Advisory Council

Our advisory council members bring a deep commitment to the success of our research and instructional initiatives. Each member is accomplished in their own way, and we are grateful for their dedication to our academics.

Martin Casado

Martin Casado is a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm in Menlo Park, California. Martin was previously a VMware Fellow and Senior Vice President and General Manager, Networking and Security Business Unit at VMware. He joined VMware in 2012, when the company acquired Nicira, of which he was co-founder and Chief Technology Officer. Martin received his PhD from Stanford University in 2007 where his dissertation work led to the creation of the software-defined networking (SDN) movement, and laid the foundation for the new paradigm of network virtualization.

Lydia Kavraki

Lydia E. Kavraki is the Noah Harding Professor of Computer Science and Bioengineering at Rice University. She received her B.A. in Computer Science from the University of Crete in Greece and her PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University. Her research contributions are in physical algorithms and their applications in robotics (robot motion planning, hybrid systems, formal methods in robotics, assembly planning, micromanipulation, and flexible object manipulation), as well as in computational structural biology, translational bioinformatics, and biomedical informatics (modeling of proteins and biomolecular interactions, large-scale functional annotation of proteins, computer-assisted drug design, and systems biology).

Sudhir Kumar

Sudhir Kumar is a Carnell Professor of Biology and Director of the Institute for Genomics and Evolutionary Medicine at Temple University. He received his bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering and master’s degree in biology from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in 1990. He completed his PhD in genetics at Pennsylvania State University in 1996. He uses integrative and comparative approaches to make fundamental discoveries in the fields of phylomedicine and molecular evolution. He has also developed high-impact, user-friendly software for molecular evolutionary genetics analysis (MEGA) and innovative databases that integrate community knowledge into novel syntheses (TimeTree).

Larry Peterson

Larry Peterson is the Robert E. Kahn Professor of Computer Science, Emeritus, at Princeton University, where he served as Chair from 2003-2009. He is a co-author of the best selling networking textbook Computer Networks: A Systems Approach (5e). His research focuses on the design, implementation, and deployment of Internet-scale distributed systems, including the widely used PlanetLab and Measurement Lab platforms. He is currently working on a new cloud operating system, called XOS. Professor Peterson is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the ACM and the IEEE, the 2010 recipient of the IEEE Kobayashi Computer and Communication Award, and the 2013 recipient of the ACM SIGCOMM Award.

Hector Ruiz

Hector Ruiz, an accomplished chief executive and technology luminary, is driven by the idea that technology and education dramatically improve people’s lives. Hector has helped build and guide top-tier global technology companies (including Texas Instruments, Motorola, and AMD) while also promoting exploration of technology’s ability to address social issues. Hector currently serves on UT’s College of Engineering Foundation Advisory Council. In 2006, he was selected as a Distinguished Engineering Graduate of UT-Austin and later as Distinguished Alum of Rice University. In 2012, he was selected for the Distinguished Alumni Award, the Texas Exes’ highest honor. Hector currently serves as a Trustee Emeriti of Rice University and is on the Board of Trustees of the RAND Corporation and the Board of Directors of Breakthrough Austin.

André van der Hoek

André van der Hoek serves as chair of the Department of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine. He holds a joint B.S. and M.S. degree in Business-Oriented Computer Science from Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He heads the Software Design and Collaboration Laboratory, which focuses on understanding and advancing the roles of design, collaboration, and education in software development. He has authored and co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed journal and conference publications, and in 2006 was a recipient of an ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award.

Bob Witwer

Bob Witwer is Vice President of Advanced Technology for Honeywell Aerospace. In this role Bob is responsible for defining the technology strategy and developing the technology for all of Honeywell Aerospace’s products; engines, auxiliary power units, air management systems, electric power systems, flight controls, avionics, and sensors. He has 35 years of aerospace engineering experience, all with Honeywell. Prior to holding his current position, he was the Director of Crew Interface and Platform Systems Advanced Technology, Director of Aerospace Integrated Electronic Systems, and Director of Aerospace Communications and Navigation Engineering. Mr. Witwer held key management positions on a number of ground-breaking avionics development programs, including the A320 Flight Management System, the Boeing 777 Airplane Information Management System, and the Honeywell Primus Epic integrated modular avionics system for regional jets, business jets and helicopters. He served as chief engineer responsible for all Honeywell avionics delivered to Cessna.

Evan Wolff

Evan Wolff is a partner in Crowell & Moring’s Washington, D.C. office where he is co-chair of the firm’s Privacy & Cybersecurity Group. He possesses hands-on experience in the technologies and policies that govern the cybersecurity space and is an authority on cybersecurity and privacy regulations. Taking an innovative approach to developing blended legal, technical, and governance mechanisms to prepare companies with rapid and comprehensive responses to address cyber issues, Evan has conducted incident simulations, developed response plans, and has advised on more than 100 data breaches.