Professor Dennis Derickson Ph.D. P.E.
Fall 2026 Schedule
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| 8:00-8:20 AM |
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EE 5597-04
(20-134)
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| 8:30-8:50 AM |
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| 9:00-9:20 AM |
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9:30-9:50 AM
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| 10:00-10:20 AM |
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10:30-10:50 AM
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| 11:00-11:20 AM |
Curriculum Committee |
Department
Meeting
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| 11:30 AM-11:50 AM |
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| 12:00-12:20 PM |
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EE 1111L-02
(20-126)
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| 12:30-12:50 PM |
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| 1:00-1:20 PM |
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| 1:30-1:50 PM |
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| 2:00-2:20 PM |
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| 2:30-2:50 PM |
Office Hours |
Office Hours |
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| 3:00-3:20 PM |
Office Hours
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Office Hours |
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| 3:30-3:50 PM |
Office Hours |
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Office Hours |
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| 4:00-4:20 PM |
Office Hours |
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Office Hours |
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| 4:30-4:50 PM |
EE 5502-01
(26-103B)
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EE 5502-01
(26-103B)
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| 5:00-5:20 PM |
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| 5:30-5:50 PM |
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| 6:00-6:20 PM |
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EE 5502-02
(20-116)
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| 6:30-6:50 PM |
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| 7:00-7:20 PM |
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| 7:30-7:50 PM |
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| 8:00-8:20 PM |
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| 8:30-8:50 PM |
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| 9:00-9:20 PM |
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| 9:30-9:50 PM |
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Biography:
Dennis Derickson received his BS, MS and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from South Dakota State University (1981), the University of Wisconsin- Madison (1982) and the University of California – Santa Barbara in 1992. His farming background and youth ham radio hobby heavily influenced his career in engineering. He earned his State Farmer degree (Minnesota) with the FFA organization. In the world of radio he received the extra class amateur license (AC0P) and a first-class radiotelephone commercial license. He joined the research and development laboratories of Hewlett Packard (HP) in Santa Rosa, CA in 1982. 1980‘s project development activities included spectrum analyzer and vector network analyzer electronic measurement instrumentation. His Ph.D. work (1988-1992) involved design, fabrication and test of single-chip pulsed semiconductor lasers for data communication applications. Dr. Derickson managed multiple project teams at HP for high-speed communication test systems in the 1990s. He moved into the director of product marketing role at a start-up company called Cierra Photonics in Santa Rosa, CA in 2000. After 21 years in industry, he joined the Electrical Engineering Department at California Polytechnic State University in 2005. He served as department chair from 2010 to 2020. Research activities have focused on applications of semiconductor lasers, wireless communication systems, and rf/microwave/mm-wave electronics. He is the editor of two books; Fiber Optics Test and Measurement (1997) and Digital Communication Test and Measurement (2008). With many collaborators he has created 90 publications and 7 patents. His outreach activities have focused on creating and running summer science camps for Jr. High and Sr. High groups at Cal Poly and through the California 4H Youth Development Program. His current activities include Industry/Alumni research partnerships, entrepreneurship, enabling a project-rich hands-on environment for diverse students, and supporting a strong graduate research program. Dr. Derickson is a Professional Electrical Engineer in the State of California and enjoys helping others with his expertise.
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2026-2027 Update: This is the beginning of our first quarter in the Semester System. I'll first go over some of my teaching activity and then go over project activity right afterwards. If any of these topics interest you, please let me know by email. Looking forward to future collaborations with industry and students.
