Focus oN: Leadership BRown EnGInEERInG PRoFILES

How our Engineering Alumni are creating change through innovative leadership

Leadership can be quiet or loud, but in all cases it transforms the project, people, and institution. We believe that Brown Engineers are uniquely qualified to understand, appreciate, and embrace the many different types of leadership. Engineering provides the scaffolding that bolsters dynamic leadership.

THE BROWN RENAISSANCE ENGINEER SERIES A publication of Brown University’s Division of Engineering

CHARLES H. GIANCARLO ENGINEERING LABORATORIES

PUBLICATION TEAM

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2 Brown Engineering Perspectives on Leadership 3

DEAN’S MESSAGEInspiration for the leadership focus of this issue has many sources. First, in preparation for last fall’s ABET-accreditation visit, Engineering put together a profile of its entering students. Looking at the high SAT Verbal, SAT Math scores of our incoming students, and their high class rank, I was strongly reminded that we are attracting excellent students who have high potential for leadership. Second, as I reflected on the leadership that many of our graduates have shown, I could not help but think that many of our students and our graduates would enjoy reading some of their stories. You may know that last Fall, national Public Radio declared the day after our national Day of Thanksgiving to be a Day of Listening. A day focused on listening to members of earlier generations tell their stories. Just as I have been moved by some of these stories I hope that you will be inspired by the brief stories of some of our graduates that are printed here, and by similar stories that we hope to include in future issues.

More broadly, I want to use this issue to begin engaging our graduates and students in changing the perception of the roles that engineers can play in our society - and need to play if we are to address effectively the complex issues that we face in energy, environment, clean water, health care, climate change, and even the world economy. Engineers today need to be understood, not as merely workers with valuable technical training, but as highly-capable, broadly-prepared people who bring a deep un-derstanding of science, math, and engineering know-how to the solution of problems that challenge our society. Moreover, they understand that these contributions must be made with full appreciation of their econom-ic, environmental, political, and ethical implications. There is little doubt that our society needs engineers who can lead in an increasingly com-petitive, fully-integrated, world economy. Preparing engineers for truly difference-making careers is Brown’s challenge - and its responsibility in view of the high potential of students who choose to study here.

PREPARING LEADERSCurricular opportunities to prepare for leadershipTo prepare for broad leadership roles, engineering programs need to address the full education of their students, in-cluding the liberal arts or general edu-cation component of their programs. At Brown, with our 4-year, 32-course curriculum, it is customary to speak of our 21-course Sc.B. requirement of courses in math, science, and engi-neering as making it difficult for stu-dents to take as many courses in the arts, humanities, and social sciences as they would like. My inclination is to turn the argument around and say that for our engineering students to be able to take 11 Brown University courses in language, literature, history, economics, classics and other areas,

avails them an excellent opportunity for developing perspectives and com-munication skills for leadership. More-over, students can take an additional course in any semester without charge and there is always the option of the 5-year Sc.B./A.B. dual degree program. I welcome your comments on how the Brown Engineering program has been helpful to you in your leadership roles and on ways that we can improve the preparation of our graduates to meet the challenges that face our society.

From the cover: Taken by Engineers Without Borders students volunteering on a project in Peru to design and build a health clinic to the meet the needs of the community.

Edward Clarke Sc.B. ‘45, Ph.D. ‘51

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LIFELONG LEADERSHIPGrowing up in Providence during the Great Depression, Ed Clarke showed early signs of leadership. During those unsettled times, he lived in different houses in or near Providence for the first ten years of his life, in turn build-ing a sense of confidence in meeting new life experiences and challenges. He was a stu-dent leader during junior high school, cited in his school yearbook as one that “did the most for his class” and best all-around pupil. He was known for giving speeches for what was then the Community fund (now the United

way) at city wide meetings and wrote essays to uplift people’s spirits during the early years of world war II. He was making an impact as a young leader.

