Comments on: Where are our heroes? http://mahalowpower.com/2009/11/where-are-our-heroes/ Thu, 14 Jul 2011 04:04:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: AA http://mahalowpower.com/2009/11/where-are-our-heroes/comment-page-1/#comment-7 AA Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:32:18 +0000 http://mahalowpower.com/?p=281#comment-7 We keeping looking everywhere. Where are the olympic medal prospects? Where are the engineers? Where is the next Bhagat Singh. If you want to make this world a better place to live in take a look at yourself and make that change-- Michael Jackson We keeping looking everywhere. Where are the olympic medal prospects? Where are the engineers? Where is the next Bhagat Singh.

If you want to make this world a better place to live in take a look at yourself and make that change– Michael Jackson

]]> By: Anuj Valmiki http://mahalowpower.com/2009/11/where-are-our-heroes/comment-page-1/#comment-4 Anuj Valmiki Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:15:38 +0000 http://mahalowpower.com/?p=281#comment-4 Yes indeed... The unsung "engineering" heroes of (can we call it this) VLSI evolution (if not revolution) here in India deserve their piece of sunshine in the web-world. There are two people who have impressed me, and have been of immense influence - 1) K.S.Raghunathan - He was my manager for a year (1988-89) that I was at ITI microelectronics division. Whereas Dr.Prabhakar was the motive factor behind the nascent VLSI activities at ITI, Raghu-sir (as I would call him and still do) was the inspirational technical leader for us. He single-handedly lead both EDA development and design development activities in the small IC design group that existed in ITI. We did not have a Design-Rule-Checker, and had lots of standard-cell designs that we used to cross-check for design-rule errors by human inspection. He saw our predicament and coded a DRC tool inside 1 week! It was incredible to see his creativity. Raghu has kind of retired from active VLSI industry, but is doing some kick-ass research in the Quantum-Mechanics/Physics arena at IISc. He could not officially register for a PHD (thanks to the bureaucratic rules of our institutions), but is doing stellar work in a field he loves. 2) Rajat Gupta - He was a manager at Arcus Technology - Bangalore, in the years I worked there (1994-97). He came from SCL-Punjab and brought a very talented team along with him to Arcus. He was another IC design "guru" that touched my life. Unfortunately, I never directly reported to him, and my learnings from his vast knowledge was limited to a few interactions. But I did learn a lot about what he stood for, from the umpteen interactions that I had with his wards that he brought along (Somnath Paul, Atul Wokhlu, Bira to mention a few). Rajat is a leader in Beceem (WiMax startup) to my current knowledge. I thank these leaders for being inspiration to so many of us to increase our desire to learn and learn well. Yes indeed… The unsung “engineering” heroes of (can we call it this) VLSI evolution (if not revolution) here in India deserve their piece of sunshine in the web-world. There are two people who have impressed me, and have been of immense influence -
1) K.S.Raghunathan – He was my manager for a year (1988-89) that I was at ITI microelectronics division. Whereas Dr.Prabhakar was the motive factor behind the nascent VLSI activities at ITI, Raghu-sir (as I would call him and still do) was the inspirational technical leader for us. He single-handedly lead both EDA development and design development activities in the small IC design group that existed in ITI. We did not have a Design-Rule-Checker, and had lots of standard-cell designs that we used to cross-check for design-rule errors by human inspection. He saw our predicament and coded a DRC tool inside 1 week! It was incredible to see his creativity. Raghu has kind of retired from active VLSI industry, but is doing some kick-ass research in the Quantum-Mechanics/Physics arena at IISc. He could not officially register for a PHD (thanks to the bureaucratic rules of our institutions), but is doing stellar work in a field he loves.
2) Rajat Gupta – He was a manager at Arcus Technology – Bangalore, in the years I worked there (1994-97). He came from SCL-Punjab and brought a very talented team along with him to Arcus. He was another IC design “guru” that touched my life. Unfortunately, I never directly reported to him, and my learnings from his vast knowledge was limited to a few interactions. But I did learn a lot about what he stood for, from the umpteen interactions that I had with his wards that he brought along (Somnath Paul, Atul Wokhlu, Bira to mention a few). Rajat is a leader in Beceem (WiMax startup) to my current knowledge.

I thank these leaders for being inspiration to so many of us to increase our desire to learn and learn well.

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