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What do a handful of outstanding students from Canada, Singapore, Portugal, Switzerland, and Milwaukie, Oregon, have in common?
They all heard about the reputation of the five-person faculty team running OSU's Mixed-Signal Integration research cluster, and wanted to be part of the cutting-edge research program.
"Dr. Gabor Temes is known worldwide," says José Silva, who graduated from the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1994, then worked for Siemens in Switzerland before coming to OSU in 1997 to pursue a PhD with Temes. "His research in mixed-signal and the quality of his work have an international reputation."
In addition to Temes, four other faculty members in this research cluster—Terri
Fiez, Karti Mayaram, Un-Ku Moon, and Huaping
Liu—round out the team, making it a formidable national player in analog/mixedsignal research.
Analog/mixed-signal engineering, which is at the heart of this research cluster, is what enables computers to analyze and process "real-world" signals such as heartbeats, blood sugar levels, music, light, speed, and more. These signals exist in analog form and must be converted to the ones and zeroes of digital data before computers can do anything with the information.
"An audio CD is a good example of analog and digital," says Robert Batten, a PhD candidate from Canada who followed Fiez to OSU when she left Washington State University to lead the Mixed-Signal Integration research cluster and now also directs OSU's School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science. "The music is stored on the CD as digital data, but in order for us to hear the music, that digital data must be converted to analog signals."
As computers play a larger and larger role in everyday lives—from deploying
airbags to regulating pacemakers—and manufacturers have to pack more and more
functionality inside each chip, the demand for better analog/mixed-signal engineering
grows. Which is where this OSU research cluster comes in.
Within the next few years, the Mixed-Signal Integration group at OSU intends
to be the nation's No. 1 player in mixed-signal research. Already among the
top five, this is one of the College's largest research clusters, with five
faculty and more than 60 graduate students.
Applications to the program have quadrupled in the past three years—proof that word is spreading fast about the quality of the program.
It was OSU's reputation for close, collaborative work that attracted MS student Patrick
Birrer to OSU from the Burgdorf School of Engineering in Switzerland. "I had heard that the OSU program offered a more intimate environment for learning and research," says Birrer, who has also worked at Siemens in Switzerland. "And that is definitely the case."
"As a graduate student here, you have a lot of flexibility and freedom," adds Hui
En Pham, who came to OSU from Singapore to pursue a master's degree.
Batten agrees. "You get to spend a lot of time with your professors here," he says. "Which is generally not the case at most top engineering schools, especially at the master's level."
Although it takes six months longer at OSU than at other mixed-signal programs to earn a master's degree, students concur that the extra time is a small price to pay for the hands-on research experience they gain, which often translates into excellent job offers.
MS candidate Brian Owens, who also did his undergrad at OSU and comes from the Portland, Oregon, suburb of Milwaukie, has been snatched up by Sandia National Labs for a job he'll start this fall after finishing his degree. "From what I've heard from students in programs at other schools, their master's theses are similar to what we do for class projects," he says. "Here, we get to do it all, from design to fabrication."
This highly hands-on approach is what Fiez says gives OSU graduate students an edge when it comes to helping the world.
"We're giving students a solid foundation for a career that will change the way people can live," says Fiez. "Building a national reputation for research is all about the students in the program. Students are the heart and soul of our research cluster. They enable the program to succeed."
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