Alice C. Parker facts for kids
Alice Cline Parker is an American electrical engineer and a professor at the University of Southern California (USC). She studies how to design electronic systems using computers. Later, her work focused on creating computer systems that work like the human brain. She also explores how to make computers "see" like living things, and how to use tiny materials like carbon nanotubes in electronics.
Her Journey in Engineering
Alice Parker's father was a biochemist, which made her interested in science from a young age. When she was in high school, a physics teacher encouraged her to apply for an engineering scholarship. This scholarship helped her pay for college.
She became one of only two female engineering students at North Carolina State University (NCSU). After finishing her degree there in 1970, she went to Stanford University. She earned a master's degree in electrical engineering at Stanford.
Later, she returned to NCSU for her Ph.D. She studied how computers are built and how they work. She completed her Ph.D. in 1975.
From 1975 to 1980, she was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. There, she started working on "high-level synthesis." This is a way to use computers to automatically design complex computer parts. It helps create hardware from a description of what it should do.
In 1980, she moved to the University of Southern California. She has been a full professor there since 1991. She has also held important roles at the university, like Vice Provost for Research.
Awards and Honors
Alice Parker has received many awards for her work:
- In 1991, she was named a Fellow of the IEEE. This is a high honor for engineers. It recognized her work in designing computer systems.
- She won the Sharon Keillor Award for Women in Engineering Education in 2009. This award celebrates women who teach engineering.
- In 2017, she was added to the NCSU Electrical and Computer Engineering Hall of Fame.
