Innovation of Precision: Next Industrial Revolution Enabled by Digital Fabrication at Atomic Scale
Dallas Section - IEEE Communications & Vehicular Technology
Final Notice. See you in a few hours.
Please consider joining us for this interesting topic on 1/20/26.
Dallas CVT January 2026 update
Dallas IEEE Communication and or Vehicular Society member,
Please join us for our January 2026 CVT meeting.
We will again meet on the University of Texas at Dallas campus in the SPN.1 building.
Our meeting talk will be 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM, lunch will be available starting around 11:30 AM.
Lunch: We continue to provide a lunch option for our meetings.
Prepay via the IEEE website,
IEEE Members $15.00
IEEE Life Members $10.00
Non-IEEE Members $20.00
UTD ECE students: $2.00 (after the first 5 – which are at no cost to the student, provide you pre-register)
Pay in person:
IEEE Members $20.00
IEEE Life Members $15.00
Non-IEEE Members $25.00
January 20 meeting, UT Dallas SPN.1, registration opens at 11:30 AM, talk begins at 12:00 PM
Title: "The Innovation of Precision: The Next Industrial Revolution Enabled by Digital Fabrication at the Atomic Scale"
Speaker: John N. Randall, CEO of Zyvex Labs
Date: January 20, 2026
Location: UTD Synergy Park North Building; 3000 Waterview, Richardson, TX
Directions: NE Corner Synergy Park Blvd and Steward Dr.
Lunch Cost: see below.
Abstract: Human ingenuity is arguably limitless. Human technological progress is limited manufacturing precision. I will cite several historical examples where important technologies were not only conceived of but actually prototyped centuries before manufacturing precision allowed these inventions to impact economies and societies.
Richard Feynman in his famous “There is Plenty of Room at the Bottom” lecture in 1959 described what might be possible working at the molecular and atomic scale. Eric Drexler in 1986 conceived mechanosynthesis technology that could create a huge array of materials and products with orders of magnitude better capabilities than even technologies in 2026.
I never met Feynman but have the great fortune to meet and know Drexler. I suggested to Eric in the early 2000s that his mechanosynthesis was in fact a digital technology. He indicated that this was only an analogy that would appeal to electrical engineers and was not an important distinction.
Today, I will argue that we are on the precipice of another industrial revolution and a 2nd Digital revolution, this time in fabrication rather than information. However, it will only succeed if we develop tools with atomic scale, or perhaps more accurately molecular bond length precision. My conception of how this will happen will take advantage of quantum mechanics using a tool invented in the early 1980s.
Bio:
John N. Randall, CEO of Zyvex Labs, Executive VP of Teliatry, Adjunct Professor at UT Dallas, and Fellow of the AVS, IEEE, and Micro Nano Engineering Society, has over 40 years of experience in Micro- and Nano- Fabrication. He has attracted over $48M in research contracts to Zyvex and resulting products have grossed over $850M. He joined Zyvex in March of 2001 after 15 years at Texas Instruments where he worked in high resolution processing for integrated circuits, MEMS, and quantum effect devices. He fabricated the world's first semiconductor quantum dot. Prior to working at TI, John worked at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory on ion beam and x-ray lithography. He has 126 articles published in refereed journals, more than 85 conference proceedings and other publications and 36 issued US Patents with a total of 6613 citations.
Pre-registered and paid via the IEEE website:
IEEE Members $15.00
IEEE Life Members $10.00
Non-IEEE Members $20.00
UTD ECE students: $5.00
Pay in person and pre-registered but not yet paid:
IEEE Members $20.00
IEEE Life Members $15.00
Non-IEEE Members $25.00
Anyone not pre-registered will be charged the ‘Guest’ rate.
There is No charge for 'No Lunch, just attending the talk'.
Thanks in advance, and all the best.
Larry
Anyone without a Pre-registration for lunch will be asked to wait until all pre-registered have had a chance to go through the buffet line.
Dallas IEEE CVT Board members emails:
larryjhorner@gmail.com
andrewsilver@ieee.org
jimgunn@ieee.org
shmuel.hovav@gmail.com
eb0549@att.com
ed.hightower@iotandbeyond.com
dinesh@utdallas.edu
divya.khanure@ieee.org
Date and Time
Location
Hosts
Registration
-
Add Event to Calendar
- 3000 Waterview Pkwy
- Richardson, Texas
- United States 75080
- Building: SPN 1
- Room Number: 2.220
- Click here for Map
- Starts 02 January 2026 10:00 PM UTC
- Ends 19 January 2026 11:00 PM UTC
- Admission fee ?
Agenda
Food/Lunch:
Cost for lunch:
Level of Membership Prepaid Pay at Event
UTD student with ID $2.00 $2.00
IEEE Member $15.00 $20.00
IEEE Senior Member $15.00 $20.00
IEEE Life Member $10.00 $15.00
Non-member $20.00 $25.00
Please look for your specific Member type in Payment portion of Registration process (Life, Senior, Regular Member, etc.).
(First 5 Students who have registered in vTools as recorded within vTools date/time stamp on the registration will be given their $5 back at the event, provided they attend), also all students must show UT Dallas ID at the desk the day of the meetings.
Parking passes will be available to those that register, and lunch for a fee.
You do not need to be an IEEE member to attend these presentations.