Thursday, February 4, 2016

Joining the Global Venture Lab at UC Berkeley

In early January 2016 I had the chance to join the annual meeting of the Global Venture Lab at University California Berkeley.  The Global Venture Lab (GVL) is a network and collaborations of international institutions founded in 2009.  GVL seeks to foster entrepreneurship within the University and to bring Berkeley’s research capability to industry collaborations.  To these ends, the GVL members share best practices in entrepreneurship & innovation, host transnational multi-disciplinary research,  contribute to the globally-connected ecosystem of the Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology at UC Berkeley.

During the meeting I had the pleasure to present the Aegean Startups initiative of University of the Aegean, targeting Demand-Driven entrepreneurship.  The slides of my presentation can be found here: http://www.slideshare.net/charalabidis/aegean-startups-56839445 

Presenting Aegean Startups at UC Berkeley

The GVL members, January 2016
More information on GVL can be found here: http://scet.berkeley.edu/gvl/ 

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Uni Aegean finishes second in Europe at the Microsoft Night of the Living Devs 2015

With the students from Aegean at Microsoft
Three student groups from the University of the Aegean formed by the Student Guru Community of the Department of Information and Communication Systems Engineering in Samos, participated in this year's round of European Microsoft "Night Of the Living Devs" - contest of 24 hours non stop programming.

The best team in the Aegean finished second in Europe among 500 teams from 15 countries, with a new social media application, operating only through video posting ! 

Well done to the boys and girls of ICSD / Student Guru, who were pioneers, making the core of the largest representation of Greek Universities.

The three Uni Aegean Teams


A different "project": Being Santa for the kids of "Kivotos tou Kosmou"

On the eve of 2016 we had the chance to visit the Kivotos tou Kosmou  (Arc of the World) organisation and give gifts to the boys and girls that stay at the shelter hostels.  Together with members of the Information Systems Laboratory of the University of the Aegean, we selected, packed and delivered more than 50 parcels with all shorts of toys for young boys and girls.

Vassiliki with the parcels
The "Ark of the World" is a Non-Profit Organization for the Special Care and Protection of Mothers and Children which operates on the care of children who were living under conditions of negligence and abandonment, without medical attendance, without a future; most of them coming from single parent families and many of them without parents. The "Ark of the World" was founded in 1998 by the twenty-six-year (then) old priest, Father Antonios Papanikolaou, having as his weapons his love for children and his wish to create a nest of affection and care for the "other children" of Athens.


The IS-Lab team at Kivotos

The joy of the kids, the interest and appreciation of the Kivotos's staff, the love of all of them were the best possible reward for us all.  

We look forward to being again with the kids, at the first possibility !

With the kids and the toys !