Sitting on the living room couch, the youngster waits patiently—watching his father approach. Tucked nearby, the 11-year-old's electronic contraption lies in wait, spawned from a Radio Shack electronics set in a way the kit's creators certainly didn't intend, unless they were as mischievous as the boy himself.
As the father walks closer, a sensor is suddenly tripped, creating an alarm that causes the boy's father to jump. The youngster laughs at the sight, and why not? His father is a Detroit-area firefighter, and the young teen swears the squelching noises, set off by the sensor, sound just like the alert made famous on the 1970s hit TV show, Emergency!
Some 30 years later, Shawn Blanton has grown up, but he still plays with electronics. These days, however, his efforts are a bit more complex.
The Carnegie Mellon professor in the College of Engineering's Electrical and Computer Engineering Department has been named head of the Center for Silicon System Implementation. In that role he oversees 18 faculty and 60 graduate students who specialize in computer engineering.
Together—and with collaborators from around the world—they delve into all aspects of chip design, from system-level architecture to the physics and modeling of complexities found in semiconductor manufacturing.
"Imagine something being the same size but offering more functionality," he says, referring to today's iPhone. "Our goal is to make something like that possible."
—Chris A. Weber
