The Next Silicon Revolution

The next silicon revolution is underway, and electrical engineers from the Jacobs School (pictured above) are in the thick of things.

"On-demand video delivered wirelessly is a tidal wave that is sweeping through communications networks on a worldwide basis, and it creates tremendous technical challenges at all layers of the network,” said Lawrence Larson, Professor and Chair, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. “In order to accommodate this soaring demand, wireless communications devices will have to operate at higher frequencies and wider bandwidths in order to supply the data. Visualize the link between the cell phone tower and your smartphone as a straw. That only lets a limited amount of data through at any one time. In the next few years, we are trying to turn the straw into a fire hose.”

And research into just how to turn a straw into a fire hose led to 23 accepted UCSD papers at IMS and RFIC 2010. This new research is from the labs of electrical engineering professors Gabriel Rebeiz, Lawrence Larson, Peter Asbeck and James Buckwalter. The largest number of papers is from the Rebeiz lab. The 23 papers are “… a factor of two more than any other university, and show the dominance of UCSD in this field,” explained electrical engineering professor Gabriel Rebeiz. Seven of the 28 papers in the IMS student paper award category are from UCSD. “This shows the quality of the UCSD papers,” Rebeiz said. In addition to papers, the UCSD electrical engineers will present in six workshops and two panel sessions. At IMS, Prof. Rebeiz will also receive the 2010 IEEE MTT Distinguished Educator Award.