SAP Next-Gen Lab Opens at University of Illinois Chicago

On Thursday November 16^th, we officially opened SAP’s newest Next-Gen Lab at the University of Illinois Chicago. After welcoming our guests and celebrating an official ribbon cutting, we featured an initial lab Boot Camp on the exponential technology of Block Chain. We had a large group of business professionals, entrepreneurs, faculty and students join us for a terrific day.

This initial event showcased the key themes of SAP Next-Gen Innovation including:

• Innovative, smart solutions for digital enterprise, leveraging SAP’s latest technologies, with insights from the next generation designers, developers, and business leaders.
• Inspiration and collaboration with early talents and student startups via workshops, class projects, or special student / student group work to accelerate innovation within SAP technology solutions
• SAP Technology – industry specific co-innovation InnoJams and hackathons with young bright minds
• Access to early talent – SAP Next-Gen consultants with strong SAP knowledge for Internships/ Full Time opportunities with the customer/ Partner

SAP Next-Gen, in partnership with the SAP Midwest Market Unit, Academia, ASUG, Customers, SAP Partners and Local Thought leaders are committed to the development and on-going nurture of a cross organization, cross discipline community dedicated to the growth and development of best practices, intellectual development and business growth through the journey to tomorrow’s digital Economy.

The Next-Gen Laboratory at UIC will serve as a center of knowledge that concentrates expertise and resources in exponential technologies. The center’s programs and research will emphasize advances in information technology, operations and supply chain management, and business data analytics across numerous industries. Through connections with students, startups, thought leaders, researchers, accelerators and venture firms, enterprises will be privy to new concepts, prototype applications and models to reimagine business. UIC Next-Gen will serve as a knowledge and resource gateway for the Chicago region, and will also be the U.S. Midwest hub of a global network of academic and industry researchers promoting the exchange of ideas for disruptive innovation.

AGENDA for the Day

Welcome

Michael Mikhail, Dean of the College of Business Administration

University of Illinois at Chicago

Keynote Introduction to Next-Gen

Rocky Subramanian, Senior Vice-President & Managing Director

SAP Midwest

Next-Gen Vision for UIC

Matthew Liotine, Clinical Associate Professor, Information & Decision Sciences

University of Illinois at Chicago

Blockchain Bootcamp

Nitin Kale´, Associate Professor, Information Technology Program and

Epstein Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering

Viterbi School of Engineering

University of Southern California

Blockchain Development Platform Demonstrations

Student Capstone Project on Blockchain

Mary Beth Watson-Manheim, Professor, Information & Decision Sciences

& Capstone Students

University of Illinois at Chicago

Wrap-Up

Don Ginocchio, Director SAP University Alliances