Franklin “Frank” Kuo
Codeveloper of ALOHAnet
Fellow, 91; died 14 April
Kuo helped develop ALOHAnet, a pioneering laptop system on the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, in Honolulu. The system went on-line in 1971 and represented the primary public demonstration of a wireless packet data network. It was an inspiration for Robert Metcalfe’s growth of Ethernet a few years later. In 2020 ALOHAnet was designated as an IEEE Milestone.
Kuo earned bachelor’s, grasp’s, and doctoral levels in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. After incomes his Ph.D. in 1960, he joined Bell Labs in Murray Hill, N.J., the place he performed analysis in laptop communications.
After six years on the firm, Kuo left to grow to be a professor {of electrical} engineering on the College of Hawaii. From 1968 to 1971 he and considered one of his colleagues, IEEE Life Fellow Norman Abramson, developed ALOHAnet. The community linked computer systems on Hawaiian islands utilizing ultrahigh-frequency radio, transmitting data over radio waves as an alternative of cables.
ALOHAnet turned the inspiration for contemporary networks. Kuo pioneered the idea of a random-access protocol, or sharing a single channel with out central coordination—which led to the packet-switching rules that underpin trendy Wi-Fi and mobile networks.
Kuo authored or coauthored a number of books together with Computer Communication Networks. Revealed in 1972, it was one of many earliest textbooks on the topic.
He served as director of the college’s Cosine committee, a venture funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation to develop computer engineering programs.
He took a sabbatical from 1975 to 1977 to work on the U.S. Pentagon as director of data programs within the defense secretary’s office. He oversaw laptop communications functions utilized in command, management, and intelligence applications.
Throughout the Eighties and ’90s, he helped develop China’s Web. In 1982 he joined SRI International (previously the Stanford Analysis Institute), in Menlo Park, Calif., as a researcher. He additionally was a consulting professor in Stanford’s electrical engineering division and taught laptop networking at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
As a UNESCO lecturer in Beijing in 1994, he helped Peking University, Tsinghua University, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences hook up with the Web. He additionally labored with Tsinghua College to develop CERNET, the nation’s first nationwide schooling and analysis computer network, which was managed by the Chinese language Ministry of Education. For his work, he acquired an honorary diploma from Shanghai Jiao Tong College.
Within the mid-Nineties, Kuo helped discovered Normal Wireless Communications, a developer of cell phone messaging providers and video games that was renamed Mtone Wi-fi.
Muhammad Rezaul Karim
Bell Labs researcher
Life senior member, 86; died 18 Might
Karim was a distinguished member of the technical workers at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, N.J. His work was instrumental within the growth of recent mobile communications expertise.
He joined Bell Labs in 1972 and labored in its cell telecommunications laboratory as a part of the group tasked with creating one of many earliest cellular networks.
In 1975 Illinois Bell Telephone petitioned the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to develop and check a mobile system. The FCC, which now regulates radio, TV, phone, Web, satellite tv for pc, and wi-fi providers, licensed the venture in March 1977. Karim and his group helped develop key parts of the expertise, together with the Bell Labs logic that managed the mobile system, turning the idea right into a working one. In addition they constructed radio receivers, transmitters, control systems, and cell-site gear used within the first trial of the mobile system.
The next 12 months, Bell Labs and Illinois Bell deployed the Superior Cell Telephone Service system throughout Chicago, with its switching workplace situated in Oak Park, In poor health. The preliminary check used roughly 100 cellphones to work by {hardware}, software program, and system-design issues.
A subsequent check in 1979 concerned 2,500 cell customers, offering an illustration of the mobile expertise in apply.
The trials in Illinois helped set up the technical basis for the industrial mobile networks that adopted.
Later in his profession, Karim labored on the asynchronous switch mode (ATM) method, a high-speed networking expertise essential to the transition from conventional phone networks to broadband and digital ones.
In 2000 he revealed ATM Networks: Application, Systems, and Design, a textbook that served as a information for designing and implementing ATM-based providers.
Karim acquired a bachelor’s diploma in electrical engineering from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, in Dhaka. He then earned a grasp’s diploma in EE from the University of Manchester, England, and a Ph.D. in EE from Stevens Institute of Technology, in Hoboken, N.J.
Harry Bostic
Former IEEE Area 4 director
Life senior member, 86; died 18 March
Bostic was an energetic IEEE volunteer who served because the 1998–1999 director of IEEE Region 4. In 2007 he acquired a lifetime achievement award from the IEEE Central Indiana Section for “excellent dedication and devoted service as regional advisor to the volunteers and members of Area 4 and the Institute.”
