New DSP course developed thanks to renovated lab supported by TI

New DSP course developed thanks to renovated lab supported by TI

BY LIA UNRAU
Rice News Staff

Behind door 123
in Abercrombie Laboratory is a computer laboratory, one
of a handful recognized as “elite” by Texas Instruments
(TI) for research and education.

In addition
to the pleasant environment, with an interaction-friendly
layout and bright artwork on the walls, there are several
new computers and digital signal processing (DSP) boards.

Most important,
a new course, Elec 434, or Digital Signal Processing Laboratory,
was developed to allow graduate and undergraduate students
to experience and implement different DSP algorithms on
the latest equipment.

With support
from TI and the dean of engineering’s office, the lab
was renovated over the summer, and neighboring labs, used
for about five courses, also were improved in efforts to
provide a better experience for students.

“We had
a need to develop a course that would serve both our computer
engineers and our signal processing students,” said
Joe Cavallaro, associate professor of electrical and computer
engineering, who helped to facilitate the renovation. “This
builds on a long tradition of theory courses on the DSP
side. We also are trying to reorganize the curriculum around
theme-based labs. We’re very excited about this. We
have a research relationship with TI, and this is just the
right time to renovate and update the practical hardware
as the design tools and the compilers get better for the
students to use.”

Hyeokho Choi,
faculty fellow and instructor of Elec 434, stressed the
importance of the new lab. “We have a DSP theory class
for graduates and undergraduates, but to learn the real
implementation of it, students need to work on actual programming
of the DSP chip, and this is the lab for doing that,”
he said. “It is hard to find people with both theory
and implementation skills. I’m trying to develop a
curriculum that serves both types of students.”

Patrick Frantz,
executive director of the Center for Multimedia Communication,
also coordinated with TI to select and configure the equipment
for the lab. Frantz will be teaching Elec 424, High-Speed
Systems Design, in the TI DSP Lab during spring 2001.

“TI has
a strong commitment to universities because students at
universities feed workers at companies,” said Christina
Peterson, who is with the University Program, Education
and Labs for DSP Strategic Marketing, Semiconductor Group
at TI. “They are our next generation, bringing in the
new technology, and we want the students to be trained properly
on the right tools. So we have specific programs to help
universities set up educational DSP labs, which is what
we’re doing here at Rice. Rice, particularly, is outstanding
in the digital signal processing area, and with the addition
of the new classes and this lab, they have received our
highest recognition for the educational institutions of
the DSP elite lab. For that, TI gives a little extra special
attention, and we want to formally recognize that leadership
and Rice’s efforts to create an educational lab like
this for their students.”

Rice is one
of TI’s leadership universities, chosen along with
Georgia Tech and MIT, to work closely with TI on DSP research.
“We have a small group of three selected to lead us
into the future,” said Gene Frantz, a Texas Instruments
fellow, “so while we’re working on the elite labs,
helping you lead the students into future, we’re expecting
the professors at Rice to lead us where we need to be going.”