On Tuesday (Dec. 13) the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) announced its 2016 NAI Fellows, including Suman Datta, Chang Family Professor of Engineering Innovation at the University of Notre Dame. Datta focuses on the physics and applications of novel nanoelectronic devices for energy efficient computing and storage systems. He also pursues demonstration of computing substrates that mimic Nature’s “natural” ways of computing.
NAI Fellows represent 229 research universities, governmental and nonprofit research institutes. The distinction recognizes academic inventors developing outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) recently awarded $4.42 million in funding over three years to Datta and a multidisciplinary team of researchers from Georgia Tech, Pennsylvania State University, the University of California at Irvine, the University of California at San Diego and the University of Chicago. The grant will be used to establish the Extremely Energy Efficient Collective Electronics (EXCEL) research center. The center focuses on development of special-purpose hardware to accelerate data analytics in an energy efficient manner, synthesize new functional materials, demonstrate new device concepts and new computational algorithms and lay the foundation for a radically different approach to information processing.
Prior to joining academia, Datta was at Intel Corporation, where he developed several generations of logic transistor technologies including high-k/metal gate, Tri-gate and non-silicon channel transistor technologies, which are used in high-performance Intel microprocessors. He is the recipient of Intel Achievement Award, the IBM faculty Award, the SEMI Award for North America by Semiconductor Industry Association, the Penn State Engineering Alumni Association Outstanding Research Award and Premier Research Award. He holds 174 U.S. patents related to advanced devices. Datta is Fellow of IEEE.
The 2016 NAI Fellows were evaluated by a selection committee that included 19 members, comprising NAI Fellows, recipients of U.S. National medals, National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees, members of the National Academies and senior officials from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Association of American Universities, American Associations for the Advancement of Science, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, Association of University Technology Managers and other prominent organizations.
The 2016 NAI Fellows will be inducted on April 6 at an NAI conference at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.
— Jessica Sieff, Office of Media Relations
Originally published by at conductorshare.nd.edu on December 15, 2016.