Cenlbenniali Hist<0>ry <0>f the
Department <0>f IERectricaR anJ C<0>mputer Engineering

1891-1991
]

]
]

l
• 1

EJwairJ Co JoirJan,
Wendell Milleir anJ
Mac Eo Van Val!Jkenlbuirg

.. l

9

]

]

i]
• J

I ]

11

·,

]
~

..

I:!
~
~

~

I -,.

..I
•

j_!l

~

;:oi1

~

•

j~

i~

•]

I·~

**
i;f!gl~ *
* * *

*

·.~~*
*
•1891-1991

University of Illinois
College of Engineering • November 1991
University of ][J]inois at Urbana- Champaign

.,

ii

-

I•

·~

·~

I• ·~
• ~

I
I

i

• ~

I j
I j
I

I

~
~

]
. ....,

~

1
]
]
j

]

Edward C. Jordan passed away on October 18, 1991, shortly after completing this book with
Mac E. Van Valkenburg and Wendell Miller.
Ed was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, on December 31, 1910. He received the BS
degree in 1934 and MS degree in 1936 from the University of Alberta, and the PhD degree at
The Ohio State University in 1940. Upon completing his doctoral degree, he served one year as
instructor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He returned to The Ohio State University in 1941,
where he was an instructor, assistant professor, and consultant to the Antenna Laboratory from
1941 to 1945. In 1945, he followed his mentor, William L. Everitt, to the University of Illinois.
At the University of Illinois, Ed served as associate professor from 1945 to 1947, professor
from 1947 to 1979, director of the Radio Direction Finding Laboratory from 1946 to 1954, anddirector of the Antenna Laboratory from 1950 to 1954. In 1954, he was named head of the
Department of Electrical Engineering.
Ed Jordan authored or edited nine books and published numerous technical articles. His
popular textbook, Electromagnetic Waves and Radiating Systems, was first published in 1950 by
Edward C. Jordan, 1910Prentice-Hall. A second edition, co-authored with K. G. Balmain, was published in 1968. At the1991. This photo was taken
time of his death, he was editing the eighth edition of Reference Data for Engineers: Radio ,in 1979.
Electronics, Computers, and Communications for Howard W. Sams & Co., Inc., publishers.
Ed Jordan received many honors in his career. He was elected to the National Academy ofEngineering and a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) . He received the prestigious IEEE
Education Medal and the Stanley H. Pierce Award at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He also received theAlumni Honor Award for Distinguished Service in Engineering in 1986 from the UIUC College of Engineering, the George
Sinclair Award from The Ohio State University in 1988, and the Professional Achievement Award from the University of Alberta
in 1988.
In the profession, Ed served as a member and chairman of numerous committees and advisory boards. He was a past
chairman and an honorary life member of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society.

~

]
]

I]
I
I~
I

I ;-~

Timothy N. Trick
Department Head
November 1991

I

I]
I

.l :~
~

i~

lll

Those of you who knew Dad well know that he wouldmuch have preferred to be up here himself, just to make surethe stories get told right.
Edward Comad Jordan was born in Edmonton, Alberta,
Canada, in 1910. He used to like to tell new acquaintancesthat his parents were married on Christmas Day, and he wasborn on New Year's Day. Of course, he would not tell themthat there had been a year in between - that was Dad.
Our father's life was filled with a certain amount ofhardship in his early years and a lot of very hard work frombeginning to end. He was a man of original intelligence, andhe had the gift of seeing the brilliance in others. Over thecourse of his professional career, he built the Department ofElectrical Engineering at the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign into one of the best in the nation, and although henever would have said it, probably the best in the world.
His also was a life filled with a solid 45-year marriage to
our mother, Mary Walker Jordan, and the raising of threesons, whom so far have been able to stay out of serious
trouble.
It was a life filled with a love of golf, about his only
serious recreational pursuit. He used to enjoy the quote by
Bob Hope that "If you watch a game, it's fun ... if you play,it's recreation ... if you work at it ... it's golf!" But theleisure time for golf was to come later.
Dad grew up in Edmonton, where his father was a tailor.
He was the oldest child and only son, and along with his
sisters Doris and Marie, he learned the value of hard work at
an early age. Dad had the misfortune to begin college at thestart of the Great Depression, and it was a struggle to makeends meet. He was able to get a job as the first control
operator at the fledgling radio station at the University ofAlberta, CKUA. This was in the pioneering days of radio, and·the equipment was still in its infancy. There was one professor who would deliver some of his lectures on the air and who
caused no end of problems. It seems this professor whistled
his s's. Every time he would give a lecture, he would blow

. I

iv

1~
i~
i~
i~
i~
_

..;;;J

I :~

i~

I-~
I-~
I-~

i ~~
i~

I-~
-~

!I :!

-!~
~

I

i~
-~

!~
!~

..II _

out the tubes in the broadcast equipment, and the station would go off the air. Not good for the young operator. So Dad invented
the first automatic gain control for broadcast equipment to dampen the feedback, and the station continued on the air, whistled s's
and all. Dad also used his ingenuity to overcome a severe hearing loss, inventing his own hearing aids until the commercial
variety came into widespread use.
One of Dad's proudest moments was when he took part in the first ever around-the-world hookup of radio stations on
Christmas Day, 1929. It was a thrill for the 18-year-old radio engineer to hear the BBC in London come on the line, checking thecircuits. "Hello Montreal, are you there, Montreal? Come in Edmonton, can you hear us, Edmonton?" At the end of the
program, the BBC signed off, then Montreal, then down the line to tiny CKUA and Dad. He later wrote down what happened.
"When I returned home, I learned that my mother and dad had sat up in bed listening to the program on the radio set I had
made. Mother told me that when Dad heard me make the final sign-off announcement, he stood up in bed with arms above hishead and shouted, 'That's my boy!'"
Times were difficult in the 1930s, and after receiving his BS and MS degrees at Alberta, Dad went across Canada by cattle
train to work in the nickel mines in Ontario. His mother packed a large basket of chicken, which was supposed to last him for thejourney, and he sat in the unheated caboose of the cattle train, playing poker with the cowboys. He worked at the nickel mines fora year, then went to The Ohio State University to get his PhD degree. In 1940, he returned to Edmonton and married Mom, andthey settled in Columbus, where Dad became a naturalized citizen. It should be noted here that Mom remained a Canadian citizen
because every time she went to sign the papers, she said they were so rude to her she would just as soon remain a Canadian!
After oldest son Bob was born, they followed William L. Everitt, who was Dad's mentor and friend, from The Ohio State
University to the University of Illinois. In 1954, at the age of 43, Dad was named head of the Department of Electrical Engineering. Over the next 25 years, he lured the creme de la creme to the U of I. Those in the department will remember that Ed Jordan
had the ability to keep the well-developed egos in balance, while providing them with the tools they needed to become evengreater.
During these years, he and Mother traveled the world, usually in connection with an engineering conference, more often than
not taking the three boys, Bob, Dave, and Tom, along whether they wanted to go or not. Any couple that can travel for twomonths in a tiny Peugeuot with two teenage sons and an 11-year-old must make up in patience what they may lack in common
sense. But they did it and were patient with one another as well.
After we were grown and had left home, Mom and Dad continued to travel, usually finding a Rotary meeting and a nearby
golf course for Dad. During Mom's two-year illness, Dad was her constant companion and care giver, right up to her death in1986. Some may not know that Dad continued to go to the nursing unit to visit old friends and golfing partners for the rest of
his life.
After the sad and stressful time in 1986, Dad was blessed to find love and happiness again with Caroline Egbert. When he
and Kay decided to get married in 1990, I remember how touched I was when Dad called to ask me to be his best man. It's notevery kid who gets to act as best man for his 79-year-old father! I was proud.
In summing up his life, I think one of the salient truths is that Edward Jordan was a kind man, a generous man. Whether it
was a new foreign graduate student at the university, a neighbor in financial difficulty, or an old golfing partner in the hospital,
Dad was there with help and genuine concern. He really cared about those around him, and we cared about him. His was a fulllife, one filled with accomplishment and enjoyment. One that he brightened with his good humor and storytelling. We shall misshim very much.

~'. _Iii·~

I..
I.. ~~
I~
I :•'.::iii~..
.I _Thomas C. Jordan
October 22, 1991

~

I

...

. 11111

:<

I =~

v

The Boneyard and part of the engineering campus ca. 1910 (right) and 1915 (above),taken from what remained of the university Arboretum.

viForeword .. .. .............. ........................ .. ... ........................... viii
Chapter 1. In the Beginning ...... .. ................. ..... ...... .... ........ 1
The Founding of the University ...... ................................ 1
The First Thirty Years: 1867-1897 ........ ........ .. .............. 3

, ~

- !li

!~

I

- ~

I'~
-~

·~
i~
~

~

I ~

I-~
I- !!
I-~
-~

!~

.

I ~

!~
!~

Chapter 2. The Department in the 20th Century ...... ........... 8
The Beginning of the Century ....................................... . 9
Overview since 1945 ....................................... ............. 12
Chapter 3. Department Notables ........................ .. ...... ....... 18
Everitt at Illinois ........................................................... 19
John Bardeen ............................................ .. ........ .. ........ 22
Tykociner's Pioneering Contributions ...... .......... .......... 24
Chapter 4. Research Laboratories ................................. .. .. 26
Antenna Laboratory andElectromagnetics Laboratory ......... .......................... 27
Radio Direction Finding Laboratory ................... ....... ... 30
From Basic Research to Battlefield in 30 Days ........ 33
Pioneering in Semiconductor Research ..... .......... .. ........ 34
Tube Laboratory ................... ........ ........... ........... ... ....... 35
Bioacoustics Research Laboratory ..... ........................... 37
Gaseous Electronics Laboratory .. ................................. 39
Electrophysics Laboratory ............................................ 40
Radio Telescope Laboratory .. .............. .......... ... ............ 41
Wave Propagation Laboratory .............................. ........ 43
Aeronomy Laboratory .................................................. 44
Power Laboratory .......................... ... .. .......................... 45
Electro-Optic Systems Laboratory ................................ 48

Chapter 6. Developments Over the Years ......................... 60
Curricula Over the Years ..... ......................................... 61
Solid-State Instructional Laboratory ............................. 62
A Short History of Illumination Engineering ................ 65
Knight and Fett Textbook ............................................. 65
Establishment of the Department's
Alumni Association ................................................ . 65
Marcia Petennan .... .................................. ..... ..... ..... ... .. 66
Campus Unrest, 1967-70 ..... .. .. ..... ........... .................... 67
Biological Computer Laboratory .................................. 69
AMatterofUnits .............................. ........................... 70
Eta Kappa Nu ............................................................... 70
Appendix I. Department Heads ....... ................................. 73
Appendix II. Curricula ...................................................... 74
Appendix III. Recipients of the Distinguished
Alumnus Award ...... ... ............................. ..... .... ............ 90
Appendix IV. Bibliography .......................... .................... 91

Chapter 5. Associated Laboratories ...... ............................ 50
Digital Computer Laboratory ... ........................... .......... 51
Coordinated Science Laboratory ..... ... ..... ....... ............... 51
Computer-based Education Research Laboratory
and PLATO ............. .. ................................ ..... .. .. 54
Microelectronics Laboratory ... ........ .......... ..... .. ............. 55
Beckman Institute for Advanced Scienceand Technology ............ ....... .. ....... ....... ...... ..... .... 57
Supercomputers ........................................................... . 58
Research and Development-CS RD ....................... 58
Applications-NCSA ....................................... .. ..... 59

. i!J

..I
.

l~

~

- -~

!~

I

Vll

I

r

I

i

viii

l

-~

-~

]

This history of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
was compiled to commemorate the centennial celebration of the department. As the department prepares to celebrate its centennial, it is recognized as one of the largest and most prestigious departments in the nation. At this writing, the department grants
more BS, MS, and PhD degrees than any other electrical and computer engineering department in the country. The department
has made many fundamental contributions in the areas of physical electronics, electromagnetics, computing, systems, andbioacoustics. Many of its faculty members and alumni have distinguished themselves in their careers. This history captures thatrich heritage, and it is my hope that it will inspire the faculty members, students, and alumni who follow us to continue thattradition of excellence and to aspire to even greater heights.
The first two chapters are adapted from material written by Wendell Miller, who was associated with the Department ofElectrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois as a student, faculty member, and emeritus professor for nearly
six decades. In this period, a monumental transformation occurred in the departmental instructional and research programs,
which today encompass a broad spectrum of interdisciplinary subjects.
Professor Miller traced the origin of electrical engineering at Illinois and described its evolution to the year 1945. Other staff
members contributed to the years after 1945. Much of the material has come from Illini Years by Carl Stephens, History of theCollege of Engineering by Baker and King, and issues of the Illinois Technograph and E2A2 Newsletter. Two important namechanges occurred in the last quarter century. In 1966, the name of the university officially became the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, and in 1984 the department changed its name to the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
I wish to express my deep gratitude to Ed Ernst, Ed Jordan, Wendell Miller, and Mac Van Valkenburg. My gratitude also
goes to the many emeritus and active faculty members and friends who contributed to this book, including John Farley for his
contribution of the Eta Kappa Nu story and Edgar C. Hayden for his ideas and many photographs.
Staff members who have helped along the way include Mary Wood and Emma Marshall. Professor Maynard Brichford of
the University Library assisted in retrieving and identifying pictures from the University Archives.
I especially acknowledge the efforts of Norma Danowitz, who assisted in every phase of compiling information, writingsome sections, and editing copy. Her relentless pursuit- from the University Archives to the basement of the Everitt Laboratory- also resulted in many of the photographs in this book.

:~

~
~

I ~
~

Yl.
Timothy N. Trick
Department Head
November 1991~~

!Iii ~

llii ~~~~!~!!Iii ;~

1X

Ill

~

. ..- . .

..
'

~

'

-.,~

~ '.""A.

..... ".' .:..... :~A campus view in 1874 from an upper floor of the new University Hall, looking north. Note the horses and buggies
on Green Street, the Boneyard and bridge, the old University Hall in the upper center,and the Drill Hall and Machine Shop on the right.

I

i

•

~
-~

-~
·~

The F 0>1Ulmlli11mg of tlbie U irniveirsity

-~

:~
-~

~
-~

j
~

~

j

":!
~
~

·~

I!
~
~

~
~

...

~
~

... ~

0

n July 2, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed theMorrill Land Grant Act. The act provided each stateor territory, upon application, with 30,000 acres of scrip landfor each senator or representative in Congress "for theendowment, support and maintenance of at least one college
whose leading subject shall be, without excluding otherscientific and classical studies, and including military tactic, toteach such branches of learning as ar~ related to agriculture
and the mechanical ai1s-in order to promote the liberal andclassical education of the industrial classes in the several
pursuits and professions of life."
The term scrip referred to government lands in undeveloped locations, usually in the wide open spaces of the west;
these lands carried a nominal book value of $1.25 per acre.
The land, as determined by each state or territory, could be
retained indefinitely or it could be sold; in either case, themoney derived from the land was to be used to develop andoperate the prescribed educational institution.
The Land Grant Act, originally sponsored by Justin S.
Morrill, a senator from Vermont, laid the foundation for thenationwide development of higher education supported jointly
by federal and state or territorial governments. With two
senators and 14 representatives in Congress, the state of
Illinois became eligible for a grant of 480,000 acres of public
scrip land with a book value of $600,000. The General
Assembly of the state of Illinois took steps immediately tosecure the advantages of the Morrill Land Grant Act, and on
February 14, 1863, legislation was approved to accept the
donation of public lands from Congress for the purpose of
establishing a state university.
Although the State Legislature took only a few months todecide to accept the benefits and obligations of the Morrill
Land Grant Act, it required the next four years to determine
the location of the university. Several communities in thestate competed for the university site by offering sizable sumsof money to help establish the campus. Prominent citizens
from Chicago made determined efforts to have the mechanicalarts division located in Cook County; large sums of moneyand other inducements were pledged in an effort to gain thefavor of the Legislature.

To supplement the 480,000 acres of scrip land provided
in the Morrill Act, Champaign County offered to provide asite of 1,000 additional acres, a donation of $400,000, and a"splendid building costing $175,000 and ready for use." Thisbuilding had been constructed in 1861-62 to establish the
Urbana and Champaign Institute, a coeducational boarding
school. The building stood at the north end of the former
Illinois Field, now the site of the Beckman Institute forAdvanced Science and Technology. The five-story brickstructure, which faced University Avenue, was 125 ft east andwest and 40 ft wide, with a four-story, 44 x 70-ft wing on theback. It contained recitation rooms, kitchen, dining room,
chapel, and 60 dormitory rooms for 130 students.
In addition to these inducements, M. L. Dunlap, a private
citizen, agreed to provide $2,000 worth of shade and ornamental trees, and the Illinois Central Railroad pledged the sum of$50,000 in freight charges over its lines.
From Chuck Flynn, editor emeritus of the News-Gazette ,we learned that Clark Griggs, a wealthy Urbana farmer, wasdetermined that the site of the university would be in Champaign County. Griggs had served as mayor of Urbana and, in
1867, was a member of the State Legislature. After a lengthy
period of political maneuvering and often times intense
debate, the Griggs Bill was passed by the Illinois General
Assembly on February 25, 1867, and signed by Governor
Oglesby on February 28, 1867. This bill provided specificallyfor the establishment in Urbana of an educational institution
furnishing instruction in agriculture and mechanical arts.
Thus the debate over the location of the school ended
abruptly but without unanimous agreement. A major factor
that gave Urbana precedence over other proposed locations
was the offer of an existing building with facilities for 130
students. The university could start immediately without
waiting for a building to be constructed.
With location of the university determined, a Board ofTrustees was established; it consisted of the governor of thestate, the superintendent of public instruction, and the president of the State Board of Agriculture, all members ex-officio,!lllli ~

1

~

..

,.
~:
together with 28 citizens to be appointed by the governor. The
first meeting of the board was held in Springfield on March
12, 1867, just 12 days after the signing of the Griggs Bill; theirfirst action was to appoint John Milton Gregory as regent of
the university beginning April 1, 1867. At the second meetingof the board on May 7, 1867, which was held in the chapel of
the Urbana and Champaign Institute, the following outline fordepartments and courses of study was adopted:
I. Agriculture Department
A. Agriculture
B. Horticulture
C. Landscape Gardening
II. Polytechnic Department
A. Mechanical Science and Art
B. Civil Engineering
C. Mining and Metallurgy
D. Architecture and Fine Arts
III. Military Department
A. Engineering
B. Tactics
IV. Chemistry and Natural Science
V. Trade and Commerce
VI. General Science and Literature
A. Mathematics
B. Natural History, Chemistry, etc.
C. English Language and Literature
D. Modem Languages and Literature
E. Ancient Languages and Literature
F. History and Social Science
G. Philosophy (Intellectual and Moral)
The granting of degrees was not considered by thefounders. Their original thought was to allow students to takeany course they desired and to leave any time they pleased.
Instead of diplomas at the end of their enrollment, certificateswere given at the time of entrance.

2

The Urbana and Champaign Institute, later called Old
University Hall, served as the only building from 1868 to
1872. From Illini Years, we learn that
The top two floors of the building served as a dormitory.
Students arrived with beds, bedding, and stoves. Coal waspurchased wholesale by the university and sold to students atcost. The rental charge for a student and his furnishings wasfour dollars per semester. Eating and sleeping as well as all
scholastic, social, and religious activities took place in the one
building, which the students dubbed The Elephant.

In 1872, the Drill Hall and Machine Shop Building wasconstructed near the intersection of Springfield Avenue andBurrill Avenue. In 1873, the Main Building, later called
University Hall, was completed south of Green Street on land
now occupied by the south half of the Illini Union Building.
The institution was first named the Illinois Industrial
University, and its objective was to provide advanced
education for the mass of working people in Illinois rather
than for the privileged few. The students, originally all male,
were required to wear uniforms, grey in color and tailored
after those worn by cadets at West Point. Tuition was free
initially but soon became $15 per year for Illinois residents
and $20 per year for out-of-state residents.
Students were required to drill three hours weekly and to
march to and from daily chapel under the direction of amilitary officer. In addition, all students were required toperform two hours of manual labor each day for which they
were not paid; this manual labor usually pertained to beautifying the grounds surrounding the one building, old University
Hall, by constructing boardwalks, erecting wooden fences tokeep the cattle out, and landscaping with trees and shrubbery.
In 1880, Selim Hobart Peabody, a professorof mechanical engineering, was appointed regent; he served until 1891.
The final years of the nineteenth century were lean years, anduniversity funds were extremely limited. The state contribution to the university at that time was $22,000 per year.
Faculty salaries, averaging about $2,000 annually, had to be
cut by 10%; student fees rose from $15.00 to $22.50 per year,
and enrollment declined. Even with these difficult times,
Peabody can be remembered for a significant step forward in
the history of the university.
In 1885, with the backing of the alumni body, Peabodychanged the name from the Illinois Industrial University to the
University of Illinois. Not everyone was happy with thechange; many protesters proclaimed that the people werebeing robbed of a labor school. The majority, however,greeted the change with enthusiasm.

~
~

i
I

li

•
I
~
I
~
I
~
I
~
~

I

I

~

I

~

~

~

I
I

I

i•

I

•
I
~ •
I
~ •
I
~ •
I
~ •
I
~ •
I
~
~

•

~!
~!
~!
~!
~!
~!

rs !

~!
~!
~!
.I

~ ·

I

The College of Engineering, originally named the
Polytechnic Department, was established in 1867 when the
Illinois Industrial University first opened its doors. The
school year consisted of three terms of 14, 12, and 10 weeks.
The four original courses of study in the Polytechnic Department were mechanical science and art, civil engineering,mining and metallurgy, and architecture and fine arts.
Following a four-year period during which all courses
were elective, the 1872-73 University Catalogue and Circular
listed prescribed course outlines for each curriculum of the
Polytechnic Department. The first degrees of Bachelor of
Science, Bachelor of Letters, and Bachelor of Arts were
granted on June 6, 1877, to those who had completed the fouryear prescribed curriculum in their chosen fields. Algebra,
geometry, trigonometry, and calculus were required courses in
the polytechnic curricula. It is interesting to note the further
requirements of three terms of English or French, three termsof German, one term of astronomy, one term of geology ormental philosophy, and three terms of vacation journal andmemoir. Elective courses included Butler's analogy, elocution, evidences of Christianity, history of inductive sciences,and penmanship. The course description for vacation journaland memoir reads as follows:"ii~ ~ TIJ~The Urbana and Champaign Institute was built in I 86I-62 asa co-educational boarding school. It was located at the northend of Illinois Field, where the Beckman Institute stands. The
availability of this building was a principal inducement for
locating the university in Urbana. Note the landscaped
grounds-a result of the daily labor required of all students.
Students dubbed the building The Elephant.

Journals of travel are required to be kept during summer
vacations; entries should be made as often as once a week andconsist of notices of manufactories, especially of theirpeculiar mechanical methods and machines. Dimensions oflarge or important machinery, such as stationary engines ofwater works, blowing or hoisting machines, and machinery in
use in mining or other operations, may form a part of therecord. The journals of the first vacation are to be read anddiscussed in connection with the class in Designing and Shop
Practice, and those of the second in connection with the classin Cinema tics and Principles of Mechanism. They should be
illustrated by sketches reproduced upon the blackboard.
Reports of memoirs upon visits and observations of thethird vacation will be required instead of journals, to be readin the class in Machine Drawing during the middle term of
the fourth year.
These reports should be made upon rare and interestingmechanical operations, such as making gas pipe, spinningzinc, copper and brass ware, manufacturing saws, etc. They
will be placed in the Library of the School and should be
illustrated by ample sketches and drawings.

From the beginning, it was clear that a knowledge of thephysical laws oflight, sound, electricity, and magnetism was
fundamental to the training of every student in the Polytechnic
Department. Accordingly, these subjects in physics wererequired and were administered by the Department of
Mechanical Science and the Department of Metallurgy and/Drill Hall and Machine Shop in 1872 near the intersection of
Springfield Avenue and Burrill Avenue.

3

Mining. The first administrator of these required courses,
from 1869-78, was Stillman William Robinson, professor ofmechanical science. He was followed in 1879-85 by Selim H.
Peabody, professor of mechanical science and the regent of
the university. From 1885-89, Theodore Comstock, professorof metallurgy and mining, served as administrator until the
newly formed Department of Physics assumed responsibility
in 1889.
The first reference to electrical equipment was containedin the 1869-70 University Catalogue and Circular, describing
the physical laboratory equipment as follows: "The collectionof apparatus includes a Grove's battery of six cups, an
induction coil, model telegraphic apparatus, Madgeburg
hemisphere, magnets, and other related equipment."
In 1873, the first Physical Laboratory was established in
the newly completed Main Building, later named University
Hall. The 1874-75 catalogue stated: "The Physical Laboratory is amply provided with illustrative apparatus for use in
the adjacent lecture room connected by sliding doors so thatthe apparatus is convenient either for use in the lectures or forthe laboratory work."
The 1878-79 catalogue boasted that the equipment in the
Physical Laboratory included " ... a collection of apparatus
from the most celebrated European and American makers,

Samuel Wesley Stratton
was the first head of the
Department of Physics,
1889-1892. This photo
was taken in 1890.

costing over $5,000 and illustrating the subjects of mechanics,
pneumatics, optics, heat and electricity."
When the Department of Physics was established in 1889,
Samuel Wesley Stratton, who later became president of
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was placed in charge.
Stratton recognized the potential of electricity and related
phenomena and supported that newly developing field oftechnology. Under his direction, the first electrical laboratory
was constructed in 1891 in a basement room under the chapelin the Main Building, and the first courses in electricalengineering were offered. The year 1891, therefore, has
become the accepted date for the establishment of the
Department of Electrical Engineering, with the first degrees
being awarded in 1893.
In 1891-92, the Illinois Technograph, which began
publishing in 1886, contained the following in issue no. 6:
The instruction in electricity begins with the third term ofphysics in the sophomore year. The laboratory work inelectricity includes simple problems in electrical measurements, which are designed to acquaint the student withtherms and the use of electrical apparatus. Later on, students
in advanced classes take up testing of primary and secondary
batteries, cable testing, designing of electrical machinery,
installation of light and power plants, the transmission of
power by electricity and, lastly, photometry.

The MainBuilding,pictured in 1873 and later called University Hall,
was completed on the site of the Illini Union Building on Green Street.

4

In a short time, the Electrical Laboratory established by
Stratton in one basement room had expanded into the entire
basement floor of the east wing of the Main Building. These
instructional and experimental facilities included a dynamo
laboratory, an electrical measurements laboratory, a battery
room, a photometry room, and a tool room and shop.
Initially, the prime mover of the laboratory was a lO~hp"grasshopper" Atkinson gas engine; however, with the adventof incandescent lighting, a 60-hp "Ideal" high-speed steam
engine was installed to provide the first unit of the original
University Hall power plant. Steam for this unit was provided
by the adjacent Steam Heating Plant, built in 1881. Within ayear, a fairly representative collection of belt-driven, direct
current and alternating current generators was acquired for the~Bernard V. Swenson isconsidered to be thefirst head of electricalengineering. He served
for JO months in 189596, when physics andelectrical engineering
were temporarily
separated.

combined Electrical Laboratory and University Hall power
plant. The direct current machinery for the power plant
included a Brush 10-light arc lighting plant, a ThomsonHouston 3-light arc lighting plant, an Edison 100-lightincandescent plant, and a 500-volt generator. The alternating
current machinery for the power plant included a ThomsonHouston 300-light generator, two single-phase Westinghouse
generators, and a number of transformers. The 1892-93
catalogue stated the following concerning the smaller items oflaboratory equipment:
The Electrical Engineering Laboratory has been suppliedwith apparatus from the leading makers at home and abroad.
There are several forms of Wheatstone bridges, resistanceboxes including an Anthony 100,000 ohm box, a Nadler
Bros. subdivided megohm box, and assortment of switches,
keys, condensers and the leading forms of "deadbeat" andballistic galvanometers, including a Thomson high resistanceand an Edelman "deadbeat" galvanometer and several
D' Arsonval galvanometers. The laboratory is also suppliedwith artificial standards of resistance, standard cells, Kelvin's
current balance, ammeters, voltmeters, and wattmeters.
Current is brought to the room from the dynamo and battery
rooms.
A large lecture room for physics and electrical engineering
is located on the third floor of the east wing of the Main
Building directly above the chapel; it is supplied with current
from the dynamo and battery rooms in the basement and iswired for both arc and incandescent lighting.

In June 1892, Stratton resigned to accept a position in the
Department of Physics at the newly established University of
Chicago, and Daniel W. Shea was appointed assistantprofessor and head of the Department of Physics. Shea had
been an assistant professor of physics at Harvard University
before coming to the University of Illinois in 1892. Two years
later, he was promoted to full professor and remained atIllinois until 1895, when he resigned to become the first
professor of physics at the Catholic University of America in
Washington, D.C.

William Esty became
head of the Department
of Electrical Engineering in 1898, whenelectrical engineering
became the fifth
department in theCollege of Engineering.

During the brief period of Shea's stay at Illinois, several
momentous events occurred in the College of Engineering andin the Department of Physics. First and foremost was theconstruction of the new Engineering Building in 1893-94 at a
cost of $172,000. The History of the College of Engineeringby Baker and King states:
The site chosen for the location of the new Engineering
Building was on the north side of Green Street, midway
between the north and south group of buildings, facing thelatter. Construction work was started late in 1893, and thecornerstone was laid on December 31, 1893. The structure,completed late in the fall of 1894, was formally dedicatedwith appropriate ceremonies on the 15th day of November ofthat year, the same day as the formal inauguration of
President Draper.

As soon as space became available, Shea moved his
Department of Physics and the electrical classrooms andoffices from the Main Building (University Hall) into allocated space in the new Engineering Building; however, theelectrical laboratories containing heavier de and ac machineryand associated equipment remained in the basement of
University Hall. Some of these units served a dual purpose byproviding energy for the University Hall power plant and forstudent instruction.
In November 1895, following the resignation of Shea, theadministration of physics and electrical engineering was
separated temporarily. Fred A. Sager was placed in charge of
the Department of Physics, and Bernard V. Swenson became
the first head of electrical engineering. However, ten months
later, with the arrival of Albert Pruden Carmon in September
1896 from Stanford University as head of physics, theelectrical engineering courses were again placed under theadministration of the Department of Physics. Following thisperiod of frequent administrative changes, it is interesting tonote that Carmon remained head of the Department of Physics
until his retirement in 1929.

5

-i

-I

•

Even though the electrical engineering courses wereadministered by the Department of Physics, 3 students
received BS degrees in electrical engineering in 1893, 9 in
1894, 8 in 1895, 11in1896, 14 in 1897, and 18 in 1898. With
this growth and increasing interest, the university administration could no longer consider electrical engineering to be apart of the Department of Physics; therefore, in the fall of1898, physics and electrical engineering were again separated
and electrical engineering became the fifth department in theCollege of Engineering, with William Esty in charge.
In 1897, $40,000 was allocated for the construction of the
Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Building, a T-shaped
structure with a three-story front, 50 x 100 ft, and a one-story
rear wing, 50 x 90 ft. The location of the new building was
designated as "north of the Boneyard branch and east of
Burrill A venue." In 1991, this is recognized as the north halfof the Electrical Engineering Research Laboratory.
It was also decided that electrical engineering would
occupy the three-story portion of the building facing Burrill
A venue and that mechanical engineering would occupy therear 50 x 90 ft one-story wing. From Burrill Avenue, entrance
to the building was gained either by a lower floor doorway,
called the students' entrance, or by climbing a double stairway
to a second floor doorway, called the main entrance, which led
directly into the large dynamo laboratory.
The basement of the three-story electrical engineering
portion of the building contained a calibration room, a highpotential laboratory, a student shop, a storage battery room, a

The Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Building in theearly 1900-05 era. Note the boiler house for the Boneyard
Power Plant in the right background.

6

stock room, a tool room, and a toilet. The Electrical Dynamo
Laboratory occupied the entire main floor. The south end of
the huge laboratory contained a machinists' room, a students'
workroom, an instrument room, and a tool room separated
from the main laboratory by low-paneled partitions and wire
railings. The third or top floor above the Electrical Dynamo
Laboratory contained a large lecture room, student thesis
room, a photometry room, and staff offices.
Even with this additional space, the department was
unable to find room for all its activities in the new Mechanicaland Electrical Engineering Building. A recitation room, adrafting room, a seminar room, and the office of the department head remained in Engineering Hall, which had been
erected in 1893. The department also occupied six large "pierrooms" on the main floor of Engineering Hall. These rooms
had been used for sensitive electrical and magnetic measurements by the Department of Physics. The laboratory tables
were mounted on foundation piers extending down into theground to provide surfaces free from local vibrations anddisturbances-hence the name pier rooms.
The construction of the Mechanical and ElectricalEngineering Building was unique. Issue no. 12 of the Illinois
Technograph commented on the construction of the building:
The floors above are supported upon steel girders andyellow pine beams. The entire upper story and roof aresupported by six steel trusses of the Fink type. The upper
floor and partitions are suspended by two steel rods attachedto each truss. The ceiling joists are carried directly upon thehorizontal lower chords. The floors are capable of carrying aload of twenty-five hundred pounds per square foot.

In other words, the upper floor is suspended from the ceiling
trusses, which eliminates the need for supporting columns on
the main floor.
The Mechanical Engineering Steam Laboratory occupied
most of the one-story east wing of the building, which is 50 x
90 ft. Similar methods of construction were used, as reported
in the same issue of the Illinois Technograph: "The roof of theSteam Laboratory is supported by eight exposed steel Finktrusses with horizontal chords. They carry a line shaft and thetrack for a four-ton traveling crane." Wooden doors can beseen on the east end of the building, which allowed the craneto carry loads to and from the outside.
The Department of Electrical Engineering and theDepartment of Mechanical Engineering shared the building
for seven years, until mechanical engineering moved its steam
laboratory into a new building in 1905. The Department ofElectrical Engineering expanded into the east wing, and withthis additional space, most activities of the department could
be located under one roof.

