Alumni

Can Silicon Valley bring back U.S. manufacturing?

10/22/12 San Jose Mercury News — In a Mercury News op-ed, Marvell executive and computer science alumna Weili Dai calls for a resurgence of U.S. manufacturing. “Silicon Valley has the know-how, track record and brain trust to lead the way,” says Dai. “For example, UC Berkeley and other fine universities already graduate some of the world's top semiconductor manufacturing experts.”

Alumni and corporate partners say thank you to Berkeley

10/16/12 Graduate Division — VMware could have honored software architect Michael Nelson (B.A'83 CS, Ph.D'88 EECS) with a gold watch and a handshake for his groundbreaking contributions to cloud technology. Instead, the firm endowed an $800,000 fellowship at Berkeley. In all, the Graduate Fellowships Matching Program has set up more than 60 funds campuswide – 13 of them in the College of Engineering alone.

Barbara Simons discusses electronic voting on Charlie Rose

10/10/12 Charlie Rose — In an interview with TV journalist Charlie Rose, computer science alumna Barbara Simons (Ph.D., 1981) discusses her new book on electronic voting, Broken Ballots: Will Your Vote Count? In 2005, Simons became the first woman to receive the college's Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award.

C.D. (Dan) Mote Jr. nominated to be next National Academy of Engineering president

09/12/12 National Academy of Engineering — The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) 2013 nominating committee has unanimously recommended C.D. (Dan) Mote Jr. to stand as the sole candidate for the NAE presidency. Mote received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Berkeley, where he served on the faculty for 31 years and held positions as chair of the department of mechanical engineering, president of the UC Berkeley Foundation, and vice chancellor.

UC Berkeley leads nation in tech CEO graduates

07/05/12 Network World — The University of California at Berkeley is the number one university for producing U.S. tech industry CEOs. Graduates include Paul Jacobs, CEO and chairman of Qualcomm, who holds three degrees from Berkeley: bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering. Another graduate of Berkeley is Paul Otellini, CEO and president of Intel, who holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business, as does Shantanu Narayan, CEO and president of Adobe.

Hats off to 2012 graduates

05/17/12 — The world is now wealthier by well over 1,300 newly minted Berkeley Engineers–a proud moment we celebrated on Saturday, May 12 with the college's 143rd commencement exercises in the Greek Theatre. In the morning, we saluted our master's and doctoral candidates, including the first cohort to graduate from the college's new professional master of engineering program. Commencement speaker Thomas Siebel, chairman of First Virtual Group, reminded graduates that “luck, they say, is where preparation meets opportunity. Be ready. Luck happens.” In our baccalaureate ceremony that afternoon, Marvell co-founder Weili Dai (B.S'84 CS) encouraged the graduates with her own story. Watch a slideshow of the festive events.

Floating robots provide insight into Delta waters

05/15/12 ABC News — UC Berkeley engineering researchers have developed floating robots that may help California in a number of scenarios. The sensors are equipped with GPS receivers and cellphone technology that provide data showing their exact movements in the waterway in real time. They can also deliver information on pollution, salinity and other variables. "The goal here is to be able to show the currents on a scale that was previously unknown, so we can understand better how the Delta works," UC Berkeley electrical engineer Alex Bayen said.

Weili Dai’s commencement address to Berkeley Engineering students

05/14/12 San Francisco Chronicle — Entrepreneur Weili Dai, the co-founder of Marvell Technology Group Ltd. and Berkeley Engineering alumna, may be the first woman to deliver the commencement address to a UC Berkeley College of Engineering graduating class. This commentary is excerpted from the speech she gave to the Class of 2012 on Saturday, May 12

Berkeley Engineering alum Ilesanmi Adesida chosen as University of Illinois provost

05/09/12 Illinois News-Gazette — The University of Illinois has chosen a noted nanotechnology scholar as its next provost. Ilesanmi "Ade" Adesida, dean of the UI's College of Engineering, is expected to assume the post on August 16. Born in Nigeria, Adesida has made the UI campus his home for 25 years. He earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering from UC Berkeley.

