Deanna Kocher completed an integrated degree in Mechanical Engineering and Product Design at Lehigh University and a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at Cornell. She started her career in high-rise construction before quickly pivoting to product development and consulting, where she has worked on medical products, toys, and robots. Deanna is passionate about innovative products that promote people and the planet and about helping startups streamline their development processes to bring those innovative products successfully to market.
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Event Overview
Hardware product development requires a cross-discipline integrated approach. Entrepreneurs need to simultaneously consider the market desirability, technical feasibility, and financial viability of a product concept. Failure to take this holistic approach can result in significantly increased development costs, missed opportunities on product capabilities, and, in the worst-case scenario, failure.
Join Ken Rother, Visiting Lecturer at Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, and Deanna Kocher, Associate Director of Hardware Programs at the Center for Regional Economic Advancement at Cornell University, for a dynamic conversation on the nuances of hardware product development, connecting leading academic insights with real-world innovation experience.
Join Ken Rother, Visiting Lecturer at Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, and Deanna Kocher, Associate Director of Hardware Programs at the Center for Regional Economic Advancement at Cornell University, for a dynamic conversation on the nuances of hardware product development, connecting leading academic insights with real-world innovation experience.
What You'll Learn
- Strategies to validate customer interest
- How to develop a viable business model
- Tools for prototyping ideas
- Programs available to support hardware entrepreneurs
Speakers
Deanna Kocher
Associate Director of Hardware
Center for Regional Economic Advancement
Associate Director of Hardware, Center for Regional Economic Advancement
Ken Rother
Visiting Lecturer
Cornell SC Johnson College of Business
Visiting Lecturer, Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management
Ken Rother is an entrepreneur who has built and exited two successful tech/media startups. His experience is centered in operations, sales, product management, and technology. He is director of Rev: Ithaca Startup Works, which runs several hardware accelerator programs. For 10 years, Mr. Rother was the managing director of eLab, an accelerator program for Cornell student startups, and he continues to be a visiting Lecturer of Management at Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management.
Laila Partridge
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
The HardTech Project
Laila Partridge is a founder, board member, and executive in the tech sector with over 30 years’ experience leading corporate and product innovation, finance, and growth initiatives related to emerging technologies. Laila is founder and chief executive officer of The HardTech Project, working to help early-stage hardware startups get funding.
Previously, as managing director of the STANLEY+Techstars Accelerator, Laila led a global effort for Stanley Black & Decker’s chief technology officer to identify and invest in innovative technologies for industrial applications emphasizing electrification, sustainability, and AI in advanced manufacturing.
Laila was named one of the ten “2017 Women to Watch in Science and Technology” by Boston Business Journal. She holds a Bachelor’s degree with honors from Wellesley College.
With a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from Yale University, Ryan Li has been dealing with things that flow: chemicals, liquid fuel, gas, electricity, data, capital, and commerce. Ryan has built green hydrogen production facilities for Shell Oil, drilled horizontal deep-sea injector wells in deepwater Gulf of America, merged energy efficiency companies together as an investment banker, and developed software solutions that integrated Amazon and Alibaba platforms to help millions of SMBs trade in global e-commerce.
Taking everything he has learned with the goal to build a sustainable future, Ryan cofounded Revert Technologies, a venture-backed startup with a mission to apply AI to help businesses turn power-hungry equipment off for energy savings.
Van Hunter Adams
Lecturer
Cornell University School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Van Hunter Adams is a lecturer in the Cornell University School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Dr. Adams holds a Bachelor’s degree in Physics, an M.S. in Aerospace Engineering, and a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering, all from Cornell.
As an undergraduate, Dr. Adams worked in the Laboratory for Elementary Particle Physics, allowing him to discover a passion for engineering. He went on to manage a team of 30 student engineers constructing a high-agility spacecraft for Cornell’s Violet Satellite Project.
In 2017, Dr. Adams started his Ph.D. after working at SpaceX and co-founding Cosmoptera, a sensor and data tracking company. While working on his Ph.D., he focused primarily on the construction of small spacecraft and communication infrastructure. Dr. Adams joined the ECE faculty at Cornell in 2020.
Deanna Kocher
Associate Director of Hardware
Center for Regional Economic Advancement
Associate Director of Hardware, Center for Regional Economic Advancement
Deanna Kocher completed an integrated degree in Mechanical Engineering and Product Design at Lehigh University and a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at Cornell. She started her career in high-rise construction before quickly pivoting to product development and consulting, where she has worked on medical products, toys, and robots. Deanna is passionate about innovative products that promote people and the planet and about helping startups streamline their development processes to bring those innovative products successfully to market.
Ken Rother
Visiting Lecturer
Cornell SC Johnson College of Business
Visiting Lecturer, Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management
Ken Rother is an entrepreneur who has built and exited two successful tech/media startups. His experience is centered in operations, sales, product management, and technology. He is director of Rev: Ithaca Startup Works, which runs several hardware accelerator programs. For 10 years, Mr. Rother was the managing director of eLab, an accelerator program for Cornell student startups, and he continues to be a visiting Lecturer of Management at Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management.
Laila Partridge
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
The HardTech Project
Laila Partridge is a founder, board member, and executive in the tech sector with over 30 years’ experience leading corporate and product innovation, finance, and growth initiatives related to emerging technologies. Laila is founder and chief executive officer of The HardTech Project, working to help early-stage hardware startups get funding.
Previously, as managing director of the STANLEY+Techstars Accelerator, Laila led a global effort for Stanley Black & Decker’s chief technology officer to identify and invest in innovative technologies for industrial applications emphasizing electrification, sustainability, and AI in advanced manufacturing.
Laila was named one of the ten “2017 Women to Watch in Science and Technology” by Boston Business Journal. She holds a Bachelor’s degree with honors from Wellesley College.
Ryan Li
Chief Executive Officer
Revert Technologies
With a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from Yale University, Ryan Li has been dealing with things that flow: chemicals, liquid fuel, gas, electricity, data, capital, and commerce. Ryan has built green hydrogen production facilities for Shell Oil, drilled horizontal deep-sea injector wells in deepwater Gulf of America, merged energy efficiency companies together as an investment banker, and developed software solutions that integrated Amazon and Alibaba platforms to help millions of SMBs trade in global e-commerce.
Taking everything he has learned with the goal to build a sustainable future, Ryan cofounded Revert Technologies, a venture-backed startup with a mission to apply AI to help businesses turn power-hungry equipment off for energy savings.
Van Hunter Adams
Lecturer
Cornell University School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Van Hunter Adams is a lecturer in the Cornell University School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Dr. Adams holds a Bachelor’s degree in Physics, an M.S. in Aerospace Engineering, and a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering, all from Cornell.
As an undergraduate, Dr. Adams worked in the Laboratory for Elementary Particle Physics, allowing him to discover a passion for engineering. He went on to manage a team of 30 student engineers constructing a high-agility spacecraft for Cornell’s Violet Satellite Project.
In 2017, Dr. Adams started his Ph.D. after working at SpaceX and co-founding Cosmoptera, a sensor and data tracking company. While working on his Ph.D., he focused primarily on the construction of small spacecraft and communication infrastructure. Dr. Adams joined the ECE faculty at Cornell in 2020.
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