The Dado and Maria Banatao GLOBE Center

Global Learning and Outreach from Berkeley Engineering

Berkeley Engineering

Graduate School Application and Experience with Yingqiao, a GLOBE alumna attending PhD program in Carnegie Mellon University

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A PhD program is not really a test, it challenges how you communicate with people, how you manage your time, and how you plan your experiments. It is a really comprehensive process.

Yingqiao Wang, GLOBE Alumna, Materials Science and Engineering
Final day at UCB, in front of the Doe library – Always missing the days study here

Can You Tell Us a Little Bit About Yourself? 

I am now a second year PhD student in Materials Science and Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). My undergraduate schooling was in China at ShanghaiTech University. Currently, my research focus at CMU is on biosensors and material-neuronal interfaces. But interestingly enough, my background in China and at UC Berkeley was mainly in the areas of computational engineering/sciences. I have switched to the experimental side of research for my PhD because that area attracts me more.

For my personal life, the PhD life is really busy. I try to make an effort to find some time for myself. Pittsburg has a lot of good restaurants that I can go to, and I also like cooking and baking cakes at home when I have time. 

What inspired you to choose the major that you are in? What still excites you about your major?

When we talk about “Materials Science and Engineering”, it is really a broad map, which really includes so many attractive areas. For example, CMU has a strong background in metallic materials because Pittsburgh is well-known as “the city of Steel”, and the tie between materials and artificial intelligence is tight and mind blowing. Meanwhile, UC Berkeley has many pioneer researchers on electrochemistry, whose state-of-art works are really fascinating as well. This is why this major is interesting – you will have many choices! It is also a combination of many different majors such as chemistry, physics, biology and computer science. I changed my research interest from computational/simulation to experimental. This does not mean that I do not like computational material, I want to explore more opportunities in this major.

What prompted you to come to UC Berkeley and be a member of the GLOBE family?

It was my honor to study as an exchange student at UC Berkeley for one year. The reason why I chose Berkeley is because I had the education background in China, but I haven’t experienced American education at the college level, like how the courses are set up, what is the teaching style, how the students’ life is like here. UC Berkeley is a top school in engineering, which is an outstanding place for exploring the new culture, that is why I applied for it. 

With Dr. Matt Surburne – Nice research experience in UCB!

What were your experiences at UC Berkeley and being a part of GLOBE?

It was really very different from ShanghaiTech. I would talk about the courses first. I selected the computer science course here: CS 61A intro to programming, which is outside of my major in materials science and engineering. I really learned a lot from this class. It changed my mind about coding and helped me build up interest in computer science and enhanced my programming skills. In CS 61A, l do not feel stressed out with coding as I used to feel, since the course is designed to ramp up and all the teaching assistants were very welcoming and helpful. There was even one-on-one help in the class to help students overcome challenges in coding. It really inspires me and changed my mind about teaching and learning. It was not just gaining knowledge in the class, it was an exploration and experiencing a journey.

From the research perspective, I was working with Dr. Matthew Sherburne on research. I worked on kinetic modeling for catalytic reactions. It was a collaboration between UC Berkeley, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and National University of Singapore (NUS). The research from CNRS focused on experimental parts, while UC Berkeley and NUS focused on the computational parts. Dr. Sherburne gave me a lot of good advice and suggested many useful textbooks and papers to start the project. It inspired me a lot since I learned that it was possible to learn from scratch and it is a really valuable memory. 

UC Berkeley is a really really large school compared with CMU. When I first came to Berkeley, I was surprised  about the campus size. One funny memory is that I remember there were dogs and pets to help reduce stress at Sather Gate. I thought the dogs were really cute!  There were many clubs and activities that you can be involved in. I think this was something that is very appealing about Berkeley.

Why did you decide to go to graduate school instead of the industry? How and when did you decide? Do you think you should decide earlier? Why or why not?

I decided to go to graduate school as soon as I got into undergraduate and majored in Materials Science and Engineering. Some people might have a very clear idea about their path in highschool or even earlier. Those folks are really lucky, but I think it is not too late to decide later in college. 

