CoECS adjunct faculty members, Paul Trapani, President of LISTnet, and Peter Goldsmith, Chairman of LISTnet, re-introduced its highly successful Technology Business Startup Practices course this year. The first successful offering of this course last spring included 19 CEOs and executives as speakers, discussing various best practices and pitfalls in their entrepreneurial journeys.

LISTnet (Long Island Software & Technology Network) is a member-supported organization that connects companies, educators, and government to promote Long Island as a national center for software and technology. It remains one of the largest tech organizations in New York State.

At the conclusion of the course, six students were each awarded $1,000 scholarships to pursue their proposed business plans. These scholarships were secured by the instructors from the local industry leaders.

Congratulations to the 2021-2022 award recipients:

Valerie Chatelain

Maria Crawford

Darvin Darling

Sobnom Mostari

Cameran Nuemann

Michael Valenzuela

“We are grateful to professors Trapani and Goldsmith for having provided such an outstanding experience for our students. Not only they provided a unique opportunity to expose our students to today’s industry needs from the vantage point of business executives, but also they secured the funding sources to fuel the entrepreneurial aspirations of our student winners” said Babak D. Beheshti, Ph.D., Dean of the College of Engineering and Computing Sciences at New York Tech.

“There were 6 winners of $1000 each scholarship out of a class of 64 students that came from 6 different LI tech companies. The course had 20 experts as guest speakers on topics like venture capital, how to make a shark tank-like presentation, and how to create a business plan, plus 7 CEOs of tech companies told their stories of how they created successful tech companies.

The students learned what it takes to create a startup company, which will benefit them whether they start a company or work for a company,” said Peter Goldsmith, New York Tech adjunct faculty and the CoECS Co-op Coordinator. “It was a great experience for the students and Paul and I enjoyed working with our class and answering their many questions. It was just another benefit of attending New York Tech.”

Enrollment for the course will resume in the spring. It’s available to any undergraduate major and counts as a required degree-related elective for computer science, electrical and computer engineering, electrical and computer engineering technology, and information technology majors.