Antennas and Electromagnetics Group seminar – 3rd July 2025

When: Thursday, July 3, 2025, 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM
Where:

On the 3rd of July we are very fortunate to have a talk from Professor John L. Volakis. The title of Professor John Volakis’ talk is: “Future Directions of Wireless Links: Performance, Packaging and Integration”. 

Synopsis: The rapid evolution of wireless communications with potentially 3 orders of magnitude in higher data connectivity and a goal of Terabit per second speeds for wired/chip-to-chip data transfers is upon us for the next decade. These speeds are needed to enable short range (a few meters) and long-range communications (km and satellite links) for distributed systems that will realize visions for tactile internet and haptic communications, virtual reality/artificial intelligence, manufacturing with digital twin models for inline adaptable fabrication, intelligent transportation, digital health care and remote surgery, to mention a few. These technologies are bound to change our way of living and in the next 10 years and beyond, from our workspace, government services to our daily routines. This presentation will present progress in technologies that will contribute to this vision with laboratory demonstrations.

Among them: 
1) reinventing spectral employment by co-designing multi-functional system that better exploit the millimeter-wave to THz spectrum
2) wide band RF-front ends boasting 30:1 contiguous bandwidths and beyond to consolidate several functions under a small aperture for the smaller vehicles (drones, cubesats or remote controlled automated delivery vehicles)
3) vertical heterogenous packaging of high-density RF/millimeter -wave transceivers that combine high power and low power components and deliver gigabit speeds on the go, and terabit speeds within the package
4) suppression of EMI/EMC with inline corrections during manufacturing while realizing <10 µm pitch
5) digital ultrawideband beamformers for high powerand high rate deliveries on portable handheld devices with MIMO capabilities
6) secure communications by exploiting the larger bandwidths, possibly with co-sharing options
7) integration of wireless systems, algorithmic, and circuit technologies, required in future wireless links across low SNRs for IoT and privacy as relates to medical data sharing, navigation and vehicle to vehicle to vehicle communications, to mention a few
8) robotics and 3D manufacturing with low latencies
9) digital twin Multiphysics modeling for pre-design of entire densely packaged electronics with 1000s of parameters using AI algorithms
10) entire radio transceivers that include apertures and reflect arrays operating across 30:1 bandwidth with reconfiguration and enabling technologies such as tiny implants to simultaneous transmit receive radios (STAR).

Speaker bio: Prof. Volakis is an IEEE, ACES, AAAS, NAI and URSI Fellow. He served as Dean of Engineering and Computing at FIU from 2017-2023. His career spans 4 decades: 2 years at Boeing, 19 years on the faculty at the Univ. of Michigan and 15 years at Ohio State, and nearly 8 years at FIU. After his PhD in 1982, he was recruited by North American Aircraft Operations (now part of the Boeing Company), where he carried out critical design innovations for the B1-B bomber. He began his academic career at The University of Michigan-Ann Arbor in 1984. During 1984-2003 he played a key role in reviving the Radiation Laboratory into becoming the leading RF/Electromagnetics lab worldwide. At the Michigan Radiation Lab, he graduated nearly 45 PhDs/Post-Docs and also served as its Director. During his time at Michigan, he led a large group of students and researchers, developed novelties in diffraction and radar scattering, particularly as relates to impedance/material surfaces, and played a key role in establishing the finite element method as one of the most popular Microwave/Electromagnetics analysis toolsets, now found in 
several commercial packages. He also supported the commercialization of these packages by working with start-up companies. In 2003, he was recruited by his alma mater, The Ohio State University, to lead the historic ElectroScience Laboratory. At Ohio State, he was the Roy and Lois Chope Chair in Engineering and a Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept. (2003-2017). He served as the 
Director of the Ohio State Univ. ElectroScience Laboratory for 14 years. During this time, ElectroScience reached 170 faculty, researchers and staff, and acquired a new 40,000 ft2 building to support its growth. More importantly, ElectroScience became a leading RF/electromagnetics center, growing from $3.5MM per year in funding to nearly $15MM per year at its peak. After a highly successful period at Ohio State, he was appointed Dean of Engineering and Computing at Florida International University (FIU), one of the largest Colleges in the U.S. based on student population. During his time as Dean, the College’s student population also grew from approximately 5400 to 8700 students, while its U.S. News and World Report rankings improved by more than 40 points to reach #61 among public Universities in 2023. Concurrently, eight of its programs reached top 50 status. Also, in less than 7 years, the College’s four-year graduation rate increase from nearly 19% in 2017 to 60% in 2023, and its research expenditures grew 3-fold, reaching $75MM. Further, he established a robust fund-raising team with an exciting college alumni advisory team that led to $125MM in external fund raising. Prof. John L. Volakis was elected Chair of the International Radio Science (URSI) (2021-2023), voted by nearly 45 countries. He also served as Vice Chair of URSI-B from 2017-2021. He was elected and served as President of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society in 2004.

Hybrid mode: In-person: PP: PP1 + Online (Click here to join the meeting)

Key contact: James Kelly.