We are an Independent Not -for- profit organization governed by an executive board and assisted by advisory boards consisting of recognized leaders in the field.
The Emerging Tech Foundation (TETF) believes in the E5 framework:
Evangelize | Educate | Empower | Enlighten | Engage
Presently Colleges and Universities are finding it challenging to cater to the ever-changing needs of the industry. This is mainly because of the gap between industry and academia. Besides, any changes to the curriculum take a very long time and effort while the technology changes come by the minute, which makes it difficult to keep up with the industry needs. By constituting the advisory boards predominantly with the global industry thought leaders, our foundation learns what the market wants. TETF with the help of its advisory boards would review the curriculum suggested by the University of Emerging Technologies for any given track / micro-degree. TETF would make necessary changes to the curriculum easing out the onus to build that ground up by TETF's boards. Vetting and governance of the curricula by the industry leaders is a great way for democratizing the curriculum. This is one of the key tenets of TETF – Democratize the Curriculum and follow Market Needs.
Prasad Mavuduri
Prasad Mavuduri brings in a varied global business experience of 32 years across a broad spectrum of industries including higher education, software services, telecommunications, hi-tech, oil & gas, steel, mines, power generation & distribution, healthcare, and finance. He holds a Master's in Engineering from India and a Master's in Business Administration from Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, USA. He believes in role-based education and experiential learning. He is a big proponent of democratizing the curriculum to teach industry-relevant skills. He evangelizes about "employable skills" and help the next generation to be in pace with emerging technologies. He wants to complement the efforts of existing educational institutions with those of University of Emerging Technologies (powered and governed by The Emerging Tech Foundation).
Dwight Hopkins
Executive Board Member
Dwight N. Hopkins has spent over 30 years working in the education industry. He is currently the Alexander Campbell Professor at the University of Chicago. Prior to that, he taught for 6 years at a university in Silicon Valley. Also, Dwight is a senior advisor at Arcis Capital Partners, a New York City private equity firm targeting digital technology, health technology, and clean technology.
He founded and managed a 14-country network focused on youth/student education and women's advocacy. The countries included Hawaii, Fiji, Japan, Australia, India, England, South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Cuba, Jamaica, Brazil, and the USA.
Dwight attended Groton School, an all-boys boarding school in Massachusetts, then earned his BA from Harvard University. He has an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management's global executive program. And Dwight has 2 Ph.D. degrees.
Bill Vorhies
Bill Vorhies is the President and Chief Data Scientist at Data Magnus, providing strategy, planning and project implementation services in predictive analytics, machine learning, Big Data, streaming data, IoT, and artificial intelligence projects.
Prior to Data-Magnum, he was the President of Predictive Modeling, LLC. and has practiced as a consulting data scientist since 2001. He is currently also a Contributing Editor (previously editorial director) for Data Science Central, the leading online data science community with over 800,000 monthly readers. He is also a founding board member of the American Institute of Big Data Professionals and a member of the US Department of Commerce National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) working group developing a standardized "Big Data Roadmap".
In addition, Mr. Vorhies serves as an Advisory Director to Stanton Chase International, a top 10 international executive search firm and is a consulting associate with the Collaborative Brain Trust.
Raghu Dhulipala
Raghu Dhulipala brings over three decades of experience and numerous high-value achievements in the realm of technological innovation and product development.
Raghu's extensive technology leadership experience includes roles as the Global Director and head of technology for several units of Elsievier's Clinical Decision Support group. He also performed as Chief Technology Officer of Therigy, VP of Technology with Paychex/Stromberg, and Director of Product Development and Integration with Convergys. He is currently Chief Information & Technology Officer for ClearCaptions LLC and is a co-founder and CTO of Quick'rCare.
Raghu is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur where he received an honors graduate degree in Electrical Engineering with a specialization in Electrical Engineering and computer science.
Chandra Dasaka
Advisory Board Member
A Harvard certified Global Business Leader and dynamic Six-Sigma Black Belt Leader with over 30Years of year-after-year success in IT experience in Customer Relationship Management, Business Growth and Retention, Employee Engagement, Program Management Office, End-to-End Process Management and Project delivery. Excellent team management track record by leading a 400+ team for 5 Years and over-achieved revenue targets continuously by more than 30% each year.
Recipient of various awards including 'Evaluator of the Year 2007' by the General Motors – Employee Involvement Association, 'Best PMO' by General Electric, 'Associate of the Year 2008' by Satyam Computers.