- •I
•
I
•
I
•

I
•
I

i

i

I

•

~!

~!
~!

I
•
I
•
I
•
I
•
I
•
I

i•

I
•
I
•
I
•
I
•
I•

~!
I
•
I

-

I ~
I•-~j
I
I ~
I- j
I- j

-!

Another view of the Main Building, latercalled University Hall, taken from Green
Street in 1879, shows its location withrespect to the first chemistry building,Harker Hall, which still stands in 1991.

~
I!

I.. ~

! !~

The new Engineering Building, known
today as Engineering Hall, was built in
1893-94 at a cost of $172,000.

7

Professor Morgan Brooks proudly displays his new 1910 automobile in front of the Mechanical andElectrical Engineering Building. Note the double stairway to the main entrance with the student entrance below.

Jn 1899, William
Sleeper Aldrich
succeeded William Estyas the head of electricalengineering. Aldrichserved until 1901.

8

I! I
~

,
-,
1

.1
.. i

.1
.
•
..
.
j
j
j

j

•]

I j
~

]
~
~

I ]
•
I ~
I ]
]

!1 ·i~

•

..
..
..

!~

~

]
i~
;~

~

... i~... I~... :~-~

A smentioned in Chapter 1, William Esty was named.rK._ head of the Department of Electrical Engineering in
the fall of 1898, when the department was again separated
from physics. He served in that capacity for only one year but
remained on the electrical engineering staff until 1901. At thattime, he accepted a position at Lehigh University and later
became head of the electrical engineering department there.
William Sleeper Aldrich, a professor of mechanicalengineering at the University of West Virginia, was employedin the fall of 1899 as professor of electrical engineering andhead of the Department of Electrical Engineering, succeeding
William Esty. He resigned in 1901 to become director of the
Clarkson Memorial School of Technology, Potsdam, NewYork.
Morgan Brooks, from the University of Nebraska, wasthen hired by the University of Illinois as professor ofelectrical engineering and head of the department. He served
as department head until 1909 and remained as professor ofelectrical engineering until his retirement in 1929. Despite
these frequent administrative changes, the department
continued to develop, and the need for additional laboratory
and classroom space was always a primary concern.
During these early years of the twentieth century, the east
wing of the Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Building
served a dual purpose. The steam engines and generating
units of the Boneyard Power Plant (1897-1910) were housed
at the east end of the wing adjacent to the steam boiler units inthe Electrical Engineering Annex. Because steam was readily
available, this area also served as the steam machinery
laboratory of the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
In 1905, mechanical engineering moved its steam
machinery laboratory into a new building; in 1910, theoperation of the Boneyard Power Plant was discontinued, andits steam engines and generators were removed from the east
wing. These changes enabled the Department of ElectricalEngineering to occupy the entire building. The east wing wassoon remodeled to contain two large lecture rooms, twoclassrooms, and a high-voltage laboratory, freeing space on
the third floor facing Burrill Avenue for departmental offices,a graduate study room, and a library.
Ernest Julius Berg, an engineer with General ElectricCompany and a lecturer at Union College, Schenectady, New
York, was employed in 1909 as head of electrical engineering.
He was enticed to come to Illinois when several large Illinois
corporations agreed to supplement his university salary bygiving him retainer fees as a consulting engineer. Bergremained as head until June 1913, when he resigned to return
to his former positions with General Electric Company andwith Union College.

Ellery Burton Paine, after several years of experience inindustry and university administration, came to the University
of Illinois in 1907 as an assistant professor of electricalengineering. Following the resignation of Berg in 1913, Paine
became acting head of electrical engineering and then head ofthe department, a position he held for 31 years until he retired
in September 1944.
Following the acquisition of the east wing of the Electrical Engineering Building in 1910, the department operated
quite well within its allocated space during the next decade.
Student enrollments, however, continued to increase year afteryear, and by 1925 modifications in space use were necessary.
The huge dynamo laboratory (room 200) had become
inadequate to serve the demands for instruction in the area ofac and de power machinery, which at that time comprised the
major portion of the department's instructional activities. In
1925-26, room 207 in the east wing was converted into asmaller dynamo laboratory to supplement the larger one inroom200.
While the Department of Electrical Engineering was
evolving on the north bank of the Boneyard, the Department
of Applied Mechanics was developing on the south bank in abuilding somewhat resembling the Electrical Engineering
Building. It consisted of two floors above ground facing
Burrill Avenue and an east wing of two floors, which served
as the hydraulics laboratory. In 1928-29, a new building(later renamed Talbot Laboratory) was constructed for the
Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics on thewest side of Burrill Avenue. The Applied Mechanics
Laboratory was then vacated, and this space was assigned toelectrical engineering. In the summer of 1929, a connecting
structure was built across the Boneyard, thereby joining theMorgan Brooks served
as department headfrom 1901-1909 andremained a professor ofelectrical engineering
until his retirement in
1929.

9

The Electrical Engineering Laboratory (left) and the Applied
Mechanics Laboratory (right) were connected in 1929 tohouse the Department of Electrical Engineering. This picture
was taken in the early 1950's, before some 800 elm trees on
campus were killed by the Dutch elm disease.

Applied Mechanics Laboratory in 1928. This space was
assigned to electrical engineering when a new building (later
renamed Talbot Laboratory) was constructed for the
Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics.

Electrical Engineering Building and the former Applied
Mechanics Laboratory. These two buildings and the connecting structure formed the Electrical Engineering ResearchLaboratory.
The main floor of the newly acquired Applied Mechanics
Laboratory (facing Burrill Avenue) was converted intoanother large dynamo laboratory. The equipment housed inroom 207 at the north end was moved into room 214 of thisnew facility (later renamed the Solid State Devices ResearchLaboratory). The second floor above room 214 (facing Burrill
Avenue) was remodeled to provide facilities for the radio
laboratory, which had occupied room 204 at the north end.
The east wing of the former Applied Mechanics Building
had been the hydraulics laboratory; the lower basement floorof this wing was transformed into research rooms for membersof the staff and for graduate students who were conducting
thesis studies and experimental work. The upper floor of thiseast wing was converted into a large lecture room containing
300 seats for general use by electrical engineering and byother departments in the College of Engineering.
With the acquisition of the Applied Mechanics Laboratory and the connecting hallway structure, the crowded
conditions in the north end of the building were eased
considerably. The rooms on the third floor of the north end,
which had served as the departmental offices, were converted
into a communications laboratory, containing all the latest
telephonic equipment.
The 100-kW synchronous motor-generator set, which had
been a part of the old Boneyard Power Plant, was moved fromthe rear of room 207 into the small room at the north end of
the connecting hallway (201 EERL), replacing the 85-kW set
as a source of direct current energy for the dynamo laboratory
in room 200.
Meanwhile, in 1930, the old Boiler House of the
Boneyard Power Plant was vacated by the Department ofApplied Mechanics, the Department of Civil Engineering, andthe University Garage, and the Department of ElectricalEngineering was offered this entire facility. By 1932, thesouth end of the old Boiler House (renamed ElectricalEngineering Annex) had been transformed into a high-voltage
laboratory containing a huge Tesla coil and associatedapparatus. The removal of the high-voltage equipment fromroom 206 of the Electrical Engineering Building provided
space for high-frequency experimental work. Both of these
programs on high voltage and high frequency were under the
direction of Joseph Tykociner.

J
I
I
I
I
-I
-I
I

I

I

I

I

I

ill

10

II

~

Ernest Julius Berg, who
served as department
head from 1909-13,
was enticed to come toIllinois when several
corporations agreed togive him a retainer fee
as a consulting
engineer.

]

The north end of the old Boiler House was remodeled in1934 to provide space for the illumination courses. A large
photometric laboratory was constructed in the basement, and aclassroom seating 40 students, a spectrophotometry laboratory, and a staff office were provided on the main floor. Thesefacilities for instruction in the field of illumination wereconsidered the finest in the nation.
The large lecture room seating 300 people in the south
wing of the Electrical Engineering Building was modified in1948 to provide 12 smaller rooms for offices and laboratories.
Otherwise, the building space allocated to Electrical Engineering did not change materially from 1934 to 1949. Student
enrollments continued to increase and additional staff members were employed. To provide for these increases, classrooms and office space were acquired on the second floor ofEngineering Hall.

Ellery Burton Paine
came to the University
of Illinois in 1907 as
an assistant professor.
He became acting head
and then head ofelectrical engineeringin 1913 . He led thedepartment for 31
years until his
retirement in 1944.

In 1941, with the advent of World War II, the UnitedStates Armed Services contracted with the university to train
recruits on an accelerated basis. Most of this training focusedon subjects related to electrical engineering. The U.S. Army
established similar units of Armed Services Training
Programs, and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton,
Ohio, sent civilian employees for Engineering Specialized
Manpower War Training programs.
The Department of Electrical Engineering was literally
swamped with students. Most staff members were assigned
teaching loads of 18 to 24 classroom hours per week, withclass sizes far greater than normal. Classes were scheduledfrom 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., six days per week. These
conditions of too many students and an insufficient number ofstaff continued until the end of World War II in 1945. From
1945--48, the army continued to send officers for graduate
study in electrical engineering.
In the meantime, in 1944, Ellery B. Paine, who had
served the department well during his 31 years as department
head, retired, and William L. Everitt became the seventh
person to serve as head of electrical engineering at the
University of Illinois. People who were associated with thedepartment during those postwar years witnessed a mostaggressive and dynamic example of leadership. Under
Everitt, the Department of Electrical Engineering wastransformed into one that included all aspects of research andinstruction encompassed in the broad spectlum of subjects
related to electrical engineering.

Professors H. N. Hayward and E. A. Reid are pictured in the
Machine Laboratory circa 1936. Lamp banks on wall served
as resistance loads. Note that the machines are now directdrive rather than belt drive.

11

Professor William
Littell Everitt, head of
the Department ofElectrical Engineeringfrom 1945-49 anddean of the College ofEngineering from
1949--68.

~

I~
Immediately after World War II, colleges and universities
across the nation experienced rapid growth in enrollments.
The Department of Electrical Engineering (the name waschanged to the Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering in 1984) at the University of Illinois was no
exception. As young men returned from their service duty,
they enrolled in large numbers to take advantage of the GI
Bill, and engineering attracted many students because theadvances and discoveries made during the war had raised
awareness of the profession. This was also the time of the firstfemale electrical engineering graduate. Although some
women students had graduated from the College of Engineering, in 1945, Lois Hume Windhorst was the first to receive herbachelor's degree from this department.
The sudden rise in enrollment figures, as shown in thegraph, gave impetus to the design and construction of a newbuilding for the department. The department needed to
become research oriented and needed new facilities to adapt tothis new focus. It was an exciting time-a time for visionary
leadership to guide the department into a rapidly changing
future.
William L. Everitt was to fill that role. Already wellknown for his many contributions, Everitt came to the University of Illinois with influence, power, and respect. Because of
those qualities and the fact that his work in Washington, D.C.,
had put him in close contact with other top people, he was able
to recruit "stars" to come to Illinois.
As Everitt drew other top researchers to the department, an
influx of new research dollars came with them. Concomitantly, the graduate program grew and expanded with students
eager to study with engineers of such fame. Since the years
before World War I, the graduate program had remained small
and constant. At that time, there was little interest or need foran advanced degree in engineering unless college instruction
was the career goal. The following graphs depict these trends.

Figure 2-Graduate Enrollment

Figure 1-Undergraduate Enrollment by Degree2000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --- ---,-- -600 - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - -- -~ Undergraduate Enrollment•

Computer Engineering (EE/CS i 969-1972}

1000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ,"

1900

1910

1920

1930

1940

1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

1910

1920

1930

1940

1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

.

~!
~!
~!

I
•

!

!I

•

!!

!

I

•

~!

I
•
I
•
I•
I
•
I
•
I
•
-I
•
I
•
I
I
I
I

I

12

•

II

I

I-

~

~

-- ~

-..

~

~

-.

I ~
I ~
I
~
I :~
I ~
I ~
•
I ~
I
~

..
-..

--

• ·~
~
~
~
~

-.

~

I
~
I :!
I ~
~

John D. Ryder became
head in 1949 after
Everitt assumed thedeanship in the college.
Ryder served
until 1954.

Edward C. Jordan
was head of the
Department ofElectrical Engineeringfrom 1954-1979.

In figure 4, note the sharp contrast in percentage ofadvanced degrees granted in 1940 vs. 1990. High technology
industries today require more engineers with advanced degrees.
In 1990, the department holds the unique distinction of ranking
as one of the nation's largest BS degree granting departments
and one of the largest PhD degree granting departments inthe field.
At the time ofEveritt's arrival at Illinois, the department
was housed in what, in 1991, is called the Electrical Engineering Research Laboratory (EERL). The new Electrical Engineering Building, dedicated in 1949 and later renamed theWilliam L. Everitt Laboratory, bears the mark of his philosophies. Everitt believed that class size should be kept small andthat research was of top priority. The design of the newbuilding reflected this philosophy; classrooms held a maximumof only 25 students, and there were spacious laboratories andshops to accommodate the research that was so much a part ofhis vision. Later on, when student numbers reachedunimagined heights, some walls were moved to accommodate
larger classes.

Figure 3-ECE Graduates by Degree
500 -

-

Two symposia were held when the building was dedicatedin 1949. One was titled "The Development of an ElectricalEngineer" and the other was "The Expanding Frontiers ofElectrical Engineering." Speakers included Robert E. Doherty,
president of Carnegie Institute of Technology, and Everitt E.
Lee, president of the American Institute of ElectricalEngineers.
In 1949, when Everitt became dean, the departmental
search for a new head led to John D. Ryder, who was on thefaculty at Iowa State University. Ryder served as head of thedepartment from 1949 to 1954, when he left to become dean ofengineering at Michigan State University. Upon his retirementfrom Michigan, he moved to Florida, where he taught part timeat the University of Florida.
In 1954, Edward C. Jordan, who had come to Illinois from
Ohio State University in 1944 with Everitt, became the next
head of the Department of Electrical Engineering. Except for
the year of his sabbatical leave in 1965 at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, he served until 1979. During his leave,

Figure 4-Percentage of ECE Graduates by Degree- - -- - - - - -- -- - - - -- - -BS - -Ms ............... .

~PhD······· ·400 --------------------~-

~
~

~
~

i!!

1900

1910

1920

1930

1940

1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

-

BS

c::J MS

-

PhD

~
~

~

13

From 1979-1985,
George W. Swenson, Jr.,
was department head.

M.E. Van Valkenburg
served as acting headfor Jordan in 1965.

M. E. (Mac) Van Valk:enburg served as acting head. Van
Valkenburg served as dean of engineering from 1984 to 1988.
Jordan remained active on campus after his retirement.
The first national rankings of universities and departments were made in 1964. Jn these and subsequent rankings,
the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering has
consistently been in the top four. Because the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and Stanford University are private
schools, the University of Illinois claims the highest rank
among state universities.
During Jordan's 25 years as head, the department
continued to grow in several areas. Faculty size burgeoned in
the postwar years, but salaries did not take a commensurate
growth until the 1960s. The economic recession of the early
1970s resulted in a somewhat slower growth period, whichbegan to tum upward again by about 1976.

Computer science degrees were first offered through the
Department of Mathematics and the Department of ElectricalEngineering. Figure 1 pictures enrollment in the computer
programs. From 1969 to about 1973, a joint EE/CS bachelor's
degree was offered. In 1972, the Department of Computer
Science initiated a bachelor's degree program, which removed
a number of students from this department. The Department
of Electrical Engineering also initiated a computer engineering
program in 1972, and enrollment remained strong until the
mid-1980s.
When Jordan retired in 1979, George W. Swenson, Jr.,
served as department head until 1985. Jordan then returned toresearch in the department. He retired in 1988 and died in
1991.
Enrollments at the undergraduate and graduate levels
peaked at record levels in the mid- l 980s. Class sizes became

Figure 6--ECE State, Research, and Gift Expenditures, 1910-1990

Figure 5-Number of Faculty

State

1910

1920

1930

1940

14

1910

1920

1930

1940

1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

1960

1970

5 19,000°

522,252$55,609$73,&27$420,~3 !1

5684,203

ResearchNA

Sl,000'NA

S7.SOO$715,525$1,6{)0,000 $3,500,000

Gilts

NA

NA

NA

$2,000'$30,ooo·' Esllmalc

1900

1950

NA - not available

NA

19EIO

1990

$1,469,31 7 SJ,178,460 $7,281,627

NA$6,000,000 51 3,295,200$156,000$1,622,900

too large, and the quality of student/faculty interaction
deteriorated. The College of Engineering submitted amultiyear $18 million engineering revitalization program tothe state legislature, which was approved and funded in partfor a few years. New faculty members were recruited in theearly and mid-1980s to handle the increased instructional load.
However, the engineering revitalization program was curtailed
after only half of the funds were received. The department
reduced enrollment at both the undergraduate and graduatelevels in the late 1980s to improve the quality of education.
Figure 6 charts the department's expenditures over theyears in various categories. We have an accurate record ofstate expenditures for each year. However, before 1940, we
have no record of research funds from external sources. We
know that Professor Tykociner was the only research professor in the department in this period, and he spent $1,000 in

Figure 7-ECE State, Research, and Gift Expenditures, 1910-1990

1921 on his sound-on-film project. It is doubtful that he had
more than a few thousand dollars annually to conduct his
research. Also, no accurate record was kept of gifts before
1980. Gifts come in the form of scholarships, fellowships,
equipment, and unrestricted funds for research or instructional
programs. Before 1980, we estimate that gifts constituted lessthan 3% of the department's annual income. Figure 7 gives
the same information adjusted for inflation in 1984 dollars.
Figure 8 illustrates the dramatic changes in the sources offunding for the department. Before World War II, approximately 90% of the department's budget came from tuition andstate appropriations. Since World War II, only approximately
one third of the department's budget comes from tuition andstate appropriations. In recent years, gifts from industry andalumni have become more essential for the support of
instructional laboratories and research.

Figure 8-Percentage of ECE State, Research, and Gift Expenditures

Adjusted for Inflation (1984 Dollars)
1990

State

1910

1920

1930

1940

1950

1960

1970

SJ,1e2,022

s234,sss·

s12s,391

SJ91,487$566,192

s1.74S,23B

s2.J01,e11

Research

NA

NA

NA

557,675$2.970,144$5,396,800 S9,009,000

Gifts

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

•EslimataNA- no1 available

NA

NA

1980

1990

SJ.001 ,a53

ss.ss9.s11$7,29-0,000 510,224,009
5190,148$1,248,010

35%

-

State

c::::J Research

-

Gifts

15

"- l
l
i

~ ,

i

I
l
i

Timothy N. Trick, whojoined the department
in 1965, became headin 1985.

I

I
I
I
I
I
I
I
!!'
I
I

I

I

Because the department has been in a growth mode over
the years, figures 9 and 10 depict the state funding per student
and research funding per graduate student at 10-year increments. Note the 20-year cycle. After World War II, there wasa great spurt of government funding for education andresearch. The Korean War was followed by a recession in the
1950s, and the demand for engineers decreased as did thedollars per student. In 1957, Russia launched Sputnik; theeconomy improved in the 1960s, and the demand for engineers increased as did funding for education and research. In
the 1970s we see the effects of the Vietnam War and anotherrecession. Funding levels dropped as did the demand forengineers. By the late 1970s, a shortage of engineers developed again, and in the 1980s funding for education andresearch increased. As we enter the 1990s, we are in arecession; the demand for engineers has decreased, and we are
beginning to see decreases in state funding and a leveling ofresearch expenditures. Is this the down side of another
20-year cycle?

After Swenson returned to research in 1985, Edward W.
Ernst served as interim head while a search was in progress.
The search ended in the appointment of Timothy N. Trick as
the department head in 1985. Trick had joined the faculty at
Illinois in 1965. Ernst became an associate dean in theCollege of Engineering. Later, he was a program director at
the National Science Foundation and then returned to teachingas an Allied Signal Professor at the University of South
Carolina.
Due to the continued growth since 1944, the Department
of Electrical and Computer Engineering long ago outgrew
Everitt LabOratory. In 1991, the department is located in partsof nine different buildings. An $18. 7 million gift has beenobtained from the Grainger Foundation for a new engineering
library, and EERL and the EBA are scheduled for demolitionin 1993 to make room for the library and a mall. The college's
highest priority for capital funding is a new electrical engineering building.

I

I

I

I

I

~!

I
I

!!

!

~!

l
I

I
I

Figure 9-State Funding per Student
Adjusted for Inflation (1984 Dollars)$3,500 --I

Figure 10-Research Funding per Graduate Student
Adjusted for Inflation (1984 Dollars)II- - - -- - -- -- - - - - - - - - -

I

I
I

I

J

I

I

I
1910

16

1920

1930

1940

1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

1940

1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

-- -·--·....
.. .,.., ,•••1
....
., ..
....
=: :: ...

-

-....
....

-·

•1•1
,.,

...
Ii

..

~ -

-

p

ii -

II

-- ~

Dedicated in 1949, the Electrical Engineering Building was later renamed the William L. Everitt Laboratory.
The third floor was added in 1965.

17

I

I

"
~!

I
I
I
I

I

I

!

!

~!

~

!
!
!"
,

•.

•1••n

!

• r. 1r:.i.__.a • • • • • la • • •---·- . --

.....

...

!
~

-

I

~!
~!

!
~!
r!

Dean William L. Everitt at his desk in 1949.

I
J
I•
- I•
I
•
- I•
-I
•
-I
I
I

18

I

I

•

I

:~

-1·;;;)

1-~

I-~

-

;;;;i

i~ T
.....

,-;;;:i

1 ·~

.~

I-~
I-~

I-~
I-~
I-~
-~

!~

I
I- :!II- :!!

I-~
i~
-~

-

~

I ~
~

~

.... ~

111111~

he appointment of William L. Everitt as head of the
Department of Electrical Engineering was a significant
factor in our emergence as one of the leading departments in
the United States and perhaps even the world.
How did this fortunate event happen? We first review thehistory of his appointment.
When Ellery Paine was scheduled to retire in 1944 after
heading the department for 31 years, the problem of finding a
successor arose. Members of the department approached
Dean Enger with the suggestion that instead of initiating anational search, as was usual, the successor should be selectedfrom among the existing faculty. They suggested that Abner
R. (Buck) Knight should be appointed head with Charles H.
Keener as associate head to carry most of the administrativeload. Knight was well known and liked throughout thecampus and Keener was known to be most effective inhandling administrative details and class scheduling, so it
would have made a good combination.
When Dean Enger raised questions about the plans forresearch, he was told that the faculty members had decided not
to try to conduct research in the department because researchin electrical engineering required large and expensive equipment available only in large industrial companies, such as
General Electric and Westinghouse. It was at this point thatthe dean instituted a national search, which resulted in
William L. Everitt being selected as the new head.
Everitt had an outstanding career at The Ohio State
University, rising through the ranks to professor. His book,
Communication Engineering, based largely on his own
research results, had attracted graduate students from allaround the world. In 1941, he was given leave of absencefrom OSU to serve during the war as director of Operational
Research in the Office of the Chief Signal Officer. When he
was appointed as department head at the University of Illinois
in 1944, he was given a one-year leave of absence by Illinois
to complete his war work in Washington, D.C. During theacademic year 1944--45, Knight served as acting head of thedepartment, with Keener handling the administrative details.
Although Everitt was not yet actively on board as head,plans moved forward to construct a new building. Together
with several members of the department (Archer, Faucett, andKeener), Everitt visited other electrical engineering departments, including Ohio State University, to gain ideas fordesirable layouts and new equipment. Plans for the newbuilding called for 50,000 sq ft of floor space, but with rapidly
rising construction costs in the immediate postwar years,
actual construction was scaled down by nearly half. Still, thecost ended up at almost double the budgeted amount.

After three years of planning and construction, the newbuilding was scheduled for occupancy in the fall of 1948. As
is often the case, there were a few unfinished details remaining
on the moving date. In this case, the new Electrical Engineering Building was still without electricity on September 16, thefirst day of classes. Undaunted, a group of professors decided
to hold their first classes in the new building at the scheduled
time of 7 :00 a.m.
The following day, the News-Gazette featured a story of
the opening of the new electrical engineering building.
Instead of the usual tape-cutting ceremony, it showed picturesof a group of professors and their students leaving the oldbuilding and entering the new building. The third picture
showed Everitt congratulating Paul Egbert on beginningclasses in the new building. Because it was still relatively
dark at 7:00 a.m., the group carried candles and miner's lamps
and wore miner's hats.

William L. Everitt leads
the first class of the dayfrom the old building to
the new building.

Entering the newly
completed building, now
known as Everitt
Laboratory.

"Newly completed except
for the electricity!" Thefirst class was held using
candles and miners
helmets for illumination.

19

I '

The Electrical Engineering
Building (renamed Everitt
Laboratory) before theaddition of the top floor. In
1958, a unidirectional
antenna was installed on theroof as a feed on a "moonbounce" parabolic reflector.
This was the first applicationof a log periodic antenna.
It is said that the university architect, Ernest Stouffer, was
not happy about the publicity given to the builder's failure tomeet the deadline. Most other people, however, seemed toderive a certain amusement from the fact that the new Electrical Engineering Building should open without electricity.
Everitt was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and raised in theEast. He pursued his early academic career at Cornell University (BS 1922) and the University of Michigan (MS 1926),
while serving as an instructor at both institutions. In between,
he spent two years as an engineer at North Electric Manufacturing Company in charge of automatic PBX development.
With this background, he went to Ohio State University, where
he received his doctorate (1933) and spent 18 years as amember of the faculty. While at Ohio State, he published
Communication Engineering, which had a profound effect on
the profession, changing it from power-dominated electricalengineering to a balanced power-electronics field and hence tothe expanded coverage of the early 1990s.
Everitt could surely have remained at Ohio State University for the remainder of his career. Instead, he was convincedthat there was a great opportunity at the University of Illinois
and, when chosen, he accepted with enthusiasm.
Everitt's appointment as head carried with it a mandate tokeep the department at the leading edge of the field by

20

developing it from a teaching department to one whose
faculty was engaged in both research and teaching. Before
1945, the only research appointment in the department was thatheld by Joseph T. Tykociner, whose interests spanned a rangeof topics (for more information on Tykociner, see Chapter 3).
There was other research done in the department, but it
was carried out by faculty members on top of full-time teachingloads. This situation was common in electrical engineering
departments throughout the nation, a marked contrast tophysics and chemistry departments, whose faculty members
were hired for both teaching and research with reduced
teaching assignments to enable them to devote time to research.
Although the university administration encouraged andapplauded the move toward research in the department, it was
unable to provide the funds required for both research and forteaching the rapidly increasing number of students during theimmediate postwar years. All faculty members were now
encouraged to seek research support from government agencies
such as the Office of Naval Research, Wright-Patterson Air
Force Base, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Bureau of
Ships, and Signal Corps; part or all of their research assignments were paid, in the beginning, from these outside funds.
With this infusion of funds, the department was able to growrapidly and maintain quality teaching while providing the
research activities required for graduate student research.

During the four-year (1944/45 to 1949) period ofEveritt's headship, the department experienced a remarkable
growth in the number of faculty members and students. Froman active faculty of 21 in 1945 (6 of whom were on leave ofabsence), the department grew to 45 professorial faculty(assistant professor through professor), 12 instructors, and 65
part-time graduate assistants. During the same period, thestudent body increased from 29 undergraduates and no
graduate students to 260 undergraduates and 156 graduate
students. Nearly all of the graduate students were alsoteaching assistants, research assistants, or research associates.
The new research projects provided both the financial supportand research topics for this wave of postwar graduate students.
Everitt's technical and professional contributions werenumerous. While at Ohio State, he developed the principle of
the radio altimeter, which is now used as standard equipment
on all of the larger aircraft. In 1938, he organized and directed
the first broadcast engineering conference, which brought
together radio station engineers from the United States andCanada for an engineering short course on the technicalproblems of radio stations.
Everitt's leadership in engineering education is evidenced
by the fact that he held nearly every major office in the key
professional and engineering education societies. He waspresident of the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE), presidentof the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE),
and president of the Engineers' Council for Professional
Development, now known as the Accreditation Board forEngineering and Technology. He was also awarded almost
every major medal or award given by these and other professional societies, including the IRE Medal of Honor, theAmerican Institute of Electrical Engineers (ASEE) Lamme
Medal, and the AIEE Medal for Electrical Engineering
Education. He was awarded ten honorary doctorates.
Over the years, he served an average of about three years
on each of 36 committees of these technical societies, and he
was chairman of many of them. His leadership in electricalengineering, particularly in the communications field, madehim much sought after as an adviser to many governmental
services. During World War II, he was director of Operational
Research in the Office of the Chief Signal Officer; and in
1946, he was awarded the War Department's Exceptionally
Meritorious Civilian Award. Among many other advisory
appointments, he had served as a member of the President's
Communication Policy Board and as a member of the
Research and Development Board of the Department of
Defense. He was a founding member of the National Academy of Engineering.
In 1923, he married Dorothy Irwin Wallace; they had
three children. She died in 1978. Two years later, he married
Margaret L. A. Larson and gained five stepsons. Many of his
graduate students called him "Uncle Bill," and his students

and children alike loved for him to stand on his head - hisgreat balancing feat that he was likely to do anywhere at any
time.
When he became dean, he was concerned that the press ofadministrative duties would cause him to lose touch with thetechnical advances of his field. It is typical of the man that, toensure against this eventuality, he undertook the editorship of
the Prentice-Hall series of electrical engineering texts. In thiscapacity, he edited more than 100 textbooks ranging frombasic electrical engineering to information theory.
As dean of the college from 1949 to 1968, Everitt was
successful in maintaining his reputation for accessibility. His
open-door policy was so widely known that when he retired,
fellow administrators mounted the "unused" knob from his
office door on a plaque and presented it to him as a tribute.
After a long and celebrated career, he died on September
6, 1986. Perhaps his most personal philosophy, which
describes how he lived his life, is best explained in this quotefrom the distinguished dean: "I am an optimist rather than apessimist. It is possible that the pessimists may be provenright in the long run, but we optimists have a better time on
the trip."

Dean William L. Everitt
standing on his head at astudent/faculty banquet,
after rendering his song"the bald-headed end of thebroom," accompanying
himself on the piano.

21

I'

I

John Bardeen and his life's work have changed technological history in countless, unheralded ways. "John Bardeen
personified the ideal university professor: gifted mind,
productive career, warm heart, and kind spirit," said University of Illinois President Stanley 0. Ikenberry. "For generations to come, John Bardeen will represent the best of
Illinois." A two-time Nobel Prize winner, Bardeen won theNobel Prize in physics in 1956 for co-inventing the transistor
and in 1972 for co-developing the theory of superconductivity.
He was born on May 23, 1908, at Madison, Wisconsin.
His father was dean of the medical school at the University of
Wisconsin, and his mother was an artist and interior designer.
He received his BS in 1928 and his MS in 1929 in electricalengineering, both from the University of Wisconsin. After
spending three years doing research at the Gulf ResearchLaboratories in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he returned to his
graduate studies in 1933 and received his PhD in mathematical physics from Princeton University in 1936. He held afellowship at Harvard University, taught at the University of
Minnesota, and was a physicist with the Naval OrdnanceLaboratory in Washington, D.C. In 1945, he joined the newly
formed research group in solid-state physics at the Bell
Telephone Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey. It wasthere that he became interested in semiconductors and, withW. H. Brattain and W. Shockley, discovered the transistor
effect in late 1947.
While at Bell Labs, John Bardeen maintained close ties
with several universities. Illinois was attractive to him
because Fred Seitz was here as a member of the Departmentof Physics, and he had brought with him a group of physicists
working in the solid-state field. At the University of Illinois,
the initiative was taken by Dean William Everitt andF. Wheeler Loomis, then head of the Department of Physics,
to attract Bardeen. Bardeen was made an offer, and the legend
is that "it broke the $10,000 limit" then imposed on facultysalaries by the university.
In 1951, John Bardeen left Bell Telephone Laboratories
to become professor of physics and electrical engineering at
the University of Illinois. Space was made available throughDean Everitt in the Electrical Engineering Building (renamed
EERL) in space that had just been vacated by the ILLIAC
project, which had moved to the Engineering ResearchLaboratory. While at the University of Illinois, Bardeen
maintained active interests in engineering and technology. He
began consulting for Xerox Corporation in 1951, when it was
still called Haloid and the research department was located ina frame house in Rochester. He also consulted for General
Electric and several other firms.
Besides his position at the university and his consulting
work, Bardeen also served on the President's Science Advisory Committee from 1959 to 1962 and on the White House
Science Council in the early 1980s. His honors included the
National Medal of Science in 1965, the Presidential Medal of
Freedom in 1976, and the Lomonosov Prize from the Soviet
Academy of Sciences in 1988.
Upon his retirement in 1975, he became professor
emeritus. With that title, he remained active at the university
and in his profession until his death. During his 60-year
scientific career, he made significant contributions to almost
every aspect of condensed matter physics. His research
spanned the electronic behavior of metals, the surface

John Bardeen displays an oscillator containing his Nobel
Prize winning invention, the transistor.

22

!
!
!

