PAUL MENNEN

1452 Owen Sound Drive, Sunnyvale, CA 94087
phone: 408-737-8192
email: paul@mennen.org

Job related skills

35 years of experience in the development of state-of-the-art hardware and software digital signal processing systems with an orientation toward analytical work and system design. Cofounded three successful start-up businesses yielding experience in management, marketing, advertising, personnel, purchasing, manufacturing and test.

Signal processing

Expert in the coding and use of many signal processing algorithms including discrete Fourier transforms, correlation functions, power spectra, windowing, Hilbert transforms, cepstrum, frequency translation, pseudo-random number generation, optimal control, and system identification. Skilled in minimizing these algorithms' finite word length effects.
An authority on all aspects of digital filtering including FIR and IIR filter design, small coefficient filters, quantization effects, interpolating filters, decimating filters, multi-stage designs, Kalman filters, and two-dimensional filters.
Designed hardware and software to implement these signal processing algorithms using both the fixed and floating-point DSP chip families from TI, Analog Devices, and Lucent Technologies.
Designed custom hardware for FFTs and multi-rate digital filtering.

Industrial technology

Expert in these measurement technologies and industrial areas:

Global Positioning Systems
Avionics, flight simulation, flight testing, engine analysis, and air collision avoidance
Modal analysis and acoustics
Image and speech processing
Control system analysis and system identification
Rotating machinery and machine predictive maintenance
Closed loop vibration control and shock response testing
Pattern recognition and automatic inspection systems

Writing and presentation skills

Skilled with all forms of technical writing including user guides, service manuals, and marketing publications.
Experienced in giving presentations to large and small groups. Can explain complex technical material clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
Effective one-on-one teaching skills honed from many hours tutoring of college and high school students in engineering, mathematics, science, as well as flight instructing.

Hardware design

Designed with many types of DSP chips, microcontrollers and embedded processors
Parallel processing designs
Data acquisition and mixed-signal designs
Computer interfaces including RS232, SCSI, Centronics (IEEE-1284), GPIB, Ethernet, and FireWire (IEEE-1394)
Designing with most memory types including DRAM, SDRAM, SRAM, Proms, FIFOs, RAM modules
FPGAs and complex PLDs (Xilinx and Altera)
Most transducer/sensor technologies, including accelerometers, microphones, temperature, pressure, strain, force, etc.
DC motors, stepper motors, and motion control ICs
Experienced with CAD design tools (schematic capture, PC layout, simulation and mechanical design)

Software design

Skilled at designing graphical user interfaces that are well matched to the needs of the application
Wrote large applications in C, MatLab, Pascal, Lisp, Forth, and Fortran. Some experience with C++.
System and application programming under Microsoft Windows and DOS
Experience using script languages, interpreters, and other special purpose high level languages
Experience writing high level and assembly code for many general purpose and embedded processors including the PIC and AVR microcontroller families, Rabbit 2000, 80x86, Z80, 8085, National 32000, TMS9900, PDP8, PDP11, IBM360, and the Data General 1200.
Expert at assembly level microcode for fixed-point DSP chips including the optimization of signal processing algorithms for finite word length effects, pipelines, and other processor irregularities.
Expert at writing assembly and C level microcode for several floating point DSP chips including the TMS320C30 family, the Analog Devices Sharc family, and the Lucent DSP3200 (formerly AT&T DSP32C) Devices Sharc family, and the Lucent DSP3200 (formerly AT&T DSP32C)

Employment history

Independent Consultant (Mar-08 to Present)

On going contract with Broadcom corporation (former employer)
Consulting services for various clients in Silicon Valley (including Lab126)

Global Locate, Inc. (now owned by Broadcom), San Jose CA, Senior Systems Engineer (Sep-05 to Mar-08)

Prototyped chip level code in Matlab for GPS signal acquisition and tracking, least squares and Kalman filter based position computations, navigation algorithms, altitude modeling, multi-path detection, and satellite orbit predictions
Assisted in the conversion of the Matlab prototype code to C++ for chip and host level implementations
Wrote many GUI design tools for analyzing the performance of the GPS chips and for viewing and analyzing log files (nmea and proprietary formats). Supported these design tools for the local and field engineers.
Assisted in testing and debugging firmware releases using simulator and drive tests

Stanford Research Systems, Sunnyvale CA, Senior Engineer (Feb-04 to Aug-05)

Contributed to many aspects of the design of an instrument for the analysis of consumer and professional audio equipment. Main tasks include:

Development and implementation of DSP algorithms (in MatLab, C, C++, and assembly language)
GUI interface design
Hardware design including schematic capture and PC layout using ORCAD
Host control application programming in C++
Development of interactive help system and printed user manual

Mennen Avionics, Sunnyvale CA, Founder (Mar-03 to Jan-04)

Designed an innovative instrument for the general aviation market that combines the functions of an air data computer, flight data recorder, GPS data analysis/compression/recording, navigation assistant, and a fuel totalizer. Additional tasks included:

Embedded processor software design (C)
Post-flight data analysis software (MatLab)
Prototype construction
Installation and flight testing
Writing marketing material and user manuals
Development of a general purpose MatLab plotting/graphing/cursoring routine. (For more information, search for "plt" on theMathworks' file exchange)
Currently negotiating to sell the product rights to an established avionics company.

