UC Berkeley Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (SCET)

I'm very grateful to be recognized as one of Poets & Quants' 2026 Best 40-Under-40 Business Professors 🎉 Teaching is my calling, as a way to bring people together. Thank you to all the students I've ever met, and to all the teachers who have ever taught me. When I teach, it feels like paying tribute to everyone I've been able to learn from, including my own family. My favorite part of teaching is passing on knowledge as an artistic practice. I'm always looking for new, unexpected, and exciting ways to do it. I love sharing stories too, hoping some of them resonate and open new horizons for my students. Lately, I've been especially interested in using vibe coding to help everyone build and act on their ideas. To put this into practice, I've spent the year building a range of new tools to support teaching, such as a customized AI tutor and an interactive textbook covering the fundamentals of AI, ML, and Generative AI (link in comment). I've also loved going on a "teaching tour" these past two months to share my methods and outcomes. I've spoken at the MIT Universal AI conference in Poland (big up to MIT Open Learning and team); the UC Berkeley Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (SCET), where my career in the US first began back in 2018 (thanks Ken Singer, who was my letter writer for graduate applications!); Stanford University for the Sustainable and Responsible Operations in the Age of AI (thanks Dan Iancu for organizing such a fantastic event!); MIT Horizon (thanks Ines Bescos Vera) and our own AI@Foster Day; and most recently the AI-Score School on GenAI × OR in Chicago (incredible team behind this!). Up next: UBC Sauder School of Business tomorrow (thanks, Gene, Elina, and Stephanie), Columbia Business School for an AI in Teaching day next week (thanks, Daniel Guetta, for making this happen, and congrats on your 40 Under 40, too!), and Harvard Business School for the OUI conference (thanks, Jacqueline and Miaomiao!). Many thanks to everyone who nominated me, to all my students, and to my school and colleagues at the UW Foster School of Business for their support, with special thanks to Suzanne and Julia. Thank you to everyone who organizes events that help create community and spread knowledge, and gives me a stage to share my work and ideas. Very grateful for my holistic education in France, at CentraleSupélec, Lycée Louis-le-Grand, Aristide Maillol High School, and COLLEGE LE RIBERAL. Every step matters in education. And sharing my warmest heart with my friends, mentors, and family. Sic itur ad astra! To the stars ✨ Read more on my take on teaching with the link in comment :)

Every year, I’m so proud of all my students who graduate. This year, I’m particularly proud of Volodymyr (Vlad) Silchenko who just graduated with his MBA from University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business amidst building a game-changing defense tech startup to protect Ukraine and other countries including the US. After Vlad served as an officer in the Ukrainian military, he came to University of California, Berkeley to further develop his leading edge expertise and build the network to make his drone defense startup a global success. So thrilled to have had him as a student in my UC Berkeley Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (SCET) entrepreneurship bootcamp course. His startup was chosen as the winning team out of 20 startup teams in my class by Silicon Valley investors who came to judge. https://lnkd.in/gMHPJY6Q

What exactly do you do at a Disaster Lab? Take a look inside with student researcher Kaavya Kochar on the latest episode of CBS’s Mission Unstoppable! UC Berkeley’s Disaster Lab is pioneering practical solutions for climate resilience, disaster preparedness and sustainable recovery. Kochar notes, “UC Berkeley’s Disaster Lab gave me a front-row seat to how research leaves the lab and reaches the real world.” “I originally found the Lab through a UC Berkeley Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (SCET) entrepreneurship course on disaster tech and later joined as Research Manager. The work focused on early-stage research and development for startups in the disaster resilience space… The Disaster Lab is doing some of the most interesting applied research on campus. Worth keeping an eye out for." The episode aired on Saturday, 5/23, on CBS. #UCBerkeley #DisasterLab #CBS #MissionUnstoppable

