Largest In-Kind Gift to NYU Tandon Helps Propel NYU WIRELESS Beyond 5G Telecommunications

As the industry begins to look beyond 5G, NYU WIRELESS announced that Keysight Technologies Inc. has made a donation that will further the research center’s exploration of mmWave and THz electromagnetic spectra for ultra-fast and high-capacity data transmission as well as revolutionary applications in medicine, optics, computing and more.

The gift, made through the Keysight University Relations program, is the largest ever for NYU WIRELESS and the largest in-kind donation in NYU Tandon’s history. It brings together two powerhouses in the race to create new technologies not only for communications but for medical imaging, pharmaceutical monitoring, semiconductor testing, new kinds of spectroscopy and even for applications such as synchronized clouds of “smart dust” detectors.

Included in the gift is an array of cutting-edge equipment—including measurement capability up to 110 GHz—that promises to accelerate one of the major thrust areas of NYU WIRELESS: THz communications and sensing beyond 5G wireless systems. Keysight, a participant in the creation of the 5G wireless ecosystem worldwide, has been a member of the NYU WIRELESS Industrial Affiliates program since late 2014. Keysight’s customers span the worldwide communications ecosystem, aerospace and defense, automotive, energy, semiconductor and general electronics end markets to help enterprises, service providers and governments accelerate innovation to connect and secure the world.

The donation comes as Jelena Kovačević joins NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering as the new dean and the first woman to head the school since its founding in 1854, and as Theodore (Ted) S. Rappaport, the David Lee/Ernst Weber professor in Tandon’s Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, returns to the role of director of the center he founded in 2012.

“Within six short years, NYU WIRELESS created an internationally recognized hub in Brooklyn that propelled the adoption of technologies that will touch nearly every aspect of our digital lives,” said Kovačević. “It is exciting to watch as NYU Tandon faculty and students from across the University help drive the next great challenges facing wireless communications.”

NYU WIRELESS—which pioneered mmWave spectrum research that is now being adopted for commercial telecommunications—recently shifted its focus to a more distant horizon. In addition to the THz spectrum, teams are working on mobile edge and low-latency networking, quantum devices and circuits, machine learning foundations for technology such as post-massive MIMO antennas, as well as applications for 5G and 6G. Together with NYU Tandon’s Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, it is hosting a series of streamed seminars by leading THz researchers.

“The generosity of Keysight, a long-standing industrial affiliate partner of NYU WIRELESS, will bring cutting-edge equipment to students and faculty, helping us write our most exciting chapter yet: advanced research into the rarefied areas of the electromagnetic spectrum above 100 GHz,” Rappaport said. “Our student and faculty researchers, as well as our Industrial Affiliate sponsors and the research community at large, will all benefit from this gift.”

Roger Nichols, 5G program manager at Keysight Technologies, as well as a member of NYU WIRELESS’ advisory board, explained that the gift aims to identify and encourage collaborative research in the most