Name: J.D. Norris
Hometown: Midland, Texas
Major: Ph.D. candidate, Electrical Engineering
Class of 2006
J.D. Norris was originally drawn to engineering because of the opportunity
it offered to combine his two interests - science and music.
"My original goal was to design and build guitar amplifiers," says
J.D., who has been playing guitar since he was eight years old.
J.D. began his graduate studies at SMU via distance learning while working
as a radio frequency engineer with Motorola in Fort Worth. He completed
his master's degree in May 2003 and is now on campus full-time working
on his Ph.D. in electrical engineering.
"I'd like to be able to do something more creative," J.D.
says. "My graduate work has shown that I can pursue a wide spectrum
of opportunities."
The focus of his Ph.D. thesis will be adaptive signal processing, which
has many applications, including audio, biomedical, geophysics and defense
systems.
In addition to his studies, J.D. has been a valuable asset to the Infinity
Project, which brings engineering to high school classrooms. He helps
train high school teachers to teach the Infinity curriculum, helps support
teachers during the school year, and attends conferences to raise the
visibility of the program.
