Franzon Selected for Qualcomm Faculty Award

Dr. Paul Franzon has been awarded a 2021 Qualcomm Faculty Awards for research that is inspirational to graduate students and serves to spark new approaches in key technology areas.

Paul Franzon, Cirrus Logic Distinguished Professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State has been selected for the 2021 Qualcomm Faculty Award (QFA) for research that is inspirational to graduate students and serves to spark new approaches in key technology areas.

The QFA supports key professors and their research, with the goal of strengthening Qualcomm’s engagement with faculty who also play a key role in Qualcomm’s recruiting of top graduate students.

Qualcomm is an American multinational semiconductor and telecommunications equipment company that designs and markets wireless telecommunications products and services.

“The QFA program was created to recognize distinguished faculty research that inspires students and sparks new approaches in key technology areas, explained a Qualcomm representative. “Selection for QFA is internally driven.”

Franzon is an expert in constructing silicon microsystems for applications in computing, communications, sensors, robotics, and signal processing. An IEEE Fellow, he has received numerous recognitions for his research and graduate teaching, including ECE Graduate Teacher of the Year Awards in both 2005 and 2007, the College of Engineering Alcoa Research Award in 2005, and the College of Engineering Board of Governor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2014.

Prior to arriving at NC State in 1989, Dr. Franzon obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Adelaide in Australia, and was an engineer at the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organization while serving as an officer in the Australian Army Reserve.