Electronic Design will be 50 years old this coming December. When you turn 50, you can either accept the event gracefully or rue the day. Right from the beginning, Electronic Design embraced its golden anniversary and decided to celebrate the milestone throughout 2002. Naturally, we named our effort Project50. We launched our year-long celebration in our January Top Ten Technology Forecast issue and continued with the Flashback column in every issue, reader polling online through July, and Special Anniversary Features in April, June, and September. Our celebration peaks with this special October commemorative issue. And, oh what a special issue it is.
For this golden jubilee, we have returned to the original 10.5-in. square format of Electronic Design, which is oversized compared to today's slimmer magazine dimensions. We even brought back our original logo on the front cover and on the issue's table of contents. The front cover itself is a specially commissioned painting by noted artist Doug Fraser.
Additionally, the editorial content is extra special. The issue comprises three principal sections, each devoted to celebrating a different aspect of electronics technology. In the Magazine section, we pay homage to the past 50 years of astonishing developments. In the Industry section, we look ahead to the next half-century of electronics technology. And the Profession section honors the men and women who create the technology. Finally, to close the issue on a high note, we offer Photo Finish, which serves as a family photo album of additional industry highlights and publishes your selections for the industry's Top 50 Milestones for the last 50 years.
The history of the modern electronics industry parallels that of Electronic Design, because the transistor was only a few years old when we first began publishing. That's why the Magazine section presents the Chronicles of the industry as a celebration of both the technology and the publication. Following the Chronicles is an overview of 50 companies that, just like Electronic Design, have survived in the electronics business for at least 50 years. Lastly, the Magazine section closes with what amounts to a tribute to major manufacturers who have the courage to keep on trying, even in the face of high-visibility failures. We call this feature Ten Notable Flops.
Whereas the Magazine section largely deals with the glorious past, the Industry section focuses on the even brighter future. We step off with a lively feature spotlighting Key Forces Who Shaped The Business, a compilation of the views of eight major industry leaders. Then a well-known futurist, Dennis Burrus, shares his informed insights into what awaits us 50 years from now. The Industry section goes on to provide a multipart look at Technology For The Ages, with four views--For People, For Business, For Government, and For Fun.
The last major section in the issue pays tribute to the Profession of the electronics design engineer. No matter the discipline, it takes the focus and devotion of an individual to create technology and thus advance the industry. In fact, some breakthroughs require the commitment of an entire career.
With this issue, Electronic Design is officially founding and launching its Engineering Hall Of Fame to honor the profession's most noteworthy individuals. It's our way of thanking the design engineers who have been the hallmark of our very existence and, indeed, our very name.
To open the Engineering Hall Of Fame, we are inducting 58 individuals who represent 50 landmark career achievements. Besides the Honor Roll of these 2002 inductees, including features on selected honorees, the Profession section brings you two other feature articles: The Generation Gap, an exploration of the differences between Baby Boomer and GenX EEs, and The Changing Face Of Engineering, which examines how the EE discipline has evolved over the decades.
The readers of Electronic Design also helped shape some of the contents for this issue. Through the Internet, you chose the 2002 inductees for the Engineering Hall Of Fame by voting for them on our Web site during the first half of this year. We also polled you (via our Web site) to select your choices for the most important industry landmark events over the past 50 years. We are calling them the Top 50 Milestones.
This commemorative issue was conceived and executed by the dedicated editorial staff of Electronic Design magazine. Because of the broad scope of the task and the need for extensive research, we called in more specialists to help. Special contributors lent their expertise to the project, and a team of researchers conducted exhaustive searches for facts and photos. Thanks to one and all for their considerable contributions.
From the outset, our 50th anniversary issue was envisioned to be more like a coffee-table book than a magazine issue. Most important of all, our high-concept commemorative publication had to be a treat for both the mind and the eye. We hope you find it is all that and more.