Richard Orre Excell

Northwestern University is a private institution founded in 1851 to serve the Northwest Territory, an area that now includes the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota. Northwestern has three campuses

T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. (Price Associates) is a registered investment advisor and mutual fund manager headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. The firm was founded by Thomas Rowe Price, Jr. in 1937. They are a subsidiary of the T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: TROW), which was formed in 2000 as the publicly traded parent holding company of Price Associates and their affiliated entities. Price Associates offers a variety of mutual funds, sub-advisory services and separate account management for individual and institutional investors, retirement plans and financial intermediaries.

Barclays Capital, Inc. is a registered broker/dealer headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded in 1997 and is a subsidiary of Barclays Group US, Inc., ultimately owned by Barclays plc (LON: BARC) in Great Britain. Barclays Capital provides large corporate, government and institutional clients a full spectrum of prime brokerage services which includes equities and fixed income financing, OTC Clearing, Futures and Foreign Exchange Prime Brokerage and access to industry insights and analytics from their Strategic Consulting team.

Columbia Wanger Asset Management LLC (CWAM) is a SEC-registered investment advisor headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The firm is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Columbia Management Investment Advisers LLC, ultimately held by Ameriprise Financial, Inc. (NYSE: AMP). CWAM serves as the investment advisor to a variety of open-end mutual funds that are series or portfolios of Columbia Acorn Trust and Wanger Advisors Trust, two registered investment companies sponsored by the firm and other institutional accounts.

Nuveen Asset Management LLC (NAM) is a SEC-registered investment advisor headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The firm was founded in 2011 and is a subsidiary of Nuveen Fund Advisors LLC, which is ultimately owned by TIAA Board of Governors. NAM provides investment advisory and sub-advisory services to a broad range of individual and institutional clients, such as open-end and closed-end investment companies and other pooled investment vehicles.

UBS O'Connor LLC is a registered investment advisor and hedge fund manager headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The firm was founded in 2000 and is a subsidiary of UBS Asset Management (Americas) Inc., ultimately owned by UBS Group AG (SIX, NYSE: UBS) in Switzerland. UBS O'Connor primarily provides discretionary and non-discretionary investment advisory services to various types of pooled investment vehicles, (which may or may not be exempt from registration), pension or profit-sharing plans, and institutional separately managed accounts.

Lazard Asset Management LLC (LAM) is a SEC-registered investment advisor headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded in 1970 and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lazard Frères & Co. LLC, ultimately held by Lazard Ltd. (NYSE: LAZ). LAM provides investment advisory services to a variety of clients.

William Blair & Co. LLC (William Blair) is a SEC-registered broker/dealer firm headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The firm was founded by William McCormick Blair in 1935 and is a subsidiary of WBC Holdings LP. Until 1941, they were known as Blair, Bonner & Co. William Blair provides broking services to individual, institutional and issuing clients.

JPMorgan Securities LLC (JPMS) is a securities brokerage firm headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded in 1985 and is a subsidiary of JPMorgan Broker-Dealer Holdings, Inc., ultimately held by JPMorgan Chase & Co., Inc. (NYSE: JPM). JPMS provides research on fixed income, credit, derivatives, emerging markets, foreign exchange, structured finance, technical analysis and bond indices. Their equity analysts cover equities throughout North America, EMEA, Asia/Pacific and the emerging markets. The firm's fixed income team formulates trading and portfolio recommendations for investors in global bonds and other fixed-income markets based on valuations, analytics and market dynamics.

Founded by Christopher Dardanes in 2005, Van Buren Advisors LLC is hedge fund manager located in Chicago, Illinois.

Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Credit Suisse Securities USA) is the broker/dealer division of Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, an investment banking company headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded in 1998 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Credit Suisse (USA), Inc., ultimately owned by Credit Suisse Group AG (SWX: CSGN) in Switzerland. Credit Suisse Securities USA offers a suite of equities, solutions and credit products and services which includes global securities sales, trading and execution, prime brokerage and comprehensive investment research. Their clients include financial institutions, corporations, governments, institutional investors, such as pension funds and hedge funds, and private individuals around the world.

Fitch Ratings, Inc. is a global rating agency and investment research firm headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded by John Knowles in 1913 as Fitch Publishing Co. They are a subsidiary of Fitch Group, Inc., ultimately owned by The Hearst Family Trust. Fitch Ratings seeks to provide independent and prospective credit opinions, research and data to the world's credit markets. Their approach is based on a foundation of local market experience that covers capital markets in over 150 countries. The firm's ratings analysis and rating decisions are based on established criteria, methodologies and ratings definitions which they apply in a consistent manner. Fitch Ratings provides coverage of the following markets: Economics, Banks, Insurance, Sovereigns, Corporates, Structured Finance, Public Finance – International, Public Finance – US, Infrastructure & Project, and Finance.

Fidelity Management & Research Co. (FMR) is a SEC-registered investment advisor headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The firm was founded in 1946 and is a subsidiary of FMR LLC, also known as Fidelity Investments. FMR provides investment supervisory services, which include sub-advisory services, to Fidelity's family of mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, qualified tuition programs, privately offered unregistered investment funds, separately managed account clients, and various other institutional accounts.

