von Liebig Center in the UT San Diego

Great story about the von Liebig Center in the UT San Diego this week.

Innovation is the engine of the economy, and UC San Diego is turbocharging the RPMs. That’s why the von Liebig Entrepreneurism Center was formed 10 years ago in the Jacobs School of Engineering. The center offers classes, mentorship and grants to all graduate students at UC San Diego, and it also has collaborations with other universities in the region. It has a satellite office at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and works closely with the UC San Diego Medical School and the Rady School of Management.

 The story is part of the "I'm There for You, Baby" series by Neil Senturia and Barbara Bry, serial entrepreneurs who invest in early-stage technology companies. The weekly column is about entrepreneurship in San Diego.

Meet the Founders and CEOs of Biological Dynamics, Cognionics, App2you and EarthRisk Technologies

Meet the Founders and CEOs of Biological Dynamics, Cognionics, App2you and EarthRisk Technologies TODAY at a Technology and Student Showcase, part of the 10th Anniversary Celebration of the von Liebig Entrepreneurism Center at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering.

Learn how inventions are commercialized.

Meet the founders and entrepreneurs that have launched  4 exciting technology companies.
Hear how they are bringing new innovations to the market and the role of the von Liebig Center in the
transition out of the laboratory. 

RSVP

When: Wednesday, January 18, 2012

5:00 - 7:00 p.m.

Where: Qualcomm Conference Center
at the Jacobs School of Engineering
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, California

Inquiries: vonliebigcontact@soe.ucsd.edu or 858-822-1435

Deadlin Extended: Fall Elevator Pitch Competition Entry Deadline

Deadline has been EXTENDED!!

If you've ever had an idea for a business here is your chance to showcase it--and maybe win some money!

1 Page (550 words), $1,000 awarded to the top idea.

The top 8 ideas as evaluated by our judging consortium will pitch their idea live to the audience at our 2011 Winter KickOff in January.

An audience vote will determine who walks away with $1,000.

Link for Submitting Entry: 
http://challenge.ucsd.edu/?page_id=778

Judging Criteria : http://challenge.ucsd.edu/?page_id=26
 

We all have ideas, submit yours!

Deadline: Tomorrow Friday, December 2, 2011 by 11:59pm
http://challenge.ucsd.edu

von Liebig Entrepreneurism Center / CONNECT

CONNECT has a story about the recent "Innovation 101" series entitled "Technology and Innovation in Proof of Concept Centers: Accelerating the Commercialization of University Innovation".  The story includes Dr. Rosibel Ochoa, Director of the von Liebig Center at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego.

Read the story on the CONNECT Web site, in the Policy eNEWS archive.

UCSD Entrepreneur Challenge Final Business Plan Competition Prizes Increased to $100k

UCSD Entrepreneur Challenge Final Business Plan Competition Prizes Increased to $100k

Always striving to create the most unique entrepreneur environment, the UCSD Entrepreneur Challenge has year over year been able to expand it's prize offerings.  This year they are excited to be able to increase our $80k prize package to $100k and expand the resources they are able to provide to aspiring entrepreneurs.

(Be sure to also check out the Startup Job Fair on Monday May 9, organized by the UCSD Entrepreneur Challenge).

The $100k in prizes offered will encompass 
1) Cash
2) Legal Services provided by DLA Piper
3) Incubation Services 
4) Financial Services


The Deadline for submission is Friday May 13 at 11:59pm.  Submissions consist of a 1500 word Executive Summary and 15 slide Powerpoint deck.
The top 5 submissions will pitch live on June 1st at the Neurosciences Institute Auditorium for our final Judging Panel:


Ernest Rady--Namesake Rady School of Management, Rady Childrens Hospital
Saeed Amidi--Founder Plug and Play Tech Center--seed funders of Paypal
Gail Naughton--Dean of the College of Business Administration at SDSU
Leo Spiegel--Managing Partner Mission Ventures
Blaise Barrelet--Founder and CEO Anametrix and WebSideStory (acquired by Adobe for $1.8 Billion)
Mary Ann Beyster--President for the Foundation of Enterprise Development
Bruce Breslau--Senior Vice President Market Manager at Union Bank of California

SUBMIT HERE
Submission Guidlines can be found here

 *NOTE THAT ALL E. CHALLENGE COMPETITIONS ARE SEPARATE AND INDEPENDENT

"UCSD Entrepreneur Challenge is bringing to light the vibrant, yet underground entrepreneurial scene in San Diego. Thanks to programs like these, we are sure to see the growth of San Diego as a well known entrepreneurial hot spot. Thank you UCSD Entrepreneur Challenge."

