[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 23 (Tuesday, February 9, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E147]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 IN HONOR OF DR. ANDREW J. VITERBI RECEIVING THE CHARLES STARK DRAPER 
                         PRIZE FOR ENGINEERING

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                            HON. JUAN VARGAS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 9, 2016

  Mr. VARGAS. Mr. Speaker, I rise on behalf of Rep. Scott Peters, Rep. 
Duncan Hunter, and Rep. Susan Davis today to congratulate Dr. Andrew 
Viterbi on being awarded the Charles Stark Draper Prize for Engineering 
for the development of the Viterbi algorithm.
  One of the world's preeminent awards for engineering achievement, The 
Charles Stark Draper Prize for Engineering was established in 1988 at 
the request of the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Inc., to honor the 
memory of ``Doc'' Draper, the ``father of inertial navigation,'' and to 
increase public understanding of the contributions of engineering and 
technology. The National Academy of Engineering annually awards the 
prize in recognition of innovative engineering achievements and their 
reduction to practice in ways that have led to important benefits and 
significant improvement in the well-being and freedom of humanity.
  Andrew J. Viterbi is president of the Viterbi Group, which advises 
and invests in startups in the digital and wireless communication 
fields. As cofounder of Linkabit in 1968 and Qualcomm in 1985, he led 
the development of innovative technologies based on code division 
multiple access. In addition to his career in the communication 
industry, Viterbi was a professor at the UCLA School of Engineering and 
Applied Science from 1963 to 1973 and then taught part-time at the 
University of California, San Diego, where he has been professor 
emeritus since 2004. Viterbi received his Ph.D from the University of 
Southern California (USC), where he and his wife Erna Viterbi made a 
naming gift to rename the USC engineering school the Viterbi School of 
Engineering. Viterbi was elected to the National Academy of Engineering 
in 1978 and the National Academy of Sciences in 1996.
  Andrew J. Viterbi developed the Viterbi algorithm as a method for 
enhancing error-correcting code used in telecommunication, making it 
easier to eliminate static in transmissions. The Viterbi algorithm has 
had the greatest impact in digital cellular phones, but it is also used 
in other applications such as cable, DSL modems, and Ethernet. The 
Viterbi algorithm has also been instrumental in interplanetary 
communication signals, allowing for greater signal strength in deep 
space missions such as the Mars Pathfinder, the Mars Exploration Rover 
and the Cassini probe to Saturn. Usage of the Viterbi algorithm has 
been expanded to include speech recognition, speech synthesis, keyword 
spotting, computational linguistics, and bioinformatics.
  Mr. Speaker, we would echo the National Academy of Engineering 
President C. D. Mote, Jr. who said ``The Viterbi algorithm has led to 
significant benefits to the health, safety, and well-being of the 
world's citizen. His work embodies the prize's mission, which is to 
recognize an engineer whose accomplishments have meaningfully impacted 
society.''

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