Definitive Guide on Boosting Careers: How to Find Stretch Assignments

Previously, I discussed why you should pursue stretch assignments to boost your career. Today, I discuss how you find stretch assignments to maximize your career boost. A recap: One takes on stretch assignments to learn new skills. Should you pursue any assignment for your career? Of course not. You take on rotations that allow you to drive your career towards a desirable direction. If you want to become a manager, take on rotations in engineering leadership, program management, or in first line management. If you enjoy developing cutting edge technology, take rotations in the Science, Technology Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) fields. One you have a general idea where you want to move your career, how do you find the best stretch assignments? I'll explain below.

You must develop a reputation for outstanding work

It's simple: Why would anyone want you in your organization if your reputation stinks? You must complete your current tasks to the best of your abilities. Even if you dislike your job, and job dissatisfaction represents a valid reason for career changes, you must put your best efforts forward. Whether you work for a small or large company, people talk. If your peers and management know you for excellent work, people will want you on their teams. To market yourself effectively, you need to let your managers know when you do outstanding work. This can be in person or via email. I suggest an email first to keep written records of your achievements. You should follow-up with your manager in person to make sure he or she received your email.

Tip: Work in your current position for at least three years first

Unless you find yourself regretting a move into your current position, you should stay in that position for a minimum of three years. This will give you sufficient time to get used to your role and work on at least one project. Remember, your reputation matters, and reputations take time to develop in business. No one will know you if you get in a company, and you want to switch roles immediately after starting at the company.

Does this rule apply to everyone? No. Some companies have entry-level Leadership Development Programs (LDPs), and new employees can apply for these programs within the first year of employment. If you truly find yourself unhappy in your career, you can speak to your manager about a position change. However, you should first address the reasons for your dissatisfaction in your current role. Have honest discussions with your manager first, and you consider rotation assignments as a final option.

Update your resume

 This sounds counter-intuitive at first. Because stretch assignments are temporary, you will not formally interview for them. Formally represents the key word here, as you will speak with managers and project leads about potential assignments. Your resume is your calling card and your introduction. You will use it, along with an introductory email, to introduce yourself to these people. Even if they know you personally, they do not know your accomplishments. Sell yourself by keeping your resume up to date. You can brag about your accomplishments, yet you should never lie.

Keep your resume accomplishments relevant to the positions for that you will inquire. You can add personality by listing hobbies provided they relate. If you seek assignments in leadership, you can list volunteer activities if you hold a formal position, and you've held that position for a year or more. If you use a chronological resume, make sure you list your most recent accomplishments first.

Make sure you have someone review your resume! People often forget this step. Do your accomplishments make sense? For each accomplishment, do you show the relationship between your situation and / or task at hand, the actions you took, and the results you achieved? Do you quantify your results whenever possible? You might think that you've answered these questions positively, yet it might not be so clear when someone else reviews your resume. My advice to you: Have a coworker or manager you trust review your resume for anything that sounds unclear, and edit your resume following their advice. Of course, it is acceptable for you to make your accomplishments shine bright. Just remember to never lie about what you've done. You will be found out during the interview process whether formal or not.

Develop your short-term, mid-term, and long-term career plan

If you don't know your destination, how can you get there? You must create figure out your career goals and determine your strengths and weaknesses before you can find the best stretch assignments. Your career plan will consist of the following sections:

• Short Term: 1 - 5 years
• Mid Term: 6 - 10 years
• Long Term: 10 years and beyond

Your career plan represents where you see yourself in those time frames. Is your plan set is stone? Of course not. You should revise your career plan once a year. However, once you calibrate your path, you should assess your strengths and weaknesses. Perform a gap analysis to learn what skills you need to develop, so you can achieve your goals. If you find your soft leadership skills lacking, consider leadership positions that force you to develop your skills. If you want to become a software developer, and you find you know little about configuration management, pursue positions in software development. My point is this: You cannot select stretch assignments that take you outside your comfort zone if you do not know your boundaries.

Discuss your career plan with your manager

You cannot pursue stretch assignments in a vacuum. Your manager can assist in developing your career. Of course, this assumes that your organization's culture encourages professional growth, and I will not discuss what to do in these cases here. It behooves managers to help people develop their careers and get promoted, as that reflects positively on them. That said, you should arrange a face-to-face meeting with your manager, and discuss how you see your career flowing in the coming years. Speak to your interests and what makes you uncomfortable. You want assignments that challenge you and push you to your limits. That is how you grow professionally and personally. You will not achieve lofty goals without taking risks. Yes, you might fail, yet you should see those as career paths that you should reconsider for your long-term plans.

