David Orser
Associate and Distinguished University Teaching Professor
About Me
I teach and develop undergraduate education curricula focusing on laboratory courses for the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department and the College of Science and Engineering (CSE) at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. I have developed materials for courses ranging from First-Year Programming to Senior Design in ECE. As the 3M Chair in Experiential Learning, I organize hands-on experiential CSE courses, where students are supported in applying science and technology to solve the problems *they* want to solve.
I serve as a mentor for the FIRST Robotics Competition Team 2987, Rogue Robotics, and the faculty advisor for the University of Minnesota Solar Vehicle Project (UMNSVP).
I have over ten years of industry experience in mixed-signal integrated-circuit design. I hold 6 patents from work at IBM (2000 to 2005) to develop 2.5Gb/s to 10Gb/s fiber-optic data communication chips. At Agere/LSI/Broadcom (2005 to 2010) I was a lead IC designer of custom analog ASIC chips for magnetic writers in hard drives. These chips were deployed in ~1 billion devices worldwide with an aggregate theoretical peak bandwidth of 2.5e18 bits/s!
I’m originally from Montana, where I grew up programming, playing games on an Amiga, playing the trumpet, and enjoying the outdoors (skiing, fishing, and hiking.) I am half British (my mother immigrated), with half my family still residing in Hull, England. I am married to Heather and have three amazing kids Siri, Gavin, and Bridget. My kids seem to have turned out well despite my total lack of any training.
