ECE Associate Professor Waheed Bajwa has been awarded a grant from the Army Research Office (ARO) for the project titled "Statistical learning for the modern datasets: Generalization bounds and near-optimal learning algorithms." The 3-year, $360,000 award will advance the state-of-the-art in statistical learning theory and lead to computationally efficient algorithms for machine learning. While the statistical learning framework has long played a central role in advancing our understanding of machine learning systems, there is an interest in looking afresh at the questions of generalization error bounds, fundamental limits, and near-optimal algorithms in the face of modern datasets that increasingly represent a ‘zoo’. Indeed, the classical statistical learning works typically focused on centralized datasets that often had Euclidean geometry. In contrast, many of today’s and tomorrow’s applications of machine learning involve non-Euclidean datasets that are non-centralized, with data often streaming at very high rates, some of which might be compromised due to either gross errors or actions of adversarial entities. Such modern datasets necessitate development of fundamentally new analytical tools and algorithmic techniques for statistical learning-based study of machine learning systems. It is in this regard that this project leverages tools from stochastic approximation, (centralized and distributed) optimization theory, concentration-of-measure literature, information theory, robust statistics, and tensor algebra to derive generalization error bounds, fundamental limits on sample complexity, and near-optimal learning algorithms for machine learning from modern datasets. The outcomes of this project are expected to not only advance the state-of-the-art in statistical learning theory, but they are also expected to lead to computationally efficient algorithms for machine learning that can be deployed in practical settings with the smallest number of training samples.

Congratulations, Waheed!

Dean Thomas N. Farris announced that Prof. Wade Trappe will assume the role of Associate Dean for Academic Programs. Prof. Trappe will fill the position previously held by Henrik Pederson who has become the Interim Dean of the School of Graduate Studies.

In undertaking his role as associate dean for academic programs, Dr. Trappe will partner with Dean Farris and senior leadership to advance overarching strategic direction, especially in graduate and international education and high-level programmatic direction that prioritizes SoE initiatives among academic departments. Dr. Trappe will, additionally, provide leadership, support, and mentoring for the school's assessment and accreditation activities (ABET) and provide oversight of master's student recruitment, education, retention, and outcomes activities.

In working to strengthen organizational effectiveness, Dr. Trappe will forge strong working relationships with programmatic and administrative leaders, including SGS, Rutgers Global, Career Exploration and Success, and the New Brunswick Chancellor-Provost's Office to ensure our academic programs are clearly represented.

Congratulations Wade!

ECE PhD graduate Bo Li (2017) and Distinguished Professor Athina Petropulu have won the 2017 M. Barry Carlton Best Paper Award for their paper “Joint Transmit Designs for Coexistence of MIMO Wireless Communications and Sparse Sensing Radars in Clutter” (Open Access), IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, 53(6),7953658, pp. 2846-2864. The M. Barry Carlton Award is an annual award recognizing the best paper published in the IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems. To help assess impact, nominations are limited to the papers published in the calendar year four years before the award year. The award was presented at the 2021 IEEE Radar Conference Award Ceremony, on May 12, 2021.

In their paper, the authors address the ever-growing need for bandwidth that wireless devices face. By making use of spectrum that was previously reserved for radar, it is possible to share spectrum between radar and communication systems. To reap the advantages of the available spectrum, the interference between the two systems must be managed. While managing interference is a classic problem in the radar and communication community, prior to that work there had been very little work that jointly examined interference between these two different types of technologies. This paper (along with some earlier related papers by the authors) introduces a new line of research for cooperative design of the two systems that aims to control interference between radar and communication systems. The paper proposes a cooperative scheme for the coexistence of a multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) communication system and a matrix completion (MC) based, collocated MIMO (MIMOMC) radar. To facilitate the coexistence, and also deal with clutter, both the radar and the communication systems use transmit precoding. It is shown that when a random unitary waveform matrix is used the error performance of MC is guaranteed independent of the precoding matrix. The radar transmit precoder, the radar subsampling scheme, and the communication transmit covariance matrix are jointly designed in order to maximize the radar SINR, while meeting certain communication rate and power constraints. The joint design is implemented at a control center, which is a node with whom both systems share physical layer information, and which also performs data fusion for the radar. The paper provides efficient algorithms for the proposed optimization problem, along with insight on the feasibility and properties of the proposed design. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme significantly improves the spectrum sharing performance in various scenarios.

Congratulations to Bo and Athina!

The ECE Department would like to congratulate each of our undergraduate and graduate students who received awards and recognition during the May 13, 2021 Virtual Celebration! We had a great time celebrating your accomplishments virtually and look forward to the day that we can congratulate you in person.

For anyone who missed the Celebration, you are welcome to view a recording of the event on our ECE YouTube channel.

UG and Graduate Award Presentation 2021 (PDF)

Opening remarks were made by ECE Chair Narayan Mandayam, Dean Thomas N. Farris, and ECE Undergraduate Director Wade Trappe.

ECE Faculty presented Undergraduate Leadership / Service Awards to:

• Samantha Cheng – Ambassador – department liaison
• Ariela Chomski – RU IEEE President
• Puru Saxena – Fishbowl tutor
• Tran Trong Tan Ngo - Fishbowl tutor
• Natalie Kim - Fishbowl tutor
• Yang Bai – Fishbowl tutor
• Thorson Dai- Fishbowl tutor
• Amber Haynes – Federal Work Study
• Sukhjit Singh – Federal Work Study
• Piotr Zakrevski – Federal Work Study

The George and Ilsa Goubau Memoria Awards for Academic Excellence and Strength in Electromagnetics were presented to:

• Andrew Simon
• Peter Wu
• Crystal D’Souza
• Naomie Popo

The Ashok and Yohavall Sethu Electrical and Computer Engineering Annual Scholarships were presented to:

• Jakub Vogel
• Yati Patel

Graduate awards introductory remarks were given by Graduate Director Yingying Chen. The ECE Graduate Program had 24 doctoral graduates in the 2020/2021 school year.

