THE
BOOK
SUMMER 2017
The Book • Summer 2017
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Credits Editor-in-Chief: Scott Henderson Managing Editor: Rachel Zick Designer: Mika Munch Photography: Jared Serfozo Reviewers: Nona Dowling Thank you to our student and non-profit program partners, Code for Atlanta, HackGT, Startup Exchange, and TEDxGeorgiaTech, who help bring energy, enthusiasm, and great ideas to life. Special shout out to every Sandbox ATL member who attended an event, hosted a Power Meal, contributed media content, or shared their research/startup/passions this season. Your contributions make the Sandbox ATL community and Tech Square better.
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The Book • Summer 2017
Thank you.
We are truly defined by our partnerships. Sandbox ATL is the collaboration platform for Tech Square. Everything we do is focused on creating connections that fuel commerce. None of it would be possible without the support of our amazing partners. Each of these organizations share our belief that breakthroughs do not occur in a vacuum. Rather, they are the natural outcome of bringing bright minds from different disciplines together to learn from, inspire, and collaborate with each other. All of what you are about to read came about because of their support and leadership.
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Summer at Tech Square has a different vibe than its siblings, Fall and Spring. Things tend to move at a slower pace and fewer recurring events pull us in competing directions. New and different faces show up at Tech Square during these months as summer interns migrate from their respective campuses to Tech Square. It’s also the time when Square on Fifth says goodbye/hello to outgoing/incoming SQ5ers. With the lighter calendar, Sandbox ATL and our partners see Summer as the perfect time to stir the pot faster. Summer is when the community shines without the distractions of the academic whirlwinds. Sandbox Academy, Grill+Chill, Honeywell Huddle, Hump Day Exchange, Field Day, and the Solar Eclipse festivities filled the dog days with discovery and playful memories. Thanks to a driven, inventive team of people (pictured above), you can see and read all about it in The Book - Summer 2017. I can’t imagine what it’d be like to pull off the spectacles and quirky adventures without this team. Two people not pictured above who played important roles were Ian Edelson and Cody Trawick. Ian is now a full-time MBA student at Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business and graduate assistant for ATDC. Cody joined Springboard Benefits as a full-time software developer. Both made an impact and I’m especially grateful for Ian’s time at the helm as our first Operations Manager. I hope you enjoy this issue and look forward to your feedback. Scott Henderson Editor-in-Chief
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What's Inside What is Tech Square? What is Sandbox ATL? Spectacles Grill+Chill TEP Field Day Mixed Reality Experience Solar Eclipse Making Connections Power Meals Hump Day Exchange: Womansplaining Honeywell Huddle MARTA Civic Tech Summit Sandbox Academy
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Community
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What is Tech Square? Tech Square is the heart of Atlanta's tech scene and filled with breakthrough talent, breakthrough ideas, and breakthrough companies. Located in Midtown Atlanta, Tech Square has the highest density of startups, corporate innovators, academic researchers, and students in the entire southeastern United States. Seven startup accelerators, over 100 startups, seventeen corporate innovation centers, ten research labs, ten Top 10 engineering programs, one Top 10 MBA program, and over 1,300 Georgia Tech students call Tech Square home. TechSquareATL.com tells the stories of Tech Square, featuring fresh content each week.
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The Book • Summer 2017
What is Sandbox ATL? Sandbox ATL is the collaboration platform for Tech Square. We create connections that fuel commerce. With the help of our partners and over 1,200 members, we offer: Community Programs: Power Meals, Tech Square Job Fair, and Sandbox Academy Collaborative Workspace: aka The Garage Compelling Content: Telling the stories of the neighborhood on TechSquareATL.com
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GRILL + CHILL 5/25 - Fire Up The Grill 6/29 - Go America! 7/27 - Hello, Goodbye 8/31 - Cosplay Edition
ASSORTED HAPPENINGS 6/7 - Microdrone Fun Fly 6/13 - Passion Pitch 6/14 - TEP Field Day 7/13 - Mixed Reality Experience 8/21 - Solar Eclipse Spectacle
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spectacles The Book • Summer 2017
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DAT E
TIME
Last Thursday of every month
4:30 - 7 PM
LO C AT I O N
PA RT N E R S
Tech Square Plaza
TUFF + Gateway
grill + chill 10 T h e B o o k • S u m m e r 2 0 1 7
What’s more American than firing up the grill on Memorial Day, Fourth of July, or just for fun? Summer itself was the perfect excuse to combat the sizzling heat with sizzling meats and other treats in the Tech Square Plaza. Once a month, rain or shine, hundreds from the neighborhood gathered to enjoy chicken and chorizo, watermelon and corn on the cob, corn hole and ladder golf. Warm thanks to our guest grill masters Duncan Cannon and Sawyer Williamson for achieving those perfect grill marks every time.
