Symposium: Berkeley EECS - From Vision to Impact

Reflections on the History and the Mission

September 21, 2001

Participation by Invitation Only

A Perspective on Berkeley EECS and its Impact by World-leading Industrialists and Berkeley Faculty


Over half a century, the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California at Berkeley has been at the leading edge of research in electro-magnetics, electronics, and information technology. Research at Berkeley has led to revolutionary innovations in semiconductor and MEMS devices, design technology, computer architecture, operating systems and databases, and wired and wireless networking. Berkeley graduates are at the core of today's Information Technology industry. The driving force behind these achievements is a common spirit, often called the "Berkeley Way," that emphasizes risk and impact, and endorses multi-disciplinary collaboration. This approach has also been typical in the interactions between the Department of EECS at Berkeley and industry. At an important time of the evolution of the IT industry, we need to assess in what measure this approach has been successful and whether it can carry for the next half century.

In this symposium, world-leaders from industry, joined by Berkeley faculty, will discuss the impact that the Department of EECS at Berkeley has had, the reasons and the mechanisms that fueled it, and how it can be made stronger in the future.


MORNING: The Berkeley Way--Then and Now

9:00     Welcome and Introduction
            Prof. Shankar Sastry, Chair of EECS, UC Berkeley

9:15     Visions Realized
           Berkeley faculty provide anecdotal background on industry-revolutionizing contributions of EECS.
           Berkeley UNIX, Prof. Sue Graham
           RAID, Prof. Dave Patterson
           Electronic Design Automation, Prof. Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli

10:00    Break

10:15    The Berkeley Research Enterprise: View from the Market Place
            Moderator: Prof. Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli, Vice-Chair, Industrial Relations, EECS, UC Berkeley
            Panelists: Ray Bingham, CEO, Cadence Design Systems
                         Eric Schmidt, Chairman, Google.com
                         Roger Siboni, CEO, Epiphany

Leaders of major companies that have had strong interactions with Berkeley over the years comment on the impact of the Department of EECS at Berkeley, discuss the interaction model that they have experienced and project the role of the university in the future.

11:15    The Berkeley Research Enterprise: Building the Market Place
            Moderator: Prof. Jan Rabaey, Associate Chair, EECS
            Panelists: Jerry Fiddler, Chairman and co-founder, Windriver Systems
                         Surendar Magar, CEO, Comsilica
                         Olivier Sermet, CEO, Softface
                         Donald Lucas

The Department of EECS at Berkeley has been at the core of a large number of successful start-ups in the areas of information technology and semiconductors. This panel brings together executives from "Berkeley initiated" start-ups as well as leaders of the financial community to comment about the differences among universities in fostering and supporting innovation.

12:15    Lunch at the International House

AFTERNOON: The Berkeley Way--Tomorrow

2:00     Laying the Foundations for the New Digital Domain
           Prof. Richard Newton, Dean, College of Engineering, University of California, Berkeley

2:30     Berkeley EECS--Vision in Motion
A snapshot of emerging visions, bound to change the field of information technology and the world in which we live.
                         Organic Electronics--Adding Intelligence to Everyday Objects, Prof. Vivek Subramanian
                         Biomimetic Micro Robots, Prof. Ron Fearing
                         Extreme Networking, Prof. David Culler
                         Building High Productivity Applications on Unreliable Systems, Prof. Kathy Yelick
                         Adaptive Dataflow: The Upcoming Convergence of Queries and Routing, Prof. Joe Hellerstein
                         Improving Mobility: Today, Tomorrow, and the Day After, Prof. Pravin Varaiya

3:30     Break

3:45     The CITRIS Collaborative Initiative
            Moderator: Prof. Richard Newton, Dean, College of Engineering, UC Berkeley
            Panelists: Patrick Scaglia, Hewlett Packard
                         Dan Pitt, Nortel
                         Albert Yu, Intel
                         Jim Demmel, UC Berkeley
                         Uli Ramacher, Infinion
                         Alan Kramer, ST Microelectronics

The Center for Information Technology Research in Support of Society (CITRIS), recently approved by the California legislature, will dramatically impact the Department of EECS, and the College of Engineering in general. As Dean Newton states: "It is about re-engineering engineering." The panel will give its perspective on the opportunities and challenges offered by major initiatives such as CITRIS.

5:30     Reception