Contact information and supporting staff

Research statement

I am currently doing research in two areas, each including collaboration with other institutes and institutions.

Software business

Starting in 1996, I developed two courses in the new School of Information Management and Systems (now called the School of Information), one on “networked applications” and the other on “strategic technology”. These followed my interest in the overlap between economics and business with technology, particularly with a view toward making our technologies more successful by taking account of market forces. Each course led to a book, “Understanding Networked Applications” and “Software Ecosystem” respectively. This led to my recent paper on “Rethinking Components”, with ongoing work on industry roadmapping, end-user innovation, and enhanced industry collaboration. I have specifically been focusing on the software industry because it is undergoing particularly strong change right now and because I encountered and became interested in software business management issues in my own entrepreneurial activities.

 

I am currently collaborating on software business with the Software Business Laboratory at the Helsinki University of Technology because their interests are well aligned with my own. This involves spending four months per year in Helsinki, two in the spring and two in the fall. Our project there is called “Software Business Foundations” supported by the Finnish research agency Tekes, and the emphasis is on understanding those factors that make software businesses different from other businesses, as well as providing strategic guidance to software entrepreneurs in these areas. My collaborators on the project come from software engineering, strategic management, and economics backgrounds. We are not only doing research ourselves, but also working to establish a vibrant international research effort into software business.

Interstellar communication

I have a lifelong interest in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), including writing an article for my college engineering magazine in 1966 (!). Two years ago I began collaboration with the SETI Institute. A new radio telescope instrument is under construction in Northern California called the Allen Telescope Array. Drawing upon my background in earthbound digital communications, I have been studying the possibilities for expanding the types of signals that are sought from narrowband carrier-like and broadband pulse-like signals to more complex broadband white-noise-like signals such as are widely used in terrestrial spread spectrum communication. This work also has direct applicability to establishing interstellar communication links. My hope is to influence future SETI searching efforts to expand the range of signals being sought, especially as technology advances expand our search capabilities. You can think of this as the “Google of outer space”.

Books

 

Software Ecosystem: Understanding an Indispensable Technology and Industry

(with Clemens Szyperski)

 

MIT Press, 2003

[buy]

[publisher homepage]

[author homepage]

 

 

 

Understanding Networked Applications: A First Course

 

 

Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 1999

[buy]

[publisher homepage]

[author homepage]

 

 

Networked Applications: A Guide to the New Computing Infrastructure

 

Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 1999

[buy]

[publisher homepage]

 

 

 

Third edition!

Digital Communication

(with John Barry and Edward Lee)

 

 

Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003

[buy]

[publisher homepage]

 

 

 

Adaptive Filters: Structures, Algorithms, and Applications

(with Michael Honig)

 

 

Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1984

[buy]

[publisher homepage]

 

Full publication list

Recent publications

Messerschmitt, D.G. and Stuck, B., “The What, Why, and How of Entrepreneurship”, IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, to appear in August 2008. [PDF]

Messerschmitt, D.G. “Rethinking Components: From Hardware and Software to Systems”. IEEE Proceedings, July 2007. [PDF]

"RENEWING U.S. TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH", Robert W. Lucky and Jon Eisenberg, Editors, Committee on Telecommunications Research and Development, Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences, NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES. THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS, 2006. [HTML]

Recent technical reports

"Autocorrelation matrix eigenvalues and the power spectrum". Technical Report No. EECS-2006-90, EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley, 2006. [HTML]

"Geometric interpretation of signals: background". Technical Report No. EECS-2006-91, EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley, 2006. [HTML]

"Geometric interpretation of signals: applications". Technical Report No. EECS-2006-92, EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley, 2006. [HTML]

“Stationary points of a real-valued function of a complex variable”. Technical Report No. EECS-2006-93, EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley, 2006. [HTML]

Working papers

Here I post draft working papers that I am not yet ready to submit as a technical report or publication. Your comments and corrections are opportune and most welcome.

“Some digital communication fundamentals for physicists and others”. Draft technical report, March 2008. [PDF]

Brief résumé

Brief biography from Wikipedia

 

·       B.S., Electrical Engineering, University of Colorado , M.S. and Ph.D., Computer, Information and Control Engineering, University of Michigan.

·       Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, New Jersey prior to 1977

·       Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor, University of California at Berkeley, 1977-2005, Emeritus Professor 2005-

·       Department Chair, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, 1993-96

·       Acting Dean (2001-02) and Interim Dean (Fall 2003), School of Information Management and Systems

·       Co-founder and former Board member TCSI, Inc, now a division of Rocket Software

·       Former member of the Computer Sciences and Telecommunications Board of the National Research Council. Co-chair of NRC study “Making IT Better” on the future of research in information technology, and currently member of a study committee on the future of telecommunications research. Former member of Advisory Board, National Science Foundation Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering, member of the National Science Foundation Blue Ribbon Panel on Cyberinfrastructure.

·       Member, National Academy of Engineering, Fellow, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), and Fellow, International Engineering Consortium

·       Alexander Graham Bell Medal winner, recognizing "exceptional contributions to the advancement of communication sciences and engineering".