Alumni News

Rick Bergman, EVP of Computing and Graphics at Advanced Micro Devices, came to campus to accept the 2019 ECE Alumni Impact Award and spoke about his career and the future of computing and human interface.

Yee gave advice to students on how to best prepare for a career helping produce the next generation of high-tech electronics.

Sanders has spent the past 25 years of his career at the University of Illinois, working on secure and dependable computing and security for critical infrastructures.

McLaughlin spoke about how academic institutions can take better care of their students’ mental health while providing a fuller academic experience, as well as his love for U-M.

Ford acquires Quantum Signal AI, founded by ECE alum Mitchell Rohde, to make robotaxis and driverless delivery vehicles a reality within two years.

Nominees were selected based on their career accomplishments, impact in their field, and contributions to their community.

For his work championing ECE from the classroom to the boardroom, Nicolaos Alexopoulos has received Michigan Engineering’s 2019 Alumni Award, the highest accolade given by the Michigan Engineering Alumni Board.

For her outstanding dedication to electrical and computer engineering education at the University of Michigan, Karen Fireman is honored with the Distinguished Alumni Service Award.

For the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, U-M ECE takes a look back – and a look forward – to how our professors, students, and alums have made their mark on the field.

The global capital equipment company is looking to harness the engineering talent at U-M and power a brighter future with tech.

As an ECE Distinguished Lecturer, Dr. Jeremy Muldavin (BSE EP; MSE PhD EE) spoke about a DoD initiative to improve the competitiveness of the U.S. in microelectronics.

Tony Hsu (BSE EE ’68) looks back on how a single moment as a freshman at U-M inspired him to pursue a lifelong quest to understand the life and legacy of his famous grandfather.

Dr. Cyrus Hadavi (PhD CE ’83) shares his hopes for the future of the ECE program, his knowledge as CEO of a long-lasting company, and his memories of good ole Ann Arbor days.

At this year’s convention for the National Society of Black Engineers, U-M professors, students, and alums came together with the other attendees to share experiences, offer career advice, and explore how to improve society.

Movellus is a U-M startup founded by alumni Dr. Mo Faisal (now CEO) and Dr. Jeff Fredenburg (now VP of Engineering).

EECS-ECE alum Dr. Katie Bouman has helped expand our knowledge of the universe in a big way by shining light on one of the darkest mysteries in the cosmos.

New device caught more than three times as many cancer cells as conventional blood draw samples.

Bob Trew led a distinguished life as a professor, administrator, and public servant.

The Honorable Zachary Lemnios, recipient of the 2018 ECE Alumni Impact Award, believes we are entering the Golden Age of Engineering.

Rick Bolander (BSE MSE EE ’83 ’85; MBA ’94, Harvard) has devoted his career to fulfilling the entrepreneurial dreams of others as much as his own.

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From blowing up microwaves to inspiring a new generation of microwave engineers, Professor Franklin shares her research, insights, and thoughts on the future of women in engineering.

The highest accolade from the Michigan Engineering Alumni Board goes to a thought leader with a track record of predicting the industry’s future.

VP of the world’s largest gaming and social company, Tong spoke to students about AI, pursuing a global maximum in your career, and what it’s like to work in China when you don’t speak Mandarin.

Flores leads the development of frameworks for autonomous driving, connectivity, and electronic controls.

With an engineering background, Singhi has excelled in business.

An expert health sciences entrepreneur, Rich is ready to repeat success with revolutionary technology.

Nino Masnari, alumnus, friend, and former faculty member of Electrical and Computer Engineering, passed away May 19, 2018 at the age of 82.

Yin researched cyber-physical systems and discrete-event systems.

Katherine Herrick is a leader at Raytheon, and discovered how to be a mentor from her own role models after her time at Michigan.

To address the growing concern of fake news, U-M has formed the School of Information Center for Social Media Responsibility, and hired EECS alumnus Garlin Gilchrist II.

Students met with alumni at companies in the Puget Sound area.

Hero and his team may have discovered a better way to facilitate communication using a twist on the classic game of 20 Questions.

Porche discussed the changing definition of war and how information is playing a greater role than ever.

Chuck and Pat Krumm look forward to the Fellowship Fund enhancing the ability of future engineers to contribute positively to society.

Porche shares the global state of cyber warfare, and how his time at Michigan led him to the front lines.

