News

As an interdisciplinary research center, WNCG supports research with applications in several areas. Our faculty and students are leading the way in topics from 6G to artificial intelligence and machine learning, to healthcare technology and beyond. WNCG graduate students showcased some of their work in a virtual open house for affiliates last fall. In lieu of a traditional poster session, the students filmed five-minute videos introducing their research. Check out a curated selection of our students’ research videos on WNCG’s YouTube channel here.

A recent article in Quanta Magazine explored why neural networks must be much larger than conventionally expected. The findings, which come from a paper by Sébastien Bubeck of Microsoft Research and Mark Sellke of Stanford University, give some insight into a question that has come up repeatedly over several decades. WNCG professor Alex Dimakis was quoted in the article, providing background on overparameterization in neural networks. Read the article via quantamagazine.org.

The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) announced today that Alan Bovik, professor and Cockrell Family Regents Endowed Chair in Engineering #3 in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, has been elected to the prestigious academy this year. Prof. Bovik was elected "for contributions to the development of tools for image and video quality assessment."

WNCG professor Alex Dimakis of has been invited to serve as a member of the AI Commission of the US Chamber of Commerce. The Commission on Artificial Intelligence Competitiveness, Inclusion, and Innovation (AI Commission) will research and recommend artificial intelligence policies as it relates to regulation, international research and development competitiveness, and future jobs. The AI Commission will convene field hearings in key locations around the U.S. and internationally to explore these critical issues.

WNCG professor Jon Tamir aims to leverage machine learning techniques to make brain scans faster and more informative. He received an Amazon Machine Learning Research Award in 2020 from Amazon Web Services (AWS) to support the work. A recent article on Amazon Science explored the details of Prof. Tamir's research on MRI scans.

A recent article in Alcalde explored how The University of Texas at Austin has been working to promote student mental health. The article included WNCG professor Brian Evans' experience finding ways to foster a supportive environment for his students. According to Prof. Evans, “the idea is to reduce the unnecessary stress and anxiety that I cause by making certain choices in the way the class proceeds.” The topic of mental health has become increasingly important throughout the challenges and isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Newsweek Magazine recently published a list of "America's Greatest Disruptors: Medical Marvels," celebrating researchers and companies "pushing the technological boundaries of health care." WNCG faculty member Dr. Andrea Thomaz was featured along with her colleague Dr. Vivian Chu and their company, Dilligent Robotics. Dilligent Robotics developed robots for deployment in healthcare settings—an innovation that has become especially critical to healthcare processes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more here via Newsweek.

WNCG professor Alan Bovik has been named the recipient of the 2022 Edison Medal from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for "pioneering high-impact scientific and engineering contributions leading to the perceptually optimized global streaming and sharing of visual media.” 

The Applied Mechanics Division (AMD) of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) has selected WNCG professor Nanshu Lu to receive the 2022 Thomas J.R. Hughes Young Investigator Award. Shawn Chester, an associate professor of New Jersey Institute of Technology, was selected jointly with Lu to receive the award, which recognizes special achievements of young researchers in applied mechanics.  Read the full article via the Department of Aerospace Engineering

WNCG professors Alex Dimakis and Sriram Vishwanath have been elevated to Fellows of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for 2022. Prof. Alex Dimakis was honored for “contributions to distributed coding and learning."  Prof. Sriram Vishwanath was honored for “contributions to information theory and coding for wireless communication systems."