Charles
M. Rader was born in 1939 in Brooklyn, New York and
attended Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute.
He received an undergraduate degree in 1960
and a master's degree in 1961, both in electrical
engineering. He accepted a position at MIT's
Lincoln Laboratory in 1961, where he has been
since that time. He began his early forays
in electrical engineering through his early interest
in artificial intelligence and speech
processing. Overall, his research has
focused on speech bandwidth compression digital
signal processing, and space-based radar
systems. One of his major accomplishments was
as a leader of the team that helped build the
LES-8 and LES-9 communications satellites
launched in 1976. He is the author or
co-author of Digital Signal Processing (with
Ben Gold), Number Theory in Digital Signal
Processing (with James McClellan), and Digital
Signal Processing (with Lawrence
Rabiner). Rader is a Fellow of the IEEE (1978)
[Fellow award for "contributions to digital signal
processing"], and was formerly the president
of ASSP. He received the ASSP Technical
Achievement Award (1976), and the ASSP Society Award
(1985).
The
interview tells us little of the earliest influences
in the life of Charles Rader, or what sparked
his initial interest in electrical
engineering. Instead, it focuses upon Rader's
contributions to the sub-fields of speech
processing and his involvement in various
professional organizations, including the ASSP and
the IEEE. The interview ends with an
interesting look at Rader's participation in the
official acoustical inquiry after the assassination
of President John F. Kennedy.
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1.
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Early education
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Attended Polytechnic
Institute of Brooklyn
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Master's degree awarded,
June 1961
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2.
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Interested in artificial
intelligence, speech processing
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Begins collaboration with
Ben Gold
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3.
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Early work with TX-2
computer, vocoders
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4.
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Vocoder simulation
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5.
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Vocoder/filter simulation
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6.
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Vocoder/filter simulation
has outside applications
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7.
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Early realization that
computer simulation will take over real
filters
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8.
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FFT changes nature of filter
computation
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9.
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Butterfly diagram
breakthrough
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10.
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Tom Stockham discovers
convolution method
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11.
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Co-authors "Digital Filter
Design Techniques in Frequency
Domain"
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Organized summer course at
MIT in digital signal processing
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12.
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Discussion of prominent
publication authored by Kaiser
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13.
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Discussion of book
co-authored with Ben Gold
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14.
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Work with number theory, FFT
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15.
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Conversion of FFT to
convolution
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16.
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Co-authored article in Bell
Systems Technical Journal with Rabiner
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Early associations with
Signal Processing Society
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17.
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Co-authors, "What is the
Fast Fourier Transform?"
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18.
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Early associations with
IEEE, Signal Processing Group
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19.
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Involved in organizing Arden
House workshops, ICASSP
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20.
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Comparison of Arden House
and ICASSP workshops
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21.
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Technical editor of
Transactions
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22.
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Technical development of
Berg Algorithm
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23.
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Growth of field,
technological advances
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24.
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Properties of modular
arithmetic area, Number Theoretic
Transforms
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25.
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Invents Fermat, Mercenne
number transforms
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Co-authors book with Jim
McClellan
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Interest sparked in
multidimensional signal processing
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26.
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Discussion of Butler Matrix
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27.
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Beginnings of FFT
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28.
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Participation of Bill Lang
in noise analysis group
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29.
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Regular meetings with
Stockham, Cooley, Helms and Tukey
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30.
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Need for standard
terminology in field expressed early
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31.
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Much early work parallel and
fieldwork isolated, overlapping
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32.
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Discussion of tenure as
editor of Transactions
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33.
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Instituted procedure for
publishing abstracts before full
articles
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34.
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Discussion of work as editor
of Transactions
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35.
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Early Arden House attendance
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Comparison of Arden House
with ICASSP
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36.
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Comparison of Arden House
audience with publications' audience
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37.
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Comparison of experiences
designing digital vs. analog filters
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38.
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Comparison of digital and
analog filter design
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39.
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Memories of work with TX-2,
programming difficulties
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40.
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Memories of work with TX-2
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41.
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Work with Ben Gold, Irving
Lebow, communications group Group 52
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42.
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Early work with speech
compression
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43.
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Stops working on speech
processing after 1966
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Works with Group 69 on
satellite communications
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44.
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Early concerns with
radar/communication systems
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45.
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Invents 64 element nulling
system integrated circuit
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Works with CORDIC rotations
with digital hardware
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46.
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President of ASSP in early
1980s
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Currently working in Group
102, airborne radar signal processing
group
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47.
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Problems related to DSP
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48.
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Description of signal
processing from mid-'70s onward
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49.
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Importance in relation
between algorithms and computer
architecture (CPU memory)
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50.
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Importance of artificial
intelligence, neural net fields in DSP
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51.
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Comparison of Gold/Rader and
Schafer/Oppenheim texts
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52.
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Growth of field impacts
presentation of work
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53.
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Worked on acoustic committee
investigating Kennedy assassination
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54.
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Final thoughts
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