Dr. Derek S. Linden, President and co-founder of X5 Systems, Inc.

Education: BS-1991, USAF Academy; MS-1993, MIT; Ph.D.-1997, MIT

Experience: Dr. Linden has conducted research in the automated design of wire and patch antennas using evolutionary optimization since 1995. He is co-inventor on the patented genetic antenna design process, and has a publication list that includes numerous conference and journal articles, three book chapters, and an IEEE short course in this area. He was elected to senior membership in the IEEE in 2000, and has chaired 3 sessions on antennas and genetic algorithms at IEEE conferences (Antenna and Propagation Society 1999 and 2002, and Evolvable Hardware 2001). He received Discover Magazine's Top 10 Innovation Award for his Genetic Antenna work in May 2000, and had his genetic antenna work highlighted in Science News (4 Sept 1999, p.157) and The New York Times (25 Nov 1999, p.D9). He received the Hertz foundation Thesis prize in 1998 for his Doctoral Thesis entitled "Automated Design and Optimization of Wire Antennas using Genetic Algorithms." He founded LIR in 1999. 

Dr. Linden's publications and presentations include:

Presentation: Jason D. Lohn, Gregory S. Hornby, Derek S. Linden. “Tools for Automated Antenna Design and Optimization.” Infotech@Aerospace, Arlington  VA, 26-29 Sep 2005.

Presentation/Paper: J. D. Lohn, D. S. Linden, G. S. Hornby, A. Rodriguez-Arroyo, S. E. Seufert, B. Blevins, T. “Evolutionary Design of a Single-Wire Circularly-Polarized X-Band Antenna” IEEE Antenna and Propagation Society Meeting, 3-8 July 2005, Washington DC, July 6, 2005.

Keynote Presentation: Derek S. Linden. “Evolved Antennas: Past, Present and Future.” NASA/DoD Conference on Evolvable Hardware, Washington DC, June 28, 2005.

Presentation: Jason D. Lohn, Gregory S. Hornby, Derek S. Linden. “Rapid Re-Evolution of an X-Band Antenna for NASA's Space Technology 5 Mission.” Genetic Programming Theory and Practice, Ann Arbor MI, May, 2005.

Presentation: Derek S. Linden. “Automated Design and Optimization of Antennas using Genetic Algorithms.” IEEE Washington DC / Northern Virginia Antenna and Propagation Society chapter meeting, 29 March 2005.

Journal Article: E.E. Altshuler, D.S. Linden. “An Ultra Wideband Impedance-Loaded Genetic Antenna.” IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 52, No. 11, November 2004.

Keynote Presentation: Jason D. Lohn, Derek S. Linden, et al. "Evolutionary Design of an X-Band Antenna for NASA's Space Technology 5 Mission." Antenna Systems and Short-range Wireless 2004, Denver, CO, October 6-7, 2004.

Invited Presentation: D.S. Linden. “The Engineer’s Role in Automated Antenna Design” 2004 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), Seattle, WA, June 26-30 2004.

Invited Presentation/Paper : Jason D. Lohn, Derek S. Linden, Gregory S. Hornby, William F. Kraus,Adan Rodriguez-Arroyo, Stephen E. Seufert. “Evolutionary Design of an X-Band Antenna for NASA's Space Technology 5 Mission” 2004 IEEE Antenna and Propagation Society Meeting, June 20-26 2004.

Presentation: Jason D. Lohn, Derek S. Linden, et al. "Evolutionary Design of an X-Band Antenna for NASA's Space Technology 5 Mission." 2003 NASA/DoD Conference on Evolvable Hardware, Chicago, IL, 9-11 July 2003.

Presentation/Paper: D.S. Linden. “The Twisted Yagi Antenna: An Alternative to the Helix?” 2003 IEEE Antenna and Propagation Society Meeting, 22-27 June 2003.

Invited Journal Article: D.S. Linden. “Evolving Antennas In-Situ.” Special Evolvable Hardware edition of Soft Computing Journal (Springer-Verlag), 2003.

Invited Presentation/Paper: D.S. Linden. “Optimizing Signal Strength In-Situ Using an Evolvable Antenna System.” 2002 NASA/DoD Conference on Evolvable Hardware, Washington, DC, 15-18 July 2002.

Invited Presentation: D.S. Linden. “Advanced Antenna Design Using Genetic Algorithms.” 2002 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), New York, NY, 9-13 July 2002.

Invited Presentation/Paper: D.S. Linden. “Antenna Design Using Genetic Algorithms: a Review” 2002 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), New York, NY, 9-13 July 2002.

Presentation/Paper: D.S. Linden. “An Evolvable Antenna System for Optimizing Signal Strength In-Situ.” 2002 IEEE Antenna and Propagation Society Meeting, 16-21 June 2002.

Presentation/Paper :Jason D. Lohn, William F. Kraus, Derek S. Linden. “Evolutionary Optimization of a Quadrifilar Helical Antenna.” 2002 IEEE Antenna and Propagation Society Meeting, 16-21 June 2002.

Book Chapter: D.S. Linden. “Creative Antenna Design using Evolutionary Computation.” Creative Evolutionary Systems, Peter Bentley and Dave Corne, eds., 2002.

