News & Events
Reflections on Innovation in the Knowledge Economy
- October 30, 2007: 4:00pm - 5:00pm
- Location: Sibley Auditorium, UC Berkeley campus
Irving Wladawsky-Berger, Chairman Emeritus of IBM Academy of Technology.
Sponsored by Infineon Technologies.
"Reflections on Innovation in the Knowledge Economy"
Abstract:
Advances in information technology coupled with powerful market forces are transforming just about all aspects of business and society. We can increasingly leverage the Internet and related open standards to look at a whole organization - an enterprise, an industry eco-system or an economy - as a holistic, integrated system, linking together processes, information and people. This talk will explore some of the huge challenges that we face in order to realize the potential benefits of such business and societal transformations, including the ability to effectively design and use highly complex, human oriented, market-facing systems and applications. We will also discuss the role of universities in conducting the necessary research and training the necessary talent needed in the emerging knowledge economy.
Biography:
As Chairman Emeritus, IBM Academy of Technology, Dr. Wladawsky-Berger continues to participate in a number of IBM’s technical strategy and innovation initiatives. He is also Visiting Professor of Engineering Systems at MIT, where he is involved in multi-disciplinary research and teaching activities focused on how information technologies are helping transform business organizations and the institutions of society.
At IBM he was responsible for identifying emerging technologies and marketplace developments critical to the future of the IT industry, and organizing appropriate activities in and outside IBM in order to capitalize on them. He was also responsible for IBM’s university relations office and for the IBM Academy of Technology where he served as Chairman of the Board of Governors. In 1996, he led the effort to formulate IBM’s Internet strategy and to develop and bring to market leading-edge Internet technologies that could be integrated into IBM’s mainstream business. He subsequently led a number of companywide initiatives like Linux, Grid Computing and the On Demand Business initiative.
