Title: Building a Fulfilling Career in Semiconductors
Speaker: Roland Sperlich, Texas Instruments VP and General Manager
Date: Monday, November 25, 2024
Time: 9:30 a.m.-10:00 a.m.
Location: Van Leer Building, C240
Abstract: Roland will share his experiences and advice for building a fulfilling career starting with landing his first real job through the graduate coop program at Georgia Tech, working as an applications engineer, systems engineering lead, leading several worldwide teams, running over $1B/year business and being elected a Vice President at Texas Instruments. Roland will highlight the different opportunities for engineers in the semiconductor industry, as well as some of his lessons learned with the desire that some of these will benefit students who are embarking on the next step of their career.
Bio: Roland Sperlich is vice president and business unit manager of the Processors business unit at Texas Instruments. He joined TI in 2005. In his current role, he leads a team that covers High-Performance Microcontroller and Microprocessor products. These products address a growing TAM of over $10B while solving some of the most difficult challenges in making cost effective AI solutions for the automotive ADAS marketplace, high-performance signal processing solutions for audio and radar applications, and comprehensive networking solutions for industrial, and automotive applications.
Roland has been part of the Processors business since May of 2023, prior to this role, Roland had been the general manager for TI’s Interface Business Unit. He joined the Interface team in 2010 when he became product line manager for High Speed Interface. In this role, he led the team to develop a differentiated analog portfolio of signal conditioners including the industry’s highest performance passive switches, the first USB2.0 redriver and TI’s first DP/HDMI retimer portfolio. The team also qualified and made inroads with a large portfolio of USB interface products for automotive infotainment systems.
In 2015, Roland assumed responsibility for the Transceiver product line where he was responsible for all TI transceiver products, including those supporting RS-485/232, I2C, CAN/LIN and System Basis Chips (SBC). Under his leadership, the product line grew by 30% and was able to enter the competitive CAN/LIN and SBC marketplace.
Roland received his bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from Merrimack College, his master’s and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, and an MBA from Southern Methodist University. He
holds several patents and has published articles on the application of equalization and linearization techniques in the field of communications and high-speed interface.
In his free time, Roland enjoys playing ice-hockey, watersports and playing violin with his daughter and son.