It can be a bit like a bumpy road by leaving a safe job in academics to launch a startup based on your research. This is why IEEE partner Pantma Novak experienced. An expert in developing technology to transmit microwaves and millimeter-wave signals on long distances using optical fiber, he left a term. University of melbourneIn Parkville, Australia, an enterprise-supported US optical network tool to join the firm. Two years later, the startup was out of trade as the bubble of the telecom industry was bursting in the early 2000s.
That turn of incidents did not leave Novak. She preferred to work in the industry and had no intention of returning to academics, she says. Instead, he now helped find Farad Ashtak WirelessWhich creates advanced antennas and radio-over-fiber products for communication devices. Hanover, located in MD, is the vice -president of engineering for Novak Octane.
Pantma novak
employer:
Octane wireless, MD in Hannover.
Topic:
Vice president of engineering
Member Grade:
partner
Alma mater:
University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
One of other founders is her husband, IEEE partner Rod waterhouseIn a former Electrical and Electronics Engineering Associate Professor RMIT University In Melbourne, he is an expert in creating antennas and radio-over-fiber communication links.
“We decided,” she says, “that we will create our own company and work on some techniques that we have developed as academics for years and will also build on some things that we worked as PhD students.”
She stops her day job with her role as director and vice -president IEEE technical activitiesMaking him a member IEEE board boardThat too chairs Technical activities boardWhich is the largest of the six major boards of the organization. Novak helps determine the strategic direction of the tab, which oversees the societies and technical councils of IEEE, including their products and services.
From professor to entrepreneur
Novak, who grew up in Brisbane, Australia, fell in love with mathematics and physics in high school. She wanted to make an STEM career. In the early 1980s, he did not have a career counselor at his private all-gourd school, so he researched the job prospects in his local library.
“I determined that I wanted to do engineering instead of science,” she says. “When I started to look into in various fields of engineering, I realized that Electrical Engineering had the best match that I loved the most. I really wanted to say that I was an engineer when I completed my degree.”
He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in engineering in 1987, then Ph.D. In Electrical Engineering in 1992 University of quinsland In Brisbane. His doctoral thesis was on the emerging area of semiconductor laser for fiber-optic communication.
“A lot of my research has focused on developing new techniques and developing new methods for the transportation of very high-existence wireless signals on optical fibers that also enable high-demonstration radio-over-fiber systems,” she says.
He has published more than 280 letters; Most are in IEEE XPlore Digital Library,
Shortly after earning his PhD, he was hired by the University of Melbourne as a professor of electrical and electronic engineering. He was later appointed as the chairman of the telecom.
Novak and her husband took six months of rest from their universities in 2000 to do research University of California, Los AngelesAnd America Naval research laboratory In Washington, DC
Several colleagues from the Navy Research Laboratory went to work in startups, encouraged Novak and her husband to do so. Both joined the Dorsal Network in Colombia, MD in Dorsal.
“My husband and I always wanted to spend some time working in the industry in the United States,” she says. “We do not necessarily see ourselves as all professors of our life.”
“IEEE is a professional house for all that works in the engineering sector. It is a club, and you need to live in it.”
Was acquired by the dors KorawisAn optical network equipment manufacturer in Colombia. Bought it again BroadingA telecom service provider, and to that name. The company dropped out of business in 2003.
Couple and their business partners, Austin FernhamA former managing director at Korvis, established the Octane in 2004. Fernham is the president, and the waterhouse is the Chief Technology Officer.
“We decided that we are going to fund our own company and bootstrap it through research grants,” says Novak. “Our background writing research proposals as professors actually played a really important role in removing the company from the ground.”
The company was initially forced to work on projects for which they received money, but it has developed and now does not apply to research grants, says Novak.
“We are very focused on commercialization of our technology and selling our products,” she says.
Giving back the community
Novak’s Ph.D. The advisor encouraged him to join IEEE due to his magazines and conferences.
“You need to join IEEE because it is really important for you to publish papers and go to its conferences,” he told him. “And this is what you are going to graduate.” she joined.
“IEEE is a professional house for everyone who works in the engineering sector,” she says. “This is a club, and you need to stay in it.”
She says, some of the most important benefits for her are meeting from seminal papers, networking and collaborative writers.
She says, “What people do not realize, especially young people, is the value of networking.” “When I went to America, I already knew many people participating in IEEE meetings and through my volunteer work for it. I was able to talk to them about new opportunities, and we also applied together for research grants. This type of cooperation actually expands your network.”
She says that she voluntarily feels strongly about giving back to the community. He has served in many roles, especially for IEEE Photonics SocietyHe is a former chairman, vice -president of membership and a member of its Board of Governors.
She says, “When you are a volunteer, you make a lot of return to your investment with your membership.” “You really interact with smart people and learn from them.
“Because IEEE is a global organization, you also meet people around the world with different backgrounds and speak different languages - which is a great way for people to expand their horizons.
“Volunteers are really a great way to open your brain to other people. And I think it just develops you as a person. Every volunteer experience that I have enriched me personally.”
From your site articles
Related articles around web