I am teaching the graduate course EE5502 (High Frequency Electronics) in the Fall. In the EE5502 lecture, I am teaching students how to design analog integrated circuits (IC) in the microwave/millimeter wave frequency range. The key Computer Aided design tool for IC simulation and layout is Keysight ADS with the RF Pro EM solver. I am using the process development kits from United Monolithic Semiconductor (UMS) Foundry. Our first design project is a Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) using GaN High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMT) process. The second design project is to design a simulate a 122 GHz sub-harmonic mixer using the UMS BES diode process. Our third design project will be to develop an oscillator design using the Heterostructure Bipolar Transistor Process at UMS. In the laboratory I am focussing on High Frequency printed circuit board projects. Our first project is to fabricate patch antennas and slot antennas on a planar substrate. We built the antennas using copper tape on single sided PC boards. We measured the antennas in our smaller antenna chamber in building 20. The next step is to design two amplifier variants. Amplifier 1 is to build a single transistor amplifier with impedance matching networks to increase gain of the amplifier. The second amplifier will be a balanced amplifier to cancel all of the reflections at the input and output of the amplifier. We will then move on to using p-i-n diodes to make switches and attenuators. Negative resistance oscillator design and understand noise is our mid-semester project. The end of the quarter laboratory project allows students to choose their own sub-system design, have it fabricated at a PC Board vendor and then do final test before the end of the semester. I really enjoy doing these example analog IC design projects and the printed circuit board high-frequency experiments. I get to be in the lab with the students and we really learn together on how to get everything characterized and functional.
I am also teaching the first year Electrical Engineering Student Laboratory EE1111L. This is one of my favorite classes to teach. The students purchase an Arduino Mega2560 project kit. We also have a full complement of standard test and measurement equipment in the laboratory. Students work with the test and measurement equipment and their Arduino kits every week. The laboratory also functional as an environment where the first quarter on campus students start to get to know each other in a very supportive environment.
2026-2027 Project and Research Initiatives:
1. Satellite Projects: Collaboration with start-up company OWL Integrations. We have a new Phase 1 Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant starting up this fall on innovative space technology. We will be building of of previous grants that have been done in collaboration with OWL Integrations. On March 30, 2026, Cal Poly launched the Cube Sat "Sal-E" out of Vandenberg. I was really fun and interesting to witness the launch in the middle of the night just a few miles South of San Luis Obispo at the Space Force base. The OWL Integratinos project collaboration team I was involved with created a payload that launched LoRa- modulated data packets from a Custom-Designed Ground Station up to the Sal-E satellite. The Sal-E satellite took the data packet along with signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) data and repeated the information to our 436 MHz ground station with AFSK modulation. Our EE ground stations gets 2 passes a day from the Sal-E satellite and we are able to get date up and down on most passes that high reasonably high elevation. We are now in the process of changing LoRa modulation parameters and researching optimum conditions for the LoRa data uplink solution. The follow-on project we are starting this academic year with OWL integrations will involve advanced RF sensors that can be used in the space environment.
2. Collaboration with Hascall-Denke (HD) industrial sponsor. We are very fortunate the this Antenna and RF design company visited our campus and decided to set up a local office at the Cal Poly tech park, building 84. HD sponsored 6 student researchers over the summer to design, fabricate and test a varienty of antennas covering the 1-6 GHz frequency range. Students used the large antenna test chamber that we have in Building 4. Antenna Design CAD programs were also used to analyze design options. This Fall 2026, HD is sponsoring 3 teams of 3 senor project students along with 2 MS students on collaborative projects.
3. Reflect Array Projects. We are fortunate to have hired Professor Payam Nayeri several years back who wrote an entire book on Reflect Array Antennas and how they are designed. Professors Derickson and Kloosterman are collaborating on the project with Professor Nayeri to do reflect-arrray design, fabrication and test in the millimeter wave spectrum. So far with have one graduate student and three senior project teams working on aspects of our Reflect Array project ideas.
4. Amateur Radio Projects: I got my start in Electrical Engineering as a newly licensed amateur radio operator in 1975. My call sign is ACOP. I am on the Grants Advisory Committee for the Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) Philanthropic Foundation. ARDC has a $100M endowment that was obtained through selling a group of IPV4 addresses that were allocated to Amateur Radio. So far I have reviewed over 200 grant applications for funding through ARDC. ARDC funds a wide range of Amateur Radio and Digital Communication related projects each year. Our local W6BHZ Cal Poly Amateur Radio Club received an ARDC Grant in 2025 for expanding our AREDN network capability on the Central Coast. The students have been putting up 5.8 GHz data link equipment at strategic locations around the local counties to extend coverage here. This is been a great learning activity for the entire W6BHZ amateur radio club on campus. The first W6BHZ radio club meeting this fall 2026 had 70 new attendees and we hope to get them all licensed at a "Get Your License In A Day" workshop in mid-October. At my home AC0P radio station, I was able to get up a new tower up in August. I designed a home brew tilt-up apparatus for a used 50 foot tower. I put a wide variety of mostly wire dipoles so I can cover the HF bands plus a J-Pole for 144/432 MHz. This adds to my previous group of antennas that were primarily being held up by antenna masts. The new used tower allows me to get the dipoles much higher off the ground and I do not need to do any tower climbing. I will continue to add to my station capability over the next year with a concentration on high-gain VHF and UHF antennas for troposcatter contacts on contest weekends.
