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Computer Science Alumni Profiles: Jerry Fiddler Jerry Fiddler
Jerry Fiddler holds his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Illinois. After double majoring in music and photography, he went onto earn a master's in computer science at UIUC - prompted in part by a burgeoning interest in computer-generated music. Although best known as the co-founder of Wind River Systems, his resume includes leader and electric guitarist of the band called Xaz; producer of their eponymous CD; a pioneer in the area of embedded systems; and patron of the arts. A number of our distinguished alumni have started companies "out of their garages," as it were, but Jerry belongs to an elite minority that's formed both rock bands and companies in that fashion. Jerry's career began at University of California's Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, when they were seeking someone with both the humanities background and the computer knowledge sufficient to build human interfaces to big systems. His work there involved writing software that enabled computer control of such things as physics experiments, big linear accelerators, or fusion reactors. His work at Berkeley, programming and solving problems, reinforced what he had learned in his undergraduate training in music - as he puts it, "Conceiving and scoring a musical composition involves many of the same processes that you need in programming." After leaving Berkeley labs, Jerry formed a partnership with former Berkeley Lab colleague David Wilner that resulted in the founding of Wind River Systems in 1981. Wind River began by pursuing a variety of projects in the video industry, including working on a real-time videotape editing system, video editing for the NFL, and working with Francis Ford Coppola. It has gone on to provide the operating systems used inside numerous devices, including most digital cameras, routers, phone switches, and even many spaceships including all of the Mars Rovers. Wind River today is well over a $1B company. Since then Wind River has grown to become the leading provider of device software worldwide, with over 1100 employees in 16 countries. During his tenure there, evolving from sole programmer to CEO and chairman of the Board, until his departure in 2004, he gained a reputation as an expert in the design and implementation of real-time systems. Jerry has served on several corporate boards, including Wind River, Tensilica, Crossbow and Nanochip. He is also a member of the UC President's Advisory Board on Science and Innovation, a member of the Board of the Trustees of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, and a member of the Advisory Board for Zoetrope.com, Francis Coppola's current project. He has received our Alumni Award for Distinguished Service in Engineering in 1999. He serves on our department's Executive Advisory Council which helps guide the department in both short and long term strategic planning. He also kicked off our 2005-06 Engineer in Residence program. Currently, Jerry is the Chairman of Solazyme, a biotech company devoted to harnessing the energy-harvesting machinery of photosynthetic microbes to produce valuable products. As the Chairman of Solazyme his role is to guide the transformation of the company's disruptive technologies from the lab to commercial success. He is also an executive-in-residence and adjunct professor at UC Berkeley.
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