Former Faculty
at the University of California (UCLA and UCSB) and GNWC (Great Northern Way
Campus - a founder of the foundational curriculum and Masters of DIGITAL Media
Program)
Founder
& CEO, Berman & Company
Principal
Founder and Executive Director, Transformative Media Consortium (TMC)
Steven
L. Berman, through his various positions focuses on transforming creative
thinking and innovation in the areas of university and K-12 teaching (taught
over 1,500 students and more than 400 educators), learning, business and
government. Berman’s efforts also focus on developing mentors who are effective
contributors to academic, industrial and government institutions. He is
known for his work regarding global technology translation and
collaboration among public-private enterprises leading to enhanced social and
economic development. Currently, Berman is also the Founder & Director of
the Transformative Media Consortium and helped establish an international
cleantech consortium focused on renewable energy, novel materials applications
and intelligent power distribution systems.
As Co-Founder & CEO of DIGIVATIONS and
DIGIVATIONS INSTITUTE, Berman fosters development of next generation
innovators through the application of hands on NASA award winning STEM (science,
technology, engineering and math)+ARTS+MOVEMENT K-12 curriculum
(special needs-high functioning on the spectrum through gifted),
Professional Development of educators, and Innovation Summits. DIGIVATIONS
collaborators include world class internationally known universities,
educational enterprises, and corporations developing programs for next
generation professionals. As the creator of Innovation Summits including
DIGIVATIONS' iDIGIVATE & weDIGIVATE Community innovation
forums, Berman brings together global thought leaders and decision
makers from education/universities, industry and government for the purpose of
catalyzing positive and productive change and adaptation in the Innovation
Pipeline.
Serving as
Founder, CEO & General Counsel of Collaboratorium Innovation
Resources, Berman provides the following service offerings: IP
Packaging to solve core international industrial market and societal needs;
seed/prototype fund focused on bridging the gap between research and early stage
development (translational research services); technology commercialization
services, and strategic intelligence and reports; as well as advisory services
to research and technology development corporations, universities, and business
enterprises, among others. His relationships with senior level networks
(corporate decision makers and Board level) help clients’ foster capital growth
for new and existing enterprises and secure funding of innovative technologies.
As an attorney strategist, Berman focuses on
delivering the most advanced intellectual property strategic counsel to clients
in California and on a global
basis.
Berman &
Company clients include those focused on advanced education
(DIGIVATIONS) and technology commercialization in a broad range of sectors
encompassing alternative energy/sustainability, biotech, communications, high
performance computing, digital/interactive media and medical devices, among
others. Some notable clients have included ICF, and the following British
Columbia, Canada Institutions: The University President's Council, BC Innovation
Council, Great Northern Way Consortium Campus [BCIT, Emily Carr, SFU & UBC],
and the Ministry of Economic Development.
Berman & Company is a principal architect
of the British Columbia (BC), Canada and California advanced
collaboration that has worked closely with the Canada-California Strategic
Innovation Partnership (CCSIP). Collaborations focus on developing and
implementing an international tripartite, academic, government, and industrial
set of strategic research, commercialization and economic advancement
initiatives. Key technology themes have focused on life sciences, Asia-Pacific,
goods movement and smart infrastructure, power technology (alternative energy,
intelligent transportation) and enabling communications and digital
technologies. A key focus is to determine and adopt best practices leading to
societal solutions, advanced commercialization and a distributed educational and
training framework for next generation
jobs.
Berman's TMC explores
novel and translational ideas to expand business value and educational
opportunities at the intersection of social and traditional media and games. The
TMC is also in the process of evaluating the relationship of digital
technologies and intelligent energy infrastructure systems. One core TMC project
involves development of a learning lab focusing on sustainability through
integration of social media, virtual and real time physical sensing
environments. Previously, he advised the Office of the Vice Chancellor of
Research at UCLA as the Executive Director/Curriculum Designer &
Faculty for the Advanced Gaming/Transformative Media Academic and Research
Program Initiative. This work engaged the Deans and faculty of five schools
(Business, Education, Engineering, Medicine, Theater, Film & Television)
which continues today at UCLA.
Berman has
served as faculty and lectured on Media & Society for UCSB's Media
Arts & Technology Graduate Degree Program (MATP). He is a
collaborative producer of immersive environments and installations designed to
illuminate historical and personally impactful events driven by sound, music and
narrative. These projects have been invited for presentation at several
significant venues including SIGGRAPH and IEE Conferences, as well
as:
International Human Computer Interface Conference:Las Vegas;
World Internet Conference: Madrid; Goteborg Museum of Art: Sweden; IRCAM at the
Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris; and International Super Computing, to name a
few. Specific collaborative projects co-designed with Anne Deane Berman, include
Beloved Mnemosyne and Ashes to Ashes, integrating sensing and motion tracking,
and virtual reality technologies,
respectively.
Among other capacities, he
served as Director, Strategic Business Alliances & Covergence Technologies
Development for the University of California System-wide (ten campuses and three
national laboratories) Digital Media Innovation Program (former
industry-university-state matching grants program which resulted in more than
$100 million in grants and $300 million in economic benefit); Director, Business
Development for Business Research Partnerships at UCLA; and General Counsel, TVS
Entertainment (former International Entertainment
Conglomerate).
In addition to degrees in
Engineering (Materials Science/Computation) and Law, Berman is a member of the
State Bar of California, various Federal Courts including the U.S Court of
Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court before which he has
appeared.
