Many faculty members he recruited went on to become Fellows of the IEEE as did many of his own 42 Ph. D. students. He was an energetic and challenging mentor to graduate students andfaculty.  As Professor Sandip Kundu, himself an IEEE Fellow recalls: “Working under Prof. Reddy was a constant adrenaline rush; he was always available and every time I presented him with new ideas, he responded with multiple counterpoints, challenging me to come up with something better the next time.”  Professor Kundu’s sentiment has been echoed by many others.

With the faculty’s consent he set high performance expectations and introduced differential teaching loads based on research productivity. His very broad understanding of Electrical and Computer Engineering, permitted him to read and shape the first proposal of every junior faculty member. As a result, there was a year when every new Assistant Professor was awarded the NSF Research Initiation award. Under his leadership the department rose steeply in the national research rankings and reputation. At a faculty meeting convened to discuss his first reappointment as DEO, the dean emphatically declared him to be “my best chairman”.

He made tremendous contributions to the department and college undergraduate curriculum. He was particularly instrumental in revamping the ECE curriculum multiple times, to keep it modern and responsive to student needs. Much before Networking became a staple course in ECE departments, he introduced one of the first such in this country. That course remains popular and topical to this day. The College’s undergraduate motto that in Iowa, “you become an engineer and something more” was in fact coined by him. Even though he was entitled to a reduced teaching load he often taught more than others to pick up slack due to sabbaticals or the departure of a faculty member.

He has published over 600 research papers many seminal. He began his career conducting research in error-correcting codes for reliable communications. Although he returns to that from time to time, he made a transition as an Assistant Professor to Testing of Large-Scale Circuits, an area far removed from his Ph. D. In many ways he defined this field and became an undisputed leader. His foundational contributions led to many best paper awards and international recognition. He was elected a Fellow of the IEEE in 1987, was inducted to the IEEE Computer Society’s Golden Core, received a Life-Time Achievement Award from the International Conference on VLSI Design in 2008, was named a Distinguished Alumnus of the Department of Electronics and Communications by Osmania University in 2013 and received the IEEE Test Technology Technical Council Lifetime Contribution Medal in 2018, and the College of Engineering Research Excellence award.

In the years since Professor Reddy stepped down as chair, he has continued to play a vigorous role in every aspect of the ECE department, among other things leading a Blue Ribbon Committee for modernizing the EE curriculum. He established the Sudhakar and Bharathi Reddy Scholarship for ECE undergraduates. His phenomenal commitment to his former colleagues, to his students and to his students’ students is well known and appreciated by all. The members of the Reddy network are extremely generous, quick to respond to requests to help fund a scholarship or look at the CV of a recent graduate. 

The absence of his towering presence leaves a vacuum that cannot be filled. All of us will sorely miss his intellect, wisdom, kindness and humor. As we bid him adieu, we live with the assurance that he will be only a phone call or an email away so that we can run to him for his sage advice and inspiration.