Morgan Stanley’s Grimes is where money and tech meet

05/08/12 The New York Times — Berkeley Engineering alum Michael Grimes (B.S.'87 EECS), the head of Morgan Stanley's Menlo Park office, has become Silicon Valley's banker of choice for initial public offerings, and his firm is the lead underwriter of Facebook's IPO. "He was known as the whip-smart Cal Berkeley engineer who really understood technology," said Mary Meeker, who worked with Mr. Grimes at Morgan Stanley. "He's very creative and goes to meetings with the mind-set that the team needs to earn and re-earn the client's confidence at every turn."

Farewell

05/02/12 — Obituaries for Berkeley Engineering faculty and alumni

Alumni notes

05/01/12 — News and photos of Berkeley Engineering alumni from decades past.

Hats off

05/01/12 — Marvell co-founder Weili Dai (B.S'84 CS) delivered the commencement speech to the college's baccalaureate graduates at the Greek Theater on May 12, 2012.

Seeds of social change

05/01/12 — Kushal Chakrabarti (B.S'04 EECS) founded Vittana, a start-up that helps students from low-income or poverty-stricken homes around the world get an education.

Comments

05/01/12 — Friends, followers and readers: Thank you for posting your comments online. Here is a recent sampling: Re: “Berkeley gears up for new era of enterprise with SkyDeck incubator,” Berkeley NewsCenter Wish we’d had something like this when we were at Cal. Hope to see more resources for entrepreneurs as time goes on. —Eva M., via […]

Innovation agents: Marvell Technology Group’s Weili Dai, semiconductor pioneer

04/23/12 Fast Company — If there's such a thing as geekdom, Berkeley Engineering alumna Weili Dai, cofounder of Marvell Technology Group, would be queen. As the only female cofounder of a global semiconductor company, Dai built an empire out of those little silicon chips. From humble beginnings in 1995, Dai now presides over an organization that employs 6,000 worldwide and has annual revenues in excess of $3.3 billion. This May, Weili Dai will be the first woman commencement speaker at the College of Engineering, as her son graduates.

Introducing the Kuh Distinguished Lecture Series

04/17/12 — I recently had the honor of introducing a new annual lecture series to the college community. Thanks to a generous gift from Professor Emeritus Ernest Kuh and his wife, Bettine, we now have the opportunity to hear from the world's most creative and inspiring scientists and engineers tackling our most pressing problems.

High-tech titans: Gordon Moore and Andy Grove

04/06/12 National Public Radio — In a rare joint interview, Intel legends Gordon Moore (B.S. '50, Chemistry) and Andy Grove (Ph.D. '63, ChemE) discuss how their company has thrived over the decades and what they think of the current crop of Silicon Valley techies.

Weili Dai named one of “150 Women Who Shake the World”

03/06/12 The Daily Beast — Weili Dai, Berkeley Engineering alumna (B.S. '84 CS) and co-founder of Marvell Technology Group, has been honored by Newsweek as one of "150 Women Who Shake the World." With her background in computer science and software development, Dai founded Marvell with her husband and his brother in 1995. Today the microchip maker's revenue tops $3 billion annually. Dai is one of the only women to head a top-500 tech company and is a prime example of a leader with an environmental conscience.

Marvell CEO Dr. Sehat Sutardja honored with UC Berkeley Outstanding Alumnus Award in Electrical Engineering

02/24/12 Wall Street Journal Market Watch — Marvell co-founder, chairman, president and CEO, Dr. Sehat Sutardja, has been named the recipient of UC Berkeley's Outstanding Alumnus Award in Electrical Engineering. The award presentation took place during the Berkeley Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Annual Research Symposium 2012. "Through his engineering achievements, activism and support, Dr. Sehat Sutardja has made invaluable contributions to UC Berkeley and to the field of electrical engineering," said Professor S. Shankar Sastry, Dean of the College of Engineering. Dr. Sutardja received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from UC Berkeley.