ECE ILLINOIS honors its alumni

On September 11, ECE ILLINOIS honored seven of its alumni at its annual Alumni Banquet. Hao Ling, Dirk Meyer, Carl Panasik, LaVerne (Vern) Schlie, and John Whitecar received the Distinguished Alumni Award. Michael McCorquodale received the Young Alumni Achievement Award. And Kurt Hollenbeck received the Marcia Peterman Award.

Distinguished Alumni Awards

The Distinguished Alumni Award honors ECE alumni who have made professional and technical contributions that bring distinction to themselves, the department, and the University.

Hao Ling (MSEE ’83, PhD ’86) was recognized for “pioneering research in radar signature analysis and outstanding teaching in electromagnetics.” The L. B. Meaders Professor in Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, Ling’s principal areas of research are in radar signature prediction and radar feature extraction. In 1985 while studying under Professor Shung-Wu (Andy) Lee at Illinois, he pioneered the shooting and bouncing ray (SBR) technique for predicting electromagnetic returns from complex radar targets. He was a co-developer of the SBR-based code Xpatch, which has become a standard in radar signature simulation.

Ling is an IEEE Fellow. He received the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award in 1987, the NASA Certificate of Appreciation in 1991, and several teaching awards from The University of Texas. He served on a number of US and NATO panels on high-resolution SAR and ISAR imaging. 

Ling said that Illinois taught him two things. “The first was how to think in fundamental terms and ask the right questions,” he said. “The second was that the essence of academia is passing knowledge on to the next generation so they can surpass us and do great things.”

Dirk Meyer (BSCompE’83), president and CEO of AMD, was honored for “semiconductor innovation as one of the world’s leading microprocessor design engineers and for business leadership as CEO of Advanced Micro Devices.” Prior to being named CEO of AMD in 2008, Meyer served as president and chief operating officer of the company.

Meyer joined AMD in 1995 and led engineering for the AMD Athlon™ microprocessor. In 2001, he was named group vice president and general manager of AMD’s microprocessor business and in 2002 was named senior vice president and an executive officer of AMD.

Before joining AMD, Meyer spent nearly a decade at Digital Equipment Corporation. Meyer received Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Maurice Wilkes Award in 2003.

“The University focuses so much on lab-based learning and that was one reason I am here,” Meyer said at the ceremony. Meyer also recognized Jerry Sanders (BSEE ’58) and Dan Dobberpuhl (BSEE ’67), both previous Distinguished Alumni Award recipients, as profound influences on his career.

Carl Panasik (MSEE ’77, PhD ’80) received the award for “research and development of wireless technologies and intellectual property protection.” Panasik joined Texas Instruments in 1980 and has served in several engineering-management positions in four divisions. During his 29-year tenure, he has authored 36 granted patents with 6 pending. He presently serves as a patent associate, prosecuting patent applications with the US Patent and Trademark Office.

While in Wireless, he introduced the concept of wireless diversity transmission through external research. As director of advanced architecture he co-invented a wide area network communications system for advanced cellular which enables wireless data in the white-spaces recently opened by the digital transition of broadcast television. He has been granted several patents on the system. While working in the Digital Signal Processing R&D Center he led a team which developed TI’s first WLAN prototype.

Panasik noted in his remarks the life lessons he had learned from his graduate advisor. Panasik said “You learn certain things things in school, in the class and in the lab. Sometimes you need to learn something more in graduate school.”

LaVerne A. (Vern) Schlie (BSEE ’65, MSEE ’66, PhD ’70) was honored for “leadership in and contributions to the research and development of high power gas and solid-state lasers for the military applications of directed energy.” A Member of the Scientific and Professional Cadre of Senior Executives of the Air Force, Schlie worked for 38 years at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Directed Energy Directorate, Kirtland AFB, New Mexico. He was the senior scientist (ST) for Laser Technology, serving as the principal scientific authority and independent researcher in the field of laser technology within AFRL. He is widely recognized in the laser community, has advised/directed many laser programs within AFRL, and has led many important governmental committees on laser technology, applications, and effects.

Schlie retired from the Air Force in January 2009. He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America, the Directed Energy Professional Society, and AFRL.

Schlie recognized the influence of his adviser, Joe Verdeyan who once told him to diversify his interests, but get a lot of depth. He said that he achieved his career success “because of Joe Verdeyan and what they do here at Illinois.”

John Whitecar (BSEE ’81) was recognized for “contributions in DSP technology applied to automotive software radio and infotainment technology, and service to those with need.”  He joined Texas Instruments in 2004 to lead the architecture and system development for new Integrated Circuits and systems targeting the automotive Infotainment and Digital Radio markets. A key focus of this effort was developing a software-defined receiver design for mobile broadcast receivers driving both RF tuner architecture as well as digital IC design and software algorithms for digitally based receivers. Prior to joining Texas Instruments, Mr. Whitecar was a Technical Fellow at Ford Motor Company and subsequently Visteon Corporation. He received the Henry Ford Technology Award from Ford Motor Company.

In remembering his years at Illinois, Whitecar said, “it’s not always the technical details, but it’s the side comments that stick with you.” He went on to say that “this is an incredible honor and a very humbling one.”

Young Alumni Achievement Award

The Young Alumni Achievement Award recognizes young alumni (less than 40 years old) who have made outstanding professional contributions to their field since graduating from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

This year’s recipient was Michael S. McCorquodale (BSEE ’97) who was honored for “technical innovation in precision analog circuits for frequency generation, entrepreneurial leadership in technology commercialization, and academic and community service.”

McCorquodale is the Chief Technical Officer and founder of Mobius Microsystems, an analog semiconductor device company founded in 2004 and based in Silicon Valley. Mobius was founded based on Michael’s pioneering research at the University of Michigan in precision analog integrated circuits for frequency generation and quartz replacement.

In 2006, the Small Business Association of Michigan and Governor Granholm awarded Michael and Mobius for developing the Innovation of the Year in Michigan. Also in 2006, the Fabless Semiconductor Association recognized Mobius as 1 of 3 nominees for the Start-up to Watch Award. Prior to founding Mobius, Dr. McCorquodale was with Hughes Space and Communications in El Segundo, CA where he developed high-speed InP and SiGe integrated circuits.

McCorquodale expressed appreciation for what he called “an unexpected award.” McCorquodale said, “I came [to Illinois] because I wanted to be challenged, and Illinois embraced that. In no place other than Illinois do you learn to rise to a challenge.”

Marcia Peterman Award

The Marcia Peterman Award was established by the Electrical and Computer Engineering Alumni Association to honor the memory of Marcia Peterman. This award is presented annually to a former ECE Alumni Board Member for dedicated service as a member of the Board.

The 2009 award was presented to Kurt Hollenbeck (BSEE ’78) “In recognition of devoted and loyal service to the University of Illinois and the Alumni Association.” Hollenbeck is product manager for Mustang Technology Group. Prior to that he spent six years at Perot Systems as a senior program/product manager responsible for establishing unique industry partnerships for the development, pricing, and delivery of new, novel, and profitable global IT services. And before that, he spent 22 years at Texas Instruments Defense Systems Antenna Department, which was acquired by Raytheon during his time there.

In his acceptance, Hollenbeck recalled Marcia Peterman, whom he knew from his time as a student, and used specific words to describe her, such as give, help, and kind.