Columbia Entrepreneurship

Crafting Your Killer Idea (Workshop)
2017-09-28 14:00 - 17:00 UTC | Columbia Entrepreneurship Design Studio, 490 Riverside Dr., New York, NY, 10027, United States
OPEN TO ALL COLUMBIANS
The heart of every entrepreneurial process is a great idea. Join us to learn about ideations, brainstorming techniques, and how to go from pinpointing a challenge to developing an innovative solution. During this fast-paced sprint, you will craft solutions and build a business model designed to generate positive social impact!

NYC Media Lab's Annual Summit (Event)
2017-09-28
OPEN TO ALL
Register today for NYCML’17, NYC Media Lab’s biggest event of the year. NYCML’17 is a snapshot of the best thinking, projects and talent in digital media from universities in NYC and beyond. It will host NYC Media Lab‘s signature “science fair” style Demo Expo of 100+ emerging media and technology projects, including a VR/AR pavilion; pitches from new startups and established companies; and over a dozen faculty and community-led workshops across the City, bringing guests hands-on learning experiences of the latest trends in digital innovation. Learn more at http://summit.nycmedialab.org.

Date + Location: Thursday, September 28th. The New School University Center, 63 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10003. 8AM-6PM.
Open Lab Day: Friday, September 29th; workshops held across partnered locations.
Be our Guest… Use discount code CUESHIP for 20% off the Standard Registration ticket price. This code also works for Group Registration ticket prices, where you can register 5 or 12 of your team members at once.
Register here: https://nycml17.eventbrite.com

Firms with Benefits: How Sustainability is Reshaping the Competitive Business Landscape (Workshop)
2017-09-27 18:00 - 20:00
Facilitated By Aziza Jamgerchinova ’13BUS ’06JRN
Wednesday, September 27th, 2017
6-8 p.m.
Refreshments included with RSVP
Warren Hall, Room 311
1125 Amsterdam Avenue
New York, NY 10027
Overview
Most executives understand the strategic importance of sustainability and how profoundly it will affect the success, and even the survival, of their businesses. However, very few have successfully tackled the challenge of creating a truly sustainable organization.
Where do businesses turn when seeking to develop or expand their sustainability practices? Where can they find answers to questions around how best to manage their supply chain, or how to reduce their carbon emissions?
The Firms with Benefits platform aims to help businesses understand how others have benefitted from incorporating sustainability into key areas of their organizations such as leadership, methodology, strategy, management, and reporting. This platform intends to cultivate and enhance both the desire and the ability to use sustainability as a competitive weapon.
Firms with Benefits will help businesses get smarter, more competitive, and more innovative by synthesizing the conversation around sustainability. The goal is to create an instructional content platform with dynamic learning videos that are short, mobile, and immediately actionable. The information will be curated for the existing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) community and businesses looking to leverage sustainability-based management. The videos will tell stories that identify key decision points that can be used by other companies looking to implement sustainable practices of their own.
Areas for discussion

What is the driving force behind corporate giants adapting and embracing sustainable business practices?
What are the current sources of information and resources available to a company seeking to develop or expand its sustainability practices?
What are various ways to share and scale knowledge around sustainable business practices and advancements?
How should a new sustainable business platform engage with existing groups and incorporate existing resources?

Facilitator Biography
Aziza Jamgerchinova ’13BUS ’06JRN

Aziza Jamgerchinova is a digital media consultant specializing in multi-platform content strategy and product development. She is an award-winning journalist, and spent more than a decade covering international and current affairs at The New York Times and CNN. She has also worked for companies at the center of the digital transformation of news, including Press+, GlobalPost, and GershonMedia.
In her current role, Aziza advises the world’s leading media and entertainment companies across the full spectrum of activities they need for profitable growth of their digital video businesses. Previously, Aziza led the expansion of GlobalPost, an independent news organization that was acquired by the country’s largest public broadcaster (WGBH in Boston).
Aziza is an adjunct lecturer at CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and a Visiting Broadcast Professor at the Indian Institute of Journalism & New Media in Bangalore. She also serves on the board of directors of Columbia Business School’s Alumni Club of New York, where she was elected President in 2016.

