Professor Emeritus Kenneth Carless (K.C.) Smith received the Engineering Alumni Medal at the annual Engineering Alumni Association's Awards Ceremony on November 2, 2011.
First awarded in 1939, the Engineering Alumni Medal is the highest honour awarded by the Engineering Alumni Association. High achievement is the common thread that links past recipients of this Medal. In their diverse careers, these individuals have demonstrated superior accomplishments and have responded with flair and excellence to the challenges they have faced. They are outstanding role models for Engineering students.
K.C. has contributed substantially to the field of electrical and computer engineering. Not only is he the co-author of the world’s best-selling electronics-circuits text, he is also a distinguished Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) member, mentor to young academics — nationally and internationally — and innovator of critical technologies used in the areas of computers and health care. After serving as Chief Engineer in the development of a high-speed multiprocessor computer at the University of Illinois, he came back to the University of Toronto as Associate Professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. In 1965, K.C. played a major role in shaping the department’s curriculum by introducing the teaching of semiconductor circuits at the undergraduate level. At the same time, he introduced a novel graduate course called Digital Electronics. These courses inspired a joint authorship between K.C. and one of his students, Adel Sedra. In 1982, this collaboration resulted in a book titled Microelectronic Circuits. By 2008, the fifth edition of the book — with many international English versions and translations — reached a sales level of a million copies, having been the world’s best-selling engineering electronics textbook for some time. The book is now in its sixth edition.
Throughout his illustrious career — which included serving as Chair of the Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering — he was appointed Chief Engineer of various enterprises. For instance, while at Owl Instruments, he designed a commercial line of radio-frequency lesion generators and a early commercial example of a shareable, hand-held, instant-access heart-rate monitoring systems for use in athletic facilities. As well, he designed a commercially viable nerve stimulator for patient self-control of local pain. From 1993 to 2008, as a member of a basic-research team and then as Principal Scientist of Z-Tech in Toronto, he designed commercial early-detection systems for breast cancer.
