Jack Lum: A Welcome Change in the Game Plan
How did someone with a Princeton doctorate in chemical engineering become an expert in radar signal processing?
"I actually got into this profession because of Ultimate Frisbee," says Jack Lum, laughing. He has been a dedicated and respected league player of this fast-paced game for fifteen years. One day a few years ago, a fellow Frisbee player told him about a job opening in the radar field doing scientific computing - no knowledge of radar required. Having become dissatisfied with his career in the packaging industry, Lum took the position. Once there at the company, however, he realized that some understanding of radar signal processing would help him do his job better, so he decided to take a course somewhere.
"Hopkins had courses near where I lived," he recalls. "I decided to take digital signal processing as my first class. I had no intentions of getting a degree. I just wanted to understand that aspect of radar systems. I got an "A" in that class, so I thought, 'Well, I'll take another!'" He's been taking courses ever since and now expects to get his M.S. in electrical engineering in the Spring of 2008.
Along the way, another door opened for Lum, thanks to Hopkins EP. A faculty member who worked at the Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory asked Lum if he was interested in joining the APL staff. He's there today, working on signal processing for marine radar systems - systems deployed on shipboard, land-based or airborne platforms to search the oceans.
Radar works by sending out a signal and detecting it when it bounces back. "Reflections from the surface of the sea are very chaotic," says Lum, so engineers must find ways to eliminate the background noise that the ocean's surface creates. This is challenging enough, but there are usually other constraints as well ?- a radar unit used in a helicopter can take up only a certain amount of space, or a shipboard unit will need to perform multiple duties. When such limitations are put on the instruments themselves, an engineer like Lum can compensate with signal processing innovations. "We use mathematical techniques to cancel out the background noise."
Lum may have started with Hopkins because it was conveniently located. But he has stayed with Hopkins for other reasons. One is that the school keeps coming up with courses that interest him. Another is that, with so many other students and faculty members who also work where he does, at APL, it's an extension of a professional community dedicated to excellence.