Kneron Hires Former Qualcomm Taipei Head of Engineering as Vice President of Engineering 

SAN DIEGO,  April 7, 2020 — Kneron, an on-device edge artificial intelligence (AI) solutions-provider based in San Diego, California, announces it has hired Davis Chen as Vice President of Engineering. Chen, a former Head of Engineering at Qualcomm Taipei, will be responsible for the leadership of the engineering teams at Kneron, developing the latest Edge AI technology.

Davis Chen. (Source: LinkedIn)

In his 25-year tenure at Qualcomm, Chen won eight Qualcomm Annual Achievement Awards and managed six business units including:

• Mobile
• IOT/XR
• Compute
• Connectivity
• Auto
• Audio

At Kneron, he will lead the company’s engineering teams in innovating reconfigurable edge AI solutions aimed at accelerating the adoption of on-device AI in a diverse range of AIoT devices –– from smart doorbells and door locks, to IP cameras and smart home devices, all with the larger goal of creating the ‘Edge AI Net.’

The  ‘Edge AI Net’ will be the most secure and private environment and network available to connect every AI/smart device and service in a user’s life. Rather than devices reporting back to the cloud, they will instead share data and communicate with to each other in a private network. This will enable seamless, secure, and private use of all AI that will enhance people’s lives.

Davis Chen, Vice President of Engineering at Kneron says: “I joined Kneron not only because we are at the forefront of commercializing on-device AI inferencing solutions, but because I believe in the vision of the Edge AI Net. I’m excited to work on realizing that vision and democratizing AI from the cloud to everyday devices. Edge AI is a vital catalyst for the future of AI adoption, especially at the consumer level.”

Davis Chen is another example of Kneron's highly-experienced leadership team, which is unusual for a startup:

• Frank Chang (Co-founder): David Sarnoff Award-winning IEEE Fellow; the Wintek Endowed Chair and Distinguished Professor at the Electrical Engineering Department of UCLA
• Daniel Yuan (Chief Architect): formerly Chief Architect of Kingdee Software; named to the "Top 20 People Influencing Software Development in China" by Programmer Magazine.
• Adrian Ong (Chief Commercial Officer): formerly Qualcomm's Vice President Business Development; spent 25 years at Qualcomm and led global chipset launches from 2G to 5G

Albert Liu,  CEO and Co-Founder of Kneron says: “We are excited to welcome Davis to our team. Davis’ vast experience and knowledge of this industry is the key to realizing the Edge AI Net. 2020 is an exciting year for Kneron as we move closer to this goal.”

Chen was onboarded at Kneron in March, and will work from the company’s office in Taipei, Taiwan.

About Kneron

Kneron is a San Diego based technology company that was founded in 2015. It develops both hardware and software products, which are used in smart devices to run and power AI applications. Kneron is a single port of call for device manufacturers who want to integrate AI into their products. The products include hardware such as AI chips and software such as AI models, that device manufacturers can use in everything from autonomous cars, all the way down to a smart fridge, doorbell, or any Internet of Things device. Kneron primarily solves three main problems for smart devices running AI — security, energy and cost, thereby enabling AI everywhere and for everyone. Kneron’s solutions are reconfigurable, and will be as efficient at processing image and audio AI models in the future as they are now. It has raised over $70mn to date and is backed by Horizons Ventures, Alibaba, Qualcomm, Sequoia, and more. For further information about Kneron, please visit: http://www.kneron.com/about.php

Source: Kneron