2025 Lunch & Learn – Austin

Amrutha Rachakonda

Hardware Thermal Engineer

Meta

Amrutha Rachakonda is a Hardware Thermal Engineer at Meta, specializing in thermal and fluid sciences. With 5+ years in the semiconductor industry, she excels in thermal management, system optimization, and cross-functional collaboration. Her key achievement includes contributions to “Aurora,” a first of its kind hyperscale computing platform. Amrutha holds a master’s in mechanical engineering from UTA with her thesis focused on thermal management of high-power electronics and is passionate about lifelong learning and advancing the semiconductor industry, particularly in AI and ML platforms.

Renee Parente

Program Management Director

AMD

Renee Parente is the Business Operations Director for Technology & Product Engineering (TPE) at AMD, where she serves as Chief of Staff to Senior Vice President Mark Fuselier and leads the TPE Administrative Professionals. She is the Global Lead for the AMD Women’s Forum, an initiative focused on empowering women within the company, and advises the AMD Community Impact Team to foster corporate philanthropy and encourage employee volunteerism.

With 28 years of experience at AMD and its AMD/Motorola Joint Venture, Renee has held multiple leadership roles, including extensive contributions in AMD’s Device Analysis Labs specializing in advanced techniques such as electron microscopy and focused ion beam analysis. A recognized leader in failure analysis, she currently serves as the 2024–2026 President of the Electronic Device Failure Analysis Society and as General Chair for the 2025 International Symposium for Testing and Failure Analysis.

Renee earned a degree in Biochemistry from Rutgers University and remains passionate about driving innovation, mentoring emerging leaders, and advancing community engagement.

Garima Sharda

VP of Engineering | Semiconductor Leader | SoC Design & Product Strategy Leader

Garima Sharda is a semiconductor executive with 20+ years of experience in SoC design and product strategy. As VP of Engineering at Silicon Labs, she leads global teams delivering innovative IoT solutions. With deep R&D and product leadership across NXP, Freescale, and Silicon Labs, she holds 15 U.S. patents. Garima combines technical depth with strategic vision to drive high-impact, differentiated products.

Li Sun

Senior Technical Leader in Hardware Engineering

Cisco

Li Sun is a Senior Technical Leader in Hardware Engineering at Cisco Systems. She has extensive expertise in hardware design, manufacturing test development, embedded software, data engineering, and ASIC AI/ML test optimization. She drives ASIC and board-level hardware quality throughout the comprehensive product lifecycle data, from inception to return. Passionate about collaboration, she works across teams to resolve product quality issues and enhance manufacturing excellence.