Dr. Dean Chang is the Chief Innovation Officer at the University of Maryland. He leads the Office of Innovation and coordinates UMD’s innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic development ecosystem that cultivates creative and entrepreneurial mindsets and helps launch projects and ventures that spur inclusive economic and societal impact. In 2013 Dr. Chang co-founded the Academy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (AIE) to engage every college in design thinking and lean startup. Before AIE he oversaw the school of engineering’s technology startup venture programs.

Dr. Chang serves on several venture fund investment committees; is the lead PI and an instructor for the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps Hub program; and leads workshops for students, faculty, administrators, and working professionals from industry, non-profits, and government agencies like NASA and HHS. He has also been an instructor and a coach in the Stanford d.school’s Teaching and Learning Studio.

Prior to UMD, Dr. Chang spent 15 years in Silicon Valley where he served as the CTO and VP Gaming Business of Immersion Corporation. He helped transform the venture-backed, Stanford robotics lab spinout into a publicly traded (NASDAQ: IMMR), world-leading licensor of haptics technology embedded in over a billion devices from companies like Apple, BMW, Microsoft, Samsung, and Electronic Arts.

Dr. Chang has twice been named a Washingtonian Tech Titan and is a regular speaker and contributor at various higher education innovation conferences and publications. He holds over 40 patents, a B.S. from MIT, a Ph.D. from Stanford, and an MBA from Wharton.