Electrical and Computer Engineering

CMU ECE ‘90, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Joy Whittington Bretthauer is an ECE ’90 graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and former Spirit buggy driver. Ms. Bretthauer is currently a Mission Manager in the Explorers Program Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and is responsible for oversight of programmatic, cost, schedule, and technical management.

Technical Lead, Silicon Product Development
Google Cloud

Dennis Ciplickas is currently at Google Cloud creating new generations of hyperscale technology to make the world's information universally accessible and useful.  Prior to joining Google, Dennis spent 25 years at PDF Solutions holding a variety of engineering and executive leadership roles in hardware, software and consulting, innovating creative solutions for electrical characterization, yield improvement, and machine learning for semiconductor manufacturing.  He has authored, published and presented more than 50 conference papers, invited talks, panels, tutorials, and journal articles  and granted more than 100 patents with 18 in these areas, with the rest focused on techniques for E-beam fault detection in semiconductor devices.
 
Dennis received his B.S. (1991) in Electrical Engineering from University of Notre Dame and his M.S. (1992) and Ph.D. (1996) in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

IBM Fellow, MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab
IBM Corporation

John Cohn is an IBM Fellow in the MIT-IBM Watson AI Research Group based in Cambridge, MA. John earned a BSEE from MIT (’81) and a Ph.D. in computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University (‘91). John has authored more than 30 technical papers, contributed to four books and has ~120 worldwide patents. In 2005, John was elected a Fellow of the IEEE. John is active in education issues at a local, state, and national levels. In 2019, John was awarded the IEEE CAS John Choma Education award for his efforts at STEM promotion. He is so passionate about promoting STEM careers that he spent 59 days living and inventing in an abandoned steel mill as part of Discovery Channel's technical survival show "The Colony". John lives with his family in a restored 19th-century schoolhouse in Jonesville Vermont and is eager to share his love of science and technology with anyone who will listen.

President, Transmute, Inc.

Kim Hailey founded Transmute in 2011 to explore proton beam lithography where he has 6 patents. He co-founded Pixelcam in 1998 to manufacture megapixel camera sensors then sold the company to Zoran in 2000. Together with Shawn Hailey, he founded Meta-Software in 1979 which developed the Hspice circuit simulator. After the 1995 IPO, Meta merged with Avant! in 1996  and now is part of Synopsys. In 1978 he developed the test program for Data General’s microEclipse microprocessor and probed the first silicon.  He assisted with the design and test of the 9080 microprocessor for AMD in 1974. This microprocessor started the battle between Intel and AMD. Kim’s first job was microprocessor architect for General Instrument in 1972. Kim holds a B.S. in chemistry from Texas Tech University.

Chairman
Mural Ventures

Alex Hawkinson is an experienced technology entrepreneur, business executive, and thought leader. Having founded and operated multiple companies, Hawkinson has an extensive track record of more than 20 years building innovative products and businesses at all stages of scale. He has been called “the godfather of IoT” and has deep expertise spanning IoT, AI, SaaS / cloud-based software, and mobile applications in both consumer and enterprise. Most recently, Hawkinson was the founder and CEO of SmartThings, the largest consumer Internet of Things (IoT) platform in the world. Hawkinson is also an active investor in early-stage technology companies and serves as a director on several boards. A father of three, he is actively engaged with his family and community and enjoys skiing, hiking, travel, and photography. He holds a B.S. in Cognitive Science from Carnegie Mellon University.

Vice President & Chief of Staff to CEO
Arm

Dr. John Heinlein is vice president and chief of staff to the CEO of Arm, Simon Segars. He is responsible for maximizing the bandwidth and effectiveness of the CEO, coordinating executive committee and board meetings, ensuring follow-through, and running special strategic projects, including leading the team responsible for Corporate Sustainability.

Previously, he was vice president of strategic initiatives for the IP Products Group (IPG) at Arm, responsible for seeking and building opportunities for long term growth and monitoring the competitive landscape for threats to Arm’s businesses. Prior to that, he was vice president of corporate marketing and earlier vice president of marketing for the physical IP division (PDG). From 1997 through 2008 he was with Transmeta Corporation where he held numerous senior engineering and business positions. Dr. Heinlein holds a Ph.D. and M.S. from Stanford University, both in electrical engineering, and a B.S. degree in computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. He serves on the board of directors of The Tech in San Jose. Outside of work, he is a former scuba diving instructor and is passionate about snowboarding, endurance sports, food, and travel.

