Sutardja Center Entrepreneurship & Technoology

Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (SCET) at UC Berkeley offers a Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Technology designed to equip students with essential skills for innovation and leadership through a study abroad program to Segovia, Spain and Porto, Portugal.

European Innovation Academy

European Innovation Academy (EIA) offers a three-week startup program in Porto, Portugal, where students from diverse backgrounds collaborate in multidisciplinary teams to develop innovative product ideas.

Guided by industry mentors, I gained hands-on experience in ideation, prototyping, and pitching to investors. I teamed up with 4 other passionate travellers to identify and solve problems under "travel accessbility."

Broke

Broke is product developed during the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technoology Certificate program during European Innovation Academy portion of the program.

Broke is a travel budgeting mobile app that allows users to track expenses in real-time, manage transactions, and plan itineraries.

Problem Space

How might we make traveling more accessible to middle to low income young adults?

Ideation

We recognized a common aspiration among individuals to explore their dream destinations. The primary insight stemmed from the understanding that financial barriers, particularly for middle to low-income young adults. Four Focal Points:

Personalized Budgeting: team proposed an AI-powered budgeting tool to help users set personalized budgets based on their income and travel goals.
Real Time Progress Tracking: To motivate users, the team suggested a dynamic system for real-time tracking of saving and spending.
Secure Transaction Platform: The team recommended integrating a secure transaction platform to ensure safe spending while traveling.
User Friendly Interface: To accommodate varying financial literacy levels, the team emphasized creating an intuitive and accessible app interface.

First End to End Product Design

Embarking on this project marked a significant learning curve for me. It was my first opportunity to independently navigate the entire product design process, from problem space need finding to brand identity development to high fidelity prototyping.

Leveraging Design and CS:

I discovered that my background in computer science not only provided a strong foundation but also facilitated effective communication within a cross-functional team. I found myself articulating ideas in different languages tailored to different teammates. This project sparked my interest in a career path in product design.