Reflections and Lessons

In this talk I will share a few reflections and lessons based on my professional journey that includes diverse roles: professor, exec director of research programs and open source organizations, entrepreneur and co-founder, investor, engineering leader at a big tech company, and program director at National Science Foundation. I hope these lessons are of value to graduate students as they get ready for their exciting professional journey.

Dr. Guru Parulkar is VP/GM of Edge Software Products Division, NEX at Intel. He joined Intel in April of 2022 from Open Networking Foundation where he was Executive Director and Board Member; Ananki where he was a founder and CEO; and Stanford University where he was Executive Director of Stanford Platform Lab. Guru joined Stanford in 2007 as Executive Director of its Clean Slate Internet Design Program and Consulting Professor of EE. Prior to Stanford, Guru spent four years at the National Science Foundation (NSF), where he started and led programs such as Future Internet Design (FIND), Global Environment for Network Innovation (GENI) and Network of Sensor Systems (NOSS) and received the NSF Director's award for Program Management excellence. Before NSF Guru founded several startups including Growth Networks (acquired by Cisco) and Sceos (IPO’d as Ruckus Wireless). Guru served as Entrepreneur in Residence at NEA in 2001 and received NEA's Entrepreneurship Award. Prior to NEA, Guru spent over 12 years at Washington University in St. Louis where he was a Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Applied Research Laboratory. Guru received his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Delaware. Guru is a recipient of the Alumni Outstanding Achievement award and the Frank A. Pehrson Graduate Student Achievement award. He is an IEEE and ACM Fellow.