Kurzweil, Jack
Date Updated
4-5-2019
Department
Electrical Engineering
Academic Rank
Professor
Year Retired from SJSU
2001
Educational Background
Cooper Union, 1959, BSEE, Electrical Engineering
Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, 1961, MSEE, Electrical Engineering
University of California Berkeley, 1968, PhD, Electrical Engineering
Dissertation Title
The Fraction of Good Parity Check Matrices Among Those Having Good Partial Weight Distributions
Teaching Experience
1966-2007
Administrative and Professional Experience
1959-1961 Industry - Radar Design
1978-1983 Industry - Telecommunications Equipment design
Service
President of United Professors of California
President of California Faculty Association
Professional Standards Committee
University RTP Committee
Board of General Studies (with great regrets)
Selected Publications
An Introduction to Digital Communications - Wiley
An Introduction to Signal Processing and Linear Systems - in somewhat final draft
Files
Personal Commentary
Teaching at San Jose State was actually quite a wonderful experience for me, although there certainly were times when it wasn't. From the moment that I walked onto the campus in 1968, engulfed in controversy, I found wonderful support, made new and lifelong friends, and was able to grow professionally by designing new curricula and teaching new courses, corresponding to the extraordinary changes in Silicon Valley.
The faculty union at SJSU was an ongoing part of my life and enabled me to express my social and political concerns while helping to advance the professional and economic lives of my colleagues.
The downside of this trajectory was the cumulative loss of financial support for all of education by California, making higher education expensive rather than free, having faculty and staff fall behind in their incomes, and making tenure track positions much harder for younger faculty to obtain.
I am still politically active (professionally not so much) and I'm deeply grateful to this young, multiracial generation that has taken up the process of social change. Imagine the joy of talking with young activists about renewable energy generation and storage.