Chairman’s Corner

By W.T. Miller

The rapid growth of the communication industry continued to have a major impact on the ECE Department during the 1996/97 academic year. Many of our undergraduate and graduate students work as student technicians in the UNH InterOperability Laboratory. This unique on-campus facility provides interoperability and standards compliance testing services to over seventy manufacturers of computer communication equipment, covering a wide range of networking technologies. This provides excellent training and professional experience for the students, exposing them to state-of-the-art communication hardware (including yet to be released systems) and high frequency test equipment. At the same time, these activities provide a valuable service to industry.

The ECE Department, the Computer Science Department and the UNH InterOperability Laboratory recently received a Research Infrastructure Grant from the National Science Foundation. The purpose of the grant is to support the development of interdisciplinary research facilities directed at various aspects of computer communication, to complement the ongoing industry sponsored testing activities. Under the terms of the grant, NSF is making available $473,000 in matching support over three years. The faculty members involved in this grant are currently hard at work arranging the required matching support from industry.

During the fall semester Professor Jennifer Bernhard supervised the first section of our new freshman course: EE401 Perspectives in Electrical and Computer Engineering. One goal of this course is to initiate during the students’ first semester the development of basic problem solving, communication, and time-management skills. Other goals are to introduce the profession and the broad scope of electrical engineering activities, and to provide a context for the electrical engineering curriculum. The technical content of the course is centered around three design problems which can be solved using high school level math and science, selected from different areas of electrical engineering (presented this year by Professors Bernhard, Kraft and Chamberlin). In addition, ample time is spaced throughout the semester for non-technical discussions. We hope that this course will assist the students in their transitions from high school students to engineering students to professional engineers.

The ECE Department’s Industrial Associates Program welcomed another new member this year: Fairchild Semiconductor, located in South Portland, Maine. The first ECE student intern is already in place at Fairchild this summer and we look forward to further interaction with them during the coming year. As a first step in this regard we are currently finalizing arrangements between UNH and Fairchild Semiconductor for the establishment of a microelectronics testing facility at UNH. Other member companies of the IAP include Cabletron Systems Inc., HADCO Corporation, the Raytheon Company, and Sanders, A Lockheed Martin Company.

Finally, this spring marked the end of my three-year tenure as Chair of the ECE Department. It seems like only a few months since I took over that position from John Pokoski (although I admit that some particularly trying intervals seemed endless at the time). Professor John LaCourse now occupies the department chair's office. I wish John the best in his new role. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank once again all of those alumni and friends who supported our department during the last three years. Without that support, the Department would be a less rewarding place for students and faculty alike.