Your manager is your coach. He or she can offer suggestions on what rotations best fit your goals, and what positions will challenge you. They should know what managers have positions that need to be filled for the next 9 to 12 months. Take advantage of these openings: Write down names and descriptions of the positions. If your manager suggests that you review internal job boards, follow-up on that suggestion. However, they should have established a network within your company's management structure, so your manager should know who has openings.

Tip: Join a Leadership Development Program (LDP)

If you want to spend the next two or three years in your career in stretch assignments, I would advise that you join a LDP. I briefly mentioned LDPs aimed at entry-level professionals. There exist LDPs for mid-career individuals who want to boost their careers in different directions. These LDPs often aim to place people into leadership positions. However, if leadership roles do not interest you, you do not need to place yourself into a management spot. I would take advantage of these programs anyway, as all professionals can benefit from developing leadership skills. Even if you decide not to become a manager, you could find yourself leading teams. Why not develop your leadership skills? You can boost your career by showing management that you successfully lead teams to success.

Of course, LDPs often require employees to have excellent yearly reviews. If you focus on performing with excellence, this should not be a problem. You will shine, and the LDP Manager will want to bring you into the program. Once you are in a LDP, meet with the LDP manager and get their advice on possible rotations. This manager will get to know you through one-on-one meetings, and they have contacts within your company who will show interest in you. Take detailed notes during your meetings, and make sure to follow-up. LDP managers will want to make sure that you find a good rotation.

Meet with Rotation Managers

Now that you have contacts, reach out to them with your resume! Write short emails that do the following:

• Tell the manager who you are
• Explain a few key skills that match their position
• Tell them why you are interested in joining their group
• Request a 30 to 60 minute meeting with them

Do not forget to include your resume. Recall, it is your career summary, and the managers will need it to understand you as an individual. Sometimes managers do not respond immediately. Wait one to two weeks to follow-up, and follow-up gracefully. Remind them of your interest in the position. Suggest a date and time, and ask if that works.

Once you schedule meetings, make sure you are on time for those meetings. Always bring a copy of your resume, and dress professionally. You do not need to dress formally, as this is an informal interview. However, I advice that you do not wear casual Friday clothing. When you meet, you should be prepared to tell the manager about yourself. Make sure you have a thirty second elevator pitch. Explain why you want to do a rotational assignment in that manager's group. You should be confident in yourself. It is OK for you to be nervous, yet remember that you are interviewing for a temporary position within your group.

Quite often, people forget to have questions for the rotation manager. This is an area where you can steer yourself off course. You should ask the manager the following types of questions:

• Why is the position open?
• What do you expect from an employee in this role?
• What is your management style?
• What skills would you need to develop during the training phase?
• What is your team like to work with? How would you describe your group's micro-culture?
• Optional: Do you plan on retiring in the upcoming year?
• Optional: Does this position require travel? If so, how much?

You can ask other questions. Just make sure to give the manager time to explain the position to you. The last two questions are optional. If the manager is far in their career, you should know if they will be there to support you throughout your rotation. If they leave the company, will they have an alternate who can guide you? If the position requires traveling, you will need to know especially if you have a family. You might be unwilling to sacrifice time and relationships if you will be on the road most of the time.

Summary

You must take responsibility on finding the best rotations for your career. When making your decisions, make sure to follow your gut. If something seems off, do not take the rotation. I've done this myself, and I found myself having to find another one. It was painful. Yes, I found a rotation that suited my career better. However, I would have found that rotation sooner had I followed my intuition that said something was wrong with the rotation.

Remember, you need to follow up with the managers. Thank them via email for their time. If you decide not to take a rotation in their group, politely let them know. Of course, you need to let your manager know of your decision. (This applies to your LDP manager if you are in a LDP.) Remember, the rotation is not permanent, so you will need to decide at the end of the rotation if you will go back into your original assignment, or if you will make that rotation permanent. Communication is key throughout the entire process. It will help you boost your career because you will find stretch assignments that guide you along the career path that you want.

You can achieve your career goals in business through a combination of knowledge, support, experience, potential, and expert assistance.

Do you want to learn more about career advancement and leadership? Please read my prior posts on this subject:

• Accelerate your career through stretch assignments 
• How to Market Yourself for Larger Paychecks and Promotions
• How to Evolve Your Stagnant Career towards Exciting Fields in STEM
• How to Turn Cynicism into Positive Action
• Sometimes leadership means cleaning up the mess you created
• Learn from your mistakes to build on your experiences

How to Become a Knowledgeable Radio Frequency (RF) / Microwave Engineer

{EAV:13d26c010fcbce99}As an Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) PhD Candidate, I consider myself to be a RF / microwave engineer. Prior to beginning my PhD, I had industry experiences designing RF and Microwave systems and subcomponents. I want to give the steps one can take to become an RF / microwave engineer and become knowledgeable in your field. You don't have to earn a PhD to achieve that goal. Although, a PhD certainly wouldn't hurt if you want to be considered an expert in your field.