He enrolled at Brown in 1943 and joined the U.S. naval Reserve after his first term. His experience train-ing for the navy fostered a sense of discipline. He eventually graduated summa cum laude. with his strong education and background he was then assigned to the jungle on the island of Samar in the Philippines as an Electrical officer, Safety, officer, and Fire officer. After he served his country in numerous assignments, he was released from the navy and he began applying to graduate schools.

He continued to foster his strong academic commitment by eventually completing a Ph.D. from Brown focused on electron physics.

BIOEdward clarke is a co-founder of the National semiconductor corp., one of the world’s largest semiconductor companies. He invented the double-diffusion method for the production of semi-conductor de-vices. He is the inventor of some of the the earliest forms of two devices at the heart of microelectronics today: the grown junction transistor and the field-effect transistor. He also established strong institutional foundations for sponsored research and graduate studies at Worcester polytechnic institute, eventually leading Wpi to become a doctoral university. While at Wpi, he estabished and directed the center for solar Electrification. Focusing on application for power generation at isolated sites, he helped change public perceptions to set the stage for solar photovoltaics to be adopted as a clean source of electrical energy. Dr. clarke earned his sc.B at Brown in 1945, his msc. (1947) and mEs (1948) in applied physics at Harvard, and his ph.D. at Brown in 1951.

“...building a sense of confidence in meeting new life experiences and challenges.”

Rod Clifton, Interim Dean of Engineering

His natural leadership skills led him into industry. His first challenge was to help Sylvania Electric Company engage in the newly emerging semicon-ductor industry. He became an expert in semiconductor crystal growing and purification, in surface properties of semiconductors, and in inventing new methods for producing transistors. His technical expertise led him to become head of the semiconductor research division. After many years at Sylvania and then Sperry-Rand, he partnered with his friend, Bernie Roth-lein, to create their own new semiconductor company, national Semicon-ductor. Through his leadership, national became a major supplier of chips used in US missiles during the Cold war and at the height of the U.S. Space Pro-gram. national grew to nearly 40,000 employees at one time. His leader-ship established measurement techniques and standards for the entire industry. He also concentrated on helping educate university experts and practicing engineers in the field. Always on the leading edge, Ed turned his talents to academia. He began a second career as Director of Research and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies at worcester Polytechnic Institute. He then later recognized another new emerging technology and estab-lished the Center for Solar Electrification. A commitment to education, innovation and lifelong learning continues for this natural leader.

Recent news highlights including more about how

Prof. Breuer is unraveling bat flightat

http://brownengineeering.blogspot.com

4 Brown Engineering Perspectives on Leadership 5

Deridre’s experience at Brown went beyond her textbooks and the substan-tial amount of studying required to be successful in electrical engineering. She learned from her extraordinary peers. Exposure to many different types of people, including fellow students and faculty, was critical to helping her understand new perspectives. Her leadership requires a careful un-derstanding of the technical, but also the ability to understand and com-

municate with her customers. She took full advantage of her elective courses to ensure that she had a broad approach to the fundamental math and science. Learning engineering in this well-rounded curriculum allowed her to become a well-rounded leader. She is a leader that seeks out the elective opportunities and takes action.

when she reflects on her academ-ic career, she recognizes a strong emphasis on team projects. working with teams throughout the extensive lab classes in engi-neering, she began to recognize the different work styles of her peers. Deirdre learned to tune in to those around her, just as an ef-fective leader would in the corpo-rate world. Under Professor Jerry Daniels’ direction, Deirdre worked with another student, Sally Vei-lette, on her senior year research project. This Brown Engineering project allowed her to experience the important process of execut-

ing an independent study project on a year long timeline: forming a team, forming a plan, breaking down a project into building blocks, setting a time-line, and in turn accomplishing the goal. The success of their senior team project, related to capturing and counting brain waves above a certain threshold, led to Deirdre and Sally receiving the 1983 Domenico A. Ionata award. Deirdre understood then that she could trans-late her fundamental knowledge to address a problem in a hands-on way. This experience was just one of many that prepared her to stand out in the professional world.

