Whiting-Turner Lecture Series to Feature Chasen and Chowdhury

The University of Maryland's A. James Clark School of Engineering will host its biannual Whiting-Turner Business and Entrepreneurial Lecture Series this spring, featuring leaders in the technology industry.

Michael Chasen, CEO and Founder of SocialRadar, will kick off the series on Thursday, April 3, with a talk titled, "The Five Things I Learned Building a $2 Billion Company." The event will take place in the Zupnik Lecture Hall, Rm. 1110 in the Jeong H. Kim Engineering Building. The reception will begin at 4:30 pm and the program will start at 5:00 pm. Guests can register for this free event here: http://ter.ps/ChasenWT

Abdur Chowdhury, Co-Founder and CEO of Pushd, will close out the series on Thursday, April 24, with a lectured titled, "The Economics of a Job: Why starting or joining a start-up might make more sense." The event will take place in the Zupnik Lecture Hall, Rm. 1110 in the Jeong H. Kim Engineering Building. The reception will begin at 4:30 pm and the program will start at 5:00 pm. Guests can register for this free event here: http://ter.ps/ChowdhuryWT

More About the Speakers:

Michael Chasen is an entrepreneur, innovator and visionary. Chasen is the CEO and Founder of SocialRadar, a company that is building applications for the iPhone, Android, and Google Glass that give you real-time information on the people around you.

He co-founded and was previously CEO for 15 years of Blackboard Inc., a global leader in eLearning, whose software is now used by over 30 million students and faculty at more than 30,000 institutions around the world. In 2004, Chasen took Blackboard public and seven years later sold the company to Providence Equity Partners for $1.7B.

Chasen is also an investor and advisor to several companies in both the technology and education space.

Abdur Chowdhury is the co-founder and CEO of Pushd, working on contextual mobile applications, and co-founder of the Alta Vista School focused on STEM education for K-8. Previously, Dr. Chowdhury was Twitter’s Chief Scientist, co-founder of Summize.com, and AOL’s Chief Architect for Search.

Chowdhury has previously had multiple touch points with the University of Maryland. He has conducted research at the Systems Engineering and Integration Laboratory (SEIL) within the Institute for Systems Research. He has also served as a Visiting Futurist at the University of Maryland as part of the campus-wide Future of Information Alliance initiative.

Published March 27, 2014