Members – Drexel Wireless Systems Lab

Personnel

Dr. Kapil R. Dandekar

dandekar ~ drexel.edu

Kapil R. Dandekar is the E. Warren Colehower Endowed Chair Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Drexel Univerity. He is a Fellow of AIMBE and a Senior Member of IEEE. He serves as the inaugural Associate Dean for Enrollment Management and Graduate Education in the College of Engineering. His research interests include:

Software defined radio
Medical cyberphysical systems
Reconfigurable, metamaterial, and non-traditional material antennas
Internet of Things for smart cities
Smart antenna systems for wireless communications
Wireless physical layer security
Engineering education

Dr. Kyei Anim

Post Doctoral Researcher

Kyei Anim received his BSc in Telecommunication Engineering from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, in 2014. He also holds Ph.D. and MSc degrees in Electronic Engineering from Hanbat National University in South Korea. He is currently a postdoctoral associate in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Drexel University. His research interests include Millimeter-wave antennas for 5G communications, Reconfigurable antennas, Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces, and Wearable antennas.

Md Shakir Hossain

Ph.D. Student

Shakir completed his B.Sc. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in 2016, and M.Sc. in Renewable Energy Technology from the University of Dhaka in 2018. His research interest is application of machine learning in IoT, wearable devices, etc.

Eric Fox

Part-time Ph.D. student

Eric completed his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University in 2015 and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2019. He is actively researching distributed RF sensor and waveform design while working as a lead in sensor and effector development for Lockheed Martin.

Brandon Katz

Part-time Ph.D. student

M.S. (2016)

Thesis: “Enabling Real-Time Wireless Channel Based Encryption Key Generation”

Current: Researcher, Advanced Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD.

Etienne Gubler

Visiting MS student

Etienne Gubler began his career with an apprenticeship in robotics engineering, later pursuing his passion for software development through a Bachelor’s degree in computer science at Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), graduating in 2022. From 2022 to 2024, he worked as a research assistant at ZHAW’s Institute of Embedded Systems, focusing on energy harvesting and self-sufficient systems. Concurrently, he began a Master’s in electrical engineering, also at ZHAW. For his Master’s thesis, he collaborated with Drexel University’s Wireless Systems Laboratory, developing firmware for reconfigurable intelligent surfaces. His expertise lies in robotics engineering and embedded device programming.

Alumni

Dr. Malvin Nkomo

Post Doctoral Researcher

Malvin Nkomo is an electronic engineer by training, academic researcher by passion, a data scientist and an entrepreneur at heart. He holds a Ph.D. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, in the research area of advanced wireless sensor networks (WSN) and Internet of Things (IoT). He earned an MSc in Information and Communication Engineering specialising in Robotics and Embedded Systems from Shandong University of Science and Technology in Shandong, China. He has a vast industry experience in the field of embedded systems design, architecting and designing state-of-the-art Internet of Things solutions. His research interests include:

Intersection of Internet of Things with machine learning
Advanced Wireless Sensor Networks (Virtualization and Overlay Networks)
Deep Learning (CNN, RNN and Reinforcement Learning)
Software Defined Radios
Technology Entrepreneurship

Vasil Pano, Ph.D.

Post Doctoral Researcher

Current: Intel Corporation, WA

Dr. Pano received his B.S degree and PhD degrees from Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, in Computer (B.S degree) and Electrical (PhD degree) Engineering in 2014 and 2019, respectively. Dr. Pano has held a graduate intern position at Intel Corporation, Hillsboro, OR in their Data Center Group working towards a scalable network interconnect for exa-scale architectures. His research focuses on network-on-chips, wireless on-chip interconnects, and multi-die systems.

Ankita Paul, Ph.D.

Ph.D. Student (co-advised with Prof Anup Das)

Ankita was a PhD student exploring signal processing using Spiking Neural Networks. Prior to this, she has worked as a Software Engineer at Tata Consultancy Services, India. She obtained her B. Tech in Electronic and Instrumentation Engineering from West Bengal University of Technology, India. Her research interest is computational neuroscience, spiking neural networks, signal forecasting.

Md Abu Saleh Tajin, Ph.D.

Ph.D. Student

Tajin received his Bachelors in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in 2015. His primary research interest is RF technology.

Marko Jacovic, Ph.D.

Ph.D. (2021)

Dissertation: “Securing Wireless Communication Systems at the Physical Layer”

Current: Lockheed Martin Space SystemsMarko Jacovic received a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 2021 after receiving a Bachelor’s in 2013, and Master’s in Electrical and Telecommunications Engineering in 2015. His work focuses primarily on securing wireless communication systems using physical layer techniques, ray-tracing channel emulation, and software defined radio test-bed development. Marko has been awarded the Koerner Family Fellowship, a graduate student research-based recognition, in 2019, 2020, and 2021. He has received the Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need Fellowship from 2019 through 2021. Marko has been recognized at the college level for teaching excellence in 2016 and 2017. He is a student member of the IEEE and the IEEE Eta Kappa Nu Honor Society.

