JACOBS SCHOOL - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director of Business Management at Solar Turbines
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- Professor and Chair of Bioengineering at UC San Diego
- Professor and Department Chair, Bioengineering
Adam J. Engler is a Professor and Chair of Bioengineering at UC San Diego, where he has been on the faculty since 2008. He also is a resident scientist at the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine. Dr. Engler previously trained at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned his PhD studying how ECM stiffness regulated stem cell fate. He also trained as a postdoc at Princeton University's Department of Molecular Biology, funded by the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Engler has received numerous awards in recognition of this research, including awards from the Biomedical Engineering Society, American Society of Matrix Biology, American Society of Mechanical Engineering, and American Society for Engineering Education. Dr. Engler is a fellow of the American Institute for Biomedical Engineering, the Biomedical Engineering Society, and a recipient of an NIH New Innovator Award.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director of Development
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- Deputy CTO / Naval Information Warfare Center / Deputy CTO
Job Titles:
- VP, Head of Development and Engineering
Alex Schafgans is Head of Development and Engineering at ASML San Diego, the global leader in EUV photolithography tools used in the production of advanced logic and memory. Schafgans is responsible for Development and Engineering of the EUV Light Source, the key enabling technology driving the worlds most advanced semiconductor production. Over his 13-year tenure at ASML, Schafgans was focused on leading EUV light source power scaling activities from 10W through 500W, resulting in the successful introduction of EUV for High Volume Manufacturing. Most recently, Schafgans oversaw engineering execution across most EUV Source technology areas, ensured the performance of all worldwide EUV sources met or exceeded customer expectations, and drove knowledge creation to solve the most persistent and challenging performance problems facing the EUV source products. Alex is a graduate of UC San Diego, with B.S, M.S. and Ph.D. in Physics.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director, Corporate Affiliates Program - Talent Programs
Alice Grgas
Associate Director, Corporate Affiliates Program - Talent Programs
agrgas@ucsd.edu
Manages Executive Engagement with University Relations and Recruiting partnerships that primarily focus on Talent Acquisition Strategies and Corporate Affiliates Program offerings including delivery of the Team Internship Program (TIP).
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice President for Energy Group
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Associate Dean for Students
- Professor
- Professor, Chemical and Nano Engineering / Associate Dean for Students
Dr. Tao is a professor in the Aiiso Yufeng Li Family Department of Chemical and Nano Engineering at UC San Diego. She earned her A.B. in Chemistry and Physics from Harvard University in 2002 and her Ph.D. in Chemistry from UC Berkeley in 2007 where she conducted her dissertation research on colloidal synthesis and self-assembly. She was a UC President's Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Santa Barbara in the interdisciplinary program of Biomolecular Science & Engineering, where she studied the dynamic camouflage mechanisms of cephalopods. Her research interests lie in the discovery and development of new nanomaterials for plasmonics, where light is propagated, manipulated, and confined by nanocomponents that are smaller than the wavelength of light itself. She is the author of Chemical Principles of Nanoengineering, the preeminent textbook for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students in materials science, chemical engineering, chemistry, and related fields. She was the recipient of a DARPA Young Faculty Award, a Sloan Fellowship in Chemistry, and the Chemical and Nano Engineering Department Teacher of the Year Award.
Andrea Tao's responsibilities include management of student programs; curriculum organization and content; and management of the instructional infrastructure.
Job Titles:
- President & CEO / Sonora Agropecuaria SA
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- CEO of Dyna LLC / Founder, Chairwoman of Wrethink, Inc
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Assistant Dean and Chief Financial and Administrative Officer
Arnetha Whitmore works closely with Dean Pisano regarding Jacobs School resources, schoolwide management, policy development, and operations. She provides leadership and strategic direction for all administration in the Dean's Office and the School.
Job Titles:
- Trustee / BMG Charitable Trust / Danvers
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Associate Dean for Strategic Programs
- Professor / Chair, ECE
Thanks to Moore's Law and emerging nanotechnology, we will soon be able to integrate multi-billion transistors on a single chip. For broadband communications applications such as high-speed switching and wireless communications, gigascale integration enables a new generation of VLSI architectures and circuit techniques. A major focus of Professor Lin's work is efficient implementations of switching, protocol processing, and signal processing algorithms in silicon. These sophisticated algorithms typically have enormous computational needs that can only be satisfied with specialized, highly parallel, pipelined architectures. Programmability is a key requirement in these architectures to cope with multiple incompatible standards and evolving protocols often found in communications applications. However, programmability and high-performance are often conflicting objectives. For wireless applications, the design problem is further complicated by the need for low power consumption to support battery constrained mobile applications. Lin's current research effort aims to tackle the conflicting objectives of programmability, high-performance, and energy efficiency. Lin is also an expert on design methodologies and design tools. His research effort also explores new ways to design modern VLSI systems in the gigascale era.
Bill Lin joined the UC San Diego faculty in 1997. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to joining UC San Diego, Lin led the System Control and Communications Group at IMEC, Europe's largest independent microelectronics and information technology research center. At IMEC, he led a research team that worked on VLSI architecture, system design, and circuit techniques for system-on-chip applications. He has also previously held positions at Hewlett Packard, Hughes Electronics, and Western Digital. He multiple patents, nearly 200 journal and conference publications, and his awards include the 1995 best-paper award from IEEE Transactions on VLSI Systems.
Bill Lin's responsibilities include helping to devise and facilitate major new strategic programs that will broaden and strengthen our research enterprise and drive increased cachet for our entire Jacobs School.
Job Titles:
- VP Engineering
- Vice President of Engineering for the Hughes Technology Center
Bill Whitmarsh is Vice President of Engineering for the Hughes Technology Center in San Diego. This group has been responsible for development of satellite and terrestrial terminals for many years. Successes include technology development and equipment supply for the Thuraya mobile satellite system, for Inmarsat BGAN systems, for Lightsquared, Globalstar, Onstar and for XM radio. Hughes San Diego is currently deploying terminal technology and chipsets for the Mexsat and Globalstar satellite systems. Prior to joining HNS in 1996, Bill was a Technical Manager for Securicor in the UK where he had let the development of narrowband SMR radio equipment based on the MPT 1327 standard. This included both mobile and base station solutions using a highly linear amplifier technology which enabled much improved spectral efficiency. Bill was a founder member of LMT, which later span off to become Software Radio Technologies. During the late 1980s, Bill researched narrowband radio technologies and amplifier linearization at Bristol University in the UK. He earned Bachelors and Masters degrees in 1985 and 1986 respectively and his PhD in 1991. Bill holds four patents and has published a number of academic papers.
Job Titles:
- VP Engineering, Instrumentation Development / Werfen
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- University Program Manager / Raytheon
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- VP, Strategic R & D for Defense Solutions
Job Titles:
- Venture Partner, Fellows Fund
Job Titles:
- Computer Science Professor
Job Titles:
- Chief Scientist / Honda / Chief Scientist
Job Titles:
- Chief Corporate Relations Officer
Leads the Jacobs School corporate business development strategy with a strong team of professionals to steward the Dean's Council of Advisors, drives industry engagement in support of collaborative research in the Agile Research Centers and Institutes of Excellence, and provides partnership resources and services to the gold standard Corporate Affiliates Program.
Job Titles:
- Director for Corporate Research Partnerships
Leads strategic corporate engagement of the agile research centers, research institutes and priority initiatives of the Dean for meaningful collaborative research, student professional development, and industry partnership objectives and value proposition.
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Chief Executive Officer at PickTrace
Damon Valenzona is the Chief Executive Officer at PickTrace and he graduated from UCSB with a Masters in Computer Science. PickTrace creates harvest and workforce management software for the Agriculture market. It is a remote Series B startup that came out of Y Combinator in 2015. Engineers at PickTrace are customer oriented and love creating game changing software for growers.
