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        INNOVATION CHRONICLE
            April 2020
 
For lower income nations, the socioeconomic fallout from COVID-19 could take years to recover from. Already, there are a plethora of responses, including those from UC Berkeley, writes Blum Center Faculty Director Shankar Sastry. 

 
For many entrepreneurs who come out of the UC’s Big Ideas social innovation contest, the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic are a motivation to find creative ways to shift business strategies and help as many people as possible.
 

Afsaneh Mashayekhi Beschloss, founder and CEO of leading global tech and innovation investment firm RockCreek, and Michelle Nunn, President and CEO of humanitarian powerhouse CARE USA, join the Blum Center Board of Trustees.
 

Woojin Jung has won the 2020 Society for Social Work and Research Outstanding Social Work Dissertation Award for "Combating Poverty Through Aid: A Critical Analysis of Alternative Models," based on her UC Berkeley dissertation.
 
George Moore, an InFEWS Fellow and Development and Mechanical Engineering PhD student, has been awarded the Birgeneau Recognition Award for Service to Underrepresented Students. In this Q&A, he shares his views on STEM education.
I N   T H E   N E W S

Blum Center Board Chair Laura Tyson To Co-Chair Governor Newsom's Board of Economic Advisors
The council will advise the governor and director of the California Department of Finance on "wide-ranging economic issues and deepen relationships between the Administration and academic researchers to keep California moving toward an economy that is inclusive, resilient, and sustainable."

Blum Center Education Director Alice Agogino's Squishy Robots Selected for Capitol Hill Startup Showcase
Squishy founders Mechanical Engineering Professor Alice Agogino and Cal Alum Deniz Dogruer will bring interactive demos and materials to Members of Congress, their staff, and federal agency officials. Squishy Robotics is part of the Spring 2019 Skydeck portfolio and provides lifesaving, cost-saving information in real time through rapidly deployable mobile sensor robots. 

Development Engineering PhD Student Paige Balcom Turns Plastic Into Face Shields for Ugandan Medics
With funding from Big Ideas, Balcom's social enterprise Takataka Plastics is producing an inexpensive and urgently needed product from recycled plastic — face shields for medical workers in Gulu, Uganda.

Dan Fletcher and Ashok Gadgil Projects Among Top Proposals of MacArthur $100 Million Grant Contest
The MacArthur Foundation selected Professor Dan Fletcher’s project for Removing the Greatest Obstacle to the Elimination of River Blindness and Professor Ashok Gadgil’s project for Ending Arsenic Poisoning for Marginalized People via Safe Drinking Water as among the highest-scoring proposals in its 100&Change competition for solving critical social challenges.
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