(engine chugging)
In the 1800s, the first Asian immigrants
who came to America connected the West and East
by building the Transatlantic Railroad,
America's earliest large-scale
physical infrastructure project.
Since then, infrastructure has become more complex,
globally interconnected, and digital.
Here are some of the Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
whose innovations contributed to building the infrastructure
of the 20th century.
After months of research and work,
we have finally produced the first model,
a full-size electro-automatic Chinese typewriter
in commercial form.
In 1946,
Chung-Chin Kao led a team to design
and create the first electro-automatic typewriter
for the Chinese written language.
In 1969, Dr. Kie Ahn made breakthrough discoveries
with magnetic films on memory storage devices,
and later held over 500 patents.
In 1973, IBM scientist, Leo Esaki,
won the Nobel prize in physics
for experimental discovery of
electron tunneling in semiconductors.
(audience clapping)
In 1983, Richard Chu
was appointed IBM fellow for his work
with cooling technology for large scale processors
which were used in the IBM 3084
and the IBM System/360 Model 195.
Dr. Rao R. Tummala, IBM fellow,
made major contributions in materials science,
including pioneering the industry's first
100 chip ceramic package for mainframes
and supercomputers as well as the first plasma display.
In 1996, Josephine Cheng was celebrated
as an IBM distinguished engineer that built IBM's
relational database technology for the web,
allowing people to access huge amounts of data
via the internet that was previously accessible only
through proprietary systems.
1997: chess champion Garry Kasparov was defeated
by IBM Deep Blue, a supercomputer developed by a team,
including Dr. Feng-hsiung Hsu and Dr. Chung-Jen Tan.
Today's global digital economy
needs a flexible, scalable, and secure infrastructure.
Here are some of the builders
of the modern digital infrastructure built for the future.
Dr. Gururaj Rao was named an IBM fellow in 1999
for his contributions to the architecture,
advanced technology, and design
of highly secure servers such as IBM Z.
Virginia Mayo protects our digital world from threats
by creating technologies for both
cybersecurity and cyber resiliency.
Ranjan Sinha is infusing AI at scale
into IBM's core processes
with IBM's cognitive enterprise data platform.
Dr. Jia Chen is an innovation catalyst
who was a key member of the team
that developed the IBM Digital Health Pass,
a digital approach to verifying
COVID-19 health credentials such as vaccinations.
As people and businesses returned to work,
to the activities and places they love.
Pratik Gupta applies AI powered automation
to change how business and IT works,
and has been awarded patents in computer security,
cloud computing, and systems management.
Shue-Jane Thompson leads the global security practice
applying advanced cyber capabilities for protecting
the world's leading organizations against cyber threats.
Chieko Asakawa has been instrumental
for three decades in pioneering technologies,
including groundbreaking work in digital braille
and voice browser that ensures every person
can reach their full potential regardless of age or ability.
Dr. Ruchir Puri has led
innovations and products in cutting edge
AI and automation algorithms for decades,
with over 70 patents and over 120 scientific papers.
Edan Dionne is integral
to IBM's leadership in sustainability
as we drive towards net zero
greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
Dr. Hanhee Paik has pushed the boundaries
of quantum computing by advancing next generation
quantum computing processors with new designs
of superconducting qubits and led the development
of IBM's publicly available 16-qubit device.
With the explosion of data in today's digital economy,
the infrastructure of the future connects data insights,
people, businesses, platforms, and ecosystems
across borders and languages.
Thank you to the builders from all backgrounds and cultures
who are ensuring that infrastructure will serve us all.