Friday, April 11, 2025
10:20 – 11:10 a.m. (CST)
ETB 1020
Dr. Kaushik Chowdhury
Chandra Family Endowed Distinguished Professor
Dept. of Electrical Engineering & Computer Engineering
The University of Texas, Austin
Title: “Programming the Network and the Environment for Sensing, Communication and Computation”
Abstract:
This presentation delves into how extreme reconfigurability will shape future wireless networks, made possible by exciting new developments in the areas of open radio access networks (O-RAN) and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS). By embracing programmability at all levels, from centralized cellular architectures to distributed network components, such wireless networks will not only establish resilient communication links but also perform sensing tasks to better perceive and, to an extent, even engineer the surrounding environment. In this two-part talk, we first describe how “programmable networks” in the form of O-RAN-compliant base stations can evolve their roles from sensing weak radar signals to performing automated network traffic analysis followed by resource allocation. In the second part of the talk, we shift towards “programmable environments” where we experimentally demonstrate how custom-designed RIS can be used for channel hardening in single antenna receivers by intentionally creating multipath diversity. We also explore how such programmability opens a new domain of wireless computing, where transmitted signals can be used to perform mathematical operations by leveraging the physics of over-the-air propagation. A common theme in programming both the “network” and “environment” is rigorous experimental validation on laboratory and field-deployed systems.
Biography
Kaushik Chowdhury is a Chandra Family Endowed Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. His primary interest lies in the areas of applied machine learning for wireless, including signals intelligence, spectrum monitoring and sharing in commercial and dual-use environments, dataset generation, and network optimization by harnessing big data. Prof. Chowdhury has worked on several large-scale wireless community infrastructure projects that include the Colosseum RF/network emulator as well as the Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research project office. Prof. Chowdhury was a finalist for the 2023 US Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists. He was also the winner of the U.S. Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 2017, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Young Faculty Award in 2017, the Office of Naval Research Director of Research Early Career Award in 2016, and the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award in 2015. He is an IEEE Fellow and ACM Distinguished Member.