But as I grew older, my dreams changed. Technology grabbed my attention: first, PCs and cell phones and, later, DVDs, iPods, and the Internet. Soccer inevitably took a back seat to electrical engineering, a career path that I owe to man who, in 1958, brought a dream of his own to life.

Fifty years ago, Jack Kilby invented the integrated circuit, and practically everything we touch, do, and take for granted today has his fingerprint on it, from your toaster and microwave oven to your grocer's product scanner and doctor's diagnostic equipment. It's hard to imagine life today--and tomorrow--without Jack's chip.

As an electrical engineer in TI's DSP division, I'm proud to be a part of Mr. Kilby's legacy. For nearly 80 years, TI has been at the center of innovation, building on the past to shape a better future.

I regard Mr. Kilby as a genuine hero. Although his career achievements include a Nobel Prize and a place in the same National Inventors Hall of Fame as Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein, his story remains a well-kept secret. Yet his sliver of germanium, no bigger than a paperclip, changed the world.

When I enrolled in one of the world's top engineering schools, the University of Illinois, I didn't know Mr. Kilby. But, as I soon discovered, he had also roamed the same campus decades earlier.

There, I learned the nuts and bolts of engineering, which allowed me to understand today's applications and tomorrow's possibilities. It was also there that I learned of Mr. Kilby's story, which inspired me to continue his legacy of creativity and seek ways to push his invention even further.

I first applied Mr. Kilby's invention to a college design for an FM radio receiver. At the time, I didn't realize that his invention had made my design possible. Today, my three children cherish their Nintendos and Gameboys; but more importantly, they know who made them possible.

Education nurtured Mr. Kilby's curiosity and ideas about electronics. Ironically, his invention eventually made possible one of the greatest educational resources of this century: the Internet and its vast knowledge repository. My children, perhaps like yours, simply snap at their keyboards and set the thousands of integrated circuits inside a PC whirring to retrieve the information. In fact, my 17-year-old daughter routinely taps into the electronic ether and does computer programming in the hopes of one day turning her interest in engineering into a profession, just like her dear old dad.