Shannon Blunt
- Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor, EECS
- Director | Radar Systems Laboratory (RSL)
Contact Info
Lawrence
2335 Irving Hill Rd
Lawrence, KS 66045
Personal Links
Biography —
Dr. Shannon D. Blunt is the Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (EECS) at the University of Kansas (KU), Director of the KU Radar Systems Lab (RSL), and Director of the Kansas Applied Research Lab (KARL). He received a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Missouri in 2002, and from 2002 until he joined KU in 2005 he was with the Radar Division of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, D.C. His research interests are in sensor signal processing and system design with a particular emphasis on waveform diversity and spectrum sharing techniques, having made a variety of contributions that have been deployed in operational radar and sonar systems.
Prof. Blunt received an AFOSR Young Investigator Award in 2008, the IEEE/AESS Nathanson Memorial Radar Award in 2012, was named a Fellow of the IEEE for “contributions to radar waveform diversity and design” in 2016, was appointed to the U.S. President’s Council of Advisors on Science & Technology (PCAST) in 2019, and received the 2020 IET Radar, Sonar & Navigation Premium Award. He has likewise received multiple teaching awards. He has over 200 refereed journal, conference, and book chapter publications, and 19 patents/patents-pending. He co-edited the books Principles of Waveform Diversity & Design (2010) and Radar & Communication Spectrum Sharing (2018). His research has been supported by over $16M in funding from NRL, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the Army Research Laboratory (ARL), the Army Research Office (ARO), the Department of Energy (DoE), Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), the Office of Naval Research (ONR), and multiple industry partners.
He has served as a subject matter expert (SME) on topics related to radar spectrum management and sharing for DARPA, the Air Force's S&T 2030 Initiative, the National Spectrum Consortium, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research & Engineering (OUSD(R&E)), and the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP), the latter as part of America's Mid-Band Initiative Team (AMBIT) to enable nationwide 5G deployment. He served as Chair of the IEEE/AESS Radar Systems Panel and on the Board of Governors for the IEEE Aerospace & Electronic Systems Society (AESS). He is the inaugural Editor-in-Chief for IEEE Transactions on Radar Systems, is on the Editorial Board for IET Radar, Sonar & Navigation, and served in different editorial roles for IEEE Transactions on Aerospace & Electronic Systems. He was General Chair of the 2011 IEEE Radar Conference in Kansas City and Technical Chair of the 2018, 2022, and 2023 IEEE Radar Conferences in Oklahoma City, New York City, and San Antonio, respectively, along with being a member of the Program Committee for the MSS Tri-Service Radar Symposium series. He was Chair of the NATO SET-179 research task group on “Dynamic Waveform Diversity & Design” and a member of SET-182 on “Radar Spectrum Engineering & Management” and SET-227 on “Cognitive Radar”.
Education —
Teaching —
- EECS 412 Electronic Circuits II
- EECS 420 Electromagnetics II
- EECS 644 Digital Signal Processing
- EECS 844 Adaptive Signal Processing
- Tutorial on "Spectrum Engineering & Waveform Diversity" at IEEE Radar Conference series in collaboration with Prof. Hugh Griffiths of University College London
Awards & Honors —
Fred Nathanson Memorial Radar Award, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society, 2012
Bellows Scholar, School of Engineering, University of Kansas, 2010
Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Young Investigator Award, 2007
KU Miller Professional Development Award for Research, 2008
Harry Talley Excellence in Teaching Award, 2008
NRL Alan Berman Research Publication Award, 2004,2006, and 2007
IEEE Fellow, 2016
Service —
- Director, Kansas Applied Research Lab (KARL) (2018-present)
- Director, KU Radar Systems & Remote Sensing Laboratory (RSL) (2011-present)
- Inaugural Editor-in-Chief, IEEE Trans. Radar Systems (2022-present)
- Senior Editor for Radar Systems, IEEE Trans. Aerospace and Electronic Systems (2022)
- Associate Editor, IEEE Trans. Aerospace and Electronic Systems (2008-2021)
- Editorial Board, IET Radar, Sonar, & Navigation (2008-present)
- Chair, IEEE/AESS Radar Systems Panel (2018-2020)
