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The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin held a banquet on Thursday, April 28 to honor staff and faculty for their successes and contributions during the 2021-2022 academic year. WNCG faculty and staff were among this year's award winners. SOCIETY/ACADEMY MEMBERS AND FELLOWS Faculty who were elevated to members and fellows in the academic year. National Academy of Engineering ALAN BOVIK   IEEE Fellow ALEX DIMAKIS SRIRAM VISHWANATH   GORDON T. LEPLEY IV ENDOWED MEMORIAL TEACHING AWARD

This week, WNCG professor Nanshu Lu was a guest on The National Nanotechnology Initiative's podcast, "Nano Matters." In this episode of the “Nano Matters” podcast, Nanshu Lu, Associate Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at the University of Texas at Austin, discusses her work using nanotechnology to design wear-and-forgettable biosensors that can monitor a person’s health. Listen to the full podcast via The National Nanotechnology Initiative's YouTube channel.

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.

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 IEEE Communications Society has awarded 6G@UT Director Jeffrey Andrews the 2021 Joseph LoCicero Award for Exemplary Service to Publications. The annual award recognizes exceptional contributions to meetings, conferences, publications, globalization, and service to the Society. Nominees have made notable contributions to the quality, scope, or visibility of those publications.

More than 100 military ships appear to have had their locations in the waters near Ukraine and Russia falsified. WNCG professor Todd Humphreys weighed in on this summer's confusion at sea on a recent NPR Morning Edition. Listen to the newscast via NPR.

WNCG alumnus Arjun Anand and WNCG professors Gustavo de Veciana and Sanjay Shakkottai have been awarded the 2021 William R. Bennett Prize from the IEEE Communications Society. The prize is awarded annually to the authors of a single paper published in either in IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking or the IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management. The paper must have been published within the last three years prior to the award.