After studying mechanical engineering, art and mathematics at UCSD, Dan spent 20 years as a design engineer before founding NOVO Engineering, which he has managed for the last 17 years. He is an inventor on 65 US patents in such fields as medical device, life science, industrial equipment, security systems, outdoor displays, action sports and eyeglasses. Early career experience at Hewlett Packard opened his eyes to how talented engineers, enlightened management practices and a well-equipped R&D facility combine to create an innovation and problem-solving powerhouse. Dan has endeavored to recreate that same atmosphere of performance and comradery at NOVO. Dan now focuses on mentoring younger design engineers and managers and ensuring that NOVO remains true to the principles of engineering excellence and customer service.
Job Titles:
- Director of Media Relations and Public Affairs
Bioengineering professor Daniela Valdez-Jasso was inducted into the College of Fellows of the Americ...
In terms of research, Professor Lipomi is a world leader in thin film electronic materials, whose applications include solar energy and artificial touch. Like many high-impact engineering professors, he engages in the virtuous cycle between fundamental and applied research. He is the recipient of the Air Force Young Investigator Award, the NIH Director's New Innovator Award, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), and an NSF BRITE award.
Job Titles:
- Manager of Creative Services
Dr. David Chow, is the Chief Scientific Officer at HRL Laboratories, LLC. He received
his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1989. He has
Dr. Chow served as the Director of the Microelectronics Laboratory at HRL from 2005 to
Job Titles:
- Director of Repair Solutions / GKN Aerospace / Director of Repair Solutions
Job Titles:
- Professor Emeritus, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Professor Miller has been interested in such things as scattering of molecular beams from single crystal surfaces to investigate surface properties and gas-surface chemistry, thin magnetic cluster films, friction at the molecular level, and the gas dynamics of supersonic free-jet expansions. Most recently his interests have been in supercritical fluids. These fluids exhibit liquid-like density and gas-like diffusivities, and are therefore good mixers, making them ideal for chemical reactions. Miller spent much of his time studying the fluid mechanics, physics and chemistry involved in supercritical fluid reactions.
David R. Miller received his BS (Chem Eng) from UC Berkeley and his Ph.D (Chem Eng) from Princeton University , before joining the faculty at UCSD in 1966 as an Assistant Professor in the AMES Department (now MAE). He has served as Chairman of AMES, as Acting Dean of Engineering, and as Associate Dean of Engineering. In 1997 he was appointed as Associate Vice Chancellor - Academic Planning and Resources, and he served for two years as Acting Senior Vice-Chancellor of Academic Affairs. He has received the Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award, the Alumni Association Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award, Outstanding Teacher and Service Award from Revelle College, and the Chancellor's Associates UCSD Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is a member of Tau Beta Pi and Phi Beta Kappa.
David Schwab - Founder, Managing Director
Job Titles:
- Senior Director of Engineering
Dawei Huang received BS from Tsinghua University and MS from UCSD. He has 20+ years experience in VLSI design from architecture to production and has 36 issued patents. Currently, he is Senior Director of Engineering at Sambanova Systems. His responsibilities include system and IO architecture, ML model performance and solution.
Job Titles:
- Dean
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Dean and Special Adviser to the Chancellor
- Information and Communications
- Professor
Albert P. Pisano is responsible for strategic planning and programmatic development for the Jacobs School. His responsibilities include School-wide research initiatives, space plans, academic affairs, strategic planning and operations, and UC San Diego-wide cooperative initiatives.
On Sept. 1, 2013, Pisano joined the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering as Professor and Dean. He holds the Walter J. Zable Chair in Engineering.
Job Titles:
- Co - President / First Green Partners / Member, National Academy of Engineering
Job Titles:
- Director of Artificial Intelligence
- Principal, Remote Sensing and Data Analytics / Lockheed Martin
Dr Eric Smith is the Director of Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics and Exploitation (AIDAE) at the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center (ATC). The AIDAE organization develops technology for transition into the lines of business, in four primary areas: 1. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning - innovations necessary to usher in the 3rd wave of AI. 2. Modeling and simulation of physical phenomena giving rise to observable signals from the RF to Visible, and their backgrounds. 3. Robotics and Autonomy - human machine teaming, autonomous robotic operations, and hardware targets compatible with missions in space. 4. Quantum Computing - application of quantum algorithms to solve problems that cannot be solved by classical methods alone. Dr Smith's organization of 80 engineers and scientists works closely with government S&T organizations, universities, small business, and lines-of-business in Space to ensure delivery of mission-relevant technology built upon the state-of-the-art. Prior to this role, Dr. Smith worked at Alphabet's Waymo LLC as the systems engineering manager and technical lead for the sensing systems, responsible for understanding from physics first principals the behavior of the sensing system, both current and next generation, in a wide regime of environmental conditions. Dr. Smith's previous roles include Google's next-generation payload leader and strategist at Terra Bella, Chief Systems Engineer for the James Webb Space Telescope's Near Infrared Imaging Camera (NIRCAM) at the ATC, which is the central science instrument and source of truth for alignment and wavefront maintenance of the observatory, senior program manager for the Talon visible imaging payload for a government contract, and department senior manager for the optics department at the ATC. Before joining Lockheed Martin, Dr. Smith held a post-doctoral position analyzing data from the Fermilab Tevatron, placing limits on a minimal supersymmetric model of a proposed charged Higgs Boson.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Partner
- Adjunct Professor of Computer Science
- Partner Engineering
Dr. Ali Arsanjani is Director of Cloud Partner Engineering at Google Cloud, building strategic partnerships through co-innovation with Google's largest partners, ISVs and GSIs . He specializes in AI/ML and Data/Analytics to enable customers and partners to run on, integrate with and build upon the Google Cloud Platform for AI/ML and Data/Analytics use-cases that explore and extend the cutting edges of innovation. Pushing against the boundaries of market trends and anticipating what is on the horizon, He integrates current needs with future trends and defines tech strategy that integrates with product management to lead the direction of Google AI and Analytics.
Dr. Arsanjani is an Adjunct Professor of Computer Science teaching Machine Learning in the Master's Program for San Jose State Univ and previously taught at UC San Diego.
Job Titles:
- Vice President of Engineering / QUALCOMM Incorporated
An Mei Chen is Vice President of Engineering at Qualcomm, Inc., where she leads advanced technology and ecosystem development and strategy. Joined Qualcomm in 2001, An Chen holds 450 plus worldwide patents and over 20 peer-reviewed papers including several book chapters and has led cross-functional teams in innovation, design, and productization of wireless communication systems. Ms. Chen also oversees Qualcomm Technology Licensing's university collaboration in technology areas of advanced wireless, semiconductor, multimedia, and machine learning. An Chen received her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical & computer engineering from the University of California, San Diego.
Job Titles:
- Founder
- President
- Founder and President of Wecoso, Inc
Dr. Carl Kirkconnell is the Founder and President of Wecoso, Inc., dba West Coast Solutions (WCS), a product development company located in Huntington Beach, CA. The Core Technologies at WCS are Cryogenic Systems, Aerospace Electronics, and Space and Tactical Power, primarily for civil space and military applications. Carl founded West Coast Solutions in 2015, and his leadership team is made up of many of the same people he collaborated with during his 30 years of prior experience at Iris Technology, where he was the Chief Technology Officer, and Raytheon, where he departed in 2009 as a Senior Fellow. Carl earned his undergraduate and advanced degrees from the Georgia Institute of Technology. As a graduate student at Georgia Tech he founded the GT Cryogenics Laboratory (GTCL), where he remains active as a collaborating researcher to this day.
Job Titles:
- Workforce Program Director / Los Alamos National Laboratory
Dr. J. Bradley (Brad) Beck is the Workforce Program Director in the Partnerships & Pipelines Office at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). In this role, Brad is developing and leading institutional efforts to help enhance our strategic partnership pipelines and advance staff development programs.
