This Workshop has moved to virtual only.

W20: Third Annual Workshop on Diversity and Inclusion

Co-chair: Carmela Cozzo, Samsung, USA
Co-chair: Sarah Kate Wilson, Santa Clara University, USA

Abstract: The workshop will have a panel and speakers on the topic of diversity in wireless communications engineering. This workshop will build on the previous two VTC diversity workshops. In addition to the panel and speakers, we will have a breakout session with active participation of the audience.

Keynote Speaker: Asha R. Keddy, Intel Corp., USA
Keynote Speaker: Monisha Gosh, University of Notre Dame, USA
Keynote Speaker: Valencia Martin Wallace, USPTO, USA

 

Keynote Panel:

Abstract: This panel discusses the ways we experience diversity in the working place and how we can improve our workplace environment. It is well known that diversity in the workplace improves the final product because more aspects are considered in the design process.   However, diversity of background and culture can also lead to differences in wording that can lead to misunderstanding.

Panelist: Alan Gatherer
Panelist: James Irvine
Panelist: Sylvia Lu
Panelist: Eve Riskin

Co-chair Bios:

Carmela Cozzo

Bio: Carmela Cozzo is a Principal Engineer and Standards Expert at Samsung. She has over 20 years of experience in research and standardization of wireless communications systems in leading telecommunications companies. She has been actively contributing to the 3GPP standardization of 5G/4G/3G systems as RAN1 and RAN delegate and rapporteur representing Samsung and earlier Futurewei. She was with Ericsson Research where she focused on algorithm design of advanced receivers for HSPA systems. She holds a Ph.D. in EE from North Carolina State University, and a Laurea degree in EE from the University of Rome, Italy.

She is a Senior Member of IEEE, served as editor of the IEEE Transaction on Vehicular Technologies and as reviewer of major IEEE journals and conferences. She is the IEEE VTS Liaison to Women in Engineering Committee, and Chair of the IEEE VTS Committee on Women in VTS and Diversity. She holds several patents, has authored several IEEE papers and contributed to workshops/panels in wireless communications.

Sara Kate Wilson

Bio: Sarah Kate Wilson earned her A.B. in Mathemathics from Bryn Mawr College and her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. She has worked in both academia and industry and is currently a Professor of Electrical Engineering at Santa Clara University. Her research area includes wireless radio frequency communications, visible light communications and underwater acoustic communications.

She served as the Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Communications Letters from 2009-2011, and has been an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, IEEE Communications Letters, IEEE Transactions on Communications and the Journal of Communications and Networks. She was the IEEE Communications Society Director of Journals for the term 2012-2013, overseeing four society journals and their Editors-in-Chief. She was the elected Vice President for Publications for the IEEE Communications Society for the term 2014-2015, overseeing all journals, magazines and online content. She has received the IEEE Education Society Harriett Rigas Award, the IEEE Women in Communications Engineering Service Award, the IEEE Communications Society Joseph LoCicero Award for Exemplary Service to Publications and is a Fellow of the IEEE for “contributions to Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing.” She was the co-general chair (with Andrea Goldsmith) of the IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC) in 2017 http://wcnc2017.ieeewcnc.org/ in San Francisco which was awarded the IEEE iCon award for the best IEEE Conference of 2017.

 

Keynote Speaker Bios:

Valencia Martin Wallace

Bio: As Deputy Commissioner for Patents, Ms. Martin Wallace manages and leads the Patent Organization’s efforts related to international IP harmonization and oversees patent examining functions in Technology Centers that examine the technologies of communication, mechanical engineering, manufacturing and medical devices and processes and design. Regarding international IP harmonization, she specifically provides executive leadership on international patent legal issues and various work sharing efforts with international partners.

Ms. Martin Wallace is currently the Executive Lead for the USPTO’s initiative the Council for Inclusive Innovation (CI2).  The CI2, comprised of representatives from industry, academia, and government, will help guide the USPTO in developing a comprehensive national strategy to build a more diverse and inclusive innovation ecosystem by encouraging participation demographically, geographically, and economically.

Throughout her career at the USPTO, she served as Deputy Commissioner for Patent Quality where she was responsible for sustaining the high quality of the USPTO’s patent examination processes and products. She also served as Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Patent Operations, where Ms. Martin Wallace oversaw operations in the software technology centers, served as executive co-lead on the implementation of the AIA First-Inventor-to-File statutory framework, and led the implementation of the Office of Patent Examination Support Services.

