Sponsor: SCV/SF/OEB Jt. Section Chapter, EP21
Speaker: Paul Wesling

Date: 09 Oct 2025
Time: 08:00 AM PDT to 09:00 AM PDT
Cost:
Location:
Reservations: IEEE
Summary:
Silicon Valley is commonly acknowledged as the tech capital of the world. How did Silicon Valley come into being, and what can we learn for our own startups and tech hubs? How has Silicon Valley directly affected the IEEE?
The story goes back to local Hams trying to break RCA’s tube patents, Stanford “angel” investors, the sinking of the Titanic, WW II and radar, and the SF Bay Area infrastructure that developed – these factors pretty much determined that the semiconductor and IC industries would be located in the Santa Clara Valley, and that the Valley would remain the world’s innovation center as new technologies emerge, and be the model for innovation worldwide.
This non-technical talk will give an exciting and colorful history of development and innovation that began in Palo Alto in 1909. You’ll meet some of the colorful characters – Cyril Elwell, Lee De Forest, Bill Eitel, Charles Litton, Fred Terman, David Packard, Bill Hewlett, Bill Shockley and others – who came to define our worldwide electronics industries through their inventions and process development. We will profile four IEEE presidents from Silicon Valley: Fred Terman and his son Lew Terman; Bill Hewlett; and Charles (“Bud”) Eldon. You’ll understand some of the novel management approaches that have become the hallmarks of its tech startups.

Bio: Paul Wesling , an IEEE Life Fellow and Distinguished Lecturer, has observed the Valley for decades as an engineer, executive, resident, and educator. He received degrees in electrical engineering and materials science from Stanford University, then worked locally at companies including Lenkurt Electric, Sperry-Univac, and Amdahl, joining Tandem Computers in Cupertino in 1985. Paul retired from HP in 2001, then served as “Mr. IEEE” for the San Francisco Bay Area and editor of its GRID Magazine and Webmaster for 10 years. As vice president of publications for the IEEE Electronics Packaging Society for 22 years, he supervised four archival journals and a newsletter. He received the IEEE’s Centennial Medal, the Board’s Distinguished Service award, the Society Contribution Award, the IEEE’s Third Millennium Medal, and the EPS Society’s Presidential Recognition Award. He edited the IEEE/ASME/SEMI Heterogeneous Integration Roadmap for prediction of technology directions in electronics packaging.