Invited and Keynote Speakers

Invited and Keynote Speakers

Keynote Speakers

Prof. Nader Engheta, University of Pennsylvania, USA

Nader Engheta is the H. Nedwill Ramsey Professor at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, with affiliations in the Departments of Electrical and Systems Engineering, Physics and Astronomy, Bioengineering, and Materials Science and Engineering. He received his BS degree from the University of Tehran, and his MS and Ph.D. degrees from Caltech. His current research activities span a broad range of areas including optics, metamaterials, electrodynamics, microwaves, photonics, nano-optics, graphene photonics, imaging and sensing inspired by eyes of animal species, microwave and optical antennas, and physics and engineering of fields and waves.

He has received several awards for his research including the 2023 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Electrical Engineering, the 2020 Isaac Newton Medal and Prize from the Institute of Physics (UK), the 2020 Max Born Award from the OPTICA (formerly Optical Society), the 2019 Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the 2018 IEEE Pioneer Award in Nanotechnology, the 2022 Hermann Anton Haus Lecture at MIT, the 2015 SPIE Gold Medal, the 2014 Balthasar van der Pol Gold Medal from the International Union of Radio Science (URSI), the 2017 William Streifer Scientific Achievement Award, the Canadian Academy of Engineering as an International Fellow, the Fellow of US National Academy of Inventors (NAI), the IEEE Electromagnetics Award, the Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship Award from DoD, the Wheatstone Lecture in King’s College London, 2006 Scientific American Magazine 50 Leaders in Science and Technology, and the Guggenheim Fellowship.

He is a Fellow of nine international scientific and technical organizations, i.e., IEEE, OPTICA, APS, MRS, SPIE, URSI, AAAS, IOP and NAI. He has received the honorary doctoral degrees from the Aalto University in Finland in 2016, the University of Stuttgart, Germany in 2016, and Ukraine’s National Technical University Kharkov Polytechnic Institute in 2017.

Prof. Rashaunda Henderson, University of Texas at Dallas, USA

Research Director Marco Di Renzo, Paris-Saclay University – CNRS and CentraleSupelec, France

Marco Di Renzo is a CNRS Research Director (Professor) and the Head of the Intelligent Physical Communications group in the Laboratory of Signals and Systems at Paris-Saclay University - CNRS and CentraleSupelec. He serves as the Coordinator of the Communications and Networks Area of the Laboratory of Excellence DigiCosme, and as a Member of the Admission and Evaluation Committee of the Ph.D. School of Paris-Saclay University. He is a Fulbright Fellow at City University of New York, USA; a Fellow of IEEE, IET, AAIA, Vebleo; an Ordinary Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, and the Academia Europaea; as well as a Highly Cited Researcher. He serves as the Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Communications Letters. He is a founding member and the Academic Vice Chair of the Industry Specification Group on Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces within the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, where he serves as the Rapporteur for the work item on communication models, channel models, and evaluation methodologies. He is the recipient of the 2022 Michel Monpetit Prize from the French Academy of Sciences.

Intelligent Surfaces for Wireless Communications: Living at the Interface of Electromagnetic and Communication Theories

In wireless communications, the term intelligent surface is referred to a planar metamaterial structure that is capable of generating an arbitrary current density distribution, so as to ensure the highest flexibility in generating a specified electromagnetic field and in shaping the propagation of the electromagnetic waves in large-scale networks. This presentation is aimed to report the latest research advances on analytical modeling, evaluating the ultimate performance limits, and optimizing intelligent surfaces for application to wireless communications, with focus on the synergies between electromagnetic and communication theories.

Invited Speakers

Prof. Buon Kiong Lau, Lund University, Sweden

Buon Kiong Lau (IEEE Fellow) is a Professor and the Head of the Communications Engineering Division at the Department of Electrical and Information Technology, Lund University, Sweden. Dr. Lau is best known for his contributions to various aspects of multi-antenna systems in wireless communications. Dr. Lau was an Associate Editor (AE), Senior AE and Track Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation (TAP) (2010-2016). He received an award from TAP for exceptional performance as an Associate Editor during 2014-2015. He was also a Guest Editor of the 2012 TAP Special Issue on MIMO Technology, the Lead Guest Editor for the 2016 TAP Special Issue on Theory and Applications of Characteristic Modes, and a Guest Editor of the IEEE TAP Special Issue on Artificial Intelligence in Radio Propagation for Communications. He was the Lead Guest Editor of the 2013 Special Cluster on Terminal Antenna Systems for 4G and Beyond for the IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, as well as the Lead Guest Editor of the 2022 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine Special Issue on Characteristic Modes – Into the Mainstream and the Path Beyond. Dr. Lau is an Education Committee Member in the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S), where he served as the Student Design Contest Coordinator (2013-2015). He was an AP-S Distinguished Lecturer (2017-2019) and he is with the AP-S New Technology Directions Committee. Dr. Lau initiated the international Characteristic Modes Special Interest Group (CM-SIG) in 2014 to promote new breakthroughs and foster collaboration in CM research.

