Informatics Distinguished Lecture - 05/05/2026 Title: How the UK can be No2 in the world in AI ChipsAbstract: “All AI runs on Chips”, which is why the world’s most valuable company is a chip company. Spending on AI chips is growing at a staggering 30% per year and will likely keep doing so for another decade. Most chips are designed in the US and manufactured in Taiwan, but that is starting to change as the AI chip industry becomes more diverse and AI inference systems become more heterogeneous. I will explain why the UK is surprisingly well placed to be No2 in the world in this huge and rapidly growing industry. Bio: Nick McKeown (PhD/MS UC Berkeley ’95/’92; B.E Univ. of Leeds, ’86) is the Kleiner Perkins, Mayfield and Sequoia Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Stanford University, Visiting Professor of Engineering at Oxford University, Senior Research Fellow at Somerville College, Oxford and Senior Fellow at Intel. From 1986–1989 he worked for Hewlett-Packard Labs in Bristol, England. In 1995, he helped architect Cisco’s GSR 12000 router. Nick was co-founder and CTO at Abrizio (acquired by PMC-Sierra, 1998), co-founder and CEO of Nemo (“Network Memory”), acquired by Cisco, 2005. In 2007 he co-founded Nicira (acquired by VMware) with Martin Casado and Scott Shenker. Nick was chairman of Barefoot Networks which he co-founded with Pat Bosshart and Martin Izzard in 2013 (acquired by Intel, 2019). In 2011, he co-founded the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) with Scott Shenker; the Open Networking Lab (ON.Lab) with Guru Parulkar and Scott Shenker; and P4.org with Jen Rexford and Amin Vahdat. From 2021 to 2023 he was SVP of the Network and Edge Computing Group (NEX) and Senior Fellow at Intel. Nick is currently living in the UK where he is a Visiting Professor of Engineering at Oxford University, a member of the UK PM’s Council on Science and Technology (CST), and a non-executive Board member at ARIA, a new UK funding agency modeled on ARPA.Nick is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Inventors, and is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (UK), the IEEE and the ACM. He received the Marconi Prize (2025), the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal (2021), the IET Mountbatten Medal (2021), the NEC Computer and Communications Prize (2015), the British Computer Society Lovelace Medal (2005), the IEEE Kobayashi Computer and Communications Award (2009), the ACM Sigcomm Lifetime Achievement Award (2012), and the IEEE Rice communications theory award (1999). Nick has an Honorary Doctorate from ETH (Zurich, 2014).Nick’s current research interests include making networks more programmable, AI fabrics, low-cost AUVs for oceanographic research and video streaming. May 05 2026 15.00 - 15.00 Informatics Distinguished Lecture - 05/05/2026 Nick McKeown (Professor Emeritus of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, Stanford University) G.03, IF
Informatics Distinguished Lecture - 05/05/2026 Title: How the UK can be No2 in the world in AI ChipsAbstract: “All AI runs on Chips”, which is why the world’s most valuable company is a chip company. Spending on AI chips is growing at a staggering 30% per year and will likely keep doing so for another decade. Most chips are designed in the US and manufactured in Taiwan, but that is starting to change as the AI chip industry becomes more diverse and AI inference systems become more heterogeneous. I will explain why the UK is surprisingly well placed to be No2 in the world in this huge and rapidly growing industry. Bio: Nick McKeown (PhD/MS UC Berkeley ’95/’92; B.E Univ. of Leeds, ’86) is the Kleiner Perkins, Mayfield and Sequoia Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Stanford University, Visiting Professor of Engineering at Oxford University, Senior Research Fellow at Somerville College, Oxford and Senior Fellow at Intel. From 1986–1989 he worked for Hewlett-Packard Labs in Bristol, England. In 1995, he helped architect Cisco’s GSR 12000 router. Nick was co-founder and CTO at Abrizio (acquired by PMC-Sierra, 1998), co-founder and CEO of Nemo (“Network Memory”), acquired by Cisco, 2005. In 2007 he co-founded Nicira (acquired by VMware) with Martin Casado and Scott Shenker. Nick was chairman of Barefoot Networks which he co-founded with Pat Bosshart and Martin Izzard in 2013 (acquired by Intel, 2019). In 2011, he co-founded the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) with Scott Shenker; the Open Networking Lab (ON.Lab) with Guru Parulkar and Scott Shenker; and P4.org with Jen Rexford and Amin Vahdat. From 2021 to 2023 he was SVP of the Network and Edge Computing Group (NEX) and Senior Fellow at Intel. Nick is currently living in the UK where he is a Visiting Professor of Engineering at Oxford University, a member of the UK PM’s Council on Science and Technology (CST), and a non-executive Board member at ARIA, a new UK funding agency modeled on ARPA.Nick is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Inventors, and is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (UK), the IEEE and the ACM. He received the Marconi Prize (2025), the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal (2021), the IET Mountbatten Medal (2021), the NEC Computer and Communications Prize (2015), the British Computer Society Lovelace Medal (2005), the IEEE Kobayashi Computer and Communications Award (2009), the ACM Sigcomm Lifetime Achievement Award (2012), and the IEEE Rice communications theory award (1999). Nick has an Honorary Doctorate from ETH (Zurich, 2014).Nick’s current research interests include making networks more programmable, AI fabrics, low-cost AUVs for oceanographic research and video streaming. May 05 2026 15.00 - 15.00 Informatics Distinguished Lecture - 05/05/2026 Nick McKeown (Professor Emeritus of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, Stanford University) G.03, IF
May 05 2026 15.00 - 15.00 Informatics Distinguished Lecture - 05/05/2026 Nick McKeown (Professor Emeritus of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, Stanford University)