Studio Hours at the Design Studio (Open Collaboration Time)
2017-09-27 15:00 - 17:00 | Columbia Entrepreneurship Design Studio, 490 Riverside Dr., New York, NY, 10027, United States
OPEN TO ALL COLUMBIANS
Do you have an idea and want to get personal design thinking feedback from the Design Studio? During Studio Hours, teams or individuals are invited to discuss their projects or ideas one-on-one with human-centered designers in the Studio. Teams of Columbia affiliates are also welcome to use the studio space for working independently on their entrepreneurial projects.

Introduction to Human Centered Design (Workshop)
2017-09-26 18:00 - 20:00 | Uris Hall, Room 303
OPEN TO ALL COLUMBIANS
From a newsreader app, to a lowcost infant warmer for developing countries, to simply a more creative team dynamic, design thinking has proven to be a powerful methodology capable of solving challenges of all shapes and sizes. The principles of user research, prototyping, and testing have been used by everyone from product designers, entrepreneurs, humanitarians, among many others, to create innovative, human-centered designed products and solutions.
Please join us as we introduce a framework for practicing design thinking. We will focus on needfinding, problem framing, rapid idea generation, and collaboration. The session is fast paced and equally valuable for individuals or teams.

Film Screening of Prosperity (Screening and Keynote)
2017-09-25 18:30 - 20:00
OPEN TO ALL COLUMBIANS
Prosperity is following a new generation of companies that are doing the right thing and deserve our attention (and money). There’s an emerging movement of “For Benefit” companies that are building into their bylaws the new ethics of conscious companies. In the old days, a CEO could be sued by the board if he/she didn’t maximize profits at any cost. Now, companies can elect to be “For Benefit” and factor in doing the right thing over just profits alone.
Our feature length movie is following the key players in this movement and showing a real positive way out of the mess we’ve inherited and helped co-create. The more we support this blossoming movement, the more money goes to people who care…people who will take a stand for our values and our environment.
We have our cameras on these heroes and are going to break some amazing news in the release of this movie. From CEOs of major public companies, to urban farmers, and remote tribes, we’re covering the whole story in a powerful narrative.
RSVP HERE.

Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Policy in Israel: Turning Liabilities into Assets
2017-09-25 13:00 - 14:00
A discussion on innovation, entrepreneurship and policy in Israel

World-class innovation and government leadership in the 21st century. How do government measures uplift entrepreneurship in Israel?
A discussion on innovation, entrepreneurship and policy with Ambassador Prosor, Dean Merit E Janow, SIPA & Eli Noam, Columbia Business School.
Ambassador Ron Prosor is the Abba Eban Chair of International Diplomacy at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (IDC.) Prior to joining the IDC, Prosor served as Israel’s 16th Representative to the UN from 2011 to 2015. Before that, Ambassador Prosor served as the Ambassador of Israel to the Court of St James’s after serving as the Director General of the Israeli Foreign Service. A prolific writer and commentator, Ambassador Prosor’s op-eds have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, and The Guardian.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: SIPA Dean’s Public Policy Challenge Grant Program
2017-09-25
OPEN TO ALL COLUMBIANS, WITH ONE SIPA PARTICIPANT
APPLY HERE
The program, which is part of the Columbia Venture Competition, invites students to design cutting-edge projects and, if appropriate, prototypes that use ICT and/or data analytics to solve global policy problems. In this round, students are encouraged to develop creative solutions around the below core Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

SDG11 – Sustainable cities and communities – make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
SDG12 – Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns – that would open up innovation across many sectors such as water, energy, food, ending hunger, nutrition, extractive industries, transport systems, climate change, etc.
SDG13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
SDG16: Promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies.

These are policy areas we will be particularly interested in, but judges will consider submissions on other topics.
Teams must include at least one SIPA student in a substantive role. The program seeks to support endeavors with high potential to be implemented, to produce a meaningful impact in a relatively short timeframe, and to be sustainable. SIPA provides workshops, advisors, and other support for teams to refine and test their ideas. A total of $50,000 in prizes will be awarded to the winning team or teams in this round. If you have questions or are interested in more information, please email sipa.challenge.grant@sipa.columbia.edu.

