For 10 UNC Asheville management and engineering students, spring break was an eye-opener – a university-organized encounter with high-tech firms and new start-up businesses in California – bringing new ideas and new connections.
After a visit with California’s oldest giants, the redwood trees, the students visited 21st century giants Google and Cisco. And students got a taste of what it will be like to be part of the next wave of high-tech business, through meetings with venture capitalists and with:
- Moon Express, which is working to send robotic spacecraft to the moon to mine rare elements
- tokbox, developing software for adding video, voice and messaging to websites and mobile apps
- Citrine Informatics, using a ‘big data’ approach researching new materials and manufacturing techniques
- Founders Den, a by-invitation-only shared office space and private club for entrepreneurs
“The trip was invaluable,” said Dan Casciato, a mechatronics engineering post-baccalaureate student. “Exposure to brilliant people … Getting one-on-one time with experts in the field of entrepreneurship and venture capital changed my perception about what it takes to make new and exciting ideas a reality.”
At each facility, students met with business leaders and engineers in meetings arranged through contacts of UNC Asheville’s Susan Clark Muntean, assistant professor of management, and Stephen Walsh, director of UNC Asheville’s joint engineering program with NC State University. Students also met with JavaScript specialist Semmy Purewal, a UNC Asheville assistant professor of computer science who is on sabbatical leave working for Netflix.
As part of the curriculum for the trip, students are completing writing assignments and reading The Monk and The Riddle – The Education of a Silicon Valley Entrepreneur, by Randy Komisar (Harvard Business Review Press, 2000).
“This trip not only allowed us to experience and understand the start-up culture of Silicon Valley, but also gave the students from the engineering and management departments a way to form personal connections with one another,” said Robin Peeples, a senior studying mechatronics engineering. “If we didn’t already know that having connections is the way to make it in this world, this trip reaffirmed that and gave us a chance to network.”
Funding for the trip was provided in part by Arvato Bertelsmann and LORD Corporation.