Student Blogs
PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering
 | Jonathan is a 1st year Ph.D. Research Engineer and Student in the Bicoastal Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering Program. He is a former freelance wireless engineering consultant and former RF Engineer from EDO Communications & Countermeasures Systems. His ECE research interests include evolved hardware, machine learning, robotics, and green technologies. |
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Guess Who Won the Engineers Week CIT Library Blog Contest?!
Hi Folks! I'm excited to announce that my blog entry was selected for the CIT Library Blog's "Engineers Week" Contest! Basically, I wrote up an entry on how I've been able to use the library as a remote student and what the experience has been like for. Check out my "award-winning" piece below:
http://search.library.cmu.edu/rooms/portal/page/21330_Engineering__CIT
Jonathan Becker
Electrical & Computer Engineering
I am an ECE Ph.D. student currently located at the Silicon Valley campus in the west coast. As such, I have yet to physically step foot in any of the Carnegie Mellon libraries. That's not to say that I do not use any of the library services, as part of my Ph.D. research involves finding, reading, and evaluating published conference and peer-reviewed journal papers. For my first Ph.D. project, I am designing an anti-jamming 802.11 antenna beamformer array using genetic algorithms to find optimal antenna phase and attenuation settings. For my second project, I am designing solar antennas that can convert sunlight into usable electric currents. For both projects, I not only need to read books on related subjects, but I need to read as many conference and journal papers as I can possibly find. This way, I can understand what research has already been done in my project areas, so I can implement new technologies to help solve my engineering problems. It also helps me prepare for my quals.
Now, you may ask where the CMU libraries come in all of this? Simple! Since I cannot physically visit any of the libraries in person, I login into the CMU Library’s Virtual Private Network, and I search and download online articles. I've found this to be a great service to my learning out here in the Silicon Valley. Once I'm logged in, I have a cornucopia of conference and peer-reviewed journal articles ready for me to download and read.
posted by becker-phd @ 5:45 PM
3 comments
Getting Ready for Quals and a Shameless Plug...
The first couple weeks of the Winter semester are over. Right now, I am taking one class on controlling non-linear systems using neural networks. Instead of a final exam, this class has a project. I spent a couple of weeks debating on what I wanted to do for my class project. I considered doing my class project on controlling a robot using neural networks and entering it in Cal Poly San Luis Obispo's Roborodentia contest. (This would be a cool way to show off Carnegie Mellon's Ph.D. program to potential applicants at Cal Poly SLO.) However, considering the amount of hardware development involved in building a robot in less than three months and the fact that I have other Ph.D. projects and quals coming up this Fall, I decided it would be better to do my class project on controlling a beamformer using neural networks. The beamformer problem is one of my Ph.D. projects, after all.
As I mentioned before, I have quals coming up later this Fall. For those of you who are not familiar with Carnegie Mellon ECE Department's Ph.D. quals process, I need to choose three published papers related to my Ph.D. work, write a four page document on these papers, and give a presentation in front of a panel of ECE professors (a.k.a. the qual committee). It is not sufficient for me to just summarize the three papers I chose, as I am expected to show my understanding of the topics by going beyond what was published. For example, I can find mistakes in the papers or explain how the authors could or might proceed with what they had previously developed. I had originally thought of choosing papers on solar antennas (my other Ph.D. project). However, through our weekly Ph.D. paper discussions, I soon realized that presenting papers on solar antennas would open me to questions by the qual committee in areas that I am not fully prepared to answer: Terahertz semiconductor physics, for example. Instead, I've decided to focus on papers related to areas I know well such as wireless communications, machine learning, neural network control, and beamforming using machine learning techniques. Of course, you may notice the tie-in to my beamformer Ph.D. project. After all, one (but no more than one) of the papers I choose for my quals can be a paper I wrote and published. I've written and submitted a conference paper on simulating a robot using machine learning techniques for my machine learning class last fall, and I plan on writing and submitting a conference paper on my Ph.D. and class project beamformer controlled by neural networks. After all, a great way of showing that I understand the topics I selected for my quals is to present a project that I developed.
