I have no class this term so have more time for my hobby– entrepreneurship and music. I attended a technology lecture in last Wednesday and a one-day technology workshop in last Saturday.
The lecture was given by Brendon Howe, a BU alumni and the vice president of NetApp. Inc. a NASDAQ-listed storage company. To be honest, it was a little bit boring.
Mr Howe shared us his experience in both BU and NetApp. Since Howe grew up in the eastern coast, while NetApp Inc is a typical silicon valley company, I asked him about his opinion about the difference of east coast and west coast. I also ask whether he felt there is disadvantage for east coast graduates to find a job in high tech industry compared with west coast graduates as most of tech companies are silicon valley based.
His answer was that there are some difference, but the difference is not as large as people imagine. A east coast graduate student can easily adapt to the life in silicon valley. For the second question, he admitted that many companies are more willing to recruit local students, however, since globalization is the future trend, more and more companies set up their offices in the east coast, so this gap should be more or less bridged.
In terms of Saturday technology workshop, it was pretty much a MBA lecture. The workshop was organized by ITEC, acronym of Institute of Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization which is a very active technology organization under the school of management . About 30 students, mostly engineering and management students, joined the workshop. The students were divided into 5 groups to brainstorm biz ideas. Eventually each group will focus on one biz concept and try to draft a biz plan and give eight elevator pitch or biz presentation.
Our group focused on a gaming device in which you can control the avatars using your brain directly and watch game scenes through displaying glasses. It is actually a very interesting idea which can revolutionize the way people interact with gaming device. I eventually gave a elevator pitch. It was actually challenging for me since elevator pitch request very fast response which is harder for even native speakers. I tried to speak more passionate to overcomes the shortcoming of language and it seemed to work well.
For the music, I watched a very funny opera named secret marriage in Friday night. It was performed by BU students and free to all BU students, actually there is another good Boston Symphony Orchestra at the same time so I can only choose one. Choosing the opera turned to be not a bad idea. It says a young couple hide their marriage to the father of the wife. However, the betrothed husband of the wife’s sister falls into love with the wife, which make things complicated. The couple conspired to escape but was found. Eventually the young couple got permission of the wife’s father and show ends happily.
The only unhappy thing in the last week was research. The simulation results turned out to be crappy, so I switched to a new method, unfortunately the new method didn’t work, too. I stayed up last night but still didn’t get the result for meeting with advisor today, so the meeting is a little bit embarrassing as I made no progress in the past week. Anyway, research is only a small part of life.
Jing Conan Wang 