Innovation at Northwestern

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The Northwestern Alumni Association, the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the NU Club of Seattle present:

Innovation at Northwestern
Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Seattle-area Northwestern Trustees Todd Warren (WCAS87) and Ben Slivka (McC82, GMcC85) host McCormick Dean Julio M. Ottino, Professor Mike Marasco, and an alumni panel for a discussion about innovation and entrepreneurship at Northwestern. Learn about the NUvention Energy, Medical, Social Entrepreneurship and Web classes that bring together teams of undergraduate, graduate, and professional school students to learn by doing as they attempt to form new start-up companies. Inc. magazine ranked NUvention as one of the top 10 entrepreneurship courses in the U.S.

Panel
Ben Huh (J99), founder of Cheezburger, the largest humor destination on the web
Sandeep Paruchuri (WCAS12), current student, NUvention: Web alumnus
Ben Slivka (McC82, GMcC85), Northwestern Trustee
Todd Warren (WCAS87), Northwestern Trustee, Chair of NUvention
Isaac Wilson (McC10), NUvention: Web alumnus, software development engineer, Microsoft

6:30 p.m. Check-in, Refreshments
7:15 p.m. Presentations, Panel Discussion, Q&A
8:15 - 9 p.m. Networking Reception

Microsoft Corporation
Building 36, Elliot Conference Room, 1st floor
16255 NE 36th Way
Redmond, WA

Parking and Directions

Event Cost
$15: NU Club of Seattle members, current NU students, young alumni (Class of 2002-2011), current NU parents, and NU Class of 2016 students and parents
$25: Non-members and guests
$30: Event + One year NU Club of Seattle membership

Registration is now closed. No walk-ins will be accepted. Only those with advance reservations will be admitted, due to Microsoft security regulations.

GIVING IS EASY! Please consider adding a donation to your Innovation at Northwestern registration. Your support helps Northwestern fund scholarships, student activities, and academic initiatives that make NU a top research university 

Julio M. Ottino
Dean of the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, Distinguished Robert R. McCormick Institute Professor, and Walter P. Murphy Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Dean Ottino has championed “whole-brain engineering” — combining “left-brain” analytical thinking with “right-brain” creativity — and has worked to create a culture of innovation and collaboration that sets McCormick apart. An artist in his native Argentina before earning a PhD in chemical engineering in the US, Dean Ottino is fascinated by the intersection of art, science, and technology. The author of two books and featured in numerous publications, Dean Ottino co-authored a January 2012 article for The Wall Street Journal on the coming tech-led boom. A recipient of several awards, he has been a Guggenheim Fellow and is a member of both the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2008 he was selected by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers as one of the “One Hundred Engineers of the Modern Era.”

Michael Marasco
Director, Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and Clinical Professor, Industrial Engineering and Management Science

Professor Marasco has taught entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship for 14 years, most recently in the groundbreaking NUvention courses. His interests include "bootstrapping," growing a company with little or no capital, as well as how established businesses can successfully foster new businesses through corporate venturing. As director of the Farley Center, he helps innovators build businesses through interdisciplinary courses, providing incubator space and funds, and advising students and faculty. Professor Marasco joined Northwestern after more than 20 years in the corporate world. He has held key roles at Bally Total Fitness, Digitas, Organic, Inc., and Solucient, Inc., and is also an early-stage investor through his venture capital company, Solesde.

Panel

Ben Huh (J99)
Ben has always been a start-up guy. His latest company, the Cheezburger Network, has been credited with bringing Internet memes to the mainstream and popularizing Internet culture. Ben founded the Cheezburger Network in 2007 and grew it into one of the largest humor networks in the world in less than two years — while making a profit during one of the deepest recessions. He credits this success to the users and fans who create the content and those who started the sites he acquired, such as icanhascheezburger.com and failblog.org. Ben graduated with a BSJ from Medill in 1999. His goal is to make the world happy for five minutes a day.

Sandeep Paruchuri (WCAS12)
Sandeep is an undergraduate student with a passion for entrepreneurship and technology.  Early in his Northwestern career, he co-founded Wildcat Express Delivery, a university food delivery service that employed more than two dozen students. Building on this experience, Sandeep participated in the first-ever NUvention: Web course, in which he and his team conceived and built Enthusiast Apps, an easy-to-use content management system and iPhone framework for outdoor venues. Enthusiast Apps currently powers the LPZoo app, available in Apple’s App Store. After participating in the course, Sandeep joined the teaching team as a Teaching Assistant and continues to serve in that capacity. During the summer, Sandeep has worked with Sonim Technologies, where he conceived and built out a strategic plan for a satellite telecommunications add-on for the firm’s rugged devices. He has also worked at Microsoft in the Program Manager role, working with the Windows Phone team to develop features for future releases. Sandeep will earn a BA in Economics and Computer Science with a Certificate in Entrepreneurship in June 2012.

Ben Slivka (McC82, GMcC85)
Ben is an investor, philanthropist, and software engineer with a passion for education. He has served as co-founder and chairman of DreamBox Learning, director of TeachFirst, Vizrea, and GroundSpring.org, and on the Advisory Board of UIEvolution. Ben spent 14 years at Microsoft, where he worked on OS/2, MS-DOS 6, Windows 95, the Java VM, and MSN. He started the Internet Explorer team in 1994 and led it through the release of IE version 3.0 in 1996. IE 3.0 beat Netscape 3.0 in press reviews and achieved 30 percent market share by the time IE 4.0 released in 1997. His work at Microsoft resulted in 18 issued U.S. patents. Ben also worked brief stints at Amazon and IBM. He and his wife, Lisa Wissner-Slivka, are alumni of Northwestern, where he has served as a Trustee since 1998. Their son, Max, will earn a BS in Applied Mathematics from NU in 2012.

Todd Warren (WCAS87)
Todd divides his time between the technology industry and entrepreneurial educational ventures. He is an advisor to and an investor in Divergent Ventures, focusing on early-stage companies, and serves on the board of Pcubed, a global consulting firm focused on large-scale program and project management. Todd is also an adjunct professor in computer science at McCormick, where he teaches NUvention: Web. Todd is retired from Microsoft, where he worked for over 21 years in a variety of product management, general management, and product development roles, including corporate vice president from 2003 to 2009. He earned a BA with honors in Computer Science and Economics from Northwestern, where he serves on the Board of Trustees and a number of advisory boards. He is also vice chair of the Board of Trustees of Ashesi University, a new liberal arts university in Ghana. Todd lives in Seattle with his wife, Ruth, and their two children.

Isaac Wilson (McC10)
Since graduating from Northwestern in 2010 with a BS in Computer Science, Isaac has been working as a software developer at Microsoft. As a McCormick student, he participated in the NUvention: Web course, in which students design, build, and run software-based businesses. Wilson’s current interests include how best to undertake large software projects, which he is exploring through his work at Microsoft and a part-time master’s program at Carnegie Mellon University.