Oral-History:Alfred Fettweis
About Alfred Fettweis
Alfred Fettweis was born in 1926 in Eupen, Belgium to German-speaking parents. His earliest interests were in math, science and radio. He was drafted into the German army in 1942 and manned anti-aircraft batteries in Aachen, Germany during the war. While serving in the German army, he became involved in radar research. He was captured by the British and held captive for six months. He graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering in 1951 and joined ITT soon after graduating. After graduating, he began to work for ITT, an affiliate of ATT and was involved in carrier telephony and line transmission work. Fettweis used insertion loss method five years before its perfection at Bell Labs and argues that Germany pioneered insertion loss technique because of a lack of quartz crystals. In 1956 he discovered the sensitivity property, later published by Orchard. Fettweis was quick to use new technologies to create filter designs. He develops the wave digital filter in 1969, while teaching at Bochum University in Germany. After retiring from Bochum, he became a visiting professor at Notre Dame.
The interview begins with a highly detailed biographical statement by Fettweis, where he recounts his early years, his early schooling and his involvement with the German army in World War II. Fettweis relates a great deal of information regarding his early work with radar and his subsequent university education. This interview yields a wealth of information concerning the creation of various filter types and the creation of the wave digital filter in particular. He believes his early papers in this field were neglected by the IEEE Transactions because of an inherent anti-European bias and suggests that the Transactions' editor was also working in this field. Fettweis provides a unique perspective on the growth of the field and relates his early affiliations with the IEEE and the Circuits and Systems Society, and believes his work serves as a bridge between the Audio and Electroacoustics Society and the Circuits and Systems Society. The interview closes with Fettweis explaining his current interest in music coding.
Other interviews detailing the emergence of the digital signal processing field include C. Sidney Burrus Oral History, James W. Cooley Oral History, Ben Gold Oral History, James Kaiser Oral History, Wolfgang Mecklenbräuker Oral History, Russel Mersereau Oral History, Alan Oppenheim Oral History, Lawrence Rabiner Oral History, Charles Rader Oral History, Ron Schafer Oral History, Hans Wilhelm Schuessler Oral History, and Tom Parks Oral History.
About the Interview
ALFRED FETTWEIS: An Interview Conducted by Frederik Nebeker, Center for the History of Electrical Engineering,
24 April 1997
Interview #338 for the Center for the History of Electrical Engineering, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., and Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Copyright Statement
This manuscript is being made available for research purposes only. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to the IEEE History Center. No part of the manuscript may be quoted for publication without the written permission of the Director of IEEE History Center.
Request for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to the IEEE History Center Oral History Program, Rutgers - the State University, 39 Union Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8538 USA. It should include identification of the specific passages to be quoted, anticipated use of the passages, and identification of the user.
It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows:
Alfred Fettweis, an oral history conducted in 1997 by Frederik Nebeker, IEEE History Center, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA.
Interview
INTERVIEW: Alfred Fettweis
INTERVIEWER: Frederik Nebeker
DATE: 24 April 1997
PLACE: Munich, Germany