360 2 2
lbs of meat grilled
guest grill masters
t-storms that failed to shut us down
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DAT E
TIME
June 14, 2017
12 Noon - 2 PM
LO C AT I O N
PA RT N E R S
North + Northside
TUFF + Gateway
TEP field day 12 T h e B o o k • S u m m e r 2 0 1 7
It all started when folks at Abbott and Kemira dreamed up an event to bring together all of North + Northside for a day of fun in the sun. Sandbox ATL worked their event design magic by arranging a day of Leisure Sports Olympics fueled by Heirloom BBQ and King of Pops. Abbott, Kemira, Gateway Facility Services, Georgia Tech, and T3 Labs teamed up to promote the event and recruit the leisure athletes. Working together, they pulled off the largest community event ever held at Technology Enterprise Park.
125 5 1
meals served
leisure sports stations
epic kickball game
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DAT E
TIME
July 13, 2017
12 Noon - 1:30 PM
LO C AT I O N
PA RT N E R S
Centergy Lobby Lounge
TUFF + Gateway
mixed reality experience 14 T h e B o o k • S u m m e r 2 0 1 7
Tech Square is now officially home to breakthrough art. At the Mixed Reality Experience, local artist Jeremy Ray painted a scene in a virtual environment. With the use of extra sensors for a camera and a green screen, the audience was able to spectate his work in mixed reality. The giant Lobby Lounge display merged Jeremy’s virtual art with the physical space. ATDC company Aetho also brought some neverbefore-seen HoloLens technology for visitors to try with the software they’re developing.
216 4 1
spectators over 2 hours
mixed reality band instruments
st work by artist using TiltBrush
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DAT E
TIME
August 21, 2017
11:30 AM - 3:30 PM
LO C AT I O N
PA RT N E R S
Centergy Lobby Lounge and Georgia Tech
TUFF + Gateway
solar eclipse 16 T h e B o o k • S u m m e r 2 0 1 7
Tech Square reached 97% totality for what Dean Paul Goldbart called the “Woodstock of sciences at Georgia Tech”: the 2017 solar eclipse! The festivities began with an opportunity to build shoebox pinhole projectors to ensure safe solar viewing. Georgia Tech’s campus celebrated with moon pies, live feeds of the eclipse, and an opportunity to ‘hear’ the eclipse: Researchers created original compositions on the spot, analyzing the movements of the sun and moon through synthesizers to allow the visually impaired to enjoy this rare celestial experience.
5,000
glasses handed out by GT
35
pinhole projectors created
97.6%
totality
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POWER MEALS 5/4 - The Art of the Selfie 5/9 - Civil Discourse 5/17 - Political Swarms 6/6 - Drones 6/13 - Robot in the Supply Chain 6/20 - Gender’s Effect on Work-Life Balance 6/26 - Games + Group Dynamics 7/18 - Are Voter’s Just Data Points? 7/27 - Science Fiction 8/3 - Wellness at Work 8/7 - Investing in Ideas vs. People 8/17 - Cosplay vs. Business Casual 8/23 - Business of Doing Good 8/29 - Vetting Your Tech Partners
HUMP DAY EXCHANGE 5/24 - Downside of Disruption 6/28 - Dones: By Land, Sea and Air 7/26 - The Emergence of eSports 8/23 - Womansplaining
HONEYWELL HUDDLE 6/14 - Put Design Thinking to Work 7/18 - How to Partner
MARTA 6/8 - Civic Tech Summit 18 T h e B o o k • S u m m e r 2 0 1 7
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DAT E
TIME
June - August 2017
Variable
LO C AT I O N
PA RT N E R S
Variable
SandboxATL members
power meals 20 T h e B o o k • S u m m e r 2 0 1 7
Tech Square is overflowing with some of the sharpest minds in technology. Wouldn’t it be great to have an easy way to get connected? That’s where Power Meals come in. These small, informal group discussions are hosted by someone you’d want to meet and cover topics you’d like to discuss. Kind of like a book club, but without the books. This summer, Power Meal attendees explored topics as wide-ranging as gender’s effect on work/life balance and how to vet your tech partners when founding a startup. Further proof that no matter what you’re into, there’s someone in Tech Square down to get nerdy with you.
