SAN JOSE, Calif. — After 20+ years as an EE Times reporter, I think it’s time for the first quasi-annual Merritt Awards for innovation in electronics engineering. These awards are completely subjective and not particularly planned or coordinated with any of my colleagues at EE Times.
One or two of these innovations weren’t quite complete in 2017, and a couple were actually fully baked before the year started. This end-of-the-year reflection was inspired in part by an email from a former colleague asking me to contribute to his 2017 list of top innovators.
Rather than try to name people, I chose to name things and hope all the people behind them will stand up and take a bow. My method was simple: I sifted through my tweets from the year (I tend to tweet out the headline of every major story I post) and scooped up the biggest nuggets I dredged up.
So here they are in reverse order:
#8 The March for Science: Whoever organized this multi-city celebration in April did a great job tapping into a pent-up desire to celebrate technology, the scientific method and the people who honor and practice it. I don’t know if an annual event is sustainable, but I hope to see another one sometime soon. Go Science!
Next page: #7 Microwave-Assisted Magnetic Recording