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In 2025-2026, I am focused on leading the Electrical Engineering Department with the ABET Evaluation self-study report. We have our ABET accreditation visit in Fall of 2026.
In my research, I am looking at improving the communication system capability at Cal Poly's Swanton Pacific Ranch near Santa Cruz, CA. The Swanton Pacific Ranch had a fire in 2020 that burned 80% of the 3200 acres on the ranch. There are lots of learn-by-doing opportunities at the ranch while the ranch recovers from the fire going forward. We ended up deploying an experimental CBRS communication system on the ranch in May 2025
We will also put together an Cal Poly San Luis Obispo mesh sensor network that can be used as a test bed for software and hardware improvement activities. I am also working with Steve Dunton and the Cal Poly Cube Sat team at Cal Poly to put a LoRa radio on the Sal-E satellite that will be launching in February 2026. We have put together a second ground station with a 915 MHz uplink and 436 MHz downlink. The goal of LoRa interface mission on the satellite is to test link margins over a wide range of LoRa settings.
In Winter Quarter 2026, I am venturing into RFIC design starting with my EE529 class. I am working with Keysight Technologies Applications Engineers using Keysight ADS design software to produce RFIC design that work with the United Monolothic Semiconductor Foundry. I will be looking for MS students who take EE529 to then do an actual RFIC design and send it out for fabrication.
Teaching and Research Interests
- Radio frequency/microwave/mm-wave electronics design
- Multi-Hop Mesh networks for Internet of Things Sensors
- Software Defined Radio Applications with the Lime Mini SDR 2.0
- Test and Measurement techniques for high speed digital communications
- High speed data access for underserved rural markets
- Photonic test and measurement techniques for biomedical,industrial & scientific markets. Lidar and OCT measurements. Frequency Agile Tunable Lasers.
- Licensed Professional Electrical Engineer activities
- Promoting Amateur Radio as part of EE education
- Summer Engineering camp outreach
- Next Generation smart sensor systems
- RFIC design using Keysight ADS and the United Monolithic Semiconductor Foundry
Multi-Hop Mesh Network Research: I have opportunities for undergraduate and graduate research. Here is a link showing some of the activities; https://ceng.calpoly.edu/connection/2023/07/student-research-reaching-new-heights/
Hilbert Design Competition 2024 Results: Here is a link to several Cal Poly students research on Photonic Integrated Circuit Research; https://www.synopsys.com/blogs/optical-photonic/2024-robert-s-hilbert-memorial-optical-design-competition-results.html
Here is an example project that students created in my communication systems lab:
This is an IQ modulator designed by students in my EE456 Class (Digital Communications). With this modulator, one can generate a wide range of digital communication signals by designing the input waveform to the I and Q ports of the modulator.
Synopsys Hilbert Optical Design Competition winners (June 2022 and June 2023)
I am so proud of the Cal Poly EE students who were winners of the Hilbert Optical Design Competition for June 2022 and June 2023 . Here is a link to the winning entries;
https://blogs.synopsys.com/optical-solutions/2022/08/24/synopsys-announces-2022-robert-s-hilbert-memorial-optical-design-competition-results/
https://www.synopsys.com/optical-solutions/learn/competition/competition-winners2023.html
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IEEE International Microwave Symposium 2025- San Francisco.
I am part of the technical committee for the International Microwave Symposium in San Francisco in June 2025. I will be helping with judging the student paper contest. I will also be organizing the Amateur Radio Reception at the Conference. If you want to help with the Amateur Radio reception, please send me an email at ddericks@calpoly.edu.
