March 03, 2008 — Communications and storage are very similar fields. In the first, information is transmitted from “here to there,” and in the second, information is transmitted from “then to now.” The techniques used in one are relevant to the other, and lately the two fields have been merging.
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Left to right: Invited speaker Jack Wolf, Andrew J. Viterbi, and Ming Hsieh Dept. Systems Chair Alexander A. "Sandy" Sawchuk.
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This year’s Viterbi Distinguished Lecture in Communication, hosted by the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering, traced the progress of audio storage from the days of Thomas Alva Edison to the MP3 era. Guest speaker Professor Jack Wolf, the Stephen O. Rice Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a member of the Center for Magnetic Recording Research at the University of California, San Diego, demonstrated advances in audio technology with his own collection of antique Edison phonographs, most of which were 100 years old, and discussed Edison’s career and some fundamental mistakes that caused him to lose the market.
Wolf summed up the lecture with a discussion of the algorithm invented by Andrew J. Viterbi – who was seated in the audience, along with his wife, Erna, and USC Provost C. L. Max Nikias — and the role it played in the evolution of audio recording.
To listen to the lecture, click here.
For Jack Wolf's powerpoint, click here.
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Antique Edison phonographs, all about 100 years old, from Wolf's personal collection.
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About the Speaker
Jack Keil Wolf has been teaching for more than 40 years. He is currently the Stephen O. Rice Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a member of the Center for Magnetic Recording Research at the University of California San Diego in La Jolla, CA. He also holds a part-time appointment at Qualcomm Inc., San Diego.
Wolf is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has received several IEEE awards, including the 1990 E. H. Armstrong Achievement Award, the 1993 Leonard G. Abraham Prize Paper Award (co-recipient), the 1975 IEEE Information Theory Group Prize Paper Award (co-recipient), the 1998 IEEE Koji Kobayashi Award, the 2001 Claude E. Shannon Award, the 2004 IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal and the 2007 Aaron D. Wyner Distinguished Service Award. He held an NSF Senior Postdoctoral Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
He received a B.S.E.E. degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and M.S.E., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton University.
