SPRING 2014

CREATING A CULTURE OF INNOVATION

TOUGHER, STRONGER, SMARTER CONCRETE

Introducing ’s UWM WRENCH New Chief Executive Officer PUTS SAFETY FIRST UWM Alum , BIOMEDICAL College of Engineering & Applied Science BREAKTHROUGH ALLOWS SAFER TRANSPLANTS VIA OPTICAL BIOPSY

NSF CAREER GRANTS FUND BREAKTHROUGH RESEARCH Satya Nadella to lead tech industry giant, Microsoft UWM alum is seen as visionary

he new CEO of Satya had slept there several nights, after Microsoft Corporation working late hours on his research. Such was T– and only the third his dedication to his goals.” chief executive officer in the famed company’s history Master’s Degree in 1990 – has strong Milwaukee A native of , in south-central India, ties. Satya Nadella, an Nadella earned a master’s degree in computer alumnus of UWM’s College science from UWM in 1990, after completing of Engineering and Applied his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering Science, is remembered from Mangalore University in India. as an extremely talented “I think Satya being named CEO of Microsoft graduate student who helps our students know the kind of education was one of scores of students from India they get on our campus will take them anywhere attracted to UWM’s strong computer science they want to go,” says Dean Brett Peters. “I have always used program. In his first interview after the appointment, [Nadella] as a good Nadella, who was once described by Business Nadella says he had always wanted to Week as a member of ’s “kitchen example of student “build things” and had developed a passion cabinet of techno-whizzes,” was about 20 for computer science as a means to success: how to years old when he began the master’s degree achieve that. dream big and work program in computer science here. “I am a learner,” he says. “I fundamentally hard in developing “His prior academic background was in electrical believe that if you are not learning new things engineering,” says K. Vairavan, emeritus strong interpersonal professor and former chair of the Department of … you stop doing great and useful things. Our and technical skills Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. industry does not respect tradition – it only “But he took less time to complete our respects innovation.” that foster success in challenging and strong MS program than most Professor Hossein Hosseini, Nadella’s life and career.” students who already had a solid computer former thesis adviser, agrees that Nadella science background. I would attribute his is the perfect role model for students. “You impressive success to his intellectual ability, – Hossein Hosseini, got a sense that he had a burning passion for hard work and razor-sharp focus.” professor learning,” says Hosseini. “I have always used In fact, Vairavan remembers finding a sleeping him as a good example of student success: bag in his lab on the seventh floor of the how to dream big and work hard in developing Engineering and Mathematical Sciences strong interpersonal and technical skills that building. “I was told by another student that foster success in life and career.”

2 Milwaukee Engineer | Spring 2014 Satya Nadella to lead tech industry giant, Microsoft

Nadella has been with Microsoft for 21 years, developer tools and mostly recently as executive vice president of cloud services, including the Cloud and Enterprise group. He succeeds “Cloud OS” – Microsoft’s , who stepped down from the next-generation back-end Microsoft helm after 14 years, and Bill Gates, platform. the company’s first CEO and current chairman. Chancellor’s Graduate Teaching Assistant Innovation Award As a graduate teaching assistant at UWM, In 2012, UWM Chancellor Nadella participated in the college’s Upward Michael R. Lovell met Bound program, helping to teach college with Nadella in Seattle preparatory courses to inner-city high school and discussed ideas students and hosting them on campus for a for advancing UWM, summer. including a possible link between UWM’s School After graduation from UWM he joined Sun of Freshwater Sciences Microsystems’ Chicago office and earned a and the Bill and Melinda master’s degree in business from the University Gates Foundation’s efforts of Chicago. By 1992, he had taken a job with in clean water research. Microsoft in Seattle. At that meeting, Nadella also expressed In 2000, UWM recognized Early in his Microsoft career, he stood out. In interest in the UWM partnership with Johnson Nadella with the Dean’s a 1999 Businessweek article, Nadella and four Controls around battery research and in UWM’s Award for Outstanding other Microsoft employees were described computer science program. Achievement. In 2012, as the “new crew” needed at Microsoft to Last year Nadella visited the UWM campus to UWM awarded Nadella implement Gates’s technical vision for the accept the Chancellor’s Innovation Award and with the Chancellor’s company. speak with students and faculty. The award Innovation Award. When he was named president of Microsoft’s recognizes a visionary whose professional $19 billion Server and Tools Business in 2011, achievements show entrepreneurial drive; Ballmer told the media that Nadella “will define creative, intelligent risk-taking; transformative the future of business computing” and help the thinking; effective change management; and company realize the business potential of the a passion for lifelong learning. cloud “in game-changing ways.” True to his character, when he received the He has also served as senior vice president of award, instead of talking about the products he R&D for the Online Services Division, which developed for Microsoft, he talked about how includes the Search (Bing), Portal (MSN) and he learned empathy on the campus by working Advertising platforms, and vice president of with students from local high schools and the Microsoft Business Division. Most recently, getting engaged in their success. he has been responsible for building and running the company’s computing platforms,

Milwaukee Engineer | Spring 2014 3