My Career as a Math Major

1
My Career as a Math Major

• Tony de Paolo
• VP, Technology
• QUALCOMM, Inc.
• October 26, 2000
• tdepaolo_at_qualcomm.com

2
Education

• Started at UCSD Revelle College as a Physics
  major
• Ended up in Warren College as an Applied Math
  major
• BA Applied Mathematics, 1982
• Minor in Physics (Astrophysics)
• Minor in Philosophy (Logic)

3
Work at UCSD

• Revelle Cafeteria (!)
• OASIS tutoring center
• Math department - Undergraduate TA for
  pre-calculus

4
First Job

• 1982 Naval Ocean Systems Center (NOSC) in Point
  Loma as a DoD Scientist
• Fourier analysis of dolphin speech
• Digital voice messaging
• Autonomous vehicle internal network
• Fixed array SONAR systems
• Command and Control networks
• Tactical decision aide software

5
Second Job

• 1986 M/A-Com Linkabit as an Engineer
• Digital signal processing for defense satellite
  modems, modulation and coding
• Began MSEE degree at UCSD in 1988
• Leave of Absence from Linkabit in 1989-1990,
  finished MSEE at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
  in Troy, NY

6
Third Job

• 1990 QUALCOMM as a Senior Engineer
• OmniTRACS satellite communication system
• Digital Signal Processing
• Satellite Range and Doppler Estimation
• Overall system engineer - International
  deployments
• Worked my way up to VP, Engineering
• Managed a group of 200 engineers of all
  disciplines
• Managed a 50M budget
• Currently back in a pure technical role

7
Upper Division Subjects Used in my Career

• Fourier Analysis
• Probability
• Statistics
• Real Analysis (Galois Field)
• Orbital Mechanics

8
Graduate Subjects Used in my Career

• Stochastic Processes
• Digital Communication
• Information Theory