On Saturday, October 24th, Stanford University hosted the Stanford Roundtable. The renowned interviewer Charlie Rose moderated a discussion titled: ‘The Road Back: From Economic Meltdown to Renewal’.  The archived webcast video is available on iTunes and on YouTube.

At one point in the discussion Charlie Rose asked about the education system. President Hennessey remarked that: “We depend at the graduate level on importing lots of graduate students because we don’t do enough out of our K-12 system. Because if it’s broken somewhere it’s broken deeply in science and math education.”

The following conversation is simply brilliant and is a showcase for how silly and frustrating the US immigration policy really is — even to those who have a direct audience with the President of the United States. Here are some of the best quotes from the video:

Eric Schmidt: “We don’t give them visa guys! This is a brilliant strategy; bring the smartest people in the world to Stanford, educate them and kick them out of the country. Brilliant strategy, great for America!”

Charlie Rose: “We should staple a greencard to a diploma”

Eric Schmidt: “Don’t you think a Stanford Graduate education is a reasonable condition for actually becoming a US Citizen?”

Eric Schmidt: “It is the stupidest policy in all of government; take the smartest people who are going to build companies and pay taxes and have them do it in another country.”

John Hennessey: “It makes no sense to take somebody who came here at two or three, with their parents, and say ‘you got a Harvard education, now go back to where you came from’”

The above quotes don’t really come through with their full intensity until you watch the video below. Watch from 0:24:41 till 0:27:45.

I have written before about my story as an immigrant founder. I am constantly meeting brilliant people who have come to the US for their education, studied here, and either have to return to their home country, or, are stuck working with their big-company employers simply because of their visa/immigration status. Perhaps the US should really consider taking the top 10% of all foreign students who earn their bachelors from a top 50 US school and give them greencard. Lets make that top 25% of all foreign students who earn a Master’s degree and 100% of all foreign students who earn a PhD. (I’ve tweeted this before, but Twitter search is so broken I can’t find my own tweet.)

Smart people come from all over the world. The US is lucky that they want to come here. It is foolish to not do everything to keep them here.

Rajeev Motwani

I was in complete disbelief when I read the first tweet yesterday evening that Stanford Computer Science professor Rajeev Motwani had passed away. I was still incredulous and hoping that it was untrue until the sad news was verified in a email sent to the department. Even now as I write this with Rajeev’s picture on my screen, it’s still hard to believe.

In March of this year Rajeev agreed to be an advisor to K9 Ventures. I was very excited to have Rajeev on board as an advisor for K9 and as a personal mentor. His untimely passing is a shock that will reverberate through Stanford and the Valley.

My introduction to Rajeev began as a student in the PhD program at Stanford CS. Rajeev was the head of the PhD program when I joined, and he was the defacto advisor to all incoming students until they found their own advisor. He was responsible for making sure that every student find a new home within the department in a timely manner. I can still remember Rajeev’s advice to all the students — that your only job in the first quarter is to find an advisor. And to not worry about requirements like Comprehensive Exams and Qualifying Exams and focus on the research. His mandate to us was that a PhD should make an incremental contribution to human knowledge. That phrase stuck in the back of my head throughout my PhD work and proved to be a good filter to test potential thesis topics. 

Even Rajeev didn’t know that in my first few interactions with him, I felt quite intimidated. Intimidated because of the immense respect I had for his intellect, his ability and his judgment. Even though my research interest was in the field of Human Computer Interaction, since my advisor (Terry Winograd) was on sabbatical at Google for the first year that I was at Stanford, I was fortunate to interact with Rajeev a little while longer than I otherwise would have.

When I decided that I wanted to enter the field of Venture Capital, Rajeev was one of the first people I contacted. He was instrumental in opening several doors for me and made valuable introductions to other VCs and firms on Sand Hill Road — leading to several valued relationships. As just one datapoint, it was through Rajeev’s introduction that Refocus Imaging obtained its funding.

Rajeev truly was a pillar of Stanford Computer Science and of Silicon Valley. He touched and helped so many people — as students, advisees, entrepreneurs, colleagues and friends. He directly or indirectly contributed to the formation and the success of numerous startups (Google being the most notable, but there are many, many more). I am incredibly thankful to Rajeev for this advice, his mentorship, and the role that he played in guiding me in choosing my path not only as a student, but for life. 

I feel truly fortunate to have interacted with and learnt from Prof Motwani. At the same time, I am deeply saddened at his sudden and untimely passing. I sincerely wish Rajeev’s family all the best in this difficult time and beyond.