Ikhlaq Sidhu

University of California at Berkeley affiliates Ikhlaq Sidhu, Paul Nerger & Shomit Ghose have released a Viewpoint on the topic of Solyndra, which filed for bankruptcy this month after receiving $1B in professional investment and another $500M in politicized government loan guarantees.

Though Solyndra has become a politically charged discussion, the case of Solyndra is important and interesting for the Innovation Economy because it uniquely captures the confluence of technology, business models, policy, and a changing landscape in global competition, and thus is of value to students of business and technology in the classroom, executives in the board room, and policy makers in the halls of government.

This Viewpoint is an independent academic study intended to encourage a balanced discussion and develop a teaching case.  Copies of the analysis may be requested by mailing the Innovation Economy Working Group of the Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (ie@lists.berkeley.edu).

BERKELEY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– The University of California has begun the first session of its Engineering Leadership Program for Professionals. This six month program is being held in the Silicon Valley and is focused on providing leadership training to top engineers from leading technology companies, including: Applied Materials, Cisco, Facebook, Lam Research, NetApp, National Semiconductor and Yahoo. This is the first program of its type in the U.S.

The program comprises twenty-eight, 3-hour sessions to be held weekly from January through the July of 2011. The goals of the program are to teach engineers to expertly manage technical teams, influence top-level strategy, and amplify the inherent value of R&D. The subjects covered will include: opportunity recognition, technical firm strategy, product management, customer development, operations, leadership skills, and finance. The sessions include cases presented by both U.C. Berkeley faculty and co-lecturers from industry, including: Charles Giancarlo, Charles Huang, Jerry Fiddler, and Sabeer Bhatia.

Said Charles Giancarlo, Managing Director of Silver Lake and former Chief Development Officer, Cisco, “I am a great fan of this program and believe that many companies in the valley can make use of it to meet the needs of engineering and marketing managers as they rise through the ranks. There is nothing like this anywhere.”

Speaking on the topic of the complementary programs offered by Berkeley’s Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership, Shankar Sastry, Dean of the Berkeley’s College of Engineering said, “Technology has the power to change how we live – but only if technologists have the tools and skills to lead these changes.”

The approximately 50 participating engineering leaders have been recommended and sponsored by their companies. The candidates included senior managers, directors, and key technical leaders. According to Prof. Sidhu, Founding Chief Scientist of the Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership and Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (CET), “Our goal is to lead thinking in the importance of the role of engineering leadership to business success.”

More information about the Engineering Leadership Program for Professionals can be found athttp://cet.berkeley.edu/professional or contact Keith P. Gatto, Program Director at kgatto@berkeley.edu.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/UC-Berkeley-Launches-bw-2004380288.html?x=0&.v=1

This week the Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (CET) released
a study on the topic of “Intellectual Property (IP) Strategies for New
UC Berkeley Ventures: A Framework.” The report provides practical
insight on how entrepreneurs implement effective intellectual property
strategies while starting technology ventures within an academic
setting.

Since many UC Berkeley faculty and students have been very successful
in developing new technology ventures and industry collaborations, the
study has focused on collecting data from successful faculty and
student entrepreneurs, in order to aggregate and open the key
information needed to make good IP decisions. Understanding the
mechanics of how academics innovate has become critical as
universities increasingly replace private laboratories as a primary
source of innovation.

The 7-page report summary and the full report are now available on the
research page of the CET web site:

http://cet.berkeley.edu/connect/translational-research

This is the first research report that the Center for Entrepreneurship
& Technology (CET) has published as part of the Coleman Fung Institute
for Engineering Leadership.  The work was inspired by Berkeley
Material Science Ph.D. Christine Ho’s quest to commercialize
technology from her research area, and the project is complementary
with the national dialog on this topic led by the Kauffman Foundation.

Within Berkeley, the report represents a collaboration of stakeholders
and partners including the Cleantech to Market Program at the Energy
Institute at Haas, advisors from Boalt Law School, Berkeley Campus and
Lab’s tech transfer offices, UC Berkeley’s Office of Intellectual
Property & Industrial Research Alliances (IPIRA), and of course our
students, staff, and faculty.

Berkeley, Calif. (PRWEB) August 2, 2010 — Today, the University of
California, Berkeley’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (CET)
released a report examining the state of technology entrepreneurship
education around the world.

The study encompasses the insights of approximately 20
entrepreneurship educators with engineering and technology backgrounds
who gathered for the inaugural symposium of the Global Venture Lab,
held during Global Entrepreneurship Week, November 2009. The
roundtable included leading educators from Stanford University; the
University of Michigan; the University of Texas, Austin; King Saud
University; the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur;
Tsinghua University; Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH); and
the University of Cambridge, among others.

This report reveals how ecosystems influence educational strategies,
why university systems designed to promote innovation can stifle it,
and why entrepreneurship education is no longer solely focused on
fostering as many student-led ventures as possible.

To read the report in its entirety, go to the CET website:
http://cet.berkeley.edu/translational-research/

About the UC Berkeley Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology
The Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (CET) is a Fung
Institute-affiliated academic center and industry partnership within
UC Berkeley’s College of Engineering. Since its establishment in 2005,
the Center’s mission has been to equip engineers and scientists with
the skills to lead, innovate, and commercialize technology in the
global economy. Through teaching, programs, network building, and
research interlaced with strong industry participation, the Center
teaches entrepreneurship as it relates to individual venture creation
and to innovation within existing entities. More information on CET
here: http://cet.berkeley.edu/