Managing Partner
Pear Ventures

Mar Hershenson is a co-founder and Managing Partner at Pear VC, a seed-stage investment firm in Palo Alto, CA backing companies like Dropbox(NASDAQ: DBX), Guardant Health(NASDAQ: GH), Doordash, Gusto, and Branch. At Pear, Mar works closely with founders to take companies from an idea to defining business. Mar has been recognized in the Midas Brink List of Top Tech Investors in 2015. Mar received her Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 2000 for her breakthrough work in circuit design automation, and taught the Analog Circuit Design course at Stanford for over a decade. She is currently a lecturer in the Engineering School at Stanford teaching entrepreneurship. Mar made her mark as an entrepreneur by co-founding three companies: Barcelona Design, Sabio Labs, and Revel Touch. She ran each company from day one, being deeply involved in all aspects of the business, including product definition and development, business strategy, sales, recruiting, and financing. Post the acquisition of Sabio labs, Mar served as VP of Product Development for Magma Design Automation's Mixed Signal division. Mar has received many awards throughout her career. Among them, the renown T35 Young Innovator Award by MIT (for her technical work), and the prestigious Marie R. Pistilli Women in EDA Achievement Award in 2010. Mar served on the board of Palo Alto Community Child Care. Mar is also a founding member of All Raise and the Equity Summit.

CEO
Viavi Solutions, Inc.

Oleg Khaykin is the President and CEO of Viavi Solutions, Inc. He joined Viavi in February of 2016. Prior to joining Viavi, Oleg was a Senior Advisor at Silver Lake Partners, starting in February of 2015. Prior to that, he was the President and CEO of International Rectifier (NYSE: IRF), a world leader in power management technology, since March 2008. During his tenure, he successfully turned around the company and transformed it into the world leader in power semiconductors. In January of 2015, the company was acquired by Infineon Technology AG.

From May 2003 to February 2008, Mr. Khaykin was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer with Amkor Technology (NASDAQ: AMKR), a leading provider of semiconductor assembly and test services. As COO, he was responsible for all aspects of sales, marketing, R&D, and manufacturing operations.

Between 1999 and 2003, Oleg was with Conexant Systems/Mindspeed Technologies, where he served as Vice President of Strategy & Business Development. His responsibilities included defining Conexant’s strategy and managing business development activities, including M&A, divestitures/spin-offs, equity investments and strategic alliances.

Prior to Conexant, Mr. Khaykin spent eight years with The Boston Consulting Group, where he worked with leading European and North American companies in the high tech, biotechnology, automotive, and aerospace industries. Before that, he was a systems engineer with Motorola’s wireless infrastructure group. Oleg is also currently serving on the Board of Directors of Marvell Semiconductors and Avnet. Past independent Board memberships include Newport Corporation and Zarlink Semiconductors. Mr. Khaykin holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a B.S. in electrical engineering (BSEE) with High University Honors from Carnegie Mellon University.

Vice President, Products and Solutions, Director, and Co-Founder
PDF Solutions

Dr. Kimon Michaels one of the founders of PDF Solutions, has served as Vice President, Products and Solutions since July 2010 and has been a Director since November 1995. Dr. Michaels served as Vice President, Design for Manufacturability from June 2007 through June 2010. Prior to that, Dr. Michaels served as Vice President, Field Operations for Manufacturing Process Solutions from January 2006 through May 2007. From March 1993 through December 2005, he served in various vice presidential capacities. He also served as Chief Financial Officer from November 1995 to July 1998. Dr. Michaels received a B.S. in electrical engineering and an M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy
Dell Technologies

Vivek Mohindra is Dell Technologies’ Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy, working in close partnership with the Offices of the CEO and COO to develop and drive strategies that ensure Dell’s

continued market leadership. Prior to joining the Corporate Strategy Office, Vivek led a business within Dell’s Client Solutions Group, with a focus on modernizing the client product journey and accelerating the aaS businesses.

During his first tenure with Dell (2005-2008), he held key executive roles at the corporate level, in client product group, in marketing and in sales. He returned to Dell in 2020. Vivek’s industry experience includes serving as a Partner in the High-Tech practice of McKinsey & Company where he co-led the global semiconductor practice based in the U.S. and South Korea, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Transformation at Freescale Semiconductor working on its turnaround after privatization and a successful IPO, Operating Group Partner at TPG Capital working with the Tech buyouts team and portfolio companies, and Partner at New Science Ventures making venture investments in Tech and Life Sciences sectors.

Vivek has served on the Board of Directors for over 10 public and private companies including GlobalFoundries and CyberOptics. He currently serves on the Advisory Council of Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Vivek received his Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (Roorkee), and his MBA and PhD in Chemical Engineering (in semiconductor processing) concurrently from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

A serial entrepreneur, Drew has been at the forefront of technology innovation for over four decades.

Drew's latest company, Eridu AI, is currently in stealth mode, though the name hints at what we're up to!

Mojo Vision, a company he founded in 2015, invented the future of computing. Invisible Computing. Information when you need it, unobtrusive, without burying your head in a device or screen, connecting with others at a glance, anytime, anywhere, and all while looking like you. The Mojo Lens utilizes Mojo's groundbreaking micro-LED displays, the world's smallest and densest display technology. Mojo is now developing micro-LED displays for use in other AR/VR glasses and goggles, as well as existing products like TVs, monitors, smartphones and smart wearables.

Gainspeed, which Drew founded in 2012, changed the game for cable operators and was acquired by Nokia in the summer of 2016.

