DIT, Start-ups and Silicon Valley

13.12.2021 | DIT Public Relations

At the beginning of December, a delegation from the Deggendorf Institute of Technology (DIT) led by President Prof. Dr. Peter Sperber and Prof. Peter Schmieder, Director of the Bavarian Innovation Transformation Centre (BITZ) Oberschneiding, visited strategic partners of the university in Silicon Valley. In addition, talks were held with potential investors of start-ups in the USA. DIT start-up teams with above-average potential are to be helped to achieve a successful market breakthrough.

On the campus of Stanford University, the DIT delegation, which also included Chancellor Birgit Augustin and Alexander Dorn, responsible for Venture Development at BITZ, first met Justin Lokitz. He is an advisor at Berkeley SkyDeck, the global hub of the University of California Berkeley. Lokitz will act as an active mentor at the BITZ and represent the Berkeley SkyDeck in Oberschneiding. Artificial intelligence and intellectual property rights were the topic of another meeting with WilmerHale, one of the leading US law firms in business law. One of WilmerHale's partners, Daniel Zimmermann, will also support the Silicon Valley School at the BITZ in the future. His expertise in corporate transactions and venture technology issues will be in particular demand.

In order to deepen existing networks and partnerships, talks were also held with the three long-time mentors Prof. Albert Bruno, Geoff Baum and Dr. Tobias Strobl. Bruno from Santa Clara University (SCU) is the founding director of the Center of Innovation & Entrepreneurship. Baum, in turn, co-founder of Garage.com, a high-tech capital company specialising in start-up financing, is an adjunct professor at SCU as well as Vice President of Marketing at Acceldata. Finally, Strobl has lived and taught in Silicon Valley for years. He was appointed professor for the "Methodology of Acceleration and Scale" at BITZ Oberschneiding.

Dr. Robert Brancatelli, Senior Associate Director of the Silicon Valley Executive Center and the Leavey School of Business at SCU, praised the intensive exchange with DIT: "The Silicon Valley School is an expression and symbol of the deepening partnership between Deggendorf University and the Silicon Valley Executive Center. The mentoring, intensive support as well as the networking of the venture teams are comparable to other start-up programmes on both sides of the Atlantic, but surpass them in many ways." According to Brancatelli, he knows of very few programmes that are based on a similarly strong bond between science and business.

After visiting the new Discovery & Innovation Campus, one of the largest STEM facilities in the US, DIT President Sperber was impressed. "A whopping US$270 million has been invested here. That is really fantastic!" Sperber also emphasised, however, that the group of now 13 DIT technology campuses could certainly keep up. What happens centrally in a research centre in Silicon Valley is spread over nine districts in Bavaria. The DIT president: "Our technology campuses offer innovation for an entire region. The BITZ Oberschneiding is a great reinforcement in this circle."

INFO │ THE SILICON VALLEY PROGRAM AT DIT

Prof. Peter Schmieder is the founder of the Silicon Valley Program at DIT. He has been cooperating with the elite American university Santa Clara in California for more than ten years. In the years from 2014 to the present, around 60 founding teams went through this programme. "Germany," says Schmieder, "is a country of inventors. However, these inventions, the 'Inventions', all too rarely become real innovations." This is precisely where the Silicon Valley Program comes in. Together with the mentors in California, the founders are given the know-how, concept and strategy to actually bring an idea successfully to the market. The basis for this lies in Lower Bavaria, Schmieder explains: "The experts in Silicon Valley tell us quite clearly that what is being done at the BITZ in Oberschneiding is unique." As early as April 2022, the next teams from Lower Bavaria will complete their "pitch" in California. If they are successful, investors and a top-class network of experts will be on hand.

You can find out more about the Bavarian Innovation Transformation Centre (BITZ) in Oberschneiding at: www.th-deg.de/bitz-oberschneiding-en

Bild (SCU / DIT): Delegation from Lower Bavaria at Santa Clara University - Alexander Dorn (BITZ), Daniel Schlingmann (Silicon Valley Company Representative), Geoff Baum (Lead Mentor of the Silicon Valley School), Dr. Robert Brancatelli, Senior Associate Director of the Silicon Valley Executive Center), Prof. Dr. Peter Sperber (DIT President), Prof. Peter Schmieder (Director BITZ), Birgit Augustin (DIT Chancellor)