Inaugural Innovation Week Inspires Future Caltech Entrepreneurs

The Ronald and Maxine Linde Institute of Economic and Management Sciences co-sponsored Caltech's Innovation Week 2016, which was organized by the Caltech Office of Technology Transfer and Corporate Partnerships. The week (November 28 to December 2) included panel discussions and lectures on topics ranging from technology commercialization and entrepreneurship to startup creation and fundraising.

The majority of speakers were Caltech alumni who are now active entrepreneurs, innovators, and investors. The impressive list of participants included:

• Nan Boden (PhD '93), Head of Global Technology Partners at Google
• Amanda Cashin (PhD '06), Co-Founder and Head of Illumina Accelerator
• Nancy Hong (BS), Managing Director at RiverVest Venture Partners
• Wen Hsieh (BS '94, PhD '00), U.S. General Partner & China Managing Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
• Aditya Rajagopal (BS/PhD '13), Founder and Chief Technology Officer at ChromaCode
• Garrett Reisman (MS '92, PhD '97), former NASA Astronaut, current Director of Crew Operations at SpaceX

On opening night, Caltech's chief innovation and corporate partnerships officer Fred Farina (MS '92) explained the motivation behind the week's events: "We want to continue to create an environment here on campus that encourages and fosters innovation and the transfer of ideas from labs to the commercial sector… My hope is that during this Innovation Week you, the students who are here, will learn about how to take an early stage idea into the commercial sector, but also see the number of paths that a Caltech degree can take you on—and there are many."

For more information on Innovation Week 2016, please read the Caltech News story.