Rich Templeton, chairman, president, and CEO of Texas Instruments (TI), recently spoke to students and faculty members at a lecture on campus sponsored by the ECE Department. Focusing on the topic of semiconductor innovation, Templeton discussed the potential to solve critical problems in the areas of energy, health care, power efficiency, and public safety.

ECE researchers Kyekyoon "Kevin" Kim and Hyungsoo Choi have developed a new low-temperature, catalyst-free technique for growing copper nanowires.

Professor Weng C. Chew, Y.T. Lo Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering, was granted the 2008 Chen-To Tai Distinguished Educator Award of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Antennas and Propagation Society “for outstanding contributions to education in the fields of electromagnetic theory and computational electromagnetics.”

Professor James Coleman, Intel Alumni Endowed Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and former PhD student S. David Roh recently earned a United States patent for their research and development of the dual distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) grating semiconductor laser.

An Apple spokesman announced on April 23 that the company will be purchasing P.A. Semi, a semiconductor business founded by ECE Illinois alumnus and 2003 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient, Dan Dobberpuhl.

Three ECE students, Matt Davis, Terry Chen, and Tristan Griffith, will enter their target-shooting robot in a competition that is part of the 16th Annual DEFCON Computer Security Conference in Las Vegas August 8-10.

The ECE Department has announced the Outstanding Junior and Senior scholarship awardees for 2008.

Irfan Ahmad, associate director for the Illinois Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST), recently attended a High Tech Caucus in Nanotechnology Information and Product Display hosted by various congressmen on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

ECE Associate Professor Jont Allen is researching speech processing patterns that may help detect hearing loss and improve functioning of hearing devices such as hearing aids and cochlear implants.