Dr. Ross K. Snider

Expertise

Custom Computing using Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), Digital Signal Processing (DSP), Embedded Real-Time Systems,  Data Acquisition Systems, Auditory Neuroscience.

Background

Dr. Ross Snider joined the Montana State ECE faculty in August, 1999.  He holds a BSE degree from Walla Walla College, a MSEE from Michigan State University, and a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University all in Electrical Engineering. Dr. Snider also completed a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Interests

His research and teaching interests take on a cross-disciplinary approach where he is interested in the intersection of biology, signal processing, and computer engineering. In particular, he is interested in how the brain processes sensory information and how this knowledge can be used to develop intelligent computing systems using reconfigurable computing (FPGAs). His specific interest in FPGAs is the ability to craft a custom computer architecture that is optimal for the real-time algorithm being implemented.


Software

IsoDalton

IsoDalton is an open source program for computing the fine isotopic distribution of molecular weights given a molecular formula.  It is described in the Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry paper Efficient calculation of exact mass isotopic distributionsThe paper can also be viewed in the JASMS.

"IsoDalton [26], a well-implemented open source dynamic programming algorithm."  as described by the Olson and Yergey paper Calculation of the Isotope Cluster for Polypeptides by Probability Grouping

 


News

  1. Here's a Photonics.com news article covering our effort where we are applying FPGAs to hyperspectral imaging:
    Montana Invests in Optics for Agriculture
    Hyperspectral imaging eyed for machine vision, crop management, bioimaging
    Click here for article 
  2. A related Control Engineering article:
    Better vision: Hyperspectral imaging technology research grant awarded
    To increase the capabilities of robotic, food sorting, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) vision by 10x, state of Montana awarded research funds to Montana State University, Resonon, and Impulse Accelerated Technologies.
    Click here for article
  3. A related Unmanned Systems Technology artice:
    MSU, Resonon and Impulse Accelerated Technologies Awarded Funding for Machine Vision Research
    Click here for article