About the Hung Chang and Anchen Lin (HCAL) Fund

Professor “Jimmy” Lin was a beloved professor of Electrical Engineering of University of Maryland, known for not only his energy and dedication—he missed just one class over 30+ years of teaching—but also for his innovative ideas. A pioneer in circuitry and semiconductor development, he held 57 U.S. patents. His inventions are widely used in most integrated circuits ranging from sophisticated industrial products to PCs, cell phones, wireless microphones, and audio amplifiers. His inventions, awards, patents, certificates, were all well preserved in the University Archives. “He understood the importance of academic engineering connecting to real people,” says Patrick O’Shea, Vice President for Research at the University of Maryland and former Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). “It wasn’t research for the sake of research. It was about making a difference in real people’s lives.” He retired in 1990, then served as professor emeritus, mentoring junior faculty. One of them, Martin Peckerar, now a full professor, said that Professor Lin “bubbled over” with ideas and believed true innovation happens at the grassroots level in small business. His contributions will continue to synergize entrepreneurship efforts at the University of Maryland. In 2008, Professor Lin initiated an endowment of the Jimmy Lin Award for Innovation and Invention, for students, staff and faculty in the A. James Clark School of Engineering to get their inventions into the marketplace. Following his death in 2009 at age 89, his widow, Anchen Lin, established the Hung Chang and Anchen Lin Fund to further his legacy as an advocate of innovation and entrepreneurship. In 2010, she established the Jimmy Lin Endowment for Entrepreneurship, which provides annual awards to the teams from ECE that placed highest in the University’s annual Business Plan Competition and the Invention of the Year contest, and a third award supports internships with startup companies in the University of Maryland-China Research Park. In 2011, she started the Jimmy Lin Entrepreneurship Scholarship for 10 ECE graduate students yearly, who earned their undergraduate degree at Jiao Tong University, Lin’s alma mater, and from campuses both in China as well as in Taiwan. She also donated Prof. Lin’s papers, patents, and memorials to University Archives at Hornbake Library for future generation of researchers. In 2012, she gifted the Dr. Jimmy Lin Conference Room in the A. V. Williams Building, featuring a timeline of his inventions and how they benefited our everyday life, to further inspire future generation of students to follow in his footsteps. Ms. Anchen Lin's continued generosity has enabled the Lin Endowment to be recognized as a $1 Million Dollar Donor. In 2016, her latest gift was the 307 Lab: The Jimmy H.C. Lin Electronic Circuits Design Lab. ENEE307 was Dr. Lin's favorite courses to teach, and the lab is a state of the art electronics lab with the latest equipment and course material.