UPenn Fisher Program in Management & Technology

What a week in the Bay Area for the Annual M&T Immersive Week! Students explored how tech and business integrate across industries, built professional networks, and strengthened their cohort community.

Highlights included:
- Fireside chat with Kunal Ghosh, M&T’03
- Founder panel with Daniel Bessonov, M&T’23, Sahitya Senapathy, M&T’24, and Ryan Gannon, M&T’24, who also hosted students at his startup, Watney Robotics
- Design thinking workshop led by Henry Hsiung, M&T’98
- Product management simulation with Jeff Grimes, M&T’15, Molly Limaye, M&T’25, and Nina Lu, M&T’15
- MVP case study led by Mel Tang, M&T’98, and Wen Hsieh
- Student presentations judged by Dave Liu, M&T’93, and Lisa Donchak WG’15
- Incredible site visits to Zoox, hosted by Steven Lord, WG’25, and SPC, hosted by Danh Trang, M&T’09
- Conversations with Sam Altman, Eric Friedman, Nish Jain, Jared Friedman, Mostafa Afr, M&T’26, and Nami Lindquist, M&T’25 at Fitbit, Luffu, and Y Combinator

A huge thank you to our alumni and partners for making this annual experience possible!

M&T alumni in China and Taiwan enjoyed an intimate dinner last weekend to welcome incoming faculty director David Hsu to the M&T Program.

Congratulations M&T Class of 2026! 🎓

We celebrate your hard work, your accomplishments, and the mark you've made on our community. We can't wait to see what the future holds for each of you!

📷 : M&T Class of 2026; Class of 2026 Speakers Tara Kapoor & Saurav Gandhi; Outgoing Faculty Director Gad Allon.

With his 10-year tenure coming to a close, outgoing Faculty Director Gad Allon discusses how the M&T Program has evolved during his time as faculty director. Penn Today features a recent conversation on the moments that defined his leadership, the evolution of the program and what comes next.

Read more here: https://whr.tn/4udHrKL

Penn Dhamaka, Penn's all-male South Asian fusion dance team, recently won first place at the Desi Dance Network (DDN) Legends National Dance Championship in Austin, Texas - marking the team's first-ever national title. Among the dancers celebrating this milestone are M&T students Aarav Patel and Abhinav Vadlamani.

DDN supports more than 150 collegiate teams nationwide, with only the top 10 qualifying each year to compete at Legends. Teams perform Bollywood fusion sets that blend South Asian and American dance styles, incorporating hip-hop, contemporary, classical, bhangra, and more. Congratulations to Aarav, Abhinav, and the entire Penn Dhamaka team on this incredible achievement and the hours of hard work behind it.

As the semester comes to a close, M&T students gathered in Robbins House to raise a glass (of Martinelli's) and toast outgoing Faculty Director Gad Allon for a decade of leadership. 🥂

Daniel Mika (M&T'26), founder of Dreamfield Labs, is a recipient of the 2026 Kunal Ghosh (M&T'03) Prize in Deep Tech. Dreamfield Labs is building what Daniel describes as "the first robot you would actually want to bring into your home," a safe, playful character - and alternative to humanoid robots.

Read about the inspiration behind his venture, the technical hurdles of building a prototype from scratch, and how the M&T community has helped shape his entrepreneurial path: https://whr.tn/3OKTGz3

M&T Alumni in China and Taiwan: Join us for an alumni dinner in Hong Kong on Sunday, May 24 at 6:00pm to welcome David Hsu, incoming Faculty Director of the M&T Program.

Attendance is limited to 10 alumni, so be sure to reserve your spot: https://bit.ly/4e9V6NJ

San Francisco-area M&T alums: Join us during Immersive Week for a mixer with alumni, students, and faculty.

You'll have the opportunity to thank Gad Allon for his exceptional leadership over the past decade and to welcome David Hsu as he steps into the role of incoming Faculty Director.

RSVP here: https://bit.ly/41CnFJz

Please join us for a special Alumni Weekend Open House as we celebrate outgoing Faculty Director Gad Allon for his exceptional leadership and dedication to the M&T Program. His impact on our community has been profound, and he will be greatly missed.

We’re also excited to welcome David Hsu as our incoming Faculty Director. He’ll be at the event as well, and we hope you’ll stop by to meet him and help us kick off this next chapter.

Register here: https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/43f600aa91264a15bac3380ac5978fde