Wojciech P. Maly Inducted into Phil Kaufman Hall of Fame

Dr. Wojciech P. Maly, a pioneer in broad spectrum research in electronic system design who died in 2021, was inducted posthumously into the Phil Kaufman Hall of Fame.

The honor, co-sponsored by the Electronic System Design (ESD) Alliance, a SEMI Technology Community, and the IEEE Council on Electronic Design Automation (CEDA), acknowledges his significant and innovative contributions to the electronic system design industry.

Founded in 2021, the Phil Kaufman Hall of Fame honors deceased members of the industry who made major contributions but did not receive the Phil Kaufman Award during their lifetime.

A distinguished professor at Carnegie-Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, PA, Dr. Maly’s research interests focused on interfaces between very-large-scale integration (VLSI) design, testing and manufacturing with an emphasis on the stochastic nature of phenomena relating to these three VLSI domains. He authored, co-authored and edited numerous books, journal and conference papers, as well as patents, which have attempted to promote integration of design, test and manufacturing.

“Professor Maly was ahead of his time and demonstrated amazing creativity and out-of-the-box thinking,” said Andrzej Strojwas, CTO at PDF Solutions, and a former student of Dr. Maly. “Our industry is only now realizing the potential of his pioneering work especially in the area of three-dimensional ICs.”

“Dr. Maly’s name may not be as well recognized as other industry giants, but his contribution is unmistakable and valued,” said Bob Smith, executive director of the ESD Alliance. “With this honor, he is not forgotten and will remain in the annuls of the ESD industry.”

Dr. Maly received the master of science degree in electronic engineering from the Technical University of Warsaw, Poland, in 1970, and a Ph.D. degree from the Institute of Applied Cybernetics, Polish Academy of Sciences, also in Warsaw, in 1975.

From 1970 to 1973, he was with the Institute of Applied Cybernetics. In 1973, he joined the Technical University of Warsaw, where he was appointed assistant professor in 1975. From 1979 to 1981, he was a visiting assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at CMU. Beginning in 1983, he was the Whitaker Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at CMU.

Professor Maly was the recipient and/or co-recipient of various awards. He received Carnegie Mellon’s Benjamin Richard Teare Teaching Award; AT&T Foundation Award for Excellence in Instructing Engineering Students; Eta Kappa Nu CMU Sigma Chapter Excellence in Teaching Award; and the Semiconductor Research Corporation’s 2007 Aristotle Award.

His list of awarded research accomplishments includes honors for his Ph.D. thesis from Ministry of Higher Education of Poland; SRC’s 1992 Technical Excellence Award; the Best Paper Awards from the International Test Conference in 1990 and 1997; ESREF’s 1994 Best Paper Award; the 1994 Best Paper Awards from IEEE Transaction on Semiconductor Manufacturing; and Best Paper Award from 1996 European Design and Test Conference. He was a recipient of a Fellowship from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and Humboldt Research Award.