His PhD from Michigan ECE allowed him to lead one of the largest tech companies’ AI Products initiative.

Thomas B. A. Senior, professor emeritus of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, passed away peacefully November 24, 2017, at the age of 89.

The new partnership will provide scalable storage and an analytic software framework available to all U-M researchers.

Alumnus Navid Yazdi develops sensors that accomplish incredible tasks.

The unexpected journey of father-and-daughter Raytheon engineers.

His inventions spanned the spectrum from playful to paramount.

ECE alum Rick Bergman, CEO of Synaptics, is working to make tomorrow’s technology user friendly, safe, and reliable. The company hopes to lead what they call “the human interface revolution.”

Believing in the power of creativity and quick action, the Fusses wanted to give the department maximum flexibility to respond to new initiatives and special needs wherever and whenever they arose. They are especially interested in expanding student diversity.

Fuss’ solid foundation and curious nature led him to make lasting contributions first at Bell Labs, and then as a founder and president of Tellabs, International.

Elmer Gilbert reflects on his illustrious career in Control

Babak Parviz (MSE PhD EE 97 01; also MS Physics 97) was presented with a Bicentennial Alumni Award for his pioneering technological innovations that improve people’s lives. Babak is one of 20 alumni to earn this award.

Alumnus Kukjin Chun receives the highest national honor for a Korean scientist and engineer.

Vasanthakumar came back to Chennai in 2016 with a goal to reinvent traditional and widely used personal products, starting with one of the most versatile products –— the lunchbox.

This honor, established in 2017, recognizes Dr. Hong for his pioneering work in the personal electronics industry, playing a key role in shaping our world.

Alumnus develops platform that allows instructors to turn almost any course into a multiplayer online game.

This award is given to those for Distinguished Public Service that is expected to help tech employees

Alumna works on microgrids to upgrade infrastructure

Franklin believes the best research results are achieved from a diversity of backgrounds, something she learned as a graduate student at Michigan and fosters in her own research group at Minnesota.

Prof. Todd Coleman’s group is tackling the challenging problem of getting high-fidelity monitoring to work affordably at home.

Behdad has tackled some of the toughest problems in antenna research. But for his applications, they need to be very small – small enough to be used to treat cancer.

Microprocessing changed the computing world, and Michigan alumnus Lee Boysel played a pivotal role.

Movellus Circuits won $25,000 in the University Research Highlight and People’s Choice categories

Alumnus David Tarver founded the Urban Entrepreneurship Initiative (UEI) Inc., in 2014. UEI helps aspiring entrepreneurs tackle urban problems with innovative, sustainable and profitable business solutions.

Researchers from around the nation gathered at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor to celebrate the 100th birthday of alumnus Claude E. Shannon (BSE EE/Eng Math ’36, ScD hon. ’61) at the Shannon Centennial Symposium.

This gift qualifies for the University’s Michigan Matching Initiative for Student Support, and proceeds will provide need-based scholarship support to electrical and computer engineering undergraduate students.

Hygieia automates and streamlines diabetes treatment, a disease affecting over 29 million Americans.

Shannon theorized the binary code of zeros and ones that makes cell phones, email and the Internet possible.

MEMStim’s technology is already two phases into pre-clinical testing in preparation for FDA examination. Very few MEMS devices have made it this far.

Mr. Battel is an expert on low-noise instrumentation power systems and is internationally recognized for his expertise in the design and development of space high voltage systems.

Dr. Hatamian is Fellow and Chief Scientist – Central Engineering at Broadcom Ltd. He joined the company in 1996.

The fund will provide merit-based support to graduate students studying Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Posters and presentations were judged by faculty and a visiting group of 14 returning ECE alumni, and winners were chosen in each area of study.

There were 40 alumni in attendance, with graduation years ranging from 1965 to 2014.

Garlin Gilchrist II set out on a lifelong mission to bring engineering solutions to communities in need.

Dr. Gauthier is co-founder and CTO of the semiconductor interface intellectual property (IP) company, OmniPhy.

Dr. Nader Najafi is now leading the development of some of the most advanced micro-scale medical technology in the world.

Alum startup Jetivity aims to bring people together around shared interests with a free platform for posting activities.

As a devoted Michigan alumnus, he established the Ernest and Bettine Kuh Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Michigan.

This annual ranking of innovative companies in SE Michigan is based on the quality of patents received during the past year.