Step # 1: Earn a Bachelor of Science (BS) Degree in Electrical Engineering (EE) or ECE

Before you can specialize in any subfield, you need to know the fundamentals of the primary field. By earning a BSEE or BSECE, you will obtain basic knowledge of several key areas: linear circuits, electronic circuits, control systems, wireless communication systems, electromagnetics, and microwave components. In addition, you must master Calculus and physics because they both provide key tools for analyzing every kind of engineering problem that exists.

Tip: If your BS program does not include any computer science or computer engineering courses, I highly suggest that you take classes to earn a computer science or computer engineering minor.

Another advantage of earning a BSEE / BSECE degree is that your coursework will end with either a senior project or a capstone course. As a student,  you get to define your senior project. If you're interested in becoming an RF / Microwave engineer, I suggest that you do something simple like designing a high-power microwave amplifier or a phase locked loop (PLL). It's very tempting to commit to an overly difficult project, and you'll find you can't get all of the pieces to work. I should know, as this happened to me in my senior project at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo: "A VHF Receiver Capable of Direction Finding." I was able to get individual pieces of the receiver to work, but I had issues integrated the individual components into one system. Luckily, my senior project advisor recognized that I did a lot of hard work, and he gave me an A for my project.

If your BS program does not have a senior project requirement, make sure you take a capstone course in RF / wireless systems. A capstone course combines materials you learned from multiple EE / ECE courses you took the last several years. The course will have a team project that forces you to develop some kind of RF / microwave system to solve some problem (i.e., develop a portable antenna testing range). The teaching professor will likely have a short list of projects in mind, but sometimes students are given the option to choose their own project.

Step # 2: Earn an Amateur Radio Degree and Join a Ham Radio Club

If you want to become an RF / Microwave engineering, you'll need to get some practical experience with radios and other RF / microwave components. Becoming a ham radio operator is a fun way to do this because you can join a local ham radio club, and you can make friends who are also interested in radios and RF / microwave engineering. The FCC also requires that you pass tests on radio theory, so this adds knowledge that you might not have learned in your undergraduate courses related to RF / Microwave engineering. Each FCC amateur radio license level adds more theoretical knowledge related to radios, propagation, antennas, and FCC regulations.

Tip: Don't just get a Novice/Technician license. Earn your Extra class license.
Tip: Join your college's / university's ham radio club.

If you're an undergraduate student, I highly suggest that you join your university's ham radio club. You'll make friends with fellow classmates who are also interested in RF / microwave engineering. Not only can you become study / project partners, you can also work on RF / microwave projects outside of class. This would also look good on your resume for potential employers, as you offer skills and experiences that other undergraduates do not have.

Step 3: Get Industry Experience in RF / Microwave Engineering

As I mentioned before, you really need practical experience to become a knowledgeable RF / microwave engineer. If you are a junior or senior in an undergraduate program, I highly suggest that you go on a six month co-op with a company. When I earned my BSEE, the co-op program was optional, but I've heard that many Universities make this a requirement for graduation. You basically take six months off from your undergraduate degree program and work for a company while paying tuition. The co-op gives you an opportunity to get hands-on, practical experience designing RF / microwave circuits, components, subsystems, etc. You'll also get a valuable opportunity to be mentored by an experienced RF / Microwave engineer. Your mentor will share his/her knowledge with you and give you valuable tips and suggestions, so you can become a better RF / Microwave engineer. There is another valuable reason for doing a co-op: You could have a potential job after you graduate.

Tip: Make sure you have a mentor during your first job out of college

After you graduate, get an entry level position in RF / Microwave engineering. Do yourself a favor and make sure that you choose a company whose culture and purpose is a right fit for you. The next several years of your life might be miserable if you don't love the work that you do, and you'll be unhappy if you can't get along with your coworkers. As you spend time with the company, you'll gain experience in developing RF / Microwave products. You also be given projects with more responsibilities and difficulty levels. You could get promoted into more senior positions.

Step 4: Earn a Master Degree with a RF / Microwave Engineering Specialty

I remember that my dad insisted that I earn a Master degree after I completed my BSEE. He was wise for insisting that I do this because a Master degree allows you to specialize in your field. You can take a few approaches to earning your Master degree:

1. Go into a Master degree program directly after earning your BSEE / BSECE degree.
2. Work for a company for several years, then take off a year and a half to earn your Master.
3. Earn your Master degree while working for a company.