My Sabbatical at Keysight Technologies in Santa Rosa, CA in Spring 2025.
From March to August 2025, I had the pleasure of working with colleagues at Keysight Technologies in Santa Rosa, CA. Keysight makes a wide range of Electronic Test and Measurement Equipment and advanced electronic system simulation design tools. I had worked for this same organization when it was called HP from 1981 to 2000. Much of what I learned as an engineer can be traced back to my time at HP. It was great to see many colleagues that I worked with in past years and to meet a wide range of new engineering friends during the Sabbatical encounter. I am also appreciative that Keysight has hired many students from Cal Poly that I have worked with over the years. My technical project at Keysight was to collaborate with Cal Poly EE Alumni Brooks Hanley to characterize components with the newly introduced SSAX signal source analyzer. This instrument can measure a wide range of parameters that can report on the quality of microwave signal sources. I ended the summer with a seminar to Keysight engineers with 100 people in attendance including my daughter Gudrun Derickson who now works at Keysight. Really a great experience and I have brought some of the learning back to the classroom.
Project OWL Collaboration 2023-2024;
I have been collaborating with the company project owl in 2022-2024. Here is a link to their web site. https://www.project-owl.com/. I have an STTR grant with Professor Dunton that runs from Sept 2023 to March 2024. We are creating an open source mesh sensor network. Activities including new hardware/software design and and a space sensor program. Here is a link to last years project highlights. We will be doing balloon launches again in June 2024 of our latest prototypes.
https://ceng.calpoly.edu/connection/2023/07/student-research-reaching-new-heights/
2023 International Microwave Symposium Student Design Competition - Third Place in power amplifier category. Electrical Engineering MS Students Shreyesh Suman and Kyle Chang demonstrated their high power amplifier designs.
https://ceng.calpoly.edu/connection/2023/08/electrical-engineering-students-finish-3rd-at-international-competition/
2023 Amateur Radio Digital Communication Grants Advisory Committee
I joined the grants advisor committee for the Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) group. Here is their web site. ardc.net. This group provides $6M in annual funding to empower the future of amateur radio and digital communications. Here is a listing of the "who we are" page for ARDC. https://www.ardc.net/about/who-we-are/
Eta Kappa Nu "The Bridge" Article on Amateur Radio and the Electrical Engineering Curriculum.
EE faculty members Dennis Derickson and Chuck Bland along with Alumni Marcel Steiber just published an article in "The Bridge" magazine for IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu. Eta Kappa Nu is the Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering world-wide academic honor society. The title of the article is " GREAT IMPEDANCE MATCH FOR KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER: Amateur Radio as Part of Electrical and Computer Engineering Education". Here is a link to the entire 2019 "The Bridge" article.
Electrical Engineering Professional Engineering License in the State of California.
I am a Licensed Electrical Engineering Professional Engineering.
2018-2019 pictures:
Here is a compilation of a few photos I took in 2018-2019 showing what I have been doing at Cal Poly. 2018-2019 in pictures
Other Files of Interest
Recent Publications:
91.Dennis Derickson, Suresh Ojha, Darin Phelps, Marcel Stieber, David Viera, and David, “IMS 2025 Amateur Radio Reception: IEEE Microwaves Magazine, Volume 26, Number 5, May 2025, pages149-150
90.Amir Javan-Khoshkholgh, Cung-Tse Michael Wu, and Dennis Derickson , “IMS 2025 Student Paper Competition”, IEEE Microwaves Magazine, Volume 26, Number 5, May 2025, pages126-127
89. Dennis Derickson, Steve Dunton, Sammy Brunton, Victor Castro and Kevin Nottberg “ , “LoRa Link Cube-Sat Mission as Part of Cal Poly’s Sal-E Program” Cubesat Developers Workshop, 23 April 2025, San Luis Obispo, CA.
88. Dennis Derickson, Steve Dunton, Sammy Brunton, and Kevin Nottberg, “LoRa Link Cube-Sat Mission as part of Cal Poly’s Sal-E program” American Society of Engineering Education Pacific South West Section Conference, Cal Poly Pomona, April 11-12, 2025.
