Christopher Schmitz

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Education

• Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at the University of Illinois, 2002.

Biography

Dr. Schmitz graduated valedictorian of Pana High School in 1988 and was a Bronze Tablet recipient upon receiving his BS in Electrical Engineering at the University of Illinois in 1993.  He received his MS in Electrical Engineering at the University of Illinois in 1996 in the area of fault-tolerant adaptive filtering.  Schmitz worked at TRW Space and Electronics Group in Hermosa Beach, California, in the area of satellite communication. He completed his Ph.D. in 2002 in interference cancellation in multi-user communications. Upon graduation, he joined Beckman Institute of the University of Illinois to develop and test signal processing and wireless communication algorithms for advanced hearing device designs.  Since 2005, Schmitz has also been active in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department performing course development work and teaching in the areas of digital signal processing and digital communications.  Since 2012, he serves the department as Chief Undergraduate Advisor and the course director for ECE110, Intro to Electronics. His website can be found at http://publish.illinois.edu/cdschmitz/.

Academic Positions

• Teaching Professor, U of I, Electrical and Computer Engineering, 2021-present
• Chief Undergraduate Advisor, U of I, Electrical and Computer Engineering, 2012-present

Teaching Statement

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." -- restatement of Einstein

Teaching is vital to the success of the University of Illinois. Students must be engaged in the course. Demonstrations and experiential learning provide a means to present complex ideas to students in intuitive ways.

Research Statement

My research interests are primarily two-fold: 1) Promoting substantial experiential learning for undergraduates at all levels of the curriculum and 2) improving engineering education through interactions with other educators throughout the College of Engineering.

Undergraduate Research Opportunities

I will entertain undergraduate proposals in the areas of signal processing, communications, and circuits at any level of study. I also have an undergraduate research group, WaggleNet, the members of which work to collect and process data from operational honeybee colonies to reduce bee-related problems. WaggleNet.org

Research Interests

• Adaptive Signal Processing and Beamforming
• Wireless Communication
• Improving Education in STEM Disciplines