I have the offer. I am leaning towards saying yes but I have sent it out for advice and there may be negotiations. Everyone thinks this will work out.
In 2003 when Gerald, Frank, and I started working together and talking about doing DttSP we had no idea where it would go. Soon followed Eric being hired to write PowerSDR version 0.1. We were a serious team. Eight years later, I can say my association with Flex has been a highlight of my adult life. We were able, and allowed, to work closely together based on mutual need for four intense years. I worked on software with others for the SDR-1000 with the approval and sponsorship of my employer, IDA/CCR ( http://www.idaccr.org/) . My employer benefited directly from this association. I began to work in 2007, based on the work I did with Flex, with Dr. Charles Clancy (KB9ZNF) of the Laboratory for Telecommunications Sciences (http://www.ltsnet.net/ ). We worked very hard on GnuRadio and also on versions of DttSP that were being used by our employers. In 2008, Charles and I led a summer long intensive workshop on software defined radio and cognitive radio for the US Government at IDA/CCR. The impact has been widespread throughout the government. We hired Tom Rondeau, KB3UKZ, at my request at IDA/CCR. I met Tom while working with Charles, on a trip to Va. Tech. to talk to the people there doing SDR and CR and Wireless work. After the summer of 2008, Charles and I began a series of developments, both software and hardware, which we believe we would be "enabling projects" for all sorts of things at LTS. We put out contracts for receiver designs, etc. At my request, requests for proposals went out to many companies, including Flex Radio Systems, Inc. and Ettus Research. Shortly after hiring Rondeau, he won the US Council of Graduate Schools best Ph.D. thesis in the country award for 2008. I began my association with the world famous engineer, fred harris. Competing against VERY large companies, all of them regular suppliers of (ridiculously expensive, poor performing) radios to the US government, both Flex and Ettus won the contracts on which they bid based on price AND technical content. They were both the lowest bidders AND THE ONLY COMPANIES MEETING THE SPECIFICATIONS. http://www.flexradio.com/Products.aspx?topic=CDRX-3200 is one of the results with Flex. A product that is not on the Ettus page was the result with them. All of this work was great for Flex, allowing it to hire great new people, but it was very time consuming for me and caused me to have to slow down tremendously on the direct work I was doing with Flex. Last year, Charles was hired away from LTS to work at the Hume Center at Virginia Tech as an associate director. http://www.hume.ictas.vt.edu/ I was on its board of advisors. http://www.hume.ictas.vt.edu/people.php An announcement was made to find a director. Charles and I competed and we were both in the four finalists for the job. THANK GOODNESS Charles got the job. I would hate what he is doing. And he is very very good at it. Tom Rondeau left IDA/CCR at the end of last summer and became director of GnuRadio at the same time Charles left for Va. Tech. So I began to wonder about what to do with the rest of my life. It should be clear that we have been a big part of GnuRadio, SDR, and CR and Flex, directly or indirectly and I wanted to continue or extend that as much as possible. I liked having the impact. Charles and Jeff Reed of Wireless @ VT, both great friends, began immediately to talk to me about being on the staff after Charles was made director in December. They wanted me to be director of research and live in Blacksburg. Charles did not want to live in Blacksburg. It took so long for them to work out, succeeding YESTERDAY, after months and months of struggle and talk, that I actually wrote it off in April and made other plans. Charles scored a coup after I had already made up my mind to do other things and I was left to juggle things and make decisions based on both personal and professional needs. In Blacksburg, I get to lead research teams, manage research in a large facility there, and have lots of interactions with students and faculty and work on great problems. If the final talks go well, I will join next month and move to Blacksburg and get to continue my long association with Charles. It is very exciting to work with a person of his drive and intelligence. Did I mention he is .... THIRTY YEARS OLD?. ;-). ALSO, and more important to this group, I will get to greatly increase the amount of time I spend working with Flex and the relationship will be formal a thing which was prevented while I was at IDA. I really look forward to my long continued relationship with my friends in Texas. Flex is more like a big family and I am proud to be a member of the clan, now and into the future, irrespective of what form it takes. So you have not gotten rid of me just yet. Flex is a very different place these days and I had a big part to play in that. I am proud of it but more than that, I am SO proud of Gerald and the guys in Austin. I wish people could understand by looking under the hood the way I have, what a SUPERB team of people Flex has assembled. They are beginning to have a very large impact on the company and will make sure that Flex is here to stay for a long long time with quality products for you and many others. Bob N4HY On Thu, May 26, 2011 at 11:49 PM, Tim (W4TME) <[email protected]> wrote: > Our beloved and highly respected DSP guru Bob, N4HY has accepted the > position of Director of Research for the Ted and Karyn Hume Center at > Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech is already one of the strongest schools for > SDR and Cognitive Radio research these days, so having Bob running the show > will just help them advance further. He also has to teach for his dinner, > so I guess we will now have to refer to him as Dr. Robert. I'm sure you can > pick up a nice tweed jacket with elbow patches and a long stemmed pipe at > the Salvation Army store :-) > > Seriously, Congratulation on the new appointment, Bob. It is well > deserved. > > -Tim > --- > W4TME > FlexRadio Systems Internet Systems Admin. > Product Verification Team > Tune In Excitement^(TM) > > _______________________________________________ > Flexedge mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexedge_flex-radio.biz > This is the FlexRadio Systems e-mail Reflector called FlexEdge. It is used > for posting topics related to SDR software development and experimentalist > who are using beta versions of the software. > _______________________________________________ Flexedge mailing list [email protected] http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexedge_flex-radio.biz This is the FlexRadio Systems e-mail Reflector called FlexEdge. It is used for posting topics related to SDR software development and experimentalist who are using beta versions of the software.
