Transphorm was co-founded in 2007 by CEO Umesh Mishra, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

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"For what it was invented for, the mouse does a good job, " said John Elias, co-inventor of the MultiTouch system and a professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at the University of Delaware.

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She chose to study electrical engineering at General Motors Institute (now Kettering University) in Flint, Mich. because the paid co-op program helped finance her education.

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