Vol. 1, No. 1 newsq.297

Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

New Mexico State University

Las Cruces, NM 88003

his is the first issue of an alumni newsletter we plan to publish quarterly to tell you about your department and all of the exciting new things that are taking place. First you may have noticed that the name is now Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. This change took place three years ago, first as the Klipsch Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering for one year, then the Klipsch School. The Klipsch School is the only unit designated as a school at New Mexico State University. The school designation signifies size, quality, strength, reputation, and a broad range of specialties.

Paul W. Klipsch graduated with a BSEE from your department in 1926, obtained an MSEE at Stanford in 1934, served as a Lt. Colonel in the Army in World War II, and founded Klipsch & Associates, Inc., a world leader in the manufacture of high quality audio systems, in Hope, Arkansas. He has been a long time benefactor and supporter of your department and the college, providing support for students with the undergraduate and graduate Klipsch Scholarship funds, renovation funds for the Paul W. Klipsch Lecture Hall, as well as other endowments. In 1981, NMSU recognized his achievements with the award of an honorary doctorate. More information on Paul Klipsch can be found on the Internet at http://gauss.nmsu.edu/ecea/ klipsch.html and http://www.klipsch. com.

We hope to publish KlipschSpeaker quarterly in January, April, July, and October. We want to tell you exciting things about the students, faculty, and school, find out about you, and occasionally solicit your help.

Dr. Jay Jordan became the new head of the Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering on July 1, 1996. Dr. Jordan obtained his BSEE at NMSU while also participating in co-op assignments for PSL at NAVY tracking stations all over the world. After obtaining an MSEE here, Jay spent some time with Hewlett-Packard in Boise, Idaho, then returned to NMSU for his PhD. Dr. Jordan joined our faculty in 1981. As a professor, he established a national reputation in computer vision, digital signal processing and image processing. In 1993, Jay was a recipient of NMSU's Donald Roush Outstanding Teaching Award. Dr. Jordan feels that the greatest challenges facing the Klipsch School at the present time are curriculum revision, student recruitment and retention, and development of Klipsch School support from endowments, unrestricted gifts, and alumni.

The Academy of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECEA), now in its 6th year, is an independent organization made up of alumni and friends of the Klipsch School who have achieved national recognition for their contribution to the electrical and computer engineering field. The purpose of the Academy is to perceive the future of electrical and computer engineering and help direct the Klipsch School into the future so that together we produce the best possible electrical and computer engineering graduates. In addition to ongoing efforts, the Academy holds an annual series of meetings at the Klipsch School which provide discussions of current activities and concerns, as well as recommendations for future direction. These meetings are planned to coincide with the NMSU homecoming activities. The Academy nominates and elects new members who are inducted at an Academy banquet. Information on the Academy including current membership with biographies, by-laws, eligibility for membership, etc. can be found in the Klipsch School homepage at http://gauss.nmsu.edu: 8000/ecea/ecea.html. If you are interested in knowing more about the Academy, becoming a member, or wish to nominate someone, let us know. We will fax or mail the requested information to you.

Dr. Jordan assumed the position of head of the Klipsch School upon Dr. M. Don Merrill's return to teaching. Don became department head in August, 1989. Two of Dr. Merrill's most significant accomplishments are the establishment of the Klipsch School designation and creation of the Academy, each discussed earlier. Dr. Merrill plans to retire during the summer of 1997.

Dr. Gerald Flachs, father of our computer engineering program, retired during the summer 1996. He joined the faculty in 1969. His pioneering work in computer vision, video tracking, and sensor fusion earned him a world-wide reputation. Dr. Flachs plans to remain active in an exciting new research area: sensor fusion of human biometrics. Professors Elden Heiden and Warren Pollard will retire during the summer 1997. Professor Heiden retired from the Army with the rank of Lt. Colonel and joined the faculty in 1980. As teacher of our freshman electrical engineering courses and the freshman advisor, he has been a father figure to all of our entering students. Professor Pollard retired from the Army with the rank of Colonel and joined the faculty in 1983. Professor Pollard performs the record checks for every ECE graduate. Because of this close association, he has written countless letters of recommendation for our graduates.

During the past two years the Klipsch School has acquired four outstanding young faculty. Dr. Paul Furth joined the Klipsch School in August, 1995 after receiving his PhD from Johns-Hopkins. His specialty is microelectronics and VLSI design. Dr. Qing-Huo Liu came to us in 1996 from an industrial research career at Schlumberger. He received his PhD from the University of Illinois and his specialty is electro-magnetics and remote sensing. Dr. Phillip De Léon, another of our outstanding young professors, joined the faculty in January, 1996 after receiving a PhD from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Dr. De Léon's specialty is digital signal processing. Dr. James Le Blanc joined the faculty in August, 1996 coming from Rochester Institute of Technology. He received his PhD at Cornell University. His specialty is telecommunications. Finally, Dr. Juris Reinfelds moved from the Computer Science Department to the Klipsch School. Dr. Reinfelds served as computer science head for three years, then returned to teaching and research in 1991. Dr. Reinfelds has spent 30 years in university teaching and research and provides the Klipsch School with strong software engineering expertise.

