SERGIO FRANCO is Emeritus Professor of Electrical Engineering at San Francisco State University, where he has taught courses in electronics since 1980. He was born in Friuli, and earned his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to becoming professor, Dr. Franco has had extensive industrial experience and has published in such diverse areas as solid state physics, pattern recognition, electronic music, IC design, and medical and consumer electronics.