Also, I think I need to learn more and experience more before I can go into industry. I feel like if I go straight into industry after undergraduate, then I will be limited by the nature of work I am able to do and the autonomy I have in choosing and doing my projects. That is not my ultimate goal for my career. My goal is that I want to learn more and help myself to form my own projects and lead my own group in the future. 

What is your ultimate career goal?

My ultimate career goal is to focus on healthcare areas where I can solve some real-world problems, such as the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. The number of elderly is growing as society’s population ages. Therefore, I want to spend more time exploring and helping solve health-related issues. In addition, I think it is really interesting to work in an area where my projects can help many people. 

What keeps you enthusiastic about your work?

When I know other people can benefit from my work, I feel very happy. I will try to do what I can to help others. Also, I like learning new things and new knowledge. Whenever I figure out the model and how the experiment works, I will feel very proud of myself. 

How many recommendations do grad schools need for application? Who are the best people to write these recommendations?

I think normally, there will be 3 letters required. I got two letters from my advisors in ShanghaiTech from Dr. Lin and Dr. Lee, and one letter from my advisor, Dr. Sherburne at UC Berkeley. There was an opportunity where I could receive a letter from a “big name” professor whom I did a summer project with in Berkeley. However, I did not end up asking for it because I think it is more persuasive to have the people who really know you to write your letters. My advice is to find your advisors who know you the best and ask them to write the letters. It seems really fantastic to get letters from big name professors, but they might not know you very well. Also, it will be great if each of your letters will cover your different aspects, like research performance, course performance, and even volunteering performance. 

Is it okay to have imperfect grades when applying to grad school?

Yeah, definitely. My GPA was okay, but not perfect. The key point is knowing your own strength. My strength was that I had a lot of undergraduate research experiences, so I could prove that I had problem-solving skills and self-learning skills. A perfect GPA cannot show how well your research skills are or that you were a good researcher. I would like to say that GPA is important, but it  is not only one way to evaluate a student. Finding what makes you special and highlights those strengths will be really helpful in application.

Any personal suggestions that you want to share given your application experience? How to be more competitive as an applicant retrospectively?

I think one really important thing is to write down all the details of all the things you have experienced, and modify it for each application. I wrote really detailed descriptions of every research and every social experience. For my application, I may not use all of these experiences, but I can have these to pick and choose from. Second, have different application materials for different schools. Every school has different research topics they are really specialized in. I recommend you to contact the professor of interest as early as possible and proactively build up the connection. Active students are always welcomed! 

Build Your Startup with Mukul Khadke, a graduate of SRM and Founder of Inventeurs

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It is important to seize every small opportunity… Moreover, it is more important to connect with people and it requires confidence. I believe that building confidence to make and keep relationships is a quality every student should learn.

Design Thinking Bootcamp at SRM (Amaravati Campus), Telangana, India (2019) – Addressing the role of “symbiotic relations” for lucrative results in the industry.

Can You Tell Us a Little Bit About Yourself? 

I am a postgraduate student at SP Jain School of Global Management. I am specializing in Global Supply Chain Management and Logistics. Alongside this, I am the Founder and CEO at Inventeurs. I completed my engineering degree from Sri Ramaswamy Memorial Institute of Science and Technology (SRM IST) in the discipline of Mechatronics.

What made you want to apply to the GLOBE program?

I found out about the GLOBE program from the International Relations office at SRM IST. My undergraduate institution and UC Berkeley had signed a memorandum of understanding for the same year.

I was fascinated by the programs that were offered by the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (SCET) and the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation at UC Berkeley. I was keen to learn about the fundamentals of design thinking and entrepreneurship. So this seemed to me like the perfect opportunity to be a part of UC Berkeley through the GLOBE Visiting Students Program.

What did you like about your experience in Berkeley?

The Berkeley way of life was quite transforming for me. I was quite delighted to get hands-on experience relating to prototyping products and it is here where I designed my first prototype called “Walkity”. Being a part of an entrepreneurship program also gave me an opportunity to be a part of various pitch events and product launches.

Do you find the classes here to be interesting/engaging? How were the SCET courses?

The classes were quite challenging and promoted active learning. I was enrolled in courses like Product management, Technology entrepreneurship, Tech firm Leadership, Introduction to Silicon Valley, Richard Newton Lecture Series, and Challenge Lab- Disaster Management in Puerto Rico. 

