Building Intelligent Systems Across Hardware and Software
How silicon verification, embedded systems, and cloud infrastructure converge in AI-era product development.
Media
Speaking & Media
Available for conferences, podcasts, panels, and interviews on hardware, AI, entrepreneurship, and human-centered technology.
Short Bio
Ernesto Sola-Thomas is a silicon engineer at Microsoft and founder of Huitzo, a self-hosted AI runtime for regulated enterprises. He verifies AI acceleration silicon by day and builds AI infrastructure independently. His work spans hardware verification, post-quantum cryptography, assistive robotics, and cloud systems. He holds degrees from Clarkson University and has published in IEEE on assistive technology and secure systems.
Full Bio
Ernesto Sola-Thomas is a silicon verification engineer at Microsoft, where he builds reusable UVM test environments for AI accelerator chips, verifying floating-point pipelines, driving coverage closure, and developing automation adopted across verification teams. Outside Microsoft, he founded Huitzo, a self-hosted AI runtime (the operating system for intelligence) that lets regulated enterprises run AI applications inside their own infrastructure, so sensitive data never leaves their environment. Ernesto's technical range spans the full stack from transistors to APIs. He has published peer-reviewed research at IEEE on autonomous wheelchairs for indoor hospital navigation, ultra-low-power wearable vision systems for blind users, FPGA-based prosthetic hand control, and ECG-based emotion recognition. His master's thesis at Clarkson University introduced a post-quantum secured file transfer protocol with blockchain auditability. Through Sola-Thomas Solutions LLC, he partners with founders and small teams to de-risk architecture and ship production-grade infrastructure. Ernesto is driven by the belief that technology should create long-term value and expand human potential, not just chase trends.
Suggested Topics
From Silicon Verification to Startup Building
Lessons from bridging deep technical work at Microsoft with founding Huitzo and shipping real products.
Purpose-Driven Technology and Practical Innovation
Why the most impactful technology starts with human problems, not technical solutions.
AI Infrastructure, Productization, and Execution
Making AI work in production: from model selection to deployment pipelines to measuring business outcomes.
Lessons from Bridging Research, Engineering, and Venture Building
Navigating the transition from academic research to industry engineering to entrepreneurship.
Why Ernesto
- Rare combination of silicon engineering depth and startup execution experience
- Six publications across IEEE conferences and arXiv, spanning assistive technology and secure systems
- Actively building at Microsoft and independently. Speaks from current experience, not past glory
- Bilingual (English/Spanish) with cross-cultural perspective