Bit Spreading Interleave Bits with Zeros

Code

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

uint16_t spread_bits(uint8_t val) 
{
    uint16_t a = 0;
    int t=0;
    for(int i=0;i<16;i+=2)
    {     
        int reg=(val&((1<<t)));
        if(reg!=0)
        {
             a=a|1<<i;
        } 
        t++; 
    }
     return a;
    return 0;
}

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

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

Solving Approach