ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING DICTONARY Editor-in-Chief Phillip A.Laplante

One can only appreciate the magnitude of effort required to develop a dictionary by actually experiencing it. Although I had written nine other books, I certainly did not know what I was getting into when in January of 1996 I agreed to serve as Editor-in Chief for this project. Now, after 2 1/2 years I understand. Unlike other books that I have written, creating this dictionary was more a test of will and stamina and an exercise in project management than mere writing. And although I have managed organizations of up to 80 academics, nothing is more like “herding cats” than motivating an international collection of almost 200 distinguished engineers, scientists, and educators scattered around the globe almost entirely via email. Yet, I think there is no other way to undertake a project like this. I still marvel at how Noah Webster must have managed to construct his English Dictionary without the benefits of modern communication. But this project, as much as it is a monument to individual will, is really the collaborative work of many brilliant and dedicated men and women. This is their dictionary and your dictionary. Phillip A. Laplante, PE, Ph.D.

Phil Laplante is the President of Pennsylvania Institute of Technology, a two-year, private, college that focuses on technology training and re-training. Prior to this, he was the founding dean of the BCC/NJIT Technology and Engineering Center in Southern New Jersey. He was also Associate Professor of Computer Science and Chair of the Mathematics, Computer Science and Physics Department at Fairleigh Dickinson University, New Jersey. In addition to his academic career, Dr. Laplante spent almost eight years as a software engineer designing avionics systems, a microwave CAD engineer, a software systems test engineer, and a consultant. CAD engineer, a software systems test engineer, and a consultant. He has written dozens of articles for journals, newsletters, magazines, and conferences, mostly on real-time computing and image processing. He has authored 10 other technical books and edits the journal, Real-Time Imaging, as well as two book series including the CRC Press series on Image Processing. Dr. Laplante received his B.S., M.Eng., and Ph.D. in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, and Computer Science, respectively, from Stevens Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. He is a senior member of IEEE and a member of ACM and numerous other professional societies, program committees, and advisory boards. He is a licensed professional engineer in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Dr. Laplante is married with two children and resides in Pennsylvania.