Professor Emeritus in the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and engineering education onsultant. Research involves the application of particle beam based diagnostics to plasmas of interest to the thermonuclear fusion community, high frequency wave phenomena, photonics, instrumentation, engineering education, diversity in the engineering workforce, and technology enhanced learning.  Additional biographical information.

Photo: Kris Kua, RPI

Center for Lighting Enabled Systems & Applications Mobile Studio Project Inclusive Engineering Consortium Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering School of Engineering Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute EMAIL: connor at rpi dot edu YouTube | Twitter: @connorken ResearchGate

Notes to First Time Visitors to My Website: If you are looking for science and engineering activities to do with your elementary, middle or high school age children, check out my Education and Outreach pages and my list of Project Information. If you are looking for career guidance, check out my Student Career Information. If you are looking for gift ideas for the engineer, scientist or tech junkie in your family, check out my links to Toys and Gifts.

• Courses and Teaching
  • Introduction to ECSE
    An introductory course for first year EE and CSE students.
  • Electronic Instrumentation
  A general engineering course taken mostly by Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineers.
  • Fields and Waves I
  A junior level course for Electrical, Electric Power and Computer Engineers, also taken by students in Engineering Physics, Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Physics. I last taught this course Fall 2009.
  • Plasma Dynamics I
  A graduate course that was taught jointly with Dave Hwang of UC-Davis.
  
  • Plasma Engineering
  An intro course that borrows liberally from all available online course materials.
  
  • ECSE Honors Program
  ECSE students with grade point averages above 3.7 are encouraged to apply to this program in which we address the many professional opportunities open to talented Electrical and Computer Engineers. Honors Seminar Presentations: Spring 2000 , Spring 2001 , Spring 2002 , Spring 2005 , Spring 2006
  • Fields and Waves II
  The continuation to Fields and Waves I -- offered only when demand and my time permit.
  