Brad has worked at LANL for over 32 years in a variety of technical organizations: the Inertial Confinement Fusion Group; the Thermonuclear Applications Group; the Primary Physics Design Group; the National Security Office; the Advanced Simulation and Computing Program; the Materials Physics and Applications Division; and in the Global Security Directorate.
During his career at LANL, Brad has held leadership positions for over 20 years. Over his career, Brad has received 9 awards for his leadership and technical accomplishments (awards include NNSA Defense Program Awards of Excellence, Defense Programs Awards of Excellence, Distinguished Performance Awards, and Distinguished Mentor). Dr. Beck has a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from Purdue University.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Executive Chairman
Dr. James Klausner is a co-founder of the long duration energy storage company, RedoxBlox and
currently holds the role as Executive Chairman. He also holds the position of MSU Foundation Professor
at Michigan State University. He is formerly Dean of Engineering at UAE University (2021-2022), formerly
the Director of the Fraunhofer USA Midwest Research Center (2022), and is formerly a Department Chair of Mechanical Engineering at Michigan State University (2016-2021). He formerly served as Chair of the ASME Heat Transfer Division (2011-2012). He serves on the board of directors for the American Society of Thermal Fluid Engineers and the International Titanium Association Foundation. For three and a half years he served as a Program Director at the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). Prior to that he held the Newton C. Ebaugh Professorship in
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida (1989-2015). He received his Ph.D. degree in 1989 from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He has made substantial fundamental contributions to understanding the dynamics of boiling heat transfer systems. He has made many fundamental and applied research contributions in high temperature thermochemistry, waste heat and solar driven desalination, and high heat flux phase-change heat transfer. Dr. Klausner has authored more than 175 refereed publications and is the author of more than ten patents and four provisional patents. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Society of Thermal Fluid Engineers. He is a recipient of the ASME Heat Transfer Division Memorial Award and the 75th Anniversary Award.
Dr. Jan Talbot joined the UC San Diego faculty in 1986 after receiving her Ph.D. in chemical engineering and materials science that same year from the University of Minnesota. She wanted to combine the two fields of chemical engineering and materials science which was very unusual at the time. Prior to joining UCSD she interviewed in industry, national labs and academia and was frequently told to decide between the two fields. She constantly asked herself if she was a material scientist or a chemical engineer. Eventually Dr. Talbot decided to try academia - the only place that really embraced her idea was UCSD. When she came to UCSD with this idea, she was encouraged to "go for it." She helped Dr. M. Lea Rudee develop a graduate Material Science program offering a place for chemical engineering students to diversify their learning. She notes, "that is the beauty of UCSD from day one, it is very interdisciplinary and really open to new ideas, new disciplines and new directions for old disciplines. If you have some crazy idea (like Nanoengineering) you can go on that path with a lot of support. Not everyone succeeds but UCSD is willing to take a chance on you. Especially if it is innovative!"
Early on Dr. Talbot felt leadership activities were something she truly wanted to follow. She met people who were in administrative leadership positions at UCSD and in her professional society, served as Chair of the Academic Senate, Chair of the Committee on Committees, then moved into Chair of the Committee on Committees for the whole UC system (one of her most fun experiences). She also served as President of her professional chemical society, Director of the Chemical Engineering program for 20 years, and then became Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Welfare at the Jacobs School of Engineering.
Dr. Talbot taught mainly about nanomaterials. She hopes her research helped advance the associated technologies and general knowledge of the topics. She shifted the weight of how research was being put together, and worked with four additional faculty members in two years to get the curriculum for undergraduate and graduate levels. Dr. Talbot feels her greatest contribution during her time at UCSD was training graduate and undergraduate students in lab. Working with such bright young people to nurture and see them become amazing engineers and scientists was truly special and one of her biggest joys in life.
She was the first woman in her department, so the men she worked with became her mentors later in her career. She immersed herself in colleagues' offices and asked to learn from them and learn more - professional mentorship was a new thing then. Two colleagues that were the most influential during her time at UCSD are the late Professor Joanna McKittrick and Professor Jeanne Ferrante. Dr. Joanna McKittrick was a professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) Department and the second woman to join the engineering faculty (after Dr. Talbot). Their research was complementary so they had an amazing relationship doing research: Dr. Talbot was big picture, while Dr. McKittrick was great at details. Dr. McKittrick was an exceptional friend and colleague, quirky and brilliant. Dr. Talbot learned a lot from her in her style. They planned to write a book together in retirement but due to Dr. McKittrick's young and unfortunate passing wasn't something that came to fruition. The other person of influence on her career was the Associate Dean prior to Dr. Talbot, Dr. Jeanne Ferrante of the Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) department. She watched Dr. Ferrante reach full professor and work with different people in engineering. She is very wise and savvy, a dear friend and really influenced her thinking about her own career. They were peers who made her think about her career a lot differently. From these she learned to try to mentor other females and help them understand what they are capable of as women.
She feels it important for women to mentor other women. Mentorship helps others navigate a complicated and unknown situation, and she encourages everyone - especially anyone who may be disadvantaged in their career (underrepresented minority, first generation, etc) to consider mentorship. "Each experience is different - what you think of yourself in mentoring brings all talents and abilities forward while finding a place to fit in." People may not know they can do a lot of different things so offering guidance may present the landscape of flexibility and empowerment. One will never know if one will truly help another but she believes it is always worth a try.
Work/life balance is difficult, and particularly for females, another level of challenges arises. Dr. Talbot loved her job so she chose to put in extra hours. "As a female, working mom you may feel a lot of guilt spending time away from your child." She loves being a mom so she did a lot with her son, and she did bring help when life happened and still needed to show up for work (i.e. sick child). While it may have been hard to make time for a spouse or children, if you don't make time for it then trouble can occur. Dr. Talbot blocked out time to ensure she was there for her family. "If your family is not happy and you are not happy it has a ripple effect, and it will not go well for your career."
Advice she offers to current faculty: The size of the university has created a significantly larger scale of students to deal with. Since Dr. Talbot came to UCSD, the environment has changed a lot and she often feels her advice may not be as pertinent, but the main thing she can offer is as faculty you are asked to do a lot. To do that while maintaining what brings you joy in your job - do this. Do not lose sight of finding the joy among all the tasks required. "It can be a lot to cope with so figure out there isn't a 'right way' to do this job, and those variations of ways mean a variation of opportunities to see value. Contribute in your ways to bring value."
For current students who want to make the most of their experience at UCSD, she encourages them to empower themselves to become more familiar with faculty members of meaning and interest to them. It is important to navigate those relationships and remove the feeling of intimidation. "As a first-generation college student, we have to balance priorities (jobs, families, school) so make the best choices and be okay with working really hard and even getting a 'B' grade. If you have trouble, drop some extracurricular activities and try not to be distracted. Keep the focus on the academics and be sure to ask for help; there's a lot of it available and it is okay to ask for it."
Since retirement she has traveled around the world (Easter Island, Patagonia, New Zealand, Bhutan, Swiss Alps). For the past three years she has been training for National and World amateur aqua-bike competitions and Ride the Rockies, and this coming year, will be riding 6 days through the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.
Job Titles:
- Division Chief Technologist at Broadband Communication Systems
- Senior Fellow, Division Chief Technologist
Dr. Osama Haddadin is an L3Harris Senior Fellow and the Division Chief Technologist at Broadband Communication Systems (BCS) Sector in Salt Lake City. He has over 20 years of industry experience in digital signal processing for wireless communications, geophysical exploration, and medical imaging. His current interests include distributed autonomous systems, adaptive and array signal processing, and inverse problems. Osama's current responsibilities at L3Harris include the promotion and development of advanced technologies and system architectures, technology roadmaps, IP management, and university engagement.