Each approach has its advantages and disadvantages. I will not go into all of the details here because this would be a blog post in and of itself. However, if you've been working for a company, the third option might be your best choice. Your company will reimburse your tuition costs provided that you pass the courses, and you can apply your Master level courses to your job. Just keep in mind that you will be expected to work at least 40 hours a week, so I would take only one class at a time (at least when you begin). You'll have no time to yourself, your job performance will suffer, and your graduate class performance will suffer. The downside to this option is that it will take you several years to earn your Master degree.

Bonus: Earn a PhD Degree with a RF / Microwave Engineering Specialty

This is by far the hardest step to becoming an expert in RF / Microwave engineering. However, if you want to become an expert in your field, perform industry or academic research, or become a faculty member in a College or University, you must earn a PhD. If you decide to earn a PhD degree, please read my two blogs with tips on getting accepted into an engineering PhD program: Part 1, and Part 2.

I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors.

Best,

Jonathan Becker

ECE PhD Candidate

Carnegie Mellon University

A 2.4 GHz Variable Frequency Transmitter with RF Amplifier (Copyright Jonathan Becker)

How to Write an Outstanding Curriculum Vitae (CV) for Engineering Academic and Research Positions

If you are an engineering PhD student / candidate, you need to understand how to write an outstanding Curriculum Vitae (CV) if you intend to get a job in academia whether teaching or performing research. The CV like a resume, but it has more details that faculty hiring committees care about such as publications and teaching experiences (see Figure 1 below). I will explain what a CV entails and how you can write an outstanding CV in this post. I've organized my post per the different sections shown in Figure 1, and I give guidelines pertinent for each CV section.

Figure 1: Components of a Curriculum Vitae or CV for short (Copyright Jonathan Becker)

Name and Contact Information

As the header for each page, include you name, school address, home address, contact email, and contact phone number. As a student, you might move at the end of the academic calendar year, so it's important that you give a stable address in case potential employers want to mail you paperwork. Your email is important for follow-ups including details on potential phone interviews and on-campus interviews. It's best that you use an academic email, not a personal email address like Hotmail or Gmail. You should also provide the potential employer with a contact phone number. This number should be a cell phone number, as most people carry cell phones wherever they go, and it's easier to be in contact.

Summary

The summary should only be a few bullet points. The first bullet point is always a one or two sentence that summarizes what you can offer as a candidate. You can add a few bullet points on academic honors, PhD course work, and teaching assistant assignments you had.

Education

This section lists your academic degrees in chronological order from most recent to first degree earned. Each bullet starts with a summarized name of the degree (i.e., PhD ECE) in bold faced font followed by your research specialty, University name, University city/state, graduation date, and GPA. If you are currently pursuing your PhD degree, list an expected graduation date. If you haven't finalized your graduation date, specify that the degree is in progress and list your current GPA. Do not list any degrees less than a Bachelor of Science Degree (i.e., Associate degrees or professional certificates), as they do not carry significant weight in academia.

Professional and Academic Research Experience

This is one of the most important sections of your CV, and it will make or break the interview decision. Like a resume, you subdivide this section according to each professional and academic position you held. For each subsection, list the relevant information for the position (title, University/Company, location, and time frame) in bold faced font followed by a one line summary of your position. You add bullets for each task that you completed on the following lines.

Tip: Incorporate action verbs into each bullet.

Tip: Focus on industry research experiences instead of professional accomplishments if including industry positions in your CV.

For each bullet point, always speak in the active voice, and use action verbs (i.e., evaluated, proved, investigated) whenever you can. Action verbs garner attention and make your results clear. Like my undergraduate technical writing professor said, "the boy kicked the ball" sounds much better than "the ball was kicked by the boy."

If you worked in industry, you made worthwhile contributions and had multiple contributions in bringing products to market. Unfortunately, professional experiences do not carry as much weight compared to research experiences in the academic world. You can handle this by focusing on any industry research experiences you had, but make sure that your academic research experiences outnumber your industry experiences. After all, if you're applying for professorial positions, you should have four or five years of PhD research experiences.

Teaching Experiences

This section gives more details on any teaching experiences you had as a PhD student or before you began your PhD. If you're a PhD student, this section will be small because you haven't had much teaching experiences. However, you can add a subsection for each class that you TA'ed including bullet point summaries of lectures that you gave.

