News

Professor Derya Malak has won the Best Paper Award at the 20th International Symposium on Modeling and Optimization in Mobile, Ad hoc, and Wireless Networks (WiOpt 2022). Malak, who is currently an assistant professor in the Communication Systems Department at EURECOM, was recognized for her solo-authored paper, “Throughput and Energy Tradeoffs for Retransmission-based Random Access Protocols.” The paper extends work on the fundamentals of massive Internet of Things uplink communications that Malak conducted during her Ph.D. and in collaboration with Howard Huang of Nokia Bell Labs.

WNCG researchers and alumni were selected as Best Paper Award Runners-up at this year’s ACM MobiHoc: International Symposium on Theory, Algorithmic Foundations, and Protocol Design for Mobile Networks and Mobile Computing. WCNG postdoctoral fellow Daniel Vial’s paper, “Robust Multi-Agent Multi-Armed Bandits,” was one of the papers selected as a runner-up. Co-written by Sanjay Shakkottai and R. Srikant, this paper develops algorithms for online collaborative learning in a setting where malicious agents might inject false information into the learning system.

WNCG alumni were among the recipients of major paper awards from the Communications Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE ComSoc). The awards were presented at the International Conference on Communications (IEEE ICC), which took place virtually last month.

WNCG alumnus Rajiv Khanna and his colleagues Michal Derezinski and Michael W. Mahoney received the Best Paper Award at NeurIPS 2020. Their winning paper, “Improved Guarantees and a Multiple-Descent Curve for Column Subset Selection and the Nyström Method,” was presented in the conference’s Learning Theory track. The paper was one of three to receive the distinction for 2020. The award committee chose the winners in a two-stage selection process which considered the research’s impact, creativity, and “potential to endure,” along with its scientific and academic rigor.

WNCG student Yun Chen won Best Paper in the Wireless Networks track at the 2020 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference. Chen received the award for her paper “Efficient Drone Mobility Support Using Reinforcement Learning.”

The European Association for Signal Processing (EURASIP) has announced the winners of the 2020 Best Paper Awards. Two of the four winning papers were written by WNCG faculty members with their students and postdoctoral fellows.  EURASIP-sponsored journals each give their own award—either annually or biennially, depending on the number of papers published per year. A sub-committee for each journal evaluates the papers according to relevance, quality, style, and originality in order to select a winner.

Each year, the UT Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) hosts a series of Senior Design Projects, which the undergraduate student teams present at the end of each semester during the Senior Design Open House. The day-long Open House event provides a unique opportunity for students to showcase and demonstrate their work. While WNCG consists mostly of graduate students, a select few undergraduates also engage in research projects and startups with WNCG faculty and students.

An incubator of cutting-edge technologies and digital creativity, SXSW Interactive 2015 featured five days of presentations and panels from the brightest minds in emerging technology. Special programs showcased new websites, video games and startup ideas from the community.

WNCG Faculty and students met on Sunday with researchers from the Center for Transportation Research (CTR) and other UT Austin Cockrell School Engineers during the first-ever UT Village at SXSW Interactive 2015. This year's event featured panels and interactive research demonstrations and was open to all SXSW Interactive 2015 Badge Holders. Click the image below to view the complete slideshow from the day's events.  

Every few years, WNCG welcomes a new Director and Associate Director from among its faculty ranks. With an academic culture that encourages openness and research collaborations among equals, the rotation of Directors provides each faculty member with the opportunity to lead WNCG.