The Transparency Series - Series 1, Polling (Workshop)
2017-09-24 10:00 - 17:00
OPEN TO COLUMBIA JOURNALISM STUDENTS
A unique set of seminars and hands-on workshops that bring new technology and design ideas to the Columbia Journalism community. The goal is simple — help students learn new ways to find and tell stories, new ways to inform and entertain. Each topic will commence with a Friday evening panel discussion and will follow with a Saturday hands-on workshop centered around building.
Students attending three of the seminar-workshops over the course of the year will receive a graduation award indicating the extra breadth they sought out during their time at the J-School.
MORE INFO
***
The first workshop in the Transparency Series takes you through techniques for looking at one or more polls over time. Your instructor is Harry Enten, a senior political analyst at FiveThirtyEight. He will be assisted by his colleague Neil Paine, another talented data journalist and sportswriter. The day-long workshop will present tools and strategies for working with polls — starting at the very beginning with simple random samples, and leading to the detailed models that are employed today. All the while, we will emphasize how to find and tell interesting, novel stories with polls. No prior experience in statistics or data analysis is needed.

Data Science Institute Colloquium Series Event: What Can Deep Learning Learn from Linear Regression
2017-09-22 10:00 - 11:00
OPEN TO ALL
ABSTRACT
When training large-scale deep neural networks for pattern recognition, hundreds of hours on clusters of GPUs are required to achieve state-of-the-art performance. Improved optimization algorithms could potentially enable faster industrial prototyping and make training contemporary models more accessible.
In this talk, I will attempt to distill the key difficulties in optimizing large, deep neural networks for pattern recognition. In particular, I will emphasize that many of the popularized notions of what make these problems “hard” are not true impediments at all. I will show that it is not only easy to globally optimize neural networks, but that such global optimization remains easy when fitting completely random data.
I will argue instead that the source of difficulty in deep learning is a lack of understanding of generalization—namely understanding behavior on new and unseen data. By appealing to standard concepts from linear regression, I will describe why certain popular theories of generalization fail to explain the success of large neural nets. I will close with some possible approaches to patching this theory and guiding the engineering of deep learning models with enormous capacity.

Third Thursdays (Keynotes and Networking)
2017-09-21 17:30 - 20:00
OPEN TO ALL COLUMBIANS.
RSVP HERE.
Third Thursday is a recurring open forum networking and info session for the Columbia University entrepreneurship community. It provides students, faculty, staff, and alumni the opportunity to hear ideas from across campus, form teams, and explore career options. You’ll hear from Columbia alumni and other experts on their experiences working in the field, how they’ve applied their Columbia experience in their careers, and more

Columbia University Ed Tech Design Challenge 2017 Info Session
2017-09-21 13:00 - 14:00 | SIPA Building 324
OPEN TO ALL COLUMBIANS
A partnership of Columbia Entrepreneurship, the School of International and Public Affairs, Center for Development Economics and Policy, and Fundação Lemann.
Thursday, September 21
1:00pm to 2:00pm
SIPA Room 324
Lunch will be provided!
Register Here!

Join the Challenge
EdTech Design Challenge 2017 is a 7-month innovation initiative designed to help teams of Columbia innovators generate new tech-based businesses, products, or programs that solve deeply entrenched K-12 education problems. Students from across Columbia may apply.

Apply for EdTech Design Challenge Today
Info Sessions Available
The EdTech Challenge 2017 is a collaboration between Columbia Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Design, the School of International and Public Affairs Tech & Policy Initiative and its Center for Development Economics & Policy, Teachers College, UNICEF, the Nasdaq Educational Foundation, and Fundação Lemann.

