“Times” For a Change in Terrorism

By India Pearman

Staff Writer

From desk to podium, Mira Costa alumnus (‘15) and University of California, Berkeley, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science student Tyler Heintz has received national recognition for work to improve global security, whether on the April 30 front page of the Los Angeles Times or in the White House on Monday.

Heintz’s work against terrorism was jump started last summer, when he traveled to France with Berkeley’s Entrepreneurship Program, the European Innovation Academy. While there, a terrorist attack occurred in Nice, and upon returning to the United States, Heintz, along with fellow classmates Alice Ma and Anjali Banerjee, felt frustrated by their inability to prevent terrorist attacks in the future.

Watch a video here about the chaos of the Nice Attack on July 14th.

“It has been a crazy rollercoaster  having the combination of expectation and waiting but also excitement,” Heintz said. “It has been quite a journey and within that whole tale, there is a subplot of a lot of ups and downs.”

The trio then created a class called “The Data Science and Transnational Security Collider Project.” The class took place this past Spring semester and was based on a framework provided by the Center of Entrepreneurship and Technology at Berkeley. The class, run by the three students, currently consists of 22 highly qualified students and includes lectures by experts, guest speakers and video calls to professionals in Washington,  D.C., Heintz said.

After learning about the current issues surrounding global security from D.C. officials, the class split up into five separate teams in order to focus on creating solutions to topics that interested them the most. They each compiled complete solutions to combat terrorism that are ready to be implemented by the intelligence community, and their solutions were featured on the front page of the Los Angeles Times’ April 30 issue.

“Having the L.A. Times release the article brought a lot of personal attention, but also attention to UC Berkeley in a good way, and most importantly, a lot of attention to the issue,” Heintz said.

On Monday, Heintz’s class hosted a conference in Washington, D.C. where students pitched their products and their organization to policy makers, analysts, think-tanks, non-profit organizations, and private companies. The next day, students went to the Treasury Building on the White House grounds to pitch their solutions to several leaders in the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

Photos: Heintz and his classmates present their solutions and new technologies to each other and then in Washington DC. 

This coming fall, Heintz and his two co-founders will restructure the class into an independent non-profit organization in order to allow them to continue the work they have begun. The class may continue next year, but due to its limits in partnering with other organizations, the focus of their work will shift to their non-profit, Heintz said. By expanding into a nonprofit, members will be able to develop their connections to both governmental and independent organizations in the intelligence sector, he said.

“We have a lot of people reach out to us and tell us that, ‘This is something that has inspired me, and I would love to contribute to your program,’” Heintz said. “This is a response to something that is terrible in a way that is beneficial for the world going forward.”