The Wisdom of Winners

?2022 TECHCON Award Winners Share Their Stories?

Looking for some inspiration today? Each winner of the 2022 TECHCON Awards has a unique story that led them down the path of academia, and eventually to the point of distinction in their own area of expertise. We were wondering – and so we thought you might be wondering the same thing: What makes these award winners great? What motivates them? And we especially want to know: what wisdom and advice would they like to impart to all innovators in the semiconductor industry? Well, we asked, and are excited to share their answers with you here. Please be inspired by these remarkable researchers!?

Dr. Selma Mededovic Thagard (Sustainability Award Winner)?Richard and Helen March Endowed Professor?Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering? Clarkson University ?

Why did you choose this career??

“I always knew I wanted to work in academia and have followed a traditional path of pursuing a PhD followed by a postdoctoral experience and finally an academic career.”?

What advice do you have for future innovators??

“I never aspired to invent ‘something’ and perhaps as a result of that I did discover ‘something’ (i.e., a highly efficient process to treat contaminated water). Perhaps then my advice would be to have an open mind and recognize when your scientific discovery could be turned into an engineering solution that could help humanity.”?

Dr. Kaushik Roy , 美国普渡大学 and Dr. Jaydeep Kulkarni , 美国德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校 (Innovation Award)?

“The honor showcases coalitions or initiatives that are taking inventive approaches as they navigate a complex and changing semiconductor environment.” (www.engineering.prudue.edu)?

Read More About Drs. Roy and Kulkarni here >>>?

?Dr. Krishnendu Chakrabarty (Aristotle Award Winner)?John Cocke Distinguished Professor and former Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering ? 美国杜克大学 Duke University Pratt School of Engineering ?

How did your career journey lead you here???

“I received my undergraduate education at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and then moved to the US for graduate studies. I was mentored by Prof. John Hayes at The University of Michigan, and I received my Master’s and PhD degrees there. I had a short stint as Assistant Professor at 美国波士顿大学 and then moved to Duke University. As a Professor at Duke, I have collaborated extensively with SRC members and other major semiconductor companies. I am currently a Visiting Professor at NVIDIA. I have always prioritized student training and mentoring, and I am proud of the many accomplishments of my students.”?

What advice do you have for future innovators??

“Always have three "bags" of problems to work on. The first bag contains (short-term) problems that are of immediate relevance, and you can make an immediate impact by working on these problems (ideally with industry partners). The second bag contains longer-term problems that can be developed as PhD theses research topics, and which can be explored for five or more years. The third bag contains crazy ideas that are high risk, and will take a long time to make an impact. The mix of problems changes with time, just like a portfolio of stocks.?

Invest time in training students. Treat them with respect and as peers in an exciting research journey.?

Always set aside quality time for family and loved ones, and make sure there is life beyond work. Pace yourself. Research is not a sprint, it is a marathon.”?

Any other advice to share??

“I like this quote:?

‘In research the horizon recedes as we advance, and is no nearer at sixty than it was at twenty. As the power of endurance weakens with age, the urgency of? the pursuit grows more intense…And research is always incomplete.’?

-Mark Pattison, 1813–84 English educationist: Isaac Casaubon (1875)?

I wrote this article many years back called, Recipes for Productivity in Academia: The Ingredients, The Right Mix, And How To Stir The Pot.”?

Ganesh Subbarayan (Technical Excellence Award)?Professor of Mechanical Engineering? 美国普渡大学 School of Mechanical Engineering?

?Tell us about your career journey.?

“I received my B. Tech degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras in 1985, and pursued a direct?PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering at 美国康奈尔大学 , graduating in 1990. My doctoral research was broadly in developing computational techniques for mechanics problems with application to modeling the adaptive response of load bearing bones. Since I completed a minor in Computer Science as part of my doctoral degree, when I finished my PhD, I had the option to continue as a post-doctoral researcher developing parallel algorithms for nonlinear optimization or join the Technology Lab of IBM at Endicott, NY as a development staff member. I chose the latter, and I was for the first time introduced to electronics packaging. At IBM, my manger began to regularly assign me to projects to identify the root cause of failures during processing or manufacturing-- it was an intense and practical learning experience at the best place I could have hoped for to learn about all aspects of electronics packaging. When IBM's business priorities changed from hardware development, I pursued an academic career, starting in 1994 at 美国科罗拉多大学博尔德分校 and later beginning 2002, at Purdue University. I have been privileged to work with SRC since 1998. Research sponsored by SRC has been most rewarding since the members appreciate solutions grounded in foundational theory or computational techniques to problems of critical relevance to the semiconductor industry.”?

What do you love most about your career??

“The most exciting part of my career as an academician is the opportunity and the freedom to learn throughout one's career.? Scientific curiosity underlies the desire to learn and openness to learning any topic makes one a versatile engineer in my opinion. Much of my learning comes from project mentors from member companies who guide me on the technological challenge and my graduate students who work with me to study the problems at depth. My industry experience, where solving complex failure problems under severe time constraint is critical, taught to me to focus on identifying the most important cause. It is exhilarating when simple models explain complex failure phenomenon.”?

Is there anything else you would like to share with future innovators??

“I learn more from my graduate students than they learn from me. It is to my students that the award is owed.”??

View all 2022 and previous SRC Award Winners

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About SRC?

Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC.org), a world-renowned, high technology-based consortium serves as a crossroads of collaboration between technology companies, academia, government agencies, and SRC’s highly regarded engineers and scientists. Through its interdisciplinary research programs, SRC plays an indispensable role in addressing global challenges, using research and development strategies, and advanced tools and technologies. Members of SRC work synergistically together, gain access to research results, fundamental IP, and highly experienced students to compete in the global marketplace and build the workforce of tomorrow.?