Bit Spreading Interleave Bits with Zeros

Code

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdint.h>

uint16_t spread_bits(uint8_t val) {
    uint16_t out = 0 ; 
    int i = 0 ;
    while(i < 16 && val)
    {
        out |= (val & 1) << i ;
        val >>= 1;
        i += 2;

    }
    return out;
}

int main() {
    uint8_t val;
    scanf("%hhu", &val);

    uint16_t result = spread_bits(val);
    printf("%u", result);
    return 0;
}

Solving Approach