Selected Presentations

Academic employers (and sometimes industry research employers) ask for a list of talks that you gave. They want to know that you are adept at giving conference presentation or other kinds of talks whether it's an academic seminar or presenting your industry research in front of company executives. You want to give a bullet for each presentation that you gave. The eHow website includes a good article on formatting conference presentations on a resume, and I believe that formatting would apply to a CV too. In addition to conference and symposium presentations, I would include your qualifier exam presentation, presentations given in industry research positions, and poster presentations. Make sure that all of your presentations are related to your research.

Selected Publications

There's an old saying in academia: Publish or die. University department faculty selection committees want candidates who have plenty of publications, as they expect faculty to publish papers and books. List relevant publications in reverse chronological order from latest published to first published.

Tip: Only include conference papers, transaction papers, and books. Blogs, etc. do not count!
Tip: Use the bibliography format applicable to your academic field (i.e. IEEE for electrical and computer engineering).

Your publication list should only be peer-reviewed publications like conference papers, transaction papers, and books related to your field. If you published a paper outside your field, don't include it because out of field papers do not carry weight in your current research field. Don't include any research websites or personal blogs, as they do not carry the same weight as peer reviewed papers. Websites and personal blogs will likely distract from the message you want to convey with your CV: I will bring great value to XYZ University because I have done outstanding research in ABC. Besides, the faculty hiring committee will ask you for your research website if they are interested.

In addition, use a consistent formatting method when listing your publications. My suggestion is that you use the format that is commonly used in your field of research. If your research is in electrical and computer engineering, follow the IEEE bibliography guidelines. If you are a computer scientist, follow the Association for Computing Machinery's (ACM) guidelines.

Question: I've decided that I hate academia and I'd rather go into industry. What do I do?

If you've decided that you'd rather go into industry after you finish your PhD, you can modify your CV and make it into a professional PhD resume (i.e., short CV) by removing the Teaching Experience and Selected Presentation sections. Typical CVs can be anywhere from three to seven pages (or more), so make sure that you limit your short CV to two pages. It might be tempting for you to remove your publications section, but I would advice against this because your publications will distinquish you from other job candidates. I would also bet that other job candidates with PhDs include their publications lists in their short CVs, so don't yourself in the foot by removing your publication list.

Tip: Make sure that you include your name and contact information on both pages in case your resume gets separated.

Tip: You can use your short CV for industry internship positions.

Of course, I would still write and maintain a separate long CV that includes your teaching experiences and selected presentations. Sometimes hiring managers in industry or government research companies will ask you for a long CV that includes a list of talks, so it would help if you have your long CV ready and available. After all, you neer know when you'll need need it.


Best,

Jonathan Becker
ECE PhD Candidate
Carnegie Mellon University

Tips on Being Successful in Whatever Endeavor You Choose to Take

I want to share with you a few tips on being successful. I want to take about this because I feel it's important and helpful, and it applies in every walk of life. My tips focus on three things that you need to be successful: Passion, Proactivity, and Positivity. These 3Ps are necessary for you to excel at whatever you do, as I pointed out in a YouTube video that I published recently.

Tip # 1: Passion

First, let's talk about passion for what you do. By passion, I mean that you must love what you're doing in order to be great at it. One of the reasons I do well in my PhD studies is that I love my research in antenna arrays, genetic algorithms, etc. I also love to build hardware and develop algorithms for optimizing that hardware. In addition, I really enjoy reading books and papers related to antennas, antenna arrays, and optimization algorithms. Do you see a key theme here? I love what I do, and I take ownership of my work exactly because I want to see it through from beginning to its end. You could look at the flip side of this argument: If you don't love what you do, you won't want to put all of your efforts into it. It's as simple as that.

Tip # 2: Being Proactive

Second, you've got to be proactive. This applies in every day situations in every walk of life. You've got to get the ball rolling and keep it moving. What do I mean by that? You've got to figure out the tasks that you need to accomplish in order to be successful no matter how you define success, and you need to keep on top of those things until you've finished the tasks at hand. In my situation, I've got to do my research (reading, experiments, etc.), write grant proposals, write my thesis, and follow up with my advisor. I've got to do the work, as it is my responsibility  If you're heading up a small business, you must lead and delegate tasks as necessary of course. However, you need to figure out what tasks need to be delegated, and you need to decide to whom you'll give those tasks. Yes, your employees should and will ask you for guidance, and they will also follow up with you. However, you will often need to start the process yourself and communicate clearly what you need them to do, and how they can help the company succeed. Encourage your employees to be proactive too, as it will make things go more smoothly. Problems can occur in any business, class project, or graduate project. All of your team members (including you) need to be aware of the problems and be actively working to solve them. Problems do not solve themselves.

