Electrical engineering graduate student wins Marconi Young Scholar Award
The Marconi Society, which is devoted to encouraging scientific contributions in the field of communications and the Internet, has recognized graduate student Aakanksha Chowdhery with one of three 2012 Paul Baran Marconi Young Scholar Awards. The awards are given to young researchers (no older than 27 at the time of the award—the same age as Marconi when he completed the first radio transmission) who are on track to become leading innovators contributing to the advancement of science and humanity.
Chowdhery is the first woman to receive the award since it was created in 2008.
According to the Marconi Society’s press release, “Chowdhery’s research in the field of Dynamic Spectrum Management (DSM) for next-generation copper-access networks focuses on improving data rates and stability in digital subscriber lines (DSLs) suffering from intermittent noise effects. Her DSM research promises successful co-existence and deployment of next-generation copper networks that can deliver data-rates up to Gbps with legacy networks.”
Chowdhery is “a superstar on the rise,” according to John Cioffi, the Hitachi America Professor in the School of Engineering, Emeritus. Cioffi, who is quoted in the society’s online story, is Chowdhery’s advisor and the 2006 Marconi Prize Winner for his invention of the DSL modem.
“Aakanksha solved several difficult mathematical problems instrumental to the practical deployment of the upcoming multi-100Mbps DSL services, preserving the large theoretical gains in numerous practical unbundled deployment scenarios,” he said. “She has found ways to take traditional theories and find the appropriate combinations of well-defined problems that characterize an actual situation via various optimization principles.”
Chowdhery completed her MS in electrical engineering at Stanford and is on track to receive her PhD in December.
This marks the fifth year that Young Scholar Awards have been granted by the Marconi Society. The society looks for those who not only have shown extraordinary early promise but have made an impact through published research.
The Young Scholar Awards include a financial stipend and an invitation and travel funds to attend the annual Marconi Award Dinner.