Design Challenges and Opportunities in Car Antenna Systems

For many years, car antennas simply imply protruding wires on car bodies that are used for receiving broadcast radio signals. In recent years, many more antenna systems are packed into cars to support new applications and services, including GNSS, Wi-Fi, LTE, SDARS, long/mid/short-range radar, etc. These antennas are challenging to design due to a wide variety of design requirements and constraints. To make things worse, industrial designers want antennas to disappear from the car body altogether. In this talk, I will overview the evolution of car antennas and how the design of these antennas become increasingly challenging. I will then introduce some recent innovations in car antenna design to address the challenges in different use cases. As a representative example of an interesting research problem that benefits from an innovative approach, I will detail the systematic design procedure of a Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) antenna system that can provide the required line-of-sight coverage, despite being a hidden antenna solution. Going higher up in frequency, I will also introduce our recent design of a 79 GHz series-patch array, which is intended for future cars’ multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) radar.

Prof. Cathryn Mitchell, University of Bath, England

Prof. George V. Eleftheriades, University of Toronto, Canada

George V. Eleftheriades is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto Canada where he holds the Velma M. Rogers Graham Chair in Engineering. Prof. Eleftheriades introduced the concept of using transmission lines to realize negative-index metamaterials in 2002. More recently he pioneered Huygens' metasurfaces, 2D analogues of metamaterials, and their antenna applications. Professor Eleftheriades received the 2008 IEEE Kiyo Tomiyasu Technical Field Award, the 2015 IEEE AP-S John Kraus Antenna Award and the 2019 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society's Distinguished Achievement Award. He is an IEEE Fellow and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Academy of Sciences). His research interests include electromagnetic and optical metamaterials, metasurfaces, antennas and components for broadband wireless communications, novel antenna beam-steering techniques, far-field super-resolution imaging, radars, plasmonic and nanoscale optical components, and fundamental electromagnetic theory

Huygens’ Metasurfaces for Precise Antenna Beamforming and Beamsteering

We will describe the concept of the Huygens' metasurface which comprise co-located electric and magnetic dipoles forming an electrically dense array of Huygens' sources or scatterers. These engineered surfaces can be designed to control electromagnetic waves at will. Unlike traditional antenna transmitarrays, Huygens' metasurfaces can be made sub-wavelength thin and deprived of spurious Floquet modes, while preserving excellent matching characteristics. Huygens' metasurfaces can be used to manipulate the phase, magnitude and polarization of incident electromagnetic waves, including those from nearby elementary antennas, for a variety of applications. For example, Huygens' omega bi-anisotropic metasurfaces enable wave refraction at extreme angles without any reflections. We will review progress of such Huygens’ Metasurfaces for antenna beamforming and beamsteering. Examples to be discussed include high aperture efficiency/low-profile antennas, antenna aperture beamforming with simultaneous magnitude and phase control, and electronic beam steering.

Division Head Piero Angeletti, European Space Agency, The Netherlands

Prof. Yang Hao, Queen Mary - University of London, England

Prof. Jun-Ichi Takada, Tokyo Institiute of Technology, Japan

Prof. Thomas Kürner, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany

Thomas Kürner (Fellow IEEE) received his Dipl.-Ing. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1990, and his Dr.-Ing. degree in 1993, both from University of Karlsruhe (Germany). From 1990 to 1994 he was with the Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik und Elektronik (IHE) at the University of Karlsruhe working on wave propagation modelling, radio channel characterization and radio network planning. From 1994 to 2003, he was with the radio network planning department at the headquarters of the GSM 1800 and UMTS operator E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH & Co KG, Düsseldorf, where he was team manager radio network planning support responsible for radio network planning tools, algorithms, processes and parameters from 1999 to 2003. Since 2003 he is Full University Professor for Mobile Radio Systems at the Technische Universität Braunschweig. In 2012 he was a guest lecturer at Dublin City University within the Telecommunications Graduate Initiative in Ireland. Currently he is chairing the IEEE 802.15 Standing Committee THz and the ETSI Industrial Specification Group THz. He was also the chair of IEEE 802.15.3d TG 100G, which developed the worldwide first wireless communications standard operating at 300 GHz. He was the project coordinator of the H2020-EU-Japan project ThoR (“TeraHertz end-to-end wireless systems supporting ultra-high data Rate applications”) and is Coordinator of the German DFG-Research Unit FOR 2863 Meteracom (“Metrology for THz Communications”). In 2019 and 2022 he received the Neal-Shephard Award of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society (VTS) and also in 2022 the Best Teacher Award of the European School on Antennas and Propagation (ESoA).