Oday Bshara, Ph.D.

Ph.D. (2021)

Dissertation: “mmWave Beamforming Techniques for Future Wireless Communication Applications”

Current: Toyota North America

Oday received his PhD working on wireless channel modeling at millimeter wave frequencies. He received his BSc. in Computer Systems Engineering from Birzeit University in 2008. He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 2012, and received his MSc. in Electrical Engineering from NYU Tandon School of Engineering in 2014. His research interests are in physical layer aspects of wireless communications.

Yuqiao (Joe) Liu, Ph.D.

Ph.D. (2020)

Dissertation: “Novel Antenna Technology for Internet of Things Applications”

Current: Senior Radio Frequency Design Engineer, NJ

Joe worked on RF circuit and hardware design for ultra-wideband communications and on-chip interconnects. He holds M.S. (2006) and B.S. (2004) degrees from Nanjing University of Science and Technology.

Simon Begashaw, Ph.D.

Ph.D. (2019)

Dissertation: “Enhancing Multi-User Wireless Networks With Pattern Reconfigurable Antennas”

Current: Apple, Cupertino, CA

Simon developed physical layer algorithms for smart antenna systems, with an emphasis on interference alignment. He received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering (2010) from Villanova University. Before joining DWSL, Simon worked as an RF engineer at V-Comm.

Danh Nguyen, Ph.D.

Ph.D. (2017)

Dissertation: “Agile Spectrum-Sharing Wireless Systems using Software-Defined Radios and Reconfigurable Antennas”

Current: Senior Hardware/Systems Engineer, Qualcomm, Boxborough, MA

James Chacko, Ph.D.

Ph.D. (2017)

Dissertation: “FPGA-Based Reconfigurable Physical Layer Architecture for Wireless Applications”

Damiano Patron, Ph.D.

Ph.D. (2015)

Dissertation: “Compact Reconfigurable Antennas for Wireless Systems and Wearable Applications”

Current: Staff Scientist, WiTricity Corporation, Boston, MA

Nikhil Gulati, Ph.D.

Ph.D. (2015)

Dissertation: “Online Learning for Exploiting Diversity in Adaptive Wireless Networks”

Current: Senior Data Scientist, GE Digital, San Ramon, CA

John Kountouriotis, Ph.D.

Ph.D. (2013) (Posthumous)

Dissertation: “Using Reconfigurable Antennas for Wireless MIMO Communications”

Obituary – John Kountouriotis (1979-2013):

It is with great sadness that we have to inform that John Kountouriotis has passed away on 1 October 2013 after a long illness. At the time of his death, John was a doctoral student at the Drexel Wireless Systems Laboratory (DWSL), advised by Dr. Kapil Dandekar. He had also been working with Adant, a communication company that develops antenna systems for wireless communications.

John is survived by his wife Yianna, and we express our heartfelt condolences to her and the rest of his family and friends.

Prathaban Mookiah, Ph.D.

Ph.D. (2011)

Dissertation: “Reconfigurable Antennas for Wireless Network Security”

Current: Analytical Modelling Scientist, SAS Institute, San Diego, CA

Nicholas Kirsch, Ph.D.

Ph.D. (2009)

Dissertation: “Experimental Analysis of Power Control and Element Spacing for Unobtrusive MIMO Antenna Systems”

Current: Professor in ECE, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH

Daniele Piazza, Ph.D.

Ph.D. (2009)

Dissertation: “Reconfigurable Antennas for Adaptive MIMO Communication Systems”

Current: Vice President and COO, Adant Technologies, Pleasanton, CA

Chao Liang, Ph.D.

Ph.D. (2006)

Dissertation: “A Game-Theoretic Approach to Power Management in MIMO-OFDM Ad Hoc Networks”

Current: System Engineer, Augusta Technology, Santa Clara, CA

Joshua Palathinkal

M.S. (2022)

Joshua completed his MS in Electrical Engineering at Drexel University. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering at the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur, in India, in 2021.

Current: Ph.D. Student, Notre Dame

Xaime Rivas Rey

M.S.

Xaime is a MS student who worked on Augmented Reality and Software Defined Radios. He received his BSc. in Industrial Engineering from the “Escuela Politécnica Superior de Ferrol, Coruña” were he graduated as a Valedictorian in 2014. He received the EAGLES Scholarship in 2015, and obtained his dual MSc. in Electrical Engineering from Drexel University and in Industrial Engineering from the “Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales, Madrid” in 2016. His research interests are application development with Augmented Reality, Software Defined Radios, MIMO communications and hardware design.

Stephen Wolfe

B.S./M.S. (2017)

Stephen completed his B.S. & M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering in 2017. His investigated the use of reconfigurable antennas and adaptive beamsteering algorithms onboard UAVs to improve air-to-ground communication links.

Chase Hamilton

B.S./M.S. (2017)

Chase completed his B.S. & M.S. in Electrical Engineering in 2017. He worked on a cognitive radio software platform for educational and competitive applications.