Executive Board

GB is currently working as Director of Business Management at Solar Turbines. 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 he was appointed Director of Engineering Operations. GB hold MS Degree in Mechanical Engineering with specialization in Controls Engineering from University of California, San Diego (UCSD), BS Degree in Instrumentation & Control from Pune University, MBA in Information Systems from South Gujarat University, Executive Leadership Program in Thunderbird School of Management, Brand Management from Disney Institute.

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.

Currently leading an organization comprised of 3 teams with 24 people. Responsible for key
parts of Amazons PrimeNow and Fresh businesses. I direct the product roadmap, software
development, and operational excellence for these teams. We own systems that handle 250k+
TPS in sub-millisecond latency with 99% uptime and 24/7 engineering support.

Brendan Ahern is the Founder and CEO of AMV, Inc. He founded AMV in 2018, the company is focused on the development of Fully-Autonomous Food Service Systems. Brendan has a passion to utilize robotics and automation to improve efficiency, lower cost, and insure cnsistency of direct-to-consumer food service. Following three years as a Financial Representative with Northwestern Mutual, in 2015 he joined a leading AgTech firm, Ahern Agribusiness, as a Management Trainee. He worked with such notable companies as Bayer, Syngenta, HM Clause, Prospera Technologies, and Enza Zaden. Brendan received his BA from Southern Methodist University and his MBA from The Rady School of Management at UCSD. Brendan has served on the Board of Directors for the Diabetes Research Connection. He was a member of the SMU Football team.

Krijn van der Raadt is a Sr. Director of Software Engineering at AppFolio. AppFolio creates complete, easy-to-use, cloud-based software for multiple vertical markets. Their main engineering offices are in Santa Barbara and San Diego, but they also have a major hub in Dallas. Their products include cloud-based property management software (AppFolio Property Manager) and investment management software (AppFolio Investment Management). Krijn leads the engineering team in San Diego, helping their engineers learn and grow, while building an indispensable product for their customers. He has a Masters in Computer Science from Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, and came to San Diego as a research scholar at SDSC / UCSD.

Analog/RFIC product development experience (DC to 10 GHz) for wireless communication and optical applications

Track record of bringing multiple cutting-edge RFICs from concept to the industry’s highest volumes in production with top tier mobile device OEMs

Daniel Brown, PhD serves as vice president of technology development in the corporate operations business unit. Bringing more than 16 years of experience to Cymer, Brown is chartered with managing the technical development and engineering activities for Cymer's excimer light source products to meet the demands of the cyclical semiconductor marketplace. Prior to joining Cymer in 2000 as manager of optics development, Brown worked as associate director of the Centre for Lasers and Applications at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, where he directed research and strategy for five years. Brown began his career at the Center for Lasers and Applications in 1988 as a postdoctoral fellow, and served as research fellow and senior research fellow until 2000. Brown holds a bachelor's degree in science and a Ph.D. in physics, both from the University of New England in Australia.

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.

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).

Scott Loebig serves as vice president of research and development as BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), a leading global medical technology company headquartered in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey.  In his role, Loebig focuses on an ecosystem of software technology solutions that are leveraged across BD to enable digital solutions that drive category innovation.

Loebig joined the company in March 2015, upon the acquisition of the CareFusion Corporation, a San Diego–based global medical technology corporation that provides products and services to help hospitals improve safety and care quality.

Prior to his current role, Loebig served as vice president of research and development focused on cloud and data solutions for BD.  He also served in multiple research and development leadership roles at CareFusion and Cardinal Health.

Alan joined Bentley in 2010 as part of Bentley's acquisition of Enterprise Informatics, where he served as CEO. He leads Bentley’s Industry Solutions Team, which is responsible for Bentley’s digital twin solutions advancing and sustaining infrastructure assets used in transportation, energy, water and cities.  Prior to Bentley, Alan spent 20 years in various roles leading technical product management and service teams in the energy, manufacturing, automotive and aerospace industries.

Alan holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Michigan State University and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Dayton.

Dr. Slaven Moro leads BMC’s product development teams, focused on designing, building, and delivering the next generation of space-based connectivity products.