Currently serving as the Chairman of Computer Society of India, Hyderabad Chapter; Board member of the Global Cyber Security Forum; Secretary of CSI's Special Interest Group on Big Data Analytics, Chief-Editor for 'Visleshana', a SIG BDA's flagship magazine, Founder-Chairman for Matrix Institute of Technology and a Member of the Board of Studies for 5 engineering colleges."
Suzy Taherian
Suzy Taherian has a passion for emerging technology and for education. She has 25 year experience as a senior finance executive including the last 9 years as CFO of companies with innovative technology. She started her career with Chevron, completing over $2 billion in M&A and $4 billion in financing. She transitioned to fast-growing startups and completed successful exits. Concurrently, she has been an active educator as an adjunct professor at UC Davis Graduate School of Management teaching international finance and international business. She's a mentor for entrepreneur students. She's served on various boards such as the Athenian school, a private school near Silicon Valley celebrating excellence in teaching for 50 years. She was appointed the Library Commissioner for Contra Costa County, advocating for better access to learning and literacy for 1 million residents. She was most recently CFO of Kinetics, a global engineering services company, with operations in the US, Europe, Middle East, and Asia. She's currently serving on the board of NewHold Industrial Technology Corporation (NASDAQ:NHICU).
She has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from UC Davis and Finance MBA from Northwestern University, Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
Satish S. Udpa
Satish S. Udpa serves as a University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University (MSU). Prior to reverting to his current position in October 2019, he served in many administrative capacities at MSU including Acting President, Executive Vice President for Administration, Dean of the College of Engineering, and Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He also served as the President of the Michigan State University Foundation. Dr. Udpa was the Whitney Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Iowa State University and a faculty member at Colorado State University before joining Michigan State University in 2001.
Udpa's research interests span the broad area of materials characterization and nondestructive evaluation (NDE). He has published extensively, holds several patents, and is the technical editor of the Electromagnetic Nondestructive Testing Handbook, published by the American Society for Nondestructive Testing. He served as the editor of the IEEE Transactions on Magnetics and the regional editor of the International Journal of Applied Electromagnetics and Mechanics until recently.
He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), American Society for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT), and the Indian Society of Nondestructive Testing. He is a member of the National Academy of Inventors. Dr. Udpa is a full member of the Academia Nondestructive Testing International. He was until recently a Member of the Michigan Governor's Council for Future Mobility and a member of the Michigan Governor's STEM Advisory Council from 2015 to 2017.
Seeram Ramakrishna
Professor Seeram Ramakrishna, FREng, Everest Chair is among the top three impactful authors at the National University of Singapore (NUS)Microsoft Academic ranked him among the top 25 authors out of three million materials researchers worldwide in H-index European study placed him among the only 500 researchers in the world with H-index above 150 in the history of science and technology. He chairs the Circular Economy Taskforce and a member of Enterprise Singapore's ISO/TC323 committee on Circular Economy.
He received a PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK; TGMP from Harvard University, USA. He received numerous recognitions which include CUT Honorary Engineering Doctorate; APA Distinguished Researcher Award, IFEES President award- Global Visionary; GEDC Ambassador; ASEAN Outstanding Engineer Award; IES Prestigious Engineering Achievement Award; IITM Distinguished Alumni Award; NUS Outstanding Researcher Award; CPS Biomaterials Award; UK Cambridge Nehru Fellowship, and Singapore LKY Fellowship.
His academic leadership includes NUS's Vice-President (Research Strategy); Dean of Faculty of Engineering; Director of NUS Enterprise; Director of NUS Industry Liaison Office; Founding Director of NUSBioengineering; Founding Co-Director of NUS Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Institute, NUSNNI. $100 million Global Water Center by GE was established under his watch as the Dean of Engineering. As a founding Chairman, he championed the establishment of ~ $100 million Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore, SERIS. He served as a board member of several national organizations, policy institutes, and tertiary education institutions. He founded the Global Engineering Deans Council (http://gedcouncil.org/ambassadors) while serving as the Vice-President of the International Federation of Engineering Educator Societies (IFEES).
Dr. K Manivannan
Dr. K Manivannan is currently the Associate Director of SRM Institute of Science & Technology (SRMIST) a Deemed University, Trichy campus under the MHRD, Government of India. He received his Ph.D. in Theoretical Fluid Mechanics with distinction. He earned his M.Tech in Computer Science & Engineering. His research interest and expertise include Theoretical Computer Science, Theoretical Fluid Mechanics, Fuzzy Logic, and Transform Techniques. He is also the co-ordinator of the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Development Centre, sponsored by the Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India.