Each course was unique and helped me shape my skills regarding product development and day-to-day management.

Berkeley Leadership Network team, Sutardja Center, UCB (2017). Convention on brand convergence, a series by Bill Chiravalle and hosted by Stephen Torres.

How was Jacob Institute’s bootcamp and what did you learn?

The courses at Jacobs Institute of design and Innovation included Design Bootcamps and Design thinking. Here, I learned how to prototype using a 3D printer, laser cutter, and various other industrial equipment. The Design Thinking Bootcamp was scheduled during the Spring break where we solved real-life problems around Berkeley and tried implementing those across the campus.

How do you like classes at Berkeley? What are some differences and similarities between classes in SRM vs Berkeley?

The classes were quite challenging and informative here at Berkeley. Specifically, the classes were so different from what we have been through in SRM because we had to think from scratch. No resources were handed directly to us, so we had to adapt to finding and gathering relevant resources in a small amount of time. We needed to spend a lot of time in the Moffit library where we spend our days and nights learning new knowledge and meeting new people with whom we do work and assignments. 

My lectures at SRM taught me the fundamental concepts of engineering; on the other hand, at Berkeley, I was given an opportunity to implement these in real life. The courses at Berkeley are peer-learning based while SRM courses focus more on self-development through projects and internships.

The Berkeley way of understanding and approaching teaches me more in depth knowledge, whereas SRM I would have to learn from internships. We also do not have minors at SRM, so it is less incentivized for students to focus on classes beyond their majors. 

Bridging the Gap between Engineering and Business with Dennis Tan, NTU, ME’21

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“Do not be afraid to try new things and more importantly, do not be afraid to fail. Once you figure out what drives you intrinsically, you are definitely on the right path to success.“

Dennis Tan at UC Berkeley Campus

Can You Tell Us a Little Bit About Yourself? 

I am passionate about the intersection between business and technology. I chose to study Mechanical Engineering(ME) under the Renaissance Engineering Programme (REP) at NTU, did Mechanical Engineering (ME) in GLOBE at UC Berkeley, and a master’s degree in technology management under REP. Being the bridge between the technical space of technology and business strategy has been a great interest of mine and hence I took up internships across both spaces.

What made you want to apply to the GLOBE program?

My undergraduate program, Renaissance Engineering Programme, works closely with UC Berkeley, specifically for the GLOBE program. My program requires us to study abroad for one academic year either at Imperial College London, Northwestern, UC Berkeley, and others. UC Berkeley is a strong choice for me mainly because of its location within the Bay Area and the college’s culture.

I was fortunate enough to visit San Francisco when I was 17 after winning a national entrepreneurship competition. It was then when I realised that the fast paced nature of technological start-ups highly appeal to me. UC Berkeley being in the Bay Area, has a strong foundation in tech.

Next, I also realised that the general mindset in Berkeley is quite different from other colleges. People constantly hone in on applying acquired theoretical knowledge to practice. For instance, even for highly research based classes, the professors and students will discuss how to apply those theories in industry.

Dennis with members of the Portfolio Company Growth team at SGInnovate which works with entrepreneurial scientists to scale their companies

GLOBE is a great program in allowing students to experience the campus for 6 months. 6 months sounds like a short period of time but it is definitely enough to take home a highly rewarding and game-changing experience. The special appeal of GLOBE is the strong support system present. There are student advisors whom we can connect with to better understand important matters like what classes we should go for and other experiences we should pursue. The faculty has also  been greatly supportive in that aspect as well. 

What did you like about your experience in Berkeley?

My overall experience has been great. I met some of the smartest people that I know in Berkeley. They are really talented and driven people who strive to make a deep impact in areas that they are passionate about. The great thing about GLOBE is that I got to meet the best and brightest students from all over the world. That international experience has been pretty unique.

Do you find the classes here to be interesting/engaging? How were the SCET courses?

I love The Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (SCET). I think SCET is one of my favorite things about Berkeley. In SCET, the courses equip us with the foundational skillsets to create start-ups. The most memorable course that I took was IEOR 135, Data-X. It helped me not only to understand fundamental machine learning techniques but also pushed us to apply those in a venture application. The course requires students to form a group to solve a real problem using data science techniques. My team went on to compete in the Collider Cup and pitched our project to panelists made up of venture capitalists and technological leaders.