Tip # 3: Applying Positivity in Your Life

Third, you need to think positively. I'm not referring to some kind of mystical belief that if you think positive things over and over again, you would be bound to succeed. I am referring to positivity in a motivational sense in that you need to believe that your efforts are worthwhile. If you don't believe that your efforts will lead to success (i.e., good test results, good grades, profits, etc.), you'll stop putting efforts. After all, why waste your energy on things that you don't believe will bring you success. Of course, this is different than analyzing your efforts and removing things that don't work. Not only are you still putting your efforts into your project, you're refocusing your efforts in a way that will bring better results. The act of refocusing your efforts is a positive one, and it is completely different than putting a complete stop to your efforts, as the latter is equivalent to shutting down your business or quitting whatever project you started.

Summary

I believe that I can be successful. Of course, I don't expect myself to be successful all the time, as I have certainly had my fair share of failures, and I'm sure than everyone I meet has had failures in their lives too. It's unreasonable to expect yourself to be successful all of the time. It's OK to fail, as failure gives us opportunities to learn from our mistakes, become better persons, and figure out what to do (or what not to do) the next time we take on a new project. As long as we focus on the 3Ps (passion, proactivity, positivity), we will be successful more often than not. After all, as long as you can say that you've succeeded at times, you cannot claim that your life was a total waste of time and efforts. Reflect on your success and learn from your failures.


Best,

Jonathan Becker
ECE PhD Candidate
Carnegie Mellon University

P.S. Don't forget to enjoy life. Go out and have some fun. Whenever I'm down, that helps me out a lot.

Pan's Fountain in Pittsburgh. Don't Forget to Enjoy Life! (Copyright Jonathan Becker)

Why my PhD Research in Anti-Jamming Beamforming Antenna Arrays is Important

I am researching anti-jamming beamforming antenna arrays optimized with stochastic / evolutionary algorithms. The genetic algorithm (GA) is the main algorithm that I have investigated to date. Beamforming antenna arrays (i.e., beamformers) are a type of electronic countermeasures in the sense that they can be used to focus electromagnetic / radio frequency energy on a Signal of Interest (SOI, the good guy) while simultaneously minimizing energy in the direction of interferers / jammers (i.e., the bad guys). Today, I want to explain why my PhD research is important for both commercial and military applications. I've included a YouTube video explaining the importance of my research below.

People love to use wireless, mobile devices because they can go with you wherever you go. Sure, laptop computers are great, but they're bulky compared to smart phones and tablets like the iPhone and iPad, etc. Ericsson Corporation also noted that the number of mobile subscriptions (assuming one device per subscription) exceeded the five billion mark in July 2010, and they expect this number to increase 10 fold by 2020. What this means is that the frequency spectrum will get saturated, and interference is bound to occur. Frequency sharing / scheduling is an option, but it will not completely solve the problem because the useable frequency spectrum is limited. Wireless telecommunications companies can buy spectrum from regulating agencies like the FCC. However, this is very expensive.

A solution that my PhD advisor proposed (when I began my PhD) is to evolve an anti-jamming beamforming antenna array using a genetic algorithm. There were several reasons we followed this route. First, he successfully optimized antennas using genetic algorithms with built antennas whose behavior matched that of simulations. The GA found antenna shapes that met project requirements. We believed that we could adapt hardware settings to evolve an array in situ with hardware. In this sense, the evolvable hardware was in the settings of the array and not the physical shape of the array. Second, although beamforming array technology was not new, it used hardware versions of gradient descent to form the array beam (i.e., electromagnetic radiation pattern in space). This resulted in systems that were contained in large chassis and cost on the order of $1 million. Such a system would not be feasible for commercial use, and we believed that we could reduce the hardware cost by shifting the optimization algorithms from hardware to software. I built a four antenna array with phase shifters, step attenuators, and controller hardware as shown in Figure 1. I've discussed my array in a previous post.

Figure 1: Picture of My First Beamforming Array Prototype (Copyright Jonathan Becker)

As I mentioned in my video, I've published several papers showing that the GA successfully adapts the array to focus energy on an SOI while simultaneously minimizing energy in jammer directions. My first prototype array thwarted two jammers very well and had moderate performance with three jammers. As you can tell from Figure 1, this prototype is certainly not ready for commercial use. In fact, it is at a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 1 or 2, and the cost of the hardware was roughly $5000. This is much better than $1 million, but it is not good enough for a commercial application.

