Seminars
“Opportunities for the School of EECS”
By Thomas La Porta, William E. Leonhard Chair Professor,
1 p.m., Wednesday, April 20
101 Electrical Engineering East
Abstract: The combination of disciplines in electrical engineering, computer engineering and computer science will be the principle forces behind 21st century technology in critical areas: computation (fundamental limits in terms of devices, architectures, algorithms and software), communication (fundamental limits in terms of capacity, network science, and new communication and device paradigms for different environment) and applications (autonomous and distributed systems). These technologies will have huge impacts on everything from consumer electronics, manufacturing, exploration, transportation, safety, medical treatments and services. They will also lead to disruptive changes to the way we interact with our environment in ways we cannot yet envision, for example via the Internet of Things and through the exploitation of massive data sets.
The School of EECS has combined these three disciplines and provides a unique opportunity to execute interdisciplinary education and research to put Penn State at the forefront of 21st century research and education. The school is positioned to be well aligned with the critical strategic directions of the University (driving digital innovation, stewarding the planet’s resources by enabling new fundamental technologies and modeling, enhancing health with personalized medicine, and transforming education via interdisciplinary programs) and the College of Engineering (optimal and secure cyberenvironments, advanced manufacturing, resilient infrastructure, and sustainability).
The onus is now on the School to exploit these opportunities. This must be done in a way that promotes absolute excellence in both education and research, and allows students and faculty to reach their full potential. Integration must enable deep collaborations and open interdisciplinary areas for research and education, without inhibiting individual faculty from pursuing excellence in their own fields. Investments must be carefully chosen to maintain vibrant core areas while allowing new interdisciplinary areas to flourish. This can only be successfully accomplished with the invested engagement of faculty and leadership working together.
In this talk I will briefly describe my background and vision for the path to excellence for the School of EECS.
Bio: Thomas F. La Porta is the William E. Leonhard Chair Professor in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at Penn State. He received his B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E. degrees from The Cooper Union, New York, NY, and his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University, New York, NY. He joined Penn State in 2002. He is the Director of the Institute of Networking and Security Research at Penn State. Prior to joining Penn State, Dr. La Porta was with Bell Laboratories since 1986. He was the Director of the Mobile Networking Research Department in Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies where he led various projects in wireless and mobile networking. He is an IEEE Fellow, Bell Labs Fellow, received the Bell Labs Distinguished Technical Staff Award in 1996, and an Eta Kappa Nu Outstanding Young Electrical Engineer Award in 1996. He also won a Thomas Alva Edison Patent Awards in 2005 and 2009. His research interests include network science, mobility management, signaling and control for wireless networks, security for wireless systems, mobile data systems, and protocol design.
Dr. La Porta was the founding Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing. He was the Director of Magazines for the IEEE Communications Society and was on its Board of Governors for three years. He has published numerous papers and holds 38 patents. He was an adjunct member of faculty at Columbia University for 7 years where he taught courses on mobile networking and protocol design.