For more detailed information on this product, see www.flightsaver.mennen.org

Sigknowledge, Sunnyvale CA, Consultant (Nov-99 to Feb-03)

Consulted for a wide range of clients in the fields of DSP, and signal analysis. Major clients included:

Agilent's BioScience Division (Santa Clara, CA)
Agilent's Lightwave Division (Santa Rosa, CA)
Rabbit Semiconductor (Davis, CA)
DSP Technology (Fremont, CA)

DSP Technology, Fremont CA, Principal Engineer (Jun-94 to Sep-99)

Continued to advance the performance of the hardware and software of the Applion dynamic signal analyzer
Developed the graphical user interface and lower level software for several new applications including rotating machinery and third octave analysis for acoustics.
Wrote most of the brochures, data sheets, trade show flyers and demo disks. Contributed to web-site material.
Gave seminars and sales presentations to customers, trained sales personnel, manned trade show booths.

Applion, Saratoga CA, Cofounder (Jan-93 to May-94)

With two cofounders, designed a portable, battery operated dynamic signal analyzer tailored to the control system design market. The transition from initial concept to final electronic, mechanical, and software design was completed in only one year. By the time Applion was acquired by DSP Technology in June of 1994 we had completed the first production run, published promotional materials and begun a sales operation.

Tektronix, Campbell CA,
Principal Engineer (Nov-87 to Mar-91),
Engineering Manager (Mar-91 to Dec-92)

Led the development of the successor to the SIGnology PC-based Fourier Analyzers, which increased acquisition and real-time bandwidth by a factor of ten, allowing Tektronix to become the performance leader in this market.
Designed the central processor board which also included a floating-point DSP and the analog calibrator. Wrote the microcode for the DSP chip to implement the FFT and other real-time operations. Wrote the C code for self-calibration of the input and output subsystems.
Designed the output generator board, and wrote the microcode for its two fixed point DSP chips, one for function generation and the other for interpolation and frequency translation. Wrote a paper on the random waveform generator (EDN: 21-Jan-91).
Wrote the microcode for the decimating filters on the input cards. Wrote my own MatLab-based filter design software to overcome limitations of the commercially available design tools.
Designed a menu system used to unify all applications with a consistent look and feel.
Created a demo disk containing an overview of the Tektronix Fourier Analyzer family, its standard software, and about 10 minutes of material on each of 8 application areas. This demo was widely praised by the sales specialists as a useful sales tool and training aid.
As engineering manager, I led the development of a new product providing frequency domain measurements on digital signals to pioneer Tektronix's entry into the DSP design verification market.

SIGnology, Campbell CA, Cofounder (Jan-84 to Nov-87)

Pioneered a new approach in Fourier Analyzers based on personal computers, later copied by the market leaders. SIGnology was fully acquired by Tektronix in November of 1987. My tasks included:

Designed the control processor board
Designed the FFT processor board based on the TMS320-10 (the first DSP chip).
Wrote the fixed-point radix-4 FFT algorithm for the FFT processor
Wrote digital filtering code for the front end running on a separate TMS320.
Wrote parts of the code that resides in the analyzer.
Wrote all of the code that resides on the PC including the human interface software (menus, display and plotting, data/setup storage).
Filled many other roles, such as buyer, technical writer, and advertising director.

Decmation, Santa Clara CA, Cofounder (Oct-82 to Dec-83)

Successful product development, marketing, and manufacturing of a microprocessor development system based on DEC minicomputers (PDP-11 and LSI-11). Decmation is still selling microprocessor development systems today, and continues to be a growing healthy business.

KLA Instruments, Santa Clara CA, Consultant (Oct-81 to Dec-82)

Developed algorithms to improve the defect detector sensitivity for an automatic photomask inspection station. Simulated the proposed algorithms in software. Designed and debugged the required special-purpose image processing hardware.

GenRad, Santa Clara, CA, Senior Development Engineer (Sep-75 to Sep-81)

Product development of hardware/software systems used for modal analysis, vibration control, acoustics, and general signal analysis. Defined and coded the real-time file I/O package for GenRad's proprietary interpretive language. Designed the control processor and the high speed FFT card for a portable single channel FFT analyzer. Designed the CRT display controller / vector generator, the Unibus and Q-bus interface controller, fast multiply-accumulator sections, and the bit-slice microcode for GenRad's minicomputer based system.

Sierra Research, Buffalo NY, Engineer (Jul-74 to Sep-75)

Hardware and software design of systems for air collision avoidance, air delivery, and vehicle monitoring, including algorithm design, simulations, debugging, and flight testing.

Education

BSEE, Sep-75 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
MSEE, Mar-77 Stanford University, Stanford, CA

Personal

Age 59; Married with 2 children
Hobbies: flying, ultimate Frisbee, tennis, hiking.

References

Available on request.