Richard W. Christiansen Professor 801.378.6587 christiansen@ee.byu.edu

Research Interests Biographical Information Publications

Education

PhD	Electrical Engineering, Univ. of Utah, 1976.
MS	Pysics, Univ. of New Mexico, 1966.
BS	Electrical Engineering, Rutgers University, 1961.

Current areas of specialization include research, development, analysis and understanding of digital signal processing algorithms. Ongoing research efforts are directed toward improving understanding and performance of algorithms used in speech recognition, pattern detection and recognition, noise removal and enhancement of speech and image data using human hearing and visual models.

September 1, 1978 to Present --Professor since 1984, Graduate Coordinator for 10 years through 1989, Electrical Engineering Department, Brigham Young University, responsible for graduate curriculum and supervising the graduate program, teaching undergraduate and graduate level courses, developing and directing research programs and supervising graduate student research work in Digital Signal Processing and Communication Theory. Have advised over 100 Masters Degree and 12 PhD Degree recipients in Electrical Engineering at Brigham Young University. While at BYU have been a Principal Investigator for over 2.5 million dollars of funded research.

March 1978 to August 31, 1978 -- Chief Scientist, Eyring Research Institute.

October 1, 1976 to March 1978 -- Director of the Applied Sciences Division of the Eyring Research Institute. Responsible for the technical and administrative management of all projects in the division. Some of these projects include low frequency antenna studies, High Energy Plasma Phenomena Study, Hyperspace/Predictive Techniques Research, Radiation Hardened Semiconductor Development Project, etc.

September 1974 to October 1976 -- Research Associate Staff member, Electrical Engineering Department, University of Utah. Responsible for conducting a two-year research effort in automatic word recognition in continuous speech using digital computer analysis. Techniques used included communication theory principles, nearest neighbor pattern matching, nonlinear time warping, linear prediction analysis of speech, Wiener filtering to extract speech signal from speech plus noise, and spectral analysis using Fast Fourier Transform and Linear Predictive Coded smoothed frequency spectrum. During this time, also worked on a contract with Hill Air Force Base as a consultant to propose changes and provide evaluations of the program to maintain the Electromagnetic Pulse hardness of the Minuteman Weapon System. This effort used the experience gained previously at EG & G. Supervised an experiment to produce laser x-rays using a high energy neodymium glass laser.

September 1, 1972 to September 1974 -- Software Sciences Corporation, Manager, Salt Lake City Operations. Responsible for all technical and administrative activities at the Salt Lake City operations. Program Manager on all major technical programs at Salt Lake City, including hardware and software.

January 1, 1969 to September 1, 1972 -- Employed by EG&G, Albuquerque Division, as Scientific Specialist. During this time, had the following responsibilities:

1. Responsible for as many as thirteen separate projects at the same time with budgets ranging in value from $2,500 to $400,000.
2. Development Department Manager: Manager of the Development Department at EG&G concurrent with the above described program responsibilities.
3. Demonstrated ability to assume responsibility for several different, concurrent projects (or one large one), organize the efforts to be accomplished, and assign and motivate the resources to accomplish the tasks in minimum time and for minimum cost. In this role, overall guidance of the technical aspects of the projects was provided to assure that high quality work was accomplished within the budget and schedule, and that the customer's actual needs were satisfied. Because of cross-disciplined education in Electrical Engineering and Physics, able to take diverse technologies and apply them to the problem at hand. Demonstrated an ability to relate to both the physics and engineering points of view.

Project Engineer: Kirtland Air Force Base, 1967-1968. Responsible for initial development of AFSWC EMP dipole facility.

Technical Research Assistant: University of New Mexico, l965-l967. As a member of the Physics Department, assisted in the design, construction, testing, launching and data analysis of a National Science foundation sponsored neutron experiment.

Teaching Assistant: University of New Mexico, Physics Department, l965-l966.

Design Engineer: The Boeing Company, l96l-l964. Provided analysis and determined design change proposals for all types of problems on Minuteman Weapon System.

1. Awarded NASA Fellowship in Physics, l966-l967
2. Member of Sigma Xi
3. Tau Beta Pi
4. Phi Kappa Phi
5. Recipient of the 1986 Outstanding College Faculty Award
6. Recipient of the sixth Brigham Young University Annual Research Achievement Award given in 1991.

Recipient of 5 U. S. Patents for data compression, hearing enhancement and noise suppression.
One Patent Application in submission for a prescription digital hearing aid using a new model for human hearing.

Consultant for the following:

Netline
Hughes Aircraft Company
Sperry Corporation
Rockwell International
Eyring Research Institute
WICAT
Western Airlines
UNISYS