Summary
It has been a wonderful week working closely with Stevens Institute of Technology Professor Kevin Lu. We took some time to learn from his point of view.
At Circle Optics, we get the opportunity to work with experts in the fields contributing to automation, robotics, and optics. This past week, we welcomed Professor Kevin Lu from Stevens Institute of Technology on site to work with our team.
Share some of your background?
I came from Taiwan to the United States in 1979 and graduated with a doctoral degree in 1984 from Washington University in St. Louis. Right after graduation, I began working for Bellcore. I was there for 28 years working in applied research to make information and communications technology (ICT) more efficient and affordable. I left when Ericsson acquired the company to work for Broadcom, where I participated in wireless standards development.
I have been a Teaching Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering since 2018.
Is there a favorite project you can talk about?
Absolutely. One of the most rewarding projects I worked on was called fiber to the home (FTTH). FTTH is the installation and use of optical fiber from a central office to individual buildings to provide last-mile high-speed communications and multimedia services. My systems engineering teamwork helped select the passive optical network (PON) from several competing technologies.
What was it about Stevens Institute of Technology that felt like the best fit after working in industry so long?
Stevens Institute of Technology tag line is Inspired by Humanity, Powered by Technology. Advancing technology for humanity is my core value that I want to pass onto my students.
What is the biggest lesson you leave with your students?
This world is moved by the people who find the meaning of their career in the mundane rather than the glamour. I encourage my students to focus on contribution and how they can make a technology or solution that has positive impact on others. The goal, I teach, is to make learning an everyday habit.
What do you enjoy about the work you are doing with Circle Optics?
We are currently working to help Circle Optics accelerate video processing, encoding, and streaming via their camera systems. I am very aligned with their mission as a B Corporation to create value for the entire ecosystem. Circle Optics camera technology can be used a lot for humanity. Examples include forest fire detection and prevention, quality of air and water surveillance, and many educational use cases. Circle Optics will play a very significant role in mixed reality and automation.
Outside of technical Reading, What is a Recommendation of What we Should read?
I don’t absorb books from front to back. I take pieces of them that inspire me or make me think differently. Off the top of my head, I have deeply enjoyed Robert A. Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land and have adopted the term grok. I also find myself referencing Edward Hess’s Hyper-Learning.
Learn More from Professor Lu
Professor Lu, to his mission of generosity and the focus of open source, has GitHub repositories on automation and acceleration . You can also see his classes and publications at his Stevens Institute of Technology faculty page. In addition to higher education, Professor Lu is a volunteer for the IEEE Communications Society and IEEE Standards Association.
