Fernando Guarin

Biography:

Dr. Fernando Guarín is an IEEE Lifetime Fellow, Senior Past President of EDS, Chair of IEEE’s Smart Village (ISV) Board of Governors and Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Electron Device Society since 2005.  He has served EDS in many capacities including Chapter Chair for Mid-Hudson Valley, member of the IEEE’s EDS Board of governors, Chair of the EDS Education Committee, and Secretary for EDS. Dr. Guarin was the EDS President 2018-2019.  He earned his BSEE from the “Pontificia Universidad Javeriana”, in Bogotá, Colombia, the M.S.E.E. degree from the University of Arizona, and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University, NY.  Over the span of his career, he made several key contributions to semiconductor reliability and physics-based aging models.

Dr. Fernando Guarin worked in the semiconductor industry as individual contributor and team leader for over 42 years. From 1980 until 1988 he worked in the Military and Aerospace Operations division of National Semiconductor Corporation.  In 1988 he joined IBM’s microelectronics division where he worked in the reliability physics and modeling of Advanced Bipolar, CMOS and Silicon Germanium BiCMOS technologies. In 2015 he retired from IBM’s Semiconductor Division at the Senior Member of Technical Staff level.  Most recently he was the leader of the team qualifying Global Foundries RF 5G technology offerings.  He retired in July 2022 as a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff from Global Foundries, New York where he led the reliability teams responsible for the qualification of 5G and SiGe technologies.

Ram Achar

Biography:

Dr. Achar is a leading expert in the field of signal integrity, currently serving as a professor in the department of electronics engineering at Carleton University, Canada. His research interests include signal/power integrity analysis, EMC/EMI analysis, circuit simulation and microwave/RF algorithms. Prof. Achar currently serves as a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Electronic Packaging Society. He is a Fellow of Engineers Institute of Canada and IEEE.

Mukta Farooq

Biography:

Dr. Mukta Farooq is an IBM Distinguished Research Staff Member, and the 3D Heterogeneous Integration Technical Leader for the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Hardware Center at IBM Research. She is an IEEE Fellow, the recipient of the 2023 IEEE EDS J.J. Ebers Award, an EDS Distinguished Lecturer, and Distinguished Alumna of IIT-Bombay (Indian Institute of Technology).

Mukta is a materials scientist with expertise in Heterogeneous Integration for AI Architectures, 3D Copper TSV Integration, CMOS Back End of Line (BEOL) Technology, C4 and Micro-pillar Interconnections, Lead-Free Alloys, and Chip Package Interaction. She has 236 granted US patents and 66 granted international patents. Mukta is an IBM Lifetime Master Inventor and an IBM Academy of Technology member.

Mukta has given keynote talks and taught short courses at IEDM, EDTM, VLSI, IITC, ASMC, and at many universities across the globe. She received the 2022 IEEE Electronic Packaging Society Sustained Contribution Award and the 2021 IEEE Region 1 Technological Innovation Award. Mukta is an active contributor to Women in EDS (WiEDS) and a mentor to engineering professionals. Mukta received her BS from IIT-Bombay, MS from Northwestern University, and PhD from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Scott Sikorski

Biography:

Dr. Scott Sikorski has responsibility for business development and offering management for the IBM Bromont OSAT facility as well as for driving the IBM Research Advanced Packaging and Chiplet ecosystem development.  Previously he was responsible for developing IBM’s AI hardware partner ecosystem.  He rejoined IBM in 2020 after a decade in the broader industry. He is based out the T.J. Watson Research Center. 

Prior to his return to IBM, Dr. Sikorski was with STATS ChipPAC for 10 years.  During this time he held leadership positions in product line management, business development, and corporate strategy. 

Dr. Sikorski started his career in 1989 with IBM Microelectronics holding a variety of packaging related positions over a 20-year period.  He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Columbia University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences in Metallurgical Engineering and his Master’s degree and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both in Materials Engineering as related to Semiconductor Packaging.  

Mark Poliks

Biography:

Mark D. Poliks is a SUNY Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Systems Science and Industrial Engineering at the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science, Binghamton University, State University of New York.  He is the founding director of the Center for Advanced Microelectronics Manufacturing (CAMM), a New York State Center of Advanced Technology and home to the New York Node of the federally supported NextFlex Manufacturing USA.   A recipient of the 2017 SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Research, Poliks has made sustained contributions to the fields of materials processing, electronics packaging, flexible, hybrid and additive electronics that are relevant to a variety of medical and industrial applications.  He has over 150 publications, 49 US patents, has delivered over 100 invited lectures and professional development courses worldwide.  Poliks was the General Chair of the 69th IEEE Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC).  He is a Fellow of NextFlex, a IEEE-EPS Distinguished Lecturer, an elected member of the IEEE Electronics Packaging Society (EPS) Board of Governor and serves as the director of IEEE-EPS student programs.