Faculty spotlight

The School of Engineering is fortunate to have top-ranked faculty in its classrooms. Bringing industry and research experience as well as excellent academic records to the School, engineering faculty continue to remain current in their fields and specialties through consulting work, research, and societal involvements. We are proud of all our faculty members accomplish and are pleased to recognize the current faculty spotlights, Dr. Behnam Kamali, Dr. Philip Olivier, and Dr. Clayton Paul.

Dr. Behnam Kamali

Dr. Behnam Kamali is internationally known for his work on Reed-Solomon codes.

Dr. Kamali has over thirty years of industrial and academic experience in digital communications, telecommunications, and coding theory. He is an internationally known expert in the theory and practice of Reed-Solomon codes; with more than a dozen peer-reviewed journal and proceedings publications in the area.

Dr. Kamali has worked for ten different universities worldwide; among them are California Institute of Technology, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), University of Texas, Arizona State University, and University of London (U.K.). He has published more than fifty journal, magazine, conference articles and research reports.

He has been a NASA Summer Research Fellow four times at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Glenn Research Center (GRC). He is the recipient of several grants including an NSF grant with which he has established a nationally unique communications/ telecommunications laboratory at Mercer University.

Dr. Philip Olivier

Dr. Philip Olivier's research on the automatic alignment of large space based telescopes has been funded by both NASA and the US Air Force.

Dr. Olivier is an active researcher in the general areas of systems and automatic control engineering. In particular his research on the automatic alignment of large space based telescopes has been funded by both NASA and the US Air Force. Some areas of application that interest Dr. Olivier include optics, adaptive optics, fuzzy logic, robotics, modeling and simulation.

Both NASA and the US Air Force are interested in deploying large space based telescopes. Large space based telescopes are often launched in a tightly folded configuration and then must be deployed in space without human assistance. This necessitates designing a measurement system that can measure the alignment of the various segments of the mirror and a control system that can guide the segments to their fully aligned configuration. An important design objective is to keep the weight low so it is advantageous to use the science instruments to obtain the required measurements rather than add additional measurement components. Dr. Olivier's research has included a control system that uses measurements from the cameras that are used to obtain "science" pictures.

In addition, Dr. Olivier directs the Mercer University participation in the NASA funded Georgia Space Grant Consortium. One of the main activities supported is sponsoring the Georgia Regional Botball Tournament.

Dr. Clayton Paul

Dr. Clayton Paul is recognized internationally as an expert in the field of electromagnetic compatibility.

Dr. Paul has dedicated thirty-five years of research to the field of electromagnetic compatibility, specifically in the areas of modeling and solving crosstalk problems between transmission lines and cable assemblies. Electromagnetic compatibility issues are applicable to all electronic and digital devices, from computers and printers to aircraft, making crosstalk an area with which all electrical engineers must be familiar to be successful in the industry.

Dr. Paul's work has included numerous governmental contracts with the U.S. Airforce, Navy and Army, as well as consulting jobs in the commercial sector with firms such as Ford Motor Co., IBM, and Lexmark. In 2005, he was honored with the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Electromagnetics Award, acknowledging his immense contributions to the field. Only one such award is given worldwide each year.

Dr. Paul's research and work experiences have contributed to his successes in the classroom. He taught the first electromagnetic compatibility course in the country in 1982 at the University of Kentucky and has since gone on to publish eleven widely used books and six chapters in books on electrical engineering topics. He has received numerous teaching awards recognizing his outstanding capacity as an educator and is recognized internationally as an expert in the field of electromagnetic compatibility. Dr. Paul is a Fellow of the IEEE and an Honorary Life Member of the IEEE Electromagnetic Compatibility Society. He is also the recipient of the IEEE Third Millennium Medal and most recently was awarded the 2007 IEEE Undergraduate Teaching Award.