RESEARCH AREA

WiDeS is a research group dedicated to research that is both scientifically challenging and practically relevant. The main emphasis of our research is on the physical layer of wireless communications, but we also deal with overall wireless systems integration, wireless positioning and radar, cross-layer design for wireless sensor networks.

HISTORY

The WiDeS group was founded in January 2009 by Andy Molisch, when he joined the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, after a career in both industry (AT&T Bell Labs, Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs, Research Center for Telecommunications Vienna), and academia (Lund University, Technical University Vienna). WiDeS is a part of the Communications Sciences Institute of the Department of Electrical Engineering at USC, and is affiliated with the ULTRA-Lab at USC.

PHILOSOPHY

Our philosophy is to bridge the main chasms in today's wireless research

• theoretical vs. industrial: there is often the misconception that theoretical work cannot be practically relevant. But experience from advanced system design shows that in order to build systems that not only work, but are also better than the competition, new research, dedicated to the specific goals of the system, is required. Members of the group have many years experience in industrial research labs and standardization of wireless systems.
• theoretical vs. experimental: theoretical breakthroughs are often made on paper, but they have to be verified by experiments - that is one of the basic tenets of science, though it is sometimes forgotten even in engineering research. Careful design of experiments, knowledge of best measurement procedures and innovations in the evaluation methods of large-scale measurements are all vital components of today's wireless research.
• communication theory vs. antennas/propagation.