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Julio Proano
Associate Professor of Computer and Electrical Engineering
Engineering and Engineering Technology
[email protected]Office Hours
Monday and Wednesday: 3:20 pm - 5:00 pm
Tuesday and Thursday: 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
Biography
Worked at NASA Satellite Tracking Station, Ecuador.University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado; Ph.D. EE (Dec. 1989) GPA: 4.0/4.0.
University of Colorado, Denver, Colorado; M.S. EE (May 1985); GPA: 4.0/4.0.
Escuela Politecnica Nacional, Quito, Ecuador; (Aug. 1982); GPA: 3.92/4.0.
AT&T Bell Laboratories (1989-2000).
Semiconductor industry, AMCC, PMC Sierra, Broadcom (2000-2013).
Consultant & visiting professor 2013-2015.
Research Interests
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Control Systems Modeling and Simulation, Modeling and Simulation of Mechatronics, Digital Signal Processing for MRI , Distant Geometry in Robotics and Control Systems
Teaching Interests
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Teaching future engineers is very important. Our society expects and demands, from engineers, excellence not only in the quality of their work but in their decision making. Nowadays, progress and wellbeing of society and its members depend heavily on technology. Engineers are touching lives every day through technology. Our society needs engineers that make decisions for the common good. Engineer’s decisions must be not only logical and scientifically sound, but ethical and moral.
As an engineer and scientist, I have a passion for figuring out how things work. I continually seek to get more insight of how the physical world operates and I try to translate those insights into analogies, models and simulations in all my teaching activities; and I do it with enthusiasm, hoping for this enthusiasm to be contagious.
Our universities need teachers that have passion for the sciences, mathematics and for the purposeful applications. Teachers must aim to transfer not only the knowledge and the “how-to” but especially that passion and enthusiasm. My enthusiasm for engineering (applied physics and mathematics) is clearly visible in my teaching. I want the students to sense the beauty that is generated when fundamental concepts, equations and engineering ingenuity create practical solutions in the real world. I look forward for students to reach those “aha” moments.
Along with the knowledge and engineering skills, I take every opportunity to teach students that the ethical decision and judgment calls they make today, will mark what decisions they will make in the future. Doing the things right is not as important as making the right things… and constantly pursue to make them right (as well).
Technically, I seek to get the right balance of teaching materials and an exciting curriculum. I use information from real world scenarios in a number of engineering problems to be discussed in class. This gives students confidence that they can tackle problems using their skills and abilities. Along with real world scenarios, I try to provide the students with the “big-picture-view” of how to tackle real engineering-world problems; this will help students to deal with the complexities of the work place once they graduate.
When explaining concepts, I often use analogies from familiar ideas. Along with analogies, I try to focus on deductive reasoning. I believe this practice allows students to assimilate knowledge easier. In addition, this will also allow students to seek to find analogies in the future when confronting new concepts, ideas, and methods. I also try to develop a constructive-critical attitude, in the students, about what they already know. The way I do this is by periodically asking them to define, explain, redefine and refine the concepts and knowledge they already have.
As technology advances, I incorporate the use of internet and social-media tools. However, along with the advantages of new technologies, we face more demands on ourselves to become more critical and selective about what and how we access and validate information. This demands innovative ideas of how to “assess the value and relevancy of information” in the current and evolving socio-technological environments.
One of my efforts is to keep students mentally involved and to infuse in them the sense of cooperation. Periodically I select small teams to solve problems on the board, where they learn think on their feet and succinctly explain their work to fellow students. Small lab projects force them to plan, coordinate with classmates and execute as a team; these have the purpose of encouraging team work. Large projects, teaches students the do research, to do more elaborate plans and to schedule their work and quality presentation of results. Some of the latter type of projects require for the teams to create video presentations; which forces students to organize their thoughts, their procedures and specially helps them in their communication skills.
I believe that it is important for the teacher to be interested in the students’ strengths and weakness. Each classroom is made of a diverse group and each individual has a different level of abilities, experience, and learning styles. I must be not only aware of such differences, but also be able to apply wide-range of teaching approaches for large groups and specific teaching tools when helping individuals. I encourage students to contact me during office hours; during this time I am able to assess individual and group needs. During office hours, I also inquire about students’ perception of which teaching tools seem to be more effective and I listen to their thoughts about other alternative methods. This feedback is extremely helpful for improving and diversifying my teaching skills. I am open to redirecting my emphasis, the kind of problems, the project assignments, etc.
