Pioneer Series Archive
The MHI-sponsored Pioneer Series showcases members of our very own USC Electrical Engineering Faculty! These talks not only offer a technical presentation from faculty, but more importantly, will feature an oral history interview. These series of interviews will capture the inspiring journeys and stories of the many individuals who have helped shape and develop our department.
2018
Alexander A. (Sandy) Sawchuk
Leonard M. Silverman Chair Professor, Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering
Wednesday, Jan. 31st, 2018, 3 - 5PM, EEB 132
Title: Signal and Image Processing: Analog, Digital, and Everything In-Between
2017
Andrew J. Viterbi University of Southern California Trustee, Presidential Chair and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Title: A Tale of Two Careers: "It was the worst of times, it was the best of times" (with apologies to Mr. Dickens)
The last two thirds of the 20th Century was a period of tremendous upheaval and progress, social, political and especially technological. This was the period during which I pursued two careers which were tightly intertwined. Curiously both were also influenced by our nation’s most threatening competitor, Russia. The first was my academic career and the second my entrepreneurial career, both of which covered over thirty years, with considerable overlap. Though unrecognized at the time, my academic research had roots in the work of the Russian mathematician Andrei Markov, while with full recognition, my entrepreneurial career was launched and initially supported by our Defense research efforts to counter the Soviet threat...
2016
George A. Bekey
Professor Emeritus, Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering
Title: From Humble Beginnings to Global Prominence
My research career at USC was charecterized by variety. I have always had broad interests, and hence my research did not center in any one area for long periods. In this talk I will describe my wanderings from human-machine systems to hybrid analog-digital computing to biological control systems and finally to robotics. Of course, there were common threads in all these areas and I was successful in obtaining significant research funding in all of them. I will also highlight some of the more successful projects and the PhD students who made this success possible.
2015
Jerry M. Mendel
Professor Emeritus, Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering
Title: Ode to Joy of Research
Robert W. Hellwarth
University Professor, Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering
Title:
Ode to Joy of Research
Professor Robert W. Hellwarth, University Professor, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Physics and Astronomy, and holder of the George T. Pfleger Chair in Electrical Engineering, joined the University of Southern California in 1970. Over the past 45 years Professor Hellwarth has made numerous outstanding research contributions in the areas of quantum electronics; nonlinear optics; design and employment of lasers to aid a variety of practical and scientific efforts, from adaptive optics for astronomy to electro-optic modulators for communications. Professor Hellwarth has received several honors including the Charles Hard Townes Award of the Optical Society of America, the Quantum Electronics Award of the IEEE, and he is a member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
2014
Melvin A. Breuer
Professor Emeritus, Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering
Title: 50 Years of "VLSI" CAD
Solomon Golomb
University Professor, Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Mathematics, and Andrew and Erna Viterbi Chair in Communications, Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering
Robert A. Scholtz
Professor Emeritus, Ming Hsieh Departmant of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Title: Synchronization Dreams - The Reflections of Bob Scholtz
Beginning with a bizarre adventure from the “biography” of Secret Agent 00111, selected applications of synchronization to digital communication systems are revealed in a quasi-technical, quasi-historical fashion. Learn about the structure of comma-free codes, what characterizes a spread-spectrum system and how spreading and de-spreading systems are related to synchronization, thoughts about communication jamming, adaptation, and randomization, etc. Shakespeare, a science-fiction writer, a Holy Roman Emperor, a movie star, a bookshelf, and several USC faculty can be spotted along the way. This talk will conclude with some applications of synchronization to antenna systems (that is, if we can synchronize this presentation to the allotted time!)