Prior to joining BMC, Dr. Moro held engineering leadership roles at Amazon, Facebook, and General Atomics.

Slaven is a triple UC San Diego alumnus, having received his B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Jacobs School of Engineering.

John Black is the SVP, New Product Development at Brain Corp.  He leads the design and development efforts for new robotic products, applications, and markets.  Following his 15-year tenure at Nilfisk focused on R&D in the cleaning equipment industry, he joined Brain Corp as Vice President of Engineering in 2015.  His initial focus was development and commercialization of the first fully autonomous floor scrubber using BrainOS.  He has worked with such notable companies as Nilfisk, Ecolab, Apple, 3M, Pillsbury, McDonalds, BioHorizons, Mikros, Crane, Chrysler, and BMW.  He received his BSME from Carnegie Mellon University and a MSME from Oakland University, and is a certified Functional Safety Engineer (TÜV Rheinland).

 

Vijay Pujar is Sr. Technical Fellow, 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.

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.

Niosha Kayhani, a chartered engineer, has a wide array of engineering skills spanning over 15 years, from working with fire and smoke detector systems, fibre optic lasers, software platforms and intelligent transport systems to more recently being in charge of designing and driving Cubic’s Innovation and R&D Strategy across transportation, defense training and secure communications. Here, Mr Kayhani oversees an R&D budget of $55M to drive innovation and new revenue streams from all of Cubic’s business units with revenues of >$300M. His team facilitates rapid pursuits, ideation processes and manages the entire R&D portfolio as well as Cubic’s internal ideation management platform and intrapreneurs. He is also a member Cubic’s Executive Management Committee.

Mr Kayhani has an MBA, MSc and BEng. Was an elected valedictorian, captain of the men’s basketball team and also served as President of the entire club.

Mr Kayhani is trilingual (English, Swedish and Farsi), has lived in Sweden, England, Ireland and recently moved to the U.S. where he recently welcomed his firstborn son. He claims the latter is his most significant and proudest achievement.

Senior Program Manager with over 20 years of experience leading global multi-disciplinary product development teams. Proven record delivering complex electro-mechanical products to market in entrepreneurial environments, from initial concept through technical development, manufacturing transition and post-production support. Acquired extensive knowledge of offshore development and manufacturing.
Strong technical background in product development, excellent teamwork and communication skills,
Vision oriented, high customer focus, able to thrive in a fluid environment, pragmatic. Fluent in both English and Spanish.

Specialties: Program management
Product Development Process
TQM
Problem Solving
Robust Design

A 25-year veteran of the Silicon Valley and Seattle technology scenes, Sam Ramji led Kubernetes and DevOps product management for Google Cloud, founded the Cloud Foundry foundation, has helped build two multi-billion dollar markets (API Management at Apigee and Enterprise Service Bus at BEA Systems) and redefined Microsofts open source and Linux strategy from extinguish to embrace. He is nerdy about open source, platform economics, middleware, and cloud computing with emphasis on developer experience and enterprise software. He is an advisor to multiple companies including Dell Technologies, Accenture, Observable, Fletch.ai, and the Linux Foundation. Sam received his B.S. in Cognitive Science from UCSD in 1994 and is still excited about artificial intelligence, neuroscience, and cognitive psychology.

Ken has over 20 years of experience as a technology leader, working for some of the largest global tech companies. Ken's experiences span Enterprise Network Innovation, Service Chaining, SDN, Internet Scale and Branch Office Routers, Data Center Switches, Security, Wan and Application Optimization, Server Load Balancing and Wireless LAN technologies. 

In leading the OTCO Research Office (ORO) he primarily focuses on ensuring that the company is well aware of emergent technology inflections and the potential impact to the company. This work has led to exploration in a myriad of future impact technologies such as Quantum computing, Carbon Nanotube Memory, Heterogeneous computing acceleration and virtualization, to name a few.

He is an accomplished speaker at many industry events, on a wide range of topics.

Ken achieved Distinguished Engineer at Cisco, has 60 granted patents and a several more patents pending.

