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Celebrating the 2022 IEEE Medal and Recognition Recipients

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The IEEE Vision, Innovation, and Challenges (VIC) Summit and Honors Ceremony is an annual highlight for IEEE that recognizes the accomplishments and contributions of technology “Giants.” The work of the 2022 IEEE Medal and Recognition recipients, whose groundbreaking technological advances span the spectrum of scientific, engineering and educational efforts to foster technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity, were honored in person after two years of virtual celebrations. The event was held 6 May at the San Diego Marriott Marina hotel in California, US. This year, both the daytime Summit and the evening’s Honors Ceremony were livestreamed. Videos of all speakers, Q&A sessions and award presentations will be available for viewing on the IEEE Awards Channel on IEEE.tv.

An Evening of Innovation

Special thanks to Qualcomm, sponsor of the IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal, for its tremendous support by hosting and sponsoring an “Evening of Innovation” at its headquarters on Thursday, 5 May 2022. This special evening provided an opportunity for some of the 2022 IEEE Medal recipients to share stories about their career paths, innovations and insights on emerging technologies. IEEE Awards Board Chair Karen Panetta welcomed attendees along with IEEE President K.J. Ray Liu and IEEE Region 6 Director Elect Kathy Herring Hayashi. 

UC San Diego Dean Albert “Al” P. Pisano, Ph.D. moderated a lively discussion among  Anantha Chandrakasan, Jason Cong, Deborah Estrin, P.R. Kumar, Thomas M. Jahns and Ingo Wolff.  At the end of the panel Dr. Pisano encouraged the audience, including members and students from the IEEE San Diego Section, to speak with the panelists during a reception that followed; after all, “they’re just people.”  The subsequent reception was filled with continued conversations between guests and IEEE Medalists. Special thanks to Qualcomm’s leadership, the IEEE San Diego Section and the IEEE University Partner program for their donation to support the event, and everyone responsible for this successful collaboration.

The Qualcomm panel (left to right): Moderator Albert Pisano, Dean of the Jacobs School of Engineering, UCSD; Deborah Estrin (IEEE John von Neumann Medal); Jingsheng Jason Cong (IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal); Anantha Chandrakasan (IEEE Mildred Dresselhaus Medal); Panganamala R. Kumar (IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal); Ingo Wolff (IEEE/RSE James Clerk Maxwell Medal); and Thomas M. Jahns (IEEE Medal in Power Engineering). 

Vision, Innovation, and Challenges Summit

There were many programs during the daytime IEEE VIC Summit, emceed by Vice President of Innovation and Programming at the Computer History Museum, Marguerite Gong Hancock. Keynote Speaker Harry Kloor, CEO and Co-Founder of Beyond Imagination, a company that has developed a suite of exponential technology solutions that deploys AI, AR, robotics, machine learning and human-computer interaction technology to enhance and revolutionize the world’s workforce, discussed robotics. Glenn Zorpette, Editorial Director for Content Development at IEEE Spectrum magazine, moderated a panel onAerospace Technologies.

Glenn Zorpette (far right) leads discussion with (left to right) Soyeon Yi, South Korea’s first and only astronaut; Tim Canham, Senior Software Engineer, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; and Josh Brost, Vice President of Business Development at Relativity Space.

Keynote speaker Harry Kloor, successful serial entrepreneur, scientist, technologist, educator, policy advisor, author and Hollywood filmmaker, discussed robotics.

Honoree Luncheon

Midday on 6 May, The IEEE Foundation hosted an Honoree Luncheon for award recipients, sponsors and IEEE leaders. Sarah Rajala, a steadfast donor to the IEEE Foundation, and Vice President of Development for the IEEE Foundation Board of Directors, served as host and was “personally thrilled to see how giving to the IEEE Foundation comes to life and celebrate our 2022 IEEE Medal and Recognition honorees. Thank you to our amazing award supporters!” 

2022 IEEE President K.J. Ray Liu and IEEE Awards Board Chair Karen Panetta also spoke, expressing their appreciation for sponsors and excitement at celebrating the honorees whose work supports IEEE’s mission of advancing technology for humanity. 

After the event, guests were encouraged to visit the IEEE Mobile Outreach VEhicle (MOVE) truck. MOVE is an IEEE Foundation donor supported program that provides emergency relief by assisting victims of natural disasters with short-term communications, computer and power solutions. When not deployed, it also provides STEM outreach.

Sarah Rajala addresses award recipients, sponsors and IEEE leaders during the IEEE Foundation-hosted Honoree Luncheon on the San Diego Marriott Marina Terrace on 6 May. Attendees enjoyed live music, a beautiful waterfront setting and, most importantly, great conversation.

Honors Ceremony

At the evening’s Honors Ceremony, IEEE’s highest honor, the Medal of Honor, sponsored by the IEEE Foundation, was given to Asad M. Madni, Distinguished Adjunct Professor and Distinguished Scientist, Electrical & Computer Engineering Department, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, US.

Asad M. Madni received the 2022 IEEE Medal of Honor “for pioneering contributions to the development and commercialization of innovative sensing and systems technologies, and for distinguished research leadership.”

Madni’s revolutionary contributions to sensors and systems for navigation and stability in aerospace and automotive applications have helped keep people safe around the world. He led the development and commercialization of the GyroChip®, resulting in a solid-state 6-degree-of-freedom microelectromechanical system inertial measurement unit. He also led a miniaturization effort resulting in significant sensor size reduction while increasing performance and was chief architect for signal processing techniques. He made seminal and pioneering contributions in the development of intelligent systems and instrumentation that significantly enhanced U.S. Combat Readiness and provided the DOD the ability to simulate more threat-representative ECM environments for current and future advanced warfare training. Madni also led the development of an adaptive control system for a minimally invasive endometrial ablation system, used to eliminate the tissue responsible for menstrual bleeding and allows gynecologists to perform ablation under direct visualization on an outpatient basis under local anesthesia.

In addition to the IEEE Medal of Honor, the IEEE Foundation also sponsors the IEEE Haraden Pratt Award, given for outstanding volunteer service to the IEEE. IEEE Life Senior Member Joseph V. Lillie, Internal Auditor at BIZPHYX, Lafayette, LA, US received the award “for sustained and outstanding focus on the engagement of volunteers and staff in implementing continuous improvement of IEEE operations.”

IEEE Life Fellow and Foundation Treasurer, Fred Mintzer received the IEEE Richard M. Emberson Award “for outstanding leadership of technical activities including the IEEE Collabratec and TAB technology-centric communities. We thank Fred for donating his cash prize to the IEEE Foundation.

The ceremony included the inaugural presentation of the IEEE Frances E. Allen Medal, sponsored by IBM, to co-recipients Eugene Wimberly Myers, Jr. and Webb Miller, “for pioneering contributions to sequence analysis algorithms and their applications to biosequence search, genome sequencing, and comparative genome analyses.”

IEEE Senior Member Eugene Wimberly Myers, Jr., Director, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics and Founding Director, Center for Systems Biology Dresden, Germany.
Webb Miller, Professor, Department of Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, US.

The IEEE Awards Program thanks the IEEE community, IEEE Foundation and supporters for recognizing those who are advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. We appreciate the generous donations from our sponsors and donors that support these awards that are an invaluable honor in IEEE’s portfolio of programs. We thank everyone who sponsored a table, bought a ticket, watched the live streams, and made the effort to attend. Your participation added to the success of this event! Visit the IEEE Awards Program website, corporate-awards.ieee.org, for more information. 

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