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hosts
attendees
connections made
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DAT E
TIME
August 23, 2017
5 - 7 PM
LO C AT I O N
PA RT N E R S
The Garage
ATDC
HDE: womansplaining 22 T h e B o o k • S u m m e r 2 0 1 7
According to the National Science Foundation, women make up half of the U.S. college-educated workforce, but only 29% of the science and engineering workforce. While many great first computer scientists were women, we still have not closed the gap between genders. To explore this topic, we brought in Jen Bonnett, Director and General Manager of ATDC, Wei-Chun Tai, partner at Mosely Ventures, and Annie Harrison Elliott, playwright of Empty Rooms.
5% 29% 7%
of startups owned by women
of engineering workforce is women
of partners at top 100 VC firms are female
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DAT E
TIME
June 14 + July 18, 2017
6 - 8 PM
LO C AT I O N
PA RT N E R S
The Garage
Honeywell
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Honeywell Huddles convene 30 people from different sectors and perspectives and invite a subject matter expert to share a deep dive on a selected topic. The expert poses a Big Challenge, assembling attendees into cross-disciplinary teams to create solutions and present their work. In June, Carrie Moore led a hands-on exploration of the intersection of design thinking and innovation based on her extensive experience at Delta, MJV Labs, and SCAD. The following month, Kurt Ronn shared useful frameworks to help decide when it makes sense for when to partner with other organizations, which he developed as a serial entrepreneur and Macy’s executive.
53 5 2
total attendees
ideal coffee shops designed
lessons from kurt’s book of secrets
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DAT E
TIME
June 8, 2017
8:30AM - 12 Noon
LO C AT I O N
PA RT N E R S
The Garage
MARTA + Code for Atlanta
marta civic tech summit
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The #MARTAHack journey took an unexpected detour when the I-85 bridge collapsed last spring. With unprecedented traffic jams and the tripling of commute times, MARTA was inundated with new or infrequent riders, and used the opportunity to identify ways to better serve that audience. The MARTA Civic Tech Summit gave a behind-the-scenes look at how transit leaders used agile solutions to meet Atlanta’s needs.
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transit leaders on stage
community-created solutions demonstrated
livestream viewers
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MINISERIES 6/5 - Crush It From Day One 6/12 - Know And Use Your Strengths 6/19 - Flip the Search 6/26 - Mentor Mixer
MENTOR MASHUPS 7/6 - Week 1 7/10 - Week 2 7/17 - Week 3
GRADUATION 7/24 - Ceremony
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DAT E
TIME
June - July 2017
6 - 8 PM
LO C AT I O N
PA RT N E R S
The Garage
ATDC + SQ5
seven weeks to awesome 30 T h e B o o k • S u m m e r 2 0 1 7
Sandbox Academy helps students level up through hands-on life skills workshops, mentoring sessions with top notch leaders from various industries, and the chance to meet Tech Square folks through small-scale community events. Every summer, fall, and spring, Sandbox Academy guides a new cohort of students through this accelerated personal growth experience. It starts with a miniseries of workshops taught by leaders from large corporations, startups, and consulting/creative agencies and is followed by small group mentoring sessions of students’choosing.
