<Assistant Director, CIARS>

Department:

Electrical & Computer Engineering

Effective Date:

May 1, 2009

Grade:

USG 12

35 hr/wk

Reports to:

Director of CIARS, E & CE Director

General Accountability

The Assistant Director of the Center for Intelligent Antenna and Radio Systems (CIARS) will be responsible for day-to-day management, technical operation and maintenance of CIARS compliant with all applicable safety rules, regulations and up-to-date standard procedures. The position is accountable to the Director of CIARS and the E&CE Lab Director. The Assistant Director will be actively involved in CIARS research and development activities and will contribute to the advancement of CIARS, as well as, the promotion of its national and international profile through enhancing its core competence and high quality of operation.

Nature and Scope

The Electrical and Computer Engineering department is the largest academic department in the University of Waterloo. The department’s 75 faculty members, including 19 research chairs, attracted $11.9 million in research funding in 2005/06. Offering an outstanding research environment, the department is home to more than 500 graduate students. The graduate program offers students the choice of several core areas of specialization and the opportunity to study emerging disciplines such as sustainable energy, nanotechnology and biomedical engineering. The department is growing: the faculty strength is to reach 92 by the year 2010 along with graduate student strength of over 500. The Department offers undergraduate degrees in the core areas of Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering and jointly runs three unique, interdisciplinary undergraduate programs in Software Engineering, Mechatronics and Nanotechnology. Combined, the department has over 2000 undergrad students, all of whom are enrolled in UW’s cooperative education program which is the largest in the world.

The CIARS is a newly established world-class center for supporting far-reaching research and development in electromagnetic communication and sensing technologies over the widest range of frequency.

The $15M facility comprises:

Electromagnetic Radiation Laboratory: The lab consists of a state-of-the-art electromagnetic radiation test chamber including both conventional range and near-field scanning with test capability from 0.5 GHz to 500 GHz, expandable into the terahertz range.
RF/Microwave/millimeter Wave Laboratory: The lab is equipped with state-of-the-art network analysis, spectrum analysis, noise analysis, and signal generation instruments.
THz-Photonics Laboratory: The lab contains advanced research-based THz signal generation and measurement setups using photonics and quasi-optical methods.
Multi-channel Radio Communication System Laboratory: This lab is equipped with programmable multi-antenna radio architectures and test-bed.
Rapid Prototyping Workshop: The workshop includes very high precision fabrication setup for planar multi-layer antenna and circuits.

CIARS is a unique facility in Canada and one of very few such facilities in the world. CIARS activities cover research on novel integrated radio and antenna systems for intelligent radio networks, emerging millimetre wave and THz technologies, integrated radio-photonics, as well as fundamental issues related to new electromagnetic materials and radio-wave science.

The CIARS Assistant Director must carry out their responsibilities with minimal direct supervision. It is expected that the individual possess the ability to adapt quickly and effectively to new challenges as they arise. The individual must possess above average communication, organizational and supervisory skills, and will be expected to discharge the required responsibilities with a level of judgment and maturity normally associated with an experienced researcher holding a Ph.D. degree.

The CIARS Assistant Director will be involved in all the scientific (writing papers, writing research proposals, writing scientific reports, doing research ...) aspects of the centre, as well as, the planning and revenue generation activities like short courses and R&D projects. In steady-state, the CIARS Assistant Director will have 3 technical staff, including a lab engineer (facility manager), reporting to him/her to handle much of the day-to-day technical operation of the equipment.

Statistical Data

Laboratory infrastructure and equipment: approx. $13 Million
Annual operating budget: approx. $300k
Projected number of grad students: 20-40
Number of industries collaborating at research level: 6 (projected to increase)
People reporting directly to the position: 1 lab engineer and 2 technicians, who will be hired in the future, and external industry users

Specific Accountabilities

Responsibilities include:

Managing operation, and maintenance, according to the best operational procedures and all relevant safety standards, and expansion of the CIARS labs:

Millimeter wave/Sub-THz Near-Field Lab
Anechoic Chamber
Microwave/Millimeter Wave Lab
THz-Photonics Lab
Coordination with Multi-antenna Radio Physical Layer lab
Rapid Prototyping workshop
CIARS outdoor vehicular radio communication facility

Planning and direct involvement in revenue generation activities like short courses and R&D projects.
Training, developing/reviewing/updating work procedures in compliance with relevant standards and providing technical and scientific support to CIARS users.
Effectively interacting with internal and external users of the facility in understanding the research needs and matching them with the operational/maintenance requirements.
Technically interacting with technical personnel from Plant Operations and from the department in the maintenance and operations issues related to the CIARS facility. The position will be involved in hiring and performance evaluation of technician(s) and lab engineer(s).
The assistant director is expected to participate in the research projects through experiment design, data analysis and technical consultations/guidance.