Chuong Nguyen is pursuing his Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. Mr. Nguyen is the Director of the Technical Entrepreneur Community’s (TEC) Executive Board, part of Engineering Graduate Student Association (EGSA) at UCLA. He served as the Vice President of the Association of Computer Machinery (ACM) chapter while staying at UCLA. Over the years Mr. Nguyen held multiple technical and managerial positions at various companies including Koders, PriceGrabber, with the latest responsibility being a Program Manager at Microsoft, and a Producer at Qtask. During his graduate work, he has also severed as a Teaching Associate. Mr. Nguyen holds a Bachelor and Master of Science in Computer Science from UCLA.

Patrick Sislian holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is currently a 4th year Ph.D. cadidate at the UCLA Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department. During his graduate work, he has received a 3-year Defense Threat Reduction Agency grant (~$0.5 million) to study the effects of aerodynamic shocks on bacterial aerosols. He has also served on the executive board of the Engineering Graduate Student Association (EGSA) at UCLA between 2005-2008, where he spearheaded efforts to cultivate a culture of entrepreneurship at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering. As President of EGSA he co-founded the EGSA TEC which focus solely on developing the next technical entrepreneurs at UCLA. In his spare time Patrick likes to meet new people and reads business books.

Tanuj Thapliyal is pursuing a B.S. in Electrical Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is a research scientist in the bioengineering department where he is working on a novel way to conduct high throughput drug discovery ion channel studies. Tanuj recently co-founded the TEC Assessment Group (going live September 2009) which determines the marketability and commerciability of early-stage technologies. He has several summers of industry experience through technical internships in medical device firms. Tanuj hopes to be involved with the growth and development of new ideas after gaining more experience in industry.

Ankit Kumar is pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of California-Los Angeles. He works on polymer solar cells under Prof. Yang Yang. He is actively engaged in the the entrepreneurship community at UCLA. He has high entrepreneurial ambitions and wants to continue working in the energy sector after his doctorate.

Alex Capecelatro is pursuing a B.S. in Materials Science & Engineering at UCLA, where he is actively engaged in the entrepreneur community via different student groups, event planning, and teaching/mentoring.  He is the founder of an aerospace-targeted materials company, a biomedical company, and an extreme sports internet community.  Currently, he is focused on an entertainment based social networking company while maintaining various finance and development projects.  Alex advises a few early stage startups, and is happy to help if you would like to discuss your ideas.