Osama holds a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Utah, a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering and a B.S. degree in Computer Science from the University of Utah. His Ph.D. research focused on signal and image reconstruction and inverse scattering problems.
Job Titles:
- Chief Technology Officer of the HDD Business Unit
- CTO / Western Digital
Dr. Xiaodong Che is the Chief Technology Officer of the HDD Business Unit and senior vice president at Western Digital Corporation. His responsibility is to shape the magnetic recording vision based on long-term data growth and to serve in the Corporate Global Strategy and Technology team preparing for the disruptive innovation transitions in the foreseeable future.
In 2008, Dr. Che joined HGST. During Western Digital's HGST acquisition, he led the technology strategy and roadmap consolidation. Prior to that, Dr. Che served Quantum Corporation as a recording technologist.
Dr. Che received his BA in Physics from Fudan University in Shanghai China in 1987, and his Ph.D. at UC San Diego in condensed matter physics under Prof. Harry Suhl in 1991. Afterward, he joined Prof. Neal Bertram's magnetic recording group at the Center for Magnetic Recording Research as a post-doctor. He has been actively involved in the development and innovation of magnetic recording storage technology in the last three decades.
Job Titles:
- Bioengineering & Detection Group Leader
- Deputy Division Leader
Elizabeth Wheeler is a Deputy Division Leader in the Materials Engineering Division and the Deputy Director of the Center for Bioengineering at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. She holds a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of California at Davis and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Stanford University. She began her career at LLNL as a post-doc working on optics for use in the National Ignition Facility (NIF) prior to joining the Center for Micro and Nano Technology where she began working on inter-disciplinary research. She has been involved with and lead efforts in bioinstrumentation for biosecurity applications at LLNL for 20+ years. Her research interests focus on integrating biology and engineering to yield new platforms or flexible devices for Homeland Security or medical applications. She has worked on numerous multidisciplinary teams that have field tested technology developed at LLNL. Currently she also serves as the chair of the Lab-Wide Laboratory Directed Research & Development committee.
Job Titles:
- Director of Engineering at Intuit
- Director, Software Engineering / Intuit
Eric Sun is the Director of Engineering at Intuit, serving as the accountable leader for Identity and Access Management (IAM). In this role, he spearheads a team whose mission is to enable seamless access to Intuit's suite of products while intelligently enforcing security controls to protect customer data at scale. Under his leadership, the team also facilitates integration with Intuit acquisitions and builds external partnerships that bring added value to Intuit's customers across all product lines. Prior to his current position, Eric led the Growth, Retention, and Experiences Platform team for TurboTax for several years, overseeing numerous successful product launches.
Eric earned his bachelor's degree in computer engineering from UC San Diego, graduating from the Jacobs School of Engineering.
Job Titles:
- Vice President of Strategy & Business Development and Deputy General Manager for the DRS Daylight Solutions
Eric Takeuchi currently serves as the Vice President of Strategy & Business Development and Deputy General Manager for the DRS Daylight Solutions line of business of Leonardo DRS. Daylight is a world-leading manufacturer, specializing in the commercialization of semiconductor lasers and photonics systems for broad market applicability, including Life Sciences, Biopharma, Scientific Research, Aerospace & Defense, Semiconductor Manufacturing, Space Communications and Quantum Information Sciences. While at Daylight, he has been responsible for identifying and capturing new business opportunities, establishing product and technology roadmaps and executing go-to-market strategies. He has accumulated more than 25 years' experience in both technical and business management in the photonics industry. During this time, he has held leadership positions in R&D, product development, product management and business development. He has authored or co-authored several peer reviewed technical articles and has been named as co-inventor on several U.S. patents.
Mr. Takeuchi holds a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering and Master's degree in Applied Physics, both from the University of California, San Diego.
Job Titles:
- Head of Technical Engineering
Fuse Sumner Lee Sumner Lee . Fuse Warfighter focused engineering and design is the mantra that Sumner continually promotes as the CEO of Fuse. His time in uniform, as a SPAWAR project manager, and as a part of the commercial design industry fuels a unique approach to rapid prototyping and an intense focus on transition of technology to operational use. Fuse applies the best practices of commercial Design Thinking to military and government systems engineering, and Sumner pushes hard every day to keep the Fuse team intensely focused on the warfighter. As a Naval Aviator Sumner learned the importance of agility when leading air crews, maintenance teams, and detachments through deployed flight operations. As a project manager at SPAWAR Sumner developed an understanding of systems engineering processes behind Navy and Joint technology solutions. Now, Sumner leads Fuse in designing and developing state of the art, intuitive, networked C4I solutions that are focused on the user. After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy Sumner went on to graduate first in his class from flight school and flew H-46 helicopters through two deployments with the HC-11 Gunbearers out of San Diego. Staying in San Diego, Sumner took a position leading the SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific airborne networking team where he built a small group of visionary engineers that delivered secure, multi-level IP network connectivity to over six type-model-series aircraft including E-2C, EP-3, P-3 AIP, P-8, Triton and others. Sumner was a plankowner of the Joint Tactical Edge Networking working group, and while at SPAWAR he won three ONR Rapid Technology Transition projects, co-wrote the technical plan for the $70 million CABLE Joint Capability Technology Demonstration, transitioned two airborne networking programs from projects into Programs of Record, and earned an Exemplary Achievement Award. Sumner earned an MBA from The University of Southern California, and transitioned from the government to the commercial design world to work as Director of Business Development at RKS Design, an internationally recognized strategy development and product design firm with over 60 global awards. At RKS Sumner came to appreciate the value of human centered design and the Design Thinking approach. Sumner started Fuse Integration with a vision to deliver exceptional results for the user through application of Design Thinking processes, blended with DoD systems engineering, Agile development, and rapid prototyping. Fuse has grown to a team of over 85 personnel since being founded in 2010, and now provides products and engineering support to Navy, USMC, USAF, and Army customers. The Fuse team is over 40% veterans and includes a blend of operational experience and technical expertise in multiple engineering disciplines. Fuse has been recently awarded multiple Phase III SBIR contracts, one of which was awarded in less than two years from project kickoff. CEO Genentech R. Scott Rosenthal R. Scott Rosenthal Executive Director, Manufacturing Science and Technology Genentech Executive Director, Manufacturing Science and Technology Gener 8 Espir Kahatt Espir Kahatt Head of Technical Engineering Gener8 I'm a Product Development leader who innovates and delivers complex profitable offerings for biomedical companies pursuing sustaining or disruptive technologies. How I deliver is by connecting mechanical and software engineering with business disciplines into a structured team effort from concept to market. My career includes extensive experience for both established and start-up biomedical and electronics companies including Life Technologies, Axiom Biotechnologies / Sequenom, and Aurora Biosciences. Currently I serve as Head of Technical Engineering for Symbient Product Development. My achievements include: A RECORD OF INNOVATION including eight patents for biomedical instruments an disposables. STREAMLINING THE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE by bringing entrepreneurial and lean Six Sigma perspectives into all phases from needs definition to marketing to manufacturing transfer. BUSINESS AND CULTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS of a major life science corporation by combining science, software, and engineering to develop a new portfolio of successful products. COMMERCIALIZED PRODUCTS FOR LABORATORY RESEARCH AND HEALTHCARE including: Macro-to-micro sample preparation for nanofluidic chip, Fluidic interface for fully implantable smart infusion device providing drug delivery, Handheld device for amplification of DNA and detection of target organisms, In-vitro diagnostic platform for isothermal amplification and detection of pathogens, Sample preparation instruments and their microfluidic cartridges. SPECIALTIES: Product Design and Development, Medical Devices, Testing Instruments, Laboratory Research Instruments, Diagnostic Tools, Drug Delivery Systems, Emerging Technologies, Regulatory Strategy, Technical / Business Milestone Development, Team Leadership, Concept Development, Prototyping, Testing and Analysis, Process Development Head of Technical Engineering
Job Titles:
- Department
- Director of the Material Science and Engineering Program
- Media Contacts
Job Titles:
- Director of Business Management / Solar Turbines Incorporated
Dr. Singh is currently working as Director of Business Management at Solar Turbines, A Caterpillar company. He is responsible for the new project execution and oversees a global team. He joined Solar Turbines as Field Engineer in Dubai, following which he has held various positions of increasing responsibility globally. Recently he was deputed in Singapore where he was responsible for Solar's customer services Business in Asia Pacific. Upon his return to San Diego, he was appointed Director of Engineering Operations.
