Curriculum Vitae
Pamela A. Abshire
phone: (301) 405-6629
2211 A. V. Williams Building 
FAX: (301) 314-9920
College Park, MD 20742 

 
Education and Academic Research
Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University, Oct 2001.
Sensory Communications and Microsystems Laboratory, Professor A. G. Andreou. 
Dissertation: Sensory Information Processing under Physical Constraints
Utilizing information theory and detailed physical models to derive performance measures (channel capacity and bit-energy) and to investigate performance limitations and trade-offs between performance and resources for several systems, including blowfly photoreceptors, VLSI photosensors, and the CMOS inverter.

M.S., Electrical Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University, 1997. 
Designed and tested mixed-mode VLSI chip implementing the Fuzzy ART classifier and analog VLSI chip implementing adaptive filters.Developed models and software for multi-chip VLSI image processing system utilizing asynchronous inter-chip communication and implementing the Boundary-Contour System algorithm.

B.S., Physics with Honor, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), 1992. 
Performed experiments mapping electric fields generated by weakly electric fish in the neuroscience laboratory of Prof. J. Bower. Simulated gas diffusion through polymers in the computational chemistry laboratory of Prof. W. Goddard III.

 
Professional
Experience
University of Maryland, College Park, MD, Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Institute for Systems Research, 2001-present.
Medtronic, Inc., Minneapolis, MN, Research Engineer in the Bradycardia Research Department, 1992-1995. 
Designed algorithms and sensors for detection and classification of faint cardiac signals in the presence of other large signals and noise.  Conducted international clinical study to collect signals from human patients.  Designed low-power analog CMOS circuits implementing real-time independent component analysis. Supervised B.S. and M.S. level engineers labeling data and training neural networks. 
 
Research
Interests
Information theory and modeling applied to neural coding and representation.
Physics of information processing and information theory for physical systems. 
Noise theory for biological, electronic, and photonic systems. 
Analysis and design of sensory information processing systems. 
Algorithm, VLSI circuit, and microsystem design, esp. for low power applications. 
 
Teaching Experience
ENEE 312H, University of Maryland, Semiconductor Fundamentals, Spring 2002.
 
Teaching Assistant, The Johns Hopkins University
New graduate level course in Sensory Information Processing offered Spring 2001 and co-taught with Dr. A. G. Andreou.  Delivered weekly lecture, tutored, and graded papers for 50 undergraduate students in Integrated Electronics, Fall 1997.
 
Guest lecture on pacemaker systems for graduate level Medical Microsystems class, The Johns Hopkins University, April 2000. 
 
Tutor, Linear System Theory, The Johns Hopkins University, 1996. 
 
Colloquia
“Information capacity of a biophysical model of early blowfly vision,” Center for Language and Speech Processing, The Johns Hopkins University, March 1999. 
 
“Capacity and efficiency of blowfly photoreceptors,” Neural and Cognitive Systems, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, September 2001. 
 
Professional
Activities
The Johns Hopkins University Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Graduate Steering Committee, 1999-2000; Graduate Student Representative to faculty (elected position), 1998-1999; organized graduate student seminar series, 1995-1997.
 
FASEB Workshop on Retinal Neurobiology, VT, 1996, 1998, and CO, 2000.
 
Agora Workshop on Fluctuations in Biology, Sigtuna, Sweden, 1999. 
 
ARL-SEDD/ARL-ARO Integrated Imaging Workshop at the Army Research Office, Research Triangle Park, NC, 1999. 
 
Telluride Workshop for Neuromorphic Engineering, Telluride, CO, 1998.  Led a discussion group on computation. 
 
Organized seminars and short courses at Medtronic.  Hosted many internationally recognized speakers including W. Sansen, E. Vittoz, C. Enz, and A. G. Andreou. 
Student Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. 
Ad Hoc Editorial Consultant, Neural Computation (1997), Low-voltage/Low-power integrated circuits and systems (1998), International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (1996), and others. 
Co-chair, Quality of Life Session, 1991 Student-Faculty Conference, Caltech.
 
Awards and
Honors
U.S. Patent Number 5,755,739, issued May 26, 1998, “Adaptive and morphological system for discriminating P-waves and R-waves inside the human body.”
 
NSF Graduate Fellowship, 1995-1998.
 
Medtronic Customer-Focused Quality Award, Far Field P-Wave Science Team, 1995.
 
Caltech: Alcorn and Barrett Scholarships, 1990-1992.Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, 1990. Vice President, Dabney House, 1991-1992. 
 
National Merit Scholar and USA Today Top 20 Academic Team, 1988.

Journal Publications
P. Abshire and A. G. Andreou, “A Communication Channel Model for Information Transmission in the Blowfly Photoreceptor,” Biosystems, Vol.62, No.1-3, pp.113-133, Sep-Oct 2001. 
P. Abshire and A. G. Andreou, “Capacity and Energy Cost of Information in Biological and Silicon Photoreceptors,” Proceedings IEEE, Vol.89, pp.1052-1064, July 2001.
P. Abshire and A. G. Andreou, “Relating information capacity to a biophysical model for blowfly photoreceptors,” Neurocomputing, Vol.32-33, pp.9-16, June 2000.

Articles in Books or Conference Proceedings (organized by topic)
P. Abshire and A. G. Andreou, “A Comparative Study of Information Capacity for Biophysical and Silicon Photoreceptors,” Proceedings, International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS 2000), Geneva, Switzerland, June 2000.
 
P. Abshire and A. G. Andreou, “Information Capacity and Efficiency of Blowfly Photoreceptors,” Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Cognitive and Neural Systems, Boston University, May 2000; “Relating information capacity to a biophysical model for blowfly retina,” Proceedings of the 1999 Computational Neuroscience Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA, July 1999; “Relating Information Capacity to a Biophysical Model for Blowfly Retina,” Proceedings of the 1999 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, Washington, DC, July 1999; “Information Capacity of the Blowfly Retina,” Proceedings of the 33rd Conference on Information Sciences and Systems, Baltimore, MD, Vol. II, March, 1999. 
 
M. Cohen, P. Abshire, J. Lubkin, and G. Cauwenberghs, “Analog Learning Fuzzy ART Microchips,” in T. Serrano, B. Linares, and A. G. Andreou, Adaptive Resonance Theory Microchips, Norwell MA: Kluwer Academic, 1998.
 
M. Cohen, P. Abshire, and G. Cauwenberghs, “Mixed-Mode VLSI Implementation of Fuzzy ART,” Proceedings, International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS98), Monterey, CA, June 1998; “Current-Mode VLSI Fuzzy ART Processor with On-Chip Learning,” Vision, Recognition, Action: Neural Models of Mind and Machine, Boston University, May 1997; “Mixed-Mode VLSI Architecture Implementing Fuzzy ART,” Conference on Information Systems and Sciences (CISS), Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, March 1997. 
 
P. Abshire, W. Combs, and D. Srinivasan, “Neural Networks for Detecting Far-Field P-Waves,” Medtronic 14th Annual Science & Technology Conference, Minneapolis, MN, Nov 1995; W. Sun, E. Panken, P. Abshire, and W. Combs, “Use of Adaptive and Morphological Algorithms for Far-Field P-Wave Detection,” Medtronic 13th Annual Science & Technology Conference, Minneapolis, MN, Nov 1994.

Other Publications
P. Abshire and A. G. Andreou, “Relating Information Capacity to a Biophysical Model of the Blowfly Retina,” Technical Report JHU/ECE-98-13, Dept. of Elec. and Comp. Eng., Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD, 1998.
Revised: December 14, 2001.