The Team

Ikhlaq Sidhu is an academic, technology expert, entrepreneur, author, and advisor.  His areas of research excellence are technology management, communication networking, industrial engineering, data science, and technology commercialization, with a particular interest in innovation engineering.  He is also the author of the book “Innovation Engineering” and the creator of the popular Data-X course at UC Berkeley, and holds over 50 patents in networking, communications, and computing technologies. Most recently, Ikhlaq has been instrumental in creating IE University’s new Impact Xcelerator and its new lab areas. 

Prior to joining IE University, Ikhlaq was the Founding Faculty Director and Chief Scientist of the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology at the University of California (Berkeley), and also founded the Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership at the same institution. He holds both a master’s and a PhD in electrical and computer engineering from Northwestern University, and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Ikhlaq has received a number of awards, including the Extraordinary Teaching in Extraordinary Times award from UC Berkeley in 2021, for demonstrating his commitment to students, the IEEE Major Education Innovation Award for his research and teaching work at University of California (Berkeley) in 2018, and  an Honorary Ph.D. from Lund University in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He also serves on several advisory boards and review committees.