Dr. Singh received his PhD and MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), a BS Degree in Instrumentation & Control from Pune University, MBA in Information Systems from South Gujarat University. He has also participated in the Executive Leadership Program at Thunderbird School of Management and received a degree in Brand Management from Disney Institute. His research interest is in the field of Hybrid Power Systems leveraging multiple distributed energy sources like solar, wind, gas turbines, battery storage, etc. He has published articles in engineering journals and presented his work in numerous technical conferences. He has also participated in numerous funded grants.
Dr. Singh is very passionate about the engagement between academia and industry, he is on the board of the Corporate Affiliate Program at UCSD, a Member of the Executive Advisory Board of the University of San Diego (USD), advises on various engineering and management programs including mentorship for incubators and accelerators globally. He is an active member of ASEAN business council. He lives in San Diego with his family. Coaching, meditation, golfing, and listening to classical music are a few of his hobbies.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Associate Dean for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
- Associate Dean for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at the UC San Diego
Professor Mosqueda's primary research interests are in the experimental evaluation of large-scale structural and nonstructural components under seismic and other extreme loads. Current research projects focus on testing large-scale structural systems from the onset of damage through collapse using hybrid simulation and the development and verification of numerical tools to simulate structural response. Recent tests on earthquake simulators have examined limit states in seismically isolated buildings including pounding against moat walls and post-stability behavior of elastomeric bearings. New laboratory capabilities have also been developed for testing nonstructural components and medical equipment under more realistic loads including larger accelerations experienced in upper stories of buildings. The behavior of structures under multi-hazard loading is being examined, including the effectiveness of seismic design principles in mitigating collapse caused by blasts in steel buildings. Mosqueda served as the field investigation team leader for the MCEER Reconnaissance of the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina and also participated in national teams investigating damage to structures and nonstructural systems following the 2010 Maule, Chile Earthquake and the 2011 Tohoku, Japan Earthquake and Tsunami
Gilberto Mosqueda's responsibilities include: ensuring that equity and inclusion are considered in all aspects of faculty affairs, including recruitment, retention, and advancement; and working with the Jacobs School community to cultivate welcoming, diverse, equitable, and inclusive learning, researching and working environments.
Job Titles:
- President, Materials and Structural Analysis Division
Job Titles:
- Professor Emeritus, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Professor Sorenson is a founding faculty member of UCSD and a long-time scientific and technology advisor to the United States defense and intelligence communities. He returned to the UCSD campus in 2003 as faculty director of the proposed graduate program in architecture- based systems engineering being planned by the Jacobs School and Rady School of Management. Architecture-based systems engineering recasts systems engineering theory and practice in light of the explosion in information technology. It aims at developing methods for executives to transform their enterprises from entities that just use information systems into organizations centered on their integrated and interoperable use. Many of the insights of the new approach came together when Sorenson was Senior Vice President and General Manager of the MITRE Corporation, a non-profit that assists the defense and intelligence communities in applying advanced technology. In addition, as Chief Scientist of the Air Force and chair of its Scientific Advisory Board, Sorenson led efforts to knit together previously disconnected single-purpose systems into an integrated system for command and control and for decision support. Among his honors, Sorenson is a Life Fellow of the IEEE and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a recipient of the IEEE Centennial Medal, two Exceptional Civilian Service awards and a Meritorious Civilian Award from the Air Force, the Director's Award from the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Benjamin H. Gold Medal for Engineering from the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, and the Air Force Association's Doolittle Award.
Job Titles:
- VP Engineering - Head of Product Security
- VP of Engineering - Head of Product Security for Advanced Micro Devices
Hugo Romero is the VP of Engineering - Head of Product Security for Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). He spearheads a team with the mission to design state of the art security into AMD products, manage security incidents and partner with customers to ensure products built with on AMD platforms are secure.
Prior to Joining AMD, Hugo spent 24-years at Qualcomm. His tenure began while he was still a student at UCSD. He joined as a summer intern and was offered to stay on part time during the school year. Hugo has a broad skillset in software and hardware development. After leading multiple teams through successful product launches, Hugo was invited to join the Qualcomm Government Solutions Group, where he led the development of secure communication devices that included IOT devices, Mobile Devices, Small Cells, and Core Networks. It is during this assignment where Hugo became passionate about device security.
Hugo graduated from the UCSD CSE department with a degree in Computer Engineering. As a student, he was very active and passionate in promoting STEM in the Hispanic community. In his senior year, he was the president of the UCSD chapter of Society of Hispanic Professional
Job Titles:
- Public Information Representative
Job Titles:
- Founding Chairman & CEO Emeritus / QUALCOMM
Job Titles:
- Endowed Chair in Electrical Engineering
Professor Cosman is addressing a critical challenge for mobile video transmission: how to send video with high quality, in the face of noise, interference and limited bandwidth. As demand for streaming video and other multimedia grows, she says the goal is to design algorithms that allow for the most compression while still maintaining acceptable video quality. Cosman has funding from NSF, ONR, corporations and the UC Discovery Grant Program. She is involved with human observer experiments on packet loss visibility, cross-layer design problems optimizing algorithms across the application and physical layers, and video multiplexing algorithms. She is also involved in computer vision projects in the biological sciences, including ways to track and classify microscopic mutant worms. Cosman is particularly interested in engineering education, having participated on numerous advisory and steering committees to enhance educational excellence and boost the diversity of the Jacobs School's enrollment.
James is one of the inventors of the touchscreen. He has founded several companies, including Truphone, the world's first global mobile network, where he made the first VoIP call on a cell phone and developed the eSIM. James has launched mobile virtual network operations in the UK, USA, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Hong Kong, Australia, Germany and built a travel SIM that roams in over 200 countries. He holds numerous patents, filed in over a hundred countries. He studied Physics and Computer Science at Manchester University and Engineering at Lancaster and Cambridge University (ACPMM).
His first book, Are the Androids Dreaming Yet?, explores the limits of Artificial Intelligence and the differences between human brains and computers. His research interest is building quantum computers based on the Diósi-Penrose interpretation.
He currently works for World Mobile building networks to connect the unconnected in sub-Saharan Africa, the United States and throughout the world. These networks use a mixture of aerostats - helium balloons - and advanced, maybe even quantum, antennas.
Job Titles:
- VP of Innovation for Teradata
- VP, Innovation / Teradata
James Williams is currently the VP of Innovation for Teradata. He is responsible for identifying key leading-edge academic research and innovations; for driving the ideation and innovation framework; and for technology evaluation for invention disclosures, alliances, and emerging technology trends. Prior to Teradata, James served as SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC) Chief Information Officer and Director of the Computing Division for 5 years , as well as principle advisor to the Laboratory Director for Computing Operations and Scientific Computing Services. In addition, James worked at the NASA Ames Research Center for 14 years with his last role being CIO and was responsible for delivering the Nebula Cloud Computing platform that eventually became foundational to the OpenStack community. James also worked on the Columbia accident while he worked at NASA.
