2017 Distinguished Alumni Award

For passion, perseverance, and technical contributions as a leader in the semiconductor while inspiring the next generation of female engineers and entrepreneurs

Sundari Mitra

Sundari Mitra

MSEE '88

NetSpeed Systems

San Jose, California

Sundari Mitra has more than 25 years of experience in the semiconductor sector as a senior executive, entrepreneur, and engineer. She is currently the CEO and co-founder of NetSpeed Systems, which opened for business in August 2011. NetSpeed Systems provides scalable, coherent, network-on-chip (NoC) IPs to system-on-chip (SoC) designers for a wide range of markets from mobile to enterprise SoCs. NetSpeed’s NoC IPs deliver significant time-to-market advantages through its system level approach, user-driven automation, and state-of-the-art algorithms.

Previously, Sundari founded Prism Circuits and served as its CEO from its inception in 2006 to acquisition by MoSys three years later. After the transition, she served as executive vice president of engineering at MoSys, where she was responsible for engineering operations and product development. Prior to starting Prism Circuits, Sundari served as a director of engineering at Sun Microsystems, where she famously and successfully worked as a part-time executive while her children were young.

Sundari is an inspiring mentor, helping students more deeply understand the ever-evolving chip industry. She has written about the importance of chip architecture and called for engineering schools to update their curricula to more directly address real-world problems.

She holds a master’s degree from the University of Illinois and a bachelor’s degree from Baroda University in India, both in electrical engineering. She is included as an author of more than twenty patents.