Boykin received his first patent for a wire precision resistor in 1959 that enabled manufacturers to accurately designate a value of resistance for an individual piece of wire in electronic equipment. Two years later, in 1961, he received a patent for an improved version of this concept, an inexpensive and easily producible electrical resistor model with the ability to “withstand extreme accelerations and shocked and great temperature changes without change or breakage of the fine resistance wire or other detrimental effects.” Boykin’s invention significantly reduced the cost of production of hundreds of electronic devices while making them much more reliable than previously possible. The transistor radio was one of the many devices affected by his work.

Other applications of Boykin’s invention included guided missiles, televisions, and IBM computers. Additionally, his device would enable the development of the control unit for the artificial heart pacemaker, a device created to produce electrical shocks to the heart to maintain a healthy heart rate.

Boykin created the electrical capacitator in 1965 and an electrical resistance capacitor in 1967 as well as several consumer products ranging from a burglar-proof cash register to a chemical air filter. In all, Boykin patented 26 electronic devices over the course of his career.

Marian Rogers Croak (born May 14, 1955) is an American engineer known for her voice over IP (VoIP) related inventions. Croak worked for three decades at Bell Labs and AT&T where she filed over 200 patents, and has worked at Google since 2014 as Vice President of Engineering, In 2022, she was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for her work with VoIP.

In 2014 she joined Google as a vice president in the engineering group. At Google, she is responsible for expanding what the Internet is capable of doing around the world and increasing access to the Internet in the developing World. She created a new center of expertise on Responsible AI focusing on ethical
development of AI within Google Research, and now works on Human Centered AI. Croak also works on encouraging women, young girls, and underserved communities
in engineering.

In 2016, Croak was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame. Croak was also inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF), the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2022. Because of this, she became one of the first two Black women to beinducted to the NIHF, joining the ranks of 48 other female inductees and 30 other Black inductees.