Berkeley entrepreneurship begins here
The University of California, Berkeley offers entrepreneurs an unparalleled education, top research centers and faculty, and the opportunity to be part of the innovative culture in the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley. The Berkeley Gateway to Innovation (BEGIN) is the portal to the entrepreneurship community at UC Berkeley. Our goal is to help students, faculty, researchers, and other innovators understand the resources available at Berkeley to support educating entrepreneurs, commercializing research, and advancing startups.
BEGIN is funded in part by the State of California Assembly Bill 2664 for entrepreneurship and innovation expansion at the University of California, Berkeley .
Roadmap for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at UC Berkeley
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State grant accelerates UC Berkeley's innovation and entrepreneurship
The University of California, Berkeley has announced promising early results from a $2.2 million grant provided by the State of California. The grant has helped UC Berkeley, already a global hub for innovation, to expand its entrepreneurship activities with new facilities, courses and programs.
AI and Tax Season – Why AI and Data Does Not Solve Every Problem & Why Systems and Good Architecture Matter More
A few weeks back, I had the opportunity to visit a tax department for one of the world’s leading global economies. My colleague Alexander Fred-Ojala and I were there to discuss how artificial intelligence and data technologies might fit into their strategic plans. Data X-Lab director Alexander Fred Ojala explaining how AI and Data models …
Big Ideas Grand Prize Pitch Day Showcases Inventions of Top Student Teams
In 2006, the Big Ideas Contestlaunched at UC Berkeley to catalyze and support an interdisciplinary and diverse network of student entrepreneurs to develop game-changing innovations. No longer would entrepreneurship be ensconced within just engineering and business schools and accessible to only a few. The time had come to “open-source” entrepreneurship to include the range of perspectives …
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Taiwanese Visiting Researchers Yao-Chieh Hu and Ting-Ting Lee — A Global Blockchain Entrepreneurship Journey
From Asia to California — a passion for blockchain is taking UC Berkeley Sutardja Center visiting researchers and Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator scholars Yao Chieh Hu (Jeff) and Ting Ting Lee (Tina) on a worldwide journey of opportunity and discovery. Ting-Ting Lee and Yao-Chieh Hu are visiting researchers and scholars for the Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator “Blockchain …
SRM students share their Startup Semester experiences
Through a global partnership with the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, students from the Amravati campus and Chennai Campus at Sri Ramaswami Memorial University (SRM) in India are studying as a part of Startup Semester at UC Berkeley this semester. We spoke to four SRM students with technical and entrepreneurship education backgrounds about their …
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From Bean to Cup: Anti-Trafficking IdeaLab Develops App for Ethically Sourced Coffee
By Chloe Gregori Whether students are cramming for late night exams, needing a spike of energy during a 9 am lecture, or studying at a local Berkeley cafe—coffee embodies the college experience. In fact, 54 percent of Americans over the age of 18 drink coffee every day. Coffee is worth over $100 billion worldwide, placing …
#FemaleFounderFriday: Mehek Mohan, Clean Slate
This #FemaleFounderFriday, we celebrate UC Berkeley Molecular & Cell Biology ’19 founder Mehek Mohan of Clean Slate. Mehek has the single best opening question to introduce her company. Just ask her. She leads one of only three undergrad teams in the UC-wide LAUNCH accelerator and is also an NSF I-Corps alum. Her secret to success? Do something you’re …
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Join SCET for CalDay 2019!
The Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology at UC Berkeley is excited to be participating in CalDay 2019! We invite the whole community to come meet our students, faculty, and staff at our events through the day! Here is the schedule for this Saturday, April 13 at UC Berkeley SCET: 9 a.m. – 10 a.m. …
Get ready for SCET’s Collider Cup IV!