The young executive has an extensive history in both the business and tech worlds.

Along with alumni, there were current and former faculty members, current students, friends, and colleagues, including several program managers, in attendance.

Don’t let the retro arcade games and oscilloscopes fool you – Mitch’s company is as modern as they come.

Paul E. and Ruth E. Bauhahn of have made a planned gift of $450,000 to establish the Ruth E. and Paul E. Bauhahn Fellowship Fund to support full-time graduate students in Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Shahin and Sassan discussed everything from the acquisition trends of small vs. large companies to the importance of building a team with a range of expertise.

Mr. Aupperle was a true Michigan man, devoting his career to the University and to the state of Michigan in his role as director and later president of Merit Network.

The Turing Award has honors the computer scientists and engineers who create the systems and underlying theoretical foundations that propel the information technology industry.

Her dissertation focused on “opacity,” which captures whether a given secret of the system can be inferred by intruders who observe the behavior of the system.

Two ECE alumni were recognized in an ‘Electronics Weekly’ list of 2014’s top semiconductor CEOs.

Her experiences led her to establish the Irma M. Wyman Scholarship at the University’s Center for the Education of Women.

At the age of 24, Yang sold his company ChinaRen for $35 million.

ECE researchers had a strong presence at this year’s event, comprising nearly 80 of the day’s more than 240 presentations.

SkySpecs is currently in the process of launching their first product, the Guardian, which will help prevent collisions.

Dr. Hanson is the co-founder of a startup semiconductor company that plans to lead the low-power revolution in electronics by powering the Internet of Things.

Mollenkopf was elected as the third CEO of Qualcomm, Inc., which has become the largest fabless semiconductor producer in the world.

At MAC, Peter’s been able to combine his passions for scientific research and entrepreneurial creation.

Three hundred and eighty alumni and children stretched across North Campus, dabbling in drones and bones, rockets and radioactives.

Kathryn believes the country would benefit greatly if more scientific and technically trained people went into journalism or science policy.

The chips’ extreme energy efficiency enables them to be powered without a battery from harvested energy sources like vibration, thermal gradients, and more.

Dawson is thrilled that his work on Kinect has bred creativity and enhanced lives beyond video games.

The inventor of Google Glass is now developing glucose monitoring contact lenses.

Glyph is a wearable mobile personal theater and is the first head-mounted display coming to market that will have a virtual retinal display.

Nancy visits campus regularly as a speaker and is currently the mentor for a Michigan I-Corps innovation team.

Andrew Farah (BSE CE 1982; MSE Electrical Science 1984) was one of the chief architects behind the groundbreaking Chevy Volt.

Steve Mollenkopf is the President and COO of Qualcomm and talked about the company’s current projects.

“Many of these people have known each other for years; it’s a great time to catch up.”

Hosted by the different engineering departments, the day-long event offered nine different workshops.

George Haley describes himself as a simple man and in his own words he’s used to the finer things in life. “Theresa, food, wine, work – you name it, I’ve been lucky. You can put Michigan Engineering on that list; I wouldn’t be here without it.”

“He touched so many people scientifically and personally.”

The challenge problem required the participants to interpret data sets in a way that could be used to predict social behavior.

Whether it’s biking to the crest of Haleakala on Maui, or leading KLA-Tencor to the top of NASDAQ, Rick Wallace is familiar with making it to the summit.

This award is bestowed on a young ECE faculty member on the basis of teaching, research, and service, as well as a record of innovation and leadership.

The technical topics ranged from wireless and low power circuits, to MEMS, to microfabricated gas chromatographs.

Birdsall was a pioneer in microwave tubes and plasma physics, an avid runner, and a beloved member of the EC Berkley community.

“Without McCorquodale’s vision, unwavering persistence, and leadership in the face of decades of thinking to the contrary, CMOS oscillators would not exist today.”

“I wanted to give back. If it wasn’t for Michigan I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

“ePack utilizes state of the art micromachining technology to provide a cost effective and high performance packaging service for micro- and milli-scale devices.”

“Failure is an essential part of success. Be afraid of not learning enough, or not working with the best people. Don’t be afraid of failure, which is frequently success in disguise.”

The aim of Dattoli’s research is to improve and broaden the understanding of nanowire gas sensing behavior.

University of Michigan dedicates statue of Claude E. Shannon, alumnus and father of information theory.