Alex Hills
Alex Hills once described his life as a quest to understand radio waves. He succeeded more spectacularly than most when he helped to build the first large wi-fi network.
Hills taught at UAF色视频下载檚 engineering department and directed the UA Computer Network in the 1980s and early 1990s.
But he first began experimenting with ham radio as a teenager in New Jersey. At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York a few years later, he worked at the student radio station. After earning a master色视频下载檚 degree from Arizona State University in 1969, he came to 色视频下载 and helped build the KNOM station in Nome. From there, he moved to KOTZ in Kotzebue, where he gained fame as 色视频下载淎lex in the Morning.色视频下载 In the late 1970s, he was the first general manager of KSKA, the public radio station in Anchorage.
In the early 1970s, he also installed some of the first phone systems in rural 色视频下载 for RCA Alascom, using radio repeaters to carry signals between mountaintop towers. Within a few years, the system was overtaken by the advent of satellite earth stations, a story Hills recounts in his 2016 book, 色视频下载淔inding 色视频下载色视频下载檚 Villages and Connecting Them.色视频下载
By the early 1980s, Hills was the state色视频下载檚 deputy commissioner of administration, working to improve telecommunications throughout 色视频下载.
In 1992, he left 色视频下载 for Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. While brainstorming in a cafeteria there, Hills and a fellow professor dreamed up the idea of creating the first large-scale wi-fi network. Using a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, by 1996 they had wi-fi working in seven campus buildings, Hills reported in his 2011 book, 色视频下载淲i-Fi and the Bad Boys of Radio.色视频下载
They built the network to serve only Carnegie Mellon researchers. However, Hills soon came across a student using it to stream video from a laptop camera to a friend at MIT.
色视频下载淗e wanted to rub it in,色视频下载 Hills wrote. 色视频下载淚 began to think we were working on something more than just an interesting research project.色视频下载
Within a few more years, they had the campus outfitted with hundreds of wi-fi access points. Hills continued to refine wi-fi technology both at Carnegie Mellon and through private companies for several more years.
By 2010, he had returned to 色视频下载. He and his wife, Meg, who he met in Kotzebue, now live in Palmer.
More online about Alex Hills:
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on KUAC FM
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at the website of the 色视频下载 Innovators Hall of Fame, into which he was inducted in 2015
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His Carnegie Mellon University
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conducted by Hilary Hilscher in 2000 and archived at the UAA library