Dr. Eric Johnson was recently awarded the 1997 College of Engineering's Bromilow Award for Excellence in Research. Dr. Johnson is an active researcher in the area of computer architecture and computer system performance analysis. He's developed an excellent research program which includes undergraduate, MS, and PhD students, and an extensive publication record. Eric is the director of NMSU TraceBase, a data base repository of computer instruction stream traces that can be downloaded to various research sites for computer performance analysis research. He is also director of the Klipsch School's Parallel Architecture Research Laboratory which supports research in high-speed computing and information warfare. Dr. Johnson is also involved in extensive consulting and has an international reputation in automation and cryptographic protection of global communication systems. Moreover, he will have a text published in spring 1997 and is active in the development of standards.

Dr. Qing-Huo Liu recently won the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers beginning their careers. A letter from the White House's John Gibbons, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, expressed appreciation for Dr. Liu's "contributions to the future of our nation" and for "leadership at the frontiers of science and technology." Dr. Liu traveled to the White House for a banquet, award ceremony, and colloquium on December 16, 1996. He is among 60 scientists and engineers selected nationwide for the award, which carries a $500,000 grant to fund five years of research. The grant, funded by EPA, concerns remote sensing of underground objects.

Computational physics is a research area concerned with the solution of supercomputer based models of physical phenomena such as solution of Maxwell's equations for radar cross section analysis of aircraft, current density across the heart in defibrillation, and analysis of remote sensing data for seismic oil exploration. Drs. Steve Castillo, Qing-Huo Liu, and Kwong Ng in our electromagnetics area investigate better ways to model the solution of partial differential equations and search for computer algorithms and architectures to solve these multi-million equation models faster. Recently, a proposal submitted to the Department of Defense HBCU/MI Infrastructure Program by Drs. Steve Castillo, Qing-Huo Liu, Kwong Ng, and Eric Johnson requesting $225,395 was accepted. The funding will be used to acquire a state-of-the-art multiprocessor SMP computer which will provide 10-20 times the performance of the College of Engineering's Cray, with a memory that is 2-4 times the size of the Cray memory at 1/4 the cost and 1/10 the maintenance. While the machine will be used primarily for research in computational physics, undergraduate and graduate students in classes related to computational physics and modeling will be able to use the machine as well.

The accurate, computer-based speaker-independent vowel recognition of vowels in spoken English has been a very difficult problem which some researchers have concluded impossible since vowels are spoken differently by different speakers and by the same speaker in different parts of the same sentence. In her dissertation research, Dr. Patricia Nava, who received her PhD from the Klipsch School in December, 1995 achieved dramatic improvement in recognition by combining the theories of fuzzy systems and neural nets to produce a neuro-fuzzy classifier that yields excellent classification accuracy. Specifically, classification accuracy, measured as the percentage of correct classifications, on the speaker-independent vowel recognition problem is 89% -- a considerable improvement over existing neural and neuro-fuzzy methods, whose classification accuracies range from 44% to 58%. Neural nets are excellent classifiers, but live in a yes-no, black and white world. Fuzzy systems allow for yes, no, to some degree, black, white, shades of gray. Neuro-fuzzy nets allow for imprecision in the classification, which is intrinsic in the speaker-independent vowel data in the first place, resulting in better classification.

Dr. Nava grew up in Las Cruces and obtained her BS, MS, and PhD at NMSU, all in electrical and computer engineering. After receiving her MS, she taught for six years at Northern Arizona University and California State University at Los Angeles before returning to NMSU for her PhD. She is currently an assistant professor in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP).

Have you seen the Klipsch School's web page at http://gauss.nmsu.edu/ ? Our web page tells about the Klipsch School students, faculty, programs, and research. Look us up. The NMSU web page address is http://www.nmsu.edu. You can get to our web page from NMSU's or directly at the address above. The university has a calendar of events web page at http://www.nmsu. edu/general/calendar. If you want to get in touch with us, obtain additional information, or tell us something about you or another alumni, contact the Klipsch School head, Dr. Jay Jordan at 505-646-3115 or E-mail to jjordan@nmsu. edu, or Dr. Javin Taylor, associate head and KlipschSpeaker editor at 505-646-1239 or E-mail to jtaylor@nmsu.edu. Or use the Klipsch School fax number, 505-646-1435.