Seminar - Professor Jennifer T. Bernhard

Speaker

Professor Jennifer T. Bernhard
Electromagnetics Laboratory
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Illinois

Title

Advanced Antennas: Enabling Fundamentally New Functionality in Cognitive and Software-Defined Radios

Abstract

Emerging models for cognitive and software-defined radio often rely solely on abilities to sense and/or adjust operating frequencies. These approaches envision antennas in a very traditional way, assuming either broadband or, perhaps, tunable frequency operation, but nothing more. However, if included early in the system concept and design cycle, new kinds of advanced antennas, including reconfigurable antennas and antenna arrays, promise to deliver a much deeper knowledge of the electromagnetic environment than traditional antenna solutions, as well as a much broader range of capabilities with which to use and leverage this environment to greater effect. This presentation will highlight some of our ongoing work in the area of innovative antennas suitable for cognitive and software-defined radio, including electrically small antennas, direction-finding arrays, and reconfigurable adaptive arrays for small platforms. Areas for future research and collaboration between investigators in antennas, radios, communications, signal processing, and protocols will be highlighted.

Speaker's biography

Prof. Jennifer Bernhard has been a faculty member in the Electromagnetics Laboratory in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois since 1999. Her research group focuses on the development and analysis of multifunctional reconfigurable antennas and their system-level benefits as well as the development of antenna synthesis and packaging techniques for electrically small, planar, and integrated antennas for wireless sensor and communication systems. In addition to the NSF CAREER Award, the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society H. A. Wheeler Prize Paper Award and other research recognitions, she has been honored with a number of teaching and advising awards. In 2008-2009, Prof. Bernhard was a member of the Defense Science Study Group, sponsored by DARPA. She is a Fellow of the IEEE, and in 2008, she served as the President of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society. Since August 2012, she has also served as the Associate Dean for Research in the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois.

Invited by Professor S. Safavi-Naeini