Here's where I stand in my PhD research. I want to build an eight antenna array with surface mount components and printed antennas (such as patch antennas). I believe that eight printed antennas would be sufficient to thwart the number of signals seen in a typical wireless environment, and I can design a printed circuit antenna array that could be integrated with a laptop computer. I am also investigating other stochastic algorithms such as Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), and I'm considering using wideband antennas. I've read research papers with PSO simulations that indicate that PSO performs better than the GA in terms of convergence time and solution quality, and I want to verify that I see such improvements in hardware. I'm also considering wideband antennas, so one can use the array on multiple frequency band. Imagine using one array for WiFi, WiMax, and 4G wireless communications. In essence, I am aiming for a TRL of 5 or 6. The second prototype might not be ready for commercial use by the time I'm done with my PhD, but I hope that it will be pretty close to being ready.

The importance of my research for commercial application is clear: My PhD research has the goals of creating a small formfactor antenna array that is inexpensive and can quickly adapt to changing environments and changing mobile signals (both desired and interference). I also believe that this technology will be ubiquitous in the sense that it could be integrated into your laptop, and you wouldn't know that it's there and operating. I would love to see this technology integrated into smartphones and tablets. However, it is currently limited in size because antennas take up bulk of the array's physical size. One would need to make sacrifices in terms of number of antennas used, electrically small antennas with low efficiencies, and so forth in order make it ready for use with smaller mobile devices.

In addition, this technology has multiple military applications. First, the array could be mounted into unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to maintain secured communications between the UAV and mission control. The beamformer would need to be small and lightweight in order to operate inside a small UAV. There was the case a couple years ago of the stealth UAV that was supposedly highjacked in Iraq and forced to land in Iran. Assuming that the Iranian engineering told the truth, he jammed the UAV's wireless control signal and sent it a spoofed control signal that tricked it into thinking Iran was its homebase in Afghanistan. If the stealth UAV had an anti-jamming beamforming array mounted inside it, this situation would not have been possible. Second, the beamformer could be mounted into various military vehicles to ensure that there is secure and uninterrupted communications between the vehicle and homebase. In military field operations, the enemy wants to jam our wireless communication signals to create confusion, disorder, loss of property, and loss of life. It is to the military's advantage to make sure that this doesn't happen. Third, the Department of Defense (DOD) has been under pressure to cut budgets, and this is very true today considering the sequester's effects. A low cost beamformer would be desirable as a result.

In summary, this is why my research is important. I've also explained what research I have done, and what I hope to accomplish in the near future. I hope that you enjoyed reading this article.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Becker

ECE PhD Candidate

Carnegie Mellon University

Benefits of Earning an Engineering PhD or Why Bother With all That Hard Work?

As you know, one must put a lot of hard work and dedication into earning a PhD degree especially in an engineering subject. It is only natural to ask: Why even bother? What do I get out of earning such a degree when I could get a job in industry with only a Bachelor of Science? Today, I will explain the benefits of why one would earn a PhD degree.

Before I explain the benefits, there are several reasons why you would pursue a PhD degree:

• You love doing groundbreaking research and publishing papers on your research
• You love getting in front of people and presenting your work and ideas
• You love doing hard work and have a passion for what you do
• Your career has hit a slump and you are not interested in management
• You really love academia and the idea of sitting in a cubicle 8+ hours a day frightens you
• Your career goal is to become a professor, so a PhD is required
• You want to earn more money compared to other entry level jobs in your industry
• And so forth...

The main benefit of earning a PhD degree is that you become an expert in at least one field. I say "at least" because the old adage of a PhD'er being pigeon holed into a vary narrow area of expertise with no knowledge whatsoever of other subjects is no longer true. In the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at CMU, PhD students are required to take courses in at least three different areas. My breadth areas, for example, are electromagnetics (i.e., antennas), probability and random processes, and optimization. Because my research is applied, I have to know multiple areas in order to get good, repeatable results. I've also become an expert in Matlab particularly in controlling lab instruments and such because Matlab is so versatile. As far as industry recruiters are concerned, this makes me a valuable asset because I have accumulated a wide span of engineering experiences.

In addition, you have many opportunities to build your professional network. You start with your PhD advisor, as he/she has contacts in both industry and academia. Don't forget about attending conferences, as you can meet experts in your field who you can interact with during your presentation question and answer sessions as well as during the conference itself. Of course, your classmates become part of your network simply because you will work with them, discuss your research, have fun at department events, and become very good friends -- all through the lifespan of your PhD.

Furthermore, you solidify your knowledge and ad to your engineering field by publishing conference and transactions papers. It is a good experience to write papers, as you get practice in clearly telling the stories of your research. This also helps you remember what you learned in your graduate courses and during your research because writing your thoughts down set them into your memory. There is another benefit, of course, for publishing papers: You can get your name out there by publishing conference and transactions papers. For example, if you go to Google Scholar and type ("Jonathan Becker" and "Carnegie Mellon") as between the parentheses, the top three listing are papers I published with my advisor and his business partner. Think about it. Potential employers can Google you and download your work, and they can read what you wrote. This will help them understand what you do before you have interviews with them. It also makes you look really good in their eyes assuming that you did good research and told your "story" clearly.


