EDA Tech Forum

Stanford professor Tom Lee believes that engineers should acknowledge chaos to innovate. After all, the industry’s pioneers did.

Tom Lee: “Don't be afraid of having lots of stupid ideas.”

How important is it that the history of electronics is passed on from generation to generation of engineers in the ‘right’ way. OK, let’s acknowledge that, as in war, history is always dominated by the victors, not the losers. Let’s also admit that anyone with a career in this business wants its image to be positive – particularly when recruitment issues are as critical as they are today.

Nevertheless, have we been going about this important task not merely in the wrong way, but in one that is also damaging? Professor Tom Lee, founder of Stanford University’s widely respected Stanford Microwave Integrated Circuits Laboratory (SMIrC), thinks we have. And, for about two decades, he has been trying to set things right with an evolving presentation entitled “The History of the Integrated Circuit: A Random Walk”, recently delivered with some style at December’s International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM). So what exactly is Lee’s beef. Not surprisingly, there is a huge clue in his title.