Channel Modelling for THz Communications

THz communications is one of the physical layer candidates for the upcoming 6th generation of wireless systems. Although the propagation channel at sub-THz frequencies has similarities to those at Millimeter waves, the higher path loss, the required higher antenna gains and the smaller wave lengths and the operational environments coming along with new applications are calling for specific channel models. For the standardisation process appropriate channel models for the various applications are required. Corresponding channel modelling activities are ongoing at ITU-R, IEEE 802 and in the recently established ETSI ISG THz. In this talk a brief overview on the status of channel models for THz communications focussing on the needs for standardisation bodies will be provided. This includes a review on relevant propagation phenomena, results from measurement campaigns, already existing channel models and a summary of requirements on channel models for future applications.

Programme Manager Jeff Guerrieri, National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA

Jeff Guerrieri is a Program Manager for the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP) in the Calibration Laboratories Accreditation Program. He has worked at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) since 1986. Before transferring to NVLAP in 2020 he worked in what is now the Radio Frequency Technology Division. Starting as an antenna measurements engineer, then Project Lead for the Antenna Calibration Service and manager of the lab quality system. He was also responsible for the implementation of new antenna measurement facilities and techniques, and finally RF Fields Group Leader.

Jeff received the Department of Commerce Bronze medal in 2009 for creating the World’s first extrapolation range for measuring the on-axis gain and polarization of antennas for frequencies from 50 GHz to 110 GHz. He also received the Department of Commerce Gold medal in 2007 for creating and implementing the rigorous testing protocols and benchmarks needed to ensure the security and integrity of the of the new U.S. ePassport, and the Department of Commerce Bronze medal in 2009 for the analysis and certification of the U.S. Passport Card architecture resulting in a mitigation of security threats and privacy concerns. In 2016 he received the Department of Commerce Silver Medal for development of the world’s first “Configurable Robotic Millimeter-Wave Antenna” (CROMMA) Facility.

Jeff is a member of the IEEE Antenna and Propagation Standards Committee and participated on the working groups for standards 149, 145, and 1720. He is an Antenna Measurements Techniques Association (AMTA) Fellow and recipient of the AMTA Distinguished Service Award.

Metrological Traceability

Metrological traceability requires a documented, unbroken chain of calibrations to specified reference standards, including the stated measurement uncertainties. Ideally the references are national or international standards that are realizations of the measurement units of the International System of Units (SI). This makes the calibration traceable to the SI through an organization or laboratory, and not traceable to the organization or laboratory. Requirements and methods for establishing metrological traceability are defined in international: standards, laboratory accreditation cooperatives, and metrology organizations. With the intent to provide confidence in consistency and comparability of global measurements. The methods used for establishing traceability will be presented.

Technical Fellow Dennis Lewis, Boeing, USA

Dennis Lewis received his BS EE degree with honors from Henry Cogswell College and his MS degree in Physics from the University of Washington. He has worked at Boeing for 34 years, and is recognized as a Technical Fellow, leading the enterprise antenna measurement capability for Boeing Test and Evaluation. Dennis holds eleven patents, and is the recipient of the 2013 & 2015 Boeing Special Invention Award. He is a senior member of the IEEE and several of its technical societies, including the Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S), the Antennas and Propagation Society and the Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Society. He actively contributes to these societies as a member of the IEEE MTT-S Subcommittee 3 on Microwave Measurements, and as a Board Member and past Distinguished Lecturer for the EMC Society. He is a Senior Member and served as Vice President on the Board of Directors for the Antenna Measurements Techniques Association (AMTA), and chaired its annual symposium in 2012 and 2023. Dennis developed and taught a course on Measurement Science at North Seattle College, and is a past chairman of its Technical Advisory Committee. His current technical interests include aerospace applications of reverberation chamber test techniques as well as microwave and antenna measurement systems and uncertainties.

Recent Advances in Robotic Antenna Measurements

Traditional antenna test facilities are typically designed with a specific measurement application in mind, and as a result these facilities tend to be comprised of single fixed measurement geometry. However, modern antenna measurement ranges employing multi-axis robotic positioners provide a near limitless degree of re-configurability in terms of measurement types and scan geometries. This drives an ongoing need to evaluate each unique setup and application. This previously unimaginable flexibility offers new opportunities for the improvement of safety, measurement quality and reduction of measurement uncertainties. These new robotic systems are capable of acquiring large amounts of special data allowing for the implementation of advanced post processing techniques. Model based Systems Engineering and development (MBSE/MBD) approaches can be employed to dramatically reduce the time, effort and cost associated with the test development and validation phases of a given program. MBSE tools can also be used to optimize test configurations to greatly reduce measurement uncertainties and simulate measurements. This presentation provides an overview of how these engineering techniques are being harnessed during the implementation of a new dual multi-axis robotic antenna test system.

Prof. Ekaterina Shamonina, University of Oxford, England

Prof. John L. Volakis, Florida International University, USA

Prof. Filippo Capolino, University of California, Irvine, USA