IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2017 - 47

the category of Graduate Computer Sciaround Machu Picchu. "I know he was
ence, while College Factual 2017 ranked
the oldest person there because I asked
its computer science major as sixth in
everyone who looked senior-ish how old
the country.
they were," Michelle responds.
The point, though, is that when
Throughout his career, George has
George was in school across town at
been described as a visionary and an
optimist. He sees the world as
the University of California Los
Angeles (UCLA) in the 1960s,
full of opportunity and posthe joke was that if you ever
sibility, which led him to
failed out of UCLA, then at
teach courses in creative
least you could go to USC.
problem solving as well
Clearly, that is no longer
as computer science and
the case-and George had a
engineering. He believed
lot to do with it.
that he shouldn't interfere
Michelle Bekey
Computer science was
with his children discovera burgeoning field in the
ing what resonated for them.
1980s, but somehow, when George was
"And yet," Michelle observes, "we graviasked to take over the relatively new
tated to technology eventually."
computer science department at USC in
Ron earned a Ph.D. degree in horti1984, he inherited what was essentially
culture before winding up as computa dysfunctional mess. There was a small
ing faculty. Michelle was a business
staff of about a dozen faculty, they had
journalist prior to joining "the corponot had a full-time department chair
rate side of the conference table," as
in years, and the culture seemed siloed
she puts it, where her clients included
and grim.
IBM Corp. and big-data pioneer Teradata
"There was a senior member who
Corp. At the Information Sciences Instididn't believe in collaborative work,"
tute, which shares credit for developGeorge recalls. "The instructions for
ing the Internet, she enlivened research
the assistant professors were to stay in
through words and images that spoke to
their offices and write papers with no
audiences not necessarily familiar with
coauthor."
its technology deep dives. Michelle now
"It was an interpersonal disaster in a
consults with other institutes, universivery young field," Michelle says. "He had
ties, and tech companies on communito bring it along both technically and
cations strategy and execution.
personally."
If you talk to anyone who has ever
A Visionary, Engineer,
worked with George, you quickly see that
and Computer Scientist
"technically and personally" are both
George is now emeritus faculty at the
areas where he naturally excels. Take a
USC Viterbi School of Engineering,
look at The Path to Autonomous Robots,
where he was a professor in three departedited by Gaurav S. Sukhatme, Ph.D.,
ments: Electrical Engineering, Computer
and subtitled Essays in Honor of George
Science, and Biomedical Engineering.
A. Bekey, in which many of George's forAlong with launching biomedical
mer students, calling themselves "The
research in the 1960s, well before the
Bekey Tribe," recount George's impact on
discipline was widely accepted, "He saved
their careers. They highlight his ability
a skeleton computer science department
to put them at ease, how he believed in
from almost certain death," Michelle
them when they did not, and his constant
says. "That department has now become
encouragement as he pushed them to
one of the top ten in the country."
pursue their own ideas.
"Top 25," George corrects her.
This last trait is one that Sukhat"I'm apparently prone to exaggerame calls "elusive among advisors," but
tion," Michelle quips.
George has always seemed to know that
Both are right, depending where you
this is from where the most innovative
get your information. U.S. News and
ideas come. They're the ideas that many
World Report lists USC as tied for 20th in

DECEMBER 2017

in the academic establishment can't
always get their heads around. For example, when George was editor of IEEE
Journal on Robotics and Automation
(which he founded), he received a paper
from young Massachusetts Institute of
Technology Assistant Professor Rodney
Brooks, prior to his founding the company
iRobot. This paper, which detailed a new
way to build controllers for robots, was
unanimously rejected in peer review, and
yet George went ahead and published it
anyhow. It is still one of the most cited
papers in the field, and Brooks is a bona
fide robotics star.

George Bekey is
emeritus faculty
at the USC
Viterbi School
of Engineering,
where he was a
professor in three
departments:
Electrical
Engineering,
Computer Science,
and Biomedical
Engineering.

Advocating for Women
What's more, George is a longtime
advocate for women in engineering.
One of his earliest experiences came
before USC, when he was out of the U.S.
Army and working in industry in the
1960s. As head of a department of about
a dozen engineers, he was on the hunt
to hire another. "I interviewed a woman
engineer, and one of my group leaders came to see me and said, 'If you
hire a woman, I quit,'" George recounts.
He offered her the job, but she didn't
take it, which means, as George says, he
never got to find out if the man would
carry through.
Hired by George, Alice Parker became
the first female electrical engineering
professor at USC. Five of George's 43
Ph.D. students have been women, which
Michelle points out is "five more than
most people had at that time in history,"
and three have been minorities. When
he turned over his robotics lab, he handed it to Maja J. Mataric,
´ who George had
recruited early in her career and who

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2017