Historic Innovations by Caltech People That Transformed Our Everyday Lives - Carver Mead

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6:08 President Rosenbaum's Welcome and Introduction
12:19 David Zierler's Introduction
20:20 Professor Carver Mead's Watson Lecture
Drawing on more than 70 years of research and perspective, microelectronics pioneer Carver Mead (BS '56, PhD '60), the Gordon and Betty Moore Professor of Engineering and Applied Science, Emeritus, will share a history of Caltech breakthroughs and innovations that have revolutionized modern society. In this talk, Mead will illuminate the contributions of Caltech scientists and engineers who have worked to identify and eliminate Los Angeles smog; to engineer the semiconductors that ushered in Silicon Valley and the age of digital information; to create the lasers that made the World Wide Web possible; to bring GPS to the masses; and to make cars electronic. His discussion will span both his own work and that of colleagues, students, and fellow alumni who pursued excellence, defied convention, and made all our lives better.
About the Series:
For more than 100 years, the Watson Lectures have brought the wonder of Caltech research and discovery to the public.
Free and open to the public, the Watson Lecture Series offers a unique and accessible opportunity to learn more about cutting-edge science directly from Caltech's premier researchers. Come early to mingle with your neighbors over food, drink and music, as well as interactive displays related to the evening's topic.
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[@kakugan]

although a biology major, one course with Dr. Mead as a freshman, in which he made a calculator on the desktop, made me a lifelong electronics buff. Fabulous teacher. Thank you, Carver.

[@danielburke5097]

An oversight by Carver is that one of his students, David B. Kirk PhD Caltech 1990, was the Chief Scientist at NVIDIA who fostered the decision to explore using GPUs for systolic computing about 2004, roughly 5 years before Bill Dally joined them. He met with me and Wen-Mei Hwu at UIUC to develop the needed infrastructure for programming CUDA in parallel teaching a class and co-authoring the seminal text.

[@JustinLCooper]

I find these talks to be inspirational and indispensable as part of our history. Thank you.

[@davidwilkie9551]

Mischa >> Newtonian Fluxion-Integral Temporal superposition Calculus.
Learning by doing at Caltech in Actuality. (I'm overwhelmed)

[@peterwiles1299]

No mention of Kip Thorne and LIGO.

[@VLee-ny3su]

Very interesting history of inovations that have changed our lives in the past 60 years and how Caltech alumni and associates played a role.