50% 88 36
increase in student’s ability to grow their networks
hours of mentoring logged
companies and organizations represented
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week 1 Summer 2017 Cohort:
Adam Woodward Emory Law Student
Aleem Khusro Siemens
Charles Langlois Georgia Tech Student
Jason Costa TUFF
Alissa Kushner TEQ Charging
Bella Wasserfuhr ATDC
Ben Boyd Groundfloor
Brandon Kim Georgia Tech Student
Chad Rollins TUFF
Chris Han Accenture
Cody Trawick Sandbox ATL
Denzel Ozieh MARK Labs
Jalen Gildersleeve Skilcraft Global
James Harrison Cyrano Systems
Mika Munch Sandbox ATL
Monna Yu Keysight
Perri Neuner SQ5
Reagan Matthews ATDC
Charlie Utz Cyrano Systems
Joshua Vayle Maggy Deiters Springboard Benefits Quest Renewables
Risha Parikh TechSquare Labs
Ryan Babaie TEQ Charging
YOUR ASSIGNMENT: 1. Name a movie represented on the 12th floor of the Centergy Building elevator doors. 2. The headquarters of what company is under construction north of SQ5? 3. How many Chihuly glass pieces are in the main atrium of the Scheller College of Business?
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The Summer 2017 Cohort consisted of 30 interns, representing a handful of companies and labs around Tech Square, including Cyrano Systems, ATDC, Siemens, Keysight, and TechSquare Labs to name a few. After a scavenger hunt to get to know the neighborhood, students polished their tactics for a first day at a new job.
Shobhit Gupta Springboard Benefits
Sophie Roberts Lena Biosciences
Tanay Sheth Stackfolio
Tina Yau Georgia Tech Student
Gallup StrengthsFinder assesses people’s natural talents, uncovering their top five strengths in and out of the workplace. Here’s how the Sandbox Academy cohort stacked up:
YOUR ASSIGNMENT: Write down as many goals as you can in five minutes. Write down anything that comes to mind! When the timer is up, categorize your entire list of goals by 1, 3, 5, and 10-year timeframes. Get started on your immediately achievable goals and develop a plan to tackle those big hairy ones.
For week 2, students attended a workshop run by Terri Kelly, a certified Gallup StrenghsFinder coach. She taught the importance of identifying one’s strong suits to maximize contributions to a team. Ed Rieker then guided a goal setting exercise, sharing how the simple act of writing down goals sets you on the path of making them come true.
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week 3 “Make your resume strong with numbers and hard details. You have to catch their attention to get the interview!” -Rylan Albach, Sideqik
This week, interns attended “Flip the Search,” a miniseries session on how to reach your potential while job searching. The process of navigating career fairs, resume building, and facing the ever-rising competition for scarce positions can be daunting for students. This workshop walked the cohort through optimizing their LinkedIn pages and delivered coaching on some of the toughest questions likely to arise in a job interview.
“Always have questions prepared, and not just generic ones. Research the company and find something specific to ask about.”
- Melisa Griffin, Keysight
YOUR ASSIGNMENT: How up-to-date is your LinkedIn profile? Follow these 3 tips to grow your network: 1. Make sure your profile is 100% complete 2. Join groups to find professionals with the job you want, then visit their profile to study their steps to success 3. Reach out to 2-3 new people each week via InMail. Step out of your comfort zone.
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“Engage your interviewer on their company. It shows you care and lets you showcase your skills in relation to their needs.”
-Vincent Haines, Honeywell “Be well informed, and bring resources.” -Carrie Moore, Delta Airlines
Three Powerful Tips to Nailing the Interview: 1. Eye contact and smiling demonstrate confidence. 2. Share how something wouldn’t have happened without you. 3. When talking about a failure, summarize what you learned.
The final week was all about the job interview! 15 mentors attended for a Mentor Mashup speed-dating activity. Interns rotated down a long line of chairs, each meeting six mentors in order to see which ones were a good fit for their career interests. Every mentor agreed to meet with students for additional 1-on-1 time in the following weeks for individualized coaching.
