The Wharton Club de France and the Wharton Club of the United Kingdom invite you to a fire side chat with Edge AI Leadership Team.
Didem Ün Ateş (WH '97 & SEAS '97)
Didem Un Ates is an accomplished AI and Responsible AI executive and certified coach with over 26 years of experience in management consulting (Capgemini, EY, Accenture) and industry roles (Motorola, Microsoft, Schneider Electric). As the founder of LotusAI Ltd, she advises Private Equity, Financial Services, and IT Consulting firms, including Goldman Sachs Asset Management and its 300 portfolio companies, on AI/GenAI strategies, responsible AI implementation, and talent transformation.
Didem serves as a Senior Operating Advisor and member of the AI/Generative AI Council for Goldman Sachs Value Accelerator, sits on the Boards of the Edge AI Foundation and Wharton AI Studio, and is a World Economic Forum fellow and Forbes Tech Council member. Her industry contributions have earned her recognition such as the Tech Women 100 Champion and Trailblazer 50 awards.
In her tenure as Vice President of AI Strategy & Innovation at Schneider Electric, she led the development of the company’s AI/GenAI strategy and forged strategic partnerships with startups, VCs/PEs, and academia. At Microsoft, she was pivotal in launching Business AI Solutions at Microsoft Research and spearheaded diversity-focused programs, including 'Alice Envisions the Future' and 'Girls in AI Hackathons.' In her role as head of Applied Strategy, Data & AI in Microsoft’s Chief Data Office, she managed significant GenAI and Metaverse projects, contributing to the OpenAI partnership.
Didem has led the operationalization of Responsible AI at Microsoft, Accenture, and Schneider Electric, advising C-suite leaders on talent strategy adaptations and promoting responsible AI practices.
Pete Bernard
Executive Director
EDGE AI FOUNDATION
Pete Bernard spent 14 in Silicon Valley and 18 years at Microsoft pushing the
envelope of edge computing products, services, and communities.
After receiving a B.S. in Computer Engineering at Boston University, Pete worked at Phoenix Technologies as a BIOS Developer and product leader, eventually moving to Silicon Valley to focus on APAC and Japan markets. He was VP of Products at E-Color, a revolutionary color correction image services start up in San Francisco before joining Insignia Solutions as Chief Product Officer, where he drove innovations in embedded Java and FOTA technologies with major telcos and device developers and technology partners including Qualcomm and Microsoft.
He made the leap from Insignia to Microsoft and moved to the Seattle area where he drove planning, strategy, partner engagement and product management for disruptive products including Windows Phone, Zune, KIN, Windows on Snapdragon, Windows IoT, Azure Percept, Azure IoT and more.
Pete founded EDGECELSIOR in 2023, a new type of “Technology Practice” at the intersection of semiconductors, 5G and AI. He holds seven patents in security, imaging, smart wearables, and music streaming, and can be heard at various industry events and podcasts. He has been deeply involved in non-profits in the Seattle area for over a decade as well as a long-time supporter of mentorship programs at Boston University. He has been the Executive Director of the EDGE AI FOUNDATION since April of
2024.
Dr. Vijay Janapa Reddi
Dr. Vijay Janapa Reddi is an Associate Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University, where his research focuses on the intersection of computer architecture, machine learning systems, and autonomous agents. His multidisciplinary expertise drives advancements in efficient and intelligent computing systems across scales, from mobile and edge platforms to Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Prior to joining Harvard, Dr. Janapa Reddi was an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.
In addition to his academic role, Dr. Janapa Reddi is deeply involved in shaping the future of machine learning and edge AI technologies. He serves as Vice President and co-founder of MLCommons, a nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating machine learning innovation. In this capacity, he oversees the MLCommons Research organization, sits on its board of directors, and co-led the development of the MLPerf benchmarks, which evaluates a wide range of ML systems from megawatt to microwatt scales. Dr. Janapa Reddi also serves on the boards of directors for the EDGE AI Foundation, fostering academic-industry partnerships at the edge of AI.
Throughout his career, Dr. Janapa Reddi has earned numerous awards and accolades, including the Gilbreth Lecturer Honor from the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in 2016, the IEEE TCCA Young Computer Architect Award (2016), the Intel Early Career Award (2013), and Google Faculty Research Awards in 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2020. He has also received Best Paper awards at the 2020 Design Automation Conference (DAC), the 2005 International Symposium on Microarchitecture (MICRO), and the 2009 International Symposium on High-Performance Computer Architecture (HPCA). Additionally, he has won various honors and awards, including IEEE Top Picks in Computer Architecture (2006, 2010, 2011, 2016, 2017, 2022, 2023). He is included in the MICRO and HPCA Halls of Fame (inducted in 2018 and 2019, respectively). Dr. Janapa Reddi is passionate about expanding access to applied machine learning and promoting diversity in STEM. He has developed an open-source book, "Machine Learning Systems," (
mlsysbook.ai) which is widely adopted by institutions worldwide. Additionally, he created the Tiny Machine Learning (TinyML) series on edX, a massive open online course that has trained over 100,000 students globally in recent years. Dr. Janapa Reddi holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Harvard University, an M.S. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a B.S. in computer engineering from Santa Clara University.
Dr. Evgeni Gousev
Dr. Evgeni Gousev is a Senior Director of Qualcomm. He leads Qualcomm AI AIC CoE (AI Center of Excellence for Automotive, IoT and Cloud), Qualcomm AI Solutions org in the Bay area and is also responsible for developing energy efficient AI computing platforms for edgeAI deployments, including hardware development, systems solutions and software implementations. He serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of EDGE AI
FOUNDATION (formerly tinyML Foundation, a non-profit organization of more than 20k professionals and 100 supporting companies worldwide. The
Foundation focuses on nurturing and accelerating the fast-growing branch of sustainable AI technologies and approaches dealing with machine
intelligence at the edge. Evgeni earned his Ph.D. degree in bsolid-state physics and M.S. in Applied Physics from Moscow Engineering Physics
Institute, Tech University. After graduation, Evgeni joined Rutgers University first as a Postdoctoral Fellow and then as a Research Assistant
Professor. While at Rutgers, he performed fundamental research in the area of advanced gate dielectric for CMOS devices which, a decade later,
became industry wide standards. In 1997, he was a Visiting Professor with the Center for Nanodevices and Systems, Hiroshima University, Japan.
Shortly after, he joined IBM, where he led projects in the field of advanced silicon technologies in Semiconductor Research and Development Center
in East Fishkill and T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY. In 2020, Evgeni was inducted into the “Hall of Fame” of SEMI MEMS and
Sensors Industry Group. Since January 2024, Dr. Gousev serves on the Board of Trustees of American Institute of Physics Foundation. He has co
edited 26 books and published more than 160 papers (with over 12k citations and h-index of 51: Google Scholar). He is a holder of more than 100
issued and filed patents.
Thursday, March 27, 2025
George Gvishiani
