Robert Heath

Robert W. Heath Jr. received the Ph.D. in EE from Stanford University. He is a Distinguished Professor at North Carolina State University. From 2002-2020 he was with The University of Texas at Austin, most recently as Cockrell Family Regents Chair in Engineering and Director of UT SAVES. He is also the President and CEO of MIMO Wireless Inc and Chief Innovation Officer at Kuma Signals LLC. Prof. Heath is a recipient of several awards including the 2012 Signal Processing Magazine Best Paper award, a 2013 Signal Processing Society best paper award, the 2014 EURASIP Journal on Advances in Signal Processing best paper award, and the 2014 Journal of Communications and Networks best paper award,  the  2016 IEEE Communications Society Fred W. Ellersick Prize, the 2016 IEEE Communications Society and Information Theory Society Joint Paper Award, 2017 IEEE Marconi Prize Paper Award, the 2017 EURASIP Technical Achievement Award, the 2019 IEEE Communications Society Stephen O. Rice Prize, and the 2019 IEEE Kiyo Tomiyasu Award.  He co-authored “Millimeter Wave Wireless Communications” (Prentice Hall in 2014) and “Foundations of MIMO Communications” (Cambridge 2019). He is currently EIC of IEEE Signal Processing Magazine. He will be a member-at-large on the IEEE Communications Society Board-of-Governors (2020-2022) and is a past member-at-large on the IEEE Signal Processing Society Board-of-Governors (2016-2018). He is a licensed Amateur Radio Operator, a registered Professional Engineer in Texas, a Private Pilot, a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, and a Fellow of the IEEE.

Keynote: “Vehicles to Everything Communications”

Abstract: Vehicles are becoming more intelligent. To achieve higher automation levels, vehicles are now being equipped with more and more sensors. High data rate connectivity seems critical to allow vehicles and road infrastructure to enlarge their sensing range and make better safety related decisions. Connectivity also enables other applications such as infotainment or high levels of traffic coordination. In this presentation, I make the case that high-data rate communication provided by 5G and beyond will be important in future vehicular systems.