Brunel Lecture Series on Complex Systems
Engineering Systems Division

Lecture: The 21st Century is about Engineering, Systems, and Society

By Dr. A. Richard Newton, Dean of the College of Engineering at University of California at Berkeley; Roy W. Carlson Professor of Engineering; Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

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About the Lecture:

In 20th-century-speak, you can invent and patent a widget, make and sell millions of them, and be a great success. Or you can discover a new drug, develop a cure for a high-margin disease and retire. But only if you cash out before someone else, somewhere else in the world, copies your invention and sells it at half the price! And while this formula might still work in the 21st century too, the real challenges—and the real opportunities—are hiding in the one-offs. The big, hairy, complex societal-scale problems that this world is facing more and more as it bends to accommodate the billions of people who, as Peter Drucker says, for the first time in the history of our civilization have choices: “For the first time, they have to manage themselves, and society is totally unprepared for it.”

The Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) was formed five years ago by a group of faculty and students at four University of California campuses to formulate a number of these societal-scale problems, to identify the key fundamental roadblocks to their solution, and to undertake the basic research so identified. From reliable and sustainable sources of energy and its use, to health care and transportation systems, to education and the mitigation of natural (and now man-made!) disasters. But we are all just beginning of this challenging new adventure. In this presentation, the origins of CITRIS, its organizing principles, and a selection of the problems its faculty and students are tackling will be used to illustrate the potential and value of such research.

About the Speaker:

A. Richard Newton, professor and dean of the College of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, a pioneer in electronic design automation and integrated circuit design, and a visionary leader in the technology industry, died in early January, 2007.

An Australian native, A. Richard Newton received received the B.Eng. and M.Eng.Sci degrees from the University of Melbourne, Australia, in 1973 and 1975 respectively and his Ph.D. degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1978. He joined the faculty at Berkeley in 1979 and is currently Dean of the College of Engineering and the Roy W. Carlson Professor of Engineering at Berkeley. He was also a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, where he was Chair of the department from 1999-2000. Since 1979 was actively involved as a researcher and teacher in the areas of design technology, electronic system architecture, and integrated circuit design.

His interests included the application of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) to the solution of tough societal and quality-of-life problems. In 1999 he led in the founding of the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS), a California Institute for Science and Innovation dedicated to the application of information and communication technologies to the solution of such tough societal and quality-of-life problems in areas that included energy, the environment, transportation, health care, disaster mitigation and response, and education.

From 1986-1988 he was Vice Chairman for Computing Resources in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. Dr. Newton was an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design for Integrated Circuits from 1984-1988 and a member of the Administrative Committee of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society 1985-1988. Professor Newton helped with many design technology conferences and workshops over the years and was Technical Program Chair of the 1988 and 1989 ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conferences, Vice Chair of the 1990 Conference and was General Chair of the Conference in 1991.

He received a number of awards for his teaching and research, including Best Paper Awards at the 1988 European Solid State Circuits Conference, the 1987 and 1989 ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conferences, and the International Conference on Computer Design, and he was selected in 1987 as the national recipient of the C. Holmes McDonald Outstanding Young Professor Award of the Eta-Kappa-Nu Engineering Honor Society. In 1989 he was co-recipient of a Best Paper Award for the IEEE Transactions for Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems. In 2000, Professor Newton was selected as a recipient of the IEEE Golden Jubilee Award for his contributions to Circuits and Systems. In 2003 he was also awarded a Doctorate of Laws, honoris causa, from his alma mater the University of Melbourne, Australia. Professor Newton is an Honorary Professor in Integrated Circuit Design at the National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan and was awarded the 2003 EDAC Phil Kaufman Award. In 2004, Professor Newton was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

From 1998-2002 he served as the founding director of the MARCO/DARPA Gigascale Silicon Research Center (GSRC) for silicon chip design and test. With an annual budget of $9 million in 2002, the GSRC is a major private-public partnership with the US Government and the semiconductor industry that funds and coordinates long-range research at a dozen major US universities and involving many industrial collaborators.