I heard you founded a Health Consulting Group in UC Berkeley, can you tell us a little more about this group? What inspired you to do it and how was your experience with it?

Healthcare Consulting Group, HCG, is another key highlight of my Berkeley experience. HCG works with startups in the medical-tech space and focuses on early stage companies. Some of the problems that we help to tackle are Go-to-market type problems like companies who want to commercialize their product or even growth-related strategies where startups are trying to grow both vertically and horizontally. One of my most memorable projects in HCG was working with a team of brilliant students to figure out how to help a prosthetics start-up go to market. They managed to develop an affordable prosthetic without compromising on the features found in expensive alternatives but are facing a barrier in getting the tech into the hands of as many people as they can. We worked directly with the CEO of the company and co-created a solution we think would work best at that point in time.

HCG was a great space for me to give back. I had an amazing time working with passionate and driven folks to tackle difficult problems. I was also able to transfer what I learned over the years while working for start-ups and consulting firms to the student population in Berkeley. 

Another unique point about HCG is that we welcome students from all backgrounds and do not focus on business folks primarily. I fundamentally believe that an important tool kit that applies to most jobs is learning how to think in a more structured manner. Structured thinking not only helps someone to process information more efficiently, but also enables one to communicate more effectively. One of the greatest successes I experienced at HCG was seeing engineers and scientists come in with minimal business knowledge and developing a full market entry strategy for a fast growing Series A start-up at the end of the semester. The intense training program developed at HCG enables this to happen.

 The first batch of Healthcare Consulting Group members

Did you have some start-up ideas during your education here or in Singapore? What inspired you to do it? Any challenges you faced during this process?

As part of the Data X class, my team was looking at solving the notorious problem of queuing at amusement parks. A queue forms when there is imperfect information causing demand and supply mismatches especially during peak periods. When we see the high amusement park ticket prices coupled with the long wait times, we felt that the experience could be a lot better. A person spends on average around $100 for a one-day ticket at Disneyland. By spending 50% of the time at the park in a queue, an equivalent of $50 is lost.

Our team tried to apply machine learning to figure out the best itinerary a person could take to minimize their queue times at an amusement park. It predicts in advance what the queue situation looks like at each ride for a specific point in time and subsequently creates the best route for the user by taking into account their ride preferences. We were thrilled when we were selected to represent the Data X class in the Collider Cup and clinched 2nd runner up.

Did you find your experience here to be helpful for internship?

UC Berkeley is a campus that is really well-known so it is definitely significant in job hunting, especially if the recruiter is an alumni of the school. The Berkeley academic rigor is also really well known in industry. This results in recruiters generally being more comfortable in Berkeley students taking up more challenging roles at a company. Moreover, experiences outside the classroom like at Healthcare Consulting Group allowed me to hone my practical skill sets which greatly helped me in my job search.

Advices on finding internships, studying abroad, jobs

Internship experiences are really important because it allows you to further develop on skill toolkits that aren’t necessarily developed through classes. The advice I would give to students is that you should chase after a skill you really want to learn more so than other vanity metrics like salary or brand prestige associated with the role. This is especially important for internships where building up skills and knowledge is the key.

What I learned is when you hone in on developing your skill sets, you will become more knowledgeable in the space and you become better suited for the job. This enables you to then take on more challenging roles as you are now more confident to replicate success because you have significantly grown from your past experiences. Eventually, once you start to create value, you have a better shot at getting the job you really want. 

Dennis with team at the Collider Cup Spring 2019 after pitching the team’s machine learning solution on improving queue times at Disneyland

Is there anything you would have done differently in the program?

I initially spent a decent amount of time studying because to me, the courses are really interesting. However, if I were to turn back time, I would probably spend less time studying and try to meet more people beyond the clubs that I am in.

What challenges did you encounter in the class in general or through education? How did you overcome them? 

The main challenge for me is when you choose a technical study like in STEM and are looking at more business type roles, it gets a bit more tricky. It becomes harder to convince others that despite your focus on building up technical knowledge, you are able to perform as well outside of the technical sphere. This has been a great challenge for me at the start when I was trying to develop my business and skill.

I overcame the problem by enrolling in a multi-disciplinary programme which allowed me to explore modules outside of my technical focus. Moreover, I greatly relied on internships to develop skills that I deem are important to learn but am not getting the opportunity to develop them in college. My internships have been crucial in helping me in that aspect, especially early on in my undergraduate years. 

I also met great mentors like Justin Lee (CPO at ShopBack) and David Sng (Growth at Stripe) who took a leap of faith and granted me opportunities to accelerate my learning. Before my first internship, I didn’t even know how to use excel but they were willing to give me a shot. Going to a fast paced start-up also greatly helped me where the resource constrained environment pushed me to be responsible to deliver rather than just focusing on the processes.


What are your future career goals?

I am joining Mckinsey & Company as a business analyst. Mckinsey has always been a company that I look up to because of the incredible learning opportunities. It will be a great place for me to continue learning how to communicate clearly and how to think more logically. In the near future (~10 years), I hope to take the plunge and develop my own start-up. It will probably be in the data space because that’s my area of interest. 

What was your experience with internships?

My first ever internship is at an e-commerce start-up in Singapore, ShopBack. ShopBack is and always will be a special place for me because of the incredible learning experience I had and the brilliant people that I managed to work with and learn from. I worked there for close to a year before going to university. I started out as an intern in the product team where I knew close to nothing and had no tangible skill sets. However, being in a fast-paced environment and being expected to pull my weight and deliver, I took up the challenge and accelerated my learning. Henry (CEO of ShopBack) and Justin (CPO) also gave me the opportunity to take on the role as Product Manager which has been an absolute game changer. I was able to ramp up my development really quickly and I gained a lot of skills at a fairly young age.

Dennis with members of the Product and Engineering team at ShopBack which was his first ever internship

After ShopBack, I was lucky to be roped in by David who was leading the portfolio company growth team at that time at SGInnovate, a deep-tech venture capital company based in Singapore. The VC internship broadened my perspective and allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of the start-up ecosystem and its inner working mechanics. I also took on internships with Accenture Strategy and Kearney to learn more about the consulting industry and learnt how to think quickly and logically from incredibly smart co-workers.

Do you have any advice for future GLOBE students? 

I would say follow your passion. It is the best guiding light in helping you figure out what skills to develop and what choices to make. If you haven’t figured out what you are deeply passionate about, don’t worry about it. It is a common occurrence to see college seniors getting really stressed out because they are trying to figure out which is the best path to take among the many divergent routes. My advice for that situation would be to take a step back and zoom out. If you see your life as a marathon which it really should be, the decision you make does not matter as much as you think in the grand scheme of things – so take the time to find your passion. Do not be afraid to try new things and more importantly, do not be afraid to fail. Once you figure out what drives you intrinsically, you are definitely on the right path to success.

Dennis Tan

Dennis studied mechanical engineering under the Renaissance Engineering Programme at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). He is an alumnus of the GLOBE visiting students program. He is an incoming business analyst at McKinsey & Company as a consultant.

GLOBE Alumni Spotlight Series
GLOBE 15 Anniversary Special Series

 

LEAP with Assistant Professor Chao Wei’20

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Don’t be afraid of failure because that is a necessary step toward success as a startup.

Can You Tell Us a Little Bit About Yourself? 

I am Chao-Wei Huang, I graduated from the Department of Animal Science and Technology at the National Taiwan University. At the end of my PhD program, I have the chance to get involved in a project that uses biochips for on-site selection in the pig industry. In 2018,  I applied for the LEAP program and joined the GLOBE program in Berkeley to see if there is an opportunity for collaboration on technical aspects of my proposal and also seeking the chance to obtain funding for our start-up idea. During the program, I also applied to SkyDeck and got selected as a hotdesk team. Now, I am an Assistant Professor at the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology.

Chao Wei at the Golden Gate Bridge

Why are you interested in participating in the GLOBE program and what are your startup ideas? How did you think of this idea?

