Prof. Robert Pilawa-Podgurski has received the 2024 Spark Award from Bakar Fellows Program, with Dr. Yicheng Zhu as his Innovation Fellow. Their awarded research proposal, titled “Powering the AI Revolution: A New Voltage Regulator Enabling Direct 48-V-to-1-V Vertical Power Delivery for Next-Generation Ultra-High-Power Processors,” aims to make use of innovative tools and techniques designed in Prof. Pilawa’s lab to develop a hybrid switched-capacitor voltage regulation module for ultra-high-power processors that can achieve a 2x reduction in power conversion losses and a 4x reduction in physical size compared to state-of-the-art commercial products. This could reduce overall data center power usage by almost ten percent, benefiting both the environment and businesses.
The Bakar Fellows Program has been committed to expanding access to entrepreneurship since its inception in 2012, providing funding, resources, and mentorship to faculty, graduate students, and, most recently, undergraduates. This year marks the beginning of a new partnership with the Academic Innovation Catalyst (AIC), a new deep tech funding platform founded by Matt and Lisa Sonsini. Initially, AIC will join forces with the Bakar Fellows program to allocate grants to Berkeley faculty immersed in deep technology exploration, particularly in climate technology. Grant recipients will receive $300,000 over three years for market research, prototype development and other commercialization activities, in line with the standard Bakar Fellows award amount and duration. AIC envisions expanding this pilot initiative across UC Berkeley and beyond, fostering innovation on a broader scale within the academic community. The inaugural recipients of the AIC grants are Robert Pilawa-Podgurski, a UC Berkeley Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences professor, and Zakaria Al Balushi, a UC Berkeley Materials Science and Engineering assistant professor.
