cs/root
A Computer Science Entrepreneurship Hub
Serving Virginia Tech and Virginia's Region Two
cs/root is an entrepreneurial hub led by the Virginia Tech Department of Computer Science with funding from a GO Virginia Region Two grant. The multistakeholder initiative will create a platform for computer science (CS) focused entrepreneurship at Virginia Tech with a focus on the Roanoke and New River Valleys. CS/root will concentrate on stimulating startups in the pre-launch phase when technical founders need the expertise of technical advisors to move their concept, intellectual property, or ideas from the drawing board to working demonstrations for eventual use in a go-to-market strategy.
cs/root will help diverse groups of local entrepreneurs, students, and faculty members generate innovative ideas and entrepreneurial endeavors through the following offerings:
- Mentorship and advising from seasoned technical founders;
- Hands-on training and support to brainstorm, encourage, develop and implement new technical ideas;
- Networking opportunities that encourage entrepreneurial mindshare and community among CS-focused entrepreneurs; and
- Growing the diversity of ideas and participants in the local entrepreneurial community.
Are you an alumni or friend of the Department of Computer Science who wants to get involved with CS/root? Please reach out to find out more about becoming a mentor or area expert.
Matt Pfeil
Serial Entrepreneur
Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Top Tier Capital Partners
Friday, April 14, 2023
2:30-3:30 PM
2150 Torgersen Hall
Matt Pfeil graduated from Virginia Tech in 2005 with a BS in Computer Science. His career has followed startups. Out of school he joined Webmail.us, an email hosting company that was acquired by Rackspace before their 2008 IPO. He then started DataStax, a cloud database company, and TravelBoss, an AI based corporate travel software solution. He is also the entrepreneur-in-residence at Top Tier Capital.
Matt will discuss lessons learned through his ~20 year career in west coast startups. He'll cover the things he wish he could change, the things he really appreciated, and the Do's and Don'ts from his experience across multiple startups - and a venture capital firm.
Event Registration
Friday, April 14, 2023
2:30-3:30 PM
2150 Torgersen Hall
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Jim Miller
CEO, Quantum Leap Research
Friday, March 17, 2023
2:30-3:30 PM
2150 Torgersen Hall
Jim Miller has over 20 years of experience creating companies focused solely on national security missions. Mr. Miller founded his first company, Applied Security, Inc. (ASI) in 2002 and sold it to an international publicly traded company in 2009. ASI focused on developing novel communications solutions for national security programs. Prior to this sale, Mr. Miller spun-off his second company, Vulnerability Research Labs (VRL). VRL specialized in developing computer network exploitation capabilities at a time when these technologies were not well understood or the word “Cyber” was in vogue. VRL was sold to Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) in October 2010. In 2012, Mr. Miller founded Strategic Resources International (SRI) and sold it to Veritas Capital/Peraton in 2018. SRI owns and operates international telecommunications infrastructure. Currently, Jim is the CEO of Quantum Leap which, despite popular belief, does not focus on time travel.
Jim received a B.S. in Computer Science from Virginia Tech (1997) and is also an Eagle Scout.
Scan for Event Registration
Friday, March 17, 2023
2:30-3:30 PM
2150 Torgersen Hall
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Dr. Srinidhi Varadarajan
Chief Scientist & Co-Founder, Silverdraft Supercomputing
Friday, February 17, 2023
2:30-3:30 PM
2150 Torgersen Hall
Reception to follow
Srinidhi has more than two decades of experience architecting and building virtualization platforms, advanced networks, high-performance computing environments, scalable file systems, and storage subsystems. His industry career includes being Founder and CTO of Cloudistics (acquired by Fungible), Founder and CTO of AppAssure (acquired by Dell), founder and CTO of Librato (acquired by SolarWinds), and the founder and chief architect of SilverDraft Supercomputing. He also served as VP and General Manager of the Data Protection business at Dell after the acquisition of AppAssure. Previously, Srinidhi was an Associate Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Center for High-End Computing Systems at Virginia Tech.
Srinidhi is the architect of System X supercomputer at Virginia Tech (built-in collaboration with Apple) - ranked # 3 in the world in 2003. He received the NSF Career Award for Internet-scale network modeling and was honored by MIT Technology Review as one of the top 100 (TR100) young innovators transforming technology. He was also named by HPCWire as one of the top researchers in the field of supercomputing. Srinidhi received his Doctorate in Computer Science from Stony Brook, specializing in computer networks.
Scan for Event Registration
Friday, February 17, 2023
2:30-3:30 PM
2150 Torgersen Hall
Reception to follow
For questions and more information about cs/root, please reach out to James Harder, Director, at jharder@vt.edu