--Daniel Bonsoms (Babson College--Ranked #1 in Entrepreneurship)

Startup Job Fair / UCSD Entrepreneur Challenge

The first annual Startup Job Fair is this Monday May 9th, 2011 from 5PM to 8PM.
Where? UCSD Student Services Center, Multipurpose Room

The student-organizers of the event expect 30 startup companies to attend, including:

BrightScope, Client Radius, SOOVO, Open Candy, Edge Tech Wireless, Zenobia Therapeutics, Precision Point, Cloud Canvas and Congionics.

The organizers give special thanks to:
CONNECT, CommNexus San Diego, Tech Coast Angels,  von Liebig Center and BIOCOM.

The Startup Job Fair is hosted by the UC San Diego Entrepreneur Challenge and Ansir Innovation Center

UCSD Entrepreneur Challenge Spring Kickoff is Tomorrow, March 30

UC San Diego Entrepreneur Challenge
Wednesday March 30th, 6-8pm
UCSD Price Center - Ballroom A (map)
$17,500 in cash and prizes will be awarded

Presenting:
Jordan Greenhall, Founder of DivX, Inc. (bio)
Jason Pang, Founder and CEO of PRIMA Cinema (bio)

 

RSVP Free Here

UCSD Entrepreneur Challenge / 2011 Spring Kickoff / March 30

UC San Diego Entrepreneur Challenge
SPRING KICKOFF
Wednesday March 30th, 6-8pm
UCSD Price Center - Ballroom A (map)
$17,500 in cash and prizes will be awarded
Keynote Speaker: Jordan Greenhall, Founder and Chairman of DivX, Inc.

RSVP

Friday Event: Entrepreneurship to Engineering Leadership

A Gordon Leadership Center Event on Friday Jan 28: 5PM: "Entrepreneurship to Engineering Leadership"

Location: Jacobs Hall - Qualcomm Conference Center, UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Map here.


Creativity, innovation and leadership are among the essential attributes of future engineers as identified in the Engineer 2020 report by the National Academy of Engineering. It is critical for students to have the ability to identify new needs and opportunities for technological innovation in highly complex and interdisciplinary domains. The goal of this talk is to discuss a “technological innovation start-up” model and its stages such as seed stage to start-up stage, early stage to expansion & lead stage.


Speaker Bio:

Speaker Bio

Cahit Akin, PhD – Principal, ITU Ventures/President & CEO, Mushroom Networks, Inc. received his PhD and MSE degree in Electrical Engineering and MS in Mathematics from University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He holds a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from Bilkent University, Turkey. Currently, he is a Principal at ITU Ventures, LLC, a seed stage Venture Capital firm with $200 million under management, where he has been working since 2001. Dr. Akin managed the Adaptive Systems Laboratory out of Cal-IT2 at University of California San Diego, and continues to be a volunteer scholar at Cal-IT2. Dr. Akin is a cofounder and investor in Mushroom Networks, Inc. where he is also the President and Chief Executive Officer. Previously, Dr. Akin has worked as a senior analyst at a boutique marketing consultancy firm on Wall Street ­ New York, formulating marketing strategies for multi-billion dollar companies. Dr. Akin has worked on technical and research aspects of communications for over 7 years including several patents. Dr. Akin is a recipient of the NATO Graduate Study Scholarship award and was a national team member for International Mathematics Olympiad in 1993.

Entrepreneur Challenge / Elevator Pitch Finals Jan 19

Elevator pitch finals are Jan 19, 6-8 PM in the Student Services Center (multipurpose room) here at UC San Diego. RSVP for the event.

Keynote: Dr. Philip Low (CEO/Founder/Chairman) of NeuroVigil.

$1,000 is up for grabs in the 5th Annual UC San Diego Entrepreneur Challenge Winter Kickoff and Elevator Pitch Competition.  The event features the top 8 submissions to the E. Challenge Elevator Pitch Competition who will have the opportunity to pitch their ventures live to an audience of several hundred.  The best pitch will be determined by audience vote and the winner will be awarded $1,000.

The event is moderated by past E. Challenge winner and successful startup founder and CEO, Dr. Philip Low.  Dr. Low is a graduate of the Salk Institute and the winner of the 2007-2008 Entrepreneur Challenge.  Dr. Low has also won several other national business plan competitions including the prestigious Draper Fisher Jurvetson Venture Challenge, been named as one of the Top 35 Under 35 Innovators by the MIT Technology Review, won the 2010 CONNECT Most Innovative Product award in Life Sciences and operated successfully out of Neurovigil's La Jolla offices.