Drew co-founded Infinera Corporation in 2001 and served as Infinera's CTO until 2012. Infinera developed the first optical system based on large-scale photonic integrated circuits. Infinera established itself as the technology leader of the worldwide long-haul telecom market and did a successful IPO in 2007.

Before Infinera, Drew was co-founder and CTO of metropolitan telecommunications service provider OnFiber Communications, a startup that brought high-bandwidth fiber-based data services to small and medium-sized businesses in major metro areas nationwide. OnFiber was acquired by Qwest Communications.

In 1998, Drew co-founded Lightera Networks, which developed the CoreDirector optical switching platform. Lightera was acquired by Ciena Corporation for more than $500 million in 1999.

Drew made several important contributions to the early development of the Internet and was lead author of the Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), technology that enabled computers to access the Internet over circuit-switched telephone lines. Drew has held various roles in industry standards bodies and research organizations including the IETF, IEEE, OIF, ATM Forum and Internet2.

Drew's interests outside of work include technology education for the next generation of innovators. He has endowed the Drew D. Perkins Professorship in Advanced Networking and Communications at Carnegie-Mellon University.

Senior Vice President and General Manager, Adaptive and Embedded Computing Group
AMD

Salil Raje is senior vice president and general manager of the Adaptive and Embedded Computing Group at AMD, overseeing all aspects of strategy, business management and operations, business development, and engineering for FPGAs, adaptive SoCs, embedded processors, and custom platforms, with an emphasis on growing AMD’s footprint in Edge AI.

Salil joined AMD in 2022 from Xilinx, where he grew a nascent data center business into one of the company’s fastest-growing segments. Over his 17-year tenure at Xilinx, Salil introduced the Vivado Design Suite of ASIC-class algorithms and user interfaces to FPGA designers. He also developed and launched Vitis, enabling seamless application deployment on AMD’s platform.

Prior to Xilinx, Salil was CEO of Hier Design Inc., which he co-founded in 2001. There, he introduced a hierarchical design and design planning tool, PlanAhead, to the FPGA design community and oversaw Xilinx’s acquisition of Hier Design in 2004. Previously, Salil oversaw silicon virtual prototyping technology at Monterey Design Systems and began his career in High Level Synthesis at IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.

Salil holds a Bachelor of Technology in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and a Master of Science and doctorate in computer science from Northwestern University. He holds eight patents in electronic design tools, ASIC, and FPGA designs, and has written more than 15 industry-recognized research papers. Salil also serves on Carnegie Mellon University’s Electrical and Computing Engineering (ECE) Advisory Council, where he contributes strategic insights to shape educational, research, and outreach activities while helping create opportunities to expand and enhance departmental programs.

CEO and Co-Founder, Mill

Matt Rogers is the CEO and co-founder of Mill, where he has built an entirely new system to prevent waste, starting with food. Mill makes it easy to prevent food waste at home with an innovative new kitchen experience and pathways that keep food out of landfills.

Matt is also the co-founder of Incite.org, a values-based investor that provides catalytic capital and guidance for world positive start-ups, non-profits, and activists. Heeding the call to address the climate crisis, Matt leads Incite.org’s investments in climate solutions as well as nonprofits and advocacy groups advancing climate policy.

Prior to Incite, Matt was the co-founder of Nest, where he built the team that created the first machine learning thermostat and the leading brand for the connected home. Before Nest, Matt earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Carnegie Mellon University.

Founding Limited Partner
Neythri Futures Fund

Archana Sathaye has built a diverse career across industry, academia, and the nonprofit sector. She is the founding limited partner of the Neythri Futures Fund, which supports South Asian female founders and other underrepresented entrepreneurs. Archana is also the retired CEO and founder of Proxmal Systems, Inc., a data-driven platform dedicated to the early detection of mental and physical deterioration in older adults. Earlier in her career, Archana was a principal engineer at Digital Equipment Corporation, where she worked as part of the Advanced Systems Engineering Group.

Currently, Archana serves on the Board of Directors of several esteemed organizations, including the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (the largest charitable foundation in the region with a $14+ billion fund), the Foothill-DeAnza Community Colleges Foundation, the Science Learning Institute, and the Air Systems Foundation Scholarship Council. She was also a former Board member of The Tech, an organization focused on developing the next generation of problem-solvers through immersive STEAM education.

Archana holds a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, along with a master’s degree in Applied Mathematics from Virginia Tech and a master’s in Pure Mathematics from University of Mumbai.

National Technology Officer & Head of Strategy
Microsoft India

As National Technology Officer and Head of Strategy for Microsoft India, Rohini is responsible for leading strategic initiatives to accelerate digital transformation across industries and the government. Her 25-year career includes R&D at AT&T Bell Laboratories in the US as well as strategy consulting at the Boston Consulting Group and IBM Global Business Services, working with clients across India and other emerging markets. Rohini was recently recognized among the top-10 most influential analytics leaders in India in 2019, by the Analytics India Magazine. She earned her Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from UT Austin and holds an MBA from Wharton.