Berkeley is ranked top three in engineering, and it has a strong connection with Taiwan. My start-up idea is to select better livestocks (pigs) on-site by genotyping with microfluidic biochip. To seek the breakthrough opportunity of the technique and the networking, Berkeley is the only option for me . While I was in Berkeley, I joined Liwei Lin‘s lab and tried to develop the prototype for further application.

While I was in Taiwan, our team was excited about the prototype that could genotype the pigs. But after discussing with the customers (farmers who raise pigs) who we think would purchase the chips, I have to say our prototype did not fit their needs. They don’t need products with fancy techniques. All they want is to increase the production efficiency at a lower cost. The things they care about are technologies which are cheaper and easier to be implemented to their production system. Hence, I pivoted with my idea to provide the algorithm for them to select pigs in real time. Even though I still think that the biochip for on-site detection is the future, providing the solution to what customer need immediately is really the most important thing. In addition, our biochip is too complicated for the customers (farmers who raise pigs) to use. Hence, it is not validated by the market.

From this experience, I noticed that there is a huge gap between the research in the lab and the market needs. To fulfill the gap, I think I have to upgrade not only our techniques but also learn from the ecosystems that already incubated many successful companies, one of which being UC Berkeley. In addition, the GLOBE program in Berkeley fits both of my criteria. By joining the GLOBE program, I not only got into the startup program, but I also have the opportunity to network with the Biomedical industry that is active in Silicon Valley.

Most of us think start-ups are based on technology. However, after I came to Berkeley, we learned that customers are the most important and we have to use minimal viable products (MVP) to keep iterating our product to fit our customers’ needs. I think if we stick to technology, we will be restricted to what we can do. Now, I learned that we should focus on what the customers need first and then combine it with the technology so they will consider buying it. The technology itself may not support the business, instead it only supports the concept of doing business. A lot of biochips were invested millions of dollars and developed for ten years or more. In America, there are a lot of resources to develop these biochips. They will be purchased by big pharma. However, in Taiwan, it is not as easy as in America and we still have a lot of certifications to apply, which is similar to gaining FDA approval in America. Even though there are a lot of biochip companies, the final products on the market are still limited. 

Could you tell us a little bit about the LEAP program and your experience with it?

The LEAP program is funded by industry in science or technology as well as the National Research Lab. The program provides opportunities to PhD or people with engineering background for over 3-5 years. And there are two tracks of the program, one is for academics and one is for the industry. The LEAP program collaborates with reputable schools and institutions, like Berkeley, Duke, Stanford, and Michigan Hospitals. They also offer opportunities in big companies like Roche and Microsoft to LEAP scholars if you decide to choose the industrial track.

I am a biologist, but Prof. Liwei Lin, the principal investigator (PI) who hosted me, is focusing on the engineering field. That is why I applied to the program and feel very lucky to be selected. The LEAP program provided an opportunity for me to join the labs in Berkeley and helped me to learn skills in these well-known labs. In addition, we also have the opportunity to apply for SkyDeck, which is the startup accelerator program at UC Berkeley. If you don’t have a Berkeley affiliation, it is really challenging to get into SkyDeck Accelerator because you would have to compete with other global startups. LEAP gave me this opportunity to join one of the most well-known labs in the world as well as SkyDeck in Berkeley!

What are the challenges you had for your startup and how did you overcome those challenges?

At first, I wanted to sell my tech to farmers who raise pigs, however, the farmers cannot accept the change to genotyping their pigs and the cost of implementation. Farmers are really busy working on their farms, so they cannot afford to waste time in things they believe are inefficient. Hence, it is really challenging for me to sell them the things that will not have immediate benefits. If time is so important for them, I think it would be helpful to provide them with a decision-making software to assist them make decisions faster and easier. In the end, I provided them with a visualization report for them to make their decision easier.

Chao Wei with host faculty Prof. Liwei Lin.

Could you please tell us a little bit about your host faculty in Berkeley?

Prof. Liwei Lin is the professor who hosted me while I was at UC Berkeley. He not only provided the experiment resources such as equipment, but he also shared his networking with me to collaborate with professors in UCSF. In addition, I had the opportunity to collaborate with his lab members. Professor Liwei Lin has rich experience in the industry, he also gave me great strategic advice. My lab members Dr. Chen and I published a paper where we used CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) to detect bacteria in urea. And the postdoc in Prof. Jennifer Doudna’s lab also helped us to develop this technology.

