Isaac Robert "Ike" Nassi (born 1949 in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

) is the founder, and former CTO and chairman at TidalScale, Inc. before its acquisition by HPE, and an adjunct professor of computer science at the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of C ...

. He is known for creating (with

Ben Shneiderman Ben Shneiderman (born August 21, 1947) is an American computer scientist, a Distinguished University Professor in the University of Maryland Department of Computer Science, which is part of the University of Maryland College of Computer, Mathem ...

) the highly influential Nassi–Shneiderman diagram notation. He also helped design the

Ada programming language Ada is a structured, statically typed, imperative, and object-oriented high-level programming language, inspired by Pascal and other languages. It has built-in language support for '' design by contract'' (DbC), extremely strong typing, expli ...

. Ike is a Life Fellow of the IEEE, and a Senior Life Member of ACM.

Early life

Ike is a graduate of

Brooklyn Technical High School Brooklyn Technical High School, commonly called Brooklyn Tech and administratively designated High School 430, is a public specialized high school in New York City that specializes in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It is on ...

. He earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics, a master's degree and doctorate in

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

from

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public university, public research university in Stony Brook, New York, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is on ...

, New York, in 1974.

Career

Ike was formerly EVP and Chief Scientist at

SAP AG Sap is a fluid transported in the xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a sep ...

, and the practice lead of the SAP Research Technology Infrastructure practice, which was focused on guiding SAP's technology infrastructure vision, direction, and execution. His group was also responsible for the SAP Sponsored Academic Research Program. Prior to his work at TidalScale and SAP, Ike helped start three companies: Firetide, InfoGear Technology, and Encore Computer. He co-founded the wireless mesh company Firetide and then served as its EVP, chief technology officer (CTO), and chairman of the board. Ike was the CTO and head of product operations at InfoGear prior to its acquisition by

Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, m ...

. He helped start Encore Computer, a pioneer in symmetric multiprocessors and forerunner of today's multicore processors. In addition to his start-up experience, Ike held an executive position at Cisco Systems following its acquisition of InfoGear Technology. He joined

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Comput ...

to run the new Advanced Technology Group research lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts near MIT, work on the Dylan programming language intended for the

Apple Newton The Newton is a specified standard and series of personal digital assistants (PDAs) developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Computer, Inc. from 1993 to 1998. An early device in the PDA categorythe term itself originating with the Newtonit w ...

, become VP of Development Tools in California, become SVP of Software, launch MkLinux, and become a Corporate Officer. He served on the boards of

Taligent Taligent Inc. (a portmanteau of "talent" and "intelligent") was an American software company. Based on the Pink object-oriented operating system conceived by Apple in 1988, Taligent Inc. was incorporated as an Apple/IBM partnership in 1992, and ...

and the

OpenDoc OpenDoc is a defunct multi-platform software componentry framework standard created by Apple in the 1990s for compound documents, intended as an alternative to Microsoft's proprietary Object Linking and Embedding (OLE). It is one of Apple's ea ...

Foundation. He also held executive and senior management roles at Visual Technology (Tewkesbury, Massachusetts),

Digital Equipment Corporation Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC ), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president until ...

, and at

SofTech SofTech, Inc. was a computer software company with offices in the United States and headquarters established in Lowell, Massachusetts. SofTech was a significant provider of software engineering tools and solutions in the 1970's as well as Product ...

. Ike serves as an active member of the board of trustees of the

Computer History Museum The Computer History Museum (CHM) is a computer museum in Mountain View, California. The museum presents stories and artifacts of Silicon Valley and the Information Age, and explores the Digital Revolution, computing revolution and its impact ...

in Mountain View, California, and formerly served on the board of the

Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology AnitaB.org (formerly Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, and Institute for Women in Technology) is a global nonprofit organization based in Belmont, California. Founded by computer scientists Anita Borg and Telle Whitney, the institut ...

. He is a member of the Industry Advisory Board of the

IEEE Computer Society IEEE Computer Society (commonly known as the Computer Society or CS) is a technical society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) dedicated to computing, namely the major areas of hardware, software, standards and people ...

, and member of the Advisory Boards of

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

, and

Peking University Peking University (PKU) is a Public university, public Types of universities and colleges in China#By designated academic emphasis, university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of the Peop ...

. He has been a visiting scholar at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

and U.C. Berkeley, and was most recently a visiting scientist at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

. Nassi holds several patents and He was a member of the

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adva ...

's Information Systems and Technology group and has testified before Congress on the Emerging Telecommunications Act of 1991.

Awards

Ike was awarded a Certificate for Distinguished Service in 1983 from the

Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, ...

for his work on the design of the Ada programming language.

References

External links

* Ike Nassi's homepage
SAP Research at SAP Labs LLC
- Ike Nassi at SAP Research, SAP Labs LLC {{DEFAULTSORT:Nassi, Isaac American chief technology officers American computer scientists American technology chief executives Apple Inc. executives Computer systems researchers Living people Programming language researchers 1949 births