We’re a month away from one of the Sutardja Center’s biggest events of the semester — Collider Cup IV! The Collider Cup is SCET’s all-star showcase of the best student teams from each semester. The Sutardja Center is excited to present Collider Cup IV on Friday, May 10 from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm in …
A Course for Addressing Wicked Problems in the Bay Area
When fourth year media studies student Erik Phillip came across a flyer for the Blum Center’s Development Engineering course Hacking4Local, he was interested but wary. “I thought I’d be the only undergraduate and the only non-engineer,” he said. “That was a terrifying combination.” But Phillip, who was born and raised in Oakland and is proud …
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Learning from Failure: NextDrop’s Water Information Pilot in Bangalore
Access to clean, reliable drinking water remains one of the biggest challenges in developing countries, and public water services in India are no exception. There, over 150 million people are served by intermittent piped water systems. In many Indian cities, water is available roughly four hours per day; while several cities report that water may …
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A New Era in Global Development Training
Shankar Sastry Higher education is having a disruption moment. Not so much in the sense that universities will no longer be physical places where professors instruct students—as has been the case since 859 when Fatima al-Fihri founded the University of Al-Qarawiyyan, which became the world’s first higher education institution to award degrees in mathematics, grammar, …
A Human and AI hybrid approach for complex AI-based Conversational Commerce
Recently, I had the opportunity to visit Manila to tour a new AI and Data firm called AI-Pros. As you may know, the Philippines has a $27B Business Process Outsourcing industry which includes 900K call center agents. Over the past two decades it has become a major growth driver for the Philippine economy. On this …
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Nicole Johnson and Kiel Murray talk about the importance of storytelling in your next venture
Photo credit: Kerry Kehoe Last month, Nicole Johnson, Founder and CEO of NicJohn Media and Kiel Murray, a Pixar storyteller visited the Sutardja Center’s Newton Lecture Series to sit down and discuss why and how to tell your startup story as an entrepreneur. They discussed their personal career paths, and emphasized the effect that storytelling …
SACEPI Poverty Action Day Focused on Student Food Insecurity
Veena Narashiman ‘2020 According to a December 2017 report of the University of California Global Food Initiative, 44 percent of UC undergraduates experience some type of food insecurity, meaning they lack consistent access to nutritious food while they are students. And 5 percent of UC undergraduates experience homelessness, a figure that doubles when narrowed to …
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Making Do, not Making New: Fabien Cappello Rethinks Design’s Social Values
Making Do before Making New: Fabien Cappello Rethinks Design’s Social Values by Robert J. Kett, PhD This Spring, the Jacobs Institute hosts the inaugural installation of On View at Jacobs Hall, an exhibition program featuring designs engaging cultural life and emerging technology. Fabien Cappello: Sillas Callejeras/Street Chairs will be installed across Jacobs Hall from March 22-May 18. The …
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Centering the Margin: August de los Reyes on the Design of Disability and Futures of Well-Being
August de los Reyes works as a Design Director at Google where he leads a team dedicated to harnessing technologies in the service of human well-being. Prior to joining Google, August led design at Pinterest and at Xbox for Microsoft. August is an active champion of Inclusive Design in the tech arena, as well as …
Move Over Elon: Loonify @ Y Combinator W19 Demo Day
Move over Elon, NSF I-Corps and Haas alum Saharnaz Safari’s Loonify Space was one of the hottest companies @ last week’s YC W19 Demo Day. TechCrunch writes: “A bespoke launch system meant specifically for carrying small satellites into orbit. A balloon carries rocket to 35km and launches it mid-air. They have Letters of Intent for 155 satellite launches, …
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Female Founder Friday: Epixego
Special thanks to guest contributor Anita Balaraman Why Epixego? We can’t think of a better problem to work on, than one that affects our children and their future. Real data tells us: 65% of the children entering primary school today will ultimately end up working in completely new job types that don’t yet exist; over …
Meet the teams: Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator kicks off with first batch
On March 19, the Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator welcomed its first batch of teams to the recently launched accelerator focused on blockchain startup education and support. Laura Tyson, Faculty Director of Institute for Business and Social Impact at Haas School of Business and Ikhlaq Sidhu, Chief Scientist and Founder of Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology, …
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Meet the teams: Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator kicks off with first batch
On March 19, the Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator welcomed its first batch of teams to the recently launched accelerator focused on blockchain startup education and support. Laura Tyson, Faculty Director of Institute for Business and Social Impact at Haas School of Business and Ikhlaq Sidhu, Chief Scientist and Founder of Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology, …
Continue reading “Meet the teams: Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator kicks off with first batch”