 

 

 

Dr. Scott Zoldi is Chief Analytics Officer at FICO and is responsible for the analytic development of FICOs product and technology solutions. While at FICO, Scott has been responsible for authoring 120 analytic patents, with 71 patents granted and 49 in process. Scott is actively involved in the development of new analytic products, purpose-built machine learning algorithms, and frameworks of responsible AI. Scott is most recently focused on Ethical AI and Unsupervised Machine Learning. Scott serves on two boards of directors, including Tech San Diego and Cyber Center of Excellence. Scott received his Ph.D. in theoretical computational physics from Duke University.

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

Bringing over 20 years of experience in the energy and space industries, Dr. Roberto Vasquez joined General Atomics’ Energy Group as the Chief Operating Officer in August 2016, where he oversees key company programs, financials and business development.

Prior to joining General Atomics, Dr. Vasquez held numerous leadership roles at Leidos, SAIC, Boeing, and Hughes.

At Leidos, he was Vice President of Technical Services, responsible for 2200 employees and $750M P&L. While at SAIC, he served as Senior Vice President, National Security Space – overseeing P&L for the $150M organization – before moving to Senior Vice President of ISR and Space Solutions.

Dr. Vasquez held positions across Boeing’s satellite engineering programs, leading company growth initiatives, managing multiple teams and streamlining operations.

Dr. Vasquez served as the general manager with full P&L responsibility of Boeing Electron Dynamic Devices, Inc. (EDD). With revenues over $150M, EDD was a major supplier of satellite bus and payload electronics to space and defense clients and was acquired by L-3 Communications in 2005.

Before managing EDD, Dr. Vasquez led general engineering efforts for all U.S. Air Force satellite programs within Boeing and directed the Design Center with responsibility for commercial satellite bids.  Prior to leading the Design Center, Dr. Vasquez was the Program Manager at Hughes Space and Communications for the Thuraya satellite program, the backbone for the first successful commercial satellite-based mobile communication system in the world.

Dr. Vasquez earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a Masters and Ph.D. degree in Engineering from Stanford University, and a Masters of Business Administration from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

 

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.

Previously he was the Head of Machine Learning, WW Tech Leader, for AWS AI/ML Specialist Solution Architects . As Chief Principal AI/ML Architect he defined technical strategy for AI/ML Services, Leading the Technology Sector for SaaS, Software, ISVs and Internet-- AWS largest customer segment-- he created solutions that span multiple scenarios into reference architectures and patterns. Also Ali led a specialized research team of Applied Scientists, engineers and product managers for cutting edge prototyping in AI focusing on Neuro Machine interaction, NLP and Graph Neural Networks.

From 1998-2018, Ali was IBM CTO Analytics & Machine Learning & IBM Distinguished Engineer, 

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.

 

 

Alan Saporta is a seasoned executive who has held technology leadership positions at Walt Disney Studios, Charles Schwab, Deluxe Entertainment, IBM and is currently Vice President of Engineering at HM Electronics in San Diego. HME is a diverse group of companies that designs, manufactures, sells and services specialized communications, audio and software solutions for a variety of niche markets. Over his career Alan has delivered disruptive innovation in the media and entertainment, financial services and software industries. He has been an Agile practitioner and champion since 2007 and a member of the LA CTO Forum since 2018. In addition to delivering great products to market, Alan is passionate about mentoring and chocolate.

 

 

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
authored or co-authored more than 200 technical papers and holds more than 30 patents.
Dr. Chow served as the Director of the Microelectronics Laboratory at HRL from 2005 to
2017. During that time, the Microelectronics Laboratory developed state-of-the-art GaN
MMIC and power transistor technologies, heterogeneous integration technologies, mixed signal
integrated circuits, and millimeter-wave subsystems.

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.

 

Dr. Arupjyoti (Arup) is the Technical Director of the Wireless Security Institute in the Idaho National Laboratory. The focus of his research is on secure implementation of future generations of wireless communications with scientific exploration and engineering innovations across the fields of wireless technology, cybersecurity, and computational science. Specific goals are to lead and focus wireless security research efforts for 5G and Beyond with national impact, to secure communications for a nationwide unmanned aerial system and for 5G spectrum sharing with distributed scheduling. Arup has extensive industry experience in wireless communications from his work before he joined INL in October, 2015. He received his Ph.D. in Engineering and Applied Sciences from Yale University. He is a senior member of IEEE.

