Metcalfe's Law

WeAreAustinTech Interview

June 20, 2012

WeAreAustinTech has just added me to their video library of interviews of Austin tech folks. The interviews are very well done, and it is a high honor to be included.

Cockrell Commencement Address: The Grand Challenges

May 18, 2012

Bob delivered the keynote address at the Spring 2012 Cockrell School of Engineering Commencement ceremony Friday, May 18. Below is a transcript of his address.

Let's begin with a question: Are you an engineer? Well, I'm an engineer, and proud of it. There's no need to tell the other commencements going on around campus, but it's we engineers who make the world go round. Hurray for us!

Review of "The Idea Factory"

March 20, 2012

This review of Jon Gertner's "The Idea Factory" (Penguin Press) originally appeared in The Wall Street Journal.

William Bradford Shockley was difficult, but brilliant. For a long time he led solid-state physics research at Bell Telephone Laboratories, and there, in 1947, he invented something very important. Shockley's colleagues pondered what to call it, voting among six possible names, including "semiconductor triode" and "iotatron." The winner came from shortening "transconductance varistor" to "transistor."

Founderati

January 12, 2012

"Founderati" is what I'm calling the people who start up startups. I am getting ready to count them as a step in measuring the entrepreneurial impact of UT Austin.

You might think the people who start up startups should be called "founders." But, I've tried that, so has MIT, and there are problems.