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BIODeirdre Hanford is senior vice president, global Technical services at synopsys, inc. Her organization’s mission is to ensure the successful adoption of the company’s technol-ogy into customers’ demanding environments. Having earned a sc.B. from Brown university and an msEE from u.c. Berkeley, ms. Hanford joined synopsys in 1987. she has held a variety of positions, includ-ing leadership roles in applications engineering, sales and marketing. in 2001, ms. Hanford was a recipient of the YWca Tribute to Women and in-dustry (TWiN) award and the marie r. pistilli Women in EDa achievement award. she currently sits on the ameri-can Electronics association’s national board of directors where she served as the organization’s 2008 chairman. she serves on the Brown university Division of Engineering advisory council and the Technical advisory Board at the college of Engineering at university of califor-nia, Berkeley.

Deirdre Hanford Sc.B. ‘83

Deirdre Hanford’s (Sc.B. 1983) stature allows her to naturally stand out. She greets her audi-ence at 6 feet 2 inches tall. It’s April 18, 2006 and Deirdre is presenting to a group of Intel professionals on the 100th an-niversary of the San Francisco earthquake and the 231st anni-versary of Paul Revere’s famous “Midnight Ride”. Deirdre shares with them her building blocks for success in the context of history. The key points are that throughout our lives and ca-reers, we must engage, broaden, learn, and balance. Sometimes there are tectonic shifts, like the San Francisco earthquake, that require us to respond and seize the opportunity for growth. other times, there are circum-stances where we must be in-spired to initiate change, as Paul Revere did when he warned the militias. To really be a stand out, you must engage when things naturally begin to shift, but you also need to shake things up yourself.

Deirdre started as the eighth employee at a Silicon Valley startup and has been there for over 21 years. Throughout that time, she was promoted twice while pregnant and took advantage of opportunities as they arose. She inadvertently participated in something that resembled a rotation program where she was able to build experience in multiple areas of the company. This willingness to accept new challenges has propelled her into a role where she now manages 1,000 engineering professionals across three continents. She credits her com-pany, Synopsys, with fostering an envi-ronment that allowed her to gain the breadth of experience necessary to grow into a senior leadership position.

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“This willingness to accept new challenges has propelled her...”

SOLUTIONS

Youngcho Chi Ph.D. ‘90

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Dr. Youngcho Chi is a leader responsible for stra-tegic planning for the last 20 years in a leading area of technological innovation, the telecom-munication industry. After obtaining his Doc-toral degree from Brown engineering, he began his global career gaining insight into effective leadership from his mentors. A managing part-ner at Accenture offered him an opportunity to build a strategy practice by trusting his ability and letting him do what he does best. For 10

years, this partner has given Dr. Chi guidance and advice, while always empowering him to make the final decisions.

Dr. Chi believes an effective leader is one who finds people with dif-ferent strengths and recognizes them. Then, this leader knows when and how to delegate tasks to them so that they can all contribute to the success of the team. In other words, the most effective leader is the one who can put the best team together and let them do what they do best. It is important to recognize that everyone has specific technical knowledge, but in the world that we live in today, it is impossible to lead without strong knowledge of the technology trends.

while working on his doc-toral thesis on the formation and propagation of shear bands in metals, his thesis advisor, Professor Duffy, continuously encouraged creation of breakthrough ideas on how to measure stress, strain, and tempera-ture – all within microseconds. Dr. Chi gained enormous confidence in trying new approaches without concern for possible failure thanks to Professor Duffy’s leadership, shown through empowerment and trust ofthe abilities of others.