On a bit of the fun side, and a shameless plug if you don't mind, I've entered the 2010 Dell Social Innovation Competition with my solar antenna Ph.D. project. You can read my entry and please vote (by March 1st) for it at http://tinyurl.com/solarantennas. The first round ends on March 1st. Not only do 50 entries selected by the judges move on to the semifinals, but the 10 entries with the most votes also become semifinalists. I think it would be really cool to win this competition, so I greatly appreciate your support. I'll let you know how I did after March 1st.
posted by becker-phd @ 9:56 AM
1 comments
Starting off the PhD program!
Hello! My name is Jonathan Becker. I am a Ph.D. Research Engineer in the ECE Department's Bicoastal Ph.D. Program at Carnegie Mellon University. Currently, I am at the Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley Campus located in the NASA Ames Research Center (Moffett Field, CA).
Prior to joining Carnegie Mellon, I was a Wireless Consultant in the wireless industry. Prior to being a consultant, I led radio interference cancellation system design projects and Threat Analysis Technique Development (TATD) for IED jammers at EDO Communications and Countermeasures systems (now part of ITT). I was an RF Engineer at that company. Prior to joining EDO, I worked as a Hardware Interface Design Engineer at Teradyne. I earned multiple group patents while developing high-performance hardware interfaces between Teradyne's next-generation VLSI / Memory tester and customer IC probers.
To date, I completed my first semester at Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley. I completed two courses: Statistical Discovery and (Machine) Learning, and Mobile and Pervasive Computing. I am very excited to say that I submitted a group conference paper detailing the work that my group (Including fellow Ph.D. Research Engineers Aveek Purohit and Zheng Sun) did for our machine learning course. Our group paper that I submitted for the ASME 2010 Conference on Innovative Virtual Reality is titled "Controlling a Simulated Robot Using Machine Learning Techniques." I hope that my group's paper will be accepted into this conference, as it would be very exciting for my group to present the results of our course project to our peers.
In addition, the ECE Ph.D. program is not just about taking courses, it is about completing research projects that expand the Electrical and Computer Engineering field. Currently, I am working on two research projects with my CMU SV advisors Professors Jason Lohn and Ted Selker:
1. Dynamically Reconfigurable Antenna Arrays for Anti-Jamming and High-Performance Applications.
2. Converting Light Spectra into DC Electricity Using Solar Antennas: Technology Development and Applications.
My first project is exciting because I am using machine learning techniques (similar to those that Professor Lohn used in creating evolved antennas) to dynamically control the phase and attenuation of each antenna to steer nulls in directions of jamming signals. In addition, I find my second research project to be very exciting not only because it has the potential to create solar technology that is more efficient and cheaper than current photovoltaic technologies, but because my advisors and I are exploring several novel and ground-breaking ways of developing solar antennas.
In closing, I chose Carnegie Mellon University for several reasons. First, Carnegie Mellon has a great reputation as an ECE and Computer Sciences research university. Second, Carnegie Mellon University has a bicoastal Ph.D. program that allows me to share my time between the main campus in Pittsburgh and the Silicon Valley Campus. I especially enjoy doing my coursework and research projects in the Silicon Valley where I am exposed to the plethora of technology companies that literally surround me. Third, Carnegie Mellon has a wide variety of exciting research projects and areas for me to complete my studies. As a Ph.D. Research Engineer and Student, I am not pigeon holed into one specific specialty. Instead, I can take courses and perform research in multiple areas including RF / wireless hardware, machine learning, mobile computing, robotics, and solar technologies. Fourth and finally, I chose Carnegie Mellon University because its professors are open to new ideas, and they are available to discuss all kinds of ideas related to courses and research projects.
posted by Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley @ 1:30 PM
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