$1000 Elevator Pitch Competition / UC San Diego Entrepreneur Challenge

December 3 at 5 PM is the deadline for submitting a pitch for the $1000 Elevator Pitch Competition sponsored by the UC San Diego Entrepreneur Challenge.

Eligibility Requirements (partial). Full details here.

Each team must consist of at least one full time student, post-doctoral trainee, or recent graduate from either UCSD or the other Torrey Pines Mesa Research Institutions (The Salk Institute, Burnham Institute, Scripps Research Institute, and the Scripps Institute of Oceanography).  Recent graduates must have received their UCSD degree after August 15^th in the year the current Challenge begins.

The Student/post-doc must be an active, contributing team member who is the founder or co-founder of the team, and, together with all other student/post doc team members, hold in the aggregate at least 20% of the ownership interest in the company which is the subject of such team’s submission in the competition.

Tonight: Science to Idea to Company

Learn how laboratory projects are turned into commercial ventures. The event is Dec 1, 2010: "Understanding Tech Transfer"

Where: Rady School of Management, UC San Diego
When: Dec 1, 6 to 7:30 pm

RSVP

Cross-Border Regional Entrepreneurism and Technology Alliance

UC San Diego is partnering with Universidad Autónoma de Baja California (UABC) in a research and education program designed to stimulate technology commercialization and economic development in the Southern California-Baja California region. Under the partnership, UC San Diego’s top-ranked Jacobs School of Engineering and its William J. von Liebig Center for Entrepreneurism and Technology Advancement will work with UABC’s highly regarded Institute of Engineering and the Center for Technology Development and Transfer to form a crossborder regional entrepreneurism and technology alliance called “CREATE.”

Read more the Jacobs School news site: cross-border regional entrepreneurism and technology alliance.



From L to R, Eugenio Clariond Reyes-Retana, CEO of Verzatec and a member of the Council of Advisors for the Jacobs School of Engineering; Rosibel Ochoa, director of the von Liebig Center; and Gabriel Estrella Valenzuela, president of UABC.



"Wireless Sensors Win" in the News

Yu "Mike" Chi and his winning wireless sensor startup, Cognionics, made their way into Xconomy last week, complete with the photo of Mike trying to hold three oversized checks.

The San Diego Union Tribune ran the Xconomy story as well.

Photos of Winner of UC San Diego Entrepreneur Challenge

Congratulations to Yu Mike Chi, the electrical engineering PhD student who leads the startup that won the 2009-2010 UC San Diego Entrepreneur Challenge. Below are photos of Chi, Chi and his advisor, bioengineering professor Gert Cauwenberghs, and the wireless sensors (and some wired versions for contrast).

Wireless Sensor Startup in $80K Entrepreneurship Challenge Finals

“Today you have to put sticky patches on your chest to record this information. It’s uncomfortable and messy,” said Jacobs School electrical engineering Yu Mike Chi, about the technology he and his startup are developing.

And speaking of sticky patches on your chest, sunblock-soaked Memorial Day weekend starts right now! (It's 5 PM on Friday). But on Wednesday June 2, when some of us are nursing sun burns (hopefully not me), Chi and his Cognionics team will be competing for the lions share of $80K in cash and services at the UC San Diego Entrepreneurship Challenge.

Wireless sensors that monitoring your heart or your brain even though they do not actually touch your skin are at the center of UC San Diego electrical engineering PhD student Yu Mike Chi’s dissertation (so sunburns won't be a problem). This technology – and the plan for commercializing it – earned Chi and his Cognionics team one of just five spots in the finals of the UC San Diego Entrepreneurship Challenge.

Read more on the Jacobs School news page.

UCSD Business Students Help Launch Venture Fund

The students at UC San Diego are increasingly entrepreneurial. The huge success of the UCSD Entrepreneurship Challenge is just one indicator. Another indicator is the new venture capital fund (The Rady Venture Fund) that students from the UC San Diego Rady School of Business will help to manage.

Read Dean Calbreath's write-up of the fund in the San Diego Union Tribune here.
Read Bruce Bigelow's story at Xconomy here.

Yesterday, I was editing a video interview we shot with Raj Krishnan, a recent Bioengineering PhD from the Jacobs School who also won various parts of the UCSD Entrepreneurship Challenge last year and is now in the midst of running a company focused on early-detection of cancer (Biological Dynamics)...Krishnan was talking about the importance of the entrepreneurship challenge for fostering the start-up spirit on campus.

PS: unrelated link from Voice of San Diego: UCSD Professor (James Fowler) Gets Colbert Bump