Dr. Chi has the following advice for students; “Take some calculated risks with your life and career, since rewards are only given to those who have the courage to try something that others do not dare to.” It has already been proven that business-minded engineering students excel in the corporate world because the training that they get is very relevant to solving business problems. Deep curiosity, analytical think-ing, and a habit of experimentation are all very important qualities for being a respected business leader in this dynamic and competitive world. Dr. Chi believes that the teaching and research philosophy at Brown makes it an exceptional institution to breed future business leaders for the global economy.

“...an effective leader is one who finds people with different strengths and recognizes them.”

BIONaeem Zafar is a part of the faculty of Haas business school at the university of california, Berkeley where he teaches Entrepreneurship and innovation at the mBa program. Naeem founded concordia ventures and focuses on educating and advising entrepreneurs with all aspects of starting and running a company. Naeem has been with six startups and has ex-tensive experience in mentoring and coaching founders and cEos. He is now starting his next venture under the name of institute for service organization Excellence (isoE).

His last assignment was the president and cEo of pyxis Technology inc., a company specializ-ing in advanced chip design software for nano-meter technology. Naeem has been president and cEo of two other high tech startups (sili-con Design systems and veridicom, a Bell Labs spin-off that invented the silicon fingerprint sensors found today on most laptops). Naeem has held senior marketing and engineering positions at several companies including Quickturn Design systems that had an ipo in 1993 and grew to $125m in revenues.

naeem Zafar Sc.B. ‘81

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CONNECTIONSnaeem Zafar (Sc.B. ’81) arrived at Brown as a top international student from Pakistan and immediately felt inspired by his accomplished and smart class-mates. He describes these classmates as inspirational mentors that ignited his competitive nature in order to better himself. He began working to orga-nize events and invite speakers to share their expertise for Brown’s student chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). His strong organizational skills and ability to bring students together led him to a leadership role as President of the Brown IEEE chapter. He continued to share his strong communications skills as a teaching assistant to help stu-dents connect the dots between their technical knowledge and their com-munication skills while working on team projects. This type of experience propelled him through a career that included work at six startups (serving in key leadership roles as CEo at three of them).

He built a strong foundation of technical knowledge and rounded it out with a strong set of electives. This well rounded approach to education combined with strong desire to connect with others through community service is a hallmark of solid leadership. naeem’s education taught him not only what to communicate, but how to connect with your colleagues by exhibiting a unique curiosity. He cites that it is critical to fine tune your listening skills to connect with people and lead effectively. In his current role as a member of the business school faculty at the University of California Berkeley, he inspires his students by listening intently, challenging them, and ensuring that he gives them a genuine sense of believing in them. His course on entrepreneurship consistently gets one of the highest student ratings on campus.

He feels that Brown is the ideal place to foster an entrepreneurial spirit since exhibiting intellectual curiosity is a core selection criterion. He currently works with the Brown Admissions office to interview students in the San Francisco Bay area. Through this experience, he can help identify students that are driven by a bigger purpose. with his entrepreneurial and innovative spirit, he works with students and entrepreneurs to create startups. He has been involved with the Brown Entrepreneurship Program (currently serv-ing as the president of Bay Area Advisory Council (BARC) to the Brown EP program). His definition of entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunities out of resources that you do not yet control. In order to create successful companies, you must have individuals that can both inspire others through their passion for their idea and have a vision that attracts top talent. naeem believes that if you can learn to do both effectively, you will be a leader in your field.

“...it is critical to fine tune yourlistening skills to connect with people and lead effectively”

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BIODr. Youngcho chi has over 20 years of ex-perience in the global telecommunication industry. He is the senior vice president of strategic planning within Telecom Business in samsung Electronics. Telecom Business has global sales of $35 billion while samsung Electronics has global sales of over $100 billion. He is currently respon-sible for the global strategic planning of the mobile phone, network equipment, computers, mp3, and mobile solution at samsung Electronics.

prior to joining samsung Electronics in 2007, Dr. chi was the senior Execu-tive partner at accenture where he was responsible for the Wireless industry in asia-pacific for 10 years. Dr. chi has also worked at mcKinsey & company for 3 years and at aT&T Bell Laboratories for 7 years. Dr. chi studied mechanical engineering at seoul National university and obtained a ph.D. in applied mechanics from Brown university.

