比尔·邓巴97年

Entrepreneur in Residence IP/Patent Strategy, At One Ventures

在阿灵顿出生和长大, and after graduating Virginia Tech I moved to California and never left. I went to graduate school at UC San Diego (M.S.， 1999年)，然后是加州理工学院(博士.D., '04). I was a professor for twelve years in Robotics / Computer Engineering at UC Santa Cruz. It was there I got the idea to start a company, and through that found my purpose: building people, 文化与科技. 我很想创业, I gave up tenure with only a two month runway in the bank for our new company, then called Two Pore Guys (the irony!). I put music before podcasts, faith before fear, hard work before guess work. I love my wife, surfing, and playing in a band with my two kids (16 and 14).

The work project/initiative I'm most excited about...
I am on fire for our new startup (Nooma Bio), which licensed patents from my days as a professor. The technology we are building will allow re搜索ers to explore your epigenome. Translation: If your genome is the hardware instruction booklet (genes), your epigenome is the executable program that defines your living state (expression) and how fragile or robust that state is or may become. When the epigenome (program) has errors, 你会患上自身免疫性疾病, 癌症, 一大堆分段错误. Our technology will help re搜索ers more easily read that software program (faster and cheaper than they can now), and with the highest possible precision by reading each molecule's program (better than they can now).

How Virginia Tech equipped me for the "real world"...
after graduating Engineering Science and Mechanics (ESM), no engineering/math problem could scare me. I did not solve all that I subsequently encountered–and I was completely wrong on more than one occasion–but I was not intimidated.

我读的最后一本书...

The Power of Habit (Charles Duhigg); Lifespan: Why We Age―and Why We Don't Have To (David Sinclair).

最喜欢的结束一天的方式...
nicotine (smoke free; don't tell), hot shower, then Fargo series.

共同创办一家小公司...
是个疯狂的想法. 你得有点疯狂才行. 而且不害怕风险. 在你动手之前, talk to everyone who has the stripes of failure and the glory of eventual success, 收集他们的经验. Ignore people who did not fail (luck is not a teacher).

Having a multi-disciplinary background enables me...
危险的. Still important to know what I don't know. But it is easier for me to speak science to scientists, more than the average engineer anyway.

Being a stealth-mode startup means...
你从不停止工作. So don't do it unless it really isn't work. 我很喜欢.

A cause I'm most passionate about...
autoimmunity is a massively growing bucket that people are lumped into because medicine often does not have the tools to find answers. I am passionate about building tools that accelerate finding answers. My wife and I also care about feeding and clothing kids that don't have enough.

Favorite Virginia Tech tradition...
burgers at Mike's Grill (sad it closed).

Best part of being a Virginia Tech alum...
we are solid, good-hearted people.