Rob A. Rutenbar

Ph.D. University of Michigan, 1984

Research Statement

Rob A. Rutenbar received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1984, and then joined the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University. He joined the computer science faculty at the University of Illinois in January 2010, and is currently the Abel Bliss Professor of Engineering and head of the computer science department.  He has worked on tools for custom circuit synthesis and optimization for over 20 years, and on custom silicon architectures for speech recognition for the last half dozen years.

In 1998 he co-founded Neolinear Inc. to commercialize the first practical synthesis tools for analog designs. He served as Neolinear's Chief Scientist until its acquisition by Cadence in 2004. He is the founding Director of the US national Focus Research Center for Circuits and System Solutions -- called "C2S2". C2S2 is a CMU-led consortium of 19 US universities and over 50 faculty funded by the US semiconductor industry and US government to address future circuit challenges.

He has won many awards over his career, including the 2001 Semiconductor Research Corporation Aristotle Award for excellence in education, and most recently, the 2007 IEEE Circuits & Systems Industrial Pioneer Award. His work has been featured in venues ranging from "EE Times" to "The Economist" magazine. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and the ACM.

In the News