Board of Advisors :

• Dr. John M. Cioffi

  Dr. John Cioffi is a 30-year veteran of the DSL industry and sports numerous prestigious awards for his contributions to technology and industry. Prior to founding ASSIA in 2003, he served as founder, CTO and vice president of engineering at Amati before its acquisition by Texas Instruments. Dr. Cioffi held a tenured endowed professorship at Stanford University in the Department of Electrical Engineering from 1985-2009, where he is now an active Professor Emeritus with limited ongoing research efforts in broadband access. He has published over 400 papers and holds over 100 patents. Dr. Cioffi is a member of the United States National Academy of Engineering and an International Fellow of the United Kingdom Royal Society of Engineering. He is a winner of the The Economist Computing and Telecommunications Award (2010), IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal (2010), the IEEE Kobayashi Award (2001), and the Marconi Society's Marconi Prize (2006). He currently serves on the boards of Teranetics, ClariPhy, Vector Silicon, and Alto Beam. Dr. Cioffi holds a BSEE from the University of Illinois and a PhD in electrical engineering from Stanford University.

• Mr. Jodie Hughes

  Jodie K. Hughes is president and owner of MU Inventures, a general business consulting firm that has advised CEOs and General Managers across a range of high-tech industries. He has also served as director, advisor, and executive of private and public companies in a variety of industries, including the semiconductor industry. Prior to forming his own company in 2004, Mr. Hughes was the Chief Executive Officer for Digital 5 Inc., a consumer video distribution system provider, where he restructured the company, secured venture financing, and initiated partnerships from AOL, Intel, etc. Prior to that, Mr. Hughes was President and Chief Operating Officer of TeleCruz Technology, a IPTV semiconductor company, and a Senior Vice President of Sony Semiconductor Company (Japan) from 1996 to 1999, where he help create a market for full function DVD devices. Mr. Hughes was Vice President and General Manager of Western Digital CorporationÕs PC Graphics and Video Division from 1993 to 1996 where he executed a corporate turnaround of the laptop graphics semiconductor business and managed its acquisition by Philips Corporation. Mr. Hughes spent more than 11 years with UNISYS/Convergent Technologies Corporation in several senior capacities, including Director of Distributed Systems Group. Mr. Hughes has also worked for various other high-tech companies, including Sigma Designs Corporation, Kaiser Electronics and Dictaphone Corporation, in various engineering and marketing positions. Mr. Hughes is a graduate of University of Santa Clara with a B.S.E.E./C.S. and has a graduate degree from IMD (International Institute for Management Development), Switzerland in International Business.

• Dr. Chrysostomos L. Max Nikias

  C. L. Max Nikias became the University of Southern CaliforniaÕs eleventh president in August 2010. He is the holder of the Robert C. Packard PresidentÕs Chair and the Malcolm R. Currie Chair in Technology and the Humanities, and also chairs the USC Hospitals Governing Board. He has been at USC since 1991, as a professor, director of national research centers, dean, provost, and now president. He holds faculty appointments in both electrical engineering and the classics. In addition, he leads special freshman seminars each fall on ancient Athenian democracy and drama. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Among numerous other honors, he has received the IEEE Simon Ramo Medal and the University at BuffaloÕs Clifford C. Furnas Memorial Award. Dr. Nikias is recognized internationally for his pioneering research on digital signal processing, digital media systems, and biomedicine. The Department of Defense has adopted a number of his innovations and patents in sonar, radar, and communication systems. The author of more than 275 journal articles and conference papers, three textbooks, and eight patents, he has mentored more than 30 Ph.D. and postdoctoral scholars. Three of his publications received prestigious best papers awards. As president, Dr. Nikias has articulated a vision for USC to attain undisputed, elite status as a global research university. His initiatives include recruiting a cadre of transformative, world-class faculty; elevating USCÕs academic medical enterprise; expanding USCÕs international presence; further improving the breadth and quality of USCÕs world-class student body; and embarking on the largest fundraising campaign in the history of higher education. The Chronicle of Higher Education has called Dr. Nikias a Òprodigious fundraiser.Ó His first year as president was highlighted by seven transformative gifts to USC, including a $200 million gift from Dana and David Dornsife to name USCÕs College of Letters, Arts and SciencesÑthe single largest donation in the universityÕs history; a $150 million gift from the W. M. Keck Foundation for medicine; and a $110 million gift from Julie and John Mork to support student scholarships. This allowed USC to raise an unprecedented total of $1 billion in Dr. NikiasÕ first year. He also brought the nationÕs largest literary festival, the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, to USC. In addition, the university broke ground on a major new student health center, a state-of-the-art athletics complex, and other new facilities. In recognition of his efforts to renew USCÕs athletics heritage, the New York Times selected Dr. Nikias as one of a small number of national figures Òwho make sportsÕ little corner of the world a better place.Ó Dr. Nikias received a diploma from the National Technical University of Athens, also known as National Metsovion Polytechnic, the oldest and most prestigious higher education institution of Greece, and later earned his M.S. and Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He holds honorary doctorates from Hebrew Union College and the University of Cyprus. His wife, Niki C. Nikias, received a bachelorÕs degree in accounting from the Athens University of Economics and Business in Greece and a masterÕs degree in business administration with a specialization in finance from the State University of New York at Buffalo. They have two daughters, both of whom are graduates of USC.

• Dr. Francesco Svelto

  Francesco Svelto is Professor of Electronics at Universitˆ degli Studi di Pavia. He has a long experience in the area of RF circuits and systems in CMOS. He has been technical advisor of RFDomus Inc., a start-up he co-founded in 2002 dedicated to highly integrated GPS receivers. After merging with Glonav Inc. (Ireland), RFDomus has been acquired by NXP Semiconductors in 2007. Presently he is the Director of a Scientific Laboratory, joint between Universitˆ di Pavia and STMicrolectronics, dedicated to research in Microelectronics, with emphasis to mm-wave systems for wireless communications, high-speed serial links and read-write channels for hard disk-drives. Dr. Svelto is member of the technical program committee of the International Solid State Circuits Conference and has been a member of Custom Integrated Circuits Conference, Bipolar/ BiCMOS Circuits Technology Meeting and European Solid State Circuits Conference. He served as Associate Editor of IEEE Journal of Solid State (2003-2007), and as Guest Editor for a special issue on the same journal in March 2003. He is co-recipient of the IEEE Journal of Solid State 2003 Best Paper Award.