Part of The National Academies of Science, the National Academy of Engineering operates as a professional membership organization. The company is based in Washington.

UBS Securities LLC is an investment bank and registered broker/dealer headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded in 1998 as UBS Warburg LLC. They are a subsidiary of UBS Americas Holding LLC, ultimately held by UBS Group AG (SWX: UBSG, NYSE: UBS) in Switzerland. UBS Securities is a primary dealer in US Government securities and provides a full range of investment banking services which includes corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, trading and sales, fixed-income, equity research, private banking, underwriting and prime brokerage operations. The firm also provides advisory services and access to capital markets for corporate, institutional, intermediary and alternative asset management clients.

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC (GS&Co.) is a securities brokerage firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1927, the firm is a subsidiary of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS). GS&Co. provides services to help hedge funds manage risk, monitor portfolios, maintain liquidity and build their businesses. They offer clients access to global equity and derivatives markets, as well as foreign exchange, commodities, European Lefts, rates and credit across the Americas, Europe and Asia. The firm proactively monitors capital markets, searching for pockets of liquidity and news that may require changes to those strategies. Integration with the Goldman Sachs network gives clients access to the firm's sectored block trades and their insights into price discovery. Their electronic trading program provides clients with tools to manage their trades from pre-trade analytics to post-trade analysis.

Harvard University engages in the provision of teaching and research. It has twelve degree-granting Schools in addition to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, offering a global education. The university was founded in 1636 and is headquartered in Cambridge, MA.

Global Factory, Inc. provides collaborative manufacturing execution systems. The firm's software gather, organize & analyze demand, production & quality data from various sources and monitor key indicators & execute business processes to control, manage & optimize distributed manufacturing operations. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory provides technical and scientific research services. The firm performs basic and applied research in principal areas such as neutron science, energy, supercomputing, advanced materials and national security. It also has research programs in nuclear and atomic physics, nuclear fusion, and microscopy. The company was founded in 1943 and is headquartered in Oak Ridge, TN.

Founded in 1998 by William R. Hambrecht, WR Hambrecht + Co. LLC is a registered broker/dealer headquartered in San Francisco, California. The firm offers a full array of investment services. They provide research that focuses on the (1) Asia-Pacific, biotechnology, business applications and services sectors (2) the China Internet and technology sector (3) consumer (4) enterprise software and Internet (5) gaming technology (6) Internet (7) medical technology (8) nanotechnology (9) networking and data infrastructure (10) semiconductors and devices and (11) specialty pharmaceuticals.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory offers energy, national security and the environment research and development services. It offers research services in the areas of microbial and cellular biology, environmental sciences, information analytics, sensing, and measurement technologies. The company was founded on January 4, 1965 and is headquartered in Richland, WA.

Allied Signal Aerospace, Inc. manufactures aircraft parts & systems. It also offers automotive products and engineered materials. The company is headquartered in Norcross, GA

Franklin Fuel Cells, Inc. develops solid oxide fuel cell technology that operates directly on hydrocarbon fossil fuels, as well as future fuels, such as bio fuels and hydrogen. The company was founded by David F. Lincoln in November 2001 and is headquartered in Wayne, PA.

ROTH Capital Partners LLC is a broker/dealer headquartered in Newport Beach, California. The firm was founded in 2001 and is a subsidiary of CR Financial Holdings, Inc. They offer institutional sales and trading services. Their broad institutional coverage includes investors in North America, Canada, UK, Europe and other international territories.

Inspirit IoT, Inc. delivers general-purpose High-Level Synthesis (HLS) with a focus on Machine-Learning and FPGA-based accelerators for IoT devices, cloud vendors and data centers. The company is headquartered in Champaign, IL.

Falcon Computing Solutions, Inc. provides acceleration solutions to big-data applications. Its products include compile and runtime tools and libraries that span multiple vertical markets, enabling order of magnitude improvements in performance and power efficiency. The company was founded by Jingsheng Cong Jason and Chang Jing in 2014 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA.

Peking University provides post-secondary education services. It offers undergraduate and graduate courses. It provides courses such as basic and applied sciences, social sciences and the humanities, sciences of medicine, management, and education. The company was founded by JiaNai Sun in 1898 and is headquartered in Beijing, China.

AutoESL is the leading provider of high level synthesis for FPGAs and ASICs. AutoESL was founded in 2006 based on advanced proprietary technology that was nurtured, developed, and exclusively licensed from UCLA. AutoESL has now deployed this solution at many leading edge system and semiconductor companies. AutoESL provides the fastest path from algorithms to silicon. AutoESL provides a powerful high level synthesis solution that enables: Synthesis of complex algorithms in C, C++ or SystemC into ASICs or FPGAs. Software architects to accelerate software algorithms by implementing them in silicon. System architects to take software models into silicon without manually writing RTL. Hardware architects to explore and implement the right architecture in silicon.