Building an Entrepreneurial Career | A Berkeley Changemaker Course
What inspired you to become a Course Coordinator for entrepreneurship and innovation classes?
All the SCET classes I took as an undergraduate enabled me to think autonomously, live with agency, and connect with thought leaders. I became curious about how instructors manage to create such immersive and engaging learning environments for students, while also working in industry. After investing so much of my time and energy in SCET classes, and working with startups and small/midsize businesses, I began to realize how applicable the courses assignments and objectives are to the real-world.
What is your favorite part about working as a Course Coordinator for these classes, and why?
I’ve cherished the opportunity to witness students, instructors, and guest speakers building relationships, connecting the dots, and enjoying the classess from a third-person perspective. Having taken various Challenge Labs myself, I have experienced the value of engaging with the course and being fully present; so, I love to see other people immersing themselves in the lively class experience. It’s an incredibly satisfying and heart-warming feeling.
How do you believe the courses you coordinate prepare students for their careers, whether they pursue entrepreneurship or not?
Taking these courses provides you with access to diverse leaders who bring real-world experience and expertise into the classroom. The valuable insights and practical advice shared by instructors, guest speakers, and students, provides students with opportunities for braining storming, change-making, and building solutions. Ultimately, this helps us succeed in our careers by bridging the gap between academic theory and real-world practice.
What are your summer plans OR (if graduating) what are your post-graduation plans? If you are looking for opportunities, you can also state that here.
I’m thrilled to continue working with the SCET Team in collaboration with the European Innovation Academy as an Ambassador and Mentor. I will be participating in a 4 week program, representing over 500+ students and 70+ universities worldwide, acting as a bridge between UC Berkeley students and program leaders, while promoting the premier summer innovation bootcamp for entrepreneurs and corporate innovators to the wider community.
In Fall of 2023, I am looking for opportunities to continue learning value-based, organizational, human-centered design. I am especially interested in sustainability and organizations on a mission to build a circular economy.
ENGIN 183C-005: Challenge Lab – Designing Startups to Transform Society | A Berkeley Changemaker® Course
Course: Designing Startups to Transform Society Challenge Lab
What did you learn being an SCET course coordinator for Spring 2023?
I coordinated a course that featured “IIRs,” or Innovators in Residence, who were Berkeley students with impressive experience in entrepreneurship. They took charge of a weekly class and provided valuable mentorship to student teams in the challenge lab. Witnessing the impact of having peer-led instruction through IIRs was enlightening, as it became clear that students derive greater value from the course when they are taught by their fellow classmates, in addition to the main instructors.
What inspired you to become a Course Coordinator for entrepreneurship and innovation classes?
Last semester, I took a SCET course that had a course coordinator who was helpful and dedicated to the class. I also recognized that the position of a course coordinator could provide me with more opportunities to engage with entrepreneurship and other students who shared my passion.
Can you share any memorable or rewarding moments you’ve experienced while working as a Course Coordinator?
The final presentations were the most satisfying part of the semester. It was incredible to see the progress the teams had made since the earlier stages of the course. Working with some of the teams earlier in the semester, I remember discussing different directions for their startups and assessing feasibility. Witnessing their final product demos was a great memory that inspires me to keep pushing forward, even in the face of challenges.
How do you keep up with the latest trends and developments in entrepreneurship and innovation?
I keep up with things by observing the world around me, seeing what my friends are classmates are using or are interested in, and consuming many forms of media such as YouTube, podcasts, or reading newsletters. The newsletters from SCET and Berkeley Engineering usually have the most cutting edge tech tech stories, while the traditional news outlets like Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, and Financial Times have great explanations of the innovations that more people are familiar with.
How do you believe the courses you coordinate prepare students for their careers, whether they pursue entrepreneurship or not?
Whether you pursue entrepreneurship or not, you’ll want your voice and ideas to be heard at some point; SCET courses help you with that by putting you in teams for the entire semester, you’re doing customer interviews, putting together a business plan, and developing an MVP. These courses prepare you by developing your social, professional, and creativity skills.
What advice do you have for students who are considering taking these courses or pursuing careers in entrepreneurship and innovation?
Just do it. YOLO. What do you have to lose? In-person entrepreneurship courses are rare, meeting other people who are interested in startups and entrepreneurship is also difficult outside of these classes. If you don’t do it now and make connections while in college, you may find yourself spending $$$ to go to conferences or looking for niche meetups after work. It’s much easier to do it in college, in my opinion.
