P J HicksPeter Hicks is a lecturer in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics at UMIST where he has been engaged in teaching and research into the design and application of microelectronic components since 1978. Before that he worked for six ears in the Physics Department at the University of Manchester researching into detector systems and instrumentation techniques for scientific analytical instruments. His current research interests include VLSI and semi-custom design methodologies and the design of digital systems for image processing. As the Course Organiser of a Masters degree course on Integrated Circuit System Design at UMIST he has been responsible for introducing the teaching of full-custom and semi-custom IC design into the postgraduate curriculum. A Member of the IEEE and also the Institute of Physics, he received his B.Sc. in Physics and Electronic Engineering from Manchester in 1969 and the degree of Ph.D. from the same University in 1973. Read More Read Less