Job Titles:
- Senior Director, Business Development
Leads, participates and executes engagement strategies with key corporations and high level executives, alumni and community leaders for long-term partnerships that are strategic to the Dean's initiatives success.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Associate Dean for Research
Javier E. Garay received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (1999), M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering (2002) and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering (2004) all from the University of California, Davis. He joined the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego in 2015. Prior to that he was a professor of Materials Science & Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at UC Riverside where he also served as Chair of the Materials Science & Engineering Program from 2012-2015. Professor Garay has received two federal Young Investigator Program (YIP) awards: Army Research Office (ARO-YIP) in 2005 and Air Force Office for Scientific Research (AFOSR-YIP) in 2009. He also received the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation in 2010.
Javier Garay's responsibilities include oversight of large initiatives with national and international reach including the Dean's Agile Centers; leadership on special projects; and collaboration with the Dean in the development of strategic plans to expand the scope, scale and impact of the School's research.
Job Titles:
- Vice President
- CISO / Amazon / CISO
Job Titles:
- Director of R & D / Rogers Corporation
Job Titles:
- SVP Strategy
- SVP, Strategy at Brain Corp
John Black is the SVP, Strategy at Brain Corp. He is primarily focused on establishing and enabling partnerships for new robotic products and applications based on BrainOS technology. He joined Brain Corp as VP of Engineering in 2015 to lead the development and commercialization of the first fully autonomous floor scrubber, since then the fleet has reached more than 25k robots with over 10 million hours of commercial operation! He received his BSME from Carnegie Mellon University and a MSME from Oakland University, and is a certified Functional Safety Engineer (TÜV Rheinland).
Job Titles:
- Executive Consultant and Board Member
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice President of Engineering / Head of Wireless Research
Job Titles:
- Senior Director, Magnetic Programs
Jon is the Founder and CEO of Thrive Technologies, a bleeding-edge VR software start-up that is redefining how developers build and share their ideas and creations. Jon created Thrive with a vision of a flexible online framework that eliminates the hurdles faced in VR development today. With a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Engineering from the University of California, San Diego, and years of experience in VR and tech industries, Jon brings a wealth of technical skills and leadership experience to his role at Thrive. Jon believes that Thrive will play a major role in maturing VR technology and shaping the virtual landscape of the future.
Job Titles:
- Services Manager, Corporate Affiliates Program
Promotes and manages benefits and services for Corporate Affiliates Program members, and facilitates visits of CAP partners to campus.
Job Titles:
- Retired President & CEO ( Retired ) San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation
Justin earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from UC Santa Barbara and his M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from UCLA. He is also a California licensed Professional Engineer in Mechanical Engineering. Justin has been at NAVAIR for the last 11 years working within the Structures and Materials Departments. He is currently the NAVAIR, Fleet Readiness Center Southwest (FRCSW), Materials Engineering Department, Composites and Corrosion Division Lead. He is also the FRCSW site liaison to UCSD and the Office of Naval Research, Office of Research and Technology Applications, site manager.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Welfare
- Professor in the Shu Chien - Gene Lay Department of Bioengineering and the Sanford .
The Christman lab focuses on developing novel biomaterials for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications. The lab has a strong translational focus with the main goal of developing minimally invasive, biomaterials based therapies for myocardial infarction, heart failure, and peripheral artery disease. Projects are highly interdisciplinary and involve collaborations with basic scientists, engineers and physicians.
Karen Christman's responsibilities include operation and processing of tenure and promotion cases; management of faculty recruitment and retention; and faculty diversity, equity and inclusion.
Job Titles:
- Marketing and Communications
Job Titles:
- Vice President - Advanced Technology Research and Innovation
Job Titles:
- Senior AI Architect / Oracle
Kenny C. Gross is an AI Solutions Architect and researcher with the System Dynamics Characterization and Control Laboratory at Oracle's San Diego Physical Sciences Research Center. Kenny is a habitual inventor and drives pioneering innovations in the areas of proactive fault monitoring through applications of advanced pattern recognition and continuous system telemetry for improving the Reliability, Availability, Serviceability (RAS) of complex engineering systems including enterprise computing servers and Internet-of-Things applications. Several recent spinoff patents leverage advanced pattern recognition for significant boosts in operational energy efficiency and prognostic cyber security for servers and data centers.
Lance Onken is the CTO of Measurabl and a proud Triton alumni-athlete. Lance earned a BS in Computer Science and Engineering ('03) while also competing for the award winning NCAA Men's Water Polo team as their starting goalie. It was during these years he became friends with fellow teammate Matt Ellis who would later found Measurabl. Matt recruited Lance away from his role as a Principal Software Engineer at Websense and the rest is history. Lance continues to reside in San Diego with his wife and 2 young children. He still cheers on the Tritons and recently picked up disc golf.
Job Titles:
- Director of Engineering / Northrop Grumman
Larry Stullich is the San Diego Director of Systems Engineering for Northrop Grumman Mission Systems. In this role, he is responsible for ensuring successful program execution by providing the engineering oversight, talent development, career management, process control, design vision and engineering tools required to be best-in-class now and in the future. Larry received his BSEE and MSEE from the University of California San Diego and an MBA from George Mason University. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi. He is a Veteran of the US Navy, having served as a Reactor Operator on a Fast Attack Nuclear Powered Submarine.
Job Titles:
- Technical Fellow at General Atomics ( GA ) Aeronautical Systems, Inc
Lawrence Woolf is a technical fellow at General Atomics (GA) Aeronautical Systems, Inc. in San Diego. He received a Ph.D. in low temperature condensed matter physics from UCSD in 1980 and a BA in physics from Rutgers College in 1975. Woolf joined GA in 1982 after a post-doc at Exxon. He has been project manager or lead scientist for over 50 programs involving the design, development, and/or production of a variety of advanced materials. He is the author or co-author of 73 scientific publications in materials physics and energy conversion systems, holds 24 patents, and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS).
He is also President and Chair of the Board of the GA Sciences Education Foundation, where he initiated the GASSSS program that has catalyzed the involvement of over 1,000 employees in K-12 STEM education outreach, brought the Chapter One nationwide tutoring program to GA, and has managed the disbursement of over $1,000,000 in funding to STEM non-profits. He has developed many educational modules, materials, and posters and has given over 100 workshops to teachers and students. He was curriculum advisor/technical reviewer for multiple Lawrence Hall of Science FOSS middle school modules and for the BSCS Science: An Inquiry Approach integrated high school curriculum. He developed partnerships between GA and UCSD that has led to financial support for undergraduate research in the Schools of Physical Sciences and Engineering, as well as mentoring and technical interactions.
He has been a member of 21 NSF education-related committees, ranging from elementary science education to national laboratory reviews. He has been involved in many APS education committees and activities, including the Forum on Education (as chair), Second Graduate Education in Physics Conference, APS Excellence in Physics Education Award selection committee, and Phys21 and Effective Practices for Physics Programs (EP3) national task forces. He is currently a member of the APS Committee on Education (as past chair), the EP3 Editorial Board, the US member of IUPAP Working Group 16 on Physics and Industry and a Member-At-Large of the NAS U.S. Liaison Committee for IUPAP.
Job Titles:
- VP, AI Automation and Data
Lewis Choi leads Digital Platforms & Engineering, the organization responsible for driving a seamless, secure customer experience through all digital touchpoints, unlocking the unparalleled breadth and value of Thermo Fisher solutions. This group brings digital to the forefront, partnering closely with IT, R&D and our internal business partners to drive value for our customers and support them in their efforts to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. Lewis has recently been at the forefront of the company's Generative AI initiatives, guiding the organization in its pursuit to leverage Generative AI and Automation to revolutionize the way we work.
Prior to this role, Lewis led the Digital and IT teams for Thermo Fisher In APAC, where he was responsible for regional digital enablement. In addition to traditional internal digital teams partnering to deliver value with Digital -including IT and digital marketing- this team also included Inside Sales and Call Center Teams that helped drive leads and eRevenue.
