Dr. Robert Calderbank, Duke University (TAB Chairperson)
Robert Calderbank directs the Rhodes Information Initiative at Duke University, where he is Professor of Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Mathematics. Before moving to academia in 2004, Dr. Calderbank was Vice President for Research at AT&T, creating the first of a new type of research lab, where masses of data generated by network services became a giant sandbox, in which fundamental discoveries in information science became a source of commercial advantage. At the start of his career at Bell Labs, Dr. Calderbank developed voiceband modem technology that was widely licensed and incorporated in over a billion devices. Later, he developed technology that improves the speed and reliability of wireless communication by correlating signals across several transmit antennas. Invented in 1996, this space-time coding technology has been incorporated in a broad range of 3G, 4G and 5G wireless standards. He served on the Technical Advisory Board of Flarion Technologies, a wireless infrastructure company acquired by Qualcomm 2008.
Dr. Calderbank is an IEEE Fellow and an AT&T Fellow, and he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2005. He received the 2013 IEEE Hamming Medal for contributions to coding theory and communications and the 2015 Shannon Award.
Dr. Mung Chiang, Purdue University
Mung Chiang is the President of Purdue University. Mr. Chiang was formerly the Dean of the College of Engineering and the Roscoe H. George Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University.
Dr. Robert Heath Jr., University of California, San Diego
Robert W. Heath Jr. is the Charles Lee Powell Chair in Wireless Communication in the Department of ECE at the University of California, San Diego. He is also President and CEO of MIMO Wireless Inc. He is the recipient or co-recipient of several awards including the 2019 IEEE Kiyo Tomiyasu Award, the 2020 IEEE Signal Processing Society Donald G. Fink Overview Paper Award, the 2020 North Carolina State University Innovator of the Year Award, the 2021 IEEE Vehicular Technology Society Neal Shepherd Memorial Best Propagation Paper Award, the 2021 IEEE Vehicular Technology Society James Evans Avant Garde Award, and the 2022 IEEE Vehicular Technology Society Best Vehicular Electronics Paper Award. He authored “Introduction to Wireless Digital Communication” (Prentice Hall in 2017) and “Digital Wireless Communication: Physical Layer Exploration Lab Using the NI USRP” (National Technology and Science Press in 2012). He co-authored “Millimeter Wave Wireless Communications” (Prentice Hall in 2014) and “Foundations of MIMO Communications” (Cambridge 2019). He is a licensed Amateur Radio Operator, a registered Professional Engineer in Texas, a Private Pilot, a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, and a Fellow of the IEEE.
Dr. Rajiv Laroia, Founder of Flarion Technologies (OFDM)
Dr Laroia was SVP of Technology at Qualcomm Inc. (a company acquired by Qualcomm in 2005 for $805 million). Dr. Laroia founded Flarion Technologies in 2000, the first company to develop OFDMA based all-IP mobile broadband technology (which is now the basis of LTE/4G). Dr. Laroia’s development of Flash-OFDM was integral to transitioning cellular voice access systems to the wireless data access systems that have mobilized our access to the Internet via smartphones, tablets, and wireless modems. Flash-OFDM, plus many other concepts developed by Dr. Laroia and his teams, helped form the basis for the LTE and 4G systems that are powering today’s mobile broadband communications. His work on Flash-OFDM earned him the distinguished IEEE Alexander Graham Bell award in 2020. Before Flarion, Dr. Laroia was at Lucent Technologies Bell Laboratories at the prestigious Mathematical Sciences Research Center. Dr. Laroia is an IEEE Fellow and also the recipient of the 2018 Eduard Rhein Technology award. Dr. Laroia received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from University of Maryland.
Dr. Andreas F Molisch, University of Southern California (USC)
Dr. Molisch is the Solomon-Golomb-Andrew-and-Erna-Viterbi Chair professor at the University of Southern California. Before joining USC, Dr. Molisch was at AT&T (Bell) Labs, Lund University (Sweden), and Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs, where he was Chief Wireless Standards Architect. Dr. Molisch is the inventor of more than 80 patents; many of his inventions have been adopted into IEEE and 3GPP standards. Dr. Molisch is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, Fellow of IEEE, AAAS, and IET, and Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Dr. Molisch has received numerous awards, including the IEEE Eric Sumner Award.
Ed Knapp CTO, American Tower Corporation
Ed Knapp is the corporate CTO for American Tower. He is responsible for leading the company’s global innovation program, technology investments and strategy. Prior to joining American Tower in 2017, as Senior Vice President of Engineering at Qualcomm, Ed Knapp was responsible for their New Jersey Corporate Research Center from which he managed a diverse engineering team with researchers and product engineering staff across India, Israel and the US. Mr. Knapp has more than 38 years of communications technology experience with over 30 years invested in the development of the global wireless industry from 1G to 5G, including CxO leadership roles in 3 start-ups. At Qualcomm, Ed established the FSMTM small cell product line and managed advanced R&D projects including mmW 5G, mobile & vehicular device to device (V2X) technology, localization technology as well as various licensed and unlicensed spectrum applications. Ed joined Qualcomm with the acquisition of OFDMA leading start-up Flarion Technologies in 2006. Before joining Flarion, Knapp was the chief technology officer of PacketVideo Corporation, a pioneer in delivering end to end multimedia software for streaming of MPEG4 video to mobile devices. Prior to PacketVideo, Knapp co-founded and served as the senior vice president of engineering and chief technology officer of the MVNO operator NextWave Telecom, Inc. Mr. Knapp also served as the executive director of technical services for Bell Atlantic/NYNEX Mobile (Verizon Wireless) where he was responsible for design, buildout and operation of the New York Metro area 1G and 2G cellular system. He received a master’s of business administration from Columbia University, his master’s of science degree in electrical engineering from Polytechnic University (NYU) in New York, and a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Stony Brook University. Ed currently has 5 granted US patents and 1 pending application.
Gerry Flynn, Verizon (retired)
Since joining Verizon in 2000, Mr. Flynn led technical standards work and partnership projects as part of Verizon’s corporate technology team. During his 40 plus years of Industry experience, Mr. Flynn was involved in many wireline and wireless voice and data advances including: New York City launch of analog cellular, CDMA, LTE and the commercial launch of Verizon’s 5G networks. Mr. Flynn chaired the Industry development of the TIA IS-95 CDMA standards and was Vice Chair of 3GPP2 and was a leading member of the GSMA Technology Committee for over ten years. Prior to Verizon, Mr. Flynn was the Executive Director in Bell Atlantic Mobile’s New England region until 1997. Mr. Flynn has received several patents for his work in wireless communications. Mr. Flynn holds Bachelor and master’s degrees from Fordham University.