Hi All, I wanted the perspective of vetrans as well as fellow engineers working in communication theory field regarding the future of a career in communicastion theory. I entered the field around 5 years ago. Currently I work with physical layer of CDMA and WLAN systems. As I see it, there are hardly any fundamental problems remaining to be solved. At least in the industry, the work revolves around modifying existing, well established techniques to suit a particular system/standard. Most engineers seem to be doing incremental modifications, tweaking a few numbers here and there to meet some algortihm performances . It seems that there are simply too many people working in this field and very little possibility of diffrentiation. Recently I had a hard time finding any new job oppurtunity in algorithm development. Am I correct in saying that career in communication theory is on a decline and in next half a decade there wont be many jobs left? Since I just began an industry carrer, I am looking for a 15-20 years ahead of me and I am increasingly convinced that this is not a carrer to hang around for that long. Appreatiate any opinions, suggestions and thougths Regards, -R
Long term carrer in communication theory?
Started by ●October 10, 2005
Reply by ●October 10, 20052005-10-10
<rusticsage@gmail.com> wrote in message news:1128958131.208712.119920@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...> Hi All, > I wanted the perspective of vetrans as well as fellow engineers working > in communication theory field regarding the future of a career in > communicastion theory. I entered the field around 5 years ago. > Currently I work with physical layer of CDMA and WLAN systems. > As I see it, there are hardly any fundamental problems remaining to be > solved. At least in the industry, the work revolves around modifying > existing, well established techniques to suit a particular > system/standard. Most engineers seem to be doing incremental > modifications, tweaking a few numbers here and there to meet some > algortihm performances . It seems that there are simply too many people > working in this field and very little possibility of diffrentiation. > Recently I had a hard time finding any new job oppurtunity in > algorithm development. > Am I correct in saying that career in communication theory is on a > decline and in next half a decade there wont be many jobs left? Since I > just began an industry carrer, I am looking for a 15-20 years ahead of > me and I am increasingly convinced that this is not a carrer to hang > around for that long. > > Appreatiate any opinions, suggestions and thougthsCareers in "theory" are few and far between. I worked in a defense company that got a good bit of its revenue (but not as much profit) from development work. The division had around 1,000 people and maybe 250 engineers. There was *one* PhD who was great at applying theory / analysis to new applications - and he was very, very fast at it. There were two or three others that covered math and acoustics. All of them did more practical work in between. Government labs are places where jobs can be somewhat in between academia and industry. There have been industry labs like Bell Labs that were similar. There are university labs that are similar (APL/JHU, ARL/PSU, APL/UW, etc.). So, I'm saying that the type of job you seem to describe has never been populated with a very large percentage of the engineering / physicist work force. It's always been a small number. Those that are very good at it while able to be practical contributors will find jobs with some amount of theory involved. Those that are very good at it while able to be practical contributors will naturally find ways to apply theory when they see the opportunities that are always there. Just food for thought.... Fred
Reply by ●October 10, 20052005-10-10
Hi,> As I see it, there are hardly any fundamental problems remaining to be > solved.Do you care to elaborate this a little more?> Am I correct in saying that career in communication theory is on a > decline and in next half a decade there wont be many jobs left?I am not sure. Maybe the physical layers (which I have worked on for a few years) have its natural limitations (i.e. the laws of physics in the transmission media) which will eventually put a brake on its related research activities, but there are a lot more new algorithms waiting to be discovered or refined at the higher layers. Just my $0.02 K
Reply by ●October 10, 20052005-10-10
rusticsage@gmail.com wrote: ...> As I see it, there are hardly any fundamental problems remaining to be > solved. At least in the industry, the work revolves around modifying > existing, well established techniques to suit a particular > system/standard. ...You may be right, but remember: shortly after the electrical details of a useful undersea telegraph cable were understood, there were moves in the US and Britain to close the patent offices because everything useful had been invented. Jerry -- Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get. �����������������������������������������������������������������������
Reply by ●October 10, 20052005-10-10
rusticsage@gmail.com wrote:> Hi All, > I wanted the perspective of vetrans as well as fellow engineers working > in communication theory field regarding the future of a career in > communicastion theory. I entered the field around 5 years ago. > Currently I work with physical layer of CDMA and WLAN systems.> As I see it, there are hardly any fundamental problems remaining to be > solved.The fundamentals of communication were solved in the 40s, 50s and 60s. Did that keep you out of a job in the 90s? When I was at college people were trying to figure out how to get data in and out of the new super transparent fibres that had recently appeared. Within my working life that has gone from blue sky research, to practical, to a flooded market and collapse. Nothing lasts for long these days, and its very unlikely any area you work in will last you until retirement. Is radio communications worse in that respect than any other avenue you can think of? If you think all the fundamentals have been solved, perhaps it really is time to move out. Perhaps you lack the vision to see what new things might be possible. At least in the industry, the work revolves around modifying> existing, well established techniques to suit a particular > system/standard. Most engineers seem to be doing incremental > modifications, tweaking a few numbers here and there to meet some > algortihm performances . It seems that there are simply too many people > working in this field and very little possibility of diffrentiation. > Recently I had a hard time finding any new job oppurtunity in > algorithm development. > Am I correct in saying that career in communication theory is on a > decline and in next half a decade there wont be many jobs left? Since I > just began an industry carrer, I am looking for a 15-20 years ahead of > me and I am increasingly convinced that this is not a carrer to hang > around for that long. > > Appreatiate any opinions, suggestions and thougthsRegards, Steve