How is artificial intelligence changing entrepreneurship education? That was the big question at the Global Venture Lab at UC Berkeley, where experts from around the world engaged in lively discussions. It was particularly exciting that start-ups specialising in entrepreneurship and AI were also invited to demonstrate what can already be achieved ‘artificially’ today. Tasks such as developing a business model or business plan can now be completed in a matter of minutes – which raises important questions for entrepreneurship education, as these tasks have hitherto constituted a large part of teaching and assessment. 👉 Most participants agreed that it is, above all, the ability to think that is at risk of being lost. In his keynote, David Gallacher made it clear: the initial stage involves quickly generated plans, followed in the medium term by a loss of thinking skills. Furthermore, sound specialist knowledge is necessary to be able to interpret AI-generated results. 👉 In her keynote, Dr. Pamela Park demonstrated that leadership will always be needed – but whether leadership must necessarily be human is increasingly questionable given the growing number of solo founders. 💡 After the conference I see two possible paths for entrepreneurship education: Firstly, things remain more or less as they are, albeit with significantly more interaction and oral examinations. Secondly, one could put the cart before the horse: in the first week of lectures, all ‘written’ work is completed; after that, students immediately set up their own businesses and learn through practical implementation – from both success and failure. The Team Academy in Finland demonstrates that this concept works. Which way to choose is also a questions of objectives of entrepreneurship education. Is it about creating start-ups or about teaching entrepreneurial and critical thinking? 💡 Regardless of the approach chosen, one thing is certain: teaching will shift strongly towards individual mentoring – as this is the only way to ensure that students truly engage in independent thinking. Thanks to the UC Berkeley Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (SCET), and in particular to @Susan Giesecke and Ken Singer , for organising this wonderful conference so perfectly.  Jon French Dr. Luluh Aldhubayi Jung Min ‘Leonardo’ Lim Marina Rosales Martinez,  Andrew Maxwell, Sascha Weimar, Jim Hornthal, Forhad Hossain, Manav Subodh, Pietro Borsano, Rislana Kanya, Jussi Bergman, Sung Chul Bae, Martin Potančok Manan Bhargava, Christyna S. Scott Nisbet, Mark Searle

Using tech for good 2026 edition. So proud of the four teams from UC Berkeley Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (SCET) who address big issues by creating Democracy^Technology solutions: 🏆🥇 Winner: CLARO to help citizens apply for the $140B in government benefits that go unclaimed each year. 🏆🏘️🥈 Runner up & winners of Social Impact & Public Choice Awards: LOCAL LOOP to "loop in" the 80% of people not participating in local politics. RALLY POINT to create local action networks to promote the discussion and involvement in causes people care about. ACTIO to make it easier to take action and advocate for initiatives. Congrats to all students, and thank you to my co-lecturers Kirk Bansak and Nidhi Banavar of the Charles and Louise Travers Department of Political Science at the University of California Berkeley. A special thank you to our stellar course coordinator Qurratul Ain Sanjida who worked with me for the last year, was elected best course coordinator, and graduated from UC Berkeley Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences (EECS). This course is designed to combine the social sciences and tech. Solving the major societal issues of our times requires both disciplines, too, yet they are seldom brought together. This is why we educate change makers on how to do this effectively. Leading this class is very fulfilling and my small way to help move the needle. Thanks to my department for letting me do this. Shout out to Ken Singer and Jesse Dieker, M.Ed.! And thanks, colleagues, for supporting me: Joo Ae Chu, Keith McAleer, Jennifer Nice, Vicky Liu, Thea, and the entire team of student workers.

Very proud to have won the opportunity to represent ENGIN183D Product Management at the XVIII Collider Cup, UC Berkeley's most prestigious Startup Pitch Competition. We achieved Second Place for GMVlive, which is a great honor and indicative of our continued effort! Most importantly, we obtained entry into Berkeley SkyDeck accelerator's Pad-13 incubator program for Fall 26, which will be an exciting new opportunity. Thanks to Victor Israel, Abishai George, Tara Kumar, and Lúc Virgili Phan for your support within the team, Anne Cocquyt for your mentoring throughout the semester, and special thanks to everyone at UC Berkeley Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (SCET).