87. Dennis Derickson Steve Dunton, Rich Murray and Kevin Nottberg, “LoRa Communication Protocol for Space Communication” NSF-Sponsored Conference on the Paso Robles Space Port project on Feb. 27, 2025
86 Liam McCarthy, Benjamin Duval, Steve Dunton, and Dennis Derickson " GNU Radio Software Defined Radio Project-Based Learning using the Lime Mini SDR 2.0 and the Raspberry Pi 5" GNU Radio Conference 2024, Knoxville, KY
85 Albert Cureg Cruz, Dennis Derickson, Amin Malek “Supporting Student Internships with the NSF HIS Program at a Medium-sized Hispanic Serving Institution” 2023 American Society of Engineering Education annual meeting. This is a collaboration with California State University Bakersfield under NSF grant 2122442
84 Kevin Nottberg, Abagail Outcalt, Daniel Xu, John Gharib, Daniel Montgomery, Lucas Lucia, Dennis Derickson and Steve Dunton “Ducks in Space; Update on Improved Performance, Characterization and Path to Space for Project OWL’s Duck Radios” 2023 Cube Sat Developers workshop, California Polytechnic State University location.
83 Daniel Montgomery, Lucas Lucia, Daniel Xu, Steve Dunton and Dennis Derickson “ Impact of Undergraduate Research in a Wide-Area Network Satellite-Terrestrial Communications Link on Student Learning and Opportuities” ASEE Pacific Southwest Conference, April 2023, University of Southern California location.
82 Marcel Steiber, Kevin Shin Wheeler, and Dennis Derickson, “Amateur Radio and the Electrical and Computer Engineering Laboratory Curriculum: Federal Communication Commission (FCC) Amateur Radio Licenses are now available completely online for students with no cost” ASEE Zone 4 Conference, April 2022, Vancouver B.C.
81 Michael Ghallager and Dennis Derickson ASEE Annual meeting (accepted Dec 21) in Minneapolis “New Radio Frequency Microwave and Communication Technical Area Laboratory Activities Inspired by Our COVID-19 Year of Remote Teaching That Are Now Becoming Permanent” 2022 ASEE annual meeting in Minneapolis, MN, June 202
80. Maria Manzano, Emma Della, Gerome Cacho, Drew Miller and Dennis Derickson, “Evaluation on a new virtual program format, does an engineering summer camp program evolve and adapt to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population during a pandemic? 2021 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition July 26-29, 2021. (Virtual this year)
79. Chuck Bland, Xiaomin Jin and Dennis Derickson “The nanoVNA as an Inexpensive tool for a Microwave System laboratory” ASEE PSW April 2020 (Online Conference that was organized by UC Davis)
78 .Dennis Derickson, Marcel Steiber, Chuck Bland, Jack Galegos, “Great Impedance Match for Knowledge Transfer; Amateur Radio as Part of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Curriculum”, Eta Kappa Nu – The Bridge Magazine, May 2019 Issue 2, Volume 115
77.Dennis Derickson, “Simple Student-Built IQ Modulators/Demodulators for Wireless Communication Laboratory Digital Communication Link Demonstrations”, 2018 ASEE Pacific Zone 4 conference – University of Colorado-Boulder
Books I put together with a host of collaborators
1. Dennis Derickson and Marcus Mueller (editors), Digital Communications Test and Measurement; High Speed Physical Layer Characterization” , Prentice- Hall 2008. ISBN-13: 978-0-13-220910-6 .
2. Dennis Derickson (editor), Fiber Optic Test and Measurement, Prentice- Hall 1998. ISBN0-13-534330-5. This is a book that has sold over 14,000 copies to date.
3. P.A. Morton, D. J. Derickson, R. J. Helkey, A. Mar, and J.E. Bowers , Book Chapter 2 ” Mode-locked semiconductor lasers” in Laser Optics of Condensed Matter vol. 2, E. Garmire, A.A. Maradudin and K.K. Rebane (editors), Plenum Press, New York, 1991