My continuous goal is to continually organize the material for each course in order to arouse the student’s interest and curiosity. I carefully select sample questions and problems that motivates them. In this effort, I assign regular homework with the goal of assessing not only their performance but also to see how well the concepts have been assimilated.
Thanks to a broad formal training in almost all areas of control, signals and systems, digital signal processing, telecommunications, and applied mathematics, I am able to help students that want to search beyond the regular curriculum. My wide experience in analog and digital communications, optical systems, systems specification and implementation from macro to micro systems (from very large systems, crossing international boundaries, to miniaturized integrated circuits), automotive, and storage devices, etc.; allows me to guide students as they try to figure out their career choices in electrical engineering areas in the industry.
My experience in the classroom goes back to 1985. From 1985 to 1989 I taught at the University of Colorado, Denver, at the EE Dept. I taught the following classes for two semesters or more: Microprocessors, Control Systems, Electric Circuits and Systems, Circuit Analysis, Power Systems, Logic Circuits Design. In 1994 I taught Microcomputer Technology at Merrimack College, North Andover, MA, in the EECS Dept.
During 2013 and 2014, I taught the following classes at four universities. At the Metropolitan State University of Denver, I taught: Electromagnetic Filed Theory, Hardware Description Language, Process Control Systems, Programmable Logic Controllers, Transformation Methods for Circuit Analysis, and Automatic Control Systems. At the Colorado School of Mines I taught Feedback Control Systems. At the University of Colorado at Denver, I taught: Electronics I and Digital Signal Processing (graduate class). At DeVry University, Denver, I taught: Electronic Analog and Digital Telecommunications and Signals and Systems.
My teaching experience goes beyond the classroom. During the two decades that I worked in the industry, I always approached every project and technical problem as a teaching opportunity. The tools I used varied from white papers, power-point presentations and design-solutions-papers (some of them became seed information for U.S. patents). I regularly presented slides to the management team and my colleagues to layout the facts and explain and challenge possible solutions.
Overall, I have a passion for the engineering subjects I teach. I have the necessary technical qualifications and experience to provide students with a solid foundation in the various engineering courses. I am open and clear about the demands of excellence of myself and of my students. I try to engage my students in the lectures. I love to teach and I am constantly looking for new ways of engaging students and encouraging them to aim higher, work harder, and broaden their vision.
Education
PhD in Electrical Engineering / Control Systems
University of Colorado, Boulder
MS in Electrical Engineering/Controls Systems
Univeristy of Colorado at Denver
BS in Electrical Engineering
Escuela Politecnica Nacional
Published Works
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Kalla, D., Balogh, Z., Proano, C. J., Balogh, J., Barlow, F. (2023). Proposal for a New Interdisciplinary Graduate Program Master of Engineering: Lessons Learned. American Society for Engineering Education - Rocky Mountain Section,
Musimbi, O., Proano, C. J. (2023, July (3rd Quarter/Summer)). Modeling of the Impact of Covid-19 on the Prices of Commodities with a Damped Harmonic Oscillator. LACCEI.
Musimbi, M. O., Proano, C. J. (2019, July (3rd Quarter/Summer)). Experimental Investigations of Damping in Multilayered Materials. International Multi-Conference for Engineering, Education and Technology, LACCEI 2019.
Musimbi, M. O., Proano, C. J. (2019, June). Testing of Small Satellite Systems and Impact on Engineering Curriculum. American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) National Conference.
Musimbi, O., Proano, C. J. (2019, May). Curriculum Needs for the Testing of Small Satellites Systems. American Society for Engineering Education Zone 4 Conference.
Proano, C. J. (2015). Compressively Sampled MR Image Reconstruction Using Tangent-hyperbolic based Soft-thresholding. International Journal of Imaging Systems and Technology, 46(4/ April 2015). http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00723-015-0683-2.
Proano, C. J. (1993). Neurodynamic Adaptive Control Systems. (in press). Kybernetika - International journal published by Institute of Information Theory and Automation.
Proano, C. J. (1989). Model-reference Intelligent Control System. Kybernetika - International journal published by Institute of Information Theory and Automation, 25(Number 2), 95-103. .
Proano, C. J. (1989). Implementation of intelligent controller using neural network state estimator. IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Control, 13-416. .
Proano, C. J. (1989). A New On-line Identification Approach Based on Colour Noise. Acta Technica CSAV, (2/ March 1989), 226 - 241. .