Wookwon Lee

• The George Washington University, D.Sc. in Electrical Engineering -- Communications, Dissertation Title: Array Processing for Multiple Access Interference Cancellation, Dec. 1995
• The George Washington University, M.S. in Electrical Engineering -- Communications, May 1992
• Inha University, Korea, B.S. in Electronic Engineering, Feb. 1985

• Member, Eta Kappa Nu (HKN), National Electrical Engineering Honor Society

• Sr. Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE)
• Member, American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE)
• Professional Engineer
• Remote Pilot, Certification #5049761
• Amateur Radio Operator (a.k.a. HAM), Call Sign: KC3GQE

Archival/Refereed Journals

• N. B. Conklin, W. Lee, and E. A. Neiman, “Demonstration of silicon photomultiplier’s suitability for use on balloon-borne cosmic-ray detectors,” in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A., Elsevier, published online: Feb. 19, 2015 (full bibliographic details: vol. 781, pp. 71-77 May 2015).
• W. Lee and B. J. Sepko, “On mobility-supporting transmit beamforming in MISO FDD wireless systems,” KICS/IEEE Journal of Communications and Networks, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 308-315, Sept. 2008.
• J. Zhu and W. Lee, “Carrier frequency offset estimation for OFDM systems with null subcarriers,” IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, vol. 55, no. 5, pp. 1677-1690, Sept. 2006.
• W. Lee and C. S. Curry, “A performance analysis of OFDM systems in excessively dispersive multipath channels,” KICS/IEEE Journal of Communications and Networks, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 323-329, Sept. 2006.

Patents

• US Patent No. 9,698,941, Systems and Methods for Advanced Iterative Decoding and Channel Estimation of Concatenated Coding Systems, (with B. R. Vojcic, F. Shayegh, and H. Dogan), July 4, 2017.
• US Patent No. 9,191,256, Systems and Methods for Advanced Iterative Decoding and Channel Estimation of Concatenated Coding Systems, (with B. R. Vojcic, F. Shayegh, and H. Dogan), Nov. 17, 2015.
• US Patent No. 6,690,944, Power Control of a Multi-Subchannel Mobile Station in a Mobile Communication System, (with N. Secord), awarded on Feb. 10, ‘04.
• US Patent No. 6,373,831, System and Method of Channel Coding and Inverse Multiplexing for Multi-Carrier CDMA Systems, (with N. Secord et al.), awarded on Apr. 16, ‘02.
• US Patent No. 6,330,456, System and Method to Combine Power Control Commands During Soft Handoff in DS/CDMA Cellular Systems, (with B. Hashem & N. Secord), international patent, awarded on Dec. 11, ’01.
• US Patent No. 6,269,239, System and Method to Combine Power Control Commands During Soft Handoff in DS/CDMA Cellular Systems, (with B. Hashem & N. Secord), awarded on July 31, ’01, included in the Wideband CDMA Global Standards “3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) -  Release ’99.”

Conference Proceedings (recent 5 years)