Ms. Martin Wallace is a graduate of Howard University, where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, and The George Washington University School of Law, where she earned a Juris Doctorate. She has also received a certificate in Advanced Public Administration from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Public Administration.

 

Keynote Panelists Bios:

 

Alan Gatherer

Bio: Alan Gatherer is currently the CTO of Cirrus360 and a Fellow of the IEEE.  He is responsible for R&D and strategy for Cirrus360 modem development platforms.  From January 2010 to January 2021 he was with Futurewei technologies where he was a  Senior Technical Vice President in charge R&D efforts in the US to develop next generation baseband chips and software for 4G and 5G basestation modems. He led development of new technologies for baseband SoC in the areas of multimode modems as a Service, interconnect and memory fabric,  CPU/DSP clusters and virtualization, focusing on 5G deployment. Prior to that he was a TI Fellow and CTO at Texas Instruments where he led the development of high performance, multicore DSP at TI and worked on various telecommunication standards. Alan has authored over 50 journal and conference papers.

In addition, he holds over 80 awarded patents and is author of the book  “The Application of Programmable DSPs in Mobile Communications.”  Alan holds a bachelor of engineering in microprocessor engineering from Strathclyde University in Scotland. He also attended Stanford University in California where he received a master’s in electrical engineering in 1989 and his doctorate in electrical engineering in 1993.

 

James Irvine

Bio: James Irvine is a Reader at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, where he heads the Communications: Systems, Integration and Security theme of the Power Networks Demonstration Centre. He received his bachelors and doctorate from University of Strathclyde in 1989 and 1994 respectively. His research focuses on radio resource management and cryptography, with applications to transport and power networks. He was active for many years in the UK Mobile VCE research programme, as Academic Co-ordinator of three work programmes. Prior to this, he led the system architecture work on the EU MOSTRAIN project, for communications to high speed trains. A co-author of two books, seven Patents and over 200 technical papers, James has given evidence in the UK High Court in six cases involving 2G, 3G and 4G technology disputes, as well as in the US, The Netherlands and Germany. He was General Co-chair of IEEE VTC2015-Spring and of IEEE WCNC2023.

James is VP Publications of IEEE VTS, and was President 2008-9. More broadly within IEEE, James has served on three of the major Boards of the IEEE: Technical Activities, Publications and Educational Activities. He  currently chairs the  TAB/PSPB Products and Services Committee.

 

Sylvia Lu

Bio: Sylvia Lu is an award-winning Chartered Engineer and a Non-Executive Director. Sylvia has over a decade of experience in  the Telecom industry for four mobile generations (2G ~ 5G) with chipset vendors and was recognised as one of the UK’s Top 50 Women in Engineering. Sylvia is Head of Cellular Technology Strategy at u-blox, where she leads cellular technology strategy, global standards and industry alliances.

Sylvia serves on several national and global industry Boards: she is an elected board director of CW (Cambridge Wireless) Ltd, and serves on the Advisory Board of UK5G, co-chairs UK5G Manufacturing Working Group, and provides independent advice to the UK government and national 5G networks on future plans for 5G deployment. She serves on the Board of 5G-ACIA (5G Alliance for Connected Industries and Automation), joins forces with global industry stakeholders to influence 5G development and deployment in line with industrial imperatives to accelerate Industry 4.0.

Sylvia operates on an international stage as a keynote speaker on 5G, 6G, emerging technologies, global standards, trust, and D&I for a wide range of stakeholders across the UK, US, Barcelona, China, Baltic counties, France, Germany. She contributes to industry magazines and journals, some of which have been translated into 7 languages with a global reach. Sylvia holds a first BEng degree in Electronic Engineering from Birmingham City University, a Master of Science degree in Communications and Signal Processing from the University of Bristol, and Masters in Strategy and Innovation  from the University of Oxford.

 

Eve Riskin

Bio: Eve Riskin received her BS degree in Electrical Engineering from M.I.T. and her graduate degrees in EE from Stanford.  Since 1990, she has been in the EE Department at the University of Washington where she is Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering and Faculty Directors of UW STARS and UW ADVANCE. She was awarded a National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award, a Sloan Research Fellowship, the 2006 Hewlett-Packard Harriett B. Rigas Award, and a 2020 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring.  She is a Fellow of the IEEE.

 There will be no papers accepted to this workshop!