Best,

Jonathan Becker
ECE PhD Candidate
Carnegie Mellon University

Hamerschlag and Roberts Engineering Hall (Copyright Jonathan Becker)

What it Means to Earn an Engineering PhD Degree

In my experience, many people outside of academia do not understand what it means to earn an engineering PhD degree. I believe this is because many people have not gone through the process of earning a PhD degree. There is nothing wrong with this because a PhD degree takes four to five (or more) years of commitment to hard work, long hours, a lot of stress, and often low pay. In this post, with an accompanying vlog, I explain what it means to earn the PhD degree.

As I pointed out in the video, an engineering PhD degree primarily focuses on graduate level engineering research. Unlike a Bachelor degree, the PhD degree is therefore less loosely defined because each PhD student do different kinds of research. There are some well defined requirements to the PhD degree, such as:

• Graduate level courses related to your research
• Required Teaching Assistant (TA) positions
• Qualifier exams to show that you can do quality research (MUST PASS OR ELSE!)
• Thesis proposal or prospectus
• Thesis on the PhD student's research
• Dissertation (i.e. defend the thesis during a long presentation)

There is one question that PhD students really don't like to be asked, but people ask us anyway: When will you finish your PhD? Please understand that it's not that we don't like people asking us questions. It's that we really don't know the answer ourselves, and it becomes our nature to be experts in what we do. It just throws us off guard when someone asks a question that we don't know how to answer.

The reason that PhD students don't know when exactly they'll graduate is that the decision is not based on a clearly defined set of requirements. PhD students graduate when they've successfully defended their thesis in dissertations. However, it's really up to the PhD advisor and the thesis committee members to decide when PhD students are ready to defend their thesis. Because each thesis committee is different, it's impossible to predict how much effort a PhD student will need to put into writing a thesis before the committee feels the thesis is ready to be defended. The PhD student regularly communicates with his/her committee members and gives them updates on his/her research. Now, the committee members can like the research that the PhD student has done so for, or they can ask the student to redo the research or do more research.

In my case, I hope to be done in a year because that's how long my PhD advisor believes it will take me to finish my research, write my thesis, prepare my dissertation, and defend my thesis in the dissertation. This could all change as I write my thesis. I hope not because I really want to finish by this time next year.


Sincerely,

Jonathan Becker
ECE PhD Candidate
Carnegie Mellon University

Hamerschlag Hall Smoke Stack

The Importance of Proactivity for Success in PhD Programs, Entrepreneurship, and in Life

Today, I've decided to discuss proactivity and why it is important for success. I've created a YouTube video blog entry on that subject that you can watch while reading this blog.

Here's the take away: Having passion is necessary for success, but it is insufficient to guarantee success. Passion is what drives you, and proactivity gets the job done.

As a PhD student, there are many situations that require you to be proactive:

• Your research project: Your advisor may give you a project, but he won't do it for you.
• Qualifier exams: The department sets the requirements, but you need to prepare and practice.
• Your thesis proposal: You must figure out what research you will do to finish your PhD
• Your thesis: You need to write it yourself.

Of course, you can talk to your PhD advisor about all these things and more, and he/she will gladly give you advice. However, you need to keep notes, make a schedule, do the required studying / research, and follow up with your advisor. If your research involved building hardware, you might need to speak with hardware vendors every now and then. Email is a good start, but you might need to call and speak with an actual engineer because sometimes the part you need is not standard and may take considerable effort for the vendor to deliver.

I also explain that proactivity applies to starting your own business (i.e., entrepreneurship). In a previous post, I explained that being an engineering PhD student is like being an entrepreneur. If you intend on staying in academia and becoming a professor after graduating, I feel that it is important for you to know how to be an entrepreneur. Engineering professors must fund their own students by writing successful grant proposals and develop a network of connections at various granting agencies. It is much like an entrepreneur who develops connections that turn into sales leads: Your connections in granting agencies can help you get your grant proposals approved. In addition, some professors start their own businesses and need to propose their business plans to venture capitalists and angel investors. You must be proactive and a go getter in order to succeed in these situations. Being passive and hoping things will come your way just won't work. You've got to push and follow up.

I hope that this advice helps you. I wish you good health and success in everything that you do.


Sincerely,

Jonathan Becker
ECE PhD Candidate
Carnegie Mellon University