• W. Lee, K.J. McCann, N.A. Nagy, J.L. Kvortek, C.P. Petteys, J.A. Hicks, and D.T. Chu, “A small-scale intra-IoT network prototype for centralized monitoring of CPS/IoT devices on isolated intranets,” in Proc. IEEE Ubiquitous Computing, Electronics, and Mobile Communication Conference (UEMCON), Yorktown Heights, NY, Oct. 17 – 19, 2024, pp. 626-630.
• S.M. Jones, Z.O. Dickinson, A.D. Snowdy, N.B. Conklin, and W. Lee, “Development of a VHF/UHF-band video-streaming payload for near-space operation and lessons learned,” in Proc. ASEE NCS 2024, March 2024.
• Z.O. Dickinson, H.P. Jacobs, S.M. Jones, D.T. Chu, H.D. Yaple, A.D. Snowdy, Z. McClain, N.B. Conklin, and W. Lee, “Engineering experiences and lessons learned from 2023 annular eclipse ballooning,” in Proc. ASEE NCS 2024, March 2024.
• W. Lee, J. Mendez, and N. Manimaran, “WIP: Replication of a 1/5th-scale autonomous vehicle to facilitate curriculum improvement in cyber engineering,” in Proc. ASEE Annual Conf., Baltimore, MD, June 25-28, 2023, pp. 1-7.
• W. Lee, “Run-time estimation of a battery-powered video-streaming payload for balloon flights,” in Proc. ASEE NCS Conf., Pittsburgh, PA, March 18-19, 2022.
• W. Lee and N.B. Conklin, “An electronic-circuit platform for comprehensive PSpice simulation and PCB troubleshooting,” in Proc. ASEE NCS Conf., Pittsburgh, PA, March 18-19, 2022.
• W. Lee, P. Hassanpour, and S. Tiari, “Effectiveness of a software-based service-learning project in first-year seminar course for engineering freshmen during COVID-19 pandemic,” in Proc. ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Long Beach, CA, July 26-29, 2021.
• W. Lee, M. Altamimi, J.P. Arockia Doss, O.M. Salameh, R.T. Bryan Rivera, and N.B. Conklin, “Proof-of-concept prototype of wideband VHF-based video streaming for e-health interventions in remote rural areas,” in Proc. IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC), Oct. 29-Nov. 1, 2020, Hybrid/Virtual Presentation Options (due to COVID-19), pp. 1-5.
• W. Lee and N. Conklin, “Assessment of self-regulated learning from participating in extracurricular research projects,” in Proc. ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, June 21-24, 2020, Virtual Conference (due to COVID-19), pp. 1-14.
• W. Lee, D. Gee, and S. Tiari, “Assessment of self-regulated learning in service-learning project in a first-year seminar in engineering course,” in Proc. 2019 Frontiers in Education Conf. (FIE), Oct. 16-19, 2019, Cincinnati, OH, pp. 1-6.
• W. Lee and N. Conklin, “An electronic instrument for measurement of the charge and energy of cosmic-rays in high-altitude balloons,” the 9th IEEE Annual Ubiquitous Computing, Electronics & Mobile Communication Conference (UEMCON), November 8-10, 2018, New York, NY, pp. 752-757.
• W. Lee, “Assessment of self-regulated learning in senior capstone design,” the 8th Annual Process Education Conference, June 14-17, 2018, Erie, PA.

My research interests are in the general areas of tethered and wireless communications but lately expanded to involving lots of hands-on laboratory work to devise, refine, and operate the following three research platforms on the ground, in the air, and in near space: 

1. High-altitude ballooning systems including various instrument payloads, stationary and mobile ground station systems, and online balloon-flight tracker (To check out, visit www.gannon.edu/balloontracker)
2. 1/5th-scale autonomous vehicles
3. Quadcopter 6ft-wide (propeller to propeller) heavy-lift drone capable of carrying payload weight of up to 17 lbs

I am also active in research with undergraduate students. Motivated students of all levels are welcome to participate in my projects. If you are interested, please stop by my office for further discussion.

Projects in Progress:

• Near-Space Ballooning (Visit www.gannon.edu/eclipse) -- This is my on-going ballooning project program that I have sustained since 2009. Project activities include design and refinement of various instrument payloads, balloon launch and recovery, and data analysis. Our payloads have been flown on a small weather balloon (~300 cubit ft. of Helium filled) we launch or on a gigantic scientific balloon (~1 million cubic ft of Helium filled) that NASA launches.

• Extreme-Terrain Navigation Utilizing VHF Real-time Video- and AI-based Path Planning - Work is in progress to address the shortfall in robotic mobility in extreme-terrain environments. Our method consists of 1) a Primary Payload that integrates electronic components for real-time video streaming with/without light, and a wideband VHF wireless transmitter, subject to less-strict line-of-sight requirement, for video transmission; 2) a Secondary Payload that performs high-fidelity path-planning utilizing artificial intelligence (AI)-based deep learning and reinforcement learning, and is implemented on a Linux-based compute subsystem for extreme-terrain vehicles.