Presentation/Paper: J.D. Lohn, W.F. Kraus, D.S. Linden, S.P. Colombano, ``Evolutionary Optimization of Yagi-Uda Antennas,'' Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Evolvable Systems, Y. Liu, K. Tanaka, M. Iwata, T. Higuchi, M. Yasunaga, eds., Tokyo, 3-5 October 2001.

Presentation/Paper: D.S. Linden. “A System for Evolving Antennas In-situ.” The Third NASA/DoD Workshop on Evolvable Hardware, Pasadena, CA, 12-14 July 2001.

Invited Presentation/Paper: D.S. Linden. “In-situ Evolution of a Reconfigurable Antenna.” IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, MT, 11-17 March 2001.

Course: D. Linden, R. Haupt. Genetic Algorithm Design of Antennas. Full-day short course taught at the 2000 IEEE Antenna and Propagation Society (AP-S) International Symposium, 21 July 2000.

Invited Presentation/Paper: D.S. Linden. “Wire Antennas Optimized in the Presence of Satellite Structures using Genetic Algorithms.” IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, MT, 18-25 March 2000.

Invention: A. Stoica and D. Linden. “Designing Reconfigurable Antennas Through Hardware Evolution.” Published in NASA Tech Brief NPO-20666.

Journal Article: D.S. Linden and R.T. MacMillan. “Increasing Genetic Algorithm Efficiency for Wire Antenna Design using Clustering.” ACES Special Journal on Genetic Algorithms, 2000.

Presentation/Paper: D.S. Linden and R.T. MacMillan. “Using Clustering to Increase Genetic Algorithm Efficiency for Wire Antenna Design.” OptiCon 99, Newport Beach, CA, 14-15 October 1999.

Invited Presentation/Paper: D.S. Linden and E.E. Altshuler. “Evolving Wire Antennas using Genetic Algorithms.” First NASA/DoD Workshop on Evolvable Hardware, Pasadena, California, 19-21 July 1999.

Presentation: D.S. Linden. “Review of Wire Antenna Design using Genetic Algorithms.” Congress on Evolutionary Computing, Washington, D.C., 12-16 July 1999.

A complete resume is available on request from info@lindenir.com. 

Areas of Expertise: Automated Design and Optimization

Why are automated design and optimization important? 

In most areas of engineering, automated design is much more efficient and powerful at finding excellent designs than traditional hands-on optimization.  In general, a design which uses human engineering and intuition will be limited to the bounds of the mind's ability to grasp concepts and relationships between parameters. However, automated design methods have no such restrictions. Far from replacing the human engineer, it multiplies the power of the mind by allowing the exploration of counterintuitive designs and areas involving the complex manipulation of many parameters at once. The engineer is now able to set up the problem that needs to be solved, using experience, intuition, and engineering knowledge, but is able to let powerful automated design techniques find the solution to the problem. This allows the most efficient use of both the engineer and the computer. The engineer is strongest at the creative conceptual setup, while the computer is best at grinding out the best answer. 

Why use automated design for antennas?

Whether using a conventional or genetic antenna design, automated antenna design is generally much more efficient and powerful at finding excellent designs than standard hands-on engineering. A design which uses human engineering and intuition will be limited to the bounds of the mind's ability to grasp concepts and relationships between parameters, while automated design methods have no such restrictions. In electromagnetics (EM), even a limited intuitive understanding is very difficult to obtain, and it can be quickly overcome by the huge number of factors that play a role in practical antenna design. Thus, LIR's expertise in the area of automated antenna design can save you a great deal of time and money while giving you better performance.

Automated design of conventional antennas

Conventional antennas are those which have existing designs with parameters a genetic algorithm or other optimization method can optimize. The advantage of using a pre-existing design is that its characteristics and mode of operation are known and understood, and the optimization algorithm will have an easier time producing good results if the existing antenna design is well-matched to the desired antenna characteristics. 

Automated design of genetic antennas

However, when pre-existing designs are inadequate, more flexibility is required. A genetic antenna does not use a pre-existing design--instead, the desired antenna characteristics and general constraints are specified and a GA determines the antenna which best fulfills those requirements. For an example of a genetic antenna designed for ground to satellite communications, see the LIR Logo Page. These antennas have been featured in many publications (see Dr. Linden's publication list for a few), and have been reported in Science News, Wired, EDN, and the New York Times. Genetic antennas are extremely flexible and able to accommodate many difficult requirements. 

LIR personnel have much experience working with genetic algorithms and other powerful optimization methods for optimizing conventional and genetic antennas, and have customized, efficient methods for arriving at excellent results quickly, allowing us to provide cost-effective antenna design services. LIR provides these services by the hour, day, or project, depending on your needs.

¹ E.E. Altshuler and D.S. Linden. "A Process for the Design of Antennas using Genetic Algorithms." Patent #5,719,794.  

Key Benefits

• Quickly obtain required antenna solutions by leveraging our automated antenna design methods, techniques and expertise
• Get help in defining and achieving desired performance within your constraints and budget
• Greatly increase performance through the uniqueness and flexibility of genetic antennas