Bit Spreading Interleave Bits with Zeros

Code

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

uint16_t spread_bits(uint8_t val) {
    uint16_t out_reg;
    uint8_t odd_pos_cnt = 1;
    uint8_t even_pos_cnt = 0;
    for(int i = 0; i < 8;i++)
    {
        // even position
        if( (val >> i) & 1 ) // if  bit is 1
        {
            out_reg |= ( 1 << even_pos_cnt);
        }
        else
        {
            out_reg &= ~( 1 << even_pos_cnt);
        }
        // odd position
        out_reg &= ~( 1 << odd_pos_cnt);
        odd_pos_cnt +=2;
        even_pos_cnt +=2;
    }
    return out_reg;
}

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

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

Solving Approach