The following doctoral graduates are the recipients of the ECE Graduate Program Academic Achievement Awards:

• Intessar Al-Iedani, January 2021, advisor: Dr. Zoran Gajic
• Ali Haddad, January 2021, advisor: Dr. Laleh Najafizadeh
• Guangyuan Li, May 2021, advisor: Dr. Yicheng Lu
• Siyu Liao, October 2020, advisor: Dr. Bo Yuan
• Vidyasagar Sadhu, October 2020, advisor: Dr. Dario Pompili
• Mohammad Yousefvand, May 2021, advisor: Dr. Narayan Mandayam

The Teaching Assistant Awards for the Spring 2020 semester were presented to:

• Corey Norton
• Faith Johnson
• Shiva Salsabilian

The Teaching Assistant Awards for the Fall 2020 semester were presented to:

• Anastasios Dimas
• Carolina Naim
• Pei Peng

The Graduate Leadership / Service Award was given to:

• Demetrios Lambropoulos, Capstone Assistant

The Professor Narindra Puri Memorial Endowed Scholarship awards were presented to:

• Jeffrey Isaacs
• Zhaoyi Xu
• Shounak Rangwala

The Paul Panayotatos Endowed Scholarships were awarded to:

• Tahiya Chowdhury
• Murtadha Aldeer

IEEE Communications Society Phoenix ISS Award was presented to:

• Tejashri Kuber

Prof. Narayan Mandayam, the ECE Department Chair gave closing remarks.

Congratulations and good luck to all ECE students!

“The SOE provides a great collaborative community.” – Samantha Cheng

Electrical and computer engineering (ECE) and English double major Samantha Cheng has served as an Engineering Ambassador, the chair of the First Year Integration Peer Mentor Program, and a MATLAB learning assistant. She took part in the Aresty Summer Science program, where she studied the effect of climate change on the Mackenzie River Basin. She also had a software development internship with MITRE, where she worked on several government-related projects, as well as a systems engineering internship with Lockheed Martin. An Honors College Scholar and SoE Class of 2021 convocation speaker, she will be joining Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Akamai Technologies’ Platform Rotation Engineering Program after graduation.

Why Rutgers?

I chose it for its perfect balance of having the resources of a large school, while still having smaller, tight-knit communities. The SOE provides a great collaborative community, while the university offers research and career experiences. The different campuses, schools, and people contribute to the diverse experiences I have had here. This semester, I even took a class on Animal Handling, Fitting, and Exhibition on the Cook Farm – and worked with goats.

What drew you to computer engineering?

I’m interested in how hardware and software work together and I liked that the computer engineering track is part of the broader, interdisciplinary ECE department, which means I could obtain experience in both hands-on lab work involving circuitry as well as coding software. I appreciate the versatility of being able to take ECE skills and knowledge and apply them elsewhere, such as in biomedical or environmental sciences.

What about your English major?

I’ve always loved reading and analyzing literature, so I knew I wanted to take a few literature classes in college. On my first day of school at Rutgers, I sat in on an English lecture and that class solidified my interest and made me want to study English more formally. Studying English has also improved my communication and critical thinking skills, which are important in any field.

What do you most value about your Rutgers education?

I value the community the most. I’ve learned so much in my four years here, but I couldn’t have done it without the support of my classmates and professors. Rutgers SOE has given me a large network of people – and the people are truly what makes Rutgers SOE unique. As graduation comes closer, I’m comforted by the fact that I have so many people I can rely on or reach out to in the years to come.

Did any professors make an impact on you?

Many of my professors have made profound impacts on me as a student and as a person. One in particular is industrial and systems engineering professor Dr. Elsayed Elsayed. I took his Introduction to Reliability Engineering class as an elective. I’m so appreciative of the time he took to talk to each student – he is clearly invested in his students’ futures. I greatly admire his passion for his work, and hope one day to have a passion and expertise similar to his.

How did the coronavirus pandemic affect you?

The switch to online learning was a challenge, but I adapted with the help of professors and other resources. Many professors were even more accessible through online learning than before, and it was a great help to still be able to schedule meetings and have face time with them.

I was also able to take trainings through the learning assistant program, that helped me both be a better student in my classes and to be a better MATLAB learning assistant. These trainings covered topics such as metacognitive skills, time management, and online resources.

What did it mean to you to be selected as the SOE Class of 2021 speaker?

Being the SOE convocation speaker is an exciting and meaningful experience for me because I want to share a message that can resonate with the whole class. Graduation is a time to look back on the great memories we've made at Rutgers, as well as to look forward to new beginnings. I hope this gives everyone a moment to reflect on their own paths, and celebrate themselves and their achievements.

Do you have any advice for incoming students?

Don’t be afraid to ask questions! This is a typical piece of advice, but I was still afraid as an incoming freshman to ask too many questions. It turns out that people – whether they’re fellow freshmen, upperclassmen, professors, or anyone else at Rutgers – are more than happy to help you out. There’s nothing wrong with asking questions – as long as you ask and listen.

What will your job at Akamai Technologies involve?

I’ll be rotating through four tracks – information security, platform engineering, global performance operations, and networks – during Akamai Technologies’ two-year Platform Rotation Engineering Program. I’ll be taking on different roles depending on the track, so I can gain exposure to these fields before fully committing to one. I’ll also be learning general technical and soft skills that I’ll be able to apply in any role.

The story by SOE https://soe.rutgers.edu/story/senior-class-speaker-samantha-cheng-eng%E2...