Bit Spreading Interleave Bits with Zeros

Code

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

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

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

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

Solving Approach