Last modified: Thursday, March 30, 2006
QUALCOMM founder featured at IU Entrepreneur Day
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 30, 2006
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Irwin M. Jacobs, co-founder and CEO of QUALCOMM Inc., will be the keynote speaker at the sixth annual Entrepreneur Day at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business on April 7.
The Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation is sponsoring Jacobs' presentation on "Wireless Communications and Beyond," which will begin at 10 a.m. in the Godfrey Graduate Center, CG 1040. Jacobs is a pioneer and world leader of Code Division Multiple Access digital wireless technology.
Immediately following the keynote address, a panel discussion will be held on "Entrepreneurship in Today's University -- a New Paradigm." Joining Jacobs on the panel will be Gary J. Anderson, founder and managing general partner of TB Ventures, and Bradley C. Wheeler, IU chief information officer and dean of information technology at IU Bloomington. Donald F. Kuratko, the Jack M. Gill Chair of Entrepreneurship and executive director of the Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, will moderate the discussion.
The program is open to IU faculty, staff and students. Admission is free, but registration is required and space is limited. Reservations may be made by calling 812-855-4248 or e-mailing adenekam@indiana.edu by Wednesday (April 5).
QUALCOMM's major business areas include CDMA chipsets and system software; technology licensing; the Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless™ (BREW™) applications platform; QChat™ push-to-talk technology; Eudora® e-mail software; digital cinema systems; and satellite-based systems including wireless fleet management systems, OmniTRACS® and OmniExpress®. The company is included in the S&P 500 Index and is a 2005 Fortune 500® company traded on the NASDAQ Stock Market® under the ticker symbol QCOM.
Jacobs received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1956 from Cornell University and master of science and doctorate of science degrees in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1957 and 1959, respectively. From 1959 to 1966, Jacobs was an assistant and associate professor of electrical engineering at MIT and was a staff member of the Research Laboratory of Electronics.
During the 1964-65 academic year, Jacobs was a NASA Resident Research Fellow at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In 1966, he joined the newly formed Department of Applied Electrophysics (now Electrical and Computer Engineering) at the University of California, San Diego.
In 1972, Jacobs resigned as professor of Information and computer science to devote his full-time attention to LINKABIT. He guided the growth of LINKABIT from a few part-time employees in 1969 to more than 1,400 employees by 1985, with offices in San Diego, Boston and Washington, D.C. In 1980, LINKABIT merged with M/A-COM Inc., and in February 1981, Jacobs became a member of M/A-COM's board of directors. In 1983, he became executive vice president of M/A-COM and subsequently a member of the office of the president. While at LINKABIT and M/A-COM, Jacobs led the development of the Air Force Dual Modem, the first commercial VSAT, VideoCipher® and the first commercial TDMA digital wireless handset, among other products. In 1985, he resigned from M/A-COM to co-found QUALCOMM.