Lewis joined Thermo Fisher in 2012 and has played various roles in Digital Technology Delivery and IT Corporate Solutions, which included work to support an >$3B eCommerce site as well as various M&A initiatives throughout his tenure at the company. Prior to Thermo Fisher, Lewis was a Managing Partner for a CRM Consulting Practice that was focused on Siebel and SFDC related initiatives along with Field Service Mobile Applications.
Job Titles:
- Public Information Representative
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Development
Job Titles:
- CTO
- VP, Developer Productivity
Magaly Drant runs the Office of the CTO and the Engineering Operations Department at ServiceNow, reporting into the CTO and EVP of DevOps. ServiceNow provides enterprise cloud computing solutions that define, manage, and automate services for enterprises worldwide. Magaly focuses on scaling the technology organization to support the growth: from angles as varied as executive relationship with our largest customers, talent acquisition and development strategy, engineering processes development and automation, implementation standards definition and adoption, and technical architecture. In previous roles, she has contributed to and ran software engineering teams (platform and applications development) across a variety of technical stacks. Born and raised in France, Magaly graduated with a master's degree in General Engineering from Ecole Centrale de Paris.
Job Titles:
- VP Corporate Technology and Innovation
Job Titles:
- Vice President of Engineering at Qualcomm, Inc
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Donor Programs
Job Titles:
- Department of Structural Engineering
Job Titles:
- Director of Mechanical Engineering R & D
Job Titles:
- Head of Software Engineering / Viasat, Inc.
- Head of Software Engineering for Viasat 's Global Networks
Nik Devereaux is Head of Software Engineering for Viasat's Global Networks and Technology business area, ensuring Viasat maintains excellence in engineering and remains an excellent place for engineers to work and thrive. He received his Bachelors (2001) and Master's (2011) degrees from UCSD and remains very involved as an alum and ambassador for Viasat in the Jacobs School of Engineering and Halicioglu Data Science Institute.
Job Titles:
- Chairman / OpenCorporates Ltd
Job Titles:
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Professor and Chair, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Pamela Cosman joined UCSD in July 1995. She obtained her B.S. with Honor in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1987, and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1989 and 1993, respectively. She was an NSF postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University and a Visiting Professor at the University of Minnesota during 1993-1995. Since 1995, she has been with the faculty of the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UCSD, where she is currently a Professor. She was the Director of the Center for Wireless Communications from 2006 to 2008. She served as Associate Dean for Students from 2013 to 2016. Dr. Cosman is the recipient of the ECE Departmental Graduate Teaching Award, a Career Award from the National Science Foundation, a Powell Faculty Fellowship, and a Globecom 2008 Best Paper Award. She was the Editor-in-Chief (2006-2009) of the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, and an associate editor of several other journals. She is a member of Tau Beta Pi and Sigma Xi, and a Fellow of the IEEE. She is the author of over 150 papers and book chapters in the areas of image/video compression, image quality evaluation,and biomedical image processing.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder & CTO Emeritus
Job Titles:
- Member of the National Academy of Engineering / Founder & Chair Emeritus
Job Titles:
- Vice President and General Manager of Print Microfluidics Specialty Printing
- VP & GM
Philippe Lesage is the Vice President and General Manager of Print Microfluidics Specialty Printing and Technology Solutions (SPTS) Business within HP Inc's Printing group. The HP SPTS business sells original equipment manufacturers (OEM) components based on HP Thermal Inkjet and Microfluidics technologies for their own specialized industrial solutions including mail, postage, product identification, life science automation, etc. and Lesage is responsible for the P&L and all aspects of this business, including sales, marketing, operations, research and development.
Philippe Lesage has been with HP for more than 25 years in positions such as Head of Specialty Photo Printers and Product Marketing Director for Cloud Services. He was also part of the founding team who invented, launched and scaled Instant ink (HP's ink monthly subscription) to millions of paying subscribers.
Lesage has been living in San Diego since 2022. He holds a Master of Science from Ecoles Nationales Supérieures des Mines.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of Bioengineering Innovation
The Christman lab focuses on developing novel biomaterials for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications. The lab has a strong translational focus with the main goal of developing minimally invasive, biomaterials based therapies for myocardial infarction, heart failure, and peripheral artery disease. Projects are highly interdisciplinary and involve collaborations with basic scientists, engineers and physicians.
Prabhakar Bandaru received his Ph.D. in Materials Science at the UC, Berkeley in 1998, with a graduate thesis on the thermodynamics of phase transformations in magneto-optic thin films. From 1998-1999, Bandaru gained industry experience as a process research engineer in Applied Materials Inc.'s Capacitor Products division where he worked extensively on Metallorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) and electrical characterization of ferroelectric thin films, and plasma diagnostics. Subsequently, he joined the Electrical Engineering department at UC, Los Angeles as a post-doctoral fellow, where he studied nano-fabrication, low temperature solid state science for quantum computing, and Silicon-Germanium nanophotonics.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director, Manufacturing Science and Technology / Genentech / Executive Director, Manufacturing Science and Technology
Job Titles:
- Head of Global Software and Informatics, R & D
Rey Halili is the leader of R&D Advanced Development for Coronary Vascular devices at Philips in the Image Guided Therapy business unit. He has held progressive leadership roles across a breadth of medical device technologies related to intravascular ultrasound, cardiac cryoablation, cardiac resuscitation, artificial heart valves, drug delivery devices, and infusion disposables. Rey holds a BS and MEng in Bioengineering from UC San Diego and an MBA from SDSU.
Job Titles:
- Head of Quantum Research & Quantum Lab
Reza Nejabati is currently leading quantum research activities in Cisco, spearheading development and execution of both short-term and long-term quantum research roadmaps. He leads a dynamic team of quantum and network scientists, encompassing both experimentalists and theorists, and collaborations with prominent academic groups and industries. Additionally, he is leading the development of Cisco's Quantum Research Lab, an innovative facility dedicated to advancing quantum networking research. Prior to joining Cisco, Reza served as a Chair Professor of Networks and Head of the High-Performance Network Group in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Bristol, UK. His research focus and expertise lies in the realms of Quantum and Classical network infrastructure for the Future Internet. Beyond research, Reza enjoys skiing, listening to classical music and collecting classical vinyl.
Job Titles:
- VP, BD Distinguished Fellow
Robert Balderas has more than 25 years of leadership experience in both academia and the biotechnology industry. As a corporate scientist, site manager and marketer in the field of biotechnology he has contributed to the growth in both Pharmingen and BD Biosciences. Robert has championed multiple key successful product launches and is recognized for his success in growing sales and profits. His experience in academic medicine accompanied by his strategic approaches as the VP of Research and Development is reflected in increased efficiencies within the Clinical and Research product development programs. Robert Balderas's track record of business process improvements is based on his expertise obtained while working at The Scripps Research Institute in the labs of Frank Dixon and Argyrios Theofilopoulos. He is known for his ability to motivate his technical staff, diagnosing impediments in product development programs, building his efforts and focused on both product execution and career development of his staff as well as integrating functional programs across other business operations. In addition his scientific experiences, Robert also received an MBA from the University of San Diego. Additionally, Robert also serves on the editorial board of Clinical Proteomics, has been involved with several business acquisitions (and lead two industrial/academic initiatives with CANVAC and the NCI).