  • Surge Phenomena
  An Electric Power Grad Course
  • Introduction to Engineering Electronics
  An introductory course for first year engineering students. No longer offered.
• Research
  • LESA ERC
    A Generation 3 NSF Engineering Research Center for which I am the Education and Diversity Director.
  • Heavy Ion Beam Probe
    RPI HIBP activities with particular emphasis on the MST HIBP.
  • Mobile Studio
    A small, inexpensive hardware instrumentation platform for use in a classroom environment.
• Electrial and Computer Engineering Information
  • ECEDHA
  Electrial and Computer Engineering Department Heads Association.
  • CRA
  Computing Research Association.
• Service Activities
  • Education and Outreach Information
    This is focused on the work of the LESA ERC
  • ECEDHA
  I served as president of ECEDHA from 2005-2006 and on the board of this excellent organization from 2003-2008. I also maintained the ECEDHA website.
  • IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society
  This is a website I worked on for the IEEE NPSS.
  • Vollmer Fries Lectures
  It was my pleasure to coordinate these lectures from 1996-2003.
• Personal Information
  • Vegan Information
  • Somnoplasty
    This is a surgical procedure that may be worth trying if you want to stop snoring. It did not really work for me.
  • My Family
  Some Connor Family photos and info.
  • Engineering Collection
  A mostly random collection of artifacts that have had some influence on me. Some are examples of good engineering, some are just what I had to deal with at some time.
  • Magsoft Corporation
  An electromagnetics software company that I worked with.
  • RPDL History
  Some photos and articles on the lab -- either found in old files or provided by plasma alums.
  • Honors Institute for Young Scientists (HIFYS)
  I attended this math-physics-chemistry program in Michigan (Grand Rapids & Ann Arbor) during the summer of 1963 between my junior and senior years in high school. I have very few mementos from this great experience, only a few letters my mother saved and a photo of the group, which can also be found in the Grand Valley State College Digital Collection. ( I am the one on the far left in partial shade.) I am convinced that this program firmly solidified my desire to be an electrical engineer and, especially, to be an EE professor since the UofM EE professors I met were amazing. I just wish I could remember their names. I recently found the name of the HIFYS math teacher, Leroy Sachs, who I hope to reconnect with sometime.
• Graduate Education Information
  • National Doctoral Program Survey from NAGPS
  • Science and Engineering Doctorate Awards from NSF
• Student Career Information
  • Wikipedia information on Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering
  • Graduating Engineer & Computer Careers
  • Careers in Science and Engineering from the National Academies Press: A student planning guide to grad school and beyond.
  • Tech Careers Info online career community for information technology and engineering professionals.
  • ECSE Enrichment Presentation (34MB) from spring 2017 pdf file (8MB)
  • A Day in the Life of an EE or CSE (22MB) presented during Fall Fest 2010 (Includes activities of several ECSE graduates) pdf file (5MB)
  • Engineering Your Future Presentation covering all of three degrees (EE, CSE, EPE) pdf file
  • Engineering Discovery Presentation Presented to 2 pilot sections of this new first year course on 14 Feb 2005. This is a large pdf file.
  • Engineering Discovery Week Presentation  To fully see reluctance motor, also download the animation -- right click with mouse and save to the same directory as the ppt file if you want to run it from powerpoint or just left click on it and it will run in your browser.
  • Careers for Electrical Engineers and Computer Scientists from the IEEE
  • Discover Engineering from National Engineers Week Foundation
  • TryEngineering from IEEE, IBM and TryScience
  • IEEE Spectrum at Work Education, Innovation, Tech Careers
  • WiseGEEK What Does an EE Do? What is a Computer Engineer? What Does and Electronics Engineer Do? What is a Computer Systems Engineer?
  • An Engineering Student Survival Guide from Richard Felder of NCSU(There is also a book by this title written by Krista Donaldson.)
  • Student Resources from Keysight (formerly Agilent and Hewlett-Packard)
  • IDEO, a very creative industrial design company (they probably think this description is too limited).
  • Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering from the Princeton Review
  • Career Information from the American Mathematical Society.
  • Engineer Girl information on Engineering Careers from NAE The National Academy of Engineering Electrical Engineer Computer Engineer
  • Exploring Career Information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics
  • NACME The National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering
  • SWE The Society of Women Engineers
  • NSBE The National Society of Black Engineers
  • SHPE The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers
  • NSPE The National Society of Professional Engineers
  • SACNAS Society for the advancement of Hispanic/Chicano and Native American Science
  • AISES American Indian Science and Engineering Society
• Educational and Project Tools & Info
  • Adafruit
  • Sparkfun
  • Dangerous Prototypes
  • eMachineShop.com
  • ExpressPCB (requires that you use their layout software)
  • Mouser Electronics
  • Digi-Key Electronics
  • Element14 Community
  • Newark Electronics
  • Jameco Electronics
  • MCM Electronics
  • Electronics Kits from Electronix Express
  • Kits from Omnitron Electronics
  • Kits from Circuits Specialists
  • Chaney Electronics Kits
  • Quasar Electronics (Kits, Modules, Projects & Hardware)
  • Hobbytron
  • QKits
  • Bakatronics
  • Helpful Info from Electronic Instrumentation
  • Statistical Reference Datasheets from NIST
  • Information Unlimited
  • Trossen Robotics
  • Phidgets
  • RFID Toys
  • SciToys Make scientific toys at home with common household materials
  • Nerd Kits
  • Apogee Kits
• Sound Files
  • The Northern Lights from Lost and Found Sound on NPR
  • Lovers of Lost Fans from Lost and Found Sound on NPR
  • Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project from UCSB
• Weather Information
  • Average Daily Temperature Data from U. Dayton
  • NOAA National Weather Service
  • The Weather Channel
  • The Weather Underground
• Amateur Scientist
A great resource for science stuff.
• Theremin information from Theremin.info and ThereminWorld
  One of the most interesting electronic devices. The first electronic instrument.
• Prof. Paul Schoch's experiment with our favorite throw-away camera.
• The Anderson Center
The Anderson Center for Innovation in Undergraduate Education is dedicated to the advancement of innovative education. The Anderson Center was founded in 1989 and supported by major donations from Lois J. and Harlan E. Anderson, the Hewlett Packard Foundation, the David Darrin Estate and the George M. Low Memorial Fund. Dr. Jack M. Wilson was the first Director. The present director is Dr. Brad Lister.
• Places to Stay in or Near Troy
  • Hilton Garden Inn like the others in this chain, a good choice
  • Franklin Square Inn & Suites in downtown Troy (generally good reviews by most guests)
  • The Cannon Building extended stay in downtown Troy (Monument Square)
  • Rensselaer Inn (Best Western and formerly a Holiday Inn) in downtown Troy is now owned by RPI and is the Bitman Commons Residence Hall.
  • Old Judge Mansion B&B in Troy (I have received very good reports on this nice place -- offers free internet access)
  • The Sedgwick Inn in Berlin, NY (not close, but a nice place)
  • The Morgan State House in Albany (pricey but very nice)
• Search:  Google | Bing | A9 | Yahoo | Ask Jeeves | All the Web | Dogpile | Momma | Beaucoup | Craigslist | NY Times Cyber Searches | cRANKy
• News:  Google-News | Times Union | Madison.com | BBC | Reuters | CBC | USA Today | Boston Globe | NY Times | Newsday | Troy Record | JSOnline | NHK World
• Sports: USCHO | MLB | MiLB | ESPN | SI | ESPN College Hockey | INCH | BB-Minors-Map | NFL | NHL
• NPR: Wait-Wait (Stats)| Driveway Moments | WAMC | NPR | WPR | MPR | The Engines of Our Ingenuity | WBEZ | WBUR | BBC-World | RADIOLAB
• Magazines: The Onion | Wired
• Misc: IRememberJFK | ePodunk | City-Data.com
• Toys and Gifts Thinkgeek | C. Crane | X-tremegeek | Kleargear
• Blogs: Kerry Fraser | Math Encounters | Stats & OR | Screaming Circuits | EEVBlog | EE Blog List | Your Wild Life | Five Thirty Eight | BrainPickings | Tutoring to Excellence | daily edventures | Mike's Bike | Violent metaphors | CGP Grey | An Ethical Island | Educators' Technology | Optics Picture of the Day | Coding Geek
• Comics: XKCD | The Oatmeal | PhD