Workshops – Design Sprints – Events – Curriculum – Travel
With a focus on Brazil, the EdTech Design Challenge focuses on three universal K-12 educational problem areas: kids with special needs, kids in need of remediation, and parent engagement.
18 Columbia students will be selected for the Challenge. Once selected, they are paired with EdTech entrepreneurs from Brazil. Over the course of the 2017-18 academic year, the multi-national teams are offered resources to help develop their EdTech ideas into viable solutions.
EdTech Challenge kicks off on October 13th with a week-long design sprint. Through design-thinking workshops, visits to EdTech startups, and an EdTech forum, the Columbia and Brazilian cohort will come together and form teams and generate ideas for EdTech solutions.
During the 2017-18 academic year, the teams will continue to their collaboration and to turn their ideas into viable solutions, programs, or startups.
Optional resources provided include:

A spring semester course on building social ventures taught by SIPA Professor and Ed Tech entrepreneur Sarah Holloway
Market research trip to Brazil
A tour of EdTech startups
Cash grants
Travel and lodging assistance

For the winning teams, the EdTech Design Challenge culminates in a June 2018 trip to Brazil to pitch their proposed solutions to a panel of VC’s, policy makers, and educators.
Important Dates:

Add info session dates
October 10, 2017: Global Ed Tech Forum hosted by SIPA
October 13 – 20, 2017: Ed Tech Design Challenge @ the Design Studio
January 20 – May 1, 2018: Ed Tech Design Course including March 2018 trip to Brazil
May 1: $25,000 Awarded to winning Team(s)
June: Trip to Brazil for Winning Team(s)

How to Apply:
Ed Tech Design Challenge Application Open: September 1 – September 30, 2017
Apply Here!
Open to current Columbia, Teachers College and Barnard students
Space is limited to 18 students. Application is required. Criteria for selection will include ability to participate in all elements of the program, background in education/technology/EdTech/startups preferred.

For more information contact:
Joseph Heritage, Design Lead
jlh2241@columbia.edu

VC Deal Fundamentals: A Look Behind the Numbers, Terms & Conditions (Panel)
2017-09-21 08:30 - 11:00
OPEN TO ALL
VC deal fundamentals: A look behind the numbers, terms and conditions

So you finally landed a lead investor and have been presented with a term sheet. You’re excited about bringing in the capital you need to grow your company. But with all the accompanying terms and conditions how do you assess the cost of the capital? What will VCs expect from you going forward—and vice versa?
Early growth breaks down deal terms and share key insights for a successful round of financing.
Topics will include:
– Pre-money and post-money valuation
– Preferred vs. common stock
– Liquidation preference
– Dilution and option planning
– Managing investor expectations
And more…
Moderator:
Victor H. Boyajian, Dentons
Panelists:
Nick Adams, Flatiron Investors
Lidia Salgado, Early Growth Financial Services
Mike Greten, Justworks
Alex Addario, Square1 Bank
Come prepared to ask questions, to network, and to learn how to take your startup to the next level.
RSVP here

Get Launched with Microchip (Event)
2017-09-21
Microchip Technology is bringing the inaugural ‘Get Launched’ event series to New York City! Join Microchip on September 21st for a day of technical exhibits, keynote presentations and workshops designed to help accelerate your product Design For Market cycle.
Learn advanced tips and tricks from industry partners: General admissions for is FREE.
Complimentary food and refreshments will be provided.
All hands-on technical workshops cost $25 or less. Take hardware home!
Topics include:

Advanced Arduino® Debugging (ATMega328P-Xplained Mini)
Designing with PlatformIO (Arduino® M0 Pro)
Prototyping with Sensors (MPLAB® Xpress Board)
Rapid Prototyping with Breadware (Mega-B Development Kit)

Details and registration at: http://www.microchip.com/promo/get-launched-september-2017

Data, Ethics and Decision-Making Lecture Series: Dr. Jeanette M. Wing, Avanessians Director of the Data Science Institute
2017-09-20 16:30 - 18:00
OPEN TO ALL
ABSTRACT:
The Data, Ethics, and Decision-making Speaker Series hosted by the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP) presents Dr. Jeannette M. Wing, Avanessians Director of the Data Science Institute and Professor of Computer Science in at Columbia University, on “Using Data for Good: What does it mean?“. Professor Wing will be laying out her vision for the Institute, which will focus on her desire to think seriously about the definition and practice of using data for good.