YOUR ASSIGNMENT: Pick three tough interview questions, like, “Describe yourself,” “What has been your biggest mistake?” and, “How are you stuck?” Then practice your responses, setting a twominute timer for each response. Rehearse in the mirror or with a friend – it may feel awkward, but practicing is way less cringe worthy than flubbing the interview for your dream job!
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“Small positive choices every day bring opportunity, build self-esteem, and “Build genuine relationships reap big rewards overtime.” with each teammate. It makes it -Ed Rieker, Goizueta Business School much easier for them to count on you.” “Anyone is capable of learning and mastering anything, but to be successful, you have to truly WANT to do it.” - Tre Watts, thyssenkrupp
- Sam Martinez, Goodie Nation
“Always work your job like it’s going to be your last.” - Veronica Young, Delta
Jacqui Chew ATDC
Mario Suffren Goodie Nation
Trevor Loranger Keysight
Melisa Griffin Keysight
Rylan Albach Sideqik
Carl Bedingfield AT&T Foundry
Kirk Barnes ATDC
Roger Lopez BillMo
Ed Rieker Kaushik Santhanam Goizueta Business School Keysight
Thank you to these fine folks for generously sharing their time, experience, and hard-won insights with the Summer 2017 cohort! Coming from a wide range of industries, company sizes, and years of experience, these mentors offered interns a diverse perspective on life in the working world.
meet the mentors
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“Unearthing your own strengths and those of others is one of the most valuable discoveries any leader can make.” - Terri Kelly, The Inner Leap
“A person’s true character is defined under pressure. Be prepared to see how pressure will define yours.”
- M. Cole Jones, RIISE Ventures “What matters most is your kindergarten skills: Empathy, play with others, and share.” “Think critically, be introspective, and - Andres Garcia, Florence Healthcare focus on what you can control.” - Michael Fonseca, Abbott
M. Cole Jones Riise Ventures
Carrie Moore John Avery The Hangar, Delta Airlines Panasonic Automotive
Trish Whitlock Bridge Community
Tre Watts thyssenkrupp
Geoff Wilson 352 Inc.
Andres Garcia Florence Healthcare
Michael Fonseca Abbott
Vincent Haines Honeywell
Christopher Pace Keysight
Kurt Ronn AGD Ventures
Sam Martinez Goodie Nation
Veronica Young Terri Kelly The Hangar, Delta Airlines The Inner Leap
Rachel Lei Delta Airlines
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impact
Participating in Sandbox Academy is a major growth opportunity for career-minded students who are preparing to enter the job force in a few short years. Tapping into the experience of mentors of different industries, students are able to learn valuable lessons that are difficult to convey in a traditional classroom environment. From real-world interview practice to professionalism skills, Sandbox Academy helps students level up their game in just a few short weeks.
What makes Sandbox Academy so great? 1. Expand your network 2. Present yourself better 3. Understand what makes you stand out “Sandbox Academy helped identify my strengths, and how to use them to achieve my goals through workshops and mentors.” “An enriching experience with a diverse group of individuals, where I learned to better present myself in the world.”
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“A great way for students entering the workforce to gain valuable experience in skills not taught in school.”
“I got to talk with students from all walks of life who were interested in my experiences and my advice (or at least willing to listen to me). I learned a lot from them as well.”
Perhaps the biggest benefit of all? A majorly expanded network! One recent job study found that 85% of all jobs are found via networking. What could be more valuable than that? Inner circle: Sandbox Academy Summer 2017 Cohort Middle circle: Sandbox Academy Mentors Outer circles: Connections through Sandbox ATL Events
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The best thing about being part of Tech Square is the instant access to a robust network of entrepreneurs, technologists, and more. These faces represent the breakthrough talent behind every door in this neighborhood. This ever-expanding collection of Tech Square Trading Cards is one small step to break those doors wide open. Next time you see one of these folks, stop to say hi. You never know what may come of it.
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Meet more of Tech Square's breakthrough talent at TechSquareATL.com
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Sandbox ATL is the collaboration platform for Tech Square. We create connections that fuel commerce. Want to learn more? Email hello@sandboxatl.com
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