Dr. K Manivannan is chiefly prominent as a stickler for quality, team builder, and a natural motivator with perseverance and integrity. Complemented with these qualities Dr. K Manivannan's excellent communication skills and leadership qualities have earned him several headship and management positions. He is now the Vice –President (Industry & academia Relations), IFEES, Chair-GEDC-India Chapter, and National Vice-President of Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE), New Delhi, one of the largest professional organizations in India, with the motto of Career Development of Teachers and Personality Development of Students and overall development of Engineering Education System. Before assuming this coveted position he has been elected as National Executive Council Member of ISTE for five terms. He was a member of the Academic Council of the prestigious University of Madras for two terms of six years.
Dr. K Manivannan's life philosophy has always been: "Laugh so Hard That even Sorrow Smiles at You, Live Life so Well that even Death Loves to see you Alive, Fight so Hard That even Fate accepts its Defeat…."
Joseph Moreau
Joseph Moreau earned his BA in Visual Arts at the University of California, San Diego and his MA in Education at Cal State Los Angeles. He began his career as a videographer and media specialist for a variety of firms in the private sector. In 1990, he left the private sector for higher education. He has held a variety of leadership positions including manager of the Instructional Resources Center at Pasadena City College; Dean of Learning Resources at West Hills College; Dean of Academic Information Services at MiraCosta College; and Chief Technology Officer for SUNY Oswego. In 2012, he was appointed Vice Chancellor of Technology and CTO for the Foothill-De Anza Community College District, overseeing technology for two of nation's premier community colleges. Joseph has served on the boards of a number of non-profit and professional organizations including California Community Colleges Chief Information Systems Officers Association, Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC), Oracle Higher Education User Group, SUNY Faculty Advisory Council for Teaching and Technology. He currently serves on the board of Educause. In 2013, Joseph took on responsibility of Executive Sponsor for California Community Colleges Online Education Initiative – a $222 million project to reengineer the system's online instruction and support services.
Maj Mirmirani
Dean Maj Mirmirani first came to the United States in 1969 after graduating from Tehran Polytechnic University (now known as Amir Kabir University) with a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering. Dean Mirmirani continued his studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where he obtained a doctorate in Mechanical Engineering in 1977.
Thereafter, he and his family returned to Iran until 1980. From 1977 to 1980, he was a Senior Analyst at the Industrial Management Institute of the Economic and Industrial Development Organization in Iran and an Adjunct Professor in Systems Engineering at the National University of Iran.
In 1980, Dean Mirmirani and his family left Iran and spent a year in the United Kingdom where he worked at the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London as an Academic Visitor.
Upon returning to the United States, Dean Mirmirani joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at California State University Los Angeles (CSULA) where he served as a Professor from 1981- 2007 and as Department Chair from 1992 to 1996 and from 2002 to 2007.
During his tenure at CSULA, he led many major research projects – interdisciplinary in nature – funded by NASA, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, NSF, and industry exceeding $12M. Most notable among these research projects was the modeling and control of airbreathing hypersonic flight vehicles, design and development of a high endurance hydrogen fuel cell – powered UAV, design and fabrication of a precision segmented reflector testbed, three NASA STTR awards, and the establishment of the Multidisciplinary Flight Dynamics and Control Laboratory (MFDCLab) which he directed until October 2007.
Dean Mirmirani is the recipient of the CSULA 2002-2003 University Outstanding Professor Award, and the CSULA University 1996 Meritorious and Professional Promise Award. In 2007, Dean Mirmirani joined Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University as the Dean of the College of Engineering.
Dean Mirmirani is an Associate Fellow of the AIAA, and a member of ASME, ASEE, TAU BETA PI-the Engineering Honor Society and PI TAU SIGMA-the International Mechanical Engineering Honor Society. He is an instrument-rated private pilot and a member of Airplane Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA).
Dr. Janusz A. Koziński
Dr. Koziński has enjoyed a distinguished academic career in leading institutions in the USA, Europe, and Canada. He is an internationally-renowned higher education academic and researcher, and one of the world's most widely acknowledged experts in sustainable energy systems and immune building concepts applied to public safety and security. Educated in Kraków, Poland, Dr. Koziński subsequently attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and spent much of his academic career at McGill University, where he was Sir William Dawson Scholar and Associate Vice-Principal (Research and International Relations). He helped coordinate the University's research budget of $450 million. Dr. Koziński has served as Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan where he developed a Master Plan for 2020, launched four new research centers with funding topping $26million, designed a framework for the College's centennial celebrations, and established the first Engineering Entrepreneurship Chair in Canada based on a private donation.
