Sylvia Lu

Board Member, 5G Alliance for Connected Industries and Automation (5G-ACIA)

An award-winning Chartered Engineer and strategist, a Non-Executive Director, advisor, and ambassador. Sylvia has over 15 years of experience in the Telecoms industry for four mobile generations (2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G) and was recognized as one of the UK’s Top 50 Women in Engineering. Sylvia is a Fellow of RSA (Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce).

Sylvia is with u-blox at the Corporate Strategy group – a Swiss semiconductor vendor of positioning and wireless communication chipsets, modules, and services.

Sylvia serves on several national and global industry Boards: she is an elected CW (Cambridge Wireless) Board Director since 2017 and was appointed to the Advisory Board of UK5G in 2018. She was appointed as Vice-chair of the UK5G International Working Group in 2019, and co-chair of UK5G Manufacturing WG, co-leading the development of the UK proposition and engagement plan with overseas government and industry sectors.

In 2020, Sylvia was elected to the Board of 5G-ACIA (5G Alliance for Connected Industries and Automation) to set strategic direction, and collaborate with ICT and OT stakeholders to maximize the applicability of 5G technology in connected industries, in particular the manufacturing and process sectors. The mission of 5G-ACIA is to strive to ensure that new 5G developments – including possible integration concepts and migration paths – are understood by and transferred to the industrial domain, and also evaluate key technologies emerging from 5G standardization bodies. She was re-elected for a second term in Dec 2022.

Since 2023, Sylvia was appointed to the Board of UKTIN, which provides independent advice on the telecoms sector, champions the opportunities in telecoms research, development, and innovation for the UK, and helps UKTIN provide impartial input to the government.

Sylvia operates on an international stage as a keynote speaker for a wide range of stakeholders. Highlights incl. the House of Lords, Financial Times Live, Westminster eForum, United Nations International Telecommunication Union, Mobile World Congress, Hannover Messe, Ofcom, IET, IEEE, ABI Research, 5G Techritory Forum, 6G Symposium etc.), and contributes to industry magazines and journals, some of which have been translated into 7 languages with a global reach.

She holds a first-class Electronic Engineering degree, a Master of Science degree in Communications and Signal Processing from the University of Bristol. She graduated with a Distinction in PGDip Strategy & Innovation from the University of Oxford, and an Executive MBA degree from the University of Cambridge. 

Sylvia is also an amateur artist.