Henry Samueli Receives IEEE’s 2025 Medal of Honor
Today, I don’t know anybody who can say they know what artificial intelligence is going to bring us in five years, let alone one year or two years," says Henry Samueli, a pioneer in digital modem technology and recipient of the IEEE’s 2025 Medal of Honor.
Early Days of the Consumer Internet
In the early days of the consumer internet, most access was via a dial-up modem, a device hooked up to a phone line that transmitted requests for web pages via squeaks and squawks like someone yelling into the line. That primitive connectivity was dramatically altered by the advent of the digital broadband cable modem, a device that helped turn chip-maker Broadcom into a huge public company.
A Lifetime Achievement Award
On Thursday in New York, Henry Samueli, 70, was honored with the equivalent of a lifetime achievement award in computing for having developed those innovations and founding Broadcom in 1991 with partner Henry T. Nicholas III.
The IEEE’s $2 Million Prize
The $2 million prize was awarded by the IEEE, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a public charity founded in 1884 that is the largest professional society for engineers globally, with half a million members. The IEEE’s CEO, Kathleen Kramer, introduced Samueli, saying his "vision and technological innovations spurred the development of communications products used by nearly every person."
The Future of Communications
"Fasten your seat belts because the world is changing at a pace now that we have never seen before," said Samueli in a fireside chat with Kramer and past IEEE CEO Ray Liu and IEEE COO Sophia Muirhead. "Today, I don’t know anybody who can say they know what artificial intelligence is going to bring us in five years, let alone one year or two years."
The Child of Polish Immigrants
Samueli, the child of Polish immigrants who settled in California, was inspired to study electronics by his success at building a "HeathKit" radio in high school. At UCLA, where he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees and was awarded a doctorate in electrical engineering, Samueli began working on how to make communications chips in a form far less complicated than was done at the time.
The Birth of Broadcom
Samueli and his collaborators sought grants to integrate different parts but were repeatedly rejected: "They all said, No way, it’s impossible, go away, we’re not interested." Finally, Samueli and co-founder Nicholas got funding from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). "DARPA loves disruptive technologies, super-high-risk, high-reward technology," he observed. With results that were ultimately "really significant", Broadcom was born.
Samueli’s Views on AI
During the Q&A, asked about the future of communications, Samueli emphasized that optical transmissions will increasingly be moved closer to computer chips to make the relationship between compute and communications optimal. "The closer you can bring that to the interface of the chip, the faster your systems will be. And that’s what we’re seeing a lot of these days in the AI networks. It’s more and more optical communication."
Advice for Young Engineers
When it was my turn to ask a question for ZDNET, I asked Samueli how he sees the future for human engineers as artificial intelligence becomes increasingly part of chip design. "AI is becoming an invaluable asset for designers to build their systems because they can offload the more mundane tasks of generating code for certain applications," said Samueli. "I still think, at least as of today, we need the creativity of the high-level thinkers, the architects, the algorithm developers, to see better ways of building the overall system."
Conclusion
Samueli’s is the first $2 million award in over 100 years of the IEEE Medal; previously, the award was $50,000. The organization decided last year to raise the amount to "elevate our recognition of extraordinary individuals," according to the IEEE’s 2024 CEO, Thomas Coughlin.
FAQs
Q: What is the IEEE’s 2025 Medal of Honor?
A: The IEEE’s 2025 Medal of Honor is a lifetime achievement award in computing for outstanding contributions to the field of electrical engineering.
Q: Who is Henry Samueli?
A: Henry Samueli is a pioneer in digital modem technology and founder of Broadcom.
Q: What is the significance of the $2 million prize?
A: The $2 million prize is the first of its kind in over 100 years of the IEEE Medal, and it recognizes Samueli’s outstanding contributions to the field of electrical engineering.
