Prof. Edward Powers
phone: (512) 471-1430
e-mail: ejpowers@mail.utexas.edu
personal homepage: http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~powers
Edward J. Powers is currently Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Texas Atomic Energy Research Foundation Professor in Engineering. After receiving his BS degree from Tufts University, MS degree from MIT, and PhD degree from Stanford University, and working at Lockheed Missiles and Space Co., Dr. Powers joined the ECE Department faculty in 1965. Dr. Powers also serves as the UT Austin representative to the
Texas Telecommunications Engineering Consortium (TxTEC) Steering Committee. This consortium, which consists of five Texas universities and several telecommunications companies, was formed in recognition of the importance of the telecommunications industry in the state of Texas and the need for highly educated engineering graduates to support this industry.
Previously, Dr. Powers served as Director of the Electronics Research Center from 1977 to 1999. Primary responsibility involved administering the Joint Services Electronics Program (AFOSR, ARO, and ONR) which ended in 1999. From 1981-1989 he served as Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, one of the largest departments on the U.T. Campus. In 1982 he was appointed as the Texas Atomic Energy Research Foundation Professor in Engineering. In 1985 he received the U.T. Austin College of Engineering's highest award, the Joe J. King Professional Engineering Achievement Award, which was established in 1976 to recognize College of Engineering faculty who have shown exemplary leadership in the engineering profession.
Dr. Powers has taught a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate courses throughout his career including, for example, circuit theory, electromagnetics, lasers, probability and statistics, Fourier optics, plasma dynamics, telecommunication systems, satellite communications, and digital time series analysis. In 1995, he received the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering's Teaching Award. He currently teaches an introductory undergraduate course in communication systems, and graduate courses in satellite communications and digital time series analysis.
Dr. Powers has been active in the professional activities of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. In 1984 he completed a five year term as Editor of IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science. He co-organized the International Conference on Higher-Order Statistical Signal Processing and Its Applications in Queensland, Australia in 1992, and is co-editor of the resulting book Higher Order Statistical Signal Processing.
Dr. Powers' current professional interests involve the application of novel digital signal processing techniques (based on higher-order statistics, wavelets, and time-frequency distributions) to a wide variety of important nonlinear and/or transient problems in science and engineering. Examples include:
- compensation of nonlinear distortion in communications systems via predistorters and equalizers,
- detection and classification of transient events in electric power distribution and transmission systems,
- nonlinear system identification,
- nonlinear Volterra digital filters and their application,
- electromagnetic scattering from nonlinear targets, and
- nonlinear wave interaction phenomena in fluid mechanics, hydrodynamics, and plasmas.
Research Interests
Dr. Powers' current professional interests involve the application of novel digital signal processing techniques to a wide variety of important nonlinear and/or transient problems in science and engineering.
In communications his work has focused on the use of various signal processing techniques to design predistorters to mitigate nonlinear distortion in communication systems, and to address various problems in OFDM systems such frequency offset.