He was an engineer for 30 years at U.S. Navy’s avionics facility, a analysis, growth, and manufacturing concern in Indianapolis. He labored on flight control, navigation, and weapons programs there. (The power closed in 1996.)
Edwin C. Jones Jr.
Professor
Life Fellow, 91; died 10 March
Jones was well known for his contributions to engineering education, curriculum growth, and accreditation by a long time of service to IEEE, ABET, and the American Society for Engineering Education.
He earned a bachelor’s diploma in electrical engineering in 1955 from West Virginia University in Morgantown. The next 12 months he earned a diploma of membership (equal to a grasp’s diploma) from Imperial College, London. He went on to serve within the U.S. Military Signal Corps for 2 years. After his service ended, he studied engineering schooling on the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, incomes a Ph.D. in 1961. Jones then joined the college’s college.
The next 12 months, he left Illinois to affix Iowa State University, in Ames, as an assistant professor. He was promoted to professor in 1995. Two years later he turned affiliate chair of the electrical and computer engineering department and served in that place till 2001, when he retired and was named professor emeritus. In recognition of his dedication to college students, Iowa State established a scholarship in his honor.
In 2006 he accepted a part-time place as an adjunct professor in Minnesota on the University of St. Thomas, in St. Paul. He suggested graduate college students and helped develop the college’s systems engineering program.
An energetic IEEE volunteer, he served as 1975–1976 president of the IEEE Education Society. He was a member of the IEEE Educational Activities Board, serving to strengthen the connection amongst engineering schooling, skilled apply, and accreditation organizations. He acquired an IEEE Centennial Medal in 1984 and the EAB Meritorious Achievement Award in Accreditation Activities in 1986. The IEEE Schooling Society later named its Meritorious Service Award in his honor.
Jones was elected a Fellow of ABET in 1986. Throughout his years of service as a program evaluator and chief, he helped advance the standard of engineering schooling and accreditation applications. ABET acknowledged him with its Grinter Distinguished Service Award, its highest honor.
Alexander Robert Spitzer
Scientific neurology researcher
Life senior member, 70; died 27 February
Spitzer was a neurologist for 40 years on the Wayne State University School of Medicine, in Detroit, the place he additionally was a director of the electromyography laboratory at Harper University Hospital. The lab studied sufferers’ mind and spinal twine exercise in response to sensory stimuli. The evaluations assessed nerve pathway integrity to assist diagnose a number of sclerosis, spinal twine accidents, and different circumstances.
After incomes his medical diploma from the Einstein College of Medicine, in New York City, Spitzer accomplished a fellowship on the U.S. National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, Md. He then joined Wayne State as a medical neurology researcher. His pioneering analysis in making use of neural community evaluation to electromyography and medical neurophysiology resulted in peer-reviewed publications, grants, and a number of other U.S. patents.
He mentored generations of neurologists in electrodiagnostic medication, a medical specialty that makes use of nerve-conduction and electromyography checks to judge and diagnose muscle and nerve problems.
In 2020 he based Mackinac Neurology, a telemedicine-based apply that handled patients just about in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A longtime IEEE volunteer, he held quite a few roles on the IEEE Regional Actions Board, now often called the Member and Geographic Activities Board. He was a member of the IEEE Ethics and Member Conduct and Nominations and Appointments committees, in addition to the IEEE Educational Activities and IEEE-USA boards. He served as 1977–1979 director of the IEEE Central Indiana Section.
Donald Leo Dietmeyer
Professor
Life Fellow, 93; died 13 February
Dietmeyer was a professor {of electrical} and laptop engineering for 40 years on the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
He developed a lifelong curiosity in radio and electronics at highschool in Wausau, Wisc., and earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 1959 from the College of Wisconsin. He’d joined the college’s electrical engineering college as a professor in 1958 whereas pursuing his doctorate.
Dietmeyer’s analysis targeted on computer-aided design within the areas of switching principle, {hardware} description languages, and the decomposition of Boolean functions. His analysis contributed to the event of automation instruments for built-in circuit design.
He labored with Jim Duley, a former scholar, to pioneer the usage of the digital system design language. He wrote the textbook Logic Design of Digital Systems, revealed in 1978.
Within the early Eighties, Dietmeyer labored with researchers to develop ConLan, a language-construction technique that mixed {hardware} description languages in a single underlying framework.
He served as affiliate dean of the College of Wisconsin’s electrical and laptop engineering division from 1983 to 1995. In 1998 he retired and was named professor emeritus.
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