Monday, July 23, 2012

The Greatest Innovations of Silicon Valley, BUS 117.

This fall, beginning on September 27th and ending on December 6th, John Kelley and I will be teaching our new course at Stanford University Continuing Studies Program - The Greatest Innovations of Silicon Valley, BUS 117.
Here's a preview of the syllabus.

Course Objectives
- To understand what makes an innovation great
- To identify Silicon Valley’s greatest innovations
- To understand why these innovations constituted both technological and
economic breakthroughs
- To address several fundamental questions concerning them:
  • How do they work?
  • Who invented them?
  • What inspired their inventors?
  • How did these innovations differ from earlier efforts?
  • Why did they succeed?
- To present diverse perspectives concerning these issues through guest speakers
- To enhance your abilities to innovate, to invest, and to contribute back to Silicon Valley wisely

Course Outline
- Session 1, Introduction to the Greatest Innovations of Silicon Valley. Theme: The Valley’s Uniqueness.

- Session 2, The Cold War, Silicon, and Money. Theme: Defense contractors, semiconductor manufacturers, and venture firms.

- Session 3, Personal Computing Leads to the PC. Theme: Computers bring a new wave of innovation to the Valley.

- Session 4, Having Fun Can Be Serious Business. Theme: Entertainment driving innovation.

- Session 5, The Biomedical, Biotech, and Bioinformatics Revolutions. Theme: Advances in biology, medicine, and related fields of innovation.

- Session 6, Bigger Systems for Bigger Customers: Databases, Workstations, and Networks. Theme: Innovation for the enterprise.

- Session 7, With the Internet, It’s a Whole New Ballgame. Theme: Infrastructure changes and world-wide impact of networking.

- Session 8, Where the Ether Meets the Road. Theme: Cloud Computing, Communications, Smartphones, and Apps.

- Session 9, Generating Content and Promoting Sustainability. Theme: Social Networking and CleanTech.

- Session 10, “Just Keep Truckin On.” Theme: The future of innovation in Silicon Valley
Is the Valley Itself Its greatest innovation?


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