Carlo H. Séquin is a professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his Ph.D. degree in experimental physics from the University of Basel, Switzerland in 1969. From 1970 till 1976 he worked at Bell Telephone Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ, on the design and investigation of Charge-Coupled Devices (CCD) for imaging and signal processing applications. He was on the team that created the first all solid-state camera with television resolution in 1975. This imaging application was the main feature in the report to the Nobel committee, when his department head, G. E. Smith, and his Executive Director of Research, W. S. Boyle, received the Nobel Prize in Physics for the invention of the CCD principle. Together with Mike Tompsett he wrote the seminal book on Charge Transfer Devices.
In 1977 he joined the faculty in the EECS Department at Berkeley. He started out by teaching courses on the subject of very large-scale integrated (VLSI) circuits, thereby building a bridge between the CS division and the EE faculty. In the early 1980's, jointly with Dave Patterson, he introduced the `RISC' concept to the world of microcomputers. This started the trend of a quantitative approach to computer architecture, which in 2017 lead to the Turing award for John Hennessy and David Patterson.
From 1980 till 1983, Séquin was head of the Computer Science Division. Subsequently, together with Domenico Ferrari, and successor chairs of the CS Division, he spent a substantial fraction of his time on the design and realization of Soda Hall, the new home in 1994 for the rapidly growing CS Division. As an outgrowth of this assignment, his graduate students SethTeller and Tom Funkhouser created a pioneering piece of software that enable real-time, interactive walk-throughs through complex virtual building models. Since then Séquin has concentrated on computer graphics, geometric modeling, and on the development of computer aided design (CAD) tools for circuit designers, architects, and for mechanical engineers. During the 1990’s he has collaborated with Paul Wright in Mechanical Engineering on the CyberCut/CyberBuild project with the goal to streamline the path from creative design to rapid prototyping. In their lab, they operated one of the first 3D-printers on the Berkeley campus. Séquin was also involved in the design of Jacobs Hall, which now offers a heavily used maker-space with more than a dozen 3D-printers.
Since the mid-1990’s, Séquin's work in computer graphics and in geometric design have provided a bridge to the world of art. In collaboration with a few sculptors of abstract geometric art, in particular with Brent Collins of Gower, MO, Séquin has found yet another domain where new frontiers can be opened through the use of computer-aided tools. Large bronze sculptures resulting from collaborations between Brent Collins, Steve Reinmuth of the Bronze Studio in Eugene, OR, and Carlo Séquin have been installed in the courtyard of the H&R Block headquarters building in Kansas City, in the Science Center of Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, and also in the lobby of Sutardja Dai Hall at U.C. Berkeley. In 1998, he helped inaugurate the annual Bridges Math-Art Conference, and he is still continuing on its board of directors. For most years he has been active as a reviewer, as a track chair, or as a proceedings editor.
From 1985 till 2012, Séquin has taught the Introductory Graphic course, and graduate courses on Computer-Aided Design and Modeling, and on Procedural Modeling of Solid Shapes. He has directed the research of 27 Ph.D. students and has supervised 79 graduate students in the completion their Masters Theses. Every year he is also working with several undergraduate students on individual study or programming projects involving solid-modeling and optimization tasks.
Dr. Séquin is a Fellow of the ACM, a Fellow of the IEEE, and has been elected to the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences. He has received the IEEE Technical Achievement Award for contributions to the development of computer-aided design tools, the Diane S. McEntyre Award for Excellence in Teaching, and an Outstanding Service Award from the University of California for Exceptional Leadership in the Conception, Design and Realization of Soda Hall. In 2016, he received the Berkeley Citation for distinguished achievement and for notable service to the University; and in 2017, he was recognized as a Solid Modeling Pioneer by the Solid Modeling Association.