The purpose of this lecture is to introduce the relatively new discipline of nonlinear engineering that is developing rapidly and in a highly multi-disciplinary fashion. The lecture begins with the basic motivating factors and characteristics of this evolution, followed by the fundamentals of dynamical system theory that is the framework of the discipline. A description is then given of the closely related fields of chaos, fractals, and wavelets which share the fundamental property of self-similarity at different scales that appears to be ubiquitous in nature. Each area will consist of concept introduction, representative applications, and a technology status assessment. Sample application topics will include chaotic synchronization, chaotic modulation, chaotic signal processing, fractal image compression, fractal modeling of nature and random processes, fractal antennas, wavelet data and image compression, wavelet signal denoising, and wavelet modulation. The progress on a continuing internal project to develop a high-frequency, chaotic communications system will also be covered. This work was done with the assistance of Albert M. Young.

Biography

Dr. Christopher P. Silva received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees, all in electrical engineering, in 1982, 1985, and 1993, respectively, from the University of California at Berkeley. His graduate work was directed by Professor Leon O. Chua with an emphasis on nonlinear circuit and system theory.

He joined the Electronics Research Laboratory of The Aerospace Corporation in 1989 and is currently an Engineering Specialist in the Electromagnetic Techniques Department, Electronic Systems Division. He has been the principal investigator on several internally funded research projects addressing nonlinear microwave CAD, communications by means of chaos, and the modeling/distortion compensation of nonlinear satellite communications channels, the latter of which has evolved into a program support effort for advanced technology development. He has given many invited conference, society meeting, and other outside institution talks on the latter two subjects, along with corresponding publications in various venues.

Dr. Silva is an elected member of Eta Kappa Nu, Tau Beta Pi, and Phi Beta Kappa; a Fellow of the IEEE, a Senior Member of the AIAA, and a member of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and the American Mathematical Society.