What is the startup ecosystem in Taiwan like and what are the differences or similarities between Taiwan and the Bay Area?

In my opinion, I think we are more technology-oriented in start-up. The general personality in Taiwan is afraid of failing. We prefer to follow the “easier” or “better” pace that everyone told us. However, in the States, even undergraduates are talking about start-up ideas and seeking for the opportunities. In Bay area, the concept of start-up is more like if there is no ecosystem, we can build an ecosystem so everyone can make money. In Taiwan, we get used to sharing the benefits of an existing market, which will lead to zero-sum market.

Chao Wei in San Francisco

What made you decide to launch your start-up in America?

Why I wanted to come to America from Taiwan is because Taiwan purchases pigs from America. However, pigs have problems with adaptation from America to Taiwan. I wanted to make a platform for exchanging the information between Taiwan pig farm and US pig farm, which may provide the best match or the optimal breeding pigs for the pig farmer in Taiwan. Let’s say the tinder for pig industry but not only displays what the pigs look like but also the genetic background to make sure that the genetic background could be preserved.

The pigs-breeding industry has already been established by USDA for many years in
America. That is why we wanted to go to America to do the start-up, because
there are many pigs with excellent genetic background which could be selected for breeding. If we could provide a platform for the farmers in Taiwan, the improvement of our pig herd will increase rapidly.

Chao Wei at a professional event

What was your experience with the Berkeley SkyDeck Hotdesk program?

There are two programs: cohort and hotdesk in SkyDeck. The committee in Skydeck will select you and match you to the program that fit you. If you are in a cohort program, you will get funded, but they will take your equity. If you are hotdesk, you will have the same resources as cohort team but without funding.

For the application, they will ask you what is your business, what category are you working on right now. Basically, they will ask about your background. The second interview is about what is your technology, and they will expect you to explain it very very detail. Their technology questions will be really specific, you have to differentiate what is your technology. If your technology is defensible, then would it also be patentable? Can your competitors copy you easily or you have the strength to overcome this type of challenge. The other one is that your business idea is big enough. Your technology should be 10 times greater than the others. If your market is not big enough, the investor will not invest in you. You have to find a big enough market to do that. After that, the committee will decide if you are accepted to the hotdesk team or cohort team.

In the first week of the program, you have orientation, and then every week you have a mixer event. You can talk your ideas with others to build connections. You should definitely communicate with others and keep relationships with others because a lot of advisors will join the mixer so you can ask questions. They have a presentation on Berkeley accelerated methods per week. It also includes Startup 101: how to pitch, how to get funded, how to spare equity, and how many co-founders are better for your team. They will tell you everything about that. They provide biopharma connections, but you have to find which resources are best for you. Because the opportunity will not come to you, you have to ask. That is how things work in Skydeck. 

Do you want to share any caveats, observations or advice about doing your own start-up with us

We have to find customer needs first as it is most important as compared to the technology itself. Don’t be afraid of failure because we want to learn more about customers. Make more connections with people. It’s better to make a list and have a spreadsheet to note every person might help you, or already helped you and keep taking care of them because the connection is so important in a start-up. If you keep your relationship with them, someday when you need help, we will be able to reach out and ask for help from them. And don’t be afraid of asking for help. People in general are happy to help!

What advice do you have for future GLOBE Scholars?

Most of the people who graduated from engineering background always think technology is the most important thing, but I think they have to forget about every technology they have learned. And they have to ask good questions, learn from customers and collaborate with people. Do not get lost with all the resources, because you have to focus on what you want to build. There are a lot of mentors, ask what is a very good idea for the startup. A very good indication for a good idea is that when you share your idea with people and they keep on asking about it. While you start to execute the plans don’t change your mind easily because of other noises but to learn when to pivot is also a great lesson during the journey. I think the most important thing is not what you achieved at the end, but the journey that you have been through. Go
bears!

Chao-Wei Huang

Chao-Wei is currently an assistant professor at the National Pingtung university of Science and Technology(NPUST). He graduated from the Department of Animal Science and Technology in National Taiwan University(NTU). He is an alumni of the GLOBE program and the LEAP Program in UC Berkeley. He is also a member of the Berkeley Skydeck Hotdesk cohort.

