Instructor Insights: Analysis that Matters
Senior Research Engineer at GTRI and GTPE Instructor JP Halliwell shares insights on the future of Electromagnetic Warfare data analysis and how he helps his students reach those “light bulb” moments.
JP Halliwell’s career has been shaped by hands-on problem-solving and a passion for teaching. From his early days alternating between school and work as a co-op engineer to his current role as a senior research engineer at Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), Halliwell has focused on advancing innovation in electronic warfare system integration, data analysis, and experiment design.
He uses his research to further strengthen the industry by teaching defense technology courses with Georgia Tech Professional Education (GTPE). Through his instruction, he creates an environment that encourages students to fully explore complex concepts through visual learning and real-world examples.
In this conversation, he shares his career journey, the global importance of electromagnetic warfare data analysis, and the classroom moments that make teaching truly gratifying.
Tell us about your professional journey and how it led you to GTRI.
My career at GTRI began in 2012 as a systems engineer co-op for the Foreign Military Sales Engineering Branch in the Electronic Systems Lab. At the time, my interests in GTRI were chiefly the breadth of the research portfolio and its academic environment. After completing my undergraduate degree in 2014, I was hired into a full-time position with the branch, where I’ve remained since, having been promoted to associate branch head.
What is the focus of your research for GTRI?
My research is predominantly focused on electronic warfare system integration, with a particular focus on the integration of legacy systems into new platforms or environments. Along the way, I’ve picked up additional skills in data analysis, prototyping, and experiment design. I’ve been fortunate to experience the entire lifecycle for my projects and have relished the opportunity to observe the effectiveness of my ideas, designs, and implementation as the system matured.
Tell us a little bit about your teaching style. What experience can learners expect in your courses?
I teach the way that I learn best: engaging with real-world examples through visual data. It’s important that the classroom experience welcomes questions and that ideas are met with patience, especially in our fast-paced courses. I strive to include high-quality examples, visual aids, and interaction through class discussion in my modules, ensuring that each topic is covered in a meaningful and memorable manner.
You teach the Electromagnetic Warfare Data Analysis course with instructor Clint Johnson. Can you talk about the value of EW data analysis and both its reliability and the extent to which it is employed by different nation-states around the world?
Clint and I both strongly believe and advocate that data worth is derived from how readily it can be analyzed. The Department of Defense (DoD) community has become exceptionally talented at analyzing data from our EW systems exactly the way it is. In many cases, these systems tend to be inelastic in their data recording capabilities, while their dependency networks have become increasingly complex.
This complexity creates downstream effects on our collective analysis capability, creating an “easier said than done” modality where trivially expressed analyses require proportionally higher effort to perform. One of my favorite examples is, “Does our receiver’s accuracy get better, worse, or stay constant over mission elapsed time?” There’s a surprising degree of nuance to that analysis, though each of us can recognize the value of it at first glance.
Data analysis of EW systems is employed by every state military, primarily because they’re heavily invested in measuring the efficacy of their systems, which include more advanced functionality by the year. With the rollout of open-source tools and libraries, analysis has become even easier and has lowered the learning curve compared to a decade ago. Electromagnetic warfare data analysis is only going to grow from here!
What has been your proudest or most rewarding experience as a GTPE instructor for the GTRI professional development course(s) you lead?
It’s always a pleasure to interact with our exceptional students, but my favorite experience is watching the “light bulb” turn on. What better way to know that you’re teaching effectively than to see the very spark of brilliance manifest!
Real-World Experts Make Real Learning Impact
