John P. Keane
Integrated Circuit Design Researcher, Keysight Laboratories
M.S. Electrical Engineering, '02, Ph.D. Electrical Engineering, '04
John Keane is an integrated circuit design researcher with Keysight Laboratories in Santa Clara, CA. He works as part of a team of mixed-signal and analog circuit designers to create some of the world’s fastest and highest performance data converters for use in instrumentation applications. Integrated circuits he designed are shipping today in many Keysight instruments.
Prior to working for Keysight Technologies, John received the B.E. degree from University College Dublin, Ireland in 1998, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California at Davis in 2002 and 2004, respectively. After graduating from UC Davis, he joined in the Mixed-Signal Electronics Department at Agilent Laboratories (now Keysight Laboratories). His research interests include timing recovery and adaptive equalization for high-speed serial transceivers and the design and calibration of high-resolution data converters. He has served as a member for the Technical Program Committee of the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference and as a Guest Editor of the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.
What research or technology are you most excited about right now, and why?
Autonomous vehicles are a fascinating technical problem pushing the boundaries in sensors, computer hardware and software algorithm development. As Arthur C. Clarke said: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Watching cars drive around by themselves certainly falls in this category.
How did your time at UC Davis impact you and/or prepare you for your career?
One of the most important things I learned at UC Davis is the value of collaboration and mentorship. I was fortunate to work with exceptional faculty and graduate students who were generous with their time in sharing their knowledge with me. In my career I have tried to carry forward these values. I try to take advantage of any opportunity to learn from other colleague’s experience, while also being open to sharing my experience with other engineers, especially those just starting out.
Did you have a favorite course or instructor at UC Davis?
My favorite course was EEC 213 “Data-Conversion Techniques and Circuits” which was instructed by Professor Stephen H. Lewis. This was my first introduction to the topic of data conversion and provided the background and fundamentals that I still apply in my daily work. Prof. Lewis did an excellent job of distilling down many complex topics to the core concepts.
What advice would you give to young people who are currently seeking a degree in electrical and computer engineering?
I would recommend taking advantage of the opportunity to really learn fundamentals, especially topics like signal processing and statistics that will be applicable to many areas. Although technology may change throughout your career, the fundamental techniques we use to analyze and design electronics do not change very much. The opportunity to really focus on these fundamentals may not present itself again.