Category: Entrepreneurship / Start-ups

New Ventures from UCSB Students

After eight months of activities and curriculum the UCSB New Venture Competition culminated with six teams presenting a pitch and a question-and-answer session for a panel of expert judges and an enthusiastic audience of peers, faculty and mentors.

The finalist teams, pared down from an initial pool of 32, represented diverse technologies and industries. The top six teams were: MoreSolar, utilizing wind power as a novel method for cleaning solar panels to increase efficiency; Adomi, addressing California’s housing shortage with a scalable solution that is also profitable to homeowners; Okra Systems, software for engineers that streamlines the process of selecting and qualifying microcontrollers; Snip, a social media platform for podcast lovers that allows users to curate and share podcasts; Soilight utilizing the microbes in soil to provide energy for low-powered applications; and Veneta, a web- and mobile-based software service that streamlines inventory management research labs.

Meet these young tech entrepreneurs and see who landed in the top spot.

Watch 2018 New Venture Competition Finals

Innovation and Culture at the Border

32822Tijuana – San Diego, Ciudad Juarez – El Paso; these regions share economic and cultural linkages in dynamic cross-border regions. The Institute of the Americas and the Aspen Institute Latinos and Society Program hosted a fascinating event that highlighted success stories and dynamism in the innovative and creative environment of border regions.

Speakers include Regina Bernal, Entrepreneurship Manager, University of San Diego; Ricardo Mora, Founder and CEO of Technology in Ciudad Juárez; Guillermo Mejía, Managing Director at MindHub in Tijuana; Jim Brown, Bread & Salt and Principal at PUBLIC Architecture and Planning; David Favela, Founder of Border X and artist Jessie Zelayandia.

Watch:

  • Innovating at the Border

  • The Creative Economy

    • Entrepreneur Insights

    8232What do you get when you pair a street-smart start-up expert and UCSB Professor of Practice with industry leaders who have distinguished themselves in their fields? You get a front row seat to fascinating, and sometimes surprising, candid conversations. The newest programs in this long-running series from the Technology Management Program at UC Santa Barbara finds John Greathouse in conversation with some intriguing people. Check out these new interviews:

  • Mark Sylvester, a cook who became the father of CGI and won an Oscar for scientific and technical achievement
  • Stacy Peralta, a skateboarding legend and the accidental inventor of the action sports video
  • Robbie Bach, the creator of the xBox, redefining the gaming industry
  • Mike Falzone, a YouTube star who leveraged his passions into a career
  • Cheryl Conner, who turned her love for writing into a PR firm.

    • For more from the series go to ucsd.tv/tmp