News

How electromagnetic, acoustic and optic waves interact with materials creates a foundation for various scientific and technological phenomena. With the invention of metamaterials over the last decades, wave matter interactions not found in nature have opened new possibilities for manipulating wave types across different frequencies.

WNCG Graduate Student, and recent winner of the WNCG Student Leadership Award,   Francesco Monticone, recently accepted a position as an Assistant Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University. Monticone received a BS and MS in Electronics Engineering from Politecnico di Torino in Italy, and is a member of Prof. Andrea Alù’s Metamaterials and Plasmonics Research Group. His research interests include applied electromagnetics, metamaterials, plasmonics and nanophotonics with applications ranging from microwaves to optical frequencies.

Each year, WNCG faculty nominate one outstanding student to receive the WNCG Student Leadership Award. The award is presented to a student based on their cumulative contributions to the center, including their representation of WNCG to the greater community, their mentorship of fellow students, their research visibility and recognition from external organizations.

Since 2008, mobile traffic across the globe has increased at a rate of roughly 100 percent per year, while the available bandwidth, or spectrum, for data use has remained largely unchanged. During peak hours, wireless networks in major cities often reach a point of failure. With the explosion in online video traffic, which is predicted to occupy 66 percent of mobile traffic by 2017, industry, academia and government are searching for the future of mobile networks. The solution? To push beyond 4G networks and bring 5G to life and to consumers.