Design Your Year (Workshop)
2017-09-19 16:00 - 18:00 | Columbia Entrepreneurship Design Studio, 490 Riverside Dr., New York, NY, 10027, United States
OPEN TO ALL COLUMBIANS
The principles of user research, prototyping, and testing have been used by everyone from product designers, entrepreneurs, humanitarians, among many others, to create innovative, human-centered designed products and solutions. Now it’s time to apply human-centered design to your own life!
Design Your Year is an interactive way to learn more about design thinking while thinking critically about the adventures and experiences you will have over the next year, and the risks you will take. Come prepared for a fast-paced, interactive experience!
RSVP HERE.

Climate Investments Post US Abandonment of the Paris Agreement (Keynote and Panel)
2017-09-18 18:30 - 20:00
OPEN TO ALL COLUMBIANS
Climate Investments Post US Abandonment of the Paris Agreement
a discussion with Howard Bamsey, Executive Director of Green Climate Fund
Monday, September 18, 2017
6:30–8:00 p.m.
Columbia Business School
3022 Broadway, Uris Hall, Room 301
New York, NY 10027
Please join the Tamer Center for Social Enterprise and the Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP) for a presentation by Howard Bamsey, Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund (GCF). ED Bamsey will discuss climate finance and the role of GCF. After his keynote remarks, panelists will join CGEP Inaugural Fellow, David Sandalow for an actively moderated discussion focused broadly on climate finance and next steps following President Trump’s announcement to pull out of the Paris Agreement and end U.S. contributions to the GCF.
REGISTER HERE.

Columbia Entrepreneurship Panel in Shanghai
2017-09-17 14:00 - 16:30
OPEN TO COLUMBIA ALUMNI
On Sept. 17, Columbia Global Centers | Beijing and Columbia Alumni Association of Shanghai will host a Columbia Entrepreneurship Panel in Shanghai. Eight Columbia alumni, including keynote speaker, Jay Chen from CVCapital, roundtable speakers, Raymond Chen from Skycus Capital, George Yan from Clobotics, Zhe Wang from Tezign, Clark Feng from Bain Capital, Robert Chen from Platform Group, and Pierre de Vilmorin from kaixinshan, will join a panel discussion on entrepreneurship. The seven will share their experiences in entrepreneurship and their insights on future development. Columbia alumna Ruifen Xu from RIC Capital Management will serve as the moderator.
There will be a Q&A session at the end of the panel, providing the audience with the opportunity to engage with panelists directly.

Contact the center for more information.

Cyber Security in a Global Context: A Discussion of Technology, Policy and Business Dimensions
2017-09-15 13:00 - 14:00
Dr. Eviatar Matania
Director General of Israel National Cyber Directorate
hosted by
Dean Merit E. Janow
Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs
Dr. Jeannette M. Wing
Avanessians Director of the Data Science Institute
Introduction of Dr. Matanya by Udi Sommer, Israel Institute, Visiting Professor, Department of Political Science

A fireside discussion with Dr. Eviatar Matania, Dean Merit E. Janow, and Dr. Jeannette Wing. The conversation will cover topics such as the state of cyber security from a technologist’s perspective, cooperation between the U.S. and Israel, development of international cyber norms, cybersecurity and AI, and cybersecurity and cyber-physical systems.
Dr. Matania was appointed founding director of the National Cyber Directorate when it was created 6 years ago. He has vast experience at the national level with R&D projects and System Analysis. Academically, his expertise is in Judgment and Decision Making and as Director General he was involved in the establishment of a network of cyber research centers in all major Israeli universities, partly funded by the Directorate.

Friday, September 15, 2017 | 1:00 pm-2:00 pm
International Affairs Building, Room 1501
REGISTER HERE

Cosponsored by the Columbia Data Science Institute and SIPA’s Tech and Policy Initiative

Columbia Startup Demo Night in San Francisco (Competition)
2017-09-14 18:00 - 21:00
OPEN TO ALL COLUMBIANS
Apply HERE.
The San Francisco Chapter of the Columbia Venture Community (CVC) cordially invites you to attend the next Columbia Demo Night — featuring six innovative startups from the Bay Area. Teams will demo and compete for a cash prize in front of a panel of experienced judges. This is our biggest and most exciting event of the year — don’t miss it!
See firsthand what amazing companies Columbia entrepreneurs are building in Silicon Valley and beyond. The event also offers a unique opportunity to mingle and connect with dozens of fellow Columbia alumni from the region.
This year’s keynote address will be delivered by Columbia Business School alum Paul Orlando. Paul is currently the Program Director at Laudato Si’ Challenge, a new startup accelerator in the Vatican focused on climate change and sustainability. Paul is a Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Southern California, where he is also the Director of the USC Startup Incubator.
As always, come ready to drink and eat — we’ll be serving gourmet food, wine, signature cocktails, and great tunes over the course of the evening. (Vegan options will be available.)
Questions? Email: ms3766@columbia.edu