Experienced Engineering leader with a demonstrated history of working in the internet industry. Strong information technology professional skilled in Platform Architecture, Mobile Applications, Mobile Platforms, Management, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Current focus on Scaling (team/culture/process).

 

IQ-Analog is the sole supplier of a new class of antenna processor unit (APU) microchips for advanced radar, communications and electronic warfare systems. IQ-Analog's technology enables direct digital processing of radio signals with >10X the performance of commercial alternatives. The core technology was initially validated for DARPA and is now in use within Lockheed Martin's latest defense radar systems and NXP's latest 5G infrastructure systems. The company is currently transitioning from deep-tech R&D to standard semiconductor products.

 

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.

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.

Shasha’s reason for being (ikagai), is: We can and should do better to leverage the power of data for better health for all. His Brownian path from intrapreneurship, leading big data initiatives at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and advancing drug development through modeling and simulation at Roche, Genentech, and Amgen, to entrepreneurship as co-founder and CEO of Level 42 AI, Inc is aimed to unleash the full power of data, data science, and technological innovation to help underserved communities leap-frog inequities.  Shasha is an established health care and drug development problem solver. Shasha holds a double major in Chemistry and Physics (Macalester College), and postgraduate degrees in Biomedical Engineering & Biomedical Sciences from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Albany Medical College, NY.  His previous industry appointments include Amgen Inc and Genentech Inc, and Roche Group. Shasha has also served as a consultant to industry and non-profit organizations, specializing in Infectious Disease, Immunology, BioOncology, Virology, disease modeling, and health care reform through technology transfer.  Most recently, he coinceived of and led the Healthy Birth, Growth and Development knowledge integration (HBGDki) initiative at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and was advanced analytics lead of the data interoperability initiative in Alzheimer’s Disease for Gates Ventures. Shasha is recognized thought leader on inter-disciplinary requirements for solving remaining tough ecosystems-of-systems problems and the challenge of small data issues in big data science challenges of global health. Shasha is a mentor and active member of the social impact leaders movement and has recently been appointed to the inaugural cohort of Accelerating Black Leadership and Entrepreneurship (ABLE) at Santa Clara University, CA.

 

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.

BS in Computer Science from UNC-Chapel Hill 2002

Masters in Computer Science (Communications Networks) from UC-San Diego 2004

10 years at Amazon across various teams including Ordering, Fulfillment by Amazon, and Messaging Middleware for FireOS.

7 years at Facebook across Video and Voice Chat and Messaging Infrastructure.

 

Dr. Sandrine Miller-Montgomery, Pharm.D., Ph.D. is the President and CEO of Micronoma, a cancer diagnostics company, out of UC San Diego using the power of Microbiome in blood for solid tumor early detection. Prior to this, she was executive director of the UC San Diego Center for Microbiome Innovation (CMI) that she co-led with Dr. Rob Knight. There, she established a world-class team focused on expanding industry and academic collaborations in the field of microbiome research. Before this 3-year detour in academia, she had focused her career in industry and had worked in large biotech and multinational companies as well as start-ups. She has assumed different responsibilities from R&D Director to Sales and Marketing position. She seems to excel at setting up companies for successful exits as shown by her work at Helixis, acquired by Illumina or MO BIO Labs acquired by QIAGEN.

Erez Nir is Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Mitchell International. In his role Erez oversees corporate IT functions (engineering, operations, business systems, and support services) as well as Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Reporting, and IT Enterprise Services across Mitchell's three primary business unitsAuto Physical Damage, Auto Casualty Solutions and Workers' Compensation Solutions. Erez previously served as Mitchell's Senior Vice President of Technology. In this role he defined Mitchell's technology vision and underlying roadmap to meet the challenges of the company's customers and its business partners. Before joining Mitchell, Erez served as Vice President of Product Management and Marketing of Mobilitec Inc., and Vice President of Information Engineering for San Diego-based Wingcast, a Ford and Qualcomm joint venture. Early in his career he worked at Motorola and Nice Systems Ltd. in a variety of engineering, operations, and general management positions. Erez holds a BSc in Computer Science from the Technion, Israel's Institute of Technology, and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Chad Shaffer is a Director of Software Engineering at MyCase. MyCase provides legal practice and case management cloud-based software solutions. Their headquarters is in San Diego, but they also have teams in Santa Barbara, Newport Beach, Chicago, and Toronto. Chad leads five teams in San Diego, helping engineers grow their careers while delighting customers by solving their critical problems with best-in-class software solutions. He has a Masters in Computer Science from San Diego State University as well as a Bachelors in Computer Engineering from Cal Poly Pomona. He came to San Diego in 2007 to work for BAE Systems and later worked at Qualcomm’s Office of the Chief Scientist before joining MyCase in 2012.

