TI has given me the opportunity to nurture my creativity into what Mr. Kilby called "practical realities." I have 21 issued patents and invented many techniques used in today's computers and high-definition TVs. I thank Mr. Kilby for showing engineers like me the way. We continue to refine and advance his genius with our own creative flourishes to improve the way we live.

Today, the worldwide demand for ICs represents a $250 billion/year industry. It continues to feed technological revolutions in every industry, from aerospace and electronics to medicine and zoology. But better still, it's changing people's lives around the world, including those in such emerging economies as Vietnam.

In medicine, new applications are helping turn large imaging and ultrasound devices into handheld products. Researchers also are using ICs and neurostimulation to affect eating and smoking habits, and depression.

And consider, in this energy conscious age, how chips are powered: an electrical cord or battery typically does the trick. But what if the power was pulled from such nontraditional sources as kinetic or ambient energy? For example, future cardiac defibrillators planted inside a human body could be powered indefinitely by the body's own heat.

Where will such innovation come from? Most will sprout from the imaginations of young graduates with degrees in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. We must encourage our youth to follow in Mr. Kilby's footsteps, embrace his passion for problem solving, and envision tomorrow's opportunities.

Just as Jack did.

Dr. Thanh Tran has extensive experience in audio, video, consumer PC, and multimedia systems design and is a manager of high-definition video-conferencing systems engineering at Texas Instruments. He has held other senior design positions at Compaq, ReplayTV, Eagle Wireless, Bose, and Zenith. Tran is an adjunct faculty member at Rice University where he is teaching digital/analog audio, video, and embedded systems design courses. He received a BSEE degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and masters and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Houston. His Ph.D. dissertation, direct sequence spread spectrum techniques, led to a patented clock distribution method. Tran can be reached at Thanh.tran@ti.com.