About Me and Why IEOR 190G

My name is Ryan Irwin and I am a current sophomore at UC Berkeley majoring in Economics. I grew up in Los Angeles and in my free time I enjoy playing guitar and traveling. At Cal, I am involved in the Undergraduate Real Estate Club as well as the Undergraduate Finance Association. When I am back in Los Angles, I enjoy volunteering at the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Monica. Last summer, I worked at Northrop Grumman, an aerospace defense company. This upcoming summer, I hope to work in San Francisco or Silicon Valley at a startup.  I am very interested in the field of entrepreunership with a technology focus, and hope to work for a startup in San Francisco when I graduate from Berkeley.

I am interested in exploring mobile apps especially personal finance and mobile payments such as Venmo and Paypal. I am excited to take this course and learn about how patents can protect your invention and ideas. I do not know much about the engineering side of patents, and I believe that gaining this knowledge from taking IEOR 190G will help me become a valuable asset to the business side of a startup. My current level of patent knowledge is low, and I want to explore the necessary claims to qualify for a patent. Before the semester started, I took the Berkeley Method for Entrepreneurship Bootcamp (IEOR 192), which was an amazing opportunity to learn about startups and what the crucial steps are from concept to go to market strategy.  I am pursuing the Certificate in Technology and Entrepreneurship so that I can learn the fundamentals for successful startups.