Remembering Andrzej W. Olbrot [Historical Perspectives]

Although Andrzej Olbrot is no longer with us, memories of him remain in the minds of the academic community and his friends. Andrzej was handpicked by Michael Polis, then the chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Wayne State University, and came to the university as a visiting faculty member in the mid-1980s. Andrzej had a positive impact on the department and soon became the graduate advisor. In this position, he became highly popular among students, and I often found a long queue of students waiting to ask advice from him. He revamped the graduate studies program by modifying the qualifying exam, unifying directed studies requirements, and requiring that every student publish a research paper before submitting the Ph.D. thesis.