"Reflections on Innovation Ecosystems: My Journey from Theory Research to 26 Billion USD" by Prof Alberto Sangiovanni Vincentelli from the University of California, Berkeley

I have had the fortune to experience several industrial ecosystems over my many years of work as a researcher and an entrepreneur of sort. I landed in Berkeley after experiencing the education and University system in Italy, as a “theory” researcher. The Silicon Valley ecosystem presented me with the opportunity of working with companies and of proliferating my ideas there, until Richard Newton (a colleague at UC Berkeley) and I co-founded in the 80s two companies who are now the leaders in Electronic Design Automation (Cadence and Synopsys). These companies are still alive and well and enjoy an overall market cap of more than 23 Billion USD. Following this experience, I helped founding other companies in US and Europe and I extended my work into the Venture Capital Community. I also entered in contact with Singapore and several European countries to help in their innovation initiatives. Recently, I intensified my interaction in Singapore as co-PI of CREATE SinBerBEST, where I have had the chance of observing closely its innovation ecosystem. In this talk, I will describe my experiences in the different industrial ecosystems and which role University and industrial research, start-ups, established companies, and venture capital play in them. I will conclude with some considerations on how to make the Singapore entrepreneurial and University fabric even more effective than it is today.

About the speaker

Prof Alberto Sangiovanni Vincentelli holds the Edgar L. and Harold H. Buttner Chair at the Department of EECS, University of California, Berkeley. He is member of the Advisory Board of the Lester Center for Innovation of the Haas School of Business and of the Berkeley Roundtable of the International Economy (BRIE), and is Honorary Professor at Politecnico di Torino. He is an IEEE and an ACM Fellow, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Recipient of the Kaufman Award of the Electronic Design Automation Council for “pioneering contributions to EDA” and of the IEEE/RSE Maxwell Medal “for groundbreaking contributions that have had an exceptional impact on the development of electronics and electrical engineering or related fields”. He authored over 950 papers and 17 books. He has co-founded enterprises in US and Europe including Cadence and Synopsys, the two largest Electronic Design Automation companies. He has advised Intel, IBM, HP, General Motors, ATT, GE, Kawasaki Steel, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Mercedes Benz, BMW, Magneti Marelli, Pirelli, Telecom Italia, and sits on the Board of Directors of Cadence, KPIT Technologies, Sonics, Expert System and Cogisen. He is the Chairman of the Board of UltraSoC, and Expert System USA.