Northwestern Events Calendar

Dec
2
2022

Tech Entrepreneurship: Developing a Product Prototype

When: Friday, December 2, 2022
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM CT

Where: Online

Audience: Faculty/Staff - Student - Public - Post Docs/Docs - Graduate Students

Cost: Free

Contact: Melanie Galvan   (312) 503-3946

Group: SPS: Special Events

Category: Academic, Lectures & Meetings

Description:

Do you have a great idea for a new product?  Have you thought about starting your own business or side hustle? Are you a corporate "intrapreneur" who wants to turn a new product idea into reality? This webinar will be of interest to anyone with an entrepreneurial mindset or who wishes to learn more about developing product prototypes.

Technology Entrepreneurship is a new specialization and graduate certificate in the data science program at Northwestern University School of Professional Studies (SPS). In this webinar, Professor Bala Kamallakharan will introduce “Product Prototyping,” a special topics course launching in spring 2023. Designed to develop a startup mindset, this course will provide a unique end-to-end experience in product prototyping. It will call on guest speaker entrepreneurs and prototype developers, including Bre Pettis, a featured panelist at this webinar. 

Date: Friday, December 2
Time: 1:30-2:30 p.m. CT
Location: Zoom

 *A link to join the webinar will be shared with registrants one day prior to the event. 

Bala Kamallakharan is a faculty member of the data science program at SPS. Bala is the Founder of Startup Iceland, a grassroots initiative to build a sustainable startup ecosystem in Iceland. Bala is also Co-Founder of Dattaca Labs and Iceland Venture Studio. Bala has served as Executive Board Member in Guide to Iceland and TravelShift. Bala has invested, mentored and was the Chairman of the Board at CLARA (Resonata), the Icelandic Community Analytics company which was acquired by Jive Software in 2013. Bala has taught Entrepreneurship and how to start a startup class at Reykjavik University. 

Bre Pettis is CEO of Bantam Tools, a manufacturer of desktop computer numerical control (CNC) machines. Prior to running Bantam Tools, Pettis owned and operated Bre & Co. and Bold Machines, both off-shoots of his work with the 3D printing company MakerBot, which he co-founded and served as the CEO from 2009 to 2014. Bre was honored with the Disruptive Innovation Award from the Tribeca Film Festival, for "creating an entire ecosystem for desktop 3D printing." He is a highly sought-after speaker and interview subject, gracing the cover of numerous magazines (WIRED, Popular Science), and has been a guest on The Colbert Report, CNN, Fox News, CNET, Bloomberg and many more media outlets. 

Mark Schumacher served as a finance executive and operations strategist with Accenture for sixteen years and with Ernst & Young for five years. His goal is to help organizations utilize the power of data to build efficient, resilient, and responsible business models. He has been involved in blockchain technology for the last five years and views blockchain as a foundational technology that can help solve problems in data governance and security. Mark is currently working for the Segal Design Institute at Northwestern University, a department in the McCormick School of Engineering. 

Tom Miller is faculty director of the data science program at Northwestern University. He started with the program when it was called predictive analytics and for the past eleven years has been responsible for growing the curriculum, introducing specializations, and designing numerous distance learning courses. Tom also owns Research Publishers LLC, a California company that publishes books, journals, and knowledge bases and provides research and consulting services.

This webinar is part of the SPS Thought Leadership Series, a program of online events featuring a wide range of compelling topics and thoughtfully led conversations throughout the 2022-2023 academic year.

*This special event series is free and open to the public.

If you have any questions about this event, please contact Melanie Galvan at melanie.galvan@northwestern.edu.

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