Events
Past Event
Entrepreneur-In-Residence: Don Parsons
Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
2:30 PM
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Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center
Details
Have any questions about your startup? Sign up to talk with our Entrepreneur-In-Residence, Don Parsons, on April 28.
Don Parsons is an experienced venture capitalist, having spent the last 26 years investing in and helping grow technology companies. He is a seasoned General Partner of 4 Venture Capital funds totaling over $840 million in capital and has knowledge and/or oversight of over 140 private venture capital investments. He is a current or former Board of Director member of more than 20 companies.
Don is currently a member of the Venture Capital Group of Liberty Global, the largest international cable and Broadband Company with operations in over 14 countries. His current investments include: Revolv (sold to NEST/Google), EdgeConnex, Thuuz, Personify, Veniam and SundaySky.
Don previously founded Appian Ventures in 2002 and raised an $80 million venture capital fund that invested in 20 software and technology companies including LeftHand Networks (acquired by HP), Collective Intellect (acquired by Oracle), CareFX (acquired by Harris Corporation), AuctionPay (acquired by Global Payments), and Ping Identity.
Don founded Strategos Ventures, LLC in 2000 to make Angel investments in technology companies along with investments in venture capital funds. Angel investments include LeftHand Networks, Stratis Business Centers (acquired by Regus PLC), Lijit Networks (acquired by Federated Media), and Albeo Technologies (acquired by GE). Venture Capital Fund investments include Silicon Valley BancVentures, Vanguard Venture Partners, and Sequel Venture Partners.
Don also spent 11 years at Denver based Centennial Ventures, a venture capital firm managing over $600 million focused on media and technology investments. He invested or oversaw investments in Verio ($8 billion acquisition by NTT), HighGround Systems (acquired by Sun Microsystems), Raindance Communications (IPO, acquired by West Media), Cypress Communications (IPO), Pluto Technologies (acquired by AVID), and Tricord Systems (IPO).
Prior to his career in venture capital, Don was a Northwestern University Cooperative Engineer and then a full-time Product Design Engineer with IBM's Personal Computer Division in Boca Raton, Florida where he received a patent for innovative features of the graphics hardware (MCGA and VGA) for the IBM PS/2 line of computers introduced in 1987.
Don was a founding board member of Colorado's chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors. He is the former President and Chairman of the Rocky Mountain Venture Capital Association and a former member of the Board of Trustees of the Graland Country Day School. Don holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Northwestern University McCormick School of Engineering and an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.
Time
Thursday, April 28, 2016 at 2:30 PM - 5:00 PM
Location
Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center Map
Contact
Calendar
Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Corporate Innovation Guest Speaker Series: Anoop Prakash
Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
4:00 PM
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ITW, Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center
Details
As part of our Corporate Innovation class, we will be having five guest speakers, who have all made waves as innovators in an established corporate setting. Because of the invaluable insight and guidance they can provide, we are opening these events to all of our students, even those not enrolled in ENTREP 395: Corporate Innovation.
Anoop Prakash has more than 20 years of experience in innovating from within. He led Harley-Davidson’s entry into the Indian Market in addition to spearheading other initiatives that transformed the company. He currently serves as executive vice president at AriensCo, one of the world's leading manufacturers of snow blowers, zero-turn lawn mowers, and job-site equipment for commercial and high-end consumer markets.
Time
Wednesday, May 1, 2024 at 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Location
ITW, Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center Map
Contact
Calendar
Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Annual Segal Iron Pour
Segal Design Institute
7:30 PM
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Evanston Township High School
Details
The Segal Iron Pour is an annual event that introduces students to a centuries-old manufacturing process. During the Iron Pour, students pour molten iron from a 2,700-degree furnace into 3D-printed and sand-casted molds.
The event is held as a culmination of DSGN 395-64: Leonardo, Geometry, and the Art of Manufacturing, a course taught by Segal faculty members Matthew Cummins and David Gatchell.
Join us for the 6th annual Segal Iron Pour, a one-of-a-kind experience that aims to stimulate curiosity in sand casting, forging, and other types of manufacturing. The Iron Pour features Segal students, faculty, and staff who will demonstrate the forging process by pouring hundreds of pounds of molten iron into creatively designed molds. The Segal Iron Pour is open to the McCormick community, including students, faculty, and staff.
Time
Saturday, May 4, 2024 at 7:30 PM - 10:00 PM
Location
Evanston Township High School
Contact
Calendar
Segal Design Institute
Corporate Innovation Guest Speaker Series: Swatee Surve
Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
4:00 PM
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ITW, Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center
Details
As part of our Corporate Innovation class, we will be having five guest speakers, who have all made waves as innovators in an established corporate setting. Because of the invaluable insight and guidance they can provide, we are opening these events to all of our students, even those not enrolled in ENTREP 395: Corporate Innovation.
