Lynn Conway is widely known as a pioneer of microelectronics, having innovated basic methods used world-wide for VLSI chip design, and having invented methods that have enabled rapid prototyping of VLSI chips for a whole generation of designers.

Her innovations in design methodology are documented in the classic engineering text Introduction to VLSI Systems that she co-authored with Carver Mead of Caltech (1). Her methods for rapid prototyping have been institutionalized by the "MOSIS" service, a government-sponsored, internet-accessible service that enables quick prototyping of student and research chip designs at universities throughout the United States. The MOSIS service has been running continuously since the early 1980's (2, 3).

This work on VLSI design has had great impact by producing a large pool of skilled chip designers, and methods for quickly prototyping their designs. Much of our current information technology is produced by companies and projects built upon this work.

Lynn began her career working on the architecture and design of very high-performance digital computers as a Member of the Research Staff at IBM Research, Yorktown Heights, New York, after earning her BS ('62) and MSEE ('63) degrees at the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia University.

Establishing herself as an innovator in computer architecture at IBM, she went on to become a Member of the Research Staff at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in 1973. It was during her 10 years at PARC that she visualized the opportunities, investigated, and then innovated methods for "creating digital systems" in silicon.

Lynn later went on to make basic contributions to Artificial Intelligence (4, 5), and then to serve as leader of the Strategic Computing Initiative, a major Department of Defense research and development program in machine intelligence technology (6). She joined the University of Michigan as Professor of EECS and Associate Dean of Engineering in 1985. In recent years her work there has focused on innovating methods and systems for visual communications and control, an area in which she holds five U. S. Patents (7-14).

As a result of her contributions, Lynn Conway has received many awards, including the prestigious Pender Award of the Moore School and Wetherill Medal of the Franklin Institute, and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1989.

Awards and Recognition:

Fellow of the IEEE
Research Fellow, Xerox Corporation
Major Educational Innovation Award, IEEE/EAB
National Achievement Award, SWE
Member of the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board
Secretary of Defense Meritorious Civilian Service Award
Presidential Appointment to the Board of Visitors, United States Air Force Academy
Doctor of Humane Letters (Honoris Causa), Trinity College
Pender Award of the Moore School, University of Pennsylvania
Wetherill Medal of the Franklin Institute
Elected to Membership in the National Academy of Engineering

Selected Publications:

1. C. Mead and L. Conway, Introduction to VLSI Systems, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, MA, 1980.
2. L. Conway, A. Bell and M. Newell, "MPC79: The Demonstration-Operation of a Prototype Remote-Entry Fast-Turnaround VLSI Implementation System," Conference on Advanced Research in Integrated Circuits, M.I.T., Jan. 28-30, 1980.
3. L. Conway, The MPC Adventures: Experiences with the Generation of VLSI Design and Implementation Methodologies, Technical Report VLSI 81-2, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, January 1981.
4. M. Ste~k and L. Conway, "The Principled Engineering of Knowledge," Artificial Intelligence Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 3, Summer 1982.
5. M. Stefik, D. Bobrow, S. Mittal and L. Conway, "Knowledge Programming in LOOPS," Artificial Intelligence Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 3, Fall 1983.
6. L. Conway, Auth./Ed., Strategic Computing: New-Generation Computing Technology - A Strategic Plan for its Development and Application to Critical Problems in Defense, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Oct. 28, 1983.
7. L. Conway, R. Volz and M. Walker, "Tele-Autonomous Systems: Projecting and coordinating intelligent action at a distance", IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, Vol. 6, No. 2, April 1990.
8. L. Conway, R. Volz and M. Walker, Tele-Autonomous System and Method Employing Time/Position Synchrony/Desynchrony, U. S. Patent #5,046,022, September 1991.
9. L. Conway, System and Method for Teleinteraction, U. S. Patent #5,444,476, August 1995.
10. L. Conway, "The UMTV Demonstration Project: Experiences in the System Architecture and Educational Applications of Interactive Hybrid Communications", World Conference on Engineering Education, St. Paul, MN, Oct. 15-20, 1995.
11. L. Conway and C. Cohen, Apparatus and Method for Remote Control using a Visual Information Stream, U. S. Patent #5,652,849, July 1997.
12. L. Conway, Method and System for Organizing and Presenting Audio/Visual Information, U. S. Patent #5,745,782, April 1998.
13. L. Conway, Visual Control Selection of Remote Mechanisms, U. S. Patent #5,7 19,622, February 1998.
14. L. Conway and C. Cohen, "Video Mirroring and Iconic Gestures: Enhancing basic videophones to provide visual coaching and visual control", IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, May 1998.