Biography
Willie Harrison graduated from Utah State University in 2007 with his MS in Electrical Engineering and from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2012 with his PhD is Electrical and Computer Engineering. In 2012, he joined the faculty of the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs as an Assistant Professor, and he has been with the BYU Electrical and Computer Engineering Department since 2017.
At UCCS, he served on the proposal, instructor search, graduate fellowship selection, and Internationalization Advisory committees, and he additionally served as faculty advisor to the IEEE student club. He earned the Teacher of the Year award for the 2015-2016 academic school year for the UCCS College of Applied Science.
At BYU, Dr. Harrison was voted the Most Influential Faculty Member in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department for the 2022-2023 academic year, and he has taught courses in information theory, coding theory, machine learning, physical-layer security, stochastic processes, digital communications, digital signal processing, satellite communications, and signals and systems.
He also serves actively in the broader electrical engineering community. Over the past six years, he has participated in fourteen workshops and conferences, many of which covered wireless security. He has served as a reviewer on five NSF proposal review panels, a “remote reviewer” for CHIST-ERA ERA-NET (a European consortium of twenty research funding organizations), and as a scholarly reviewer for multiple IEEE publications.
His experience extends internationally, as he is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and for three years directed an NSF-funded International Research for Students (IRES) program in conjunction with the University of Coimbra, Portugal.
Dr. Harrison's primary expertise lies in coding theory, physical-layer security, probability and statistics, and digital communications.
Publications
- M. Shoushtari and W. Harrison, “Optimizing finite-blocklength nested linear secrecy codes: Using the worst code to find the best code,” Entropy, vol. 25, no. 10: 1456, pp. 1–15, Oct. 2023.
- D. Harman, K. Knapp, T. Sweat, P. Lundrigan, M. Rice, and W. Harrison, “Physical layer security: Channel sounding results for the multi-antenna wiretap channel,” Entropy, vol. 25, no. 10: 1397, pp.1–13, Sept. 2023.
- C. A. Gutierrez, W. Harrison, M. Rice, B. Jensen, K. Norman, B. Redd, A. Twitchell, and M. Cardenas-Juarez , “Envelope distribution and Doppler spectrum of V2V channels at 5.9 GHz in mountainous roads,” Vehicular Communications, vol. 39, pp. 1–17, Feb. 2023.
- C. Josephson, S. Giddens, E. Perrins, W. Harrison and M. Rice, “Estimators for space-time blockcoded ARTM CPM in aeronautical mobile telemetry,” IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, vol. XX, no. XX, pp. 1–18, Aug. 2022.
- A. Silva, M. Gomes, J. P. Vilela, and W. K. Harrison, “SDR proof-of-concept of full-duplex jamming for enhanced physical layer security,” Sensors, vol. 21, no. 3: 856, pp. 1–15, Jan. 2021.
- W. K. Harrison, “Exact equivocation expressions for wiretap coding over erasure channel models,” IEEE Communication Letters, vol. 24, no. 12, pp. 2687–2691, Dec. 2020.
- M. Rice, B. Clark, D. Flanary, B. Jensen, N. Nelson, K. Norman, E. Perrins, and W. K. Harrison, “Physical-layer security for vehicle-to-everything networks: Increasing security while maintaining reliable communications,” IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 68–76, Sept. 2020.
- A. J. Smiley, W. K. Harrison, G. L. Plett, “Postprocessing the outputs of an interacting multiplemodel Kalman filter using a Markovian trellis to estimate parameter values of aged Li-ion cells,” Journal of Energy Storage, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 1–14, Feb. 2020.
- W. K. Harrison, E. Beard, S. Dye, E. Holmes, K. Nelson, M. A. C. Gomes, and J. P. Vilela,
“Implications of coding layers on physical-layer security: A secrecy benefit approach,” Entropy, vol.21, no. 8, pp. 1–15, Aug. 2019. - W. K. Harrison, T. Fernandes, M. A. C. Gomes, and J. P. Vilela, “Generating a binary symmetric channel for wiretap codes,” IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, vol. 14, no.8, pp. 2128–2138, Aug. 2019.
- Harrison, Willie K, Fernandes, Telmo, Gomes, Marco A. C. , & Vilela, Joao P. . (No date available). Generating a Binary Symmetric Channel for Wiretap Codes. Journal Article, Academic Journal. IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, IEEE. , 1-11.
- Harrison, Willie K, Nelson, Kaela , & Dye, Scott. (November 2018). Physical-Layer Security for Aeronautical Telemetry. Conference Proceedings. International Telemetry Conference, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ. , 1-12.
- Harrison, Willie K, Sarmento, Dinis, Vilela, Joao P., & Gomes, Marco A. C. . (3 November 2018). Analysis of short blocklength codes for secrecy. Journal Article, Academic Journal. EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking, SpringerOpen. 2018 (1) , 15. doi:10.1186/s13638-018-1276-1
- Harrison, Willie K, & Bloch, Matthieu R.. (October (4th Quarter/Autumn) 2018). On Dual Relationships of Secrecy Codes. Conference Proceedings. 2018 56th Annual Allerton Conference on Communication, Control, and Computing, IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, United States. , 1-7.
- Larmore, Gregory, & Harrison, Willie K. (August 2018). Active Topology Inference in Store, Code, and Forward Networks. Conference Proceedings. 15th International Symposium on Wireless Communication Systems, IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, United States. , 1-6.
- Boyce, Parker, & Harrison, Willie K. (August 2018). Cryptanalysis of Lempel-Ziv Compressed and Encrypted Text: The Statistics of Compression. Conference Proceedings. 15th International Symposium on Wireless Communication Systems, IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, United States. , 1-6.
- Arabian, Farah, Harrison, Willie K, Josephson, Chad, Perrins, Erik, & Rice, Michael. (August 2018). On Peak-to-Average Power Ratio Optimization for Coded APSK. Conference Proceedings. 15th International Symposium on Wireless Communication Systems, IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, United States, 1-6.
- Johnson, Matthew H. , & Harrison, Willie K. (May 2018). A rateless approach to physical-layer security. Conference Proceedings. International Conference on Communications, IEEE. , 1-6.
- Rendon, Greg T., Harrison, Willie K, Gomes, Marco A. C., & Vilela, Joao P.. (May 2018). Nested QPSK encoding for information theoretic security. Conference Proceedings. International Conference on Communications, IEEE. , 1-6.
- Salmon, John LaNay, & Harrison, Willie K. (July (3rd Quarter/Summer) 2017). A data analytics approach to evaluation of competition in the 2012 Summer Olympics. Journal Article, Academic Journal. Journal of Data Science, . 15 (3) , 373-390. issn:1680-743X
- Pfister, Jack, Gomes, Marco A. C., Vilela, Joao P., & Harrison, Willie K. (May 2017). Quantifying equivocation for finite blocklength wiretap codes. Conference Proceedings. International Conference on Communications, IEEE. , 1-6.
- Harrison, Willie K, & Salmon, John LaNay. (March 2017). Bullpen strategies for Major League Baseball. Conference Proceedings. MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, 1-16.