News

As the new academic year begins, WNCG welcomes a new faculty member. Assistant Professor Aryan Mokhtari joins the group, having worked most recently as a Postdoctoral Associate in the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS) at MIT. He was one of nine new faculty to join Texas ECE this fall. 

The spring semester is in full swing, and as WNCG continues on the forefront of research, the group has welcomed a new director. Professor Constantine Caramanis began his three-year term as WNCG Director at the start of the new calendar year. Prior to that, he served as the group’s associate director. With Caramanis stepping into the new role, Professor Alex Dimakis was chosen among WNCG faculty to serve as associate director. WNCG’s leadership system allows the associate director to learn the ropes over the course of the term before serving their own term as director. 

This Spring, WNCG welcomes Intel, NEC, and Western Digital as the newest WNCG Industrial Affiliates Program members. All three companies enter as Level 2 members. Since WNCG’s founding, the Industrial Affiliates Program has played a vital role in the group’s success. It facilitates “cooperation and mutual assistance” between WNCG and Affiliate companies. This collaboration between academia and industry embodies the group’s mission to “support research, provide highly relevant education and opportunities, [and] promote technical innovation, imagination and entrepreneurship.”

Fujitsu Laboratories of America recently joined the WNCG Industrial Affiliate Program as a Level Two Member.

Toyota InfoTechnology Center, U.S.A. (Toyota ITC), recently joined the WNCG Industrial Affiliate Program as a level one member, and as a founding member of the UT SAVES research initiative.

Governmental regulations and privacy concerns restrict access to data sets for individuals and only provide researchers with data in aggregated form. However, current machine learning and data mining techniques are restricted in their ability to effectively use such data. These limitations create roadblocks for companies looking for ways to better respond to their consumers’ needs while also providing safety and security for individual users.