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Al Bovik, professor in the Chandra Family Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, has been elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Election to NAI Fellow status is the highest professional distinction accorded solely to academic inventors.

Recent years have radically changed the way people socialize; in parts of the developed world that have good broadband and cellular penetration, the average person now spends more time on online social networks than on physical meetings with acquaintances outside their immediate family.

When studying Social Networks, the public mind does not often consider the enormous impact the field of Electrical Engineering has on the development of these networks. “Many tools that traditionally belonged to applied mathematics and electrical engineering have proven to be very useful in social networks,” WNCG Prof. Constantine Caramanis states.

Recent years have radically changed the way people socialize; in parts of the developed world that have good broadband and cellular penetration, the average person now spends more time on online social networks than on physical meetings with acquaintances outside their immediate family. “We were socializing before social networks,” Prof. Sujay Sanghavi states. “But now we can automatically capture fine details of social interaction, such as when someone views a photo and how they share and interact with the image.” The problem now is the issue of information overload.