He was a Founding Member of both the EDIF technical and steering committees, an advisor to the CAD Framework Initiative, and was also a Founding Member of EDAC.

In addition to his academic role, Professor Newton helped to found a number of design technology companies, including SDA Systems (now Cadence Design Systems), PIE Design Systems (now a part of Cadence), Simplex Solutions, Crossbow, and Synopsys, where he rejoined the Board of Directors in 1995. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of Tensilica, Inc. and a member of the Technology Council of ST Microelectronics, as well as the technical advisory boards of Lightspeed Semiconductor, Radiata (now a Cisco company), Sonics, Inc., Airgo Networks, Pharmix and Form Factor. Since 1997, he was a member of the Technical Advisory Board of the Microsoft Research Laboratories. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology.

From 1988-2002, he acted as a Venture Partner with the Mayfield Fund, a high-technology venture capital partnership, where he has contributed to both the evaluation and early-stage development of over two dozen new companies. He is currently a Venture Partner with Tallwood Venture Capital. From November 1994 to July 1995, Professor Newton was the acting President and CEO of Silicon Light Machines (formerly Echelle, Inc), a development-stage company which is bringing to market a number of display systems based on the application of micromachined silicon light-valves. The company was later acquired by Cypress Semiconductor.

He was a Member of the ACM, a Fellow of the IEEE, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

About the Series:

THE BRUNEL LECTURE SERIES ON COMPLEX SYSTEMS was made possible by funds assembled and underwritten by Frank P. Davidson, convener of the Channel Tunnel Study Group (1957). It was this group's design, accomplished by agreement with Bechtel Corporation, Brown & Root, Inc. and Morrison-Knudsen Company, Inc. in 1959, that formed the basis of the subsea railway link now in service between England and France.

Mr. Davidson is a retired Senior Research Associate at MIT. From 1970-1996, he was Chairman of the System Dynamics Steering Committee, Sloan School of Management, and Coordinator of the Macro-Engineering Research Group at MIT's School of Engineering. He co-edited, with C. Lawrence Meador, Macro-Engineering: Global Infrastructure Solutions, subtitled Massachusetts Institute of Technology Brunel Lectures 1983-1992. With Ernst G. Frankel and C. Lawrence Maedor, he co-edited Macro-Engineering, subtitled MIT Brunel Lectures on Global Infrastructure. These volumes, published by Ellis Horwood and Horwood Publishing Limited in 1992 and 1997, respectively, appeared in Chichester, England, as did Macro-Problems and World Projects, subtitled Essays in Honor of Frank Davidson, which appeared in 1998, on the occasion of Mr. Davidsons retirement and 80th birthday. The latter volume was edited by MIT Professor Emeritus Ernst G. Frankel and by Uwe Kitzinger, CBE, former president of Templeton College, Oxford, and now a Visiting Scholar at Harvard.

Brunel Lectures 2001 – Present:

Educating Engineers for 2020 and Beyond (2006)
by Dr. Charles M. Vest
President Emeritus and Professor of Mechanical Engineering

The 21st Century is about Engineering, Systems, and Society (2005)
by Dr. A. Richard Newton
Dean of the College of Engineering at University of California at Berkeley; Roy W. Carlson Professor of Engineering; Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Engineering Engineering Systems (2004)
by Thomas L. Magnanti
Institute Professor
Dean, MIT School of Engineering

The Columbia Tragedy: System-Level Issues for Engineering (2003)
by Sheila Widnall
Member, Columbia Accident Investigation Board
Member, National Women's Hall of Fame
Institute Professor, Professor of Aeronautics, Astronautics, and Engineering Systems, Engineering Systems Division, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Living with Catastrophic Terrorism: Can Science and Technology Make the U.S. Safer? (2002)
by Lewis M. Branscomb
Co-chair, Committee on Science and Technology for Countering Terrorism, National Research Council and Professor Emeritus, Public Policy and Corporate Management, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

Simple Systems and Other Myths (2001)
by Norman R. Augustine
Former President, CEO, and Chairman and Current Chairman, Executive Committee, Lockheed Martin Corporation