Special RPI Podcast Episode Features Two Prominent ECSE Alumni Inventors

Posted December 14, 2019
RPI Special Podcaset
RPI Special Podcast
In a special episode of Why Not Change the World? The RPI Podcast, two prominent inventors — who also happen to be Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute alumni of the ECSE Department — look to the future and offer their advice on how to prepare for it.

In a special episode of Why Not Change the World? The RPI Podcast, two prominent inventors — who also happen to be Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute alumni of the ECSE Department — look to the future and offer their advice on how to prepare for it.

The episode features an excerpt of a conversation between Curtis R. Priem ’82 and Marcian “Ted” Hoff ’58 recorded earlier this year at The Village Pub in Woodside, California. It was moderated by Shekhar Garde, the dean of the Rensselaer School of Engineering.

Priem co-founded NVIDIA Corp., a manufacturer of graphics and multimedia integrated circuits, in 1993 and was its chief technical officer from 1993 to 2003. From 1986 to January 1993, Priem was a senior staff engineer at Sun Microsystems, where he architected the GX graphics products, including the world’s first single chip GUI accelerator.

Hoff invented the first electronic circuit that combined complicated computer functions on a single silicon chip, earning him recognition as the “father of the microprocessor.” This single chip had as much computing power as the first electronic computer, ENIAC, which filled an entire room in 1946. The microprocessor created a revolution in computing. He is a member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame.