Eight years after arriving at UTC, Dr. Joshua H. Tyler now holds three degrees from the University and has transitioned into a postdoctoral researcher and faculty role. Photo by Angela Foster.
When Dr. Joshua H. Tyler first walked onto the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga campus in fall 2017, he didn’t set out to become a scientist.
He just wanted to make music.
“I thought I’d be in and out, get my degree and then go out in the world and—not necessarily a desk job—but work a regular 9-to-5,” said Tyler, who recently earned a Ph.D. in computational engineering from UTC. “But as I got more interested in electrical engineering, it started to become less than just a job to me.
“There were a lot of times where I stayed up late at night working on something, not because I have to, but just because I’m interested in the actual research. I remember one time where I accidentally spent a few hours optimizing the InfiniBand communication between GPU nodes in our HPC cluster to get a model to train faster. I could spend that kind of time doing that kind of thing because I have been privileged enough to have the freedom to pursue the things that interest me. It just so happens to be stuff that is useful.”
Eight years after arriving at UTC, Tyler now holds three degrees from the University and has transitioned into a postdoctoral researcher and faculty role, continuing his work under the mentorship of Guerry and UC Foundation Professor of Electrical Engineering Don Reising. He previously earned a bachelor’s in electrical engineering in 2020 and a master’s in 2022.
“Josh is very driven, works very hard, and has a unique ability to learn new skills and concepts very quickly,” Reising said.
Originally from Chattanooga and a graduate of East Hamilton High School, Tyler transferred to UTC in 2017 after receiving an associate degree from Chattanooga State Community College.
“Starting here after my two-year degree, it was more than just a foot in the water about doing the whole college thing. I was thinking, ‘This is going to require a lot more commitment than I have ever given school,’” Tyler recalled.
He initially envisioned a career as a traveling or studio musician, but as he delved deeper into electrical engineering, everything started to click.
“I was always a very technical person,” he said. “Even with the music side of it, I was more into the audio production— I enjoyed actually looking at the gears and the levers that made audio happen in a digital sense. My background in audio engineering really acted as a bridge to help me make it in electrical engineering. There were a lot of similar concepts, especially with digital signal processing.”
By his senior year, he had decided to pursue a master’s degree, with the idea that a Ph.D. might follow.
“As I’ve transitioned more into research, I stuck my nose down and I get working and I got busy,” he explained. “It gets easier over time to commit more to an academic life.”
That passion has translated into an impressive research portfolio spanning signal processing, audio technology, cybersecurity and hardware resiliency. The upshot: He has already built a citation impact that many researchers don’t reach for years.
“When you graduate with a Ph.D., typically you’re not expected to have much of an h-index,” Tyler said. The h-index offers a concise measure of research impact by factoring in both the number of a scholar’s published works and how often those works have been cited.
“Right now, I looked at my analytics and have an h-index of 6,” he continued, “so I’m already starting out with a research impact equal to someone … with a Ph.D. for six years.”
Dr. Joshua H. Tyler teaches Monday, Sept. 22, in the Engineering and Computer Science building.
Tyler’s contributions include research in Specific Emitter Identification (SEI), a field he entered at the start of his master’s degree.
In SEI, researchers identify different wireless transmitters—known as emitters—by analyzing their unique physical waveforms. The applications range from Internet of Things (IoT) security to national defense.
SEI remains the research area he’s proudest of.
“It was the first or second week of my master’s degree; I had started as a research assistant and I was given a dataset,” Tyler recalled. “My advisor, Dr. Reising, wanted me to figure out a way to remove corruption from these radio signals while still being able to identify the radios. Within the first two weeks, I developed something that we were able to publish. A lot of the mathematics and processes just make inherent sense to me.”
Reising was asked how he saw Tyler’s contributions impacting the field or shaping future researchers.
“In the long term, this primarily remains to be seen,” he said. “However, some of this is already happening in some degree through multiple inventions, 13 journal articles and conference papers as first author, eight additional journal articles and conference papers as a contributing author, as well as his mentorship of multiple undergraduate and graduate students. He has also been part of work that has transitioned to practice within the power industry.”
Tyler’s high-level projects have included:
- a power grid resiliency algorithm that reduces data storage from 40GB a day to just 4MB
- a high-accuracy audio compression tool called Advanced Waveform Resampling
- an AI-based cryptographic algorithm called RANDOM
- SCALE (Scalable Asymmetric Lifecycle Engagement)-sponsored research on radiation effects in microchips used in aerospace and defense
“I’ve definitely become more analytical in my time here,” he said. “I have always wanted to know what goes on under the hood for anything. Now, I have become more capable of understanding where I could go into almost any system and look at it, know how it works, and maybe even make it better.”
He credits UTC for giving him the space to evolve personally and professionally.
“I started college when I was 19,” he said, “and I’m now 29. There’s naturally the frontal lobe development, but there was also the constant opportunity presented to me to improve and make myself a better scientist and person in my program. I make better decisions now, more wise decisions.”
Dr. Kumar Yelamarthi, dean of the UTC College of Engineering and Computer Science, said that Tyler “exemplifies the spirit of innovation and perseverance that defines the college.”
“His journey, from aspiring musician to accomplished Ph.D. researcher, reflects the transformative power of our programs, where curiosity meets opportunity and students are empowered to shape the future through cutting-edge research and real-world impact,” Yelamarthi said.
As a postdoctoral researcher, Tyler hopes to continue the work he’s started while training the next generation of engineers.
“The short-term goal is to continue those research interests as a direct researcher or in an advising role,” he said. “I think the long-term goal is to get enough students in the pipeline to where I start putting them onto the research interests that I have pursued—and eventually get a cycle going where these research interests become dedicated programs.”
Throughout everything, music remains a core part of his identity.
“I still play. I still record. I’m always constantly working on becoming a better musician and audio engineer,” he said. “No one’s taste is ever concrete. The way someone wants to listen to something or how something is mixed, that’s always more qualitative. That’s always something that you can learn how to do better and I love doing that.”
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