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." - Groucho Marx 

"I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day." - E. B. White 

"You know what Rogers Hornsby told me forty-five years ago? It was the best batting advice I ever got. 'Get a good ball to hit.' What does that mean? It means a ball that does not fool you, a ball that is not in a tough spot for you. Think of trying to hit it back up the middle. Try not to pull it every time." -Ted Williams 

"You can't plow a field by turning it over in your mind." - Irish Proverb 

"Ain’t no man can avoid being born average, but there ain’t no man got to be common." - Satchel Paige

"I wish the country had fewer lawyers and more engineers." - Barack Obama

"I am often asked how radio works. Well, you see, wire telegraphy is like a very long cat. You yank his tail in New York and he meows in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? Now, radio is exactly the same, except that there is no cat." -Attributed to Albert Einstein

"The sun is a miasma of incandescent plasma" - They Might Be Giants (YouTube Video)

"I’m sorry I wrote you such a long letter; I didn’t have time to write a short one." - Blaise Pascal

"I was fortunate to have been grounded in basic values essential to good leadership by my parents, teachers, teammates, coaches, and colleagues. When I assumed the Wisconsin AD position, I never forgot those precepts. Hire good people. Treat them with dignity. Establish objectives. Set a good example. And get the hell out of their way and let them do what they're supposed to do." - Pat Richter (quoted by Vince Sweeney in 'Always a Badger.')

"“Three things in human life are important: The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind, and the third is to be kind.” – Henry James

"A belief which leaves no place for doubt is not a belief; it is a superstition." - Jose Bergamin