engineering

Harald Popp

Harald Popp is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Harald Popp rather than just read about it. In short: Harald Popp (born 30 September 1956 in Erlangen) is a German electrical engineer. Together with Karlheinz Brandenburg, Ernst Eberlein, Heinz Gerhäuser (former Institutes Director of Fraunhofer IIS), Bernhard Grill, Jürgen Herre (all Fraunhofer IIS) and others, he developed the widespread MP3 method for audio data compression.

Key takeaways

Harald Popp belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Harald Popp to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Harald Popp from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Harald Popp (born 30 September 1956 in Erlangen) is a German electrical engineer. Together with Karlheinz Brandenburg, Ernst Eberlein, Heinz Gerhäuser (former Institutes Director of Fraunhofer IIS), Bernhard Grill, Jürgen Herre (all Fraunhofer IIS) and others, he developed the widespread MP3 method for audio data compression.

Biography

Education 1975 Popp graduated with the Abitur (International Baccalaureate Diploma). Popp was educated at Friedrich-Alexander-University (FAU), Nuremberg, where he studied electrical engineering from 1975 to 1981 and obtained a graduate Diploma.

Profession From 1982 to 1984 Popp worked on a technology transfer project for cable fault location of the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg. 1985 he became researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (IIS-A) in Erlangen. From 1985 to 1990 was Popp development engineer for digital circuits on board-level. 1987 he started with the development of multi-DSP based real-time audio coding systems. Since 1987, he has been responsible for DSP-based real-time audio coding systems. 1990 he began with the development of studio audio codecs ("ASPEC 91") for high-quality sound transmission over ISDN telephone lines. From 1990 to 1994 he worked as Head of Hardware Group in the Information Electronics Department. From 1995 to 1997 he was Head of the video group in the Audio & Multimedia department and 1998 - 2003 Head of the Studio Department. Since 2004 until 2018 he was Head of Multimedia Real-Time Systems, with a focus on developing effective real-time implementations of audio and video coding. From 1986 to 1995, Popp contributed to the development of the MP3 Audio coding format together with Karlheinz Brandenburg and Bernhard Grill. For his contribution to this work he was awarded the German Future Prize.

Private life and hobbies In his free time, Harald Popp works with his wife Isolde as the author of the fantasy role-playing game Midgard. Together they have two sons.

Bibliography Isolde & Harald Popp: Der Ruf des Roten Raben Franke, Elsa; Auflage: 1., 1993, ISBN 978-3924714185 M. Dietz, H. Popp, K. Brandenburg and R. Friedrich: Audio Compression for Network Transmission, Journal of the AES, Vol. 44, No. 1-2, 1996. Isolde & Harald Popp: Midgard-Abenteuer: Der weiße Wurm Pegasus Spiele, 1998, ISBN 978-3930635573 K. Brandenburg and H. Popp: An introduction to MPEG Layer-3, Fraunhofer Institut für Integrierte Schaltungen (IIS), EBU Technical Review, 2000, online Isolde & Harald Popp: Midgard-Abenteuer: Die Straße zur Hölle part 1, Stelzenberg: Elsa Franke, Verlag für F&SF-Spiele, 2011, ISBN 978-3-924714-35-2 Isolde & Harald Popp: Midgard-Abenteuer: Die Treppe zum Himmel part 2, Stelzenberg: Elsa Franke, Verlag für F&SF-Spiele, 2011, ISBN 978-3924714369 Isolde & Harald Popp: Unter dem Schirm des Jadekaisers, Pegasus Spiele Gmbh, 2005, ISBN 978-3930635917

See also German inventors and discoverers How Music Got Free

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Harald Popp

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Harald Popp claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Harald Popp before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Harald Popp ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Harald Popp

In research: Harald Popp appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Harald Popp in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Harald Popp is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1956 births, 20th-century German inventors, Engineers from Bavaria, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Harald Popp outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Harald Popp in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Harald Popp means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Harald Popp out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Harald Popp in simple terms?

Why does Harald Popp matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Harald Popp?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Harald Popp.