Berkeley Innovation Podcast

Episode #5

This Alumni Achiever episode features a Berkeley Engineering Leader Panel recorded March 21, 2017 as part of the Newton Lecture Series. The discussion is moderated by Amit Kumar, Partner at VC form Accel and  features Padmini Pyapali of Uber, Jeff Huang of Facebook, and Sanjay Jeyakumar of Twitter.

01:04 - Panel introduction

03:29 - Berkeley experience

10:11 - Microsoft to Facebook considerations

13:37 - Zynga to Uber considerations

17:07 - Oracle to Google to startup to Twitter

19:20 - Startup terrified

20:54 - Navigating internals of a company

24:30 - Getting into management

27:55 - Tech architect path

34:01 - Getting acquired by Twitter

35:54 - Working at a lightning rod company

40:27 - Advice for students

45:36 - Q&A

Episode #4

Newton Series Classic episode featuring renowned Entrepreneur and Venture Capitalist Ben Horowitz. Andreessen Horowitz Co-Founder Ben Horowitz gave this Newton Lecture Series talk on campus at Berkeley on November 3rd, 2009, just four months after starting his new venture firm. In this episode, he shares his entrepreneurial journey, along with what his new firm was looking for in terms of entrepreneurs and companies in which to invest. 

00:30 - Episode Introduction

01:30 - Ben Horowitz introduction

02:40 - How to play Quarterback in the NFL

04:10 - Controversial Computer Science degree 

05:35 - Are you studying the right thing?

06:07 - The hilarious Warren Buffett

07:03 - Words of wisdom from the King of Pop, Michael Jackson

09:05 - What you need to build a new technology company

10:45 - Apple's Steve Jobs

14:17 - Story of Bernard Hopkins

15:10 - The second thing you need to build a new technology company

16:39 - How I became a CEO

20:30 - Story of America Online (AOL) to Loudcloud to Opsware 

27:49 - Bill Clinton & Lesson from Colin Powell

29:10 - Is it too late to start a tech company?

33:12 - How can someone from Harvard write something so stupid?

35:12 - Would you like to know why smart people are so stupid?

39:34 - All the value in tech companies & who VCs want to invest in

41:48 - Quality of the team

42:40 - Megalomaniacs

43:59 - Great opportunities

45:31 - The biggest challenge for entrepreneurs

46:43 - Even William from Twitter and Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook

48:02 - The biggest thing to building a company

Episode #3

Faculty Insight conversation with Alexander Fred-Ojala on Blockchain, Data Science, and AI. Alex is an International Instructor from Sweden who is the former Research Director of the SCET Data Lab and co-Founder of the SCET Blockchain Lab. He helped create the DataX Framework and our popular DataX course.   

00:49 - Introduction  of Alex

03:00 - What's exciting in SCET Blockchain Challenge Lab

03:59 - Blockchain Use Cases

04:29 - Blockchain's Killer Application

06:05 - Commercial Application of Blockchain - Walmart & IBM Case

08:25 - Blockchain Scalability Issues

09:45 - Pruning the Merkle Tree

10:55 - What's exciting in SCET Data Lab

11:20 - Revolutionizing Global Telecommunications Network

13:21 - Natural Language Processing & Understanding 

15:19 - Contextual Understanding, Dude!

16:32 - Next big technology opportunity for entrepreneurs

17:22 - Destroying businesses

18:24 - ICO Scams

19:56 - Monetization paths for Blockchain startups

21:25 - Value layer versus ledger

22:06 - The Web 3.0 - We own our data

23:15 - What we have in blockchain now that we didn't have in the past

24:29 - Doubts of blockchain

25:25 - The tipping point of blockchain - Angry Birds

27:15 - Decentralized applications

28:43 - Trust in blockchain, cryptocurrency, and money

32:05 - Adoption inflection point 

35:31 - Blockchain alternatives

36:51 - Satoshi Nakamoto & blockchain precursors

38:19 - Work shifts with AI 

41:10 - Value transition

44:03 - What should students do on campus

44:50 - Programs for professionals

46:29 - Fun!

Episode #2

Faculty Insight

Moor Xu, Sutardja Center "Game Master" for many of our experiential learning modules shares what goes into the games. 

00:45 - Introduction of Moor

01:30 - How and why games

04:14 - What are you thinking about when you come up with a game 

05:10 - Construction of an entrepreneurial game

06:50 - The debrief

08:20 - Why don't other classes use these types of games

10:05 - Where do games fit in

11:30 - Games in corporate training

14:20 - What should executives think about when helping their teams

16:05 - What should other educators know about using games

18:55 - How do you merge theory and practical application

21:30 - Helping professors utilize experiential learning

24:10 - Evolution of experiential learning

25:50 - What skills won't be automated away with technology

25:50 - Fun!

Try Everything! 

Episode #1 

Faculty Insight

Interview with Professor Ikhlaq Sidhu, PhD, Chief Scientist & Faculty Director of Berkeley Engineering's Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (SCET).

In this episode, Dr. Sidhu discusses the history of SCET on campus at U.C. Berkeley. 

00:56 - Introduction of Dr. Sidhu

02:29 - History of SCET

03:58 - Entrepreneurship on campus before SCET

05:12 - Entrepreneurship in the U.C. System today

06:03 - About Former Engineering Dean Richard Newton

07:19 - The 95-97% of Faculty vs the 3-5% of Faculty regarding New Ventures and their impact on students

08:40 - What brought Dr. Sidhu to Berkeley

12:01 - Why Berkeley

12:59 - Building SCET

16:20 - The way entrepreneurs see the world

17:25 - Characteristics of entrepreneurs and innovators - Berkeley Method and transfer to students

19:35 - Challenge labs

20:50 - The key differentiators for innovators to learn

25:38 - Logic & content first, then soft skills

27:01 - Stories of executive learning

31:30 - What's next for SCET labs - Real, Practical ML AI Data Science classes; the hackers guide class

36:40 - Challenge lab objectives - Talent & Topics

37:50 - Long-term objective of SCET

41:45 - Engaging Industry projects

44:15 - How to engage with SCET

45:30 - Fun!

Be sure to check out Professor Sidhu's new book, Innovation Engineering: A Practical Guide to Creating Anything New.