ABSTRACT

This chapter looks briefly at several special engineers that make their marks in some aspect of their fields. These engineers are as follows: (1) Chester Carlson, (2) Norman Augustine, (3) Jack Welch, (4) Eberhardt Rechtin, (5) Andy Grove, (6) Irwin Jacobs, (7) Andy Viterbi, (8) Simon Ramo, (9) Claude Shannon, (10) Tom Watson, Jr, (11) Frederick Brooks, Jr, and (12) Barry Boehm. Briefly:

Carlson was the brain behind the copying machine, and held the key patents

Augustine was an aeronautical engineer that became president of Lockheed-Martin

Welch was a chemical engineer that grew into the position of CEO of GE

Rechtin was a master engineer that served as a president of the Aerospace Corporation

Grove was a major force behind Intel (the company)

Jacobs and Viterbi made significant contributions with entrepreneurial ideas and ventures

Ramo was a founder of TRW, and a leader in systems engineering

Shannon basically created the field of “information theory”

Watson was the key player in the building of IBM

Brooks and Boehm have been leaders in software engineering