Robert Martin Sc.B. ‘64

FIRST PERSON PERSPECTIVELE

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Leadership is the skill used to marshal re-sources, and then determine and achieve goals. There are many effective styles ranging from Patton-like autocratic to

Gandhi-like participative. Good lead-ers change their style to meet the cir-cumstance. Leadership style builds on different powers – charisma, knowledge, authority, relationships, fear, etc. within this context, here are some personal stories from my career at Bell Labs and its siblings illustrating what I think is important in Research and Development (R&D) leadership.

In 1974, while leading my first major software project, we decided to build a technically very aggressive system in twelve months. we couldn’t. Feel-ing terrible, convinced my career was over, my wise boss took me for a long walk. He supported the decision to build the aggressive system and ex-pressed confidence I could learn from my errors, set a new schedule and meet it. Invigorated by his trust, the team set back to work. The system went live three months late, is still operational, and earned several bil-lion dollars. A few years later, a young R&D manager working for me com-mitted a similar error. He asked, “Are you going to fire me?” “worse yet,” I said, “You are going to have to clean up your mess.” He later became Presi-dent of Bell Labs. Two lessons here – first, R&D leadership takes experi-

ence to learn from errors and your good people need the opportunity to learn. Second, holding people ac-countable and delegating to them the responsibility to achieve a result is motivational magic.

Later, while in charge of Unix devel-opment, I thought that our version of Unix needed technological differ-entiation while many others thought it was good enough. I sought the advice of a dear friend, Al Aho, who worked in Bell Labs research. He said one of his folks had developed a new programming language that many admired. I decided, with no other input, to take it to market. C++ achieved what I had hoped. Again two lessons: First, “good enough” is an R&D death nail. It is important to demand excellence. Second, recruit the very best to your virtual team. Seek their hopefully divergent in-puts and then don’t be afraid to de-cide.

once a colleague and I were as-signed as co-leaders to resurrect a terribly failed project that had pro-duced nothing after 10 years and $250 million in R&D. In this case, the team had developed such bad hab-its and culture, it was crucial that we quickly replace the leadership, set a reachable goal of value to build customer and organizational confi-dence, and establish a technological platform for long-term success. Hav-ing very different leadership styles and software systems skills, my co-leader and I knew it would be easy for us to clash, and that such clashing would mean organization strife and failure. So, we agreed to never dis-agree in public but to car pool and resolve disputes there. People mar-veled at how unexpectedly well we got along. The system worked and

was worth billions to the customers. Couple of lessons: teamwork, crucial for success, often takes hard work – lateral power is the most diffuse. Sec-ond, leaders must adapt their style to the organizational circumstance as well as its people. There is no single magical way.

As Bell Labs CTo, I came to value the role that deep technological knowl-edge played in making proper R&D judgments. This was quite evident in Bell Labs research. often interna-tional visitors were keenly interested in the mysterious ingredients leading to the Bell Labs innovation record. To one Japanese team, I simply said, world-class people, a culture of inter-disciplinary teamwork, exposure to customers’ problems, and an instinct for disruptive rather than incremen-tal change. They visited three more times convinced there was more to it. There was not. It was the leadership that established and nurtured this culture, worked exceedingly hard to recruit the best in the world, and de-veloped the close relationships with the businesses to understand prob-lems and transfer results.

one final thought. If one wishes to excel in technology, then one must commit to life-long learning. I tried to do it through smart friends, par-ticipation in external groups, and “a technology a year.” For the select-ed technology, I would find smart friends in the field, ask them what the best books/papers were, and set about reading them. It is now a great retirement hobby - neural science this year!

Bob Martin ‘64

Bell Labs CTO, Retired

8 Brown Engineering