Feel free to connect with Chao-Wei via LinkedIn

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Career Advice Coffee Chat with UC Berkeley CEE PhD Candidate Angelika’24

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Just follow your heart, everything else will fall into place.

Angelika Zhang’24, PhD Candidate at UC Berkeley Environmental Engineering

Can You Tell Us a Little Bit About Yourself? 

I am a 2nd-year Ph.D. student in Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley. I did my master’s degree also at UC Berkeley and my undergraduate study in the same field at Tongji University in Shanghai.

When and why did you decide to go to graduate school instead of industry?

I did not give it a second thought and went abroad for my master study because I always wanted to study abroad. But I did think twice about my Ph.D. and decided to pursue a Ph.D. degree during the first semester of the master’s year.

After I finished my undergraduate study at Tongji University, I did an internship in an environmental consulting company in Shanghai, during which time I wondered if more challenging and interesting job opportunities would open for me if I had a higher degree. So I decided to pursue my master’s degree in CEE, UC Berkeley. During my master’s study, I found out that there are more things at school that I want to take time and dive deeper to learn before I enter the industry. And that’s when I finally decided to apply to Ph.D. programs, which was actually not very early. 

I feel it doesn’t matter if you can’t decide at an early time. Reach out to people for advice and also ask yourself which path you like better. Also, Internships are helpful for deciding future academic or career paths. Lastly, always believe everything will happen at a right time and in the best way!

What is the difference between a master program and a PhD program?

For a Master’s program, it is more course-oriented while a Ph.D. program is more research-oriented. Though in my first year of my Ph.D., I also took a lot of classes, which is useful for my future research. After the first year, I have switched my gears from taking classes to doing research. 

Angelika Zhang (3rd to the left)

What do faculty typically look for in a PhD candidate?

The faculty really values your research experiences and wants to feel that you are motivated in the research and persist in doing research. Personality and mindset really for research is important, ability-wise, students should know more about their research field. Students should be able to do research in their related-field. For example, my professor did a lot of statistical modeling, even though our research has to do with environmental engineering but my professor really cares about my ability to build statistical modeling. 

How to get across your motivation to do research? – I talked with my professor a lot in Master’s, communication, chatting with your potential supervisor is really important.

How did you choose your schools? How many schools did you apply to?

For my Master’s, I applied to Berkeley, Stanford, CMU, and Washington state university. I consulted some seniors students and professors about what schools they think are the best for studying environmental engineering, and what are the specialties of their environmental engineering departments. I also googled the professors in these universities for their research and look for anything I am interested in.

How did you prepare and what did you do for your master program application process?

The first thing I did is to choose universities that I would like to apply to and make a chart of their application deadlines. The second thing I did is start writing my personal statement and resume. The third thing was to reach out to professors or internship supervisors for recommendation letters. I also sent them my list of universities, my transcripts, and my personal statement. The last thing was submitting all these materials!

How do you ask for recommendation letters? What to provide your recommendation writers to write a good letter?

From my own experience, usually 3-6 recommendation letters will be required. I think asking professors who are familiar with you and your research is the best. Also, your supervisor during the internship is also a good choice.

Is it okay to have imperfect grades when applying to grad school?

From my supervisor, she said students who have really high GPAs do not necessarily correlate to them being the most suitable for doing research. I think the grad school admissions committee does care more about research experiences or even internship/work experiences than just GPA. The conclusion is that GPA is important, but it is not the final decision. 

What happens next after the interview? How do we adjust ourselves during this waiting period (since it is nerve-wrecking)?

You should just relax and chill. I remember I traveled to places during that time. So during the winter break, before you hear about interview invites, you should travel to some places and have some fun with your friends while staying safe of course.

How did you decide where to go ultimately? (Is the research area more important or the people and the atmosphere more important? What is the trade-off?)

I would say my experience of choosing master programs is a little bit special as I was an exchange student in the GLOBE program here at Berkeley during my fourth undergraduate year. So I chose to continue my master’s study here at Berkeley as I like the academic atmosphere here (also I like the weather in California so much!)

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