Class Notes

Dear Madam or Sir,

as a Cornell MSE alumni (graduate student, 1999, Prof. Ed Kramer group) I would like to share the following information with you. I hope you find it interesting  for the Alumin Notes or Alumni Spotlights.

Every year, the US journal Foreign Policy compiles a list of the top 100 minds in the world – people who have had a major impact on our world and society in the year in question. Together with my colleagues Artur Braun, Florent Boudoire and Rita Toth from EMPA and Edwin Constable from the University of Basel, I was named on the list of100 Leading Global Thinkers 2014 in the innovation category in recognition of our research project on moth-eye solar cells for the direct conversion of sunlight into hydrogen. The awards ceremony took place in Washington D.C. on November 17, 2014.
http://globalthinkers.foreignpolicy.com/#innovators/detail/boudoire-braun-constable-heier-toth
Please contact me for any further information.

Sincerely

Jakob Heier

I am writing this note to encourage kids who didn't necessarily do great in math or physics to still go for ECE at Cornell. My specialty was parallel processing and digital signal processing and I have had a terrific 25 years since graduation, using my skills to land some outstanding jobs and work on really interesting stuff.  

I have been working on video compression algorithms for most of my career, using the basic DSP theory I learned at Cornell to apply to many practical applications. I worked on developing the H.264/AVC video standard, the basis of most internet video, where recently it was noted that a full 50% of all internet traffic consists of H.264 bits.  

Recently I have been attending standards meetings to define the next-generation video compression algorithm: H.265. With lots of power positioning recently with Google giving away VP8 for free and traditional broadcasters trying to keep their territory, it is an exciting time for internet video, and it all started for me with ECE at Cornell.