Ikhlaq Sidhu

Ikhlaq Sidhu is the Chief Scientist and Founding Director of UC Berkeley’s Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology. He received the IEOR Emerging Area Professor Award from his department at Berkeley. Prof. Sidhu founded the Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership. He serves as the faculty director of the Engineering Leadership Professional Program (ELPP). His research areas include systems and stochastic models, strategic data analytics, and learning models. He has been granted over 60 US Patents in networking technology, IP telephony, communications, and mobile computing. He was awarded 3Com Corporation’s “Inventor of the Year” in 1999. Dr. Sidhu also serves as a Venture Advisor at Onset Ventures, a leading Silicon Valley investment firm.

Dr. Sidhu received his bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and his masters’ degree and doctorate in Electrical Engineering from Northwestern University.

Positions and Appointments

• Chief Scientist and Founding Director, Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology, College of Engineering, University of California, Berkeley (since 1/2005)
• Honorary / Visiting: Chair Professor in Computer Science and Physics (joint appointment), Hong Kong Baptist University, through 2018
• Honorary /Visiting: Professor, University of Melbourne, Australia for 2017
• New Venture Affiliation: Venture Dojo, Advisor/founder, 2016
• Faculty Committee for Lawrence Hall of Science, UC Berkeley since 2016
• Board of Trustees of the Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar, since 2016
• Faculty Director’s Council, Jacob’s Institute of Design, UC Berkeley since 2015
• New Venture Affiliation: InnoQuant, Advisor/founder, 2015
• Venture Advisor: For Onset Ventures, 3/2012-11/2018. For X-Fund, since 2017
• Fellow, Applied Innovation Institute, since 7/ 2012 (501.3c)
• Founding Chief Scientist, Coleman Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership, University of California Berkeley (1/2010-4/2014)
• Faculty positions in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, the University of California Berkeley since 2005. Appointed as Adjunct Full Professor in May 2005. Awarded “2009 Emerging Area Professor” May 2009, recognition title.
• New Venture Affiliation: Founder, Innovation Engineering, Advisory Practice, 2010.
• Co-chair, Management of Technology Program, University of California Berkeley, 2008-9.
• Visiting Associate Professor, General Engineering and Director of the Technology Entrepreneur Center, University of Illinois (2002-2004)
• Chief Technical Officer and Vice President, Cambia Networks Inc., (1/2001-4/2002)
• Director – Vice President, 3Com Corporation / U.S. Robotics Internet Communications Business (1995-2001)
• Director, Advanced Technologies Research Center, US Robotics / 3Com Corporation (1995-1998)
• Hardware Engineer, Hewlett Packard, (1989-1991)

Selected Activities or Honors

• 2018 IEEE Major Innovation Award, Education Category, Awarded in Vancouver Canada, November 2018.
• By 2017: Per the major accomplishments of the College of Engineering, 2007-2017, have contributed directly to 4 of 8 of the top achievements (Professional Master’s Degrees, Fostering Entrepreneurship and New Ventures, Management Entrepreneurship & Technology (M.E.T.) Program, and Engineering Leadership Through Executive Education). See https://engineering.berkeley.edu/2017/10/achievements-innovations
• 2017 Initiated new lab areas in Blockchain, Data-In-Action, and Alt.Meat funded. Along with global and executive program growth ($1.7M/year).
• 2017 Fundamentally changed education on the Berkeley campus to include entrepreneurship behaviors, and continue to empower students to change the world. Provide intellectual leadership while running a globally recognized program, unique from programs at MIT, Stanford, and other leading institutions.
• 2017 Initiated a $1M per year, 5-year collaboration with SRM in India and UC Berkeley in Entrepreneurship and Design
• 2017 Launched the Silicon Valley Innovation Leadership Week program at Berkeley
• 2017 Led the launch a new campus-wide initiative BEGIN to better coordinate entrepreneurship resources on campus.
• 2016 Awarded $2.2M Grant for AB2664 State of California Infrastructure for Entrepreneurship & Innovation Grant. (which created BEGIN.berkeley.edu and supports and connects top E-ship programs across the campus.
• 2016 Developed the Data-X framework in 2016, a globally recognized framework for Digital Transformation with Data, AI, Blockchain coupled with strategy and innovation leadership, which forms the foundation of Applied Data Sciences with Venture Applications in IEOR, a highly applied design/maker/holistic viewpoint on data science. Data-X is also the basis for short master classes and executive programs.
• Endowment of the Pantas and Ting Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology based on the development of the Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship (for students) and the Berkeley Method of Innovation Leadership (for firms).
• Best Paper Presentation, ICE TEMS IEEE Conference in Technology Management, Belfast Ireland, June 2015
• Senior personnel: NSF I-Corps Bay Area Node Grant, 2013, with Rich Lyons, Steve Blank, Dave Charron, Jerry Engel, Rita Katila, Eric Lium, & Andre Marquis ($3.75M)
• Co-developed, and codified the Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship, a holistic method of teaching and promoting Entrepreneurship including tactics, mindset, and infrastructure. 2012-2014
• 2011 Created the Engineering Leadership professional program for rising-star, senior-level, engineering leaders in Silicon Valley, an incredibly successful program. Top firms such as Samsung, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Cisco, Network Appliances, VMware, Lam Research, Qualcomm, and Applied Materials send their high-level engineering leaders to this Berkeley program for skill development.
• 2010: Developed and proposed the T-Model curriculum structure of the Master’s of Engineering (M. Eng.) degree and founded the Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership.
• 2009 IEOR Chair’s Emerging Area Professor Award, U.C. Berkeley. For playing a prominent role in developing a research and teaching presence in an area of emerging importance to the profession — Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
• 2008-2014: Established the leading Engineering Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Technology Innovation programs at U.C.Berkeley and internationally recognized partner institutions. Developed thought leadership, curricula, programs and research agenda. Raised over $20M of external support.
• 2008: Open the Venture Lab, an incubator for student start-ups. The Venture Lab offers guidance and mentoring to Cal students on how to take an idea to market, later to transform into SkyDeck.
• Proposal Author/ Founder, Coleman Fung Institute ($15M), 2009-2010
• Proposal Author and Founding Co-Chair, Tsinghua Global Technology Entrepreneurship Program ($1.5M), 2008
• Proposal Author / PI 2007-2012, Kauffman Foundation Grant ($1.1M)
• 2003-2005: Launched Technology Entrepreneurship Center at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
• 2001-2003: Guided top-tier VC-funded company to become a high-profile source of leading-edge wireless technology as CTO.
• 1999 Created and headed the advanced technology development program and spin out businesses for a $1B networking business.
• 3Com Corporation’s Inventor of the year for 1999-2000.
• 61 U.S. Patents granted as of 2010.
• Awarded Silver, Inventor, U.S. Robotics, 1998, 1999
• Awarded Gold, Platinum Inventor, 3Com Corporation 1999, personally filed approximately 10% of 3Com’s claimed intellectual property as of 2001

Research and Project Interests:

Topics include engineering leadership, entrepreneurship, technology strategy, technology business models, quantitive technologies, and algorithms to solve business problems and improve firm operations. Recent project areas include “Quant” strategies for financial investment, new algorithms for business operations, machine learning applications, electric vehicle networks, and leadership issues in managing large data sets.