I am a PhD student at Princeton University. I study Computer Science and am interested in Networks and Systems.

fred_at_princeton.jpg        Yesterday, we had Fred Wilson (Union Square Ventures) as a guest speaker in a "How to be a CTO" course at Princeton (that I'm the preceptor for). During the lecture Fred mentioned that even though Princeton is just a train ride away from NYC, it's the first time he is speaking here; something he hopes to change. In this post, I'm going to follow up on that discussion (summarize the relevant parts of what Fred said), and discuss role of universities in local tech industry. I'll mainly talk about Princeton and NYC, but similar arguments can be applied to other areas/universities as well.

I've often thought about the link between university research and startup activity e.g., the Silicon Valley started on land leased from Stanford University, maintained a close link with Stanford, and over the years not only did tech giants emerge from university research (recent examples are Google, VMWare), but the companies then came back full circle to support the university (funding research, hiring graduates).

TigerLaunch 2009

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In Feb'09, I participated in Princeton's Annual Business Plan competition called TigerLaunch. The event was fun and had $15K cash prizes and 30+ initial teams. In the semi-finals, I enjoyed pitching in front of VCs from Sierra Ventures and Internet Capital Group. I ended up winning two awards at TigerLaunch'09 and today, after some needless university procedures, received my prize check through snail mail.

I'd like to thank the Princeton Entrepreneurship Club for organizing this. Keep up the good work guys! Results of TigerLaunch 2009 are here.
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NSDI 2009

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I'm going to NSDI '09        I will be in Boston April 22-24 for NSDI'09. Looking forward to the event!

Moved to Princeton

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This post is long over due. I left the Netherlands in August 2008 and joined Princeton University for my PhD. I had a great time working in Delft, specially because of Koen Langendoen. He made everything easy for me. Amazing guy.

Living in the Netherlands was liberating and exciting. All good things come to an end and I have moved further west. On my first day here, I walked past the famous tigers and heard a whisper in my head.

Welcome to Princeton.

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Fire Near Office

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fire.jpg     The building next to my office burnt down!
Picture of Muneeb