The Next Era of Wireless Communications Enabling Revolutions in Health Care, Transportation, Energy, and the Environment

Larry Larson, Dean of Engineering, Brown University

Date: November 07, 2014

Location: University of Vermont, Votey 254 1:45pm

Abstract:
Prof. Larry Larson, UCSD 2013 marked the 40th anniversary of the first cellular telephone calls . The growth of personal portable wireless communications since then has created a global communications network unprecedented in human history. This Anniversary gives us the opportunity to consider what the next forty years of wireless communication might look like. Further inevitable Improvements in semiconductor technology, with resulting improvements in processing power, transistor speed and complexity will result in exciting new applications of wireless devices. Wireless technology has historically been focused on personal or data communications, but some of the most exciting new approaches will center on medical, energy, transportation and environmental applications. These include such areas as wireless medical and neural interfaces, networked personal transportation and infrastructure, and the “internet of things.” This talk will summarize the emerging wireless technologies that will enable these new applications, and present some of the challenges to their widespread adoption.

Biography:

Larry Larson received the BS in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and a PhD from UCLA. From 1980 to 1996 he was at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, CA, where he developed high frequency microelectronics in GaAs, InP and Si/SiGe and MEMS technologies. He joined the faculty at the University of California- San Diego, in 1996, where he was the inaugural holder of the Communications Industry Chair. He was Director of the UCSD Center for Wireless Communications from 2001-2006 and was Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering from 2007 2011. He moved to Brown University in 2011, where he is Founding Dean of the School of Engineering and Rush Hawkins University Professor Of Engineering. He was recipient of the Hughes Sector Patent Award in 1994 for his work on RF MEMS, co-recipient of the 1996 Lawrence A. Hyland Patent Award of Hughes Electronics, for his work on low-noise millimeterwave HEMTs, co-recipient of the 1999 IBM Microelectron Microelectronics Excellence Award for his work in Si/SiGe HBT technology and co-recipient of the CICC Best Invited Paper Award in 2005. He has published over 300 papers, received over 40 US patents, co-authored four books and is a fellow of the IEEE.