News

WNCG professor Todd Humphreys has received the Institute of Navigation’s (ION) “highest honor.” Humphreys was elected to the membership rank of Fellow at ION’s International Technical Meeting in January. He is one of only three recipients of the honor for 2020. Humphreys’ election cited his “significant and fundamental contributions to PNT security and precise GNSS positioning for the mass market, and for dedication to GNSS education and outreach.”

Ph.D. student Jessica Hoffmann received second place in the INFORMS Nicholson Student Paper competition. She received the award for her recent paper "Learning Graphs from Noisy Epidemic Cascades" with her advisor, WNCG professor Constantine Caramanis.Epidemics are a powerful framework for modeling human and computer viruses, as well as influence, rumors, information and disinformation.

Jeff Andrews, Alan Bovik, and Robert Heath, professors at Texas ECE, have been recognized as Highly Cited Researchers for 2019. The Highly Cited Researchers from the Institute for Scientific Information is a list released annually to identify global research scientists and social scientists who have demonstrated exceptional influence – reflected through their publication of multiple papers frequently cited by their peers during the last decade.

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.

The 17th Texas Wireless Summit took place on November 12, 2019. The event highlighted advances and opportunities at the intersection of human-centered computing, sensing, and connectivity. Prof. Joseph A. Paradiso, director of MIT Media Lab's Responsive Environments group, delivered a keynote titled "How We Will Connect To Our Networked Future in a Post-IoT World."

First-year graduate student Joshua Ebenezer has received the Nilanjan Ganguly Memorial Award for his undergraduate thesis on haze- and fog-affected images and videos. The award designates the “best B.Tech thesis in the Electronics & Electrical Communication Engineering Department” at IIT Khargapur and is given annually to a single student. The award also includes a cash prize for the recipient from the Ganguly family. 

Prof. Jeffrey Andrews of Texas ECE has been named the recipient of the 2019 Wireless Communications Technical Committee Recognition Award from the IEEE Communication Society. The award is given annually to a “person with a high degree of visibility and contribution in the field of “Wireless and Mobile Communications Theory, Systems, and Networks.” Prof. Andrews will receive the award next month at the upcoming IEEE Global Communications Conference in Hawaii.

Advances in machine learning are announced every day, but efforts to fundamentally rethink the core algorithms of AI are rare.

WNCG professor Jeff Andrews appeared as a guest expert on a recent episode of Gimlet Media's Science Vs podcast, "5G: Welcome to the Revolution?" where he provided background on the next generation of wireless technology. The episode noted the general public's increased interest in 5G and explored the basics of the technology, addressing the controversies and myths building around the topic. Find more information, including a link to Prof. Andrews' paper on 5G, and listen to the podcast here.

Developed by engineers at The University of Texas at Austin and led by Nanshu Lu in the Cockrell School of Engineering, this is the latest incarnation of Lu’s electronic tattoo technology, a graphene-based wearable device that can be placed on the skin to measure a variety of body responses, from electrical to biomechanical signals. The research team reported on their newest e-tattoo in a recent issue of Advanced Science. Continuing reading here. Watch a video by the National Science Foundation featuring Prof. Lu's research here.