1

properties of semiconductors, the theory of diffusion of atoms
in crystals, and quasi-one-dimensional metals. In his 83rdyear, he continued to publish original scientific papers.
Bardeen received 16 honorary degrees and was elected to
the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy ofEngineering, and the American Philosophical Society. In
1990, the Sony Corporation established the John Bardeen
Chair in Physics and Electrical and Computer Engineering at
the University of Illinois. The $3 million gift was the largest
single endowment ever made to a U.S. university by Sony.
Bardeen was one of only 11 recipients of the Third
Century A ward, which honors exceptional contributions to
American creativity as part of the 200th anniversary of the
U.S. patent and copyright laws. He was also named by Life
Magazine as being among the 100 most influential people ofthe century.
Respect for Bardeen went beyond scientific circles. In
1989, he was asked whether he felt the community had
adequately recognized his work. Characteristically, he shifted
the focus from himself to higher education in general.
"I'm not concerned with my reputation," he said. "But ingeneral I don't believe the community and the state realize
what they have at the university, what we're doing."
Real estate developer Tom Harrington of Champaign,
who lived next door to Bardeen for nine years, recalled the
day in 1956 when he asked Bardeen about his new Nobel
Prize. Harrington, Bardeen's newspaper carrier at the time,
said Bardeen invited him in, signed a program from theawards ceremony, and gave it to the youngster.
"He was a complete gentleman, very unassuming, one of
the nicest people you'd ever want to meet," Harrington said.
"You'd never know how famous he was."
Besides being an exceptional physicist and outstanding
electrical engineer, Bardeen was also a good golfer and once
shot a hole-in-one. He seemed so proud of this feat and somodest about the Nobel Prize that some of his colleagues
wondered which he considered the greater accomplishment.
Some time after winning the second Nobel Prize in 1972,
Bardeen was lead-off speaker at the opening session of anindustrial affiliates conference at the Department of ElectricalEngineering. The chairman of the session deemed this to be
an opportunity to get an answer to the question, so he asked

John Bardeen accepts the 1956 Nobel Prize in physics forachievement in the area of microelectronics. Sweden's Crown
Prince Carl Gustaf, heir to the throne, represented his ailing
grandfather, King Gustaf IV Adolf, in this ceremony on
December JO.

Bardeen directly which he considered the greater accomplishment-the Nobel Prize or the hole-in-one? When Bardeenrose to begin his talk, he responded by saying, "Well, perhaps
two Nobel Prizes are worth more than one hole-in-one."
John Bardeen married Jane Maxwell in 1938; they had
three children and six grandchildren. He died in Boston,
Massachusetts, on January 30, 1991, of cardiac arrest while
recovering from exploratory surgery that revealed lung cancer.
For all the impact his inventions had on humanity, he isdescribed by colleagues as not only brilliant but quiet andhumble. In the sense that the steam engine made the Industrial
Age possible, the transistor made the Information Age
possible. Yet, he did not make his friends or colleagues feelthat he was superior to them. Humility-the mark of most of
the truly great people - endeared this great man to those who
knew him.

' UPI photo

23

t

I

I

.. '

His name does not appear in any of the credits, but former
University of Illinois electrical engineering professor Joseph
T. Tykociner has played a role in almost every talking film
ever produced. In 1922, the Polish immigrant developed thesound-on-film process.
The idea actually grew out of Tykociner's earlier interestin designing the perfect phonograph, which would "discard
the mechanical method of recording sound and ... do it
somehow electrically." He began experimenting with thisidea in a make-shift lab on his back porch while attendingnight school at Cooper Union in New York City around thetum of the century. Then, after viewing his first motion
picture, Tykociner became consumed with the idea ofcombining his phonograph work with the projection ofmoving pictures. He created two models of a sound-recording
camera.
According to R. A. Kingery, R. D. Berg, and E. H.
Schillinger in Men and ideas in Engineering: Twelve Histories from Illinois, the first model used sound "to control thepressure of a gas jet in a lantern and moved a photographic
plate past the flickering flame." In the second, "light was
passed through the opening of a vibrating shutter controlled by
the diaphragm of a telephone receiver."Both experiments failed, and Tykociner put his researchaside to take a position with the Marconi Wireless TelegraphCompany in England. He joined the Telefunken Company inProfessor Tykociner demonstrates an apparatus in hislaboratory in 1921-22.

24

..

~· !

~-1
f'.

~I

I'.

··-...~-'~.

Mrs. Tykociner andEllery Paine, head of the
Department of ElectricalEngineering, starredin the first publicdemonstration of
Tykociner' s invention
in 1922.

<0Berlin in 1904 and the Siemens & Halske Company in 1905.
Tykociner was commissioned to introduce wireless technology in Russia and was honored by the Czar for establishing aradio link between the naval fleets in the Black Sea and theBaltic Sea during World War I.
Tykociner loved to tell the story of his kidnapping by the
Russian navy during the early months of the Russo-Japanese
War. He was installing a radio transmitter on the Admiral'sship when orders were received to set sail and engage theJapanese navy. They immediately set sail with Tykociner onboard. He quickly radioed his company in Germany, and theyarranged for him to be rescued by a German ship. Tykociner
considered this very fortunate, because most of the Russian
fleet was destroyed in the ensuing battle.
In 1918, he returned to Poland to resume work on hissound-on-film idea. He then accepted a job with
Westinghouse in the United States but, failing to gain thecompany's interest in his scheme, he accepted an offer fromthe University of Illinois to be one of its first research professors of electrical engineering.
When department head Ellery B. Paine discussed possible
research topics with Tykociner, the new professor said healready had a project in mind.
"I want to record sound on film," Tykociner told askeptical boss.
"You can't photograph sound," Paine said.
"Certainly not," Tykociner said. "But it is possible tophotograph a light modulated by sound.""Can you prove it will work?" Paine asked.
"Prove it?" said an annoyed Tykociner. "That's why you
do research."
With a budget of only $1,000, Tykociner's researchshowed results in just ten months. He presented his firstpublic demonstration of sound-on-film in the old Physics
Building (now Metallurgy and Mining) on June 9, 1922,.

during a meeting of the Urbana chapter of the American
Institute of Electrical Engineers.
In disbelief, the audience watched the double feature. In
the first film, Tykociner's wife, with bell in hand, stated, "I
will ring." The bell rang, followed by Helena Tykociner'squestion, "Did you hear the bell ring?" In the second film,
Ellery Paine recited Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
Tykociner had produced what is called a variable-density
sound track along one side of the same film that records the
picture images. With pictures and sound track on the same
film, the two are always synchronized.
An important part of the projector designed by Tykociner
was the photoelectric cell--or "electric eye," as it wascalled-that had been developed by University of Illinois
physicist Jacob Kunz. Much of the other equipment was built
or borrowed by Tykociner. The student-run radio station lentits vacuum tubes with the condition that they had to be
returned each night to prevent any interruption of broadcasts.
Although Tykociner's invention made front page news in
the New York papers, not everyone was enthralled with it.
George Eastman, considered an authority on all aspects ofphotography, said that the public would never accept it. Other
skeptics believed that "human beings were just not meant tohandle two illusions at once."
Tykociner's hopes for marketing his invention were
dashed when he and University of Illinois President David
Kinley could not agree on a plan for promoting and patenting
the sound-on-film. The process was successfully patented in
1923 by Lee DeForest and licensed in 1926 by Westinghouse
Electric Company. In 1927, Warner Brothers introduced thefirst commercial talking film, "The Jazz Singer," but they did
not use Tykociner's or DeForest's technology. The sound
was, instead, produced by a phonograph record. After that,
Tykociner turned his attention to other areas of electronics
research, including photoelectricity, detection of faults inhigh-voltage cables, piezoelectricity (electricity induced bypressure and used in transducers), and microwave transmission and reception.
A 1960 story in the Chicago Tribune noted that
Tykociner's experimentation in the mid-1920s with model
antennas could have led to the earlier development of radar
had his work not been prematurely corralled. According to
the Tribune, "Tykociner was experimenting with very shortwave electronic radiation and could find no place to do thiswork except a pasture on the agricultural campus. He foundhis signals being reflected by cows that wandered into the lineof his instruments. He instructed an assistant to larrup themwith a club and run them to the far end of the pasture. The
boviphiles in the animal husbandry department got word ofthis and caused Tykociner to be evicted from the pasture,

which is possibly why the development of radar was set backa couple of decades."Tykociner retired in 1949, but his scientific curiosity
continued. In 1959, he published his first book on "zetetics,"
which he defined as "the science of research." Zetetics, heonce elaborated, is "the totality of recorded, systematizedknowledge as related to such methods of research, mental
processes, and psychological factors and environmental
conditions as lead to new problems, stimulate creative
imagination, enhance selective thinking, and generate original,
fruitful ideas." Tykociner subdivided zetetics into categorized
bodies of knowledge and explored the interrelationships
among them. For several years, he taught a course at theuniversity on zetetics.
Although Tykociner is largely unknown by the generalpublic, his achievements were eventually saluted by theuniversity and his colleagues. In 1964, he received the Awardof Merit of the National Electronics Conference, and in 1965
he received an honorary doctorate from the University of
Illinois. He died in 1969. In 1972, the University of Illinois
initiated the Tykociner Memorial Lectures, presented biennially by leading scientists and educators.

1951 photograph of Vladimir Zworykin, president ofRCA,
and Professor Joseph T. Tykociner.

25

~
~

Clb.apfceir ~ -Rce§ceairclb. Lalboirafoirice§

51

1

Machinery room in the old Electrical Engineering Lab showing various types of generators and motor units.
Photograph is from a 1919 publication about the college.

26

III

~

j

Alffifomurn.& L&1brnr&foJry &mll
.· ~

j

j

1
.~

,~

i~
i~
i~
.~

EleictJr((J)Jl1l1l.&gmtetiiics L.a1b({))Jr&foll'yla lectromagnetics research in the University of Illinois
JLd Department of Electrical Engineering goes back at
least to the 1920s. In those days, Joseph Tykociner set up
experimental equipment on the South Farms to measure theradiation patterns of antennas. His success was limited,
however, because the cows introduced appreciable experimental error.
The years immediately following World War II were aperiod of rapid growth, which included the establishment of
the Antenna Laboratory with Edward C. Jordan as director.
Cleve Nash investigated many different antenna shapes.
Some typical ones are shown in the photograph below. A
major emphasis was on antennas for high-speed aircraft.
Many versions of slot antennas were investigated. Of
particular interest were antennas for electronic countermeasures systems. One requirement for antennas in such systems
is extremely wide bandwidth. Raymond DuHamel, who had
recently received his PhD degree from the University of
Illinois, returned from industry in 1953 to assist with directing
research in this area.
When Jordan became head of electrical engineering in
1954, he brought Victor Rumsey from Ohio State University
to lead the Antenna Laboratory and added Paul Mayes from
Northwestern University to the staff. Rumsey proposed that
antennas should be described as much as possible by angles,
rather than lengths, and should be "frequency independent"with very broad bandwidths. John Dyson, at that time agraduate student, began to study logarithmic spirals. The
technique for connecting the terminals of a balanced spiral slot
antenna to the measuring instruments was troublesome.
Robert Hansen, a graduate student who later became a wellknown consulting engineer, suggested that the shield of thecable could be bonded to the ground plane without disturbing
the antenna performance, because the ground plane currents
had to decay to negligible values before reaching the edge.
The feeding method became known as the infinite balun andfound widespread use. At the same time, studies were
underway on loop antennas with ferrite cores by Walter
Weeks, a graduate student who later wrote a widely used text
on antennas. Radiation from dielectric rod and slotted
waveguides, the excitation of open waveguides, and earlyversions of optical fibers were also topics of study.
When P. Edward Mast joined the laboratory as a graduate
student, his frrst task was to construct and test some fin(triangular sheet metal) antennas. Although described mostly
by angles, these antennas did not have frequency-independent

patterns. After observing some of the results from thesemeasurements toward the end of one week, DuHamel returned
the following Monday with the observation that projections
should be added to the fin. This led to the first linearlypolarized log-periodic (LP) radiators, later called trapezoidaltoothed LP antennas.
Dwight Isbell, an undergraduate student with industrial
experience, was hired to help test LP structures. DuHamel
and Isbell demonstrated frequency-independent performancein certain planar LP antennas, and Dyson found similar
behavior with spirals. Dyson became the "spiral antennaman," writing his PhD thesis on the topic and publishing many
papers about spirals. He remained on the Antenna Laboratory
staff after graduation.
After DuHamel left in 1956 to head antenna research at
Collins Radio, Isbell continued to work on LP antennas.
Mayes suggested that the planar LP could be converted to aunidirectional radiator by reducing the angle between thehalves to make a horn. Isbell found, however, that the LPhorn did not radiate from the open mouth but toward the small
end. It took several months before an explanation of thisstrange behavior was forthcoming. In July 1958, Isbell's
unidirectional antenna was installed as the feed on Harold
Webb 's "moon-bounce" parabolic reflector atop the roof of

Typical antenna shapes.

27

I
-I

I'
I
I

i

Spirals on a conical shaped unidirectional antenna.

the Electrical Engineering Building. This was the first suchapplication of an LP antenna. Taking a cue from Isbell's
success with unidirectional LP antennas, Mayes suggested asimilar effect might occur with spirals. Dyson confmned thatspirals on conical surfaces were indeed excellent unidirectional antennas, and he conducted extensive experimental
investigations of antennas like that shown in the photographabove. Later, Dyson and Mayes collaborated on a study offour-rum conical spirals, demonstrating that a wider variety ofradiation patterns was possible, including circularly polarizedradiation over a hemisphere.
In the meantime, Isbell realized that an array of dipoles
could be made to radiate toward the feedpoint by transposing
the cascaded feedline between each pair of adjacent dipoles,
and he thus invented the LP dipole array. Within a few
months of publication of his technical report on the antenna,
the log-periodic dipole (LPD) was being manufactured andsold by numerous firms. Robert Carrel wrote his PhD thesis

28

on the analysis and design of the LPD in 1960, and it was an
instant hit, reprinted several times until eventually several
hundred copies were distributed. Carrel and Mayes developed
the LP resonant-V (LPV) array, which became a popularantenna for television reception.
Mast remained on the laboratory staff after receiving his
PhD in 1955. During the period 1956--58, Yuen T. Lo and
Raj Mittra joined the Antenna Laboratory. Georges A.
Deschamps came from ITT in 1958 to take over as director
after Rumsey left in 1957 for the University of California at
Berkeley. Already well known for his contributions to thetheory of microwave measurements, Deschamps enhanced his
fame by publishing on a variety of topics, including exteriordifferential forms, noise theory, and partial polarization. The
movement toward theoretical analysis was accelerated.
Papers were published on prolate spheroidal wave functions,
Wiener-Hopf integral equations, impedance properties ofcomplementary antennas, chromatic aberrations of zoned
mirrors, and correlation techniques in antennas.
In 1958-59, Lo joined Mittra and Kung C. Yeh of theRadio Propagation Laboratory to offer a course in mathematical techniques for electromagnetics. In that course, Lo
introduced and advocated the method of moments. It failed togain much attention because of the very limited computer
facilities at that time. A few years later, a paper by Lo on thismethod appeared in the Proceedings of the Institute ofElectrical and Electronics Engineers; the method became an
immediate success and widely used .
When most frequency-independent antennas continued todefy exact analysis, an approximation involving periodic
structure theory proved to be useful. Extensions were made toflush-mounted LPs and multiterminal spirals. Several
antennas were developed for millimeter waves. The feedsystem of the University of Illinois radio telescope wasdesigned by Lo, incorporating many conical log-spirals. The
problem of maximizing the signal-to-noise ratio in receiving
antennas was solved by Lo and one of his students, Shung-Wu
Lee. Lo also developed a theory for random arrays wherein
the placement of elements is determined by "playing a game"rather than on the conventional basis of a regular grid. Lo
claimed that, using his method, "a drunken sailor could design
a more efficient large array than could an engineer with a
PhD."
The major addition to the Electrical Engineering Building
in 1963 presented an opportunity for the Antenna Laboratory
to expand into spacious new quarters, complete with a 12 x 12
x 50-ft anechoic chamber. Also in 1963, Paul W. Klock
joined the staff after receiving his PhD from the department.
He worked in the areas of propagation on helical structures,
antennas in ionized media, and numerical antenna analysis.

I

I

~

I

I

I

I
I
l
I
I
II
I

I

I

I

I

I
I

I
I
!
I
I

l

!
!

I
l

II

~!

! I

II

l

[! ~

1
J

l

Paul Mayes (right) and Robert
Carrel developed the logperiodic antenna. It became
the most popular antenna fortelevision reception and is one
example of a by-product frommilitary research conducted at
the university

-~

i ~
~

-~

--

...

~
-~

~

~ -~

.... :~

i

-~

~
~

In the 1960s, by using the concept of duality inMaxwell's equations, Lo suggested the possibility of producing perfect, circularly polarized waves by using a special typeof waveguide and horn antennas. Boundary conditions,the same for both electric and magnetic fields, were later
realized with corrugated structures, and Lo and his student,
M. Al-Hakkak, were among the first to formulate a complete
and rigorous theory for these devices. In 1991, these antennas
are still used widely as feeds for large reflector antennas inspace communications.
Lee stayed at the laboratory after receiving his PhD in
1966, spent 1969-70 at Hughes Aircraft, and returned to the
University of Illinois in 1970. He has made numerous
contributions in the areas of phased arrays, reflector antenna
analysis, uniform and geometric theories of diffraction,
magnetic levitation, and general electromagnetic theory.
Mittra and his students have published prodigiously on
numerical electromagnetic analysis, with particular emphasison spectral domain techniques. They have also contributed inmany other areas: remote sensing, reflector antenna analysis,
diffraction and scattering theory, frequency selective surfaces,
microwave and millimeter wave-integrated circuits andantennas, and electromagnetic coupling. Papers on polarization of waves, noise excitation of antennas, and diffraction
theory were authored by Deschamps and Mast. To reflect thebroadening scope of activities, the name of the laboratory waschanged in 1973 to Electromagnetics Laboratory.

In the 1970s, Lo and his student, William F. Richards,
conducted a study on aberration-corrected artificial dielectriclenses. Several companies had fabricated such lenses, but
none performed properly. The theoretical study finallyprovided the explanation that artificial dielectrics made ofperiodic scatterers inherently have the adverse properties ofanisotropy, birefringence, and dispersion. Although the
problem of how to make these lenses work was not solved, Lo
was able to develop a series of optical demonstrations (hecalled them "Polart") to show his students the strange behavior of electromagnetic waves in such media. A show-and-telllecture based on many examples of the media was so wellreceived that Lo was invited to present it to many meetings ofchapters of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), both in the United States and abroad. Lo
quipped that he "could not make a good antenna, but could
make nice toys."
Lo and his co-workers developed a widely used "cavitymodel" theory for microstrip patch antennas. Lo served two
terms as IEEE Distinguished Lecturer on this subject. Mayes
and his students developed the monopole-slot element, applied
it to frequency-scanning and frequency-independent arrays
and, as a single element, for mobile reception in cellularradio systems.

ANTENNAS DEVELOPEDUNIVERSITIILL"Oi>

Edward C. Jordan explaining antennas developed at the
University of Illinois.

29

I

The Electromagnetic Communication Laboratory wasestablished by Mittra in 1984. The scattering from arrays ofresistive strips and other conducting shapes have been
investigated. Studies of coupling in multiconductor lines canbe applied to high-speed data transmission. Several tasks are
related to scattering from discontinuities in strip transmission
lines. The improvement of the performance of reflector
antennas, particularly the huge ones based in space, continues
to be of interest in the 1990s.
New communications services and other electromagnetic
systems continually make new demands on the frequency
spectrum. Bands available for assignment are inevitably
higher in frequency. Hence, research on electromagnetic
devices that can operate at higher and higher frequencies isvery important. In 1991, the Electromagnetics Laboratory
began up-grading the instruments to provide a higher frequency capability.
The excitation of patch antennas with slotlines and theintegration of patch antennas and solid-state devices has been
directed by Lo and Chuang. These efforts are important toachieve monolithic construction techniques for large phasedarrays. Theoretical studies using full-wave analysis, incorporating extensive digital computation with a minimum of
approximations, have been carried out by Chew and his
students.
Thin resonant antennas generally operate well over a very
narrow band of frequencies. Mayes and his students haveinvestigated ways to enhance the bandwidth of low-profile
antennas. The annular sector, radiating line (ANSERLIN)
antenna, developed by this group, is a very simple,
nonresonant, circularly polarized element. Its bandwidth islimited by pattern, rather than impedance, variation. A twoto threefold increase in impedance bandwidth has beenachieved for thin resonant antennas by stacking two linearlypolarized cavities and providing for electromagnetic coupling
between them. A patch element that has several desirable
characteristics for use in log-periodic arrays has been developed by using two different feeds, a probe and a slot, simultaneously. A low-profile, log-periodic array with 2: 1 gain
bandwidth has been constructed with dual-feed patch
elements.

Although low-profile antennas represent a major effort
within the laboratory, there were other projects underway inthe late 1980s and early 1990s, several involving digitalcomputation across the scale from personal computers (PCs)to supercomputers. A group led by Lee has reduced thecomplexity of scattering of electromagnetic waves fromcomplex surfaces. They have produced computer codes forsolving many such problems using PCs. Their work has
applications ranging from the reduction of radar cross-section
to the improvement of large reflector antennas such as thoseused for communication with space vehicles.
The Electromagnetics Laboratory and the Electromagnetic Communication Laboratory together form one of thelargest groups in the world engaged in electromagnetics
research. Their work spans antennas and arrays, scattering,mm-waves, microwave and high-speed digital circuits,
electro-optics, remote and geophysical sensing, and bioengineering applications. The laboratories have a long, distinguished history and have made many major contributions.
Frequency-independent (also called log-periodic) antennas canbe found in practically every radio communication system,
including the first space probe that landed on Venus and the
U.S. vehicles that landed on the moon. This invention has
been considered by many as the foremost contribution in theentire history of antennas. Work on frequency-independent
antennas has continued into the 1990s, focused on types thathave very low profile.
Although electromagnetics is based upon experiments ofcurious scientists from ancient to modem times and theories
that were initially proposed more than a hundred years ago,
there is still much to be learned. High technology will not
progress without increased understanding of electromagnetic
phenomena. In the 1990s, the University of Illinois continues
to be a leading contributor to this understanding and theresulting progress.

f:,
[ ~

[

[
[
[

!
f

f

!
~-

~

!~
~:

One of the earliest postwar research programs to beestablished in the department was a program on radiodirection finding (RDF). One of two research programs on thecampus sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), it
was intended as a basic research program. When the sponsor
was asked by the research supervisor, Edward C. Jordan, what
facets of the field might be of particular interest (ground,shipboard, aircraft RDF, frequency bonds), the answer

~
~
~

~
~

~
~

30

~

received was: "Look, you know Maxwell's Equations, theRussians know Maxwell's Equations; you take it from there."
It would be difficult to get more basic than that.
The program began with three faculty members (Jordan,
Albert D. Bailey, and Harold D. Webb) and several graduate
students employed as research assistants and research
associates. The research associates supervised separate partsof a multifaceted program. Over the years, nearly all aspectsof radio direction finding were studied, with a major emphasis
on overcoming the effects of multipath reception due to thevagaries of the ionosphere. Both small-aperture (small inwavelengths) and large-aperture systems were designed andstudied.
Early experiments involved the use of an 'instantaneous'
Watson-Watt RDF system (named after its British inventor)
loaned to the group by the National Research Council of
Canada. With the permission of the university's Institute of
Aviation, the system was set up on the south side of the
University of Illinois airport. The following account indicatessome of the problems encountered in those early days.
The electronic equipment was housed in a 6 x 6-ft van
body military truck, and power for the installation was derived
from a pair of generators driven by a gas engine. The site,
located between two intersecting runway/taxiway complexes,
had many desirable properties; it also offered some challenging disadvantages. It lacked a direct access road, and although
the site could be reached part way on taxiways, the final
stretch had to be driven on the bluegrass turf. Obstruction
lights had to be kept burning all night. To avoid running theengines every night, a bank of 18 6-volt automobile storage
batteries, charged from the generators, was used.
One day in the winter of 1951, Edgar C. Hayden and a
few colleagues went out to service the system. It was snowing
and, by the time they were ready to leave, the snow had
accumulated and the winds were whipping it into high drifts.
Before they reached the taxiway, the drifts were too deep todrive through and the engine quit. The car had to be abandoned. The next morning, after the taxiways had been
plowed, they went to rescue the car and found the engine
completely packed with snow. It had to be dug out and dried
before it would start. With a little shoveling, a path was
opened to the taxiway, and the group drove back to civilization. They acquired a pair of snowshoes in the event of asimilar recurrence.
The installation provided the RDF group with real-world
experience. It was their initiation into the use of aircraft for
local error assessment and into the use of pulse signals for DF
diagnostic procedures. The temporal signal path resolution it
provided engendered a lot of learning about skywave radio

propagation phenomena and about the effects of thosephenomena on the behavior of DF systems.
The airport DF site was replaced in 1957 by an excellent
80-acre site, which became known as the Monticello Road
Field Station. This larger site was selected because it wasquite flat and clear of obstacles. The flatness also meant thatthe area was not well drained, a fact unknown until the day aheavy thunderstorm caused an underground cable conduit toflood. To prevent the lake outside from being transferred tothe basement of the building, a wooden plug had to be driven
into the end of a 4-in. conduit that was spouting water. As
Hayden stepped outside to try to reduce the inflow of water atthe other end, a bolt of lightning struck the ground less than
700 ft away. It made a breath-stopping impression that,momentarily, raised some doubt about his choice of anelectrical engineering specialty involving HF antennas. It also
provided dramatic evidence that lightning protection wasneeded for the antenna systems to be installed on the site.
Occasionally, this site played host to experimental
installations belonging to other university groups. An acoustic
radar was vertically directed and used in a study of bird
migration. At another time, an interferometer system wasused to track the fust Russian satellite, Sputnik I, immediately
after its launch. In October 1957, Hayden and his wife gave asmall party for some friends. During the party, George
Swenson telephoned to announce the successful launching of
the Sputnik I. He said it was emitting beacon signals on 20
and 40 MHz and wondered if the RDF group had any
receivers that covered these frequencies, especially the 40
MHz signal. To Mrs. Hayden's chagrin, Hayden abandoned
the party and did not return for three days.
A receiver was found, set up at the Monticello Road Field
Station, and used to intercept the Sputnik I signals. By
recording the signals from repeated satellite passes, data wereacquired that were used in determining the parameters of thesatellite orbit. Swenson and others parlayed those initial
results into a program for studying satellite signal scintillation
phenomena.

31

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~'

A large-aperture radio direction finding system known as a Wullenweber array at the Bondville Road Field Station, October
1960. Operating at a frequency range from 4 to 16 MHz, the array uses 120 antennas and is 1000 ft in diameter.
During the early work done in the RDF Research Group,
researchers found that small-aperture systems lacked sensitivity and were exceedingly susceptible to error induced by themultipath propagation effects. The quasi-coherent waves
arriving over the several paths produce an interference fringe(or standing wave) pattern on a DF site. The error is called a"wave interference error." All evidence pointed toward theuse of arrays of large aperture as a means of mitigating both ofthese deficiencies.
In 1955, the Bureau of Ships of the U.S. Navy indicatedan interest in supporting the design, construction, and evaluation of a large-aperture system at the University of Illinois.
Although there was some hesitancy about undertaking a large
construction project, it was pointed out that the presence ofsuch an instrument would virtually assure research support for
at least 10 years. In fact, the support continued for more than
25 years.

32

The large-aperture RDF system that was built was
patterned after one developed in Germany during World War
II. The system was characterized by a circularly disposed
antenna array (CDAA) of vertical antennas surrounding acylindrical reflecting screen. The Germans had given theirsystem the code name "Wullenweber." The University of
Illinois retained the name, and it has since become a genericterm denoting similar systems. The University of Illinois
Wullenweber array was constructed at a site that came to be
known as the Bondville Road Field Station. The array used
120 antennas and was 1000 ft in diameter (about 2 1/2 times
the size of its German progenitor). The array geometry was
proportioned to allow operation over the frequency range from
4to 16MHz.
The array was used in conjunction with a digital computer. Signals were beamed from a site in Texas and reflected
to another site in Canada, so that measurements were made on
the ionosphere directly above the University of Illinois
campus. Data from the three points were automaticallycollected and synchronized by the computer. The computer
was housed near the antenna array.

I

Iii

~

~
~

~
.~

~

~
'._i1

~

j
j
~
~
~
~

j
~
~

]
]
~
~

]
~
~

~
~

The design, construction, and evaluation program wasvery successful. It was possible to demonstrate the ability of
the large-aperture DF system to mitigate the two prime
deficiencies of the small-aperture systems. Much of thisknowledge was available because of the concurrent, side-byside operation of the Wullenweber system and the smallaperture Adcock systems at the nearby Monticello Road Field
Station. During the 1960s and early 1970s, at least 20
operational installations, based on the University of Illinois
design, were constructed at locations around the world. Mostof these are still in operation in the early 1990s, and they areabout to gain a renewed lease on life as modem electronic
technology supersedes the original electronic technology.
The Wullenweber system proved also to be an effective
tool for observing certain classes of anomalous skywave
propagation phenomena. This capability arises from the"angular wave analyzer" property of the narrow scanned
directive pattern. At least one PhD thesis came out of thiscapability; anomalous radio wave propagation from Virginia
to Illinois via ionospheric structures over Canada was studied.
Just watching the behavior of ionospherically propagatedradio signals as displayed by the system contributed much to
the education of a number of graduate students and somefaculty members.

JF ll'<O>m. lBasirc Researrclb Lo BatdefieM iiin 30 Days
As has been noted, the RDF program at Illinois wassponsored to promote basic research and, incidentally, to train
graduate students in the area. To determine where research
was needed, a survey was made of existing systems. It wasnoted that aircraft RDF systems existed that could cover from100 KHz to 10 MHz and from 100 MHz up to frequencies ashigh as could be generated in those days, but there seemed to
be a gap in coverage between roughly 10 MHz and 100 MHz.
Consequently, attention was devoted to determining what
could be done to bridge the gap. It was soon discovered that it
would be virtually impossible to build an accurate aircraft
RDF system in this frequency range because the dimensionsof the aircraft would be comparable to the wavelengths
involved (30 m at 10 MHz to 3 m at 100 MHz). Under thesecircumstances, the conducting surfaces of the aircraft carrylarge resonant currents and produce a radiation patterndependent on the shape of the aircraft and almost independentof the pattern of the RDF antenna.

Although accurate radio-direction-finding from aircraft
was not possible between 10 MHz and 100 MHz, it was
unexpectedly discovered that very accurate homing systems
could be designed in this frequency range. A small fixed
antenna located at the junction of the nose of the fuselage andthe leading edge of a wing produced a beautiful single-lobed
pattern in the forward direction on the side on which theantenna was located. A second antenna that was located at thejunction of nose and wing on the other side produced a similar
pattern on that side. The two patterns intersected with equal
field strengths in the forward direction. By modulating thesignal received on the left antenna with dots and the signal
received from the right antenna with dashes, the pilot could
tell whether the target was to the left or the right. When theplane was turned to head directly towards the target, thesignals would merge to produce a continuous tone. A solution
had been found to a problem that had not been posed.
The navy had no need for a homing system in this range,
so the quarterly research report was quietly deposited in navy
files. Fortunately, however, the reports were also read by the
air force, which suddenly found itself in urgent need of thissystem. This was the time of the Korean War, and theAmerican air force needed to be able to locate the enemy
radars that were used to direct the enemy antiaircraft artillery.
The U.S. Air Force had equipment to detect modem, higher
frequency radar, but the North Koreans used older Chinese
radars modeled after the British radars used in the very earlydays of the Battle of Britain. These radars operated at 75
MHz (4 meter wavelength) and required huge horns withdimensions comparable to a wavelength. They were sometimes built with chicken wire.
A call from Wright Field asked whether the RDF groupwould design a homing system for a specific aircraft for which
they sent a scale model. They also required that the antennas
be mounted on the actual combat aircraft. In those days, there
was close cooperation between the RDF Laboratory and the
Antenna Laboratory, both directed by Edward C. Jordan. It
just so happened that the Antenna Laboratory group had
designed a "partial-sleeve" antenna, which was ideal for the
purpose. Working together, the two groups (Douglas Royal,
Nicholas Yaru, and others) designed the system and flew theantennas to Wright Field, where they were mounted on the
combat aircraft. The system was flight-tested by homing on

~
~

~
~
·~

33

I

•I

I
television stations in Dayton, Ohio, operating in that frequency range. There was only one hitch. The usual problem
with aircraft antennas is that the received signal is too weak.
With the large collecting surface of the aircraft used by thepartial-sleeve antenna, the received signal was too strong,burning out the detectors. This difficulty was easily overcome
by inserting variable attenuators to reduce the signal to thedesired strength. After successful tests, the aircraft was flown
to Korea and used to detect the enemy radar. The elapsed
time between the request for help and battlefield application
was just under 30 days.

