Professor Stevens Kevin Lu advances the standards

This boy would grow to publish pioneering work on optical networks, have a long career in telecommunications R&D and teach students the Internet of Things.

Lu, a senior member of the IEEE Life, has also played an important role in the global IEEE standards development program. It was honored last year of the distinguished service price of the IEEE Standards Board for “the Higher Directorate of IEEE Governance SA as Chairman of the IEEE SA Standards Audit Committee and as Chairman of the IEEE ENTRY INDUSTRY Committee”.

Now approaching retirement, Lu is thinking about his career, which has graciously put on engineering, teaching and volunteering, without any signs of slowdown.

Move from an interest in mechanics to electronics

Born in the city of Taipei, read was the youngest of four brothers and sisters. He says he was influenced by his family and his circumstances. His father, a member of the non -technical administrative staff of Chunghwa Telecom, the country’s telephone company, kept the house filled with telecommunications newsletters. Lu says that his brother has experienced daring chemistry experiences that sometimes ended with songs or small explosions. Kevin severity towards mechanical projects, such as the construction of models on the scale of the cranes, before finally adopting electronics.

“My parents encouraged a career in engineering because they thought it would make it possible to make a living,” he said.

He obtained a baccalaureate in control engineering from the Tung University of Chiao Thealational in Hsinchu in 1979. He then attended the University of Washington in St. Louis, obtaining diplomas of master’s and doctorate in systemic and mathematical sciences in 1981 and 1984.

Kevin Lu [center] shows that the plaque commemorating it by being honored by the distinguished service of the IEEE Standards 2024. It is flanked by James E. Matthews, president of the IEEE Standards Association, and Yatin Trivedi, member of the Council of Governors of the IEEE Standards Association.Kevin Lu

A long career with Bellcore

A fortuitous meeting at the campus investment office led to a job interview with Bell Communications Research, known as Bellcore (formerly part of Bell Labs, now Nokia Bell Labs). He was hired and worked in the company’s facilities in Piscataway, NJ

The timing could not have been better. In 1984, the American telecommunications industry underwent a massive structural change, with the disinvestment of AT&T causing new entities, notably Bellcore. His work was “a member of the technical staff”, of which he was very proud, he says, noting that “the winners of the Nobel Prize has held this same title in Bell Labs”.

Over the next 28 years, he has contributed to projects that have shaped the landscape of modern communications. In 1990, he wrote the seminal document “System and cost analyzes of large -band fiber architectures”, which was published in theIEEE Journal on selected communication areas. He pleaded for passive optical networks – a concept which is now at the heart of the global deployment of fibers.

The road to the idea for implementation was long, said read.

“It was not until 2009 that Verizon installed a unit with me,” he said, laughing. “Fiber is expensive, companies have therefore deployed wirelessly to generate enough income.”

Bellcore ultimately became TelCordia, which Ericsson acquired in 2012. Although it has crossed the ranks to become the chief scientist of Telcordia, he left during the acquisition of Ericsson and joined Broadcom. There, he worked on mobile phones fleas and contributed to the mobile standards of the 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP), a global consortium of organizational organizations that creates and maintains specifications for mobile systems.

After Broadcom left the activity of a cell basic band chip, Lu left in 2013, for a job in the academic world.

A university career at Stevens

In 2015, Lu joined the Stevens Institute of Technology, in Hoboken, NJ, as a auxiliary professor in the Department of Electric and Computer Science. He became a full -time teacher in 2018.

Now, he says, he considers the university world as a continuation of – no departure – his work of life.

“The decades that I have spent in this world give me information that students do not get textbooks,” he said.

“When the students tell me that they discovered their way … it’s the most gratifying thing.”

In May 2019, Stevens honored him with his prize as a distinguished teaching teacher Morton.

He encourages his students to adopt lifelong learning and develop general skills alongside technical knowledge. He does not only teach engineering, he says; He works “to help students discover who they are and where they could prosper”.

Although he recently announced his intention to retire, the school convinced him to remain, with the offer of a new role, to be officially announced before the next semester.

“I will continue for at least three years more for at least three years,” he says.

Involvement in the development of standards

Throughout his career, the IEEE has remained a constant, he said. He joined in 1980 as a student member, drawn by the affordability of contributions and publication opportunities.

His early involvement of the IEEE was rooted in power systems – an echo of his thesis. His career in the telecommunications industry led him to get involved in the IEEE communications society and the IEEE Standards Association. He was director of the development of company standards in 2012 and 2013. In this role, he chaired his standards development council. He also sat on the Society Standardization Program Development Council for several years.

Lu now chairs the IEEE Standards Board industry’s connections committee, which guarantees that the proposed industry connections are in the scope and purpose of the IEEE. The committee, he says, is “a well-oiled machine”. He has managed the group since 2018, and although he has thought a lot about the transformation of the reins to a successor, he remained as president to ensure his continuity.

He also sat on audit committees, patents, procedures and new standards.

Even after decades of professional success, he says, he remains focused on learning, mentoring and construction of bridges between generations of engineers.

What excites him most in the direction that his career has taken, he says, is “when the students tell me that they discovered their career path”.

“It’s the most gratifying thing,” he says. “This is where I know that I did my job. I am proud to see them kiss my philosophy to make a daily learning a daily habit. ”