News

WNCG faculty member Nanshu Lu is now a full professor in the Dept. of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics. Lu has been with The University of Texas since 2011; she also holds appointments in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering. She joined WNCG in 2018 and soon after served as a faculty co-organizer of the 2019 Texas Wireless Summit, "Connectivity and Sensing at the Human-Machine Frontier."

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 Todd Humphreys has been elected Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation “for improving understanding of GNSS vulnerabilities and pioneering the use of alternate techniques to achieve resilience.” Formed in 1947, the Royal Institute of Navigation aims to advance the art, science, and practice of navigation while promoting knowledge of the subject and its associated sciences such as positioning, timing, and tracking.

WNCG professor Jeff Andrews has received the Gordon T. Lepley Teaching Award from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are among the trendiest technologies in the world right now, and The University of Texas at Austin is rapidly becoming a leader in advancing these concepts as they come to impact more aspects of our daily lives.

WNCG professor Jeff Andrews has been elected Chair of the Communication Theory Technical Committee (CTTC) of the IEEE Communications Society.  CTTC sits at the forefront of theoretical research on communications. The committee is especially interested in “novel use of communication theory and/or information theory to solve problems in areas that include (but are not limited to) source and channel coding, storage, modulation, detection, estimation, synchronization, multiple access, interference mitigation, and networking.”

Ted Rappaport, founding director of the Wireless Networking and Communications Group, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Membership in the Academy honors those who have “made outstanding contributions to engineering research, practice, or education, including […] significant contributions to the engineering literature.” They are accomplished pioneers of new and developing fields of technology, credited with major advancements in traditional engineering fields or innovations in engineering education.

Andrea Alù, Jeffrey G. Andrews, Alan Bovik, Robert Heath, and Nanshu Lu have been named Highly Cited Researchers for 2020. The annual list from Clarivate recognizes influential researchers from around the world.

WNCG professor Aryan Mokhtari has received a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study Computationally Efficient Second-Order Optimization Algorithms for Large-Scale Learning. The project “lays out an agenda to develop a class of memory efficient, computationally affordable, and distributed friendly second-order methods for solving modern machine learning problems.”

The Department of Transportation (DOT) has awarded nearly $2 million to a national research consortium that includes lead institution Ohio State University as well as the University of California-Irvine and the University of Texas at Austin. The grant will create a new Tier 1 University Transportation Center (UTC). According to the DOT, these centers aim to “advance research and education programs that address critical transportation challenges facing our nation.”