- Member, IEEE/AESS Radar Systems Panel (2008-2020)
- Member, IEEE/AESS Board of Governors (2018-2019)
- Technical Chair, 2023 IEEE Radar Conference, San Antonio, TX
- Technical Chair, 2022 IEEE Radar Conference, New York City, NY
- Technical Chair, 2018 IEEE Radar Conference, Oklahoma City, OK
- Chair, Conferences Committee, IEEE/AESS Radar Systems Panel (2012-2018)
- Chair, IEEE/AESS Nathanson Memorial Award Committee (2014-2018)
- Contributed to update of IEEE Standard 686 - Standard Radar Definitions (2016)
- Faculty Advisor, KU IEEE student chapter (2012-2015)
- General Chair, 2011 IEEE Radar Conference, Kansas City, MO
Memberships —
Fellow of IEEE
IEEE Signal Processing Society
IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society
IEEE AESS Radar Systems Panel
Tau Beta Pi
Eta Kappa Nu
Associate Editor for IEEE Trans. AES and Editorial Board of IET Radar, Sonar, & Navigation
International Research Engagement
- Technical Evaluator, NATO SET-265 research specialists' meeting on Compressive Sensing, Salamanca, Spain (2019)
- Member, NATO SET-227 research task group on Cognitive Radar (2015-2017)
- Chair, NATO SET-179 research task group on Dynamic Waveform Diversity & Design (2011-2014)
- Co-Chair, NATO SET-204 research specialists' meeting on Waveform Diversity, Berlin, Germany (2014)
- Member, NATO SET-182 research task group on Radar Spectrum Engineering & Management (2011-2014)
Graduate Students
- Jennifer Quirk, currently pursuing PhD EE
- Bahozhoni White, currently pursuing MS EE
- David Felton, currently pursuing MS EE
- Rachel Chang, currently pursuing MS EE
- Ibikunle Oluwanisola, currently pursuing PhD EE (co-advising with Dr. John Paden)
- Matthew Heintzelman, currently pursuing MS EE
- Thomas Kramer (MS EE), currently pursuing PhD EE, now with Honeywell FM&T in Kansas City, MO
- Daniel Herr, currently pursuing PhD EE (co-advising with Prof. Jim Stiles)
- Christian Jones, currently pursuing PhD EE
- Dr. Jonathan Owen (PhD EE), now a Research Asst. Professor at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
- Dr. Brandon Ravenscroft (PhD EE), now with Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, MD
- Dr. Lumumba Harnett (PhD EE, MS EE), now with Leidos, Inc. in Arlington, VA
- Zeus Gannon (MS EE), now at University of Central Florida pursuing PhD EE (co-advised with Prof. Chris Allen)
- Dr. Charles Mohr (PhD EE, MS EE), now with the Sensors Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH
- Dr. Shadi Pir Hosseinloo (PhD EE), now with the acoustics team at Apple (co-advised with Prof. Jon Brumberg of KU Dept. of Speech, Language, Hearing)
- Dr. Mohanad Al-Ibadi (PhD EE), now with the Engineering Technical College of Najaf in Najaf, Iraq (co-advised with Dr. John Paden)
- Dana Hemmingsen (MS EE), now with Honeywell FM&T in Kansas City, MO
- Garrett Zook (MS EE), now with L3 Advanced Systems & Technology in Plano, TX
- Dr. Patrick McCormick (PhD EE), was with the Sensors Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, now an Asst. Prof. in the KU EECS Department.
- Dr. Peng Seng (Isaac) Tan (PhD EE), now with Eaton Cooper Lighting in Peachtree City, GA (co-advised with Prof. Jim Stiles)
- Audrey Seybert (MS EE), now with Honeywell FM&T in Kansas City, MO (co-advised with Prof. Chris Allen)
- Dakota Henke (MS EE), was with Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM, and is now with KBR in Ann Arbor, MI
- Erik Hornberger (MS EE), now with Sumitomo Heavy Industries in Yokohama, Japan
- Lane Ryan (MS EE), now with Honeywell FM&T in Kansas City, MO (co-advised with Prof. Chris Allen)
- Dr. Justin Metcalf (PhD EE, MS EE), was with AFRL Sensors Directorate, now an Asst. Professor at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
- John Jakabosky (MEng EECS), now with the Radar Division of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC
- Matthew Cook (MS EE), now with Garmin in Olathe, KS
- Casey Biggs (MS EE), now with 13iggs Consulting in Lawrence, KS
- Tsz Ping (Charley) Chan (MS EE), now with Bloomberg L.P. in New York, NY
- Padmaja Yatham (MS EE), now with La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia
- Dr. William Dower (MS EE), now with Raytheon in El Segundo, CA and also received PhD EE from the University of Oklahoma in 2017
- Dr. Thomas Higgins (PhD EE, MS EE), now with the Radar Division of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC
Supervised Theses/Dissertations
- Jonathan Owen, "Real‐Time Cognitive Sense‐and‐Notch Radar," PhD EE dissertation, May 2023.
