Wireless Systems Innovation Laboratory Group
Graduate Student  Salam Akoum is a PhD student at the ECE department of the University of Texas at Austin.
She graduated with a B.E. in computer and Communications Engineering and a minor in mathematics (Honors)
from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon in 2006, and completed her M.S.E.E. at the University of Utah,
Salt Lake City, UT, in 2008. She joined the WNCG in Fall 2008, to work under the supervision of Prof. Robert W. Heath Jr. in the WSIL group.
Outside the office, Salam enjoys reading and talking sports, she dreams of publishing a best-seller novel.
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Graduate Student  Omar Al Ayache is a masters student at the University of Texas at Austin. He finished his B.E. in Computer and Communication Engineering with
high distinction from the American University of Beirut (AUB, class of 2008). His research interests include network information theory and
wireless communication. Outside the office, he has a passion for flying and food.
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Graduate Student  Ramya Bhagavatula is a graduate student at UT Austin. She completed her BS - EEE
in BITS, Pilani - Dubai Campus in July 2005. She has interned in Siemens, in the
Building Management Systems Division, and at Petrofac International Ltd, where
she was a part of the team that designed the Cabling and Lighitng systems for
the 'Kashagan Gas, Sulphur and Oil Plant' in Kazakhstan. She is currently
working as a Research assistant for Dr. Heath on a project for Boeing to install
wireless access points in their airplanes. She likes to sketch potraits and
likes to collect miniature idols of Happy Buddha.
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Graduate Student  Raquel Flores received her BS in 2001 from New Mexico State University and her MS 2002 from The California Institute of Technology. She is currently a PhD student in Electrical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests include MIMO communications, specifically Multi-user MIMO communications for cellular use. Raquel has over 5 years of industry experience working for numerous technology companies ranging from Motorola to Intel. In her spare time, Raquel enjoys camping, spending time with family and watching football with her husband. |
Graduate Student  Chao Chen was born in Taiyuan, People's Republic of China. He received his B.E and M.S degree from Tsinghua University in 2006 and 2009, respectively. He used to conduct research on multi-media processing and distributed source coding (DSC). He began his research on the wireless communications of video when he joined WSIL in 2009. He is now jointly supervised by Prof. Robert Heath and Prof. Alan Bovik. Chao has very broad knowledge in 5 thousands years of Chinese history. |
Graduate Student  Robert C. Daniels was born and raised in the rural town of Tunkhannock in
northeastern Pennsylvania. He received B.S. degrees (with distinction) in
electrical engineering and mathematics from the Pennsylvania State University.
After completing his M.S.E. at UT Austin in 2006, he is now a member of the Wireless Systems Innovation Laboratory
in pursuit of a Ph.D. in electrical
and computer engineering. Robert's
research interests include implementation issues in
wireless systems, large bandwidth wireless personal area networks (including
UWB and 60 GHz), and all areas of space-time wireless communications. He is
currently working on physical layer algorithm design
in 60 GHz WPANs as well as implementing the 802.11n physical layer in a multi-hop
2x2 MIMO OFDM prototype, Hydra. Robert views squirrel as
an underrated cuisine.
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Graduate Student  Khursheed Hassan did his B.S. from N.E.D. University of Engineering in Karachi, Pakistan and M.S. from Texas A&M University College Station, Tx. His interests include logic design, low power SoC architectures, modem implementation and 60 GHz radio. In his spare time, he does non-profit work and enjoys reading anthropology, genomics and history. |
Graduate Student  Insoo Hwang is a Ph. D student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, under the supervision of Prof. Robert W. Heath Jr. He received his M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA and B.Sc degree in Electronics and Electrical Engineering from Pohang University of Science & Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, Korea. His research interests include the general area of wireless communication, space-time processing and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. From 2005 to 2007, he was with Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. in Korea, where he investigated MIMO-related physical layer design for the upcoming fourth generation (4G) wireless system and involved standardization activities such as the 3GPP LTE (Long Term Evolution) and WWRF (Wireless World Research Forum). During summer of 2004 he was with the Telecommunications R & D center, LG Electronics Co. Ltd., Anyang, Korea where he studied acquisition and synchronization in EDGE/GPRS. He usually keeps this desk when he is not with his beloved wife.
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Graduate Student  Zheng Li received his B.S. in information engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in July, 2009 and he was an exchange student at The University of New Mexico in 2008 Fall. He is currently a M.S. student in the ECE department at The University of Texas at Austin, supervised by Prof. Robert W. Heath Jr. His research interests are in Communications, Networking, Signal Processing in general, specific topics are Cognitive Radio, Wireless Networks, Game Theory and Operations Research.
He is also interested in economics and finance. He loves tennis, basketball, swimming and he likes movies and some pop music. |
Graduate Student  Behrang Nosrat-Makouei received his B.Sc. from Sharif University of Technology (Tehran, Iran) in 2004 and his M.A.Sc. from Simon Fraser University (Burnaby, Canada) in 2008 both at Electrical Engineering.
He is currently a member of the WSIL group under the co-supervision of Dr. Heath and Dr. Andrews where he's working towards his Ph.D. degree. His research interests extend from Medical Image Processing to DSP, MIMO-OFDM(A) systems and relay networks. He enjoys solving major international crisis although he's not getting paid for it.
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Graduate Student  Steven Peters received B.S. degrees with high honors in electrical engineering and computer engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 2005, where he was president of the Delta Chapter of Eta Kappa Nu. He received the M.S.E. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2007. From 2003-2005, he worked at Environmental Systems Design, Inc., designing electrical distribution systems in Chicago sky scrapers. From 2005-2007 he was a graduate research assistant with the Applied Research Laboratories, where he worked on channel coding and transmit diversity in software-defined HF radios. His current research interests include MIMO relaying and multihop cellular networks. Although not that smart himself, Steve absorbed a smarter, more attractive twin in the womb.
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Graduate Student  Kien Trung Truong received his B.S. degree in Electronics & Telecommunications from Hanoi University of Technology (HUT) in 2002. After graduation, he worked for Department of Wireless Communications in Research Institute of Posts & Telecomms (RIPT), Hanoi, Vietnam for 4 years. He is currently a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin under the supervision of Prof. Robert W. Heath, Jr. with a fellowship from the Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF). His research interest is MIMO system prototyping. He likes playing soccer, reading books and listening to the music. |
Graduate Student  Ali Yazdan-Panah received his B.A.Sc degree from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 2004 and his M.A.Sc degree from
Simon Fraser University, Burnaby B.C, Canada in 2007 - both in electrical engineering. He joined WSIL in 2007 as a doctorial student
working on various subjects in wireless MIMO including MU-MIMO, MIMO-OFDM and channel estimation. Ali loves music, plays the classical
guitar and more recently the persian tar. He enjoys golfing, snowboarding and is a strong believer in globalization. He hopes one day to
outsource his entire research activities - homework included. |
Graduate Student  Jun Zheng received his B.Eng. degree from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), Sichuan, China, in 2005, and his M.Phil. degree from The University of Hong Kong (HKU), Hong Kong, in 2009. He was a research assistant at the City University of Hong Kong and then at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) from 2006 to 2007. He is currently a Ph.D. student advised by Prof. Robert W. Heath Jr. in the WSIL group. His research interests are statistical signal processing, communication systems and machine learning.
He loves photographing, hiking and traveling. He is aslo a good ping-pang player and swimmer. He got a certificate of indoor rock climbing, but never go outdoors. He once started to play guitar, but it only lasted for one month. Other things he enjoys are gym, squash and writing blogs in his MSN space.
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