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.  

 

Ms. Carly Jackson serves the Naval Information Warfare Systems Command (NAVWAR) Enterprise in several roles. She is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO); National Competency Lead for Science and Technology; and Head of the Cyber and Science and Technology Department at the Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Pacific in San Diego, California. She leads a highly technical team of more than 900 scientists, engineers, technical specialists, and administrative staff executing an annual budget of over $540M and influencing over $800M of research, development, test and evaluation in the command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR), cyber, and space domains. Her team’s research efforts are principally focused in the areas of electromagnetic and antenna modeling, design and testing; cryogenics; energy and environmental sciences; information operations, electronic warfare, cyber engineering and integration and cybersecurity. Ms. Jackson joined the Federal service in March of 2009 as a systems engineer and lead for a variety of research and development projects focused on C4ISR integration of unmanned maritime systems at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SSC Pacific) Pacific. From 2010 to 2015, she served as head of Advanced Concepts branches within the Maritime Surveillance Division and then the Information Operations Division, both at SSC Pacific. In February 2015, she was selected for a rotational position at the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, Test and Evaluation in Washington, D.C. In August 2016, Ms. Jackson became the first Senior Scientific Technical Manager responsible for rapid prototyping of information warfare capabilities across the Naval Research and Development Establishment. Ms. Jackson was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in July 2019. Ms. Jackson holds a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles, as well as a Master of Arts degree in Business Administration from Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School. She was awarded the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award in 2017 and numerous team awards including the Navy Agility and Accountability Award in 2019, a Navy Command Innovation Excellence Award in 2017, and SSC Pacific and NAVSEA Team Achievement Awards in 2013. She is DAWIA STM Level III, SPRDE-SE Level III, and Program Management Level II certified.

Srinivas Subramanian is an experienced vice president of Nordson Corporation, a leading global technology company, with a demonstrated history of working in the electrical and electronic manufacturing industry. He demonstrates strong sales professional and is skilled in Research and Development (R&D), Process Optimization, Process Engineering, Strategic Planning, and Business Development.

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.

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. 

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.

Damon Valenzona is the Chief Technology 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. 

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.

Over 17 years of US and international experience in systems engineering and project management of large scale integration projects on US Navy contracts with Raytheon Technologies.

Fern started his career as a Credit Analyst at Arab Bank PLC. He went on to be the founder and CEO of Miramar Capital in Singapore, an investment holding company. Today, together with his wife, he owns and manages Rescue Critters, a business that manufactures animal training solutions for the veterinary science industry. Rescue Critters® was established in 1998. The inspiration to develop alternatives came from the realization that live animals were being practiced on to teach pet first aid. Subsequently, it led to the development of animal training mannikins catered to the veterinary profession.
From its simple beginning, Rescue Critters® expanded its range of products to address the needs of the military and Search & Rescue groups. Today, the company also develops products for middle and high school students. Keeping our sight focused on the welfare of animals, we hope to continue to work closely with different organizations in developing clever solutions to complement their teaching and training programs

Currently leading an organization comprised of 3 teams with 24 people. Responsible for key
parts of Amazons PrimeNow and Fresh businesses. I direct the product roadmap, software
development, and operational excellence for these teams. We own systems that handle 250k+
TPS in sub-millisecond latency with 99% uptime and 24/7 engineering support.