2018 ELabNYC Info Session
2017-09-14 12:00 - 13:00
OPEN TO ALL COLUMBIANS

Speaker:

Mary Howard, Andrea Westervelt, Andrew Kruegel

The Columbia Design Studio
Room 430 Riverside Church
490 Riverside Drive
New York, NY

12:00pm

Register here

ELabNMBIYC is a six-month entrepreneurship training and business networking program for scientists and engineers to launch high potential biotech and health tech ventures from NYC research institutions.
Scientists and engineers, MDs and MBAs working with high potential technology based innovations can find themselves seeking business skills and custom business networks to help navigate the challenges of company formation and start up growth. ELabNYC teaches business skills and networks participants to start up resources. In teaching, we prepare our program participants for the startup world to confidently persevere through the on going challenges they will face. In networking, ELabNYC introduces participants to experts nationwide to navigate business issues in the technical and complex world of life science business.
Launched by New York City Economic Development Corporation, ELabNYC is supported by corporations committed to engage with and support NYC’s emerging life science community including: Lilly, Pfizer, Kaneka, Roche, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Microsoft, Goodwin Procter, EisnerAmper, Moses & Singer, Pryor Cashman, White and Williams, Cittone & Chinta and Target Health. The ELabNYC program is led by an experienced team of entrepreneur educators and coaches.
ELabNYC is starting its sixth application cycle, with a deadline of October 23, 2017. Program Manager, Mary Howard, will introduce the program and join ELabNYC alums and PI’s, Andrew Kruegel (ELabNYC 2016) and Andrea Westervelt (ELabNYC 2017), who will share their ELab experience and answer questions from the audience.

Protectionism Today (Panel)
2017-09-11 17:00 - 19:00
Few global issues are as fundamentally important in so many ways as international free trade. Join us Monday, September 11th for a very special evening with five of the world’s top experts on the global rules of trade between nations.
The panel will provide a platform for academics and policy makers to discuss how to bolster trade and economic cooperation amid global economic uncertainties and rising protectionism.
The agenda of the evening’s event is as follows:
Chair and moderator: Jagdish Bhagwati, Former Advisor to the World Trade Organization; and University Professor of Economics, Law, and International Relations, Columbia University
“Are 1980s Trade Policies Appropriate for Today?” Chad P. Bown, Former Senior Economist for International Trade and Investment, White House Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) during the Obama administration; and Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics
“Déjà Vu All Over Again: Three Strikes and Out and the Trump Administration” Petros C. Mavroidis, Legal Advisor to the World Trade Organization; and Edwin B. Parker Professor of Comparative Law, Columbia Law School
“The Flawed Obsession with China” Phil Levy, Former White House and State Department Economist during the George W. Bush administration; and Senior Fellow, Global Economy, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs
“Preferential Trade Agreements” Pravin Krishna, Distinguished Professor, Johns Hopkins University
Please note that an RSVP is required to attend this event. We ask that you please register by September 6 if you plan to attend. Please arrive promptly to guarantee a seat.
Follow the conversation on Twitter at #tradeprotectionism.

