News

WNCG alumnus Xingqin Lin is the recipient of the 2021 IEEE Vehicular Technical Society Early Career Award. The annual award recognizes outstanding scientists or engineers under the age of 35 who have contributed to the field of mobile radio, motor vehicles, or land transportation. Lin was commended for his “contributions to mobile communication systems and connected aerial vehicles.”

WNCG alumnus Namyoon Lee has been named recipient of the 2021 IT Young Engineer Award, an IEEE-IEIE Joint Award. The annual award recognizes an engineer under the age of 40 whose contributions to the field have made a significant impact on society.

WNCG student Nithin Ramesan received the Best Student Paper Award at the 18th International Symposium on Modeling and Optimization in Mobile, Ad Hoc and Wireless Networks (WiOpt 2020).  This is the second year in a row that the award has gone to a WNCG student. Ramesan’s winning paper, "Wireless Queues in Poisson Interference Fields: the Continuum Between Zero and Infinite Mobility," was co-authored with his advisor, Prof. François Baccelli.

WNCG alumnus Harpreet S. Dhillon has received the 2020 IEEE ComSoc Radio Communications Committee (RCC) Early Achievement Award for contributions to radio communications. According to IEEE, the award “recognizes members of the IEEE Communications Society who have achieved early career visibility in the field through research and service to the RCC.” Candidates must have completed their Ph.D. within 10 years of their nomination. The award is conferred once a year at the International Conference on Communication.

WNCG alumnus Ahmed Kord has been named to the 2020 Forbes 30 Under 30 List in Science. Kord received the designation for the work he completed as a Graduate Research Assistant developing a new class of magnet-less circulators, which are smaller and enable more applications. Circulators are crucial for devices to transmit and receive data at the same time. Kord was the recipient of the 2018 IEEE MTTS Fellowship for this research. Dr. Kord received his Ph.D. from Texas ECE under the supervision of Prof. Andrea Alù. He is currently a postdoctoral research scientist at Columbia University.

WNCG faculty member Todd Humphreys has received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). Humphreys was one of five faculty members from The University of Texas at Austin to receive the award for 2019. The PECASE is the “highest honor bestowed by the United States Government to outstanding scientists and engineers who are beginning their independent research careers and who show exceptional promise for leadership in science and technology.”

Jiaxiao Zheng received the Best Student Paper Award at the 17th International Symposium on Modeling and Optimization in Mobile, Ad Hoc and Wireless Networks (WiOpt 2019). The conference took place this summer in Avignon, France. 

Prof. Zak Kassas was among the recipients of the Office of Naval Research’s (ONR) Young Investigator Awards for 2019. The Young Investigator Program identifies early tenure-track academic scientists and engineers “who show exceptional promise for doing creative research.” Those considered must have received their doctorate or equivalent degree on or after January 1, 2012. Of over 260 applicants to the highly competitive program, only 25 researchers were selected.

WNCG Alumnus Vishal Monga has led two teams of researchers to success at the New Trends in Image Restoration and Enhancement (NTIRE) worldwide competition. Monga received his Ph.D.EE from Texas ECE in 2005, advised by Prof. Brian L. Evans at WNCG. He now runs the Information Processing & Algorithms Laboratory at Penn State’s College of Engineering and holds the title of Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

WNCG alumnus Prof. Siddhartha Banerjee has been named a recipient of the National Science Foundation Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Award. Banerjee received his doctorate from Texas ECE in 2013. As a member of WNCG, he was advised by Profs. Sanjay Shakkottai and Sujay Sanghavi. He is currently an Assistant Professor of operations research and information engineering at Cornell University, and he also serves as a technical consultant for popular rideshare service Lyft.