IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine - Q4 2020 - 5

in Tainan, Taiwan, and graduate training at the Massachusetts institute of Technology. I was on the faculty of
MIT, the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, and
the National Tsing Hua University in Hsinchu, Taiwan.
To me, these are the greatest educational institutions on
the earth that I would not have exchanged for anything!
It is not necessary for me to talk about the reputation, the tradition, the curricula, the facilities, and so on
at these great institutions. Without any doubt, it is the
people I was fortunate enough to be associated with at
these places who shape me as a teacher, scholar, leader,
and a humble human being, for which I am forever grateful. Allow me to mention a few names that have been imprinted permanently in my mind: Principal Madame Y. M.
Yu at Choi-Ko School in Macau whose loving care gave
me not only a precious educational opportunity, but also
a cheerful, undaunting outlook in life during a very difficult war time period. Professor Zhao-xi Chou, my B.Sc.
thesis advisor and academic shepherd at Cheng Kung
University. Professor Ronald A. Howard, my S. M. thesis
advisor and Professor Dean N. Arden, my Sc. D. thesis
advisor, together with Professors Karl Wildes, Robert M.
Fano [1], David A. Huffman, L. J. Chu, Gian-Carlo Rota, at
MIT. Professor James N. Snyder at UIUC who nourished
the academic careers of both mine and that of my wife
Jane's. Professor Chun-shan Shen, my predecessor as
President at the National Tseng Hua University, and a
most generous and kind gentleman. They are all intellectual giants. But to me, they are giants as human beings!
My advice to everyone: young or old, successful
or not-yet, treasure every opportunity and every
friend around you (and there should be no foe in one's
dictionary)!
Question 2: You received a B.S. degree from National
Cheng Kung University in Taiwan and an M.S. and a
Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. What do you remember most of your days in school?
Are there any specific reasons that guided you to the
research fields in EDA, real-time systems, combinatorial optimization, and discrete mathematics? Do
you have any suggestions to junior students, busy with
their studies at school? Do you recommend any special
training for a college or graduate student interested in
these fields?
Prof. Liu: To answer your question regarding special
training, my answer is a loud and clear one: Fundamentals and breadth! That is the foundation on which one
builds an academic research career. No knowledge or
information can be classified absolutely as " boring, "
" useless, " or " not my cup of tea. " One can never tell what
will later become " exciting, " " immensely useful, " or " intoxicating nectar " !
FOURTH QUARTER 2020

Let me talk a bit about my own experience: In the
early 1960s, there was a great deal of discussion on
what mathematic courses should be included in a Computer Science curriculum. Clearly, " discrete " was a keyword, and some possible choices were Applied Algebra,
Logic, Numerical Analysis and so on. My wife Jane who
was a Ph.D. student in the EE department (which became EECS department later) at MIT, had registered for
a class on Combinatorial Mathematics in the Mathematics Department taught by Professor Gian-Carlo Rota. I
went to audit the class with her. I was indeed fascinated
by the material. Professor Rota was a great mathematician and a mesmerizing lecturer. He taught me Mathematics, the art of teaching, and, most precious of all,
the value of kindness and generosity in life. Let me
insert a small story: Professor Rota, for every lecture,
asked a student to go to buy him a cold drink. There
was once, the volunteering student, a typical MIT nerd,
brought him a 1.5-liter bottle of Coca Cola. Professor
Rota finished the bottle before the end of the lecture! I
later proposed to offer a course in Applied Combinatorial Mathematics for Computer Science students. Only
six students signed up for the class-which eventually
led to the publication of my 1968 book " Introduction of
Combinatorial Mathematics. "
Also, allow me to recall briefly how I entered the research area of Electronic Design Automation: Design
and Analysis of Algorithms was a major direction of research in Computer Science that began, more formally,
in the mid-1960s, championed by Professor Donald E.
Knuth of Stanford University. Professor Knuth's work
was extremely influential, and his impeccable scholarship is legendary. Many of us worked on topics in graph
algorithms and combinatorial optimization algorithms.
At that time, computer aided circuit design was an under explored area. There was a " folklore " that the cost
of computer time to do a circuit layout is equal to the
yearly salaries of two draftsmen. With the rapid progress of semiconductor manufacturing technologies,
and consequently significant increases in circuit complexity, algorithmic tools such as linear programming,
simulated annealing, genetic algorithm, branch and
bound search, emphasizing notions such as optimality,
efficiency, upper and lower bounds, led many of us to
take a more algorithmic view on the circuit design process. We worked on channel routing, circuit partitioning, and circuit placement problems which were more
mathematically structured at that time. My experience
indeed echoes what I said above: " fundamentals and
breadth. " [2]
Question 3: You have been spectacular at everything
you have done in your professional and colorful career:
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