Xi Wang
Vice President of Product Marketing, Optical Connectivity
M.S. Electrical and Computer Engineering, '06, Ph.D. Electrical and Computer Engineering, '10
Dr. Xi Wang is Marvell’s Vice President of Product Marketing, Optical Connectivity. Xi is responsible for a broad portfolio of DSP and optical product offerings for the data center optical connectivity market in this role. Xi joined Marvell from Inphi as Associate Vice President of product marketing. Before Inphi, he was Senior Product Marketing Manager at Semtech and held various roles at Intersil and IBM.
Xi earned a B.S. in Electronics Engineering from Tsinghua University and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of California, Davis.
What research or technology are you most excited about right now, and why?
I am very excited to see the breakthrough in high baud-rate electronics and optical components that will enable next-generation optical connectivity inside data centers. At Marvell, we provide networking and connectivity solutions for data center infrastructures. Currently, the highest speed interconnect solutions are based on 120GBaud systems with mass production ready silicon and optics. In order to fulfill the bandwidth demand growth driven by Generative AI, 240GBaud systems are needed in the next few years. Traditional electronics and optics are reaching their limits at this speed. Research on new materials, new system architectures, and new signal-processing techniques in this area will push the envelope to enable transformative technologies that change our daily life.
How did your time at UC Davis impact you and/or prepare you for your career?
During my five years at UC Davis, I spent the first two years on campus and the rest three years at the IBM research center finishing my Ph.D. thesis. I received a world-class education in classrooms in Davis and worked with world-class researchers and scientists on my thesis work. This unique experience gave me a lot of industry exposure, trained me well to be an individual thinker, and provided me with an opportunity to be the bridge between IBM research and Davis. Joining and serving on the ECE Graduate Student Association was a great experience! The experience and time spent at Davis prepared me with the technical background, and more importantly, the confidence to take on many leadership roles in my career.
Did you have a favorite course or instructor at UC Davis?
My favorite courses are EEC 230/235.
What advice would you give to young people who are currently seeking a degree in electrical and computer engineering?
The world is changing fast. Generative AI is rapidly changing how we work, think, and collaborate. However, the hardware we built today cannot scale with the growth of AI. I predict in the next decades, most of the technological breakthroughs will be around hardware innovations where electrical and computer engineering are at the center. Be adaptive, be creative, be curious, be patient, and have fun innovating new technologies!