Larkin Honored for His Contributions

Bob Larkin, a retired businessman who built the company Janel Labs (now Radio Frequency Systems) was named the "Industry Collaborator of the Year" at the annual Industrial Advisory Board meeting and Engineering Expo on April 30.

This award was created to recognize an industry member who has gone above and beyond the call of duty.

Larkin has been volunteering his time to the TekBots program, meeting with the program's development team nearly every week. He has been developing a wireless interconnect for the TekBots that will connect up to 256 TekBots with each other as well as a PC. This device will allow TekBots to return sensor data to the PC for processing.

Larkin has been working closely with electrical engineering student Nathan Mullen to develop the system. In the process, Larkin has become a mentor to Mullen. "He's even gone as far as inviting me over to his house to use his test equipment, which he probably now regrets, as I now go over there at least once a week, like a sponge trying to soak up as much knowledge as I can," said Mullen.

Larkin said he volunteers because after having a great college experience and going to work as an engineer, "...almost every day I have had fun, stimulating play and often been paid for it. So, I hope to maybe contribute a little something back!"

Industry Recognized for Contributions
	In addition, companies were recognized for their generous support of EECS during the past year. The following companies were given awards. Gold Award Analog Devices Cadence Design Systems Hewlett Packard* Intel* Mentor Graphics* National Semiconductor Sandia National Labs* Tetkronix* Texas Instruments Wind River Silver Award Adobe Systems AKM Semiconductor Altera IRZ Consulting Motorola Square D Bronze Award Agilent Technologies* Hackleman Consulting Portland General Electric* Weyerhaeuser Bronze = $5K+, Silver=$10K+, Gold=$50K+, *=INSPiRE Member