APPLICATION DEADLINE - Demo at Digital Media Lab's Annual Summit
2017-09-08
OPEN TO ALL
The Demo Expo at NYC Media Lab’s annual Summit is New York City’s biggest pan-university showcase of the year. This year during #NYCML17, 100 demos will be selected to participate, spanning emerging media technologies such as: data science, virtual and augmented reality, digital storytelling and interactive media, creative coding, design, and new startup concepts. Faculty members, currently enrolled students, university affiliated startups, and alumni who received a degree within the past calendar year at an accredited NYC-based university are eligible to apply.
NYC Media Lab will select demo participants on a rolling basis. The earlier you apply, the more likely it is that you will be selected.
APPLY HERE

MetaProp Accelerator @ Columbia University Welcome Toast (Event)
2017-09-06 18:30 - 20:00
OPEN TO ALL COLUMBIANS
You are invited to celebrate the inauguration of MetaProp’s 3rd accelerator class, the MetaProp Accelerator at Columbia University. Join us for an evening of drinks, appetizers, and celebration.
RSVP HERE.
*MEET THE CLASS*

About the MetaProp Accelerator at Columbia University
The MetaProp Accelerator at Columbia University includes up to 10 of the best technology driven real estate industry startups. The startups participate in intensive education, mentorship and growth hacking programs, culminating in bi-coastal Demo Days for partners, investors, VCs and media. Founded in 2015, the accelerator boasts 150+ mentors, 10 renowned corporate partners and widespread media coverage from the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, New York Post, TechCrunch, Inman, Bisnow, Real Estate Weekly, and more. MetaProp NYC’s team and strategic seed stage funds have invested in 60+ technology companies across the real estate value chain. The companies have raised more than $2 billion and employ 1,500+ people globally.

Design Studio Open House
2017-09-06 15:00 - 17:00 | Columbia Entrepreneurship Design Studio, 490 Riverside Dr., New York, NY, 10027, United States
OPEN TO ALL COLUMBIANS
Want to learn more about the Columbia Entrepreneurship Design Studio? Come by during our Open House to visit the space, meet our team, and learn more about how the Design Studio can help you in your projects, startup and life over the next year! Stop by anytime between 3 and 5pm; food and drink will be served.
If you have questions, please reach out to us at designstudio@columbia.edu.

Hacking for Defense (Class Begins)
2017-09-05 16:00 - 18:30
OPEN TO ALL STUDENTS.
Help solve real national defense problems in Hacking for Defense™. It is a university-sponsored class that allows students to develop a deep understanding of the problems and needs of government sponsors in the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community. In a short time, students rapidly iterate prototypes and produce solutions to sponsors’ needs.
Every Tuesday, 4:10 – 6:40 PM.
APPLY HERE.

Data Science Institute Colloquium: Kevin Murphy | Research Scientist, Google (Keynote)
2017-09-05 11:00 - 12:00
OPEN TO ALL – NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED

Towards Machines that Perceive and Communicate
ABSTRACT: I will summarize some recent work related to visual scene understanding and “grounded” language understanding. In particular, I will discuss a connected group of results from my group at Google:
– Our DeepLab system for semantic segmentation (PAMI’17) [1].
– Our object detection system (CVPR ‘17 and 1st place in COCO’16) [2].
– Our instance segmentation system (2nd place in COCO’16)
– Our person detection/pose estimation system [3] (CVPR’17 and 2nd place in COCO’16)
– Visually grounded referring expressions (CVPR’16) [4].
– Discriminative image captioning (CVPR’17) [5].
– Optimizing semantic metrics for image captioning using RL (ICCV’17) [6]
– Generative models of visual imagination (submitted to NIPS’17).
I will explain how each of these pieces can be combined to develop systems that can better understand images and words.
BIO: Bio: Kevin Murphy is a research scientist at Google in Mountain View, California, where he works on AI, machine learning, and computer vision. Before joining Google in 2011, he was an associate professor (with tenure) of computer science and statistics at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Before starting at UBC in 2004, he was a postdoc at MIT. Kevin got his BA from U. Cambridge, his MEng from U. Pennsylvania, and his PhD from UC Berkeley. He has published over 80 papers in refereed conferences and journals, as well as an 1100-page textbook called “Machine Learning: a Probabilistic Perspective” (MIT Press, 2012), which was awarded the 2013 DeGroot Prize for best book in the field of Statistical Science. Kevin is also the (co) Editor-in-Chief of JMLR (the Journal of Machine Learning Research).

