Structuring R&D investment so institutions fund what will actually translate.

Dr. Deji Akanbi brings over 20 years of experience spanning academia, national laboratories, industry, intellectual property, and consulting. His career reflects a deep commitment to bridging advanced technology with real-world applications and strategic outcomes. He holds both a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and a B.Sc. summa cum laude in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech, and is a Licensed Professional Engineer (P.E.). Dr. Akanbi is an inventor with two engineering patents and has held academic roles as Graduate Teaching Assistant and Instructor at Georgia Tech, Adjunct Professor at the University of Houston, and Visiting Professor at Texas Southern University. His industry experience includes serving as Technology Strategist at Hewlett Packard, where he led product development and management for next-generation cloud computing data centers, and Principal Engineer at Halliburton, leading sensor systems design for oil and gas monitoring. At Sandia National Laboratories, Dr. Akanbi was Principal Engineer, overseeing the design of complex, interdisciplinary smart ground transportation systems. In the intellectual property space, he served as Lead Patent Engineer and Technology Specialist at Banner & Witcoff, drafting applications for clients such as Comcast (broadband telecom and communications), Nissan (battery charging infrastructure), PerkinElmer (biotechnology & advanced electronics), Allstate Insurance (artificial intelligence), and NTT Docomo (advanced wireless networks, 4G). In consulting, Dr. Akanbi was Vice President of Engineering at a Consulting Firm, where he led the Advanced Technology Practice and helped research institutions and technology companies secure billions in federal funding by integrating technical innovation, commercialization strategies, workforce development, and intellectual property. Funding was secured across a plurality of key technology focus areas including energy and materials (battery materials and recycling, smart grid, carbon capture, electric vehicles), semiconductors and advanced manufacturing, broadband wireless telecommunications (radio access networks, 5G), and artificial intelligence. He also led strategic partnership initiatives with venture capital, research universities, non-profits, national labs, private equity, technology policy, and law firms.