News

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.”

WNCG student Ahmed Kord won a 2018 Graduate Fellowship award from the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) for his research on Magnetless Circulators for Full-Duplex Radios. Kord has been researching this topic at WNCG since 2015, advised by Prof. Andrea Alu. Their team hopes to develop “new concepts and circuit architectures for magnetless circulators based on spatio-temporal modulation (STM) of resonant three-port junctions.” In 2017, Kord won the IEEE MTT-S student design competition for a project on a related topic.

WNCG student Ahmed Kord recently won first place in the student design competition at the IEEE 2017 International Microwave Symposium held in Honolulu, Hawaii. Kord received the award, given by the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society, for his work entitled “Magnetless Parametric Circulator Design.” As first prize winner, Kord received a $2,000 award.

Each year, in conjunction with the Texas Wireless Summit, WNCG hosts a board meeting for its Industrial Affiliate members. This meeting invites affiliates to weigh in on current and future research directions and provides them with direct access to students for recruitment and research purposes. Affiliate members also receive sneak peeks into current faculty research.

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.

The annual WNCG Board Meeting brings together Industrial Affiliates, Board Members, Students and Faculty to share research and successes of the previous year, as well as to discuss the future of WNCG. Two representatives from each affiliate member company attend to keep up-to-date with the latest happenings and groundbreaking research in WNCG.