Penn State Harrisburg Remembers Hidden Figures in Electrical Engineering
Mohamad M. Atalla – born August 4,1924, in Port Said, Egypt, is regarded as the father of modern electronics. He is an engineering pioneer who invented the Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (MOSFET), Schottky diode as well as the PIN security system used in ATMs around the world. The MOSFET is the most commonly used transistor in digital and analog circuits. The Schottky diode is famed for its fast-switching action and low forward voltage drop. [1924 – 2009]
Maurice Karnaugh – born October 4, 1924, in New York, USA, is a mathematician and physicist credited with developing patents for Pulse-Code modulation encoding as well as the Karnaugh map, the latter of which is an ingenious method of simplifying Boolean algebra expressions, allowing users to find optimum solutions for switching functions. This technique is much simpler and error-prone to other logic expression solving methods. [1924 – 2022]
Help us celebrate the 100th anniversary of these unsung heroes by developing a project relating to any of their inventions!