Distinguished Seminar Series
The Distinguished Seminar Series of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering presents the work of internationally recognized researchers. The seminar series is intended to provide an open platform for the faculty and students to have a dialog with leading researchers in various fields of ECE, and to build a dynamic and vibrant culture of research and academic exchange in the ECE department. All seminars are free and open to the public.
Dr. Jim Lansford
- Adjunct Professor, University of Colorado
- Chair, Wireless Next Generation Standing Committee
- Member, Qualcomm's Standards and Industry Organizations group
The Role of Standards in Communications - How the Sausage Gets Made
Abstract: Many people are unaware of all of the standards in products they use every day. From tires, to railroad tracks to tools to thousands of other items, groups of people, often engineers, have to define and agree upon the way things should be made. Standards frequently define the minimum performance needed by a product, and usually also define the criteria for interoperability. Standards are specially important in wireless communication, since there is no “plug” to connect devices of the same type. From cellular to Wi-Fi to Bluetooth, standards are essential to assure that products from multiple vendors interoperate and have some minimum level of performance that assure consumers will have a good user experience. Standards Development Organizations, or SDOs, have regular meetings to work on these specifications, and develop evolution paths to enhanced versions of the technology in the future. Standards bodies are unique in that competing companies have to cooperate to define the standards, against a backdrop of intellectual property and multi-billion dollar markets. This talk will give an introduction to a few of the larger SDOs and the way the “sausage gets made” – how some of the wireless technologies you use every day were developed.
Speaker Bio: Jim Lansford is in Qualcomm’s Standards and Industry Organizations
group, working in V2X, Wi-Fi, and UWB standards and strategy. He has over 40 years
of
experience in communications systems, digital signal processing, and strategic business
development. He is currently chair of the Wireless Next Generation Standing Committee
in IEEE 802.11, the “incubator” group for all new Wi-Fi technologies. In the Wi-Fi
Alliance, he chairs the Automotive Market Segment Task Group and the Long Range Strategy
Group. He also serves as the Editor of the SAE J3161/1 standard in SAE International,
which defines the standard for communications between vehicles. He is active in the
5G Automotive Association, participating in standards and certification activities.
As co-chair of the Regulatory Working Group in the FiRa Consortium, he is helping
lead regulatory efforts for ultrawideband (UWB) deployment. Finally, he is on the
board of directors for the OmniAir Consortium, the world’s leading certification body
for tolling and V2X technology. He is currently active as an Adjunct Professor in
the Computer Science Department at the University of Colorado – Boulder. Dr. Lansford
has served as an ABET Program Evaluator, is currently a Senior Member of the IEEE,
and has a Wireless Communications Engineering Technology (WCET) certification. Dr.
Lansford has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Oklahoma State, an MSEE from Georgia
Tech, and a BSEE (highest honors) from Auburn University. He lives with his wife Lynn
in Cascade, Colorado.
Previous ECE Seminars
Dr. Matthew Perry - Advanced Hardware Technologies of the Microsoft Azure Platform and their Impact on AI and Edge Computing
Dr. Mohammed Ismail - A Self-Powered loT SoC Platform For wearable Health Care
Dr. Dezhen Song - Sensor Fusion and Its Applications in Autonomous Vehicles, Augmented Reality and Robotic Grasping
Dr. J.R. Cruz - Present and Future Challenges of Data Storage Channels
Dr. Scott T. Acton - Engineers Help Unravel the Mysteries of the Brain
Dr. Mark D. Hill - Technology, Computer Architecture and Memory
Dr. Robert G. Olsen - Next Generation Engineering Education
Dr. Hong Liu - Phase Sensitive X-ray Imaging for Cancer Diagnosis
Dr. Byul Hur - RF Test and Measurement Circuits and Systems with Agriculture, Environmental and Biomedical Sensor Applications
Dr. Andrew Arms - Sensing: Interrogating Physical Systems
Dr. Jignesh Solanki - Multi Agent System Applications in Smart Grids
Dr. Sarika Khushalani Solanki - Distribution System Modeling, Analysis and Optimization