 

Arvind Sujeeth is VP of Engineering, Compilers at SambaNova Systems. Arvind leads the compiler organization and is responsible for shaping the company’s software vision. Before joining SambaNova Systems, Arvind was the co-founder and chief technology officer of fintech startup mines.io, which used machine learning to increase financial access in emerging markets. Prior to that, he was a research assistant at Stanford University where he developed compilers for parallel and heterogeneous computing platforms. Arvind holds a PhD and MS in electrical engineering from Stanford University and a BS in computer engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

Currently leading an organization comprised of 3 teams with 24 people. Responsible for key
parts of Amazons PrimeNow and Fresh businesses. I direct the product roadmap, software
development, and operational excellence for these teams. We own systems that handle 250k+
TPS in sub-millisecond latency with 99% uptime and 24/7 engineering support.

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.

Gary has been developing software for 34 years, starting with the development of a bulletin board system on a TRS-80 Model IV computer in the old days of modems and floppy drives; yes, he feels old when it's phrased that way. After earning his Bachelors in Computer Science at the University of South Florida, he worked at IBM, developing the first SCSI based RAID subsystem for the RS/6000 product line, and at Dell Computers, helping launch their Enterprise Business Division's first Storage Area Network. Later, he left the corporate world to be involved with several startups, including StorageApps, which was bought by HP for $350 million. Currently, Gary is a Vice President of Engineering at Sony, exploring new product areas such as the Internet of Things, as well as leading the development of several Xperia android and Play Memories web applications.

 

As President and Founding Partner of Southern California Design Company, Travis leads a talented team of designers, engineers, and marketers to develop new products, as well as create and grow brands for clients in California, and around the world.  SC Design Co. has also launched several product companies of its own, including Indi Golf Equipment, Railias Sports Systems, ReCrate Beverage Solutions, Hiline Cycling Components, and a few more that are nearly ready for introduction to the world.  Travis is a supporter of the Jacobs School and Triton Athletics scholarship programs, a fan of all Triton teams, and is training to lower his personal best time at the next Triton 5K.

James Williams is currently the Senior Director of Technology Research and 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.

Manoj with overall 27+ years of IT experience has been in Thermo Fisher Scientific for close to 24 years. During this time he has successfully managed almost all departments within IT ranging from R&D Software, Data Center management to Customer Relationship management taking on increasing responsibilities. Currently he is a Vice President IT COO and manages the IT Operations within Information Technologies. In this role, Manoj is responsible for architecture, roadmaps, strategy and delivering, enhancing, integrating, maintaining global business applications and infrastructure. Before Joining Thermo Fisher Scientific, Manoj worked for Sybase Corporation as a technical lead supporting key Sybase Wall Street customers. Manoj holds a masters in computer applications from University of Kerala, India (Gold medalist) and a bachelors degree in computer science from Delhi University.

 

Nik Devereaux is an Engineering Director 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.

Mr. Truong has over 25 years of experience in the software industry as an engineer and a strategic leader. Prior joining Vingroup, he has been a senior leader at Microsoft since 2007. He has experience leading teams to improve enterprise productivity and customer values, bringing the best of technologies together to make bigger business impacts. He is passionate about creating new ventures, innovating product lines and services, and building motivated teams to lead them to wonderful accomplishments. His specialties include engineering and business operations leadership; strategy and large-scale corporate management; advanced technology product development.

 

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. 

Dr. Carl Kirkconnell is the Founder and President of West Coast Solutions, an R&D, engineering services, and prototyping company located in Huntington Beach, CA, primarily focused on aerospace, defense, and medical applications.  The Core Technologies at WCS are Cryogenics, Space Electronics, and Expeditionary Power.  Carl founded West Coast Solutions in 2015, and his team is made up of many of the same people he collaborated with during his 25 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, where as a graduate student he founded the GT Cryogenics Laboratory (GTCL), where he remains active as a collaborating researcher to this day.

 

Jeff Carmichael’s engineering leadership spans over 20 years and encompasses networking, security and OLTP systems. Prior to joining XIFIN, Jeff led worldwide software development for the network and security division of LSI Corp. He has held senior level leadership positions at several successful startups, and divisional leadership positions at Intel, and at Perot Systems where he architected transaction processing systems for hotel and car rental reservations. Jeff holds a B.A. in Mathematics from San Jose State University.