IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine - Q4 2020 - 6

In Learning, there's no first or last; When one learns
and progresses fast, Then the last shall become the
first-She would be my Teacher at last.
teacher, educator, researcher, administrator, university president, author of bestselling books, corporation
board member and even popular radio show host. What
is your own definition of " success, " or do you consider
one of your past roles to be " success " ?
Prof. Liu: When I look back, I feel extremely fortunate
that a few " natural " turns happened in my career. I was
a (typical) university professor for almost thirty years;
then I served as an academic administrator (Associate
Provost at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, President at the National Tsing Hua University in
Hsinchu, Taiwan); nowadays, I host a weekly radio show
(monologue) on popular science and literature (since
2005, the contents of the shows have been published as
15 books); and serve on the Board of a number of high
tech companies in Taiwan. On the other hand, I feel I
am still travelling on the same yellow brick road which
I started almost 60 years ago. I am still a scholar and
educator at heart. I look at issues and make decisions
following what my heart tells me. I am a human centric
individual. That probably also tells why I did not consider or have opportunities to take other interesting turns.
You ask me to define the term " success " in my own
way. That is a toughie. I bundle success with luck. I recall what Lou Gehrig, the Iron Horse of Baseball, said on
July 4, 1939 at Yankee Stadium: " (Yet) today I consider
myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. "
Question 4: Given your remarkable success in administration, education and research, have you ever wondered whether you have challenged yourself enough?
What are the criteria for you to choose these things to
work on?
Prof. Liu: Your question probably has different answers at different points of one's career. At this moment,
for a more restrictive personal interest, I wish I would
have learned more about mathematics, and would have
read and MEMORIZED more Chinese and English literature-in particular, poetry. Let me emphasize that I do
not say so because I am moving away from the Computer Science, and EDA sphere. I am still trying to keep up
with AI, ML, IC, and 5G. But, as I said earlier, a broader
scholar will be a more valuable and happier scholar.
Question 5: Many of your students have become prominent scientists themselves all over the world, including the Turing Award winner-Prof. Andrew Yao, and US
6â

National Academy of Engineering Member-Prof. Jason
Cong. You received the highest accolades as an educator
including the inaugural Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding
Educator Award from ACM, the IEEE Education Medal,
and the Taylor L. Booth Education Award from the IEEE
Computer Society. Can you share the approach you take
to advising your students? What are the most important
characteristics of a successful educator?
Prof. Liu: I did sign the Ph.D. theses of a number of
extremely brilliant and successful Computer Scientists
and Engineers. They are my teachers, not students.
I learned from them more than they learned from me.
There is a frequently quoted proverb in Chinese literature " å¸ç¡åå¾, éèçºå¸«. " I found a nice English translation in the form of a short poem: " In Learning, there's
no first or last; When one learns and progresses fast,
Then the last shall become the first-She would be my
Teacher at last. "
Allow me to tell you a story: Some years ago, I invited
my thesis advisor Professor Dean N. Arden to visit me
at UIUC, and arranged to have a group meeting for my
graduate students to meet with him. After the meeting,
Professor Arden kindly said to me " You have some very
good students. " I responded: " Indeed, my students are
better than [me,] your student. " Later on, my students
told me how much they liked and were impressed by
Professor Arden. I responded: " Certainly, my advisor is
better than [me,] your advisor. "
In a broader prospect, one of the most precious
rewards in an academic life is the friends you make
through academic interaction
Question 6: You are a visionary who long ago argued
that rigorous mathematics would be essential to the
solution of complex EDA problems. As an example, you
used your deep knowledge of combinatorial mathematics to transform the methodology of Electronic Design
Automation (EDA) from an ad hoc state into a thriving
algorithmic discipline. As a second example, your classic work on Rate Monotonic Scheduling is now at the
heart of modern scheduling theory, essential for the design of real-time operating systems. Can you share your
vision on the next big idea that will revolutionize the
EDA or semiconductor industry?
Prof. Liu: Not long ago, I talked, in a rather long but
popular lecture, about the three milestones of the development of modern digital computation theory and

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IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine - Q4 2020

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