University of Southern California Viterbi

Andrew Viterbi earned one of the first doctorates in electrical engineering ever granted at USC. The "Viterbi Algorithm", a mathematical formula to eliminate signal interference, paved the way for the widespread use of cellular technology, and catapu widespread use of cellular technology, and catapulted Viterbi into the limelight of wireless communications worldwide. Today, the Viterbi Algorithm is used in all four international standards for digital cellular telephones, as well as in data terminals, digital satellite broadcast receivers and deep space telemetry. Viterbi is also the co-developer of CDMA -- Code Division Multiple Access -- the most widely used cell phone technology in the U.S. Communications pioneer Andrew J.Viterbi — who in 1962 earned one of the first doctorates in electrical engineering granted at the University of Southern California — has forever changed how people everywhere connect and communicate, whether from across a crowded city, between nations or from the infinite reaches of space. Born into an analog world, this visionary thinker opened the doors to the digital age with the Viterbi Algorithm, a groundbreaking mathematical formula for eliminating signal interference. Today, the Viterbi Algorithm is used in all four international standards for digital cellular telephones, as well as in data terminals, digital satellite broadcast receivers and deep space telemetry. Dr.Viterbi’s lifelong interest in communications began as a child, when his family fled Italy for America in 1939 to escape the persecution of Jews. Long absences from family members instilled a desire to find ways of communicating across political and geographical borders. Theories into action The Viterbi family first settled in New York, then Boston. He entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1952, studying electronics and communications theory under such renowned scholars as Norbert Wiener, Claude Shannon, Bruno Rossi and Roberto Fano. In 1956, he met Erna Finci, married and started a family. In 1957, the Cold War was underway. In October of that year, the Soviets launched Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite, and the space race was on. The new MIT grad and his family moved to California, home to defense industry giants. He went to work at the California Institute of Technology’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, then a center for communications and satellite control systems, which soon became part of a new National Aeronautics and Space Administration. There, he specialized in the communications technology of “spread spectrum” systems on a team that designed the telemetry equipment for the first successful U.S. satellite, Explorer 1. Faced with a challenge to process and transmit information packets from space as accurately and quickly as possible, the team confronted two problems: the satellite’s weak signal, caused by its long journey, and frequency changes created by rapid orbits.