Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2022, part one: Find pathways to breakthroughs

Ritu Raman, Ph.D. is the d’Arbeloff Career Development Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. Her lab is centered on engineering adaptive living materials for applications in medicine and machines. The Raman Lab’s current focus is building neuromuscular actuators to restore mobility and power robots. Raman has received several recognitions for scientific innovation, including being named a Kavli Fellow by the National Academy of Sciences and being named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 and MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators Under 35 lists. She is the author of the MIT Press book “Biofabrication.” She is passionate about increasing diversity in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and has championed many initiatives to empower women in science, including being named an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) IF/THEN Ambassador and founding the Women in Innovation and STEM Database at MIT (WISDM).

Raman received her B.S. from Cornell University and her Ph.D. as a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellow at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She completed her postdoctoral research with Professor Robert Langer at MIT, funded by a L’Oréal USA for Women in Science Fellowship and a Ford Foundation Fellowship from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Seema Rao began her career at the USPTO in 1994 as a Patent Examiner in the electrical area. She examined applications in multiplex communications technology and served as a Supervisory Patent Examiner in the same area. She was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in 2012; in this capacity, she serves as a Group Director in Technology Center 2100, overseeing database and file management and inter-process communication and software developments.

She has a Bachelor of Science degree in electronics and communication from Mysore University in India and a Master of Science in telecommunication systems management from the University of Maryland.

Dr. Gurtej Sandhu is Senior Fellow and Vice President at Micron Technology. In his current role, he is responsible for Micron’s end-to-end (Si-to-Package) R&D technology roadmaps. The scope includes driving cross-functional alignment across various departments and business units to proactively identify technology gaps and managing the engineering organization to resource and execute on developing innovative technology solutions for future memory scaling. Sandhu’s responsibilities include leading several internal project teams worldwide and managing interactions with research consortia around the world.

At Micron, Sandhu has held several engineering and management roles. He has been actively involved with a broad range of process technologies for integrated circuit (IC) processing and has pioneered several process technologies currently employed in mainstream semiconductor chip manufacturing.

Sandhu received a degree in electrical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, and a Ph.D. in physics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 1990. He holds over 1,300 U.S. patents and is recognized as one of the top inventors in the world. Sandhu is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). In 2018, he received the IEEE Andrew S. Grove Award for outstanding contributions to silicon complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process technology that enables DRAM and NAND memory chip scaling.

Kathi Vidal serves as the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) – America’s Innovation Agency.

As the chief executive of the USPTO, she leads one of the largest intellectual property (IP) offices in the world, with more than 13,000 employees and an annual budget of more than $4 billion. She is the principal IP advisor to the President and the Administration, through the Secretary of Commerce, and is focused on incentivizing and protecting U.S. innovation, entrepreneurship, and creativity. She leads an agency whose mission is to help American workers and businesses compete and collaborate, especially in ground-breaking technologies and across all demographics. As Director of the USPTO, Vidal is working to expand American innovation for and from all, and to bring more ideas to impact, including serving as the Vice Chair of the Council for Inclusive Innovation (CI²), alongside Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo and the Council members.

Director Vidal grew up in a career military family and spent her childhood on military bases in the United States, Panama, Germany, and the Azorean Islands (Portugal). She learned the value of hard work, financial security, and education from her parents, who often held multiple jobs and attended classes at night and on weekends to earn their bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

Her interest in science led her to attend Binghamton University at the age of 16, where she received her bachelor’s in electrical engineering. Before graduating, she started her career at General Electric (GE) Aerospace (later Lockheed Martin). She was selected into the Edison Engineering Program and pursued her master’s in electrical engineering in Syracuse University’s night program. During her time at GE, she designed one of the first artificial intelligence systems for aircraft, as well as aircraft and engine-control systems that continue to keep our military safe today.

Recognizing the value of innovation, Director Vidal pursued a career in IP. She put herself through law school and obtained a Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was Editor-in-Chief of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. After clerking for Judge Alvin Anthony Schall on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Director Vidal joined Fish & Richardson P.C., where she became a recognized expert on IP law, led a litigation group of 270 attorneys in 11 global offices, and served on the firm’s Management Committee. She later joined Winston & Strawn LLP, where she served on the firm’s Executive Committee and was Managing Partner of its Silicon Valley office. Throughout her career, Director Vidal has represented new innovators and startup companies with limited resources. She has also represented many of our country’s most successful and well-known companies.

Director Vidal has helped harness and protect innovation at all levels. Prior to joining the USPTO, she represented both patent holders and defendants in U.S. district courts and the International Trade Commission. She has also been deeply involved in practice before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), argued numerous Federal Circuit appeals, and led amicus efforts on important cases before the Federal Circuit and the Supreme Court. She has received many awards as a top litigator and was inducted into the Litigation Counsel of America, a society of the leading American trial lawyers.

Director Vidal has spent her career championing the importance of mentoring and expanding opportunities to include more individuals from underserved communities. She has played an active role on the advisory board of Chiefs in Intellectual Property (ChIPs), a network of women leaders in technology, law, and policy) and on other boards and committees focused on diversity and inclusion, and has mentored diverse women across the globe as part of the Fortune-U.S. Department of State Global Women’s Mentoring Partnership program. She builds on that work today.

Director Vidal lives with her family and rescue dog Oliver.

Andrew Wang has been an Assistant Commissioner for Patents directly overseeing Technology Center 1700, responsible for chemical and materials engineering, and Technology Center 2800, responsible for semiconductors/memory, optics, electrical circuits and systems and printing/measuring and testing, since October 2020.

Previously, Wang was a Group Director for Technology Center 1600, overseeing patent operations areas including recombinant nucleic acid technologies and bio-affecting organic chemistries.

Wang began his career at the USPTO in 1996 examining applications in the area of recombinant technologies. He was promoted to Supervisory Patent Examiner in 2002 and managed various art units in Technology Center 1600 and Technology Center 2600, which covers communications technology. In 2012, he was appointed to the Senior Executive Service and served as a Director overseeing operations in Technology Center 3700, which covers mechanical engineering, manufacturing, and medical devices/processes.

He earned his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in molecular biology from Temple University in Philadelphia.

Jun Ye, Ph.D. is a Fellow of JILA and a Fellow of NIST. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), and a Fellow of the Optical Society (OSA). His research focuses on the frontiers of light-matter interactions that include precision measurement, quantum science, ultracold matter, and frequency metrology. He has co-authored 400 scientific papers and delivered 600 invited talks. Awards and honors include the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, Niels Bohr Institute Medal of Honour, Herbert Walther Award, Julius Springer Prize, Micius Quantum Prize, Norman F. Ramsey Prize, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) I.I. Rabi Award, U.S. Presidential Rank Award (Distinguished), four Gold Medals from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Frew Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, APS I.I. Rabi Prize, European Frequency and Time Forum Award, Carl Zeiss Award, William F. Meggers Award, Adolph Lomb Medal, Arthur S. Flemming Award, Presidential Early Career Award, Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Award, Samuel Wesley Stratton Award, and Jacob Rabinow Award.