10/2/2020
2020 Illinois ECE Alumni Award recipients from around the world share words of wisdom, reactions to receiving the award, and other noteworthy thoughts in this new Illinois ECE video.
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On behalf of the ECE Alumni Board, we are excited to share with you the 2020 recipients of the ECE Alumni Awards. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Illinois ECE was unable to hold its regular Alumni Awards events. Nevertheless, we were able to connect with award winners from around the world. This video is a compilation of the 2020 award recipients' words of wisdom, reactions to receiving the award, and other noteworthy thoughts. The Illinois ECE 2020 Alumni Recipients are listed below.
The MARCIA PETERMAN ECE AWARD was established by the Electrical and Computer Engineering Alumni Board to honor the memory of Marcia Peterman. The award is presented annually to an alumnus, former faculty, or former staff member for dedicated service to the department. Here is the 2020 recipient:
PHILLIP M. LACHMAN (BSEE '04) |
The YOUNG ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT AWARD recognizes alumni who have made outstanding professional contributions early in their careers to their fields since graduating from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Here are the 2020 recipients:
AADEEL AKHTAR (MS ’16) |
PIERRE MARTIN (PHD '10) Pierre, CTO at Beacon, received a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois in 2010. At Beacon, Pierre’s group develops a technology platform enabling businesses to operate international supply chains with improved efficiency, reliability and sustainability. In just a year after inception, the platform received direct backing and investment from the CEOs of Google, Amazon and Uber. Prior to Beacon, Pierre led development of new software products which reached hundreds of millions of consumers worldwide, as Head of Software Engineering for Amazon's package and freight routing services, Head of Software Engineering for Prime Video Live, and Sr product manager for Xbox cloud gaming platform. Pierre’s interest and specialty is in computational methods and high performance distributed computing applied to a variety of fields, such as physical and digital supply chain optimization, gaming, and semiconductor physics. |
AKSHAY NAHETA (BSEE '03) |
The DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD honors Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering alumni who have made professional and technical contributions that bring distinction to themselves, the department, and the university. Here are the 2020 recipients:
GALE BEANBLOSSOM (MS '82) |
YUSUF LEBLEBICI (PHD '91) Dr. Leblebici received his Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in 1990. Since 2002, he has been serving as a Chair Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) and the Director of the Microelectronic Systems Laboratory. In November 2018, he was appointed as the President of Sabanci University. The laboratory of Dr. Leblebici at EPFL has produced 52 PhD graduates since 2002. His research interests include design of high-speed CMOS digital and mixed-signal integrated circuits, computer-aided design of VLSI systems, intelligent sensor interfaces, neuromorphic circuit and system concepts, and VLSI reliability analysis. He is the coauthor of seven textbooks, as well as more than 400 articles published in various journals and conferences. |
WILLIAM D. O'BRIEN, JR. (BSEE '66, MS '68, PHD '70) William D. O’Brien, Jr. is the Donald Biggar Willet Professor Emeritus of Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After receiving a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 1970, he worked with the Bureau of Radiological Health of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for five years. Since 1975, he has been at the University of Illinois, where he retired in 2012 after a 37-year academic career; however, he is continuing active research and occasional teaching as the Donald Biggar Willet Professor Emeritus in Electrical and Computer Engineering. |
YONG RUI (PHD '99)
Dr. Yong Rui is the Corporate CTO and Senior Vice President of Lenovo Group. He directs Lenovo’s technical strategies, R&D directions, and leads Lenovo Research. Prior to joining Lenovo, Dr. Rui spent 18 years with Microsoft where most recently he served as Deputy Managing Director of Microsoft Research Asia. A Fellow of ACM, IEEE, IAPR and SPIE, and a Foreign Member of Academia Europaea and Canadian Academy of Engineering, Dr. Rui is recognized as a leading expert in computer science and engineering. He is a recipient of many awards, including the 2018 ACM SIGMM Technical Achievement Award, the 2017 IEEE SMC Society Andrew P. Sage Best Transactions Paper Award, the 2017 ACM TOMM Nicolas Georganas Best Paper Award, the 2016 IEEE Computer Society Edward J. McCluskey Technical Achievement Award, the 2016 IEEE Signal Processing Society Best Paper Award and the 2010 Most Cited Paper of the Decade Award from Journal of Visual Communication and Image Representation. |
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JACK TRAUTMAN (BSEE '72) Jack retired from Agilent Technologies in 2007 as a Senior Vice President. During his time at Agilent, he led the Automated Test Group (ATG), Communications Management Solutions Business Unit (CMS) and Operational Support Systems Division (OSSD). He also helped lead the successful IPO of the Agilent Semiconductor Test Business, resulting in the creation of Verigy Technologies, Inc. In these roles, Jack managed businesses in Colorado, California, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Singapore and China. Prior to Agilent, Jack spent 29 years at Hewlett-Packard in numerous roles: R&D engineer, GM of the Loveland Technology Center (a captive integrated circuit design and manufacturing business), R&D Manager, Marketing Manager, and GM of the Manufacturing Test Division, and GM of the Bristol, England-based Data Protection Business. |
Interested in making a nomination? We accept them all year. However, there is a deadline of January 20, 2021, to be considered for the 2021 Illinois ECE Alumni Awards.
Contact Nikki Slack, ECE Alumni and Donor Relations, with any questions.