• Underwater Vehicle System (UVS) -- While unmanned vehicles (UVs), especially unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), are increasingly used to complete various activities such as coastal mapping and restoration, flood monitoring, wildlife surveys, and crop management – just to name a few, this project aims at better facilitating unmanned underwater wildlife surveys in Lake Erie. Our team intends to develop initially a set of networked SeaGlides to navigate through on the surface of water in formation. Beginning with a commercially available toolkit of small seaglide, Gannon’s SeaGlide will ultimately evolve into a bigger glider and also a deep glider for more robust navigating capabilities under command and control. Experiments will be conducted in Lake Erie when our gliders get matured for deployment in real environment.

Recently Completed Projects:

• Solar Eclipse Ballooning 2023-2024 -- This research project was to develop a complete near-space ballooning system in preparation for the spectacular natural event of total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024 (more specifically, full beginning at 3:16:22 pm EDT, maximum occurring at 3:18:13 pm, and full ending 3:20:05 pm). The passage of the 2024 total solar eclipse included the skies right above the downtown of Erie, PA and the shoreline of Lake Erie (right at the home ground of Gannon!), project period: 1/1/2023-6/30/2025.
• Undergraduate Student Instrument Project (USIP): Gannon University's CHErenkov Radiator Payload (CHERP), Principal Investigator (co-PI: N. Conklin), NASA, April 2016, project period: 5/26/16-5/25/18 (2 years)
• Solar Eclipse Ballooning 2017, Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium/NASA, Principal Investigator, March 2016, project period: 5/1/16-4/30/18 (2 years).
• Improving Student Learning Experience via Undergraduate Research, Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium/NASA, Principal Investigator, Feb. 2016, project period: 5/19/17-5/18/18 (1 year)
• STEM Academic Research Training Engaging Underrepresented Pennsylvanians (START-UP), supplemental sub-award for Gannon University from NASA through Penn State University (Principal Investigator: C. House), Feb. 2016, project period: 2/9/16-9/10/16 (7 months)
• Undergraduate Student Instrument Project (USIP): Gannon University’s Cosmic-Ray Calorimeter (GU-CRC), co-PI (Principal Investigator: N. Conklin), NASA, Sept. 2013, project period: 9/18/13-9/17/15 (2 years)
• STEM Academic Research Training Engaging Underrepresented Pennsylvanians (START-UP), sub-award for Gannon University from NASA through Penn State University (Principal Investigator: C. House), Sept. 2013, project period: 9/11/13-9/10/15 (2 years)
• Payload Design for High Altitude Student Platform (HASP), 2011 - 2015, PA Space Grant Consortium/ NASA
• Prototype of a Biomass Energy-Source Generator and Remote Control and Monitoring, 08/2011 - 08/2012, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• Research on Smart Grid Communications, Faculty Research Grant, Gannon University, 2011

Paper Reviewer for Journals

• IEEE Transactions on Communications (2006-2007, 2009, 2013)
• Wiley Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Journal (2004, 2009, 2013)
• IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications (2004-2009, 2011, 2012)
• IEEE Communications Letters (2004, 2012)
• IETE Technical Review (2009)
• IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting (2009)
• European Transactions on Telecommunications (2008)
• IEEE Signal Processing Letters (2008)
• IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology (2003-2006, 2008)
• AutoSoft Journal (2007)
• IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing (2002, 2006)
• KICS/IEEE Journal of Communications and Networks (2000, 2003, 2005-2006)
• Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute Journal (2005-2006)
• IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (2004-2005)
• IEEE Wireless Communications (2003)

On-campus Committees

• Senator, Faculty Senate, GU (Sept. 2010 – June 2015) -- Chair, ad-hoc subcommittee on administrator evaluations (Aug. 2013 – June 2015); Member, ad-hoc subcommittee on administrator evaluations (Aug. 2011 – June 2013); Secretary, and member of the Executive Committee (Aug. 2013 – May 2014); Member-at-large on the Faculty Senate Executive Committee (Aug. 2012 – June 2013); Member, ad-hoc subcommittee on promotion of non-tenure-track faculty (Sept. 2012 – June 2013)
• Faculty coordinator, Electrical and Computer Engineering Summer Camp, GU (June 2012)
• Member, Compliance Working Group, GU (November, 2011 – November 2012)
• Member, Student Success Committee, GU (Sept. 2010 - 2015)

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