Professor Hongwei Zhang of Iowa State University

Do you know that the world’s first digital electronic computer was invented here in Iowa? Do you know that the “Mayor of Silicon Valley”, Robert Royce, is an Iowan? Have you thought about the leadership roles that Iowa and Iowans can play in addressing a grand challenge facing Iowa, U.S., and the world today --- rural broadband? In this talk, we will discuss how we may leverage emerging mega trends in telecom (e.g., open innovation and softwarization) to turn rural broadband from a challenge to an opportunity for convergent research, education, and innovation as well as for economic and community development. We will discuss how Iowa can play a leading role in this new era of rural broadband development, and we will discuss related initiatives at Iowa State University (e.g., CyNet and ARA) that are looking for partnership and participation from the broad engineering, innovation and education communities across Iowa.

Biography:

Hongwei Zhang is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Iowa State University. His research investigates modeling, algorithmic, and systems issues in wireless sensing and control networks (e.g., those in 5G and beyond) as well as their applications in connected and automated vehicles, AR/VR, smart agriculture, and cyber-physical-human systems in general. He has led the development of open-innovation infrastructures for precision agriculture, connected and automated transportation, cellular networks, and IoT networks which have been used by researchers worldwide. His research results and system software have served as foundational elements of the DARPA sensor network systems “A Line in the Sand” and “ExScal” which, with its 200-node wireless mesh network and 1,200-node sensor network, was the world’s largest wireless mesh network and wireless sensor network deployed at its time. He is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER Award. He currently serves as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Internet of Things Journal, and he was the Program Co-Chair of the 2019 IEEE Vehicular Networking Conference (VNC). He has also served on the program and/or organizing committees of conferences such as ICCPS, IPSN, INFOCOM, and ICC. More information about his work can be found from his website at http://www.ece.iastate.edu/~hongwei.

Email:

Address:311 Durham , 613 Morrill Rd, Ames, Iowa, United States, 50011