Steve Sheafor received his BA in Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Economics and his Masters of Electrical Engineering from Rice University in 1972. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois in 1974, and his MBA from Santa Clara University in 1979. He spent several years at Hewlett Packard before entering the world of entrepreneurship. Steve founded three successful technology startup companies: Cornerstone Imaging (Graphics and Document Processing, IPO); SiTera (Network Processors, Acquired by Vitesse) and Ambiq Micro (Low Power Microcontrollers, Private). Steve has taught Computer Architecture at the University of Colorado, Boulder and Network Processor Architecture at Rice University. He was the founding Chairman of the Advancement Committee of the ECE Department at Rice and the inWorks Board of Visitors at CU Denver. He received the 2000 Esprit Award as an Outstanding Entrepreneur of Boulder County, and was honored as the Outstanding Engineering Alumnus of Rice in 2004. He is the holder of 26 US and one Taiwanese patents.