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L Howard Pollard Remembered

July 1, 2022

L Howard Pollard Remembered

ECE Prof Emeritus L Howard Pollard passed away on June 5, 2022 at the age of 74. Dr Pollard taught computer engineering at UNM for 34 years, including classes in all aspects of computer design, computer and microprocessor architecture, and hardware implementation.

In addition to his work at UNM and ISTEC, Dr. Pollard also led courses and discussions in both English and Spanish at the Universidad de Vigo (UVI) and throughout Spain, Columbia, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina. He also taught courses centered on microcontrollers, microprocessors and DSP systems in Indonesia, Philippines, and Poland. 

Dr. Pollard’s work experience began at Utah State University, where he designed special purpose digital systems for control of interferometric equipment. He then joined the Systems Group at Reticon and designed digital systems for non-contact measurement and inspection. This was followed by several years at Lockheed Missiles and Space, where he honed his skills in digital electronics and computer systems, constructing systems that aided general-purpose computers to perform algorithms for defense applications.   

His doctoral work focused on fault-tolerant protocols for bus communications. Dr. Pollard taught courses in digital design, computer design and operating related areas. He was the author of two textbooks: Computer Design and Architecture, 1990, and The Design Book: Techniques and Solutions for Digital Computer Systems, 1990. 

Dr. Pollard developed materials to use readily available hardware platforms, combined with university implemented circuit boards, to help students to quickly assimilate the skills needed to use both microprocessors and embedded systems in solving interesting technical problems

His research concentrated in the area of developing techniques and testing implementations for parallel processing organizations and communication methods. These projects have enabled measurements to catalog the effectiveness of a variety of techniques for extensible computer architectures.

Most recently Dr. Pollard developed a technique for managing data organization at high data rates and implementation of data windowing in real-time applications.

The L. Howard Pollard Memorial Scholarship has been set up to provide funds for computer engineering students. Please click this sentence to learn more.