Swatee Surve is the founder and CEO of Litesprite, an award-winning digital healthcare firm that has built a therapeutic gaming platform that delivers data insights and improves clinical outcomes. Before founding Litesprite, she was the senior innovation strategist and senior product manager of healthcare at T-Mobile, where she led product development and launch efforts for new Android and iOS services in mobile health and communications products.
Time
Wednesday, May 8, 2024 at 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Location
ITW, Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center Map
Contact
Calendar
Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Extending Care: A Conversation about Conservation and Futurity
Block Museum of Art
6:00 PM
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Block Museum of Art, Mary and Leigh
Details
The Center for Scientific Studies in the Arts is a collaboration between the Art Institute of Chicago and materials science-related departments at Northwestern University to pursue objects-based and objects-inspired scientific research. Materials research benefits ongoing work in conservation, archaeology, art history, and curatorial scholarship.
Learn how the Center uses materials research to care for art objects in sustainable, innovative ways with Maria Kokkori, Senior Scientist in the Center for Scientific Studies in the Arts. She will be in conversation with Corey Byrnes, Northwestern Associate Professor of Chinese Culture and co-founder/co-director of the Environmental Humanities Workshop in Kaplan Humanities Center.
This event is presented by the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science in conjunction with exhibition Actions for the Earth: Art, Care & Ecology.
Time
Wednesday, May 8, 2024 at 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
Location
Block Museum of Art, Mary and Leigh Map
Contact
Calendar
Block Museum of Art
Visions of Tomorrow: Building Responsible AI
The Garage
5:15 PM
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The Garage, North Campus Parking Garage/Academic Building
Details
Join us at The Garage to hear from Arjun Ravi Kannan, Director of Data Science Research at Discover, who will provide insight on the near future and the ideas pushing it forward.
Time
Thursday, May 9, 2024 at 5:15 PM - 6:00 PM
Location
The Garage, North Campus Parking Garage/Academic Building Map
Contact
Calendar
The Garage
Corporate Innovation Guest Speaker Series: Nick Renold
Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
4:00 PM
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ITW, Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center
Details
As part of our Corporate Innovation class, we will be having five guest speakers, who have all made waves as innovators in an established corporate setting. Because of the invaluable insight and guidance they can provide, we are opening these events to all of our students, even those not enrolled in ENTREP 395: Corporate Innovation.
Nick Renold was the seventh employee of Titan Aerospace, a startup that designed and built solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicles. He eventually took over as COO, and in 2014, Google purchased Titan Aerospace. He now works on Project Wing, Google’s drone delivery initiative.
Time
Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Location
ITW, Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center Map
Contact
Calendar
Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Visions of Tomorrow: Navigating AI's Uncharted Territory
The Garage
5:15 PM
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The Garage, North Campus Parking Garage/Academic Building
Details
Join us at The Garage to hear from Alex Castrounis, Founder & CEO at Why of AI, who will provide insight on the near future and the ideas pushing it forward.
Castrounis is the founder and CEO of Why of AI, a book author on AI, and an adjunct professor of AI for Northwestern University's Kellogg & McCormick MBAi program. He has over two decades of experience advising startups to Fortune 100 companies on using data, analytics, and AI models to drive business growth and customer success.
Time
Thursday, May 23, 2024 at 5:15 PM - 6:00 PM
Location
The Garage, North Campus Parking Garage/Academic Building Map
Contact
Calendar
The Garage
Northwestern Engineering PhD Hooding and Master's Degree Recognition Ceremony
McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science
9:00 AM
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Welsh-Ryan Arena
Details
McCormick School of Engineering PhD Hooding and Master’s Degree Recognition Ceremony
Time
Monday, June 10, 2024 at 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Location
Welsh-Ryan Arena
Contact
Calendar
McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science
Northwestern Engineering Undergraduate Convocation
McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science
2:00 PM
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Welsh-Ryan Arena
Details
McCormick School of Engineering Undergraduate Convocation
Time
Monday, June 10, 2024 at 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Location
Welsh-Ryan Arena
Contact
Calendar
McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science
Undergraduate Quantum Summer School
McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science
All Day
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Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center
Details
Innovation in Quantum Pedagogy, Application, and its Relation to Culture (IQ-PARC), funded by the Department of Defense — National Defense Education Program, is extending an invitation to underrepresented students nationwide (including military-connected students) to participate in a summer school focused on quantum technologies, to be held at Northwestern University. Join us for presentations by faculty and industry partners introducing quantum technologies, cutting-edge research areas, and related job opportunities particularly in the areas of national security.
This effort aims to foster an inclusive environment that encourages participation from all corners of the academic community. Successful applicants will receive up to $1,000 USD to cover travel and lodging expenses in Evanston, IL.
Priority application deadline: May 15, 2024.
Decisions will be sent by June 15, 2024.
Time
Wednesday, August 14, 2024
Location
Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center Map
Contact
Calendar
McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science