Venture capital firm Pejman Mar Ventures has created a new competition for UC Berkeley entrepreneurs who demonstrate passion and dedication to making their vision a reality. They are offering $250,000 to back up a startup founded by a Berkeley student, faculty member or alum in exchange for 10 percent of the company. In the past 18 months they have funded 7 companies in which the founders were from Stanford, MIT and Carnegie Mellon. Applicants have until Oct. 1 to apply and a winner will be chosen by Oct. 30.
An article featured in Bloomberg Business titled “Five of the Best Computer Science Classes in the U.S” has named EECS CS 61A in the top 5. The number of college graduates who got degrees in computer science in 2011 was 2,000% higher than it was in 1970 according to the U.S. Dept. of Education. This course is taught by Asst. Teaching Prof. John De Nero. A notable alumni of this program is Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, ’86.
Two EECS alumni have been chosen to receive distinguished alumni awards by the Cal Alumni Association (CAA). Steve Wozniak, (B.S. EE, ‘86) has been named 2015 Alumnus of the Year. He helped shape the computing industry with the design of Apple’s first line of products, co-founding Apple Computer Inc. with Steve Jobs. In 1987, Wozniak founded a new venture, CL 9, which developed and brought to market the first programmable universal remote control, and in 2001, he started Wheels of Zeus (WoZ) to create wireless GPS technology. A Builder of Berkeley, Wozniak has contributed in excess of $1 million to the University over the past 25 years, making a significant investment in technology and innovation at UC Berkeley.
Yoky Matsuoka, (B.S. EECS ‘93) has been honored for Excellence in Achievement. After receiving her Ph.D. from MIT in EECS, she became a professor at Carnegie Mellon and later the University of Washington. In 2009 she joined Google [x] as one of 3 founding members, then accepted a position at Nest as V.P. of technology. Currently Yoky is V.P. of Technology and Analytics at Twitter.