- Brandon Ravenscroft, "Spectral Cohabitation and Interference Mitigation via Physical Radar Emissions (pdf)," PhD EE dissertation, May 2023.
- Thomas Kramer, "Time-Frequency Analysis of Waveform Diverse Designs," MS EE thesis, March 2023.
- Lumumba Harnett, "Mismatched Processing for Radar Interference Cancellation (pdf)," PhD EE dissertation, July 2022.
- Charles Mohr, "Design and Evaluation of Stochastic Processes as Physical Radar Waveforms (pdf)," PhD EE dissertation, June 2021.
- Shadi Pirhosseinloo, "Using Deep Learning Methods for Supervised Speech Enhancement in Noisy and Reverberant Environments (pdf)," PhD EE dissertation, Dec. 2019.
- Charles Mohr, "Multi-Objective Optimization of FM Noise Waveforms via Generalized Frequency Template Error Metrics (pdf)," MS EE thesis, June 2019.
- Mohanad Al-Ibadi, "Array Processing Techniques for Estimation and Tracking of an Ice-Sheet Bottom (pdf)," PhD EE dissertation, May 2019.
- Dana Hemmingsen, "Waveform-Diverse Stretch Processing (pdf)," MS EE thesis, Mar. 2019.
- Garrett Zook, "Applications of FM Noise Radar Waveforms: Spatial Modulation and Polarization Modulation, (pdf)" MS EE thesis, Aug. 2018.
- Lumumba Harnett, "Post Pulse Compression & Partially Adaptive Multi-Waveform Space-Time Adaptive Processing for Heterogeneous Clutter, (pdf)" MS EE thesis, July 2018.
- Patrick McCormick, "Design and Optimization of Physical Waveform-Diverse and Spatially-Diverse Radar Emissions (pdf)," PhD EE dissertation, May 2018.
- Peng Seng Tan, "Addressing Spectrum Congestion by Spectrally-Cooperative Radar Design, (pdf)" PhD EE dissertation, May 2017.
- Audrey Seybert, "Analysis of Artifacts Inherent to Real-Time Radar Target Emulation (pdf)," MS EE thesis, May 2016.
- Dakota Henke, "Robust Optimal and Adaptive Pulse Compression for FM Waveforms, (pdf)" MS EE thesis, Sept. 2015.
- Erik Hornberger, "Partially Constrained Adaptive Beamforming, (pdf)" MS EE thesis, July 2015.
- Justin Metcalf, "Signal Processing for Non-Gaussian Statistics: Clutter Distribution Identification and Adaptive Threshold Estimation (pdf)," PhD EE dissertation, Mar. 2015.
- Lane Ryan, "Polyphase-Coded FM Waveform Optimization within a LINC Transmit Architecture (pdf)," MS EE thesis, Jan. 2014.
- Thomas Higgins, "Waveform Diversity and Range-Coupled Adaptive Radar Signal Processing, (pdf)" PhD EE dissertation, Dec. 2011.
- Justin Metcalf, "Detection Strategies and Intercept Metrics for Intra-Pulse Radar-Embedded Communications (pdf)," MS EE thesis, Dec. 2011.
- Matthew Cook, "CPM-Based Radar Waveforms for Efficiently Bandlimiting a Transmitted Spectrum, (pdf)" MS EE thesis, Apr. 2010.
- Casey Biggs, "Practical Considerations for Radar Embedded Communication (pdf)," MS EE thesis, July 2009.
- Tsz Ping Chan, "Reiterative Minimum Mean Square Error Estimator for Direction of Arrival Estimation and Biomedical Functional Brain Imaging, (pdf)" MS EE thesis, July 2008.
- Padmaja Yatham, "Waveform Design for Radar Embedded Communication, (pdf)" MS EE thesis, July 2007.
- William Dower, "Hybrid Signal Processing Techniques for Shared Spectrum Multistatic Radars, (pdf)" MS EE thesis, July 2007.
- Thomas Higgins, "Dimensionality Aspects of Adaptive Radar Pulse Compression, (pdf)" MS EE thesis, May 2007.