The Global Innovation Exchange recently concluded its seven-part Spring Speaker Series, with topics including data science, public health, artificial intelligence and more. Hosted virtually, these topics provided MSTI and Dual Degree students the opportunity for additional learning and upskilling even within the current physical distancing guidelines.
Magali Eaton
From Idea to Impact: Accelerating the Commercialization of Your Projects
Magali Dieny Eaton is CoMotion’s Assistant Director for Innovation Training and a faculty member at the University of Washington’s School of Law. Before joining the university, she practiced law in two major international firms in France and in Seattle. She managed intellectual property portfolios and transactions for clients in a wide breadth of industries, including retail, manufacturing, therapeutics, wine, publishing, luxury goods and gaming. Magali joined the UW in 2014 through the entrepreneurial law clinic, a program pairing law students with mentors to offer legal advice to low-income entrepreneurs. She currently designs and deploys innovation training programs for faculty, startups and students at UW CoMotion and teaches intellectual property law at the University of Washington School of Law.
Amit Mital
Building a Low Cost, Open Source Ventilator
Amit Mital is an active investor in several startups in the Bay Area and in Seattle, as well as a mentor and advisor to entrepreneurs. As a Corporate Vice President at Microsoft and Chief Technology Officer at Symantec, Amit established a history of building world-class teams, driving disruptive innovation, and delivering business results. Amit has a passion for scenarios that leverage Big Data and Machine Learning technologies.
Harry Shum
You are how you read – An introduction to research paper reading
Dr. Harry Shum was executive vice president of Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Research group until March 1, 2020. Previously, he served as the corporate vice president responsible for Bing search product development from 2007 to 2013. Dr. Shum joined Microsoft Research in 1996 as a researcher, and in 1998 he moved to Beijing as one of the founding members of Microsoft Research China (later renamed Microsoft Research Asia). There he began a nine-year tenure as a researcher, subsequently moving on to become research manager, assistant managing director and managing director of Microsoft Research Asia and a Distinguished Engineer. Dr. Shum is an IEEE Fellow and an ACM Fellow for his contributions to computer vision and computer graphics. He received his Ph.D. in robotics from the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. In 2017, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering of the United States.
Jake Garrison
Understanding the World through Data
Obtaining expert knowledge on a topic or system traditionally required a lifetime of information acquisition and rigorous studies. Now, with massive data repositories like the internet, constantly being updated with the world’s collective knowledge and experience, one can answer many questions with a single query, but that is just the beginning. Using automation techniques such as data mining to acquire information and machine learning to condense and understand it, one can learn difficult concepts, explore novel ideas or unmask global trends, all from home. This talk will cover Jake’s journey through his academic and professional career and how it has been enhanced by data and automation.
PATH: Bhavya Gowda, Sue Wairimu, & Nelson Cheruiyot
Understanding and co-creating with frontline service providers in postpartum hemorrhage and immunization using HCD: Case studies in Nairobi and Kisumu Kenya.
Bhavya Gowda is the Deputy Director of PATH’s Living Labs initiative, based in Washington DC, and has worked for PATH for over 5 years. She is focused on building a sustainable model for the Living Labs in country Human centered design model, including expansion into other countries and health areas. She also serves as the team’s liaison with donors, partners, and other stakeholders. Bhavya doubles up as a Senior Market Dynamics Officer and applies a market lens to solving complex global health problems through research, analysis, and collaboration with partners globally to increase access to quality and timely healthcare. In her market dynamics role at PATH, she has supported projects related to cervical cancer, malaria, family planning, and innovation ecosystem development. Bhavya completed her Masters in International Health – Health Systems at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and she holds a Bachelors in Business Administration from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.
Sue Wairimu is a Creative Designer at PATH Living Labs based at the PATH Kenya office where she engages with health workers in rapid ideation and deployment of prototypes to test hundreds of solutions that build on health workers’ engagement and motivation – using a human-centered approach. An engineer by training, Sue has worked with UNICEF and Phillips Foundation at the University of Nairobi’s Innovation hub, Maker space, to design locally manufactured medical devices such as the suction machine, to meet the high demand in local hospitals. Sue helps organizations interact with the users to get to know what the users desire and find ways to feasibly deliver that. Sue holds a Bachelors in Civil Engineering from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology.
Nelson Cheruiyot is a Creative Designer at PATH’s Living Labs based at the PATH Kenya office where he focuses on Human-Centered Design as a primary tool to gain meaningful insights and prototype simple promising ideas, conduct usability testing, develop new products and gather rapid feedback with frontline service providers in health. Over the last 5 years, he has developed a keen interest in Human Centered Design approaches in participatory action research within living lab contexts to amplify users’ latent design thinking potential. Previously, Nelson was part of conceptualizing Living Lab at the University of Nairobi. He holds a Master of Arts in Design degree from the University of Nairobi.
Matt Talpis
Intellectual Property Overview
Matt Talpis is an attorney who has been handling Intellectual Property, complex transactions, licensing, M&A and Open Source for over 20 years, with experience across business, academic and philanthropic groups. He is Chief Intellectual Property Counsel at Vulcan Inc. where he gets to enjoy supporting a variety of teams, including Living Computers: Museum + Labs here in Seattle, and has previously enjoyed working at a succession of interesting places, including BakerBotts LLP, Emerson Process Management, IBM and Amazon Web Services (AWS).
TerraClear: Vivek Nayak & Trevor Thompson
Automating the Mundane
Vivek Nayak is co-founder and VP Engineering at TerraClear where he leads the team responsible for the rock picker hardware and controls systems. Prior to this, he held various roles in renewable energy, IP investment, strategy consulting and software development. Vivek is a mechanical engineer by training, with a B.Tech in ME from I.I.T. Bombay and an MS in ME from Missouri S&T, and he also holds an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Trevor Thompson is President of TerraClear where he works with an incredible team focused on agricultural automation. Prior to TerraClear, he spent 14 years in the U.S. Navy, deploying to more than eight countries and serving in a wide range of leadership roles as a Navy SEAL. Trevor earned a Bachelor of Science from the U.S. Naval Academy and a Master of Philosophy in History from Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. Of note, Trevor is also a proud Husky sibling and fan.