Job Titles:
- Partner, Conn Enterprise Consulting ( CEC ) President and CEO, Retired. the Kavli Foundation
Job Titles:
- Executive Director
- Executive Director and Head of the Thin Film Solutions Technology Organization
Ronald (Ron) Pearlstein is executive director and head of the Thin Film Solutions technology organization in EMD Electronics, which is a part of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt Germany. As the business technology manager, he is responsible for leading the research and technology efforts for the business and ensuring that they are aligned with all of the stakeholders' needs. The technologies spanned by this business include deposition materials used for ALD, CVD and Spin-on films. Dr. Pearlstein joined Air Products and Chemicals in 1989 where he conducted research in the Corporate Science and Technology Center and in the Electronics Technology organizations. Before taking on his current role, he was the leader of groups responsible for product development of new organosilicon and organometallic molecules and for ALD applications research. Ron was born in Philadelphia in 1962. He received bachelor's degrees in both Chemical Engineering and in Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania. In 1984 he received a Ph.D. degree in Inorganic Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Job Titles:
- Officer Recruiting . Director of Talent Acquisition
Job Titles:
- Member of the National Academy of Engineering / Partner
Scott Weldner is an engineering and business leader with a broad range of experience with a diverse set
of technologies and commercial, government and military market spaces. He is currently the Senior VP
Job Titles:
- Engineering Director
- Director for Enterprise Software at Cubic Transportation Systems
- Software Engineering Director
Shariqa is the Director for Enterprise Software at Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS). CTS provides technology solutions for public transit companies across the world enabling the evolution of urban mobility, making cities more connected, accessible, and sustainable for all residents and commuters.
Job Titles:
- AVP Advanced Analytics and Data Engineering
Sharon Gao has over 25 years of professional experience in the field of Data Analytics and Engineering. Graduated from U of Wisconsin - Madison with an MS in Computer Science. She started her career as a data practitioner and has served various technical leadership roles over the years. She has extensive experience working with cross-functional teams, divisional and C-Suites of leaders. At XIFIN she serves as a thought leader, coaching and ramping up the Advances Analytics and Data Engineering team.
Job Titles:
- Department of Bioengineering
Job Titles:
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering
- Professor and Department Chair, CSE
Professor Lerner's research interests lie in programming language and analysis techniques for making software systems easier to write, maintain and understand, including static program analysis, domain specific languages, compilation, formal methods and automated theorem proving. He is a member of the UCSD Programming Systems Group. Current projects include: - Rhodium: A framework for provably correct compiler optimizations; - Collider: A next-generation compilation system, successor to the Rhodium language and system; and - Radar: A scalable analysis engine for concurrent programs.
Sorin Lerner joined the Computer Science and Engineering faculty of the Jacobs School in January 2006. He grew up in Montreal, then studied computer engineering at McGill. After McGill, he went to graduate school in the Computer Science department at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Job Titles:
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Job Titles:
- Manager
- Principal Engineer
Sumit Tandon has a BE in Electrical Engineering from Jadavpur University, India, and an MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington. He has been at MathWorks for over 14 years, and is a part of a global team that partners with academic and research institutions around the world with a focus on student and research success. In his current role, he leads a group of engineers and scientists that support higher-ed and research institutions in Western US & Canada, and Latin America.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Senior Assistant Dean and Chief Strategy Officer
Tana Troke Campana works closely with Dean Pisano in his dual role as Engineering Dean and as Special Adviser to the Chancellor. She also serves as a senior strategic advisor to the Associate Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration within UC San Diego Academic Affairs.
Tana Troke Campana is responsible for the central budgeting, financial, human resources, facilities, technical operations and general administration of the Dean's Office. She is the senior business manager in the Jacobs School and collaborates with the Dean and Calit2 Director in administrative leadership of the School and Calit2. Prior to Tana's appointment as Executive Assistant Dean for Finance and Administration in April 2015, she spent seven years in the UC San Diego School of Medicine as the Administrative Vice Chair for the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health for three years and Assistant Dean for Medical Education from 2007-2012. With extensive knowledge of education administration, Tana began her University of California career at UC Irvine in 1987, moving into progressively responsible leadership positions during her thirteen years at the campus. She then spent two years at the UC San Francisco campus in Auxiliary Services before taking on the role of lead business administrator and IT director at a K-12 public school in Western New York from 2002-2007. Tana earned both her MBA and B.S. in Information Systems from the University of Redlands.
Job Titles:
- Dir. Software Engineering
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Business Development at ATA Engineering, Inc
- VP Business Development / ATA Engineering Inc
Dr. Sur serves as Vice President, Business Development at ATA Engineering, Inc. and brings more than 20 years of experience to the ATA team. ATA is an engineering consulting firm that provides innovative solutions through test-and analysis-driven design by focusing on the engineering needs of manufacturers in addressing their cost, quality, and time-to-market challenges for mechanical and aerospace systems. Prior to ATA, Dr. Sur was a senior research scientist in the Naval Hydrodynamics Division at SAIC (now Leidos), where she was the principal investigator for research and development contracts with U.S. naval customers. Prior to SAIC, Dr. Sur began her career as a member of the technical staff in the Thermal and Propulsion Engineering Section at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Dr. Sur received her Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology and her B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University.
Job Titles:
- Principal
- Principal Fellow and Discipline Lead
Vijay Pujar is Principal Technical Fellow and Discipline Lead, Materials and Processes at Collins Aerospace, a unit of Raytheon Technologies. He has over 20 years of experience leading advanced composites and manufacturing technology development for commercial aerospace and military applications. Vijay received his undergraduate degree in Ceramic Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Varanasi, India, and his Masters and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Case Western Reserve University.
Job Titles:
- Division VP & Chief Technologist
Dr. Waguih S. Ishak joined Corning in 2007 to establish a new Silicon Valley facility, the Corning West Technology Center (CWTC) in Palo Alto, California. CWTC was chartered to build strong relationships with high-tech industries and academia in Silicon Valley and grew to conduct advanced research on high-speed interconnects, novel displays, and embedded sensors. The Center moved to Sunnyvale in 2017 and is now called Corning Technology Center - Silicon Valley (CTCSV).
In May 2016, Ishak was appointed Division VP & Chief Technologist, responsible for strategic connections to Silicon Valley hotspots, VCs, startups and academia. From 2007 to May 2016, Ishak was the Division VP of Science & Technology and also the Director of CWTC. From 2005 to 2007, Ishak was the Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Avago Technologies (now Broadcom). From 2003 to 2005, Ishak was the Vice President and Director of the Photonics & Electronics Research Lab at Agilent Labs responsible for R&D programs in photonics, high-speed electronics, sensors, semiconductor tests, wireless communications and consumer electronics. From 1987 to 2003, Ishak was the Director of the Communications & Optics Research Laboratory at Hewlett-Packard Labs, working on photonics and integrated electronics. From 1978 to 1987, Ishak was a Scientist/Project Manager for bubble memories, SAW devices and MSW devices.
Ishak has authored approximately 100 journal and conference papers, and four chapters in the "Handbook of Electronic Instruments." He was named an inventor on seven U.S. patents. He is on the technical advisory boards of USC, UCSDS, SCU, UCSB, and McMaster University. He was a member of the National Academics Committee on "Harnessing the Light" to write the book "Optics & Photonics - Essential Technologies for Our Nation," 2013, resulting in the White House announcement of the Integrated Photonics Manufacturing Institute on October 2014. In 2016, Ishak was selected a member of the Visiting Committee on Advanced Technologies (VCAT) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Ishak received a B.S.E.E. (hon.) from Cairo University in 1971 and a B.S. in mathematics (hon.) from Ain Shams University, Egypt, in 1973. He obtained his M.S. and Ph.D., both in electrical engineering, from McMaster University, Canada, in 1975 and 1978, respectively. Ishak obtained the Stanford University Executive Program in 1999 and was awarded a Doctor of Science honoris causa from McMaster University in 2018. Ishak is a Life Fellow of the IEEE, a Member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE), and received the University of California Exemplary Service Award in 2015. Ishak is also an adjunct Professor with The Electrical Engineering Department at Stanford University.
Job Titles:
- Chairman in Engineering / Member, National Academy of Engineering
- Dean, Emeritus
- Distinguished Professor
- Endowed Chair of Engineering
Job Titles:
- Director, Corporate Affiliates Program
Directs Industry Relations Strategies to drive partnership offerings of the Corporate Affiliates Program in support of significant talent and research engagement with Faculty, Departments, Centers, and Institutes related to the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego.