Timing, Trust, and Technical Credibility Building, the Long Game with Ram Krishnan

About this episode

Ram Krishnan discusses the evolution of technology transfer and the importance of building strong IP portfolios over time.

One of the biggest shifts in technology transfer over the past decade isn’t just the pace of innovation. It’s the realization that value isn’t created at a single moment. It builds over time, shaped by how well research, intellectual property, and real-world application stay aligned. The challenge isn’t only generating strong ideas. It’s understanding how those ideas evolve, how they’re protected, and whether they ultimately solve problems people care enough about to adopt and pay for. My guest today is Ram Krishnan, Senior Director of Engineering in Qualcomm’s Government Affairs Group, where he focuses on global IP ecosystem development. Ram's career has taken him across engineering, business, and intellectual property in standards-driven industries such as wireless communications, AI, XR, and autonomous driving. Now he works with universities, startups, and government organizations around the world, focused on how innovation gets taught, protected, and turned into real products and technologies that can actually scale. We talk about what it means to think about innovation as a full lifecycle rather than a single breakthrough, how strong IP portfolios are built over time, and…

People in this episode

Host: AUTM

Guest: Ram Krishnan

Topics covered

• technology transfer
• innovation lifecycle
• intellectual property
• research alignment
• university partnerships
• problem-solving technologies

Keywords

• technology transfer
• innovation
• intellectual property
• engineering
• partnerships
• research
• problem-solving
• AI
• autonomous driving

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Qualcomm, universities, startups, government organizations

Places: global, wireless communications, AI, XR, autonomous driving

More episodes of AUTM on the Air

• How Novartis Approaches External Research Collaboration with Dr. Yogesh Sharma · June 10, 2026 · 27 min
• Bridging the Early-Stage Funding Gap in Innovation with Teri Willey · June 3, 2026 · 29 min
• Detecting Alzheimer’s Earlier with a Simple Blood Test with Yuanbing Jiang · May 27, 2026 · 23 min
• Turning Research into Real World Impact from the Inside Out with Ravini Moodley · May 20, 2026 · 24 min
• The Missing Link Between Research and Real-World Impact with Ben Reinhardt · May 6, 2026 · 36 min
• Thriving in Small Tech Transfer Offices with Caitlin Long and Sanaz Shahi · April 29, 2026 · 22 min