Space is 'current frontier' for engineer working on next-gen wireless technologies

Previous work from Rao’s group has already made its way out of the labs. Their ideas on the feedback that wireless receivers should send back to transmitters in MIMO environments have influenced new WiMax standards.

“Bhaskar’s work on multiple antenna systems is world renowned, and this is becoming an increasingly important aspect of wireless communication systems,” said Pam Cosman, electrical and computer engineering professor and director of UCSD’s Center for Wireless Communications. “Bhaskar is that rare professor who is admired equally as a researcher and as a teacher and mentor, with many prize paper awards as well as teaching awards.”

The new Ericsson Endowed Chair in Wireless Access Networks is the second endowed chair to be provided by Ericsson through its corporate commitment to the UCSD Division of Calit2. In 2005, Professor Laurence Milstein was awarded the Ericsson Endowed Chair in Wireless Communication Access Techniques. The Ericsson support does not stop there. In January 2007, Geoff Voelker and Rene Cruz – also professors at UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering and Calit2-affiliated researchers – were named Jacobs School Ericsson Distinguished Scholars. Ericsson has also been a supporter of UCSD’s Center for Wireless Communications.

“We appreciate Ericsson’s ongoing support for research at Calit2 and UCSD, including the faculty chairs and fellowships that make it possible for us to retain top-flight professors who are critical to our success,” said Ramesh Rao, director of the UCSD division of Calit2 who is also a professor of electrical and computer engineering in the Jacobs School. “Along with Ericsson, Calit2 has re-shaped the focus of its research agenda in digital signal processing to encompass new trends in this field, and Bhaskar Rao has played an important role in that shift through the direction of his own research and scholarship.”

Bhaskar Rao is no stranger to honors. He and members of his research group – The Digital Signal Processing Lab @ UCSD – have received six paper awards in the last eight years. In 2000, Bhaskar Rao was elected a Fellow of the IEEE for his work on the statistical analysis of subspace algorithms for harmonic retrieval. He also took home the Graduate Teaching Award for 1997-1998 from the Graduate Student Council from the Jacobs School’s Electrical and Computer Engineering department.