My parents instilled in my siblings and me the value of hard work. I worked hard at school, and when I started working in government labs I worked hard there. It paid off with winter break employment. Every time I finished off a summer job I would ask if they would like me back for…
Category: Their Stories
Attributions in the Engineering Community—From the Weak Write Test Mode Saga
I had approximately 500 Pentium (P54CS) parts that uniquely failed the Weak Write Test Mode (WWTM.) In the lab I ran the test on an IMS debug tester to diagnose the failing cell location–engineers always want more data. I talked to engineering managers regarding additional tests. The resulting list would require help from other engineering…
Cleaning up the Automatic Passport Control System
Upon my arrival at Dulles International Airport, my escort met me at the gate with the wheelchair. As we approached the passport control checkpoint, the escort assured me that it wouldn’t take long, due to the machines that scan the passport. Oops! I had informed my father to arrive one hour after my plane landed;…
My First Patent–From the Weak Write Test Mode Saga
Not all great ideas turn into patents; they simply are not novel enough to warrant the effort. Some ideas are so great that a company decides to keep them as a trade secret. The following exchange I had with Greg Taylor instructed me on how to determine if an invention should be patented: “Would other…
Work/Life Balance—A Second Lesson at IBM
Bob Farley called me into his office to tell me to go home. ‘Twas Christmas Eve at IBM and the halls were fairly quiet. With few remaining vacation days left, I needed to work on Christmas Eve; I planned to drive down to Maryland the next day. I was working in the lab when he…
What’s Your Purpose?–A Graduate School Story
Though we shared a similar reaction, Jim Quinlan and I responded differently to filing our graduate school applications. When we met during our Ph.D studies at Carnegie Mellon University, the topic arose as we started the “how did you get here” conversation. We attended different schools for our bachelors’ degrees in electrical engineering. He graduated…
My Introduction to Engineering Standards
In Doc Fry’s electronics class, I learned my first engineering standard: resistor color coding. Each color represented a number. Each color also represented a multiplier–power of ten. Some colors also represented a tolerance. The position of the color band indicated how to interpret the color as a number, multiplier or tolerance. A simple standard for…
Being Wooed as Opposed to Grilled–My Intel Interview
After hearing that I had interviewed for a position at Intel Corporation, my Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) classmate, Scott Robinson, remarked “I still have the grill marks.” Scott had joined Intel a year ahead of me and his comment referred to the intensive questioning he had experienced during his interview. While I was not puzzled…
Diagnosis–Exactly Where and What is that Needle?
At IBM, I became fascinated with finding defects in semiconductor devices. For most of my professional life I have focused on testing for defects in a manufacturing setting. When in this setting, you want to determine yes or no; often referred to as “no/go” testing. The test is run–and if “no,” you stop, if “yes,”…
Playing with Motors
Computers can move things? Wow, this was going to be a fun summer! These thoughts crossed my mind as I began a summer job with the National Bureau of Standards in 1982. My introduction to computer languages came in high school when I took a class on BASIC. Mr. Chapman, a math teacher, had acquired…