Academic career
Smith received the Bachelor of
Applied Science degree from the Division of
Engineering Physics (now Division of Engineering Science) in 1954, the M.A.Sc. in electrical engineering in 1956, and the Ph.D. in physics in 1960, all from the University of Toronto. Smith's publications are in the areas of
electronic circuits,
computer architecture,
multiple-valued logic,
instrumentation,
sensors,
machine vision,
neural networks,
computer music, human factors and human-computer interfaces, and
databases. Smith published over 150 scholarly papers. Two of his former graduate students are
Adel S. Sedra and
Bill Buxton. Smith and Sedra notably invented the
current conveyor, a general circuit
component similar to an
operational amplifier. They also co-wrote the undergraduate microelectronics textbook
Microelectronic Circuits, originally published in 1982 and now in its eighth edition (2020). The textbook has over one million copies in print as of June 1988. Smith was appointed an advisory professor in communications at Shanghai Tiedao University,
Shanghai, China in 1989. From 1993 to 1998, Smith was a visiting professor of electrical and electronic engineering at the
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, where he was founding director of its computer engineering department. ==Publications==
Publications
;Books selected K.C. Smith, A. Sedra, The current conveyor—A new circuit building block, Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 56, no. 8, pp. 1368–1369, August 1968. A. Sedra, K.C. Smith, A second-generation current conveyor and its applications, IEEE Transactions on Circuit Theory, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 132–134, February 1970. Zvonko G. Vranesic, E. Stewart Lee, Kenneth C. Smith, A many-valued algebra for switching systems, IEEE Transactions on Computers, vol. 19, no. 10, pp. 964–971, October 1970. E.A. Ozkarahan, S.A. Schuster, K.C. Smith, RAP—An associative processor for data base management, Proceedings of the National Computer Conference, pp. 379–387, May 1975. W. Buxton, M.R. Lamb, D. Sherman, K.C. Smith, Towards a comprehensive user interface management system, Computer Graphics, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 35–42, July 1983. S.K. Lee, W. Buxton, K.C. Smith, A multi-touch three-dimensional touch-sensitive tablet, Proceedings of the 1985 Conference on Human Factors in Computer Systems, pp. 21–25, April 1985. K.C. Smith, Multiple-valued logic: A tutorial and appreciation, Computer, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 17–27, April 1988. R. Safaee-Rad, I. Tchoukanov, K.C. Smith, B. Benhabib, Three-dimensional location estimation of circular features for machine vision, IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, vol. 8, no. 5, pp. 624–640, October 1992. == Service ==
Awards and honors
Smith was elected fellow of the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 1978 for "contributions to
digital circuit design" and became a Life Fellow in 1996. In 1984, he received the IEEE Computer Society Certificate of Appreciation "for contributions to multiple-valued circuit and device technology". In 2009, he received the IEEE Canada Computer Medal for "lasting technical and educational contributions to electronics for computing". He also received University of Toronto Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering Alumni Medal in 2011. In 2012, the "Kenneth C. Smith Early Career Award for Microelectronics Research" was created by the International Symposium on Multiple-Valued Logic to honor Smith for his contribution to the field of multiple-valued logic. In 2014, Kenneth C. Smith and Laura Fujino were presented with the Annual Creativity in Electronics (ACE) Award, selected by a panel of EDN and EE Times editors. Other awards include: • IEEE International
Solid-State Circuits Service Award, 2000 • Special Issue of the Journal of Multiple-Valued Logic (MVL) and Soft Computing, in recognition of Smith's 70th year and 30 years of contributions to MVL, 2003 • IEEE Computer Society Service Award, 2004 ==References==