Aaron Molloy
Thursday was filled with action and the group started early with breakfast at 7am in Hotel Aria. The class dispersed in our motorcade of minivans and headed off on yet another adventurous day of innovation in Palo Alto.
The first group visited Google, where they were met by Notre Dame alums working on an array of projects from Google maps enhancement to Google’s rocket program. Simultaneously a group of students visited Stryker, a med-tech devices company. Students had the opportunity to visit the neurovascular center and business unit, in addition to a panel discussion on both the neuro and endoscopic operations. Next, groups departed for Survey Monkey and IDEO. The Survey Monkey group had the opportunity to hear from multiple guest speakers and panellists, with a surprise stop in at cubicle belonging to the CEO of Survey Monkey, Zander Lurie. At the same time, Dennis Boyle welcomed students to IDEO where they had lunch and toured their facilities, followed by a Q&A session. Finally, the groups departed for their last visit of the day with the first group visiting Embark. The group was welcomed by Somodro Gupta, a software developer and a good friend. Here we heard from the CEO about their autonomous driving truck start-up. YouTube proved very interesting also, the business offices and more importantly the gaming area were explored. Stanford BioDesign was said to be a highlight of the trip for students who had the amazing opportunity to participate.
Later that evening students attended the final and thoroughly enjoyable ESTEEM dinner at MandaLoun Restaurant in Redwood City. Students went back to Hotel Aria after to rest in advance of their early morning start and trip to the SRI. Check out Margot’s blog for more on this!!