He was the Founding Dean of the Lassonde School of Engineering at York University, one of the most ambitious projects in Canadian academia. Dr. Koziński has served as the Founding President & President Elect of the New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering. He served as Special Advisor to the President at Brock University leading new 'Integrated Engineering' programs co-developed with employers. He held the International Chair in Bioenergy at the Institute for Advanced Studies and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France's most distinguished research laboratory) and completed the prestigious Advanced Management & Leadership Programme at Oxford University and the Executive Education Program on Crisis Leadership in Higher Education at Harvard University.
Dr. Koziński has created a network of leading centers of excellence involving research institutions, universities, and industrial partners around the world focused on renewable energy systems and bioenergy solutions. He has also assisted governments in formulating policies that have influenced North American and European energy legislation. Janusz sees the necessity and beauty in bringing people together to not only solve problems of today and tomorrow, but to inspire each other to improve the social fabric of our societies.
Jim Lacey
In his role as JMark's Vice President, Western Region, Jim Lacey is responsible for establishing the commercial business portfolio and supporting the strategic and tactical ecosystem for the company. Jim has a proven career as a results-driven business professional proficient in technology products and services with a detailed understanding of corporate strategy, market trends, customer acquisition, and global channel development. Prior to joining JMark, Jim served in key leadership roles in the information technology sector to include Director of Operations, CompUSA; General Manager, Linuxcare; President and CEO, Linux Professional Institute; President, BlacKnight Cyber Security; and Mountain Region/Chief Revenue Officer at root9B Cyber Security.
Jim graduated the United States Military Academy, West Point, N.Y., with a Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering. As an airborne, air assault and ranger qualified infantry officer, Jim served in both the 24th ID and the 101st Airborne Division. During his time in the First Gulf War he participated in the establishment of FOB Cobra and FOB Viper deep in Iraqi territory with the 1/502d Infantry, 101st Airborne Division.
Dr. Padmini (Mini) Murthy
Dr. Padmini (Mini) Murthy, Professor and Global Health Director at New York Medical College School of Health Sciences and Practice. Dr. Murthy is a physician (a trained obstetrician and gynecologist) and an activist who did her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology. She has practiced medicine and public health for the past 28 years in various countries. She has been working in various arenas of the health care industry. She also worked as consultant for UNFPA. She has an MPH and an MS in Management from New York University. Dr. Murthy serves as the Medical Women's International Association NGO representative to the United Nations. She also serves as a member of the Executive Council of the NGO CSW Committee of NY, and the DPI NGO executive committee of NY at the United Nations.
Dr. Murthy has developed a complete online certificate on global health and has been able to reach out to international students. Dr. Murthy is widely published and is the author and editor of Women's Global Health and Human Rights (Jones and Bartlett publisher) which is used as a text book worldwide and she serves as a peer reviewer for several publications. Her poetry book Mini's Musings was published in 2012. She is currently working on her 3rd book on the use of technology in promoting health. She has made over 150 presentations on women's and children's health nationally and internationally in scientific conferences and in the United Nations and countries where she has been invited.to.
She has been working to promote safe motherhood and other health initiatives focused on women in India, Malawi and Grenada. Dr. Murthy has been the recipient of numerous national and international awards. She was the 1st American woman physician to receive the Jhirad Oration Award (in Seoul, Korea) conferred at an international conference in recognition of her service and work to MWIA. She has also been the recipient of the Soujouner Truth Pin which is given to those women who excel in community service. In June 2015, she was presented Millennium Milestone Maker Award at the 9th Annual Women's Symposium at Sias University, China. In 2016 She was the first Indian born American in over 70 years to receive the Elizabeth Blackwell Medal from American Medical Women's Association for her work in promoting women's health globally. She is the recipient of the Lalita Pawar memorial award in 2016 conferred by the Association of Medical Women in Nagpur, India for her work in promoting women's health and human rights. In 2017 Murthy was conferred the prestigious Dr Homi Colabawall Oration in Mumbai India for her work on promoting women's health. In 2018 she received a mentor ship award from the Australian medical students and Exceptional Woman of Excellence Award at the Women economic Forum in New Delhi and award for promoting human rights of women from Taiwanese Medical association at Health Literacy conference. In March 2019 Murthy received for a second consecutive year a mentorship award for mentoring Australian medical students from the Notre Dame University in Sydney Australia. She is also the 2019 recipient of the Human Spirit and Cultural Harmony award from African Views and the Board of Trustees of the National Council of Traditionally rulers of Africa
Dr. Murthy is currently chair elect of the International Health Section of the American Public Health Association which is one of the largest associations of public health professionals in the world.