JPiil[))n<eieiring in Sierrnicl[))nd1lllcfoir Riese.&irch
Semiconductor materials and device (transistor) researchcame to the University of Illinois in 1951 when John Bardeen
arrived from Bell Telephone Laboratories with a joint
appointment as a professor of electrical engineering andphysics, both in the College of Engineering.
The Semiconductor Laboratory was based in the Department of Electrical Engineering and was housed in the Electrical Engineering Research Laboratory (EERL). The laboratory
occupied the same space that had originally housed the
ILLIAC computer construction. It began with mostly
homemade equipment and without air conditioning. The
laboratory opened in September 1952 with two postdoctoral
students, Harry Letaw, Jr., and Stanley R. Morrison, and twoelectrical engineering doctoral students, Nick Holonyak, Jr.,and Richard C. Sirrine. Holonyak was Bardeen's first
doctoral student. Bardeen began a range of investigations
involving the contact, junction, transistor, surface, impurity
diffusion, and bulk behavior of germanium (Ge). While
working with Thomas A. Murrell, Sirrine concentrated onsynthesizing lead salt semiconductors but later shifted to Ge
studies under Bardeen.
John R. Schrieffer worked in the laboratory with Bardeen
to show constrained conduction in a field-induced surface
channel on Ge and demonstrated, in the early and middle
1950s, the important idea of quantum size effects in semiconductors. This turned out to be a prophetic and important partof quantum well heterostructure and superlattice research, an
area of work in which the University of Illinois has excelled.
The field effect and quantum size effect were carried from

34

Bardeen's laboratory to Europe through a chain of European
postdoctoral students. Through the continued chain of people
and events, the discovery of the quantum Hall effect was theoutcome of these original studies at the University of Illinois.
Through the years, many students have done PhD thesis
work in the Semiconductor Laboratory. Holonyak went toBell Telephone Laboratories in 1954 to work on prototype
diffused-impurity silicon devices. At this time, Paul Handler
came as a postdoctoral staff member to the laboratory.
Research interests shifted more to Handler's interests over theyears, and the laboratory was moved to the new Materials
Research Laboratory building, which owed its existence
mainly to Fred Seitz and John Bardeen. Bardeen wanted to
expand the semiconductor work in the Department of Electrical Engineering in the early 1960s. With Edward Jordan's
help, Bardeen recruited Holonyak from General Electric in
1963 to return to Illinois and later recruited Chih-Tang Sah in
1964 from Fairchild.
Holonyak brought III-V materials synthesis and epitaxial
crystal growth, along with heterostructure and Optoelectronics
research from industry to EERL and MRL. Sah broughtsilicon (Si) device research, with emphasis on field effecttransistors, to Illinois. Later in the 1960s, Ben G. Streetmancame as a new PhD and staff member into Sah's laboratory.
He also moved over to work with Holonyak on III-V problems until a separate laboratory became available in the
Coordinated Science Laboratory (CSL). When Streetman left
Illinois in 1982 with a strong semiconductor research background, he founded a semiconductor and microelectronics
research laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin. This
laboratory includes many Illinois PhDs, including J. C.
Campbell, R. D. Dupuis, and D. G. Deppe. George Armeralso worked in Holonyak's laboratory in the 1960s, retrained
himself from circuit electronics to semiconductor device
electronics, and went on to teach Si device processing to
generations of students.
Over the years, the semiconductor research in the
Department of Electrical Engineering and the number ofprominent staff members continued to grow. Gregory E.
Stillman and Karl Hess joined the department in the midl 970s. Stillman, one ofHolonyak's early (1967) PhD
students, returned to Illinois in 1975 from Lincoln Laboratory
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Hess, anAustrian physicist, was a student of one of John Bardeen's
early European postdoctoral researchers. Hess later became aprofessor in the department.

j

!

!
~

!. I
I

I

'
I
!_
l
I
I

I

j
J

J

J
l

l

From its beginnings with germanium and early transistor
research, semiconductor research in the Department ofElectrical Engineering grew in size and prominence. In the
40-year time span involved in this growth (1951-91), electronics witnessed the overthrow of the vacuum tube and thefull-scale emergence of semiconductor power devices,integrated circuits, and optoelectronics. The key role that John
Bardeen played in the discovery of carrier injection on
December 16, 1947, and in the discovery with his partners
Brattain and Shockley of the transistor and the original bipolartransistor (the point contact transistor) is not universallyknown. Everything else came after this event, including thejunction transistor, the second form of bipolar transistor.
Bardeen's portable two-transistor oscillator-amplifier demonstration circuit, built in 1949, which uses some of the first
packaged Type A point-contact transistors, is still operativeand on display in the University of Illinois World Heritage
Museum in Urbana.
All areas of semiconductor research at the University of
Illinois could not be covered in this summary. In 40 years of
PhD semiconductor research, both in the work it generated
and the students it produced, Illinois has played a large role inhelping to bring semiconductor science and engineering to its
present dominant position in the field of electronics. John
Bardeen, his work, his discoveries, and his students havemade a major contribution to technological history. (For more
information on John Bardeen, see Chapter 3.)

Joseph T. Tykociner's early research before World War II
dates the first days of the Tube Laboratory. His developmentof sound-on-film necessitated creating facilities to fabricate
and process the vacuum photodiodes needed for his experiments. By the late 1930s and into World War II, a fledgling
tube laboratory existed in the department. It was staffed by
Tykociner and assisted by Louis Bloom, a physics graduate
student, and Robert Waggoner, a technician.
With a budget for equipment and supplies of only a few
hundred dollars per year, Tykociner was able to build up aprimitive but usable vacuum tube processing facility in his
research laboratory in EERL. He borrowed and scrounged
equipment and supplies-vacuum pumps, vacuum baking
facilities, hydrogen atmosphere high-temperature brazing
equipment, chemical plating and cleaning facilities, and glassblowing equipment.

Tykociner in his laboratory at the University of Illinois.

With his background and equipment, Tykociner obtained
a government-sponsored contract for research on microwave
tubes. This classified research involved work on microwave
generating tubes, primarily split anode magnetrons. At theend of the war, when research programs were being expanded,microwave tube research was targeted as one of the important
new areas for support.
Several new people were added to the faculty and staff.
Arthur L. Samuel, a noted authority on electron tubes fromBell Laboratories, was brought in to head the new TubeLaboratory in 1946. He became a member of the committee
involved in the computer project that evolved into ILLIAC I.
Samuel is credited with developing the first computer program
for the game of checkers between humans and machines.
Donald Holshouser, a cathode and electron beam expert, cameto the university from RCA. Another addition was Louis
Bloom, who had spent the war years at RCA gaining experience in military x-band and k-band magnetrons. Also in 1946,
Allen Wilson was hired to work with Robert Waggoner on the
nonacademic staff.

35

~··

~c

,.
~:
A large contract from the U.S. Air Force was soon
obtained for research on klystrons. Equipment was installed
to replace or augment the facilities in the space originallyoccupied by Tykociner. After the new Electrical Engineering
Building (now called Everitt Laboratory) was constructed,
space was provided for the Tube Laboratory in EERL. The
remodeled space provided special air conditioning and air
filtering systems to maintain a dust-free environment.
After Samuel left the university in 1948 to take a position
at IBM, the Tube Laboratory was administered for a shorttime by a committee consisting of Holshouser, Bloom, andNelson Wax. In 1949, Heinz Von Foerster, with extensive
experience in high-frequency vacuum tubes, joined thedepartment and was named director of the Tube Laboratory.
Also interested in cybernetics, he shifted his research there in
the late 1950s and founded a new laboratory, which he named
the Biological Computer Laboratory (BCL). More information on BCL appears in Chapter 6.
In 1951, two new faculty members were added to thedepartment who established new laboratories closely related to
the research of the Tube Laboratory. Ladislas Goldsteinfounded the Gaseous Electronics Laboratory and Paul D.
Coleman established the Ultramicrowave Laboratory, which
later became known as the Electrophysics Laboratory.
Although neither of these laboratories were affiliated with theTube Laboratory, their research relied heavily on the availability of the facilities originally established and supported by theTube Laboratory. The Semiconductor Research Group,
established by John Bardeen in the early 1950s, also relied onthese facilities for some of their research.
By the late 1950s, Von Foerster's interests shifted tocybernetics and Holshouser's shifted to optically related
research. After receiving his PhD in 1962, Oscar Gaddy
joined the faculty. He and Holshouser changed the name of
their group to the Electro-optics Laboratory. Holshouser
performed pioneering research on microwave modulation oflight using the Kerr effect. He and Gaddy worked on the
dynamic crossed-field photomultiplier, which was a microwave bandwidth optical detector. The first lasers operated on
campus were in this laboratory. These were optically pumped
ruby lasers and visible helium-neon gas lasers.
These central facilities, known as the Special Processes
Laboratories, became a meeting place for graduate students
and faculty members. A coffee pot in the glass shop added tothe attraction of this area, where numerous technical andpolitical discussions took place and inventions were born thatlater became patented.

It was in this setting that Marvin Krasnow and Oscar
Gaddy proposed to their colleagues in 1965 the first industrial
affiliates program in physical electronics. After discussion,
Gaddy authored the technical prospectus and Krasnow soon
had more than 10 companies signed up. The program began
in 1966 and has been in continuous operation since. It has
resulted in close ties and working relationships between
faculty members and their industrial counterparts and has
provided several million dollars to support the activities of thephysical electronics groups. There are other affiliate programs
modeled after this one currently in operation in our department and in the College of Engineering.
The Tube Laboratory and the Semiconductor Laboratory
were the foundation of the physical electronics activity inelectrical engineering at Illinois. No current research is being
done on vacuum electron tubes. Interestingly, when Holonyak
switched from the Tube Laboratory to the semiconductor area,
he received a lot of flack from his fellow students for switching to such an upstart new field; in the 1990s, however, mostof the physical electronics activity is related to semiconductors. The Tube Laboratory and its central facilities played an
important historical role in the development of the physicalelectronics research now carried out in the department.

~

I

1

~

~
~
~
~
~
~
~
~

~

!
!

!
~
~

••
••
William J. Fry in the
Bioacoustic ResearchLaboratory.

I
I

I

I

~

lJ

~I
36

~

~~

The Bioacoustics Research Laboratory (BRL) was
founded by William J. Fry. Bill, as he was known by colleagues and friends, was studying physics at Pennsylvania
State University when World War II broke out. He spent the
war years at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington,
D.C., developing principles for SONAR system design anddevelopment. The French physicist Langevin had experimented with ultrasound as a means of detecting submarines
when they appeared in World War I, but none had been
detected before World War II. Thus, the creation of more
adequate design principles and useful instruments was crucial.
During World War II, Fry co-authored a book on these topics
that can still be referenced in the early 1990s.
After the restrictions on research imposed by the exigencies of the war effort, Fry wanted to carry out his research
activities in the freer university atmosphere. Returning
military personnel were flocking to campuses, and university
faculties and facilities were expanding rapidly after thestagnation of the Great Depression and war years. At the
University of Illinois, William L. Everitt was in the process ofbuilding up the Department of Electrical Engineering. Everitt
induced Lloyd DeVore, who before the war had been aprofessor of theoretical physics at Pennsylvania State University and Fry's teacher, to become a member of the Department
of Electrical Engineering to promote and develop a research
program. DeVore knew Fry was an unusually clever,independent, and ingenious solver of theoretical physics
problems. Fry came to illinois in the late 1940s and immediately endeared himself to the old-time, nonresearch-oriented
faculty members by removing their numerous cherishedWorld War I electrical instruments for trash disposal. This
removal was necessary because the only space available for
Fry was in the tunnel under what was then the ElectricalEngineering Building and later the EERL. They developed
the strained relationship that was common between theoriginal, nonresearch-oriented faculty members and the newly
arriving "scholars."
Fry wanted to study the central nervous system to begin
to understand intimate details of structure and function. The
methods employed up until that time were rather crude,
requiring invasion of the brain tissues and producing unreasonably large lesions. Fry envisioned that focused ultrasoundwould be a vastly superior tool by providing for noninvasive
alteration of brain tissue. He set out to develop ultrasonic
surgical procedures for affecting the mammalian brain and to
study the detailed neuroanatomy of the mammalian central
nervous system. The use of ultrasonic surgical procedures

William J. Fry operating the neuroscience surgery unit.

was successful. By the late 1950s, it had been well demonstrated in animal experiments and was being used in medical
practice at the University of Iowa (the University ofillinois
Medical School exhibited no interest). Numerous patientswere treated for hyperkinetic and dystonic disorders. The
procedures were discussed in the December 2, 1957, issue ofTime Magazine. The project dealing with the "wiring"
diagram of the central nervous system was also successful,
although details of only small sections of the cat brain wereachieved. Nonetheless, the methodology was well demonstrated.
To achieve these goals, instruments were invented anddeveloped from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s to generate,
detect, and measure ultrasound. Crucial details regarding the
propagation of ultrasound in biological media were discovered. The propagation properties important for diagnostic,
therapeutic, and surgical ultrasound, such as speed of sound,absorption, attenuation, scattering, and impedance, were
determined. Measuring methods and instruments weredeveloped to their full potential, and many are still employedthroughout the world in the early 1990s.

37

,

J

- - - -- - - -- - - - - - - - - - -- - - -- - - - - - - --,..

Floyd Dunn and Fry attended the 1957 meeting of theAmerican Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine in Los Angeles.
During their return trip by car with Dr. Oka of Osaka, Japan,
who spent a month at the University of Illinois learningneurosonic surgery methodologies, Fry developed the viewthat it was time to initiate a program to develop an artificial
heart. The piezoelectric device that he had worked out in the
car was inefficient when detailed calculations were made in
the laboratory. However, less dramatic ideas were employed,and devices capable of sustaining animals for extended
periods were developed and patented. The conservative
attitude of the University of Illinois administration towardfaculty members promoting their innovations prompted Fry toorganize the Interscience Research Institute to exploit theseheart devices, and they were no longer treated in BRL.
Other research topics undertaken in BRL included studies
of excitable tissues, investigations of the organ of Corti, andstudies of the effects of neurosonic surgical methods on
animal behavior. The laboratory gained preeminence. Fry,recognizing the importance of supporting all those working in
the area, created the Allerton conferences in electricalengineering. Continuing in the 1990s, these conferences
allow world leaders in the field to convene and discuss indetail the problems inherent in these investigations.
It would belie the character of Fry to hold the view that
this was a narrowly focused bioultrasonics laboratory; otherexamples of research interests suggest the scope of BRL.
Unusual objects called flying saucers were being reported, andunusual abilities called extrasensory perception (ESP) werebeing promoted for contention with the established sciences.
The military was aware of these sightings and claims but was
unprepared to evaluate them. Fry was asked to investigate
people, or groups of people, alleged to have special abilities.
For example, one claim that was investigated was the ability
to see through dense media. This ability was of interest to themilitary, who was open to anything that would give personnel
the ability to see in "night darkness." These examinations
provided curious diversions as people came to BRL for testing
and BRL members traveled to other places to conduct tests.
BRL investigators were once convened to examine anindividual who claimed to be able to float high in water, inviolation of Newton's law of gravity. The swimming pool in

38

,1
'-·
~
~:

f
~~
~:

Gaseous Electronics Laboratory on the campus of the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

the Women's Building was used for the test. The results
showed that the skinniest of the investigators could float as
high in the water as the protagonist. In all, about a half dozen
individuals were examined. All were found to be either
extraordinarily clever performers or frauds. Although noconclusions were reached, the investigations provided adiversion and a great deal of fun.
Since 1977, the laboratory has been directed by Floyd
Dunn. Second generation faculty members have become
National Academy of Engineering members, fellows , andpresidents of numerous professional societies. Third generation laboratory members are serving as administrative officers
and are closely involved in scientific affairs. Graduate
students are regular contributors at professional meetings.
BRL was an exciting place to be during the early days
when Bill Fry was creating science. Because the war hadinterrupted his graduate education, he resumed his studies
toward a PhD degree at the University of Texas after hesuffered a heart attack in 1965. He was to receive the degree
early in 1969; he died in July 1968. BRL continues to be an
active, exciting site for unusual engineering and scientificproductivity under the direction of Dunn.

I

l

1

j

_J

l

j

-I
I

-I
I

The Gaseous Electronics Laboratory (GEL) was started in1950 when Ladislas Goldstein joined the department after a
productive career at ITT Research Laboratories. Goldstein
had played professional, European-style football to pay for his
graduate education in the laboratory of Madame Curie at the
University of Paris. He had an amazing ability to kickvirtually anything to any desired target. During his years at
GEL, graduate students often left a wad of paper on the floor,
and when Goldstein thought they were not looking, he would
kick it into the nearest wastepaper can.
Goldstein journeyed to the United States when the world
was embroiled in the long and bloody struggle of World War
II. One week before the German invasion of France, hedeposited his thesis in its final form and started for the coast
toward England. A German sniper fired at him; feeling theslow drip of warm, thick liquid, Goldstein was sure that hewas bleeding. He was happy to discover that it was from acan of sardines he was carrying and that the can had stopped
the bullet. He made it safely to the United States to begin thework of the Gaseous Electronics Laboratory.
Initially, the focus of the laboratory was on the fundamental processes in partially ionized gases, with special
attention to those operative in the ionosphere. Microwaves
were used to clarify the interaction of electromagnetic waves
with the electron gas. They were used both to diagnose andmodify the energy distribution and reaction rates of thecharged particles.
On the home front, research was beginning to be directed
toward the newest frontier-the space race. In the late 1950s,
the wraps came off the research effort devoted to controlled
fusion. The Gaseous Electronics Laboratory expanded its
research to include this highly ionized state, which is found ina fusion reactor and in shock waves associated with reentry
plasma of the space effort. About this time, Goldstein andseveral colleagues looked at the quantum aspects of gaseouselectronics with the study of ESR and NMR of the neutral
species resulting from discharges.
After the invention of the gas laser, the laboratory's effort
shifted to that direction. Emphasis was on studies of the
kinetics of laser discharges; diagnostics with lasers, either byinterferometry, absorption, or laser-induced fluorescence; andspectroscopy aided by the laser techniques. Considerable
effort was devoted to the study and modeling of discharges
used for the growth and processing of semiconductors. Fromthe early microwave diagnostics of plasmas came an easytransition to optical frequencies. Indeed, it was a matter of amere decimal point in the frequency specification to address aclassified laser contract.

As illustrious as its many exciting discoveries is thelaboratory's human story. Goldstein retired in 1972, andJoseph T. Verdeyen was appointed director by the department
head at the time, Edward C. Jordan. The laboratory has
generated more than 85 PhD theses and supported more than
150 master's programs. The memories combine to give morethan a collection of facts. It is the little personal tale that gives
any history its life and color. From the fated bullet andsardine can that cleared the way for Goldstein to make his
many contributions, to the various tricks that were played on
Verdeyen on St. Patrick's Day over the years, it is a colorful
history indeed.
Professors and students alike shared in creating thesememories. Students set off liquid nitrogen explosions to greet
Verdeyen after his running. They sometimes ran with him
singing "Old Danny Boy," just to point out that they could
sing while they ran but he was gasping for air. They were
especially creative with newspapers, filling his car with themand papering closed the doorway to the toilet. The laboratory
has had such a diverse research history that many departments
have borrowed items as obscure as discontinued vacuum
tubes. As one student remarked, the laboratory has two of
every electronic device ever made.

The Gaseous Electronics Laboratory in 1958.

39

In the late 1940s, William J. Fry, Nelson Wax, Heinz Von
Foerster, Joseph T. Tykociner, and a number of other Illinois
faculty members studied a millimeter wave effect. In 1951,
considering the fact that John Bardeen was joining the
Department of Electrical Engineering, Paul D. Colemanaccepted an invitation from William Everitt to interview withthe department and present a seminar on his work. For his
PhD thesis work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Coleman was pursuing free electron relativistic effects toachieve electromagnetic radiation in the submillimeter range.
New ideas were needed to extend the coherent frequency
frontier. The development of radar during World War II
stimulated research in this area. In August 1951, Coleman
and Murray D. Sirkis, whose undergraduate senior thesis work
Coleman had supervised at MIT, began setting up theElectrophysics Laboratory (EPL). They were joined by Erv
Kauffman and Stan Vigors. The initial research program forthe new laboratory was to study the interaction of relativistic
electron beams with various coupling structures. To produce
coherent millimeter and submillimeter waves, the structures
were studied using the relativistic Doppler effect, Cerenhov
effect, and parametric effect. Parallel with this source study
was a study of detectors and the linear and nonlinear interaction of submillimeter waves with matter.
In 1951, Von Foerster obtained a large contract from the
Air Force Cambridge Research Center (AFCR) to study
microwave-millimeter waves. Ladislas Goldstein and
Coleman were added to this grant. Most of the existing
equipment was for the microwave range, which was ideal forGoldstein's interest in gaseous electronics. Because, however,there was minimal millimeter equipment, Coleman split off
from the AFCR work and obtained his first grant from Wright
Air Development Center. The Electrophysics Laboratory
soon became a strong competitor and contributor in the
millimeter area. Between 1950 and 1960, the laboratory
usually carried 15 to 20 students, staff, and technicians.
Coleman remained the one full-time staff member; otherfaculty members and visiting professors came for limited
periods of time. Both William Emery and Haroun Morous
spent several years in the laboratory working on millimeterwave components.

40

There were several significant scientific achievements
during this period. In the late 1950s, Richard Pantell of
Stanford University joined the EPL for one year to study
various interactions of relativistic electron beams. Pantell 's
understanding of fast and slow wave and forward andbackward electron beam interactions benefited the laboratory's staff and students. Perhaps the main achievement of theperiod was the demonstration of coherent Cerenhov radiation
by Charles Enderby for his PhD thesis. This work made thecover of the Journal of Applied Physics and set a power-highfrequency record that lasted for more than 20 years. Followup studies of the Cerenhov effect in ferrite materials by Fred
Rosenbaum and in magnetized plasmas by Richard Kenyon
were also significant.
Richard Becker, William Stein, and Jack Baird were
instrumental in securing a large Atomic Energy Commission,
now Department of Energy, contract that permitted EPL toexpand its milliwave equipment. Andy Swago and Murray
Sirkis, who were excellent component designers, teamed up
with Jack Lowe, a very talented machinist, and produced thestate-of-the-art millimeter wave components. When Thomas
Newkirk, an electronics technician, joined efforts with Baird,
the result was an array of equipment that is still being used in
the early 1990s. Newkirk spent more than 25 years helping
Coleman learn the practical side of electronics.
In 1962, Coleman spent one year as a visiting professor at
Stanford University. In the absence of Pantell, who was onsabbatical in England, Coleman headed a research group thatwas involved in quantum electronics. The Stanford experience prompted him to launch a program on gaseous molecularlasers when he returned to the University of Illinois; theprogram lasted from 1963 to 1980. This program required an
additional staff member and, in 1972, Thomas DeTemple
joined the group. The laboratory was successful in themolecular laser field, making several contributions to various
lasers.
Two of the main achievements of EPL on quantum
electronics were the discovery of the world's second chemicallaser, the CO system, by Curt Wittig and the super-radiancework of DeTemple and his students Thomas Plant, Albert T.
Rosenberger, and Samuel J. Petuchowski. In a short time, thetechnology in the submillimeter region went from not being
able to produce any coherent signals to achieving pulsed
power at the megawatt level. The work of Samuel Green on
metal-oxide-metal tunneling detectors permitted the U.S.
Bureau of Standards to measure the velocity of light at a newlevel of accuracy.
By the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Electrophysics
Laboratory needed to decide where to direct its long-range
research. Although the optically pumped molecular laser wasa breakthrough in achieving a coherent submillimeter-far IR
source, new fundamental ideas were getting difficult to findafter 17 years of research on the basic physics of the laser
problem. The laser produced a high-quality signal, but it wasbulky in size, inefficient, and only step tunable. In 1980, no
solid-state laser existed for the far IR and semiconductor
induction current source. Gunns, Impatts, and FETs were not
likely to go above 100 GHz in frequency, and a new basic
semiconductor source had not been invented for more than 20
years.
It was decided to study semiconductor heterostructuredevices for new source-detector possibilities. Joseph Lyding
and John Tucker were added to the staff to study chargedensity waves in one dimensional materials, and DeTemple
began studies of optical waveguides, switches, and modulators. The charge-density wave work was of particular benefit
to the laboratory because this was a problem of interest ofJohn Bardeen. Also worthy of special note is the work of
Lyding on the scanning tunneling microscope. Since theretirement of Coleman in 1988, future direction of theElectrophysics Laboratory rests with his successors.
Some of the traditions of the Electrophysics Laboratorythat remain in the 1990s were started in those early days. In
addition to the traditional holiday party, the laboratory beganwriting a poem each year based on "The Night Before
Christmas." Each verse remembers and recounts the special
contributions of each laboratory member throughout the year.
The tradition of these annual verses continues into the 1990s,
giving an account of the laboratory's "people history."
During the EPL' s 40 years of existence, it has had
continuous research support from the National Science
Foundation, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Atomic
Energy Commission, and Army Research Office and industrial help from Raytheon, McDonald Douglas, Delco, andTektronics. Approximately 100 MS and 50 PhD students
have pursued their thesis work in the laboratory, with morethan 200 papers published in reference journals. The four
decades of research by EPL in the millimeter-submillimeterfield is unmatched in the United States.

In 1956, the University of Illinois invited George W.
Swenson, Jr., to join the faculty and to design and build a large
radio telescope. George C. Mc Vittie, head of the Departmentof Astronomy, believed that an extensive and complete
catalog of discrete, cosmic radio sources would help todistinguish among competing cosmological theories. Two
major catalogs of sources had been published by radio
astronomers, one in Cambridge, England, and one in Sydney,
Australia. The two did not agree on the region of the sky inwhich they overlapped, and it was desirable to pursue confirmation with different instruments. Mc Vittie and Edward Jordan,
head of the Department of Electrical Engineering, agreed thatsuch a pursuit would be an appropriate area for cooperation
between the departments. Swenson was, therefore, sought toundertake the job, and the Radio Astronomy Laboratory (later
the Vermilion River Observatory) was begun.
The first task was to study the existing instruments used forcataloging cosmic radio sources, determine their most common
errors, and then to develop a new instrument that would bestcomplement them. The new instrument was also to compile a"deeper" catalog than previously existed.
The initial information-gathering studies of the new Radio
Astronomy Laboratory took place virtually all around theglobe. Swenson was sent on a tour of the world's mostprominent radio observatories. This included stops at

The 600joot-long Vermilion radio telescope, located near
Danville, Illinois, was designed and built by George W.
Swenson to receive signals from the stars. An array of logspiral antennas are mounted at the reflector's focus under thehorizontal truss.

41

Cambridge and Manchester (Jodrell Bank), England; Sydney,
Australia; Paris, Nancy, and Haute Provence, France; andDwingeloo, Netherlands.
After a careful study of the instruments used and the dataobtained from those instruments, it was apparent that a new
instrument design should emphasize sidelobe reduction,
involve a different frequency range than existing instruments,
and be large enough and have sensitive enough receivers topermit detection of sources of fainter magnitude than those inexisting catalogs. To catalog weaker sources and avoid the"confusion" problem of earlier efforts, the main beam of the
instrument needed to be narrow, and the sidelobe levels
needed to be low. Swenson hypothesized that a filled-apertureantenna had the best chance of achieving these goals; however, that would require a very large antenna, by the standardsof the day. The challenge set before Swenson was to achieve
the best compromise among size, surface precision, frequency,
and cost.
After studying the designs and consulting with others at
each point during his worldwide journey, Swenson began toconceptualize the design and its parameters for the new radio
telescope. The conventional wisdom of the day held that a
resolution of several score beamwidths per source wasnecessary to avoid confusion. The linear dimension wasdetermined to be about 120 m, and the configuration to besquare or circular. A reasonable focal-length-to-diameter ratio
for good illumination was needed and would require very highstructures, which would be prohibitive for both cost andprecision. The alternative was to build the reflector of earth,in large part below ground level. An extensive searchdisclosed a stream valley near Danville, Illinois, with a nearly
north-south axis and appropriate dimensions. The geologicalconditions were acceptable from the structural viewpoint, andthe natural dimensions of the valley dictated only minorchanges in the nominal parameters. The land was available
for sale, and the final values figured at: width, 400 ft; f/d, 0.39;
length of reflector surface, 600 ft; and height of towers, 165 ft.
Obtaining an unassigned and unused frequency was alengthy legal and political struggle and carries a story of its
own. Finally, television channel no. 37, 608 614 MHz was
assigned to radio astronomy on a worldwide basis.

Meanwhile, the telescope was completed, relying on hope andfaith that the frequency question would somehow be resolvedin a satisfactory way.
For help in determining the details of the design,
Swenson and the others involved from the Department of
Astronomy turned to the Antenna Laboratory in the Department of Electrical Engineering, then led by Victor H. Rumsey.
One area of effort involved the phase adjustment of the focal
line array and the illumination of the reflector. Yuen T. Lo
undertook the detailed design of the array, taking into accountthe appropriate illumination tapering to minimize sidelobe
levels. It was difficult to achieve both the number of elements
needed in a uniformly spaced array and the range of element
currents required to provide proper illumination tapering. Lo
and Swenson decided to try using a nonuniform element
spacing.
The design of this array element was done by John D.
Dyson. At the time, the Antenna Laboratory team members
were engaged in their pioneering studies of frequencyindependent antennas, and the conical log-spiral proved to beappropriate. Its primary radiation pattern gave the proper
tapering for illuminating a parabola with the chosen f/d ratio.
Dyson' s design gave a precise adjustment of phase withmechanical rotation, and no difficulty with phase adjustment
was ever experienced during the operation of the telescope.
Throughout each stage, from conception to completion,
the collaboration of talents continued to surmount the insurmountable. Design of the array transmission line probably
took more engineering effort than any other task of the whole
program. Every detail of the system had to be designed fromscratch due to the unsuitability of most commercial components. An additional task of comparable magnitude was thedesign and construction of the receivers and recording system.
Maintaining proper balance between the effective temperatures ofreference noise sources and the ambient-temperaturedependent losses in the hundreds of feet of transmission line in
the feed system required many months of tinkering andadjustment. These electronic development tasks were led by
Senior Research Engineer Kwang-Shi Yang.
The first installment of the radio source catalog was the
PhD thesis of John M. MacLeod, published in 1964. Subsequently, most of the accessible parts of the sky ( 130° from thezenith) were cataloged under the direction of John R. Dickel,
who also mapped a number of galactic extended sources, andby John C. Webber. Harold D. Webb also mapped considerable portions of the Milky Way galaxy, so that most of theaccessible sky was covered at least once during the years
1959-69.

~I

~

!! I

!I
! ~

I
~I

! l
~
~·

~

42

I

l'
~

Ii

:~

·-~
-~

:~
;~

About $10,000 per year was required for mechanicalmaintenance. In 1969, however, at about the time the sky
coverage was being completed, there was a substantial net
erosion of earth from the upper slopes accumulated into thevertex of the parabola. This process resulted in progressive
increase in the focal length, which eventually exceeded theavailable range of adjustment in the height of the focal line
array. Its mission complete, the instrument was abandoned.

The successful launch of Sputnik I in 1957 marked amilestone in technological advancement and provided a newopportunity to conduct wave propagation research. This
opportunity was realized immediately by George W.
Swenson, Jr., who set up a radio interferometer system in acom field on campus. The observations from that systemproduced the first accurate satellite orbital elements. To forma research group, the department brought in Kung C. Yeh in
1958, N. Narayana Rao in 1965, and Chao H. Liu in 1965.
The group became known as the Ionosphere Radio Laboratory
in 1966. Because of changing research emphasis, the laboratory was renamed the Wave Propagation Laboratory in the late1980s.
In the early years, the Ionosphere Radio Laboratory was
one of the first laboratories in the world to set up a number ofstations to monitor satellite radio transmissions. The stations
were first set up on campus and in surrounding towns in
Illinois. At different times, stations have been maintained
outside of Illinois as far north as Canada and as close to theequator as Brazil. In the early 1990s, in collaboration with thePolish Academy of Sciences, the laboratory is conducting
experiments at Spitzbergen, Norway, in the polar region of the
Arctic. All of these activities required maintenance of existing
radio equipment and continuous construction of new receivers. Bernard Flaherty and Tony Szelpal provided the technicalexpertise needed for producing experimental data of impeccable quality. Collaborative studies have taken University of
Illinois students to the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico,
Sondre Stromfjord Observatory in Greenland, and otherfacilities. We have also received data from other researchlaboratories over the years, especially activities sponsored by
the Scientific Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Physics(SCOSTEP).

Electromagnetically, the atmosphere and the ionosphere
are highly complex. Wave propagation research has been
expanded, not only because it is of value to the basic sciences
but also because radio waves can be used as a probing tool in
atmospheric research. These studies suggest how the data canbe used to obtain the desired information from the atmosphere. About 50% of the PhD theses produced by thestudents of this laboratory are concerned with wave propagation. Work is concentrated on theoretical and numericalsimulation studies relating to scattering from and propagation
through a medium containing random irregularities. Afterdata are interpreted in terms of physical parameters, theatmospheric and ionospheric research can be started.
Research in the Wave Propagation Laboratory has abroad and diverse scope. Processed data has been used instudies of ionospheric morphology, turbulent irregularities,
ionospheric modeling, traveling disturbances, thermosphericwinds, eclipse effects of the ionosphere, gravity waves,geomagnetic conjugate effects, magnetic storm effects, solar
flare effects, plasmaspheric electron content, ionospheric
bubbles, and global atmospheric waves caused by volcanic
eruptions. Parallel to these studies are investigations ofcommunications through a fading channel, characterization ofsatellite communication channels, multiple scattering theories,
plasma instabilities, generalized stochastic equations, resonantinteractions of acoustic-gravity waves, nonlinear internal
waves in the atmosphere, wave-wave interactions, and MST(mesosphere-stratosphere-troposphere) radar observations of
the atmosphere. The remaining 50% of PhD theses pertain tothese last subject areas.
Investigation of the atmosphere and ionosphere is
influenced by advancing technology; it is a multidisciplinary
field that involves wave propagation, signal processing,computer simulation, electronic hardware, and atmospheric
dynamics. Rockets and satellites have brought in a newplatform from which the phenomena of interest can beobserved. The invention of lasers and the push into millimeterand sub-millimeter wave technologies have opened new
windows through which the phenomena can be examined.

:~

:~

~
:~

43
~

f
[

f.
The advancing electronics are responsible for introducing
new modulation and coding techniques to probe the medium.
For some applications, it is desirable to obtain an image of an
object using emitted or scattered electromagnetic energy.
Both holographic and tomographic techniques have been
proposed for this purpose. The increased radiation power
available from advanced-laser and radio sources has made it
possible to study many new phenomena involving nonlinear
processes. The recent leaps and bounds in computing power
will certainly help simulation studies and large-scale modeling. All of these advancements will guarantee the continued
progress of this truly multidisciplinary field into the twentyfirst century.