Reply by ●October 10, 20052005-10-10
Appretiate your comments. As jerry pointed out, I might be (hopefully) completely wrong while making this statement. What I meant was that after turbo codes and MIMO there seem to be no more dimension available to revolutionaise the physical layer efficeincy. Advanced modulation scehems, estimation techiques etc will get marginal gains. We cannot squeeze any more 'significant' milage out of these.T here are enough people working on this problems already. As you said, I think we are reaching the limts imposed by nature. Where would any new revolution come from? And even if it did, will it sustain so many engineers already in the field? What is your take on the research activity for the next decade and beyond? Thanks kd_ei@yahoo.com wrote:> Hi, > > > > As I see it, there are hardly any fundamental problems remaining to be > > solved. > > Do you care to elaborate this a little more? > > > > Am I correct in saying that career in communication theory is on a > > decline and in next half a decade there wont be many jobs left? > > I am not sure. Maybe the physical layers (which I have worked on for a > few years) have its natural limitations (i.e. the laws of physics in > the transmission media) which will eventually put a brake on its > related research activities, but there are a lot more new algorithms > waiting to be discovered or refined at the higher layers. > > Just my $0.02 > > K
Reply by ●October 10, 20052005-10-10
Let me add this: Even in the physical layer, exciting things are still going on. For example, RF microwave communication may have been mature and widely deployed, but UWB signal at 10 GHz and beyond still requires lots of innovative engineering work. Then you have the optical communications, which is at a relatively infant stage (especially free space optics). On the more sci-fiction side, you have things such as quantum communication (quantum teleportation) which will probably throw some of the old communication theories out of the window......
Reply by ●October 10, 20052005-10-10
Appretiate your comments. As jerry pointed out, I might be (hopefully) completely wrong while making this statement. What I meant was that after turbo codes and MIMO there seem to be no more dimension available to revolutionaise the physical layer efficeincy. Advanced modulation scehems, estimation techiques etc will get marginal gains. We cannot squeeze any more 'significant' milage out of these.T here are enough people working on this problems already. As you said, I think we are reaching the limts imposed by nature. Where would any new revolution come from? And even if it did, will it sustain so many engineers already in the field? What is your take on the research activity for the next decade and beyond? Thanks kd_ei@yahoo.com wrote:> Hi, > > > > As I see it, there are hardly any fundamental problems remaining to be > > solved. > > Do you care to elaborate this a little more? > > > > Am I correct in saying that career in communication theory is on a > > decline and in next half a decade there wont be many jobs left? > > I am not sure. Maybe the physical layers (which I have worked on for a > few years) have its natural limitations (i.e. the laws of physics in > the transmission media) which will eventually put a brake on its > related research activities, but there are a lot more new algorithms > waiting to be discovered or refined at the higher layers. > > Just my $0.02 > > K
Reply by ●October 10, 20052005-10-10
Appretiate your comments. As jerry pointed out, I might be (hopefully) completely wrong while making this statement. What I meant was that after turbo codes and MIMO there seem to be no more dimension available to revolutionaise the physical layer efficeincy. Advanced modulation scehems, estimation techiques etc will get marginal gains. We cannot squeeze any more 'significant' milage out of these.T here are enough people working on this problems already. As you said, I think we are reaching the limts imposed by nature. Where would any new revolution come from? And even if it did, will it sustain so many engineers already in the field? What is your take on the research activity for the next decade and beyond? Thanks kd_ei@yahoo.com wrote:> Hi, > > > > As I see it, there are hardly any fundamental problems remaining to be > > solved. > > Do you care to elaborate this a little more? > > > > Am I correct in saying that career in communication theory is on a > > decline and in next half a decade there wont be many jobs left? > > I am not sure. Maybe the physical layers (which I have worked on for a > few years) have its natural limitations (i.e. the laws of physics in > the transmission media) which will eventually put a brake on its > related research activities, but there are a lot more new algorithms > waiting to be discovered or refined at the higher layers. > > Just my $0.02 > > K
Reply by ●October 11, 20052005-10-11
"Jerry Avins" <jya@ieee.org> wrote in message news:JJSdnaGFOfPHMdfenZ2dnUVZ_s2dnZ2d@rcn.net...> rusticsage@gmail.com wrote: > > ... > > > As I see it, there are hardly any fundamental problems remaining to be > > solved. At least in the industry, the work revolves around modifying > > existing, well established techniques to suit a particular > > system/standard. ... > > You may be right, but remember: shortly after the electrical details of > a useful undersea telegraph cable were understood, there were moves in > the US and Britain to close the patent offices because everything useful > had been invented. > > Jerry > -- > Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get. > �����������������������������������������������������������������������Jerry They were right! Rich
