Program Benefits
- Learn what it takes to navigate disruption, identify opportunities for innovation, and effectively align business and societal needs in an increasingly technology driven world.
- Discover the opportunities in and impact of AI while developing products and business models that leverage AI/ML for positive impact
- Build your data science vocabulary and skills that will allow you to understand how to manage and analyze big data
- Learn what it takes to innovate, develop and commercialize a successful new product with a team of highly motivated students from all around the globe
- Understand real-world scenarios and strategies of major tech companies, such as Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook, through current case studies
- Hear riveting stories from the front lines of tech, directly from company leaders who are influencing the space
- Gain valuable career advice from your own tech industry mentor, courtesy of Easton Technology Management Center’s extensive network
Instructors
Students will be learning from highly experienced instructors who have a passion for teaching and keep the learning experience interesting
Robinne Burrell
Technology Leadership - 4 units
Over the past decade, Robinne Burrell has been at the forefront of technology and emerging media, having worked with brands spanning digital, interactive, mobile and social experiences. Robinne led product development and strategy at Amazon/IMDb, Match.com/Tinder and myspace at its peak. Through her company Redflight Innovation - an interactive development company located in Los Angeles and Johannesburg, she has built digital products for NBC’s The Voice, Comedy Central and Steven Spielberg’s The VR Company, to name a few.
In addition to her work as an innovator and leader, Robinne was named in the top spot as "5 People Pushing Technology You Want to Work With Now" in Forbes Magazine and "Code Breaker of the Year" by Google and the Digital Diversity Network for her groundbreaking work in tech and media. Standard and Poor’s identified her as part of the “Society of Industry Leaders” and Hollywood Reporter named her “The Next Generation of Industry Execs”. She has been featured on CNN and NBC and is on the board of the Interactive Peer Group for the Television Academy (The Emmys), the most influential board of influencers determining excellence in digital media.
Prior to her leadership positions at top tech and media companies, Robinne also held management positions at Universal Music Group, Sony Electronics, and was an early member of Jimmy Iovine’s start-up Inside Sessions, a digital curriculum designed to introduce young musicians on how to break into the business of music. Robinne would later go on to be an Ambassador of Goodwill and Peace in Mexico, where she launched a non-profit program for kids to learn arts and humanities. In 2016, Robinne authored the virtual reality user experience for "Take Back the Mic: The World Cup of Hip Hop" for Oculus, which would lead her to become the first African-American woman to be up for an Emmy in VR.
Robinne is also the creator of Access to Innovation workshops, part of Redflight's social enterprise efforts around the world to bring emerging technology to underrepresented communities through an immersive curricula in coding, robotics, virtual reality, augmented reality and entrepreneurship. She recently partnered with the Mandela Family and Africa Rising to implement the program in Nelson Mandela's hometown of Mthatha in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Robinne holds a B.A in Cinema/Television from USC and completed the Leadership Strategy Program at MITs Sloan School of Business.
She is the co-creator of "In Your Shoes" a broadcast and virtual reality series that allows historically untold stories to be brought to life by 360-degree video. In 2016 she was awarded First Place in the National Association of Broadcasters Innovation Pilot for her "outstanding commitment to furthering the future of broadcasting" for her work on the project. She is currently working closely with the Mandela Family and Africa Rising, A Kweku and Ndaba Mandela organization - the most prolific of the heirs to the Nelson Mandela legacy, as Founder of the Mandela Cultural Fellowship and in 2019 was awarded the honor of being a patent owner of Match.com/Tinder for authoring a location-based dating algorithm and specifications.
Farnoosh Forouzandeh
Applications and Business Models of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence - 4 units
Farnoosh Forouzandeh has been working in Information Technology for over 14 Years as an IT manager, software engineer, web developer, and BI developer. She is currently working at Woodbury University leading technical initiatives related to business intelligence, system integration, data modeling, and system architecture design. She has extensive data management and architecture experiences utilizing leading databases platforms such as MS-SQL, MySQL and Oracle. In addition to all of her business and technical experiences, Farnoosh has previously taught university-level database and SQL courses that lead to Bachelor of Science degree in IT engineering.
Farnoosh holds a master degree in Advanced Computer Science and Information Technologies Management from The University of Manchester and bachelor's degree in IT Engineering.
Student Testimonials
"I gained so much knowledge about the tech world and got to meet so many like-minded people"
- Krystal Xu, Data Science Intern, Instagram (Facebook)
I attended the Technology Leadership Summer Institute offered by the Easton Technology Management Center during the summer after my freshman year. I’m really grateful to have had this opportunity because I gained so much knowledge about the tech world and got to meet so many like-minded people from different countries, such as Australia, France, China, Italy and the Netherlands. One of my favorite memories was working with my team to develop a minimum viable product and comprehensive market research for a student loan app. I also enjoyed touring tech companies such as Google and Headspace, which inspired me to pursue data science in tech. I highly recommend this program to all entrepreneurship-minded students.
- Krystal Xu, Data Science Intern, Instagram (Facebook)
"The TLSI was an amazing opportunity to dive into the tech and entrepreneurship scene in L.A. and the U.S."
- Michael Liang, Co-Founder, Culturestride (formerly Product Management Intern at Atlassian)
The TLSI was an amazing opportunity to dive into the tech and entrepreneurship scene in L.A. and the U.S. The professors were excellent, and I had the opportunity to make friends from everywhere, who have become some of my closest today. A particular highlight was meeting the actual people running businesses during our company tours, which helped connect what we were learning to the real world. The TLSI was a vital experience on my journey to becoming more independent. It sparked a global itch that has led me to live in Singapore/Shanghai and start two companies, including Culturestride.
- Michael Liang, Co-Founder, Culturestride (formerly Product Management Intern at Atlassian)
"The Data Management and Analytics course gave me valuable skills in analyzing data and driving business insights from complex data sets."
- Zane Thomas Hoffmann, Applications Sales Executive, Oracle
With the data deluge across industries and departments, the Data Management and Analytics course gave me valuable skills in analyzing data and driving business insights from complex data sets. This knowledge has immense real-world application, as I see many organizations gathering data from multiple data sources and trying to make sense of it. I really enjoyed the trip to Google; it was inspiring to see the innovation and work-life balance the organization has!
- Zane Thomas Hoffmann, Applications Sales Executive, Oracle
Past Program Highlights
Students learn to communicate and persuade in the classroom
A student finds one of Google's resources to keep its employees thinking strategically
Students work on team based data science projects
Teams work together to solve assigned problems, rooted in real-world scenarios
Students on a guided company tour of Google's Spruce Goose Hangar
Students gain career insight from Microsoft speaker
Students learn about cybersecurity outside of the classroom, at Southern California Edison
Proud graduates of the program
Major Tech Company Access
The Easton Tech Summer Institute will not only prepare you in the classroom, but you'll learn immeasurably through special guest speakers, where you'll get a view of what it's like inside some of the most legendary high-tech companies. Because we are not able to visit companies this year, we are proud to offer this year’s students the opportunity to take part in company visits next year. Last year, these companies either hosted us or spoke in class for this program:
