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E-mail: latchman@list.ufl.edu
Haniph August Latchman was born on September 3, 1959 in St. Catherine Jamaica West Indies. He obtained a B.Sc. (1st Class Honors) degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago in 1981 and a D.Phil. in Engineering from Oxford University in 1986.
Dr. Latchman’s first professional association was with the Jamaica Telephone Company (now known as Cable and Wireless Jamaica) in Kingston Jamaica, where he was a transmission engineer responsible for microwave and fiber optic inter-exchange circuit design, specification, installation and commissioning. |
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In 1983, while still employed to the Jamaica Telephone Company, he was awarded the 1983 Jamaica Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University where he began his doctoral research program in Systems and Control. In 1987 after completing his D.Phil. at Oxford, Dr. Latchman joined the faculty of the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Florida, where he began teaching and conducting research in the areas of Systems and Control and Communications. Dr. Latchman now serves as Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering has directed 14 Ph.D. dissertations and 35 M.S. Thesis projects and has taught graduate and undergraduate Electrical Engineering core courses in Circuits, Signals and Systems, Controls and Communications. Professor Latchman has received numerous teaching awards from student organizations, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the College of Engineering as well as the University of Florida. His average teaching evaluation over the past 10 years is 4.52 out of a maximum of 5.0. Dr. Latchman was selected as the University of Florida Teacher of the Year in 1998 with the citation “for demonstrated excellence, innovation and effectiveness in the classroom and for instilling a ‘learning by doing’ approach in his students”. Dr. Latchman was also named a 2000 Boeing Welliver Faculty Fellow. He received two Teaching Improvement Program Awards in 1993 and 1998 from the State of Florida which each of which carried a $5,000.00 base salary increase. Dr. Latchman was also the recipient of the prestigious IEEE 2000 Undergraduate Teaching Award with the citation “for innovative and inspirational teaching and advancing the use of information technology in education.”. This award is given to a single member of the IEEE each year. In addition he received a Fulbright Fellowship in 2001 to the Czech Republic to do research and teach in control and communication systems and to assist in the deployment of educational technology.
Dr. Latchman is the Director of the Laboratory for Information Systems and Telecommunications (LIST) and co-Director of the Research Laboratory for Control System and Avionics (RLCSA). His research centers around robustness issues in multivariable system analysis and design, as well as on packet and wireless communications and networks. Beginning with his Doctoral research at Oxford, Dr. Latchman has developed key results in the use of singular value methods in assessing the stability of uncertain multivariable systems in the frequency domain. His most recent contribution in this area was the development in 1997 of the Critical Direction Theory which essentially extends the classical idea of a critical point to include a critical line which is shown to be crucial when there are system uncertainties. In the communication and networks area, Dr. Latchman and his students have developed several systems theoretic approaches to congestion and admission control for high speed networks, as well as performance bounds for multi-level modulation schemes in MMSE receiver-based CDMA systems with power control. His recent work in this area has been in the development of efficient Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols for Powerline Communication Networks.
Sine 1997 Dr. Latchman has become actively involved in the use of computer, communication and information technology to enhance the learning experience for traditional on-campus students as well as in distance education. In 1997 he received a grant for the Alfred P. Sloan Corporation to develop an online MS degree program in Electrical Engineering. In this effort Dr. Latchman pioneered the use of synchronized streaming media in a system called “Lectures on Demand in Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALNs)”. The success of this program led to the award of University of Florida grant to offer junior and senior level courses via the Internet, towards an online BS degree in Electrical Engineering using the Lectures on Demand in ALN approach. Preliminary results show that the quality of traditional on campus learning in terms of student-to-student and student-to-instructor interaction has increased with the use of the ALN methods and it is hoped that online courses will begin to be offered in Fall 2001.
Dr. Latchman has also taught and conducted research as a visiting faculty member at a number of international universities including the University of the West Indies, Oxford University, University of Bologna, Stanford University, Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne, Jamaica University of Technology and the Czech Technical University.
Dr. Latchman is a Director and Co-founder of Jamaica Online Information Systems Ltd., and Qualitech Computer Services, and has consulted on communication, networks Internet and related matters for Intellon Corporation (Ocala Florida), the Trinidad and Tobago Publishing Company, Protocol Systems Inc. (Pennsylvania USA), CVM Television (Kingston Jamaica) and several other information technology companies. Dr. Latchman has also consulted as an expert witness on Internet and communication technology issues in United States Federal and State courts. Dr. Latchman also has active collaborations with National Instruments, Feedback Incorporated and Boeing. Boeing has just joined the Advanced Control Technology (ACT) Consortium co-directed at the University of Florida by Dr. Latchman.
Dr. Latchman has participated in about $5 Million of sponsored research and has personally directed about $3.5M in research at the University of Florida over the past 10 years. In addition to spear-heading the projects to offer BS and MS degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering online via the Internet, Dr. Latchman was also the University of Florida Team Leader for the very successful Southeastern University and College Coalition for Engineering Education (SUCCEED) program (1994-1999).
Dr. Latchman is a Senior Member of the IEEE and has published over 110 technical Journal and refereed conference articles in the areas of his research in multivariable and computer control systems, communications and internetworking and innovative educational technologies . He is also the author of the books Computer Communication Networks and the Internet, published by McGraw Hill and Linear Control Systems – a First Course, published by John Wiley. He also Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Education and has served as Guest editor for the International Journal on Robust and Nonlinear Control, the IEEE Communication Magazine and the International Journal on Communication Systems. He has also made significant contributions to the HomePlug AV standards specification, having drafted the MAC and PHY specification as a consultant to Intellon Corporation.
Dr. Latchman’s current research interests include congestion control for ATM and powerline networks with real-time traffic, packet telephony, the robustness of systems in the presence of parametric uncertainties and using electronic connectivity to facilitate remote collaboration and distance education via Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALNs).
Dr. Latchman is the presiding Minister of the Millhopper, Gainesville Florida Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses. He is married and his wife Sheryl is also from Jamaica; she is a graduate (in Physics and Chemistry ) of the University of the West Indies. They have a son, Andrew, who was born in Gainesville in May 1988.
For further information about Dr. Latchman’s research program, visit http://www.list.ufl.edu |
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