Event Contact Information:
Data Science Institute
212-854-5660
datascience@columbia.edu

ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS - Columbia University Ed Tech Design Challenge 2017
2017-09-01
OPEN TO ALL COLUMBIANS
Join the Challenge
EdTech Design Challenge 2017 is a 7-month innovation initiative designed to help teams of Columbia innovators generate new tech-based businesses, products, or programs that solve deeply entrenched K-12 education problems. Students from across Columbia may apply.
Apply for EdTech Design Challenge Today
Info Sessions Available

The EdTech Challenge 2017 is a collaboration between Columbia Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Design, the School of International and Public Affairs Tech & Policy Initiative and its Center for Development Economics & Policy, Teachers College, UNICEF, the Nasdaq Educational Foundation, and Fundação Lemann.

Workshops – Design Sprints – Events – Curriculum – Travel
With a focus on Brazil, the EdTech Design Challenge focuses on three universal K-12 educational problem areas: kids with special needs, kids in need of remediation, and parent engagement.
18 Columbia students will be selected for the Challenge. Once selected, they are paired with EdTech entrepreneurs from Brazil. Over the course of the 2017-18 academic year, the multi-national teams are offered resources to help develop their EdTech ideas into viable solutions.
EdTech Challenge kicks off on October 13th with a week-long design sprint. Through design-thinking workshops, visits to EdTech startups, and an EdTech forum, the Columbia and Brazilian cohort will come together and form teams and generate ideas for EdTech solutions.
During the 2017-18 academic year, the teams will continue to their collaboration and to turn their ideas into viable solutions, programs, or startups.

Optional resources provided include:

A spring semester course on building social ventures taught by SIPA Professor and Ed Tech entrepreneur Sarah Holloway
Market research trip to Brazil
A tour of EdTech startups
Cash grants
Travel and lodging assistance

For the winning teams, the EdTech Design Challenge culminates in a June 2018 trip to Brazil to pitch their proposed solutions to a panel of VC’s, policy makers, and educators.

Important Dates:

Add info session dates
October 10, 2017: Global Ed Tech Forum hosted by SIPA
October 13 – 20, 2017: Ed Tech Design Challenge @ the Design Studio
January 20 – May 1, 2018: Ed Tech Design Course including March 2018 trip to Brazil
May 1: $25,000 Awarded to winning Team(s)
June: Trip to Brazil for Winning Team(s)

How to Apply:
Ed Tech Design Challenge Application Open: September 1 – September 30, 2017
Apply Here!
Open to current Columbia, Teachers College and Barnard students
Space is limited to 18 students. Application is required. Criteria for selection will include ability to participate in all elements of the program, background in education/technology/EdTech/startups preferred.

Optional Information Session:
September 21st from 1-2pm
International Affairs Building Room 324
Lunch will be provided!
Register Here!

For more information contact:
Joseph Heritage, Design Lead
jlh2241@columbia.edu

FUNDING OPPORTUNITY DEADLINE: Columbia's Tamer Fund for Social Ventures
2017-08-15
The Tamer Center for Social Enterprise at Columbia Business School is now accepting applications for the Tamer Fund for Social Ventures. This Fund provides seed grants of up to $25,000 to nonprofit, for-profit, and hybrid early-stage social and environmental ventures. Ventures must be led by Columbia University students or alumni, or be advised and have significant involvement by Columbia University faculty or researchers. Tamer Fund seed grants will be made to approximately seven ventures each year.
More information and the online application is available at: http://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/socialenterprise/socialventures/apply
Application Deadlines: August 15 and March 1, annually

Final Presentations - Hacking for Real Estate Technology
2017-08-09 14:00 - 16:00
The final presentations of the Hacking for Real Estate Technology class in the MSRED program at GSAPP.
Over the past 12 weeks, these students have immersed themselves in the world of real estate technology and entrepreneurship to transform their ideas into viable business solutions for the real estate industry.
The student teams were exposed to expert guidance from industry experts, startup entrepreneurs, Columbia Business School representatives, and Columbia Entrepreneurship. In addition, the teams participated in another new class at GSAPP, Programming for Innovation in Real Estate, where they learned to build fully functioning websites that will allow them to present their ideas using true technology.
The teams will formally present their ideas to a panel of real estate industry and technology experts in Wood Auditorium located inside of Avery Hall.
