The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign inducted three extraordinary individuals into The Grainger Engineering Hall of Fame on November 14, 2025. The honorees exemplify the bold spirit, positive social impact and legacy of excellence that are Grainger Engineering hallmarks.

The college honored Arvind Krishna ('87, M.S., '91, Ph.D., Electrical Engineering), chairman and chief executive officer of IBM; Sidney Lu ('81, B.S., Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics), chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Foxconn Interconnect Technology, Ltd.; and Peter Sauer, Grainger Chair Emeritus Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (awarded posthumously). 

Prior to a gala and awards ceremony, Krishna and Lu participated in a fireside chat with Rashid Bashir, dean of The Grainger College of Engineering, and Mary T. McDowell ('86, B.S., Computer Science), chair of the Grainger Engineering Board of Visitors and former CEO of Polycom and Mitel Networks.

The conversation also recognized Professor Sauer for his contributions to power systems engineering and his instrumental role in establishing the college's relationship with its namesake, The Grainger Foundation.

The following remarks are excerpts from a fireside chat with Krishna and Lu. An audience of students, faculty and staff filled the house for the conversation that covered topics from energy to entrepreneurship, leadership to machine learning.

 

What excites you today: Arvind Krishna

I think technology is becoming even more important to the real economy. Engineers, and I'm assuming some of the people in the room are engineers, have always thought of technology as important, but it's shaping the real economy. By shaping the real economy, think back to about 50 years ago. Companies that did physical goods were by and large the ones that had all of the value. Think oil, think food, think consumer-packaged goods. If you go forward, financial services began to raise itself. Technology. And so, the question is why?

 I think we're at the beginning of that journey, and as technology has that impact then, hopefully, we can all have a bigger and bigger piece of that impact, and that gives growth to individuals, it gives growth to colleges, it gives growth to the state, it gives growth to countries. That's what excites me the most right now.

“... Technology allows you to scale. It allows you to get global reach. It allows you to have an impact upon the entire population of the globe, and hence it provide a lot of value …”

– Arvind Krishna

 

What excites you today: Sidney Lu

The world is getting more and more complex, also more and more splintered; but through it all technology is the one thing that brings humanity upwards. Right now, the buzzword is AI. A few years ago, it was EV, then we looked at dot-com, but as Arvind just pointed out, technology itself is an evolutionary process of humankind.

As a species, what is the general theme of all of us? We want to make tomorrow better for us. And that to me is an endless optimism for our species. We have a lot of problems we're facing today, but guess what? There are also a lot of solutions out there. So, let's work together, really pay attention to technology and let us … elevate ourselves to be even better.

“When I was a student, just having that HP pocket calculator, that was like the coolest things in engineering, right? … But look at it today. I mean, everybody has a notebook. Not just a notebook. That notebook actually used to be a mainframe IBM computer. So, this is what technology has brought us.”

– Sidney Lu

 

Changes to the technology landscape: Arvind Krishna

I think many people think of technology as in the end being the user interface, but you actually need the complete stack to get that value … What people forget is every single layer is actually equally important to the end goal. So, you need the user interface, you need all of the software, you need all of the connectivity, you need all of the semiconductors, you need all of the connectors.

Let me keep going. You need power, you need energy, you need a physical building, you need all those things. And it is really important for those who worry about shaping the future that you have enough of the skills at every one of those levels. Otherwise, none of the value exists.

 

AI and quantum: Arvind Krishna

AI will help quantum, that is for sure, because you can use AI to help you design programs, design circuits, understand how to interact with something whose underlying mathematics is dramatically different. So, one side is clear. I think quantum will help AI.

… [Quantum] is really good at picking up hidden patterns in data. What AI is trying to do is come up with a model representation of data which includes those hidden patterns. I think in the long term we know that quantum machine learning, which is a term being used by theorists and mathematicians, will happen. The question is, will it be of scale enough to make a huge difference? That is the one that I'm putting out there a bit further, but AI helping quantum is here and now.

“You’ve got to think big. You’ve got to think bold. Without that, you're going to fail. Then you've got to recursively apply it to smaller and smaller and tighter situations, and that is where success comes from.”

– Arvind Krishna

 

On leadership: Sidney Lu

You’ve got to think big and think far so the troops know where we're all going. You’ve got to give them that promised land. But in the meantime, while everybody's marching over there, you’ve got to be able to come in and assist and understand the problems and issues and actually be in the trenches with the team to get there.

Oftentimes a lot of leaders, they say, "Oh, I delegate." No, no, no, no, no. … Avoid delegate. Understand and empower, but in the meantime, assist.

“We call it the Bermuda Triangle. You want to have the best quality, you want to have the shortest delivery time and you want it at the best cost. Those are the three triangle points. And then you can only pick two. You can never get all three. So, how do you balance that? It's more of an art than a science.”

– Sidney Lu

 

Entering the workforce and entrepreneurship: Sidney Lu

Any kind of a career is hard. First of all, people ask me this funny question. When I left here, I worked for General Motors, Packer Electric Advanced Engineering, down in Warren, Ohio. And people ask me why I chose that job … I had nine offers … don't hate me for that, that was just the time, not because of me. And it just turned out that the offer from General Motors was one of the attractive ones. So, I just took it.

But I had the privilege, before I took the job, I had two summer jobs … so, I could understand what engineers do. That to me is the most important. … It's so great here at Illinois. We have great advisors … We have a really out-of-the-ballpark placement office. These are the folks who are going to help you. … They said, “We'll teach you how to write to them. We'll teach you how to highlight your strong points, so they're interested in hiring you." They gave me all this advice, and I had two summer jobs. So, when I had interviews, I had a portfolio.

You need some base. So go work for some corporations and whatnot. Pick up what they have that you lack. And for people who really want to start their career [as an entrepreneur], my advice to you is, first of all, figure out how you’re going to put food on the table for the next two years. Capital is very expensive, and it's very important, right? If you have that to sustain you, then you move forward. If not, hunker down, get a job, get some savings and get some connections, then move on.