The Aeronomy Laboratory was created in the early 1960s
by Sidney Bowhill, who had been involved from 1954 to 1962
in ionospheric research at Pennsylvania State University. In
the early years, the Aeronomy Laboratory collaborated with
the Coordinated Science Laboratory in designing and developing a scientific rocket program sponsored by NASA. CSL had
primary responsibility for the design, construction, andoperation of the ground-based transmitting equipment while
Leslie G. Smith, then at the GCA Corporation, had primary
responsibility for the design and development of the scientificrocket payload. Radiowave propagation experiments and deprobe measurements of electron and ionization densities wereconducted at several sites around the world, including
locations in Virginia, New Mexico, and Florida in the UnitedStates, Canada, Puerto Rico, Norway, Brazil, and Peru. The
scientific payloads also carried solar radiation detectors tomeasure ultraviolet and x-ray emissions. The rocket measurements were conducted mainly over the range between 50 and
200 km altitude. Frequently, the measurements were conducted in a coordinated fashion along with other rocket andground-based experiments.
Another component of the laboratory that served tocomplement the rocket measurements was a ground-based
measurement program conducted mainly at the field station
northeast of Urbana. The partial-reflection radar experiment

44

operated on a frequency of 2.66 MHz and was used tomeasure altitude profiles of electron density in the lower
ionosphere. An active theoretical program was anotherimportant component of laboratory activities and served tocomplement the experimental programs.
The Aeronomy Laboratory hosted several conferences in
the 1960s and 1970s. These conferences were attended byscientists from many countries who had an interest in thephysics, chemistry, meteorology, and electrodynamics of theupper atmosphere.
In the rnid-1970s, a team of personnel from the Aeronomy Laboratory, Quantum Electronics Laboratory, andElectro-Optic Systems Laboratory combined forces to designand develop a laser radar system to measure the density versus
altitude distribution of atomic sodium vapor between 80 and
100 km altitude. The first laser was a homemade flashlamppumped dye laser, and the first telescope used a half-meter
diameter Fresnel lens. Essentially, altitude profiles of thesodium density revealed an interesting wave-like structure.
Later, it was demonstrated that this structure was induced by
the passage of internal atmospheric gravity waves, calledbuoyancy waves, in the upper atmosphere.
Other ground-based experiments developed at the Urbana
field station included the meteor radar system and a VHF
coherent scatter radar system to study the dynamics of thestratosphere and mesosphere. The high-powered transmitterused in these systems had been originally located at Havana,
Illinois, and was used by the Smithsonian AstrophysicalObservatory to study the physics of meteors.
Aeronomy Laboratory staff in the 1960s included Eugene
A. Mechtly and Chalmers F. Sechrist. In the early 1970s,
Leslie G. Smith joined the laboratory and directed the rocket
program for many years. Other Aeronomy Laboratory staff in
the 1970s included Marvin A. Geller and Susan Avery, whowere atmospheric dynamics specialists. Several international
researchers from Asia, Europe, South America, and otherlocations were visiting scientists in the laboratory during the
1960s and 1970s.
In the 1980s, the Aeronomy Laboratory played a leadingrole in planning and conducting the Middle Atmosphere
Program (MAP), which was a project of the ScientificCommittee on Solar-Terrestrial Physics (SCOSTEP) under the
auspices of the International Council of Scientific Unions(ICSU). The proceedings of MAP workshops continue to be
the leading source of information on MST (mesosphere/
stratosphere/thermosphere) radars. In 1981, Chao-Han Liu
was elected scientific secretary of SCOSTEP, and its

secretariat was moved from the National Research Council in
Washington, D.C., to the Aeronomy Laboratory. The
secretariat conducts the business of the organization andcoordinates numerous symposia and workshops worldwide.
Since 1986, Erhan Kudeki has directed the laboratory.
Research areas have focused on radar probing of middle
atmospheric dynamics and ionospheric plasma instabilities.
Several interferometric radar techniques suitable for highresolution probing of these phenomena were developed at thelaboratory. These techniques, including radar interferometry
and frequency domain interferometry, have been incorporated
into the measurement programs of most major radar observatories in Europe and the Far East. In the early 1990s, theobservational program of the laboratory includes radar
experiments conducted at the Urbana field station and theJicamarca Radio Observatory, located near Lima, Peru.

The power area of the Department of Electrical Engineering continued to thrive at Illinois during the electronics
revolution and the periods of unprecedented expansion inelectrical technology. Several of the student design projects ofthe early years continue to amaze visitors of all ages. The
magnetic cannon remains a classic attraction at Engineering
Open House in the 1990s. Between the 1950s and the 1980s,
the electrical machinery laboratory had, however, shrunk to
one-sixth of its original size because other areas of electricalengineering required space.
From 1945 to 1965 was a time of rapid growth in theelectric utility industry, with economy of scale bringing larger
machines and lower energy costs. This rapid growth was
accompanied by a massive interconnection of power systems
throughout the United States and all of North America.
Interconnection became so pervasive that it defied engineering
analysis by even the most sophisticated network analyzer.
The extent of the vulnerability of the nation's power grid was
first realized in the New York City blackout of 1965. This
single event initiated a whole new area in the power field. The
utility industry embarked on a new nationwide program ofconsolidated research. The Electric Power Research Institute(EPRI) was formed in 1972. This was followed by thecreation of the U.S. Energy Research and Development
Administration (ERDA) and the Department of Energy(DOE). The oil embargo brought further attention to thenation's critical dependence on energy and the move toward
alternative supplies.
These national issues involving the generation andtransmission of electrical energy caused every university in
the United States to rethink its strategy in the power area. In
many cases, universities had eliminated all activities in the
power area and were not in a position to react to this national
need. At Illinois, M. Stanley Helm, Daniel Hang, andRaymond Egbert had maintained a power systems program
but were heavily loaded with teaching responsibilities andwere approaching retirement. Roger Burtness, RobertTurnbull, George Miley, and Joseph Crowley had pursued
interests in related areas.
Department Head Edward Jordan recognized the need tofocus attention on the power area. Petar Kokotovic and Mac
VanValkenburg sought to build a power program with anemphasis on systems engineering. The Illinois research in theapplication of singular perturbation theory to power systems
would later be acclaimed as one of the most successful
research efforts of the 1970s and 1980s. On July 14, 1977, thesecond New York blackout brought the power systemproblem into every living room. The impact of this second
blackout was felt in power systems throughout the east andmidwest. Fortunately, the academic community had reacted
to the call for research in systems engineering for power andwas just producing a new crop of young faculty members.
Peter Sauer joined the faculty in 1977, followed one year
later by Richard Shultz and Richard Smith. With the coordination of Helm and key alumni in the power area (Porter
Womeldorff and Lowell Ackmann), the faculty initiated anindustrial affiliates program in power engineering. The
program was created with an emphasis on both research and45

1951 Electrical
Machinery Laboratory

1981 Electrical
Machinery Laboratory

1991 Grainger
Electrical
Machinery
Laboratory46

education. The industrial support obtained from the initial
affiliate members, Illinois Power Company, Sargent & Lundy,Central Illinois Public Service Company, Public Service
Indiana, and Wisconsin Power and Light, totalled $22,000 and
was used to fund undergraduate projects and graduate student
research. The power affiliates program remains a key
component of the power area in the early 1990s. With thearrival of Mangalore A. Pai, the power area was growing tomeet the increased student interest and research challenges.
The 1980s began with an event that would have the mostsignificant impact on the power area in modem times.
Department Head George Swenson announced that theGrainger Foundation was establishing an endowment for aprofessorship in electrical engineering in the field of rotating
electrical machinery and associated technology. The endowment was established through the efforts of David W.
Grainger, president and chairman of the Board of W. W.
Grainger Inc. His father, William W. Grainger, was thefounder of the company and a 1919 graduate of thedepartment.
This was the first endowed professorship in the College
of Engineering and would, in the words of Swenson, "giveimpetus to a program which we have already identified as apressing need, both of the institution and of the society." Arevision to the endowment broadened the scope of theprofessorship to other areas of electrical engineering thatwould give impetus to the reestablishment of a prestigious
program in the field of rotating electrical machinery andassociated technology. The revision also established theendowment of Grainger Associates, whose teaching andresearch would be devoted to the field. Mac Van Valkenburg
was named the Grainger Professor of Electrical Engineeringand Peter Sauer was named a Grainger Associate. The powerarea grew at a rapid rate, with renewed student interest andincreased research activities. The power affiliates program
grew with the addition of Amoco, Bechtel, Commonwealth
Edison, General Electric, Northern Indiana Public Service,
Sundstrand, Pacific Gas and Electric, Union Electric, andWisconsin Electric Power. The teaching and research
activities grew with a strong focus on dynamic modeling andstability analysis.
These times were saddened by the death of Raymond
Egbert in 1985. A memorial was established by the family tocreate an annual award for an outstanding senior in the powerarea. The size of the power area faculty was further reducedby the departures of Shultz and Smith and the retirements ofHelm, Burtness, and Hang. In an attempt to continue staffing
courses and expanding research, the department hosted

i

'.:l

I ~~

ji ~

i: ~

I

--

. ;;;i
:1111

i :~
i :~

,,,-I .

--

•r

~·RJ.
;;;J
-~

~

Ii ~
II ~--

-I

i ~
i ~

I- ~
i ~
i ~
- ~

! -~
-~

~

-~
~
·~

~

]

visitors, including Kemal Sarioglu, Mohamed Mansour, Milan
Calovic, Philip Krein, Said Ahmed-Zaid, Riccardo Maino, andBrana Perunicic. Marija Ilic-Spong joined the faculty as an
NSF Presidential Young Investigator and aggressively
initiated new research projects.
With the guidance of Van Valkenburg as the Grainger
Professor and the research collaboration with Petar Kokotovic,
the power area gained recognition. A December 1986 survey
report in Spectrum magazine listed the University of Illinois as
one of the U.S. schools most often cited by respondents as
having one of the 10 best power engineering programs in the
country. The article concluded with a reference to Illinois as
one of the bright spots in a troubled field. With the addition ofPhilip Krein in 1988, the power area expanded its teaching
and research activities to include power electronics. Krein's
experimental background added a strong new dimension to theprogram. The net power area faculty strength was reduced,
however, with the departures of Joseph Crowley and Marija
Ilic-Spong.
With the rapid decentralization of computing facilities at
the university and the simultaneous increase in power area
research in modeling and simulation, there was a strong needfor a dedicated power engineering computing center. With
funds from the Grainger Endowment, a new laboratory wascreated and named the Grainger Power Engineering Software
Laboratory. It included four VAX stations, a 459-megabyte
hard disk, tape drive, and printers. Research activities grewfurther in the last half of the 1980s when the National Science
Foundation (NSF) initiated a new program in power systems.
Mangalore A. Pai led a new research thrust in the area ofdynamic security assessment of power systems, which wasmade possible by this NSF program.
The 1988 Grainger Lecture Series brought 15 of the top
researchers in the United States to Urbana for a two-day
seminar on power engineering. Topics ranged from electricmachinery design and computer methods for systems analysis
to new concepts in control. David Grainger and his chiefengineer, Emil Bahnmaier, attended the seminars and discussed the power program with faculty members. With the
new emphasis on experimental work brought by Philip Krein,
the faculty presented plans to update the electrical machinery

laboratory. Under the direction of Charles Doering of theCollege of Engineering Development Office and Department
Head Timothy Trick, a proposal was submitted to theGrainger Foundation for three major initiatives in the power
area: $500,000 for a complete remodeling and updating of theelectrical machinery laboratory; $250,000 for a new advanced
power applications laboratory; and $1,000,000 endowment for
graduate student support in the power area. Almost exactly 10
years after the initial endowment was announced, the new
proposal was granted by the Grainger Foundation. Thissecond endowment stands as a benchmark in the history of thedepartment.
The pictures of the Electrical Machinery Laboratory as it
evolved from 1951 to the present show the results of thismajor effort. The new laboratory benches and equipmentlayouts were designed by Philip Krein and built by thedepartmental staff.
The laboratory renovation was accompanied by support
from Ralph Henneman, who was instrumental in involving
S&C Electric in the Power Affiliates Program. The laboratories and research effort in the power electronics area attracted
the interest of the Sorensen Company in 1990 as the mostrecent member of the program.
The 1990s began with unprecedented optimism for the
power area. Petar Kokotovic was named the Grainger
Professor as the power faculty expanded their interaction withthe controls area. New concepts in induction motor control
initiated a major project involving simulation and experimental testing in the laboratories. The 1990 Grainger Lecture
Series brought an elite group of adaptive control researchers to
the campus for a three-day-weekend seminar series.
With the endowments from the Grainger Foundation andthe industrial support of the Power Affiliates Program, thepower program at the University of Illinois has a firm
foundation for continued excellence.

·-~

~
·~
·~

-~

47

II

The Electro-Optic Systems Laboratory was formed in the
mid-1970s under the direction of Chester S. Gardner, who hadjoined the faculty in 1973. When the laboratory was established, the intent was to study engineering aspects of a varietyof electro-optic systems, including optical communication
systems, fiber optics, holography, and laser radar. Early work
included theoretical and experimental studies of optical pulse
propagation in atmospheric turbulence, analysis of satellite
laser ranging systems, and the development of one of theworld's first sodium lidar systems. The sodium lidar system
was designed to study upper atmospheric chemistry anddynamics, and the project was conducted in collaboration with
Chalmers Sechrist and Henry Merkelo. In the late 1970s,
Preston (Pat) Ransmnjoined the laboratory with his students,
who were working on a variety of projects in holography.
During the 1980s, the laboratory research activities
became more focused on lidar studies of the atmospherebetween 20 and 100 km altitude. Lidar is an acronym for lightdetection and ranging. The first lidars were developed in the
1930s and 1940s using mechanically modulated search lights.
These early lidars were only able to observe scattering fromclouds and aerosol layers. Since the mid-1960s, all lidars have~48

used lasers as the light source, and thus the term lidar has
become synonymous with laser radar. Lidars are used to
study the composition, temperature, density, and windstructure of the atmosphere from the ground to virtually theedge of space. Several powerful and sophisticated lidar
systems have been developed in the Electro-Optic Systems
Laboratory to study a variety of atmospheric parameters andconstituents. These instruments have been deployed aroundthe world to make observations. Remote site campaigns havebeen conducted at Spitsbergen Island, Norway (78°N), White
Sands, New Mexico (38°N), Arecibo, Puerto Rico (18°N),
Mauna Kea, Hawaii (19°N), Adelaide, Australia (35°S), andairborne over North America and the equatorial Pacific. From
November 1989 to November 1990, graduate student Richard
Collins operated one of the laboratory's lidar systems as a
winter-over scientist at the South Pole; this work is related tostudies of the Antarctic ozone hole.
Since the 1980s, the laboratory has also been active indeveloping laser guide star technology for use with adaptive
astronomical telescopes. This technology can be used tocompensate for image distortion caused by the atmosphere,
thus eliminating the "twinkle" from astronomical observations. Laboratory personnel were the first to successfully
create and photograph an artificial laser guide star at Mauna
Kea Observatory, Hawaii, in 1987. Subsequent work has
focused on determining the laser requirements for guide star
applications and on assessing the expected imaging performance oflaser-guided adaptive telescopes. In 1989, George
Papen joined the laboratory and became involved in several
projects on photo refractive materials, optical phase conjugation, and lidar.
In 1991, much of the experimental work is conducted in
the Lidar Laboratory at the Urbana Atmospheric Observatory,
just north of Urbana. This new building, constructed in 1990,
contains a 1-m diameter astronomical telescope, several
smaller telescopes, and several high-power, tunable laser
systems. The facility was used in 1991 to provide groundtruth measurements during overflights of the upper atmospheric research satellite, which was launched by NASA in
September 1991.

i

i

~ I
I

f

l

!

l

!

l

~ 1

I

I
I

I
I
I

I

~ !
~ !
!
~
~

I

..

!~

!I :~."!

i~

.
-

I ~
I
i ~

l

L

~

~

I I

.;," I

1.

ii

In 1989-90, graduate student Richard Collins spent 12
months operating a lidar system at the Sowh Pole.

!~
!

..

I :

;~
!~
-~

!Iii~

~

~

49

•,.
~
~\

•

I
f' •
1
f'
~;

~:
~
~·

~

!
~

!

!
!
!

!:
~
~

!- I
~

!!
!
!
The Coordinated Science Laboratory, after the move from the Electrical Engineering
Research Laboratory. Built in 1962, the building is located at thecorner of Springfield Avenue and Goodwin Avenue in Urbana.

~
~
~.·

~
~·

50

~
~ _I

J

;

--~

~
~

~

,..,,,. ~i,,. ~
i ~I.... ~
I..... ~
I

--

~ ·~

!~

...

I
I

~

i .~
- ~

!~

! :~

I ·~

I

-

I

- ~
:~

~
~
~
.~
.~
~
~

C

omputing at the University of Illinois began in 1949,
when the research board under Graduate College DeanLouis Rinenour sent a proposal to University President
George Stoddard recommending that the university constructa copy of the von Newmann machine designed at the Institutefor Advanced Study, Princeton University. A contract wasgiven to the university by the Ballistic Research Laboratory at
Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland that called for amachine to be built to be called the ORDVAC. Ralph Meager
was chosen as chief engineer, and work was undertaken in
1950and1951 under the name of the Digital Computer
Laboratory (DCL) in the old Electrical Engineering Building(now called EERL). Until the Department of Computer
Science was formed in 1957, faculty members working on
computers in DCL held academic appointments in academic
departments, primarily electrical engineering and physics.
With commendable foresight, two of every part required
for ORDVAC had been purchased or built; by November
1952, it was possible to construct a duplicate computer called
ILLIAC. Hence, the University of Illinois could rightfully
claim the distinction of being the first mass producer ofcomputers (two in one year). Both computers proved to be
successful. At the University of Illinois, ILLIAC I, as it
became known, was used campuswide, and its success spreadthe computer philosophy to other campuses. In 1955-56, it
was copied by Michigan State University as the MISTIC andalso by the University of Sydney, Australia, where it wasbravely named the SILLIAC. Later, one was constructed by
Iowa State University as the CYCLONE.
ILLIAC I was used by Lajaren Hiller, director of theExperimental Music Studio, to compose and play the Illiac
Suite, the first computer-composed composition. In 1966, at
the Fall Joint Computer Conference, Heinz Von Foerster
organized a highly creative session on computers in music.
The papers presented in this pioneering session were later
published in the book Music by Computers, edited by Von
Foerster and James Beauchamp.

General Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering,
Linguistics, and Library and Information Science.
Originally called the Control Systems Laboratory, CSL
was organized in 1951 under the impetus of urgent militaryneeds because of the involvement of the United States in the
Korean War. Aware of the technological potential in the areasof information theory and automatic computers, the small
staff, led by Francis Wheeler Loomis, Louis Ridenour, andFred Seitz, demonstrated the technical feasibility of several
completely novel ideas that, in the 1990s, form the nucleus ofimportant military systems. These included: the coherent
Doppler radar; the Cornfield System, a radar-based, computercontrolled air traffic surveillance and control system; the All
Weather Attack System, an airborne, noncoherent Doppler
radar; a portable sentry radar designated the AN!TPS-21; theside-looking radar; and the ground observer corps.
In 1959, the university and the Joint Services Committee
approved the reorganization of the laboratory into an interdisciplinary and interdepartmental graduate research center.
Daniel M. Alpert became the first director of the renamed
Coordinated Science Laboratory. This change also marked
the beginning of new objectives and activities, which included
graduate students and graduate research. The first associate
directors were Chalmers W. Sherwin for physics and Mac E.
Van Valkenburg for engineering.

·~

~
~

'i!j
.~

The research program at CSL encompasses a variety of
topics in science and engineering, with major emphasis on
programs providing graduate thesis research. Students
conduct research under the direction of faculty members
holding joint appointments in the following departments andschools: Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mathematics,
Computer Science, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering,

ILL/AC I was the first computer built and owned entirely byan academic institution.

·~

51
~

,•
,
~
As part of a program to strengthen CSL's computer andsystems activities, Van V alkenburg recruited a number of new
faculty members in the early and mid-1960s. These researchers later led CSL and the department to distinction in theirrespective fields. Van Valkenburg also organized the"Allerton Conference on Circuits and Systems" in 1963. The
conference continues today as the "Allerton Conference on
Communication, Control, and Computing." Van Valkenburg
asked Jose B. Cruz, Jr., to establish programs in control
systems. Cruz had obtained a PhD in circuit theory under Van
Valkenburg and was developing a national reputation for his
contributions to time-varying circuits and systems. Cruz
originated graduate courses in the control area and, along with
Van Valkenburg, began building a control faculty. William R.
Perkins and Petar V. Kokotovic were appointed to the control
faculty in the early 1960s.
The work by Cruz, Perkins, and Kokotovic on sensitivity
theory and control in the presence of uncertainties gained CSL
international attention from the control community. This
basic work is at the heart of feedback theory and remains animportant part of fundamental control theory. Other major
developments coming from CSL' s control group include
Cruz's pioneering work on dynamic games, especially leaderfollower strategies, and Kokotovic's original research on

D

Professors Thomas Huang (left), David Munson (center), andKenneth Junkins meet in the director's office at CSL in 1987 todiscuss the initiation of their ARO contract in high-resolution
spaceborne imaging.

52'In 1978, Professor
Michael B. Pursley
describes his
research on
universal datacompression toresearch assistant
Val Di Euliis.

singular perturbations and on adaptive control. The control
group is known, in the 1990s, as the Decision and Control
Laboratory and is highly regarded internationally.
Robert T. Chien (PhD '58) returned to the University of
Illinois from IBM in 1964. He led a research group in coding
and information theory. Later he developed research programs in design automation and artificial intelligence. In 1972
he became director of CSL, a post that he held until his deathin 1983. As director, Chien strengthened systems andcomputing research and added new programs in semiconductor materials and devices.
Sundarurn Seshu, Gernot Metze, and Franco Preparata
were added to the staff in the computer area in the late 1950s
and early 1960s. They did pioneering research on fault
tolerant computing and computational theory. Later, Edward
Davidson joined the group. Davidson and Preparata successfully recruited a number of young faculty members to CSL.
Two of these faculty, Ravi Iyer and Janak Patel, formed theCenter for Reliable and High Performance Computing in
1989. The computer engineering program at UIUC now ranks
among the very best in the nation.
In communications, Van V alkenburg recruited Abraham
H. Haddad. Later Michael B. Pursley, H. Vincent Poor, andBruce Hajek joined the group. The group has earned areputation for its outstanding research in spread spectrum
communications, signal estimation and detection, andcommunication networks.
Van Valkenburg recruited Timothy N. Trick in 1965 todevelop the nonlinear circuits area. With rapid developments
in integrated circuits and computing, Trick's interests
switched to computer-aided analysis and design of integrated
circuits and digital signal processing. Upon Chien's death in
1983, Trick became acting director and then director of CSL
until 1985, when he became head of the Department ofElectrical and Computer Engineering. In 1986, W. Kenneth
Jenkins was named director of CSL. I. N. Hajj and S. M.
Kang now lead the VLSI circuits research effort in CSL.
Since 1984, the Semiconductor Research Corporation has
funded a major program in reliable VLSI systems. Faculty

~:

[ I
[ I
~: l

~: 1
~

! l

!i

!_'. I

~J
~I

!!
~

!!

!

!!
!!

!!
~

IS
~

~
~

I

~
.~

~
~
~
~
~

~
~
~
~

~
~
~
:~
~
~
~
i~

~
~
~
~
~
~
~
~
~
~

~
~
~

members from both the circuits area and computer area
participate in this program. Research is conducted on reliable
VLSI circuits, testing, and fault diagnosis.
Originally supporting the entire laboratory, the Joint
Services Electronics Program (JSEP) constitutes about 25% of
the total funding of CSL in 1991. This funding has resulted inmany pioneering projects. The experimental model of anelectric vacuum gyroscope provided the basis for successful
development at the industrial level. The plasma display panel,invented under the leadership of Donald L. Bitzer and
H. Gene Slottow, is used around the world in banking andgraphics display terminals and in numerous military
applications.
The capabilities of early combat surveillance radar werelimited by antenna size. Sherwin conceived of a new idea thatwould accomplish a very high angular resolution. Based on
experimental feasibility demonstrations at CSL, this work
eventually led to the Army AN/UPD-1 (XPM-1) combat
surveillance radar system. The work of J. D. O'Brien,
W. Kenneth Jenkins, and David C. Munson, Jr., clarified therole of Doppler in synthetic aperture radar. Clearing the way
for the development of a new class of SAR reconstruction
algorithms, this work has been recognized as a basic contribution in the field.
PLATO, Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching
Operations, was conceived by Sherwin and developed at CSL
under the direction of Bitzer. The Computer-based Education
Research Laboratory was formed in 1959, and the PLATO
project grew rapidly in the 1960s. Numerous innovative ideas
and their development have proven CSL to be responsible formany of the systems and designs used in the 1990s.
Another development at CSL is the acoustic chargetransport (ACT), which is a method to store information in
analog form. William Hunsinger and Michael Hoskins
developed ACT delay lines to transport charge in GaAs using
the electric fields produced by surface acoustic waves.
Devices using this technology have low-noise, large-dynamic
ranges and wide bandwidths. Several industrial organizations
have followed the lead of the University of Illinois and, in theearly 1990s, are pursuing the development of this newtechnology, which promises significant breakthroughs insignal processing applications.
The earliest CSL research in the field of spread-spectrum
communications was by a visitor, T. Kasami of Japan, in the
mid-1960s. His contribution was largely unknown until it was
publicized by CSL faculty members a decade later. As aresult, Kasami sequences, as they are now called, occupy a
position alongside m-sequences and Gold sequences as themost powerful linear sequences for DS spread-spectrum
systems.

The research program in the early 1990s in spreadspectrum communications originated in 1974 with an investigation of the multiple-access capability of direct-sequence(DS) spread spectrum by Michael Pursley from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. This research
produced methods for signal design and performance analysis
that are in widespread use in the early 1990s. The synchronization sequence in the army's SINCGARS spread-spectrum
radio was designed by CSL researchers. CSL research has
branched out into several areas, including: frequency-hop
systems, effects of fading on spread-spectrum communications, spread-spectrum radio networks, combined coding andspread spectrum to combat fading, and jamming.
A unique facility called the EpiCenter, an abbreviation for
the University of Illinois CSL-Microelectronics Joint Center
for Epitaxial Growth and Surface Science, is located in the
CSL building. The equipment consists of seven molecularbeam epitaxy chambers interconnected by evacuated stainlesssteel transfer lines. Established in 1988, this jointly supported,world-class facility is a center of attraction for new research
activities in microelectronics materials and devices.
During the early years of CSL, the principal areas ofresearch were the electric vacuum gyroscope, surface andvacuum physics, plasma physics, plasma display devices,computers and their application to modem systems problems,
system theory, and computer science. At CSL, as it is in any
active scientific and engineering research enterprise, the focus
is a dynamic one-constantly being modified toward newareas that promise to be important over a long period of time.
In the early 1990s, activities include research programs insemiconductor physics, semiconductor materials and devices,high-speed devices, thin-film physics, sputter deposition ofmaterials, microwave acoustics, surface science, quantum

This photograph,taken in 1961, showsa student using the
PLATO system.

53

electronics, electromagnetic communications, radiation andscattering, and advanced automation. Research is also being
done in digital signal and image processing, applied computation theory, human-computer interaction, computer-aided
decision making, fault-tolerant digital systems, concurrent
processing, computer architecture, computer algorithms,
decision and control, linear and nonlinear systems, analog anddigital circuits, computer vision and robotics, communications, and information retrieval.

Cl[J)rn.]p>1Lllttell'-1b<lllSeJ Edrnc<ll1til[J)]l1l Rese<ll1ll'ICh

L<ll ,161[))]['<1ll,foll'y <1Jl,Jl1lJ PLATO
The Computer-based Education Research Laboratory(CERL) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is amultidisciplinary laboratory where, for the last 32 years,
researchers in computer hardware, software, and courseware
have successfully developed several generations of sophisticated, full-service computer networks, from PLATO I to themost recent NovaNET. The mission of CERL is to conduct
research exploring the use of computers and telecommunications in addressing all types and levels of educational needs.
The effectiveness of evolving research products must be
established outside a laboratory setting. To maximize theimpact of its innovations, CERL has always sought theirtimely transfer to the private sector for widespread dissemination and use.
The laboratory started in 1960 when Donald L. Bitzer, a26-year-old PhD in electrical engineering, became director ofa project with the goal of designing "an automatic teachingmachine" to teach students of various levels how to use ahigh-speed computer. The university's ILLIAC I computer
was employed as the brain of the system, whose basic
teaching logic was developed by mathematician Peter
Braunfeld.
Several important educational concepts were blended into
the new system: rapid assessment of the student's grasp ofideas; help messages provided upon the student's request andfeedback-lesson response to student's input; and information
to the instructor on the student's performance. This led to
improvement of teaching methods implemented incomputer-based courseware. The system creators wanted tobuild a sophisticated, general purpose teaching system. The
system was named PLATO for "Programmed Logic for
Automatic Teaching Operations."
With PLATO I in 1960, which was the first generation of
PLATO, a student sat at a telephone-booth-like station facing
a television screen and communicated with the computer
through a keyset like that of a typewriter with special keys.
PLATO I only taught students computer programming.

By 1961, PLATO I became PLATO II with the additionof another teaching station. Changes in the teaching logic
allowed subjects other than computer programming to betaught. PLATO I and II were run on the ILLIAC I and written
in the ILLIAC language.
The next generation, PLATO III in 1966, was based on anew, commercially built CDC 1604. It was written first inassembly language. In 1964, the first program to simplify
authoring was developed. Named CATO, it was based on
Fortran 60. In mid-1967, Paul Tenczar, then a zoology
graduate student and later president of the Computer Teaching
Corporation, created Tutor, an authoring language that
reduced the courseware development time from months tohours. PLATO III had 20 student stations and a variety ofteaching techniques. Designed to converse with its students
sequentially, PLATO III could theoretically teach as many asa thousand students eight different lessons simultaneously,
without neglecting anyone.
Students' answers were judged "ok" or "no" uponpressing the key marked "judge." In addition, self-explanatory keys available to students included "continue," "reverse,""help," and "answer." PLATO kept a record for each studentof every request for help, every wrong answer, and how muchtime was spent on each lesson.
PLATO was the world's first time-shared computerbased education (CBE) system with the first CBE authoring
language. The entire concept of a user-friendly computer wasborn at CERL. For the first time, multiple on-line author
editing was done, and computer-generated graphics andmultimedia presentations were used in instructions. A given
slide could be selected by an electronic system in less than amillionth of a second. A beam of light was electronically
aimed at the selected slide, and a sensing tube relayed thepicture to the student's television screen. PLATO could use
random access audio to teach preschoolers to use a terminal,
and it provided "I'm a HAPPY man!" whistling after theysolved the maze successfully.
From 1965-68, Bitzer and H. Gene Slottow developed a
new computer-controlled display-the plasma panel display.
In 1971, the first commercially manufactured plasma displays,then named Digivue, were delivered to CERL. Later, plasma
displays were used in the PLATO N terminals. Control Data
Corporation (CDC) bought limited rights to the PLATO nameand system from Bitzer and the University of Illinois in thelate 1960s.
In the 1970s, CDC set up a new system named MINNC
in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where its headquarters werelocated. By 1983, CDC had sold or set up 23 PLATO systems
around the world. These systems included one each inAustralia, Belgium, France, Israel, Korea, Sweden, Taiwan,

54

Jand the United Kingdom, two in Canada and South Africa,and eleven in the United States. Most of these systems werelinked together, allowing electronic mail (e-mail) to beexchanged.
Electronic mail, named "the notes system," was in use on
PLATO as early as 1973. A system of user/system notes
consisted of public notefiles and personal notefiles, whichwere used for exchanging personal messages. The notefiles
system evolved in a process of communicating new ideas
among developers and users.
PLATO III had about 2,500 hours of instructional lessons
in biology, genetics, chemistry, physics, elementary mathematics, political science, French, Latin, and Russian. By
1980, there were 7 ,000 hours of instructional material in morethan 150 subject areas on the PLATO IV system.
A "CERL Cluster System," intended to take advantage ofa stand-alone terminal and of central PLATO at low cost, wasdeveloped in 1980. It consisted of a large microcomputer
system, the "hub," connected to intelligent terminals, the"stations," via a local area network. The hub system provided
network file storage and lesson condensing facilities in
addition to the interactive and batch functions of a standard
computer system. The stations supported authoring andexecution of microtutor lessons and curricula.

In the early 1980s, the state of Illinois committed $3.5
million to modify a campus building to contain the Microelectronics Laboratory. James J. Coleman, Nick Holonyak, Jr.,and Gregory E. Stillman lent their expertise on the feasibilityof making the existing building suitable for microelectronics
research. Meanwhile, a Microelectronics Board of Overseers,consisting of 13 senior leaders from industry, was assembled
by the president of the university. In 1985, the board's
chairman, Motorola's vice president for research, William
Howard, advised the state and university to invest seriously inthe future of microelectronics research. When the renovation
plan was presented to the Board of Overseers, they suggestedbuilding a new facility.
In response to the board's recommendation, the statecommitted an additional $10 million-a total of $13.5
million-to build a new microelectronics laboratory on the
UIUC campus. Construction on the Microelectronics
Laboratory building began in July 1987. The building wasdedicated on October 7, 1989. Governor James Thompson
and university President Stanley Ikenberry attended the
ceremony. The building has 8,000 sq ft of class 100 and class1000 clean room space; is vibrationally tuned to less than 10

Dedicated in 1989, the Microelectronics Laboratory is a multidisciplinary facility in the College of Engineering for investigating
new concepts in optical and electronic materials, devices, and systems based on gallium arsenide, indium phosphide, and othergroup Ill-V compound semiconductors.

55

The Beckman Institute forAdvanced Science and Technology is the largest and mostambitious university-based
multidisciplinary researchfacility in the United States.

microinches; and is the first university facility to conform to
the H6 fire and safety codes applicable to semiconductor
laboratories. The Microelectronics Laboratory is equippedwith facilities for nanolithography, growth of artificiallystructured materials (MBE and MOCVD), materials characterization, and high-speed electrical and optical device
measurements.
Encouraged by state support, the faculty-under
Stillman's leadership--presented a proposal to the National
Science Foundation for an Engineering Research Center in
Compound Semiconductor Microelectronics. The NSF grant,
which began on May 1, 1986, provided funds to develop
experimental facilities and programs for core research,education, and industry for the 1990s. The Center for
Compound Semiconductor Microelectronics addresses
research that is critical to the successful realization of products
based on high-speed optical interconnect technologies.

56

Center research builds on the work begun at UIUC by
John Bardeen and advanced by Nick Holonyak, Jr. Holonyak,
Bardeen's first graduate student, established a solid-stateelectronic devices research lab at the university in 1963. Since
then, the university has been a leader in academic research on
gallium arsenide and other compound semiconductors. The
center is the umbrella under which the university, in partnership with government and industry, has developed theessentials of faculty members, students, program monies,
facilities, and leadership to continue its premier program incompound semiconductors and optoelectronic systems.
The center is located in the Microelectronics Laboratory
and is a unit with departmental status in the College ofEngineering. The center is managed by the director, Stephen
Bishop, who is also the director of the Microelectronics
Laboratory. Bishop assumed the directorate in August 1989
from'Joseph Verdeyen. Verdeyen served as director fromJanuary 1988 to July 1989. He followed founding director
Stillman. Each director has relied on the Technical Advisory
Committee (TAC) for guidance on the center's overall
research agenda. The TAC, which first met in August 1987

and has met annually since, is composed of leading managers
and research practitioners from industry, academia, andgovernment laboratories. Whether working individually withfaculty members or in formal meetings with the director, theTAC assures that the center's research plan is well matchedwith industry needs and long-term goals.

Becb&n Rnstitf:ufo fl[]nr Adlv&ncedl Sciience&ndl TedblJtlll[J)Rl[J)gy
Early in 1983, administrators of the Urbana-Champaign
campus of the University of Illinois decided to assemble a
proposal for establishing a dramatically new venture inuniversity-based research. The first meeting leading to what
later became the Beckman Proposal was held in the office ofuniversity Vice President Morton W. Weir. Also attending
were Lewis W. Barron, who directed the university's Foundation, Chancellor John E. Cribbet, Vice Chancellor Edwin L.
Goldwasser, and Vice Chancellor Theodore L. Brown.
Following discussions with key campus administratorsand professors in the university's Center for Advanced Study,
two committees were appointed in May 1983. One of thesecommittees, chaired originally by Gregory E. Stillman of the
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and laterby Karl Hess of the same department, consisted mainly of
faculty members from engineering and the physical sciences.
The second committee, under the chairmanship of William T.
Greenough of the Department of Psychology, was asked todevelop a program statement for an array of research spanningthe life sciences and the behavioral sciences, extending frommolecular biological sciences to the neurosciences andcognitive sciences.
The two committees presented their reports to campus
administration in September 1983. Over the next several
months, these thorough and comprehensive documents weredrawn on by campus administration, in collaboration withVice President Weir and the University of Illinois Foundation,
to produce a proposal that was submitted to Arnold Beckman
in fall 1984.
Beckman' s gift of $40 million was announced at theannual meeting of the University of Illinois Foundation in
October 1985. The Illinois legislature, in its fall 1985 session,
appropriated $10 million toward the cost of the building. In
addition, the university and the state of Illinois pledged tosupport the continued operations and maintenance of theinstitute.
As donors of the largest gift ever made to a public
university at that time, Arnold and Mabel Beckman were,quite naturally, eager to see the planning for the institute movealong as rapidly as possible. In keeping with their wishes, theuniversity acted quickly to choose an architectural firm.
The selection of Smith, Hinchman & Grylls (SH&G), a
Detroit architectural engineering firm experienced in thedesign of research facilities, was announced on December 10,
1985. In its proposal, SH&G indicated a demanding schedulethat would lead to the completion of the facility by the end of
1988. Close cooperation and exceptional commitment fromall involved were required to meet the schedule for designingand building a large and complex facility such as the Beckman
Institute.
In contrast to the usual procedure in planning a major
facility, the Beckman Institute was without a detailed building
program when the architectural firm was selected. Accordingly, the first task was to establish a program on which tobase the building design. The Greenough and Hess committees were reactivated, with enlarged faculty groups representing candidate research programs to establish the space needsof research efforts. That planning process, carried out in only
three months, required and received great imagination andpatience from the participating faculty members.
With the program plan in hand, the building was designedin spring 1986; design development came to a close with thepresentation of the building design to the Board of Trustees of
the University of Illinois in July 1986. Site clearance andwork on the foundation began in early December 1986;
construction was substantially complete by December 1988.
Arnold and Mabel Beckman's generosity has provided
the university with a rare opportunity to establish a new andimportant direction for university-based research. Continued
commitment is required to meet the challenges of the
Beckman Institute.
The Beckman Institute differs from most other interdisciplinary research institutes in the significantly broader scope of
its programs. The physical design features are intended toenhance its mission as a center for cross-disciplinary scholarship among researchers in the biological and behavioral
sciences, the physical sciences, and engineering. The 313,000
sq ft includes the major architectural features of a laboratory
wing, an office and electronics wing, a public atrium, and a
tower. One of the most important elements in stimulatinginteraction between researchers is the opportunity for frequent,easy contact. The institute provides many spaces that canserve as gathering places for researchers in groups varying insize from a few up to 100 people. In early 1990s, electricaland computer erigineering faculty members in the Beckman
Institute conduct research in computer vision, imaging,computational electrons, scanning/tunneling/microscopy,
optical systems, and neural networks.

57

,._

~ '
~

I

.I
~l

~ I
f
f
f
f

i

~ i
~,
~ .

~: I

~·

!J
!J .
!! .
!!
To be completed in the spring of 1992, the Computer and Systems Research Laboratory is located on the north side of the newnorth campus ellipse, across from the Beckman Institute.

§llllperoOJm.pllllforr·s

Research anJ DeYeloJP>ment-C§RD
The Center for Supercomputing Research and Development (CSRD) was founded in 1984 as an outgrowth of theAdvanced Laboratory for Supercomputers, then part of the
Department of Computer Science. The mission of the newcenter was to advance the state of supercomputing and todemonstrate the practicality of high-performance parallel
computation across a wide range of applications. Originally,58

the activities of CSRD were guided by Director David J. Kuck
and three associate directors, Edward S. Davidson (architecture and hardware), Duncan Lawrie (software and operating
systems), and Ahmed H. Sameh (applications and algorithms).
In 1989, George Cybenko joined the center as associate
director for performance evaluation and graphics, and David
A. Padua became associate director for compilers. In 1990,
Lawrie became head of the Department of Computer Science.
Efforts during the first four years were directed towardbuilding the Cedar system, a parallel supercomputer system
based on eight-processor clusters with an interconnection
network and shared memory to accommodate up to 32
processors. In 1985, the first Alliant FX/8 arrived, andadditional FX/8s were obtained and reconfigured to form thesystem's computational base. The interface, interconnection,and memory boards were designed at CSRD, manufactured byoutside vendors, and installed beginning in 1987. Xylem, the
CSRD-designed operating system based on Unix, was

I

~
~

~
~
~

~
~
~
~

CSRD has continued to grow. In the beginning, faculty
members, staff, and students were located on the third floor of
Talbot Laboratory, but these quarters were soon too small. To
relieve the space shortage, an apartment house was moved
from the site of the then-projected Beckman Institute to
Wright Street, across from Talbot Laboratory, and renovatedto provide offices for graduate research assistants. In December 1990, ground was broken for a new building, the Computer and Systems Research Laboratory (CSRL), which will
be located on the east side of the new north campus ellipse
across from the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science andTechnology and the Microelectronics Laboratory. Upon its
completion in the spring of 1992, CSRD will share the new
80,000 sq-ft building with the computer and systems staff
from the Coordinated Science Laboratory.
A]]J>]]J>RicaitioltlS-NC§A

About the time CSRD was being formed, Larry Smarr,
professor of astronomy, was lobbying in Washington, D.C.,
for a National Center for Supercomputing Applications(NCSA) at UIUC. Smarr's cross-disciplinary proposal
contained contributions from several faculty members in the
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, including a contribution from Karl Hess. When Smarr's proposal
was funded, Karl Hess was among the initial users of the firstsupercomputing system-the $12 million CRAY X-MP/24.
Hess was doing pioneering research on the use of Monte Carlotechniques for semiconductor device simulation. Faculty
members and graduate students in the Electromagnetics
Laboratory were also among the early users of the CRAY.
With the availability of the CRAY, Hess received funding
from NSF to establish a National Center for Computational
Electronics. More than 50 universities and industries joined
the center. One of the attractive features of the center was thesuperior computer graphics available in NCSA. Hesscommented that the first video he made of a CRAY simulationof a high-speed transistor turning off and on cost more to
make than the movie "Rambo."
In 1991, NCSA has 240 staff members who assist
industrial partners and university scientists in using
supercomputers in scientific applications. NCSA operates a
CRAY 2, a CRAY Y-MP, and a 64,000 Processor Connection
Machine. Numerous graphics workstations are also available
for visualization of the numerical results.

;_llj
~

Iii ~

I

developed and successfully ported to the Alliants and then to
the two-cluster Cedar machine. In 1988, the first Fortranprogram was run on all board types, and the operating system
was run on multiple clusters. In 1989, Cedar 1, consisting offour clusters of four processors each, was powered up and ran
several Fortran programs successfully, showing significant
speedup. Finally, in December 1990, CSRD staff demonstrated the Xylem operating system, Cedar Fortran compiler,
and Cedar numerical library operating on the full 32-processor, four-cluster system. The system includes a 64-megabyte,
global shared memory and shuffle-exchange based, global
interconnection network. Cedar forms the basis for a class of
scalable, hierarchical systems, and several industrial projects
underway in the early 1990s have been influenced by thisexchange.
Since its founding, CSRD has become an increasingly
productive force in the supercomputing research community.
Approximately 135 faculty members, staff, and students
engage in cooperative research and pursue advanced degrees
in the Department of Computer Science and the Department
of Electrical and Computer Engineering. During 1989, CSRD
led an initiative to establish a PhD concentration in computational science and engineering (CSE). It is expected that morethan 50 faculty members will participate in the program, thegoal of which is to educate students to be intellectually
prepared to advance the field of high-performance computing
into the twenty-first century. Progress in the application ofhigh-performance computers to modem scientific andengineering problems involves an understanding of the whole
computational process. The CSE curriculum will focus onwhole computer systems: how to design and build efficient,fast computer systems; how to use them effectively, including
compilers, system, and applications software; and components
in computer architecture and performance evaluation.
In addition to extensive research and development
activities, CSRD offers numerous meetings, seminars, andworkshops to the supercomputing community. The corporate
world participates in these activities through the CSRD
Affiliates Program, which provides corporate members withthe opportunity to contribute to research efforts and to benefit
by gaining firsthand information about the progress of thoseefforts. The two-day annual meeting each spring enables
representatives of the corporate community to meet withstudents and researchers and to attend a series of presentations
at CSRD. Among the 1991 members of the CSRD Affiliates
Program are Alliant Systems Corp., Concurrent Computer
Corp., Control Data Corp., Cray Research, Digital Equipment
Corp., Electricite de France, Fujitsu, IBM, MIPS Computer
Corp., Mitsubishi, Sun Microsystems, and TASC.

59

r·
~ ·

Chapfeer 6-Deeveelopm.eenfs ({})Veer thee Yeears!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-r.

On September 21, 1968, William L. Everitt(left), dean of the College of Engineering,and Lou Liay (right), associate director of
the Alumni Association, presented a loyalty
award to John E. Farley '48, nationalpresident of Eta Kappa Nu.

f
~-:

~

!

I

!i
!

.,
I!

Edward C. Jordan, Marcia
Peterman, and William L.
Everitt in 1949.

Paul Hudson, long-time executive secretary of
Eta Kappa Nu, is pictured in 1977 with his wife ,Gertrude.

I i

'

-

I I

-.

I I

60

T

he curriculum in electrical engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has changed
over the years. The major area of transition concerns themove from an orientation toward electric power to postwar
needs in communications and electronics. The changes at
UIUC are representative of changes occurring at engineeringschools across the nation. Most changes have been small andevolutionary; a few have been larger.
The curriculum in electrical engineering at the university
did not change very much in the first 50 years. Appendix 3
lists the curricula in the years 1910, 1940, 1950, 1961, 1973,
and 1989. There is little difference between the 1910 and1940 curricula. Both required approximately 142 hours for
the BS degree. The 1910 curriculum, however, was rigid; in
1940, a few options were available to the students. Wiringand Illumination was one option in the second year. In thesecond semester of the fourth year, students could elect tosubstitute courses in Telephone Transmission, Radio Communication, or Electron Tubes for E.E. 36-A.C. Apparatus andE.E. 86-Electrical Engineering Lab.
The era after World War II was one of rapid change inelectrical engineering. The 1950 curriculum offered three
options: power, illumination, and communication engineering.
Differential Equations and Electronics were required courses
in all three options. Fields and Waves, Electron Tube
Circuits, and Radio Circuits were required courses in thecommunication engineering option. In the nontechnical area,
courses were required in Rhetoric and Composition, Effective
Speaking, Economics, Hygiene, Personnel Administration,
Psychology, Architecture and Civilization, and Physiology.
The illumination option required courses in Industrial Sellingand Sales Management. The 1950 curriculum contained 144
hours. The options format disappeared in 1958.
By 1961, the curriculum clearly illustrated the impact ofWilliam L. Everitt, John Bardeen, and their proteges. Requirements included three electromagnetics courses, a fourth
physics course entitled Atomic Physics and Quantum Theory,
and a materials course entitled Properties of Solids. This wasa modem curriculum in 1961 that reflected the rapid advances
taking place in communications, solid-state devices, andnuclear energy. The curriculum required 145 hours andcontained 31 technical and nontechnical elective hours.

The number of semester hours changed to 124 rather
abruptly in 1973. Before then, semester hours ranged from
140 to 145. Under the 140 semester-hour curriculum, fewer
than 10% of the students graduated in eight or fewer semesters. At least 50% of the students were expected to graduate ineight semesters or less with the 124-hour curriculum. Elective
hours increased from 15 to 65, and the number of hours inrequired courses decreased from 129 to 59 hours. With theincrease in elective hours came the development of departmentally approved lists of courses in several categories.
Courses in each category were to be selected from these lists.
Part of the increase in the number of elective hours reflected
the increasing requirements in humanities and social sciences,
first included to meet campus general education requirements
and later expanded to comply with the new College ofEngineering requirements in humanities and social sciences.
A particularly notable change was the development of thecomputer engineering curriculum. This was first introduced
as the electrical engineering/computer science curriculum in1969 and was known to students and faculty members as theslash curriculum. The slash curriculum was replaced by thecomputer engineering curriculum in 1973, the same year thenumber of hours required in all curricula in the department
was reduced. Computer Programming (Math. 195) had been
added as a required course in 1962.
Shop courses, which had been a traditional part of all
engineering curricula, were removed from the electricalengineering curriculum in 1950. Engineering graphics
decreased from two courses of eight hours in 1946 to two
courses of six hours in 1957 and finally to one course of threehours in 1966. The requirement was removed entirely in1970.
At the beginning of this period, College Algebra andTrigonometry were part of the curriculum. In 1953, these
became requirements for admission and were no longer
accepted as part of the program. Military Science was nolonger required after 1964, and the requirement for physicaleducation was dropped in 1973.

61

I

The laboratory program for the department has always
been a strong part of the curriculum. In 1973, the number ofrequired laboratories was dropped to two, and they were nolonger attached to corresponding classroom courses. In
addition, students were required to take two elective courses.
In 1991, the laboratory program includes some 20 elective
courses from which to choose.
It was difficult to get faculty members to agree to reducethe curriculum from 145 hours to 124 hours in the early
1970s. All faculty members felt that their courses were too
important to be relegated to the elective list rather thanrequired as a core course. To reach an agreement, four
fundamental areas were defined: circuits, computers, solidstate devices, and electromagnetics. One required course wasallowed in each area. Experience showed that this was too
drastic a step. Gradually, required courses were added inlinear systems, electronic circuits, and transmission lines (inthe electrical engineering but not the computer engineering
curriculum), and in 1979, the number of hours increased to128.
Beginning in 1989, students were given more guidance inchoosing their free and technical electives. Thus, the 1991
electrical engineering curriculum suggests, but does not
require, a second course in composition, a course on effective
speaking, and technical courses on thermodynamics, probabilistic methods, electromechanics, atomic physics and quantum
theory, advanced calculus, linear algebra, and numericalmethods. In May 1989, the University Senate passed general
education requirements that made a second course in composition and the equivalent of three semesters of a foreign
language mandatory.
The curriculum will continue to change with advances intechnology and societal pressures. In 1991, the department
offers more than 100 courses in the following fields ofspecialization: bioengineering and acoustics, communications,computer systems, computer vision and robotics, decision andcontrol, digital image and signal processing, electromagnetic
fields, electro-optics, lasers and plasmas, power and energy,
remote sensing and propagation, and semiconductor materials,
physics, and devices. The engineer of the future must clearlybe prepared for a career of lifelong learning.

In the early 1960s, a fundamental change in thedepartment's policy on teaching electronics was made. Before
that time, emphasis was almost entirely on vacuum tube
circuits, with little coverage of the physics of the devices. Thechange was to teach solid-state device circuits. At that time,
all engineering students were required to take a three-course
sequence of M.E. 202, Phycs. 383, and Met.E. 384, and thedevice physics were to be covered, in a rather perfunctorymanner, in the last course of the sequence. Electronics in the
Department of Electrical Engineering was still circuit oriented
but with transistors as the active elements rather than vacuum
tubes.
In 1965, Chih-Teng Sah received an NSF grant ofapproximately $54,000 to purchase equipment for a laboratory
to accompany lectures specifically on semiconductor materials
and solid-state devices. The experiments were heavily biased
toward measurements backing up theory and covered such
subjects as Hall effect, lifetime measurement, optical properties of germanium, resistivity measurements, oxidation, anddiffusion. One experiment was devoted to device fabricationin which the students made alloyed tunnel diodes. The
laboratory experiments were developed by Benjamin G.
Streetman, Robert Pierret, George E. Anner, Frank Hielscher,and Leo Yao.

Students enrolled in E.C.E. 344 make transistors. They mustclean the wafer's swface with acids and solvents because
device geometries are comparable to the size of a dust
particle.

62

I

I
•
I
i
I
•
I
~
I
~
i

~

I

I

~.
~: ~

~.

f
~

~
~'

-.

~!
~!
~!
~

.I
I

Students must test the devices and the theories behind theprocesses used to create them.

The laboratory course was first offered in 1966---07, wasequipped to handle a maximum of 30 students per academic
year, and was offered to graduate students only. In late 1968,
Texas Instruments Incorporated donated some equipment thatwas essential for making diffused planar devices. The first
diffused diodes made in the laboratory were of the mesa type.
Photolithography was not used; the diode mesas were masked
for etching with wax dots. The course originally was taught
jointly by Sah, Streetman, and Armer.
In the years between 1968 and 1972, Armer gradually
took over direction of the laboratory and concentrated on
obtaining equipment from industry to upgrade photolithographic facilities. At that time, the semiconductor industry
was changing its production lines to handle 3-in. rather than
2-in. wafers, so the laboratory actively solicited gifts of maskaligners and related equipment. Industry also donated large
quantities of the 2-in. silicon wafers. These were diced into
approximately 2 cm x 2 cm pieces so that each student would
have a "wafer" for fabricating. Many semiconductor companies made contributions to the new laboratory, including
Texas Instruments, Motorola, Delco, and Harris, but National
Semiconductor was the kingpin in helping the laboratory
convert to device processing.
The first devices made in the laboratory by planar
processing were diodes fabricated by Raymond Bregar in
1971-72. No photomasks were available, so he made masters

by pasting black circles on ruled mylar sheets, which werethen photoreduced onto glass plates that fit mask aligners.
This work was done as a special project using the laboratory
facilities outside of scheduled class sessions, a mechanism that
became widely used later. Bregar was the first undergraduate
to go from the course directly into industry when he joined
National Semiconductor in Danbury, Connecticut. He wasfollowed by many graduates from the course, who strengthened the link between equipment and materials donated byindustry to the laboratory.
By 1972-73, the course had received the designation E.E.
344, and all of the experiments in the laboratory were devoted
to fabricating bipolar and MOS devices and testing theircharacteristics. No integrated circuits (ICs) were madebecause there was insufficient lab time to allow for isolation
diffusions, and wafers with epitaxial layers were more difficult
to come by. Also, students would prefer to make some simple
devices that worked rather than ICs that did not. At that time,
the course was handling 70 students per year, and students did
all the fabricating and testing procedures on their wafers.
By 1982, the course was emolling 170 students per year,
including summer session. The laboratory occupied 1,680 sq
ft on the first floor, west wing of the Electrical Engineering
Building. General laboratory conditions were poor; there wasno air filtering and no temperature or humidity controls otherthan those afforded by the usual building utilities. Visitors, onentering the lab and seeing diffusion furnaces, fume hoods,
gas cylinders, and a dark room, often asked, "Is this anelectrical engineering lab?" One visiting processing engineer
from industry was aghast when he saw that students were notworking in a clean room. He had to be shown a large geometry device under test to prove that it worked. An interesting
sidelight is that National Semiconductor donated its masks formaking 2N2222 bipolar transistors. This seemed singularly
appropriate, because the 3.5 ml stripe had the form of theuniversity's Block I.
In 1970, Armer introduced a laboratory course on the
fabrication of thick and thin film, or hybrid, circuits to satisfy
certain needs of our students going into the semiconductor
industry. This course was designated E.E. 346 and was
located originally just south of the E.E. 344 facility in a roomof roughly 900 sq ft. Much of the special equipment required

63

r
~

I

I
I

ECE students
prepare toevaporate
aluminum onto
their wafers witha high-vacuum
system, which
reduces the airpressure bynine orders ofmagnitude.
for the thick film work was made locally or donated byindustry. The two initial vacuum systems were based oncommercial equipment.
During the next few years, additional equipment was
donated by industry, especially mask aligners and wafer
testing equipment. E.E. 344 expanded into the E.E. 346 area,
and the E.E. 346 facility was moved across the hall. The
informal charter for the laboratories held that their primaryfunction was to serve the two named courses, but in addition,
qualified students with special projects or master's thesis work
not supported by research projects were given access to thefacilities outside of scheduled class sessions. Access also wasgiven to graduate students from sponsored research projects
whose home laboratories lacked some of the facilities
available in E.E. 344 and 346.
Related changes were being made also in other electronics courses. By 1966, the first electronics course in thedepartment, E.E. 340, was converted from circuits to solidstate materials and devices, and the second course wasdevoted to solid-state device circuits. As an adjunct to E.E.

344, a new course E.E. 345, Bipolar Device Engineering, wasadded in 1975. Several other related courses, not directly
connected to the laboratory, were also added covering pulse
and digital circuits, large-scale integrated MOS circuits,
physical electronics, and quantum electronics for engineers.
By 1980, so much additional donated equipment was on
hand that was of better grade than the equipment used in E.E.
344 that tentative plans for another laboratory, Fab II, werebeing made. The department head, George W. Swenson, Jr.,
made a commitment in 1980 to move forward on Fab II byhiring John S. Hughes, a research engineer, to handle detailsof this new facility. This was to augment, rather than supplant, the existing laboratory, and its charter called forfacilities for: individual undergraduate projects, whose
numbers seemed to be rising; masters' theses, also anticipatedto increase in numbers; PhD and staffresearch; and a do-ityourself service center of equipment. Note that the two
named courses were not included. The equipment was to bemuch better than in Fab I, with ability to handle 3-in. and 4-in.
wafers, and the laboratory proper was to be built in accordance with commercial standards, with class 1000 clean air at
a minimum and with proper temperature and humidity
controls. Also, a pure water system was to be included.
Planning proceeded very slowly. Where was the facility to belocated? How was it to be funded? Initially the location waschosen as the west side of the basement in the ElectricalEngineering Building.
Things came to a head in October 1980, when IBM Corp.
donated such a large ion implanter that provisions for its
location had to be made immediately. In December 1980, it
was installed in room 40 of the Electrical Engineering
Building, on the west side of the basement floor. It became
clear that the west side of the basement was too small tocontain the entire proposed facility, so design plans wereprepared to use a major portion of the center section of thebasement. With Anner's approaching retirement, responsibility for designing the laboratory was shifted to John S. Hughes
and Amo H. Schriefer, Jr., senior research engineer. Directionof E.E. 344 was passed to James J. Coleman and of E.E. 346
to Morris Berg of the Department of Ceramic Engineering in
1982. MOSTEK was helpful in designing the laboratory, andconstruction began in April 1982. In that same time span,
United Technologies Company donated $500,000, part to aid
in construction and the rest to go for upkeep.
In 1983, the decision was made at the departmental levelto take over the Fab II facility for the newly formed Microelectronics Laboratory, especially for holding the new e-beamapparatus, until a new building for the laboratory was completed. By 1991, equipment was gradually transferred fromFab II to the new facility located near the Beckman Institute,

!
.
•·
f
[

11

64

J

I
and work was underway to move the E.E. 344 laboratory to
Fab II. The space of the original Fab I was released to otheruses, and E.E. 346 was no longer in the electrical engineering
curriculum, having been taken over by the Department ofMaterials Science and Engineering.

A §JbuOJrf JHi§fory «JJf
liUl.llltllllRllll&firnm Ellllgim~erillllg
The illumination engineering program was the brainchildof Professor John Otto Kraehenbuehl. Beginning in the
1930s, he developed and taught two courses; one taught thedesign of lighting systems for building interiors and the otherthe design of wiring systems to supply electricity to the lights
and motors within buildings.
At that time, nearly all of the electric light sources wereincandescent lamps. These were tungsten filament descendants of the carbon filament lamps developed by Thomas
Edison in 1875. Other available light sources in the 1930s,
used for specific purposes, were: the carbon arc lamp used fortheatrical spot lighting, the mercury vapor discharge lamp
used for street lighting, and the Cooper Hewitt mercury vapor
lamp used for industrial lighting. At the New York World's
Fair in 1939, the fluorescent lamp was unveiled for public
view.
In 1945, Kraehenbuehl designed a curriculum for a
program in illumination engineering. The first course in the
program was Illumination and Wiring Design, a three-hourcourse that combined and strengthened the two originalcourses offered in the 1930s.
During the period following World War II, most of thestudents majored in electronics, a slightly smaller groupmajored in power, and a smaller group, about 20 to 30
students per year, chose to major in illumination. The
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Michigan, and Case Institute of Technology were the only otheruniversities in the United States offering work in illumination,and they only offered two or three courses in the field. Nonecovered the range of material in Kraehenbuehl's curriculum.
As evidence of the program's success, the first graduateswere able to compete successfully in industry with engineers
who had been working in the illumination field for many
years. Kraehenbuehl tracked the graduates and found that,five years after graduation, illumination majors were earning
50% to 100% more than their classmates with power orelectronics majors.

The demise of the illumination program came in the early
1950s. The College of Engineering wanted a uniform
program in all departments for the first two years so thatstudents would not have to declare an area of specialization
until the sophomore year was completed. The illumination
course (E.E. 120) was an impediment to progress, so thecommittee decided to remove it from the list of requirements.
With no input during the freshman and sophomore years andKraehenbuehl's retirement, enrollment in the program
dropped steadily. After students had graduated in 1956, theprogram was no longer offered. Since its inception, some 130
students majored in illumination engineering. It was also themajor chosen by the first few women earning degrees inelectrical engineering.

The circuit analysis book used in the department in themid- and late 1940s was Introduction to Circuit Analysis by
Abner R. Knight and Gilbert H. Fett. Although generally apopular book, it was noted for its difficult problems. The
students were said to have stated that it contained four types ofproblems: those that only the smartest students could solve;
those that only Knight and Fett could solve; those that only
God and Fett could solve; and those that only Fett could solve.
9E§falbli§beltllf «JJf tlb.e JDep&rfltlllleltllf §Ah.lllrllltllR A§§«JJCR&fi«JJllll
In the last months of 1966, several alumni of the Department of Electrical Engineering discussed with Wendell E.
Miller, associate head of the department, and Marcia
Peterman, the departmental office supervisor, the possibilityof organizing an Electrical Engineering Alumni Association.
They decided that an organization was needed to help thealumni keep in touch with one another, with the faculty andstaff, and with the activities of the department and theuniversity. It would also serve to strengthen ties between thedepartment and industry.

65

,•
,_
~
In April 1967, a letter, officer ballot, and other information were sent to 6,800 alumni announcing the formation of
the Electrical Engineering Alumni Association as the 20thconstituent organization of the University of Illinois Alumni
Association. Replies were received from approximately 800
graduates, resulting in 447 new members of the University
Alumni Association. An organizational meeting was held on
June 28, 1967, in the Faculty Lounge of the ElectricalEngineering Building. The first officers and board members
were installed after a count of the mailed ballots.
The new association adopted E2A 2 as its logo andimmediately became active. During the first year, regional
meetings ofE2A 2 were held at Wescon in San Francisco,California, National Electronics Conference in Chicago,
Illinois, IEEE in New York, New York, and Urbana-Champaign during a football weekend. Three E2A 2 newsletters werealso mailed.
In the years that followed, regional meetings continued tobe held and many newsletters published. E 2A2 also initiated a
program to honor alumni who had distinguished themselves intheir professions by presenting them with a Distinguished
Alumnus Award. These awards are presented annually at theE2A2 awards banquet, which is held at Urbana-Champaign
each fall during a football weekend. In 1984, the department's
name was changed to the Department of Electrical andComputer Engineering. The name of the department's alumniorganization was changed accordingly, and the present logo
E2CA2 was adopted.
In 1991, E2CA2 has 5,510 members and is an active
organization with four standing committees: Membership andStudent Affairs, Scholarship, Legislative, and Alumni Events.
Board meetings are held during the Chicago spring meeting of
the American Power Conference and in Urbana-Champaign
during the fall awards banquet. The newsletter has become adistinguished publication and is mailed to alumni twice a year.
E 2CA2 gatherings are held at opportune times in various partsof the country, and one board member each year serves as arepresentative to the University Alumni Association. At theE2CA2 board meeting on September 14, 1990, a University
Alumni Association representative complimented E 2CA2 as
one of the best of its 45 constituent groups.

66~ i
When Marcia Hopperstad, newly graduated fromRockford Business College and School of Music and only 20
years old, came to Urbana-Champaign in 1930 to be interviewed by Ellery B. Paine for a secretarial job in electricalengineering, who could have foretold that this was the
beginning of an association withthe department that was to last for
more than 50 years?
She was the first and, forsome time, the only secretary inthe department. She began as aclerk stenographer and advanced
through various titles to officesupervisor, overseeing an office
staff that ministered to theMarcia Peterman insecretarial needs of more than1970.
100 faculty members. During thisperiod, she also served as secretary and then adviser to Paine
and three other department heads: William L. Everitt, 194449; John D. Ryder, 1949-54 and Edward C. Jordan, 1954-79.
She provided exemplary help and guidance to generations ofstudents and alumni. Although she retired officially in 1977,
she was reappointed on a part-time basis as staff associate tocontinue her work with the alumni of the department. She
took special classes in languages, office management, andbusiness law throughout her years at the university.
In 1975, a special section of the E2A 2 News, "Hats Off to
Marcia," saluted some of Marcia Peterman's accomplishments. In 1977, at the time of her first retirement, she waspresented with a book of some 200 letters from staff, faculty,
and alumni who had come to know her over the years andwhose lives had been touched by her helpfulness.
In 1945, she married C. E. Peterman. He died in 1963.
She married Leo Corby in 1983, just 1 1/2 years before shedied on September 30, 1984.
Peterman received several awards and honors. These
included the HKN A ward in 1967, the Appreciation Award
from the University of Illinois Alumni Association in 1972,
the AIEE Honor Award in 1975, and the Loyalty Award fromthe Alumni Association.
She made several trips abroad in connection with thedepartment. She went to England, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and France in 1968 and to Sendai, Japan, in 1971,
where she attended the 1971 International Symposium on
Antennas and Propagation. In 1976, she traveled to Rio deJanerio, Brazil. She often visited Illinois alumni during theseworld travels.

~

I

I

~ i
~

l

~!

~l
~

t!1

t! l

~J
~~
~!
~!
~!
~!

I

~ II

~

, ~

i

-

Iii

jl

The following selections and excerpts from some of the

200 letters presented to her at the time of her first retirement
will serve to hold Peterman in the memories of those who
knew her and to help those who did not know her to understand why she will not be forgotten.
During World War II, at least according to the movies, amethod of challenging possible impostors was to ask them who
Babe Ruth or some such famous person was. A real test to
confirm that a person is truly a U. of I. electrical engineering
alumnus is the answer to the question: Who is Marcia Peterman?
Although the actual responses to the question might vary
somewhat, I'm sure that the true alumni would have satisfactory
answers, ranging from 'she's the one with all the importantanswers around the E.E. Department' to 'of course, she's the one
who really keeps things organized.' Maybe one of the bestanswers would be 'she's the one to whom AC and DC mean
Always Concerned and Double Concerned.' I say this because I
know that thousands of E.E. students have benefitted from thepersonal attention you gave to their academic problems and laterto their employment prospects.
There is nothing a new department head needs more than
the guidance of a good secretary. I found a superlative one inMarcia, the 'creme de la creme.' She guided me in who was
who, what to do, and when to do it. She knew everyone andeverything about the University, the alumni, and the cities ofUrbana and Champaign. But most of all she demonstrated
and has continued to show a love for, and loyalty to, theDepartment which is unique. More than any other person in
the last three decades she has represented Electrical Engineering at the U. of I. to students, faculty, and alumni.

~
~

~

~
~
~

~
~
~

Marcia is the best Electrical Engineering Department Head
I have known. In fact, she runs the best department.
It's difficult to express adequately in words the quality you
added to our happy years at Illinois. For me, however, it
seems that it is simply the following: somehow you managed
to make each one of us believe that we were special ... kindof privy to your affection and interest.
I can recall more than one occasion when I felt like a 'lostsoul' and needed to be pointed in the right direction. The
general consensus seemed to be, 'If you don't know, ask
Marcia.' No matter how busy you were, you always tooktime out to help keep us students from going astray. Believeme, for that I am truly grateful.
All told, it seems to me that Marcia has been the realbinding agent that has made our EE Department a fraternityof friends on top of its high standing as an educational
institution.

The atmosphere on campuses across the nation was oneof growing unrest during the years 1967-70. Protest during
these years was largely attributable to resentment against theunpopular war in Vietnam and military action in Cambodia.
The explosion point was reached on May 4, 1970, when four
students at Kent State University were killed by National
Guardsmen. On the local scene, the shooting death of a black
employee of a campus bookstore added fuel to the fire. A
student strike committee, following the lead of students atseveral other universities, called for closing down the university as a form of protest.
At the University of Illinois, the response of the administration is indicated by the attached Statement of Chancellors,
Deans and Directors, dated May 8, 1970.
STATEMENT OF CHANCELLORS, DEANS AND
DIRECTORSThis University, as a University, cannot speak with one voice,for it is many voices. Therein lies its strength. The undersigned,
who were present at a meeting on the morning of May 8, haveagreed on the following statement as an expression of theirindividual views on the current crisis.
The universities of these United States face their greatest crisisin the life of this republic. That the causes of the crisis lie largely
outside the universities is of little moment if those causes make
impossible the proper functioning of the educational process.
Universities across the land are in turmoil today not solely
because of the actions of a relatively few violent individualsthey can and will be contained-but because thousands ofmoderate, intelligent, idealistic students are as appalled byviolence and injustice as we are. Many of our students are losing
faith in the established order and have moved in extraordinary
ways to insist that we re-order our priorities in this nation. On
May 6, Secretary of the Interior, Walter I. Hickel, wrote a letter
to President Nixon charging that the government has failed its
youth. He said: "My point is, if we read history, it clearly showsthat youth in its protest must be heard." A nation that succeeds
in alienating large segments of the best of the next generation isheading for disaster. The tragedy is that there need be notragedy. We, as leaders of the academic community, do share
the best aspirations of our students. We, too, believe the IndoChina war must be brought to an early end before it tears thisgreat nation apart. We, too, deplore the tragic deaths at Kent
State and in this community. We share concern over injusticeand racial prejudice wherever it exists in society. We pledge
ourselves to work to attempt to better achieve our common
aspirations.

~

~
~
~

67

We do not believe that the existing system has failed; indeed,
we have a deep faith in its capacity for flexible change andprogressive evolution. We do not believe the University has
failed, but we see its weaknesses and pledge to do our best tocorrect them.
We urge all members of the academic community to rededicate
their commitment to orderly lnquiry and rational discourse. We
urge that no attempt be made to coerce those who wish to attend
class, and that no efforts be made to impede University operations. We reaffirm our obligation to teach all those who wish to
be taught.
We ask all to join with us in doing everything possible to keep
this campus open so that the educational process can go on at thesame time that we seek a new spirit of communication andcooperation. We agree with the editorial affirmation in the New
York Times for May 7: "The best way that the academic
community can demonstrate that there are civilized roads to amore responsible society is to stay open and concentrate on theeffective harnessing of ideas to action. The irrationality ofescapism is no answer. It merely leaves the arena to thePhilistines."

The above statement was signed by nearly all eighteen
chancellors, deans, and directors on the Urbana-Champaign
campus.
The course of action proposed for the Department ofElectrical Engineering is summarized in the letter of May 11,
1970, written by the department head.
Electrical Engineering Department
May 11, 1970
To: All Members of the Electrical Engineering Faculty
From: E. C. Jordan
The attached statement by Chancellors, Deans and Directors
was considered at length at a meeting of Department Heads on
the afternoon of May 9, and was signed by nearly all of the someninety persons there. At the suggestion of the department heads,
an additional paragraph is to be written by the Chancellor andappended to the statement urging faculty at the college, departmental or individual classroom level to encourage discussion of
the issues by and with the students either in regular class periods
or in special seminars.
It is important to recognize first of all, and to convey toyour students what "closing down" the University means. It
means that every building, office, teaching laboratory,
research laboratory, library, dormitory, etc. will be closed up
tight with no access to the campus. It means (probably) thatall salaries will cease for the period of close down, and all

hourly workers will be laid off. Most of all, for those truly
interested in voicing concern, it means the loss of their forum
for dissent.
In view of these facts, and after consultations with as manymembers of the departmental Policy and Planning committee
and Advisory committee as were available at short notice I
propose the following course of action for our department.
It is expected that all regularly scheduled classes will be met
to the extent feasible. Of course, if no students show up it is adifferent matter, but as Jong as even one student shows up forclass there should be someone there to teach him. Under
these circumstances, and indeed if less than half your class ispresent, it might be advisable to dispense with your regular
lecture and devote the time to a question and answer periodon the subject matter. If the teacher and the students feel that
there is more to be gained from a general discussion of the
war and the state of the nation than from regular class topics,
they should feel free to carry on such discussion, bearing in
mind that no instructor should try to impose his ideas oropinions on the students. Perhaps the students will beinterested to learn how a respected professor views some ofthese problems. If any instructor intends not to meet his classand is unable or unwilling to secure a substitute, he isrequested to confer first with me. Please do not fail to do this.
There is a concern on the part of some of the students that
instructors may use exams to coerce them to attend class. For
this reason it is required that after today exams not bescheduled until return to something like normalcy. Please
follow a policy of no coercion--either way, and pleaseobserve restraint in your contacts with the students.

•

I
I

I
I
•
I
I
I

I

I

As will have been gathered from the above, the intention is that
the University shall remain open for business, although notnecessarily business as usual. No matter how strongly exercised
we may be about Vietnam, Cambodia, Kent State and Mr. Houits(and I feel strongly about all of them) we have an obligation tomeet with our students, and to teach those who wish to be taught.
It is, after all, our job to do so.

These statements give the picture of campus unrest as
seen by the university administration. As pointed out in thestatement of the chancellors, deans, and directors, the university cannot speak with one voice. Another voice that shouldbe heard is that of Subcommittee A of the University Disciplinary Committee. Subcommittee A was a campus committee established in 1967 to attempt to resolve issues andadjudicate cases arising from disruptive tactics. The subcommittee had the difficult and unenviable task of investigating
and making a complete report to the administration on every
incident involving disruptive tactics, particularly thoseaccompanied by a destruction of public property, invasion ofprivate offices, or disruption of university operations.

I

-I
I

-I
68

~
~

~

~

' ~
~
~1 j
~~ 1

~~
1-

i· ~
i1 ~
i ~
~1 ·~
~I -

1: ~

ll -~
tlm'

ti ~
-~

II ~
~

~
~
~

~
~
~
~

~
~
~
~
~

~

From the files and recollections of members of Subcommittee A is the following account of the circumstances
surrounding an attack on the Electrical Enginee1ing Building.
It was one unfortunate decision that ultimately involved theDepartment of Electrical Engineering that day.
In geneial, many engineering students are more concerned, at least in the early stages of their careers, withpursuing their education than with supporting social causes
through demonstrations. It is unlikely that the engineering
campus and the Department of Electrical Engineering would
have been affected by the turmoil except for the decision by
the Engineering Placement Office to schedule the recruiters
for General Electric Company somewhere in engineeringrather than in a central campus location, such as the Illini
Union. Because of the company's heavy involvement withmilitary production, General Electric recruiters were a special
target of antiwar demonstrators.
At 11: 15 a.m. on March 2, 1970, the chairman of
Subcommittee A received a telephone call from the chief of
FBI personnel assigned to the UIUC campus. About 2,000
students were moving north on Third Street, and it appearedthat they were headed for the Electrical Engineering Building.
Their objective was to get to the recruiters from the General
Electric Company, who were conducting interviews in thepenthouse of the Electrical Engineering Building.
Classes were dismissed quickly, and everyone was told toleave the building. All outside doors were locked, and theelevator was run to the third floor and its door blocked fromclosing. The Machine Shop crew guarded the rear entrance
and fire escape with heavy wrenches and tools. Two electricalengineering faculty members and two associate deans stayedwith the building. Classroom chairs were stacked on the stairs
to block the way to the upper floors. It took the demonstrators
about 30 minutes to gain access to the building; they used a
2 x 8 plank from a street barricade to smash the front entranceof the south side. As they stormed inside, they soon foundthat their access to the upper floors and to the recruiters was
blocked. After a period of frustration, they decided to moveon. They left behind a considerably damaged building withmore than 50 outside windows and many inside office door
windows broken.
On the UIUC campus, as on most campuses throughout
the nation, members of the faculty were deeply divided by theevents of this three-year period and by the handling of theantiwar protestors. In retrospect, the UIUC was on._ of the
few major universities that was not closed down during thisturbulent period.

About 1985, Robert Noyce, co-inventor of the integrated
circuit and chairman of the board of INTEL, wrote an article
in the IEEE Spectrum advocating that the electrical engineer
should study biological systems to help find a way of building
more powerful computer systems. Twenty-seven years earlier
at the University of Illinois, the Biological Computer Laboratory had been founded by Heinz Von Foerster for this purpose.
The following account provides a tantalizing glimpse of thehistory of the laboratory.
In the years after World War II, the notion and theprofession of electrical engineering underwent a transformation and expansion. New concepts, thoughts, ideas, inventions, and fields of study were born within the profession orwere brought in from other fields of study and absorbed aspart of a new self. Who would have thought that a theory of
information would emerge from an engineering laboratory;
that an electrical hypothesis, that is, the hypothesis that all our
perceptual, intellectual, and emotional experiences are statesof the electrical activity in the central nervous system, would
dominate the neural sciences; that the abstract notion ofcomputation would find its manifestation in electrical devices
that, by integrating new insights from semiconductor physics,
evolved into machines of such complexity that one could be
tempted to make comparison of these machines with theircreators? One spoke and even speaks today of electronic
brains; one spoke of mentality in machines and still asks: "Canmachines think?"
It is clear that, in this context, engineering and particularly electrical engineering with its large spectrum of applicability, established close ties with other disciplines whose list
would run from astronomy to zoology.
One point on this large, interdisciplinary interface was the
Biological Computer Laboratory (BCL), whose aim was tounderstand the process of cognition and to demonstrate thisunderstanding with the appropriate software and hardware.
Concepts that enjoy popularity in the 1990s--connectionism
and parallelism in computer architecture or, in mathematics,
iteration and recursion with their fascinating contingencies forthe behavior of systems that may go into multiple stabilities orinto chaos-were central objects of study 30 years ago at
BCL. Most likely, the first parallel computers were built andexhibited there.

~
~
~
~

69

t

t
!

--

~·

In 1960, W. Ross Ashby, a leading British neuroscientist
and author of the two classics, Introduction to Cybernetics(1956) and Design for a Brain (1960), indicated that he would
be ready to leave his post as director of the Burden Neurological Institute in Bristol, England, and join the University of
Illinois to work in the Department of Electrical Engineeringwith the people of BCL. This was good news, and the provost
was informed at once. He appreciated the good news, andthen he asked: "Tell me, what is Dr. Ashby's background?"When he learned that Ashby is a psychiatrist, he came backwith his second question: "Tell me, is it already that bad in the
EE Department?"
It was not bad at all. After 10 years of service with the
University of Illinois, Ashby retired and returned to England.
In the first letter he sent back, which was the last letter
received from him before he died, he wrote: " ... thank you
for the miraculous years of the Sixties. Yours affectionately,
Ross."BCL left behind a rich legacy. In its day, it was one of
the few educational institutions teaching cybernetics. Between 1958 and 1975, operating under 25 grants, the laboratory produced 256 articles and books, 14 master's theses, and28 doctoral dissertations. The topics covered epistemology,
logic, neurophysiology, theory of computation, electronic
music, and automated instruction.

In the early days of teaching electric circuits andelectromagnetics, the question of which system of units to use
was one facing the instructor and the textbook writer. At most
schools, as at the University of Illinois, the Department ofElectrical Engineering grew out of the Department of Physics.
The tendency was to use the systems of units used in beginning physics courses. These systems included electrostatic
units (ESU), centimeter-gram-second units (CGS), andGaussian, which is a combination of ESU and CGS. On theother hand, in the field of electric circuits using volts, amperes, and ohms, the meter-kilogram-second (MKS) is thelogical choice, with only the question of rationalization (where
to introduce the factor 4rt) left for debate. The unfo1tunate
beginning student was faced with the difficult and confusing
task of learning two or three systems of units while trying tounderstand the basic theory.

70

Fortunately, at the University of Illinois, the Departmentof Physics was in the College of Engineering (a rather unusual
arrangement), so the question of which system to use wasresolved more easily than at other schools where physics wasin liberal arts. When members of the Department of Physics
insisted on continuing to teach freshman physics in the oldfamiliar systems, the head of electrical engineering, John D.
Ryder, proposed that the Department of Electrical Engineering
should be allowed to teach its own physics courses using the
MKS system. The result was an immediate decision by thehead of physics that, henceforth, all beginning physics courses
would use the MKS systems.
Although the University of Illinois became one of the firstschools to use the MKS system in the beginning physics
courses, it did not follow that advanced courses in physics andmathematics would change their unit systems. Indeed, many
advanced theory courses are taught with a total disregard forthe numerical factors that depend on the system of units used.
This point was brought home to a young electrical engineering
faculty member who audited an advanced course in electromagnetic theory. He said it did not bother him too much thatthe professor put the dielectric constant e0=1; nor did it worry
him to put the permeability of free space J.lo= 1; and because
the velocity of light is given by c=l;f.\fo it even seemed
reasonable to put c=l. But when the professor put therationalization factor 47t equal to 1, the young faculty member
felt it was really a bit much.

In 1904, six years after the establishment of electricalengineering as a separate department in the University of
Illinois College of Engineering, a student, Maurice L. Carr,
got the idea for a collegiate society for electrical engineering
students. He interested four other students: Charles E.
Armstrong, Edmund Wheeler, Milton K. Akers, and Ralph E.
Bowser. They, in tum, interested five more: Fred D. Smith,Frank R. Winders, William T. Burnett, Carl K. Brydges, andHibbard S. Greene. On October 28, 1904, Otto Wiemer was
the first person initiated into Eta Kappa Nu.
The objectives of this new organization were " ... forcloser cooperation among students and others in the profession who by their attainments in college or in practicemanifest exceptional interest and marked ability in electricalengineering." High achievement in scholarship was not thesole criteria for membership. Instead, an appraisal bymembers of future contributions to the field was consideredmore important.

t

1
I

I

i
I

I
I

~

I
I

I
I
I

•
I
I
I

I

I
I
I

~

!
!
!

-

The principles of Eta Kappa Nu began to spread. Beta
chapter was formed in 1906 at Purdue University in Indiana.
Ten other chapters were established over the next 10 years atcolleges and universities.
By 1913, Eta Kappa Nu had become a national organization, and it was decided that it should be an electrical engineering honor society. Achievements of certain grade point
averages were established for initiation and membership.
Later, the requirements for membership were refined to being
the upper quarter of the junior class or upper third of the seniorclass. Eta Kappa Nu became a member of the Association ofCollege Honor Societies.
Founding members wanted Eta Kappa Nu to be morethan a college society. They realized the organization could
be important to an engineer working in the profession.
Seeking to continue a relationship with the alumni, Carr begana publication named The Electrical Field in 1906. The
Electrical Field evolved into the Bridge of Eta Kappa Nu,
which covers subjects of interest to both students and alumni.
In 1920, the Bridge became a quarterly publication.
When the 25th anniversary of HKN was celebrated in
1929, 22 college chapters and nine alumni chapters wereactive. To commemorate the date, a memorial boulder andplaque were placed outside the Electrical Engineering
Building at the University of Illinois, where alpha chapter was
founded.
The 50th anniversary convention celebrating the foundingof Eta Kappa Nu was held at Urbana on October 15 and 16,
1954. By this half-century mark, 56 college chapters and 12
alumni chapters had been formed. Most sent delegates, andthere were many representatives from industry and otheruniversities. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary, Jesse E.
Hobson, director of Stanford Research Institute and presidentof the National Executive Council of Eta Kappa Nu, wrote:"In the fifty years since the first informal meetings were heldon the Urbana campus, Eta Kappa Nu has achieved high rank

The memorial boulder and plaque that commemorate the 25th
anniversary ofHKN are located near the east entrance of Everitt
Laboratory. Alpha chapter was founded at UIUC in 1904.

71

•.-

as the honor society of one of our country's most criticallyimportant professions. It is a thread that binds together morethan twenty thousand living electrical engineers and we canassure future generations that membership in Eta Kappa Nu
imparts a privileged sense of brotherhood."
As the post-World War II high-tech revolution wasincreasing in momentum, the need for more engineers was
becoming critical if the United States was to keep its status asa world power. In 1953, as a way of commemorating its 50th
anniversary, Eta Kappa Nu produced a career guidance film tointerest high school students in engineering careers.
The 50th anniversary movie committee was formed, with
Dean William L. Everitt, College of Engineering, University
ofillinois, as chair. Committee members John E. Farley,
Alpha '48, president of the Chicago Alumni HKN Chapter,and Roger Wilkinson of the New York Alumni HKN Chapter
wrote the script. Everitt provided valuable guidance andsupport and enlisted the aid of the university's motion picture
and television unit to produce the movie "Engineering-A
Career for Tomorrow." The out-of-pocket expenses were
financed by funds raised by Eta Kappa Nu. Daniel F. Hang,
also a member of the committee, engineering students, andothers from the Urbana-Champaign campus appeared in thefilm. Scenes were filmed also in the Chicago area at lliinois
Bell Telephone and Commonwealth Edison.
In 1955, as the movie committee completed its task, theChicago Alumni Chapter formed a committee to distribute thefilm. This became a national HKN committee chaired byJohn E. Farley, with University of Illinois alumni Harold
Slocum and Richard Phillips serving for many years. Morethan 150 copies of the film were placed in libraries in universities, high schools, and companies. Many HKN chapters aswell as industry sent people to showings of the film in highschools to answer students' questions.
This project was so successful that, in 1967, work was
begun on a second film entitled "Engineering-A Challengeof the Future," which was co-sponsored with the Institute ofElectrical and Electronics Engineers. Funds were raised fromindustry by the Movie Committee, and Everitt served on the
new movie advisory board. Meetings were held in Chicago
and Urbana, and many people from the College of Engineering assisted in planning the new movie. More than 450 copiesof this second film were sold. One important aspect of both ofthese films was the fact that the script covered the whole fieldof engineering, not just electrical engineering. Thus, Eta
Kappa Nu provided a service to the engineering profession.

72

In 1958, Alton B. Zerby retired; he had served HKN as
executive secretary for 24 years. Paul K. Hudson of the
Department of Electrical Engineering was appointed executive
secretary. The headquarters of Eta Kappa Nu moved from
Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, to Urbana, Illinois. Hudson servedwith distinction for 30 years until 1988. In 1963, Hudson
became editor of the Bridge. Hudson expanded the scope of
the Bridge and "raised the stature of Eta Kappa Nu and theBridge to new heights." Upon his death in 1988, he left many
articles for future issues, which were published. In 1991,
J. Robert Betten, University of Missouri at Rolla, is executive
secretary and editor.
In 1979, Eta Kappa Nu celebrated its 75th anniversary in
Urbana. William T. Burnett, the only living founder, was anhonored guest. Alpha chapter initiated 70 new members. In
1991, HKN has over 180 college chapters in the United States
and chapters in Great Britain, Argentina, and other countries.
To recognize achievement and scholarship in the field ofelectrical engineering, Eta Kappa Nu gives the Outstanding
Electrical Engineering Senior Award to a student in the lastyear of undergraduate work. In addition, each year HKN
gives the Outstanding Young Electrical Engineer Award forachievement within 10 years after receiving the bachelor's
degree. Several other awards are presented annually, including Outstanding Chapter and Outstanding Teacher.
In keeping with the objectives of the founders of Eta
Kappa Nu, it is the services that the organization has provided
to students and the engineering profession and the encouragement and recognition of scholarship that have kept Eta Kappa
Nu a vital and growing entity for 85 years.

J

!

[

[

~

:~

:~

Appendix Ra Department JHeaJs

:it

:it

Years asheadof dept.

Name

Other positions in college

Year of death

1891-1892

Stratton, Samuel W.

professorfrom 1885-1891

1931

1892-1895

electrical engineering administrated by the Department of Physics

1895-1896

Swenson, Bernard V.

1896-1898

electrical engineering administrated by the Department of Physics

1898-1899

Esty, William

1899-1901

Aldrich, William S.

*

1901-1909

Brooks, Morgan

1947

1909-1913

Berg, Ernest J.

1941

1913-1944

Paine, Ellery B.

professor from 1907-1944

1976

1944-1949

Everitt, William L.

professor from 1944-1968, dean from 1949-1968

1986

1949-1954

Ryder, John D.

1954-1979

Jordan, Edward C.

professor from 1945-1979

1991

1979-1985

Swenson, George W., Jr.

professor from 1956-1988

1985-

Trick, Timothy N.

professor from 1965-*

professor from 1893-1901** deceased, date unknown

73

i, _ __

_ _ _ __

_ ___A_JP_JP_<e_n_dl_ix_ RR_o_C_ u_r_ri_cc_u _la_ _.....I

___

I

•
JL '9JLIO-JLJL Co'IJl.l!'Se in ERecbiicali Engiineel!'nlrlg
Co'IJl.ll'Se Req'IJl.ireJ fol!' fhe Degree of Bachelor of Science i.Jrl Eledr]c&li Engineer1ng[[

Firnf Yeu
First Semester
General Engineering Drawing (G.E.D. 1) 1 •••••• •• ••• • • •• •• •• •• • • •• • • • 4
Trigonometry (Math. 4) ... ............. ... ...... ................ ... .... ... .... . 2
Advanced Algebra (Math. 2) .................................... .......... .. 3
French 1, German 1or 4, English 1, or Spanish 1 .................4
Shop Practice (M.E. 41 ) ........ ..... .............................. ...... ... ... 3
Military Drill (Mil. 2) ... ...... .... ........ .. ............. ..... .. ... ...... ..... .. 1
Gymnasium (Phys. Tr. 1) ........... .......................................... 1
Total .... ... ..... .. .. .. ...... .. .... ..... ... .......... ...... .. ..... ..... ..... ..... .. 18

Second Semester
Descriptive Geometry (G.E.D. 2) ....... ............... ...................4
Analytical Geometry (Math. 6) .......................... .................. 5
French 1, German 3, 5, or 6, English 2,
Rhetoric 11 , or Spanish 1 ........................... .................... .4
Shop Practice (M.E. 41) ................................. ..... .. ............ ... 3
Military Drill (Mil. 2) ... ... ... .... ...... .......... ..... ............. .... ........ 1
Drill Regulations (Mil. 1) ........ ............. ................ .... ............ 1
Gymnasium (Phys. Tr. 1) ............ ........... .................. .......... .. 1
Total ..... .. ..... ...... ..... .... .. ... ....................... ........ .... .. ......... 19

First Semester
Differential Calculus (Math. 7) ................................... .......... 5
Physics Lectures (Phycs. 1) ........... ......... ....... ......... .... .......... 3
Physics Laboratory (Phycs. 3) .......... ...... .............. .. ..... ......... 2
Rhetoric 1 ... .......... ... .................... ............... ......................... 3
Machine Design and Mechanism (M.E. 24) ....... ... ............... 3
Machine Shop (M.E. 42) ................ ..... ...... ........................... 2
Military Drill (Mil. 2) .... ............................ .... ...................... . 1
Total ............................................................................. . 19

Second Semester
Integral Calculus (Math. 9) .. .. ............................................... 3
Physics Lectures (Phycs. 1) .... ................................ .............. 2
Physics Laboratory (Phycs. 3) ... ... .... ................................... 2
Rhetoric 1 .............. ..... ....................... .................................. 3
Analytical Mechanics (T. & A. M. 7) ................................... 3
Chemistry 2 lb or la .... ................ ..... .. ..... ... .......................... 4
Military Drill (Mil. 2) .............. ..................... ....... ...... ........... 1
Total .......... .. .... .. ............................................. .... ......... .. 18i74

First Semester
Engineering Materials (T. & A. M. 6)) ...... ........... ................ 1
Analytical Mechanics (T. & A. M. 8) ............................. 2 1/2
Resistance of Materials (T. & A. M. 9) ........................... 3 1/2
Dynamo-Electric Machinery (E.E. 3) .................................. 3
Electrical Engineering Laboratory (E.E. 22) ......................... 2
Electrical and Magnetic Measurements (Phys. 4) ................. 2
Chemistry (2 and 3) .. ................... .... ............. ........................ 4
Total ..................................... ........ ............................... .. 18

Second Semester
Hydraulics (T. & A. M. 10) ....... .......... ................................. 3
Alternating Currents (E.E. 5) ... ....... ................ ...................... 4
Electrical Engineering Laboratory (E.E. 23) ......................... 2
Electrical and Magnetic Measurements (Phys. 4) ................. 2
Surveying (C.E. 10) ................................ ............................. 2
Mechanical Engineering Laboratory (M.E. 13) .................... 3
Integral Calculus (Math. 9a) ................... .............................. 2
Total .......... ................................. ......................... .......... 18

First Semester
Seminar (E.E. 13) .......... ............ ....... ...... ... ........................... 1
Advanced Alternating Currents (E.E. 14) .... .. ... ..... ............. .. 4Electrical Engineering Laboratory (E.E. 24) ..... .... ................ 2
Electrical Design (E.E. 32) ........... ........................................ 2
Thermodynamics (M.E. 15) .. ............. ... .... ...................... .... . 3
Principles of Economics (Econ. 2) ....................................... . 2
Steam Engineering (M.E. 23) ...... ......................................... 2
Total ...... ......................................... ............................... 16

Second Semester
Seminar (E.E.13) .............. .................................................... 1
Advanced Alternating Currents (E.E. 17) ............................. 4
Electrical Engineering Laboratory (E.E. 27) .. ....................... 2
Electrical Design and Power Plants (E.E. 34) ....................... 3
Thesis (E.E. 35) ................ .... ............... ................................. 3
Economic Problems (Econ. 16) ............................................ 2
Total .. ........................ .................................................... 15'The nu mbers in parentheses refer to courses in the General Description of Courses.
' Students who have had chemistry in the high school equivalent to Chemistry lb will register in Chemistry la.

75

!..._ ____ __ __ __ ___ _ __

rr]_ 940~~ ]_ Ca.JiriricuR1lllm in lElecfruca1 lEnguneell'nng

F OJI' the Deg;ree of Bache!oir of Science ii.in lEledll'icaR JElllgnllleell'iing

[
~

i

E
~

f
First Semester
Chem. 2 or 3-Inorganic Chemistry ............................... 3 or 4
G.E.D. 1 or 4-Elements of Drawing ..................................... 4
Math. 2-Advanced Algebra ................................................. 3
Math. 4 or 5-Trigonometry ...................................... ............ 2
Rhet. I-Rhetoric and Composition .............. ......... ........... ..... 3
Physical Education ................................................... .... ..... 1/2
Military Science (for men) ............. .... .. ................................ IEngineering Lecture ............................................................. 0
Total ... ..... ............................ ........ ............. 16 1/2 or 17 1/2

Second Semester
Chem. 4-Metallic Elements ................. ...... ......................... .4
G.E.D. 2-Descriptive Geometry .......................................... .4
Math. 6a-Analytic Geometry .............................................. .4
Rhet. 2-Rhetoric and Composition ....................................... 3
Hygiene ................ ............................................................... 2
Physical Education ............................................................ 1/2
Military Science (for men) ........ .......................... ................. 1
Engineering Lecture ....................................... ...................... 0
Total .................... .................... ... ............................. 18 1/2

[

t
~

!
~

!

!
!
SeconJ Yea.JI'

First Semester
E.E. 14-Wiring and Illumination orapproved elective 1 .................... ... ... .. .. .. ........ . ........... 3 or 4
Math. 7-Differential Calculus .............................................. 5
M.E. 85 or 87-Pattem and Foundry, or Machine
Tool Laboratory, or approved elective' ............................ 3
Phycs. la-General Physics ............... .................................... 4
Phycs. 3a-Physics Laboratory .............................................. 1
Physical Education ............................................................ 1/2
Military Science (for men) ....... ............................................ 1
Total ......................................................... 17 1/2 or 18 1/2

Second Semester
E.E. 14-Wiring and Illumination orapproved elective1 .................................................... 3 or 4
Math. 9-Integral Calculus .................................................... 3
M.E. 87 or 85-Machine Tool, or Pattern andFoundry Laboratory, or approved elective' ................ .... .. 3
Phycs. 1b-General Physics ................................................... 4
Phycs. 3b-Physics Laboratory .............................................. 1
T.A.M. I-Analytical Mech. (Statics) .................... ................ 2
Physical Education ................. ...... ........................... .......... 1/2
Military Science (for men) .................................. ................. I
Total ......................................................... 17 1/2 or 18 1/2

!

I
~

I
~

!
!
!.
~
~

••
~
~
~
~

~

!

76

t J
~-

i

~.

i

TlhiirJ YearFirst Semester
E.E. 25-Introduction to Circuit Analysis .. ........ ...... ...... ....... .4
E.E. 75-Electrical Engineering Lab ........ .............................. 2
Math. 9a-Integral Calculus ................ .................................. 2
M.E. 10-Thermodynamics; or Phycs. 44aElectrical and Magnetic Measurements ......................... 3
T.A.M. 2-Analyt. Mech. (Dynamics) ............................ ....... 3
T.A.M. 4-Hydraulics ........................................................... 2
T.A.M. 64-Hydraulics Laboratory ....................................... 1
Total ........................................................................... 17

Second Semester
E.E. 26--Direct Current Apparatus .............................. .......... 3
E.E. 76--Electrical Engineering Lab ...................... ...... .......... 3
E.E. 50-Introduction to Applied Electronics ........................ 2
M.E. 10-Thermodynamics or Phycs. 44aElectrical and Magnetic Measurements ........................... 3
T.A.M. 3-Resistance of Materials ........................................ 3
T.A.M. 63-Resistance of Materials Lab ............................... 1
Approved elective ................ ................................................ 3
Total .............................................................................. 18

lF'01mrtb Ye&ir
First Semester
E.E. 35-A.C. Apparatus ... ............. .... ................................... 4
E.E. 55-Electrical Design 2 .............. .. .. .. ... .... . ................... . ... 2
E.E. 85-Electrical Engineering Lab . ............. ........................ 2
E.E. 95-Seminar ................................. .......... .... .......... ......... 1
E.E. 99-Inspection Trip .................................... ............... .... 0
M.E. 3-Steam Engineering ......................................... ...... ... 3
M.E. 61-Mechanical Engineering Lab ............ ................ .. ... 2
Nontechnical elective .................................................... 3 or 4
Total ............................... ........ ..... ..... .................... 17 or I

Second Semester
E.E. 36--A.C. Apparatus 3 .. ... ................ . .... . ... ..... ...... . ............ 4
E.E. 56--Economics of Electrical Systems ............................ 4
E.E. 86--Electrical Engineering Lab. 3 .................................... 2
E.E. 96-Seminar .......................... ........................................ 1
E.E. 98-Thesis 4 or technical elective ................................... 3
Approved elective ......................................................... 3 or 4
Total ........... .......................................................... 17 or 18'One semester shop laboratory and one semester E.E. 14 required.
' E.E. 51 or 54 may be substituted for E.E. 55'Six hours from E.E. 48, 52, 54, 58, 59, 84, and 89 may be substituted for E.E. 36 and 86.
'Only high-grade students are allowed to take a thesis course.

77

r]_ 950 Curiricllllliumm in Elecbic&R Enginee:ring

JF IJJII' the lDegiree Df Bi&chellllir of Science in Elediric&li EngineeringFirst Semester
Chem. 102 or 103--General Chemistry .......................... 3 or 4
G.E.D. 101-Elements of Drawing, or
G.E.D. I 04-Advanced Drawing .. .................................... 4
Math. 112--College Algebra .......... .. ........ .. ........ .. ................. 3
Math. 114 or 115-Plane or Advanced Trigonometry ............ 2
Rhet. 10 I-Rhetoric and Composition ........... ..... ................... 3
Engineering Lecture .............. ... ..... ................ ....................... 0
Physical Education .. ........ ...... ... ..... ....................................... I
Military (men) .... ... .. .................... ......................................... I
Total ............... .. ... ............ ... ....... ......... .. .. .............. I 7 or I 8

Second Semester
Chem. 104--Chemistry of the Metallic Elements ................. .4
G.E.D. 102-Descriptive Geometry ....................... .... ........... .4
Math. I22-Analytic Geometry ................................. ...... ..... .4
Rhet. I02-Rhetoric and Composition .................... ............. .. 3
Hygiene .......................................................................... ..... 2
Engineering Lecture ........................................................... .. 0
Physical Education ............................................................... 1
Military (men) ...................................................................... I
Total .......................................................... ........ ............ 19

First Semester
Econ. 108-Elements of Economics ...................................... 3
Math. 132--Calculus ............................................. ................ 5
Phycs. 103--General Physics (Mechanics, Heat,and Sound) ...................................................... ... ............. 5
Speech 10 I -Principles of Effective Speaking ....................... 3
Physical Education ...................................... ........................ . 1
Military (men) .................................................................... .. 1
Total ............................. ...... .............. ................. ... ......... 18

Second Semester
E.E. 126-Electric Circuits and Fields ................ ...................4
Math. 142--Calculus .... .. .. ..... ..... ............................. .............. 3
Phycs. 104--General Physics (Electricity,
Magnetism, Light and Modem Physics) ........ ..... ............. 5
T.A.M. 154-Analytical Mechanics ........... ......... .... ............. .4
Physical Education ........... .......... ... .. ... ....... ............. .......... .... I
Military (men) ..... .... .... ......... ..... ..... .... ... ... .......... .... .. .... ........ I
Total ........... ............... .................................. .................. 18

First Semester
Econ. 248-Personnel Administration ................................... 3
E.E. 320--Circuit Analysis .. ..... ......................... .... ...... ... .. ..... 4
E.E. 321--Circuit Laboratory ..................... ........... .. .... .......... 1
Math. 345-Differential Equations andOrthogonal Functions ..... ............................ .................... . 3
M.E. 202-Thermodynamics ... ......................... ..................... 3
T.A.M. 221-Resistance of Materials .............. .. .................... 3
T.A.M. 223-Resistance of Materials Laboratory ................ .. l
Total ...... ....... ............. .... ...... ...... ............................... ..... 18

Second Semester
E.E. 288-Economic Aspects of Engineering ........................ 3
E.E. 322--Circuit Analysis ........................ .. ... ..... .. .............. ..4
E.E. 323--Circuit Laboratory .......... ..... ..... .. ........ .. ................ 1
E.E. 334-Electrical Power Apparatus and E.E. 335-ElectricalPower Apparatus Laboratory 1, or E.E. 351-Networks
and Lines 2 .. ........ .. .... . .... . .. .. ........ . . . .. . .... .. . .. . . ..................... 4
E.E. 340--Electronics ............ .. .... .... ..... ................................. 3
E.E. 341-Electronics Laboratory .......................................... 1
Nontechnical electives3 . ... . ... .. ... .. .. ... ... ... .... . . . .............. . ........ 3
Total ... .... ......... ....... ........ .......... ............... ...................... 1978

Tlb.i.n·J Y e&ll'-[lil1Ulmi.nafim11 Engull'leell'ing OJP>ti.olt'lFirst Semester
E.E. 260--Fundamentals of Illumination ................. .............. 3
E.E. 320--Circuit Analysis .. ..... ..... ................. .. .................... .4
E.E. 321-Circuit Laboratory ................................. ............... 1
Math. 345-Differential Equations andOrthogonal Functions ....................... .......... .... ..... ............ 3
Psych. 100--Introduction to Psychology 4 ••••••••••• • •• .• •••••••• • •• • •• .4
T.A.M. 221-Resistance of Materials ............ ..... ............. ...... 3
T.A.M. 223-Resistance of Materials Laboratory .................. 1
Total ............ ........................................... ........... ... ...... .. . 19

Second Semester
Arch. 217-Architecture and Civilization of theAmericas to 18704 ........................................................... 2
E.E. 322-Circuit Analysis ...... ... ..... .................................. .... 4
E.E. 323-Circuit Laboratory ..... ....................................... .... 1
E.E. 340--Electronics ............................................................ 3
E.E. 341-Electronics Laboratory .......................................... 1
E.E. 361-Elements of Illuminating Engineering
Design ................ ...................... ........................... .. .......... 4
Physiol. 10 I-Mammalian Physiology 4 • ••• ••• ••• • ••••••••••••••••••••• • 3
Total ......... ......... ..... .... .......... ....... .................................. 18

FolUlll'th Yeall'-Powell' Engi.neell'i.ng O][ll6.on

First Semester
E.E. 268-Principles of Illumination ........... ........................ ... 2
E.E. 290--Seminar ..... .... ....... ......................... ........... ........... . 0
E.E. 336-Electrical Power Apparatus ......... ... ...................... .4
E.E. 337-Electrical Power Apparatus Laboratory ....... .......... 2
E.E. 347-Industrial Electronics ......................... ...... ... ......... . 4
E.E. 378-Fundamentals of Power Transmission ...... ............. 3
Nontechnical electives3 •• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •• ••• . •• •••• •• 3
Total ....... .. ............... ... .... ....................... .. ............ .... ... ... 18

Second Semester
E.E. 292-Seminar .................... .................. ....... .............. ..... 1
E.E. 338-Electrical Power Apparatus ............................ ....... 3
E.E. 339-Electrical Power Apparatus Laboratory ....... .. .... .... 1
M.E. 203-Power Plant Equipment ....................................... 3
Technical electives3 ••••••••••••••••••• ••• •• •• •••• •• •• •• ••••• •••••• • ••••••••••• •• • 5
Nontechnical electives3 . . ............ . ......... .. ........ . ...... ....... .. ... ... 3
Total .... ........... ..... ... .................. .. ............. .. ......... ......... .. 16

F ~mll'fh Y ear-[UlUlmi.nafom Eng5neell':ing OJP>fi.on

First Semester
Arch. 218-Architecture and Civilization of theAmericas and Europe since 18704 ........ .......... ............... ... 2
E.E. 290--Seminar ......... .................. ..................................... 0
E.E. 330--Electrical Machinery ........... .................................. 3
E.E. 331-Electrical Machinery Laboratory ... ........... ............. 1
E.E. 347-Industrial Electronics .................... ... ............ .... .... .4
E.E. 362-Principles of Illuminating Engineering ............. .. .. .4
E.E. 363-Illumination and Photometry Laboratory ........... ... 1
Mktg. 272-Industrial Selling .. .......... ............................. ....... 3
Total .................................. ............................. ......... ...... 18

Second Semester
E.E. 292-Seminar .................................... ............................ 1
E.E. 332-Electrical Machinery .......................... ................... 3
E.E. 333-Electrical Machinery Laboratory ........................... 1
E.E. 364-Illumination Design and Economics ..... ........ ....... .4
E.E. 365-Illumination Design Laboratory ............................ 1
E.E. 366-Illumination Sources ......... ............. ..... .................. 4
Mktg. 373-Sales Management4 ............ ................ ......... ....... 2
Total .. ...... ..... .. ... .... ...................... ...... ................... .. ....... 16

F om•fh Y e&:r-CommlUlll'lTIJcati.on Elt'lgi.nee:ri.ng OJP>6.rnn

First Semester
E.E. 290-Seminar ........ .......................... .............................. 0
E.E. 330--Electrical Machinery .......................................... ... 3
E.E. 331-Electrical Machinery Laboratory ........................... 1
E.E. 349-Electron Tube Circuits .......................................... 5
E.E. 353-Radio Circuits .. ...... ............................................... 4
Technical electives3 ••.•.•• ••.• .• •.•••• • .••• •.•. • . •....•• .•••.•• .• ..•.••.•.• • .•••• 3
Total ..................... ................. .......... ......................... ..... 16

Second Semester
E.E. 292-Seminar ........ ................... ..................... ................ 1
E.E. 332-Electrical Machinery ........ .................... ................. 3
E.E. 333-Electrical Machinery Laboratory ...... ......... ............ 1
E.E. 355-Fields and Waves ................................................ ..4
Technical electives3 ••• •••••••• •••• • ••••••••••• ••• •••••••••••••••• •••• • ••• • ••• • ••• 3
Nontechnical electives3 ••• • •• •• •••••• • ••••••• • ••• •• •••••• • •• • •• •• • ••••• •••• •••• 6
Total .. .............. .......... .... .. .............. ............. ..... .... ..... ..... 18'E.E. 334 and 335 to be omitted by students in the communication engineering option.
'E.E. 351 to be omitted by students in the power engineering option.
' All electives to be chosen from the lists approved by the head of the department.
'These courses will be waived for students in advanced military, in which case one hour of approved elective will be added.

79

II

!

,..
'
.n_

96.ll_ C11Jlirll'iimhnm. in Eliedl!'iicaR Engill1eeiriill1g

I

F rnr the Degll'ee of Badhelirnr of Sciiell1Ce in Eliedrical E111gineell'ing

First Semester
Chem. 102 or 103-General Chemistry 1 •• ••••••••••• •••••• • ••••• 3 or 4
G.E. 100-Engineering Lectures .......................... .......... .. ...... 0
G .E. 101-Engineering Graphical Communication .... ............ 3
Math. 123-Analytic Geometry2 . . ..... ... . ... .. .. .. . . ..... .... . . . . . ... . .... 5
Rhet. 10 I-Rhetoric and Composition ................... ... ............. 3
Physical Education .. ............ ............. ......... ..... .. ... .. .............. . 1
Military (men) ............. ... ....... ...... ................... .... ...... ............ 1
Total .. ............ ...... ... ......... .. ....... ...... ..... .... ....... ... ... 16or17

Second Semester
Chem. 104-Chemistry of the Metallic Elements 1 ••••• •••• • •••• •• • 4
G .E. 102-Engineering Geometry .......................... ............... 3
Math. 133--Calculus ..... ........ .. ............ ...... ....................... ..... 3
Physics 106-General Physics (Mechanics) .... .... ...... .......... .. .4
Rhet. 102-Rhetoric and Composition ............ ................. .. .... 3
Physical Education ...................................... .......... ............... 1
Military (men) ... ......... .... ......... ................................... .......... 1
Total ..................... ... ...... .... .. .. .... ... ........ ..... ...... ......... ... .. 19

Second Y e111.I!'First Semester
Math. 143--Calculus ...................... ....................................... 5
Phycs. 107-General Physics (Heat, Electricity,and Magnetism) ............... ................ ................ .... ......... ... 4
Speech 101-Principles of Effective Speaking .... .. ..... ............ 3
T.A.M. 154-Analytical Mechanics (Statics andDynamics) ........... .............. ... .......................... ............. .. .. 4
Physical Education ....... .... .... ..... .............. ..................... ........ 1
Military (men) .... ... .... .... .. .. ....... ... ....... .... ... ........ .. ... ... ..... ... .. . 1
Total ............ ... .. ... ..... ...................................... ............... 18

Second Semester
Econ. 108-Elements of Economics ....... .. ............. ........ ........ 3
E.E. 250-Introduction to Circuit Analysis 1 . . ... .. .... . .. ...... ... .. . . 5
E.E. 251--Circuit Laboratory 1 .. . . ... . . . . .. ... .. .. . .... .. .... . ... ... . .. .. . ... 1
Phycs. 108-General Physics (Sound, Light,
and Modem Physics) ............... ................... ..................... 4
Math. 345-Differential Equations and Orthogonal
Functions ................ .................. .................... ................ ... 3
Physical Education ............. ............. .................. ............... .... lMilitary (men) .... ... ............... .... ...... ......................... ............. 1
Total .. ..... ..... ......... .. ........ ...... ........ .. ............ ............ ... .... 18

J
I

I
I

I
J

I
I

-I
I
I

80

J

I
I

First Semester
E.E. 229-Electric and Magnetic Fields .................. ............... 3
E.E. 322--Circuit Analysis .................................................... 4
E.E. 330--Magnetic Circuits and Transformers ..................... 3
E.E. 331-Magnetic Circuits Laboratory ................... ............ 1
E.E. 340--Electronics ................ ...... ..... .............. ......... .......... 3
E.E. 341-Electronics Laboratory ..................... ..................... 1
M.E. 202-Thermodynamics ...... .. ......................................... 3
Total ........... .... ......... ..... .... .. ... ......... ..... .. .... ..... ... ......... ... 18

Second Semester
E.E. 323--Circuits Laboratory ............................................... 1
E.E. 332-Electrical Machinery ............................................. 3
E.E. 333-Electrical Machinery Laboratory ....................... .... 1
E.E. 342-Advanced Electronics ...... ..................................... 3
E.E. 343-Advanced Electronics Laboratory ......................... 1
E.E. 350--Transmission Lines .............................................. 3
Phycs. 383-Atomic Physics and Quantum Theory forEngineers ............... ..... .... ..... ................. .................. ........ 3
Electives 2 .......... .. .......... . ........... ... ............... . ..... .. ..... ... ......... 3
Total ........... ................. .... ...... ..... ........... .................... .... 18

First Semester
E.E. 352-Electromagnetic Fields ......................................... 3
Met. E. 384-Properties of Solids .......................................... 3
Electi ves 2 . .... .. ......... ... ......... . .......................................... . ... 13
Total ................... .................................... ............ ........... 19

Second Semester
E.E. 288-Economic Aspects of Engineering ........................ 3
Electives2 .......................... . ......................... . ...................... 15
Total ... ......... ..... ....... .............................. ..... .. .............. ... 18'New freshmen entering in the first semester of 1961 or transfer students eligible to enter the junior courses in the first semester of 1963 will take E.E. 250 and 251. Students
entering the second-semester sophomore courses prior to the second semester of 1963 will follow the curriculum of the 1960-61 catalog.
' Of the thirty-one hours of electives required in the third and fourth years , twelve must be technical, nine social science or humanities, five nontechnical, and five either technicalor nontechnical. Students should consult the departmental list of approved courses for nine hours of social science or humanities electives. Advanced military courses may besubstituted for five hours of nontechnical electives. Suggested technical electives other than electrical engineering courses are Math. 315, 317, 327, 343, 346, 363, Phycs. 381.

81

1973 Cull'l!'RcuhBm in CompMfoll' Ell1gineering
F rnr tlhe Degrrere of BadhelolJ:' of Science in Comp'lllfel!' Engiineell'ing

First Semester
Chem. 101--General Chemistry .......... ......... ...... ..... ..... ... ...... 4
Eng. 100-Engineering Lecture ... .......... ................ .... ............ 0
Math. 120-Calculus and Analytic Geometry ...... ................ .. 5
Rhet. 105-Principles of Composition ................................... 4
Humanities or social sciences elective 1 •• • •••• ••• ••• ••• •• •••••• •••• •• ••• 3
Total ....... ...................... ........... ...... .. .. ... ....... ............. ..... 16

Second Semester
Chem. 102--General Chemistry ...... ..... ..... ...... ..... .................4
Math. 130-Calculus and Analytic Geometry .... .................... 5
Phycs. 106--General Physics (Mechanics) ..... ... .......... .......... 4
Humanities or social sciences elective 1 •••• ••• ••••• ••• • •••• •• • •••••••••• 3
Total ... ..... .............. .... .... ..................... ........................... 16

SeconJ Y real!'

First Semester
C.S. 101-Introduction to Automatic Digital
Computing ... .............. ....................... .... .......................... 3
Math. 140-Calculus and Analytic Geometry ........ ..... ..... ..... . 3
Phycs. 107--General Physics (Heat, Electricity,and Magnetism) .. ......... .......... .... ..... ...... .............. ............. 4
Electives' ..................... ................. .......... ..................... ........ 6
Total ........... ......... .. ....... ......... ..... .. .................. ........... .... 16

Second Semester
E.E. 244--Electrical Engineering Laboratory I ....... .... ........... 2
E.E. 260--Networks I ............................................................ 3
Math. 345-Differential Equations and Orthogonal
Functions ........ ..... .... ...... .. ......... ................ .. ..................... 3
Phycs. 108--General Physics (Wave Motion, Sound,Light, and Modem Physics) ................... .......... .... .. .......... 4
Electives 1 •••• ••• •• • • ••••• ••• • •••• • •• •• •• ••• •• ••• • •• ••••• • •• •••• •• ••• • •• ••••••••• ••• ••• 4
Total ............ ........................... .. .... ..................... ... ......... 16

J
I

I
I

I
-I
I
I

I

I

_,I
I

I

I
82

TJhiirJ YearFirst Semester
E.E. 229-Introduction to Electromagnetic Fields .................. 3
E.E. 340--Electronics .... ......... ............................. .................. 3
E.E. 290--Introduction to Information Processing ................. 3
Math. 319-Applied Modem Algebra ....... ............................. 3
E.E. 310--Systems I or E.E. 262-Networks II .................. .... 3
Total .. ........................................ ........... .................. ....... 15

Second Semester
E.E. 249-Digital Systems Laboratory ... ........................ ..... .. 2
Math. 361-Theory of Probability orE.E. 266Probabilistic Methods in Electrical Engineering .............. 3
E.E. 391-Boolean Algebra and Switching Theory .... .... ....... 3
C.S. 201-Machine Language and Systems
Programming I .............................................. ............ ...... 3
E.E. 380--Pulse and Digital Circuits orE.E. 342-Advanced Electronics ...... ................................ 3
Elective 1 • •••. ••• •• •••• .• • ••• • ••. ••• • •••• •• • ••••• • •••• • • •• • ••.• • • • .••••• • • • ••••••• ••• • • • 3
Total .. .. ........................................... .................. ... .... ...... 17

First Semester
Electives 1 .. . . . . .. . .. ... . .. .. .. .. .. . ... . .. . . . . .. . ..... .. . .. ... . .. ..... . .. .. . ......... 14

Second Semester
Electives 1 . .. ... ... . .. .. . . . . . . . .... . .... . . . .. . ...... . .. . .... . . . .. .. ... .. ........... .. 14'Forty-seven hours of electives to be selected by the student in consultation with his adviser, apportioned as follows:-Twenty-three hours of technical electives as follows: 14 hours (not including other requirements) must be chosen from a departmentally approved list of technical courses fo r thecomputer engineering program. Nine hours may be chosen from other technical areas.
-Eighteen hours of humanities and social sciences from the college-approved list.
-Six hours of free electives, to be selected in accordance with the regulations of the college.

83

1f-

1973 clllll'II'i.C11J1hnm. i.n lEilecfri.c&n lEngi.111eell'i.ll1g
lFoil' tlbe Deg;ree of lBaclbeilrnr of Science in lEiledll'i.call lEngnneel!"nll1g

Ii

I

i
i
~

First Semester
Chem. 10 I-General Chemistry ........... ... ................... ..... .... ..4
Eng. 100-Engineering Lecture ................ ..... .................... .... 0
Math. 120--Calculus and Analytic Geometry .... .............. ..... 5
Rhet. 105-Principles of Composition .... .... ............... ............ 4
Humanities or social sciences elective 1 •• •••••••••• • •••• • •••••••• •••• ••• 3
Total .... ....... .. .. ..... .. ........ ...... .... ..... ... ......... ........ ... .... .... .. 16

Second Semester
Chem. 102-General Chemistry .......... ..... .......... ................... 4
Math. 130--Calculus and Analytic Geometry ..... ................... 5
Phycs. 106-General Physics (Mechanics) ............................4
Humanities or social sciences elective 1 ••••• ••••• •••••••••••• •• •• •••••• • 3
Total ............. .... ................. ......... .............. .................... . 16

Second Yearr•

First Semester
C.S. 101-lntroduction to Automatic Digital
Computing ..... ... ......... .... ..... ............... ................... ....... ... 3
Math. 140--Calculus and Analytic Geometry .... ..... ......... ..... . 3
Phycs. 107-General Physics (Heat, Electricity, andMagnetism) ........................... ................ .... ..................... . 4
Electives 1 ••••• ••• •••• •••• ••• •• ••••• •• •• ••• ••••• •• •••••• ••• •• ••• •• •••••••••••• •• ••• • •• • 6
Total .......... ....................... ..... ..... .... .............. ...... ........ .. . 16

84

Second Semester
E.E. 260--Networks I ........... ................................................. 3
E.E. 244-Electrical Engineering Laboratory I ...................... 2
Math. 345-Differential Equations and Orthogonal
Functions ....................................... .. .......... ................... ... 3
Phycs. 108-General Physics (Wave Motion, Sound,Light, and Modern Physics) ........... .......... ..... ......... .... .... .. 4Electives 1 • •••• •• •• ••••••••• ••••• ••• •••••• ••• •• ••• ••• •••• •• • ••••• •••• ••••• ••••• •••••••• 4
Total .... .......... .. ........... .................. .... .. ........ .................. . 16

Tbn.]['J. Yea.JI'
First Semester
E.E. 229-lntroduction to Electromagnetic Fields .................. 3
E.E. 290-Introduction to Information Processing ................. 3
E.E. 340-Electronics I .......................................................... 3
Electives 1 .............. ... ....... ......... .... ......... ..... ... ........ ............... 6
Total .................... ..................................... ..................... 15

Second Semester
E.E. 245-Electrical Engineering Laboratory II ..................... 2
Electives 1 ................. . .... . . . ......... . .... ... .... ...... .... .. ... ....... ....... 13
Total .......................................................... ................... . 15

First Semester
Electives 1 .............. . ................... .. ......................... ...... .. ... . .. 15

Second Semester
Electives 1 .. . .. ... ... .. . ... ... ..... ... ................... ...... ................. .... . 15

'Sixty-five hours of electives are to be selected by the student, in consultation with his adviser, apportioned as follows:-Forty-one hours of technical electives as follows: Two semester hours of advanced electrical engineering laboratory courses, to be selected from a departmentally approved list.
Twenty-four semester hours of electrical engineering courses, to be selected from a departmentally approved list. Fifteen semester hours of technical electives to be selected froma departmentally approved list, at least 12 of which must be in areas outside electrical engineering. The courses selected to meet the preceeding requirements must include at least
four of the following seven courses: E.E. 262, 266, 350, 342, 330, 310 and Phycs. 383 or E.E. 344, or equivalent. Although it is recommended that all seven of these courses betaken, only four of the seven are required.
-Eighteen hours of humanities and social sciences from the college-approved list.
-Six semester hours of free electives, to be selected in accordance with the regulations of the college.

85

~

i
Ii

1989-~H Clllil'Il.'J<C\Ulhnm iin Com11nnter Enguneering

Fm• tlb.e Degree of Bacih.elmr of Science in Com]p>\Ulter Ell1gineering

i

I

i
Ii

I
•

First YearFirst Semester
Chem. 101-General Chemistry .... .......... ........................ ...... 4
Eng. 100-Engineering Lecture ............................................. 0
Math. 120-Calculus and Analytic Geometry I* .................... 5
Rhet. 105-Principles of Composition ................................... 4
Humanities or social sciences elective 1 .................... . ............ 3
Total ................................... ..... ...... ... ............................. 16

Second Semester
Chem. 102-General Chemistry ......................... .. ................ .4
Math. 132-Calculus and Analytic Geometry II* .................. 3
Phycs. 106--General Physics (Mechanics)* .......................... 4
Humanities or social sciences electives 1 ............................... 5
Total ................ ......... .................. ....................... .. .......... 16

I

i
i•
~!

I
•
I

•

!
! !
- I•

SeconJ YearFirst Semester
C.S. 121-Introduction to Computer Science* 2 .. .... ............... 4
Math. 242-Calculus of Several Variables* ........................ ... 3
Phycs. 107-General Physics (Heat, Electricity, andMagnetism)* ................................................................... 4
Electives 1 .. .. .. . ...... ... ................. . ............................... . ........ ... 5
Total ...... .................. ... ........... ........ .. .. .. .... ........ ... ........... 16

Second Semester
ECE 244-Electrical Engineering Laboratory I* .............. ...... 2
ECE 270--Introduction to Circuit Analysis* ........................ .4
ECE 290--Introduction to Computer Engineering* ............... 3
Math. 285-Differential Equations and Orthogonal
Functions* ........ ......... .......... ..................................... ....... 3
Phycs. 108-General Physics (yVave Motion, Sound,Light, and Modem Physics)* .... .... ................................... 4
Total ....................... ...... ........ ............................ ............. 16-J86

First Semester
ECE 229-Introduction to Electromagnetic Fields ................. 3
ECE 249-Digital Systems Laboratory .................................. 2
ECE 291-0n-Line Computing ....................... .... ............... ... 3
ECE 340--Solid State Electronic Devices ............................. 3
ECE 309-Signal and System Analysis ....... .................... ..... . 3
Electives 1 ••••• • •• . •• • •••••••••••••• • •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 2
Total .............................................................................. 16

Second Semester
ECE 312-Computer Organization and Design ..................... 4
ECE 319-Applied Modem Algebra .. ............ ......... .... ......... . 3
Math. 361-Introduction to Probability Theory I
or E.E. 313-Probabilistic Methods of Signal
and System Analysis ..................................................... .. 3
ECE 342-Electronic Circuits ............. ................................. . 3
C.S. 225-Data Structures ................................................ ... .. 3
Total .......... .......... .. ........ ................. ......... .. .................... 16

First Semester
Electives 1 •••••• •.• ••• .• •• ••••••.•••.•••• • ••• .••.• ••••••••.••••• ••••.•• •••••••..•••• • 16

Second Semester
Electives 1 ............................... . .... .. ............ ... ... . ... . . . .. .. ........ 16'Electives totaling 47 hours are to be selected by the student in consultation with his or her adviser, apportioned as follows:-23 hours of technical electives, including 15 hours chosen from a departmentally approved list of technical courses for the computer engineering program-18 hours of humanities and social sciences from the college-approved list
-6 hours of free electives, to be selected in accordance with the regulations of the college.
'The alternate for C.S. 121 is C.S. 101 and C.S. 122, with 7, instead of 8, hours of electives from other technical areas.
*A 3.25 rule course.

87

/·

R989-91 §1lllggesteJ lEilecfrncaR Engineering C1lllrric1llll1lllm
JFor tihe lDegree of Bachelor of Science in lElecfric111R lE:ngineeringlFirst YearFirst Semester
Chem. 101-General Chemistry 1 ........................................... 4
Eng. 100--Engineering Lecture ............................................. 0
Math. 120--Calculus and Analytic Geometry I ...................... S
Rhet. 105-Principles of Composition .................................. .4
Humanities or social sciences electives ................................ 3
Total ............ .. .............. .... .. ... ............ .... .. ....................... 16

Second Semester
Chem. 102-General Chemistry ...... ... ............... .................... 4
Math. 132--Calculus of Analytic Geometry II ....................... 3
Phycs. 106--General Physics (Mechanics) ....................... .... . 4
Rhet. 133 6-Principles of Composition ................................. . 3
Humanities or social sciences electives .................... ............ 3
Total .............. ...... ... ...... .......... ....................................... 17

•

I
•
I
•
I
II

r

!
I

SeconJ Ye.ar
First Semester
C.S. 101-lntroduction to Computers for Application to
Engineering and Physical Science ... ......... ................ ....... 3
Math. 242--Calculus of Several Variables ................... .......... 3
Phycs. 107-General Physics (Heat, Electricity, andMagnetism) ................................................................... .. 4
Sp. Comm. 101 6-Principles of Effective Speaking ............... 3
Humanities or social sciences electives ................................ 3
Total .......... .............. .. ...................... .............................. 16

88

Second Semester
ECE 244--Electrical Engineering Laboratory I ..................... 2
ECE 270--Introduction to Circuit Analysis ....... ................... .4
ECE 290--Introduction to Computer Engineering ... ....... .. .... . 3
Math. 285-Differential Equations and Orthogonal
Functions ........................ .................................. .... ........... 3
Phycs. 108-General Physics (Wave Motion, Sound,Light, and Modem Physics) ................................... ......... .4
Total .................................. ... ........................... .... .......... 16

!

i

!

I
•
I
•
I
•
I
•
- I•
I
•
I
•
- I•
- I•
I
•
I
•
- I•
I

•

I

l

First Semester
ECE 229-Introduction to Electromagnetic Fields ...... ...... .... . 3
ECE 309--Signal and System Analysis ... ... .. .... .............. ..... .. 3
ECE 340--Solid State Electronic Devices ............. ......... .. ... .. 3
Math. 2804-Advanced Calculus .... .. ..... ..... .. ......... .... ..... .. ..... 3
M.E. 209 4-Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer ............ .... ... 3
Total .......................................................................... .... 15

Second Semester
ECE 342-Electronic Circuits ........ .. .... .. .. .. ...... .. ................ ... 3
ECE 343-Electronic Circuits Laboratory .... ......................... 1
ECE 350--Lines, Fields and Waves ......................... .......... ... 3
ECE 3134-Probabilistic Methods of Signal andSystem Analysis .................. ...... ......................... ............. 3
ECE 3304-Electromechanics ...... ..... ..... ..... ........................ ... 3
Math. 3154-Linear Transformations and Matrices ................ 3
Total .............................................................................. 16

First Semester
Electrical engineering laboratory2 .............................. ..... . ... .. lElectrical engineering electives3 ............................... ............ 6
C.S. 2574-Numerical Methods ...................................... .. ..... 3
Phycs. 3834-Atomic Physics and Quantum Theory .............. 3
Humanities or social sciences electives ................................ 3
Total .................................................................... .......... 16

Second Semester
ECE 345-Senior Design Project Laboratory .. ..... .... .. ........ ... 2
Electrical engineering laboratory2 ................. . . .... ... . ... . . . ... .. . .. 1
Electrical engineering electives3 ......................... .. ... . .... . ..... .. 7
Humanities or social sciences electives ......................... ..... .. 6
Total .......................................................... ..... ....... .. ...... 16'All courses shown without superscript letters are required.
'Electrical engineering laboratory elective to be selected by the student in consultation with his or her adviser from the departmentally approved list.
3
Electrical engineering elective to be selected by the student in consultation with his or her adviser from the departmentally approved list.
'Suggested technical elective to be selected by the student in consultation with his or her adviser from the departmentally approved list. Of the 21 hours of technical electives
needed, at least 12 hours must be from areas outside electrical engineering; at least 10 hours must be from 300-level courses; at least 9 hours must be from courses offered by theCollege of Engineering; at least one course must be from the departmentally approved list on nonelectrical engineering, engineering. science electives; and at least one course must
be from the departmentally approved list of advanced mathematics courses.
'Social sciences and humanities elective to be selected by the student in consultation with his or her adviser from the college-approved list.
'Suggested free elective to be selected by the student in consultation with his or her adviser in accordance with the regulations of the college.

89

1970

1978

1986

George C. Dacey, BS '42
Frank B. Doyle, BS '20
Gordon S. Heylin, BS '28
Everett S. Lee, BS '13
Julian Z. Millar, BS '23
Harold L. Olesen, BS '18

Richard C. Becker, PhD '59
Richard A. Campbell, M.D. '50
Harry Charles F. Simrall, MS '39
Richard P. Wishner, PhD '60

Jagdish K. Aggarwal, PhD '64
Kent M. Black, BS '62
Herbert Y. Chang, PhD '64
Kenneth A. McCollom, MS '49
Edward W. Springer, BS '47

1971
Carl E. Asbury, PhD '38
John H. Bryant, PhD '49
Emerson A. Shultz, BS '31

1972
Charles V. Jakowatz, PhD '53
Walter E. Lotz, Jr., PhD '47
William A. Mann, BS '23

1979
Lowell E. Ackmann, BS '44
William A. Blackwell, MS '52
Walter C. Kottemann, BS '47

1980
AlbertR. Noland, MS '49
Joseph A. Saloom, PhD '51
Steven B. Sample, PhD '65
Robert S. Wiseman, PhD '54

1981
1973
Robert E. Fontana, PhD '49
Ray D. Kell, BS '26
Wendell J. Kelley, BS '49
Raymond D. Maxson, BS '21

Norman R. Carson, BS '37
E. David Crockett, PhD '67
Robert C. Hansen, PhD '55
William E. Kunz, PhD '64

1982
1974
Edgar C. Chamberlin, Jr., BS '36
William C. Curtis, MS '35
Wallace A. Depp, MS '37

Herbert M. Barnard, PhD '64
John J. Myers, PhD '59
Fred J. Rosenbaum, PhD '63
Joseph M. Wier, PhD '56

1975

1983

Robert E. Finnigan, PhD '57
James Rod Johnstone, BS '33
Herbert A. Schulke, Jr., PhD '54

Lionel Boulet, MS '47
Robert H. Brunner, MS '50
Shu-Park Chan, PhD '63

1987
Richard D. Alberts, BS '47
Robert L. Barnett, MS '64
Leon 0. Chua, PhD '64
Russell D. Dupuis, PhD '73
Franklin F. Kuo, PhD '58
Lynn E. Wolaver, MS '50

1988
Robert L. Carrel, PhD '61
Wai-Kai Chen, PhD '64
Carl J. Johnson, PhD '69
Robert J. Paluck, BS '69

1989
Daniel V. DeSimone, BS '56
Frank F. Fang, PhD '59
Se June Hong, PhD '69
Robert C. Mathis, MS '53
Peter W. Sognefest, MS '67

1990

1976

1984

William H. Christoffers, PhD '55
Maurice R. Eastin, BS '35
Albert R. Shiely, Jr., MS '47

Abraham MS Goo, BS '51
Edwin L. Hughes, MS '50
Robert M. Janowiak, BS '57
Lawrence W. Kessler, PhD '68

1977
Kay N. Bums, PhD '52
0. Thomas Purl, PhD '55
Thomas M. Rienzi, MS '48
William A. Sink, BS '38

90

1985
Alfred Y. Cho, PhD '68
Donald J. Stukel, MS '62
Michael G. Tomasic, BS '66

Pallab K. Chatterjee, MS '74, PhD '76
Tatsuo Itoh, PhD '69
Robert R. Rankine, Jr., BS '58
Erlind G. Royer, PhD '70
Glenn H. Sherman, BS '68, MS '70,
PhD '72

1991
Algirdas A vizienis,
BS '54, MS '55, PhD '60
Newton A. Campbell,
BS '49,Herman E. Koenig,
BS '47, MS '49, PhD '53
Milton E. Radant, BS '54, MS '56
Donald R. Scifres,
BS '68, MS '70, PhD '72
Curt Wittig, BS '66, MS '67, PhD '70

Bibliographic details of publications listed in the text are given here for your information.

Ashby, W.R. 1956. Introduction to cybernetics. Wiley, New York.
Ashby, W.R. 1960. Design for a brain. Wiley, New York.
Baker, I. 0. and E. E. King. 1947. A history of the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois, 1858-1945. Urbana,
Illinois. Two volumes.
Everitt, W. L. 1932. Communication engineering. McGraw-Hill, New York.
Fry, W. J., J.M. Taylor, and B. W. Henvis. 1948. Design of crystal vibrating systems for projectors and other applications.
Dover, New York.
Kingery, R. A., R. D. Berg, and E. H. Schillinger. 1967. Men and ideas in engineering: Twelve histories from Illinois.
University of Illinois Press, Urbana.
Knight, A. R. and G. H. Fett. 1943. Introduction to circuit analysis. Harper, New York.
Stephens, C. 1950. Illini years; a picture history of the University of Illinois. University of Illinois Press, Urbana.
Swenson, G. W. and K. S. Yang. 1967. The Illinois 400-foot telescope: Performance and electronic equipment. Radio
Science 2:147-159.
Tykociner, J. 1959. Research as a science: Zetetics. Urbana, Illinois.
Von Foerster, H. and J. Beauchamp. 1966. Music by computers. Wiley, New York.
Weeks, W. 1968. Antenna engineering. McGraw-Hill, New York.

91

I.

(

;i
~ · Ii
~'
~

~

..II
I

'
I
~ '

I
I
~
I
! '
eI
I
! •
I
! •
I
! •
I
!•
I
!
I
!•
I
!•
I
!•
I
~·
I
E:
I
I
I!
I
I!
I
I
I
I
! '
I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

~