How a Small Class at Caltech Helped Launch a Computer Revolution

One of the foundational early advances in computer science that makes our increasingly digital world possible began with a small course at Caltech in the early 1970s taught by Carver Mead (BS '56, MS '57, PhD '60), the Gordon and Betty Moore Professor of Engineering and Applied Science, Emeritus. Mead received the 2022 Kyoto Prize for Advanced Technology in honor of his "leading contributions to the establishment of the guiding principles for VLSI systems design." VLSI, which stands for "very large-scale integration," is the process of combining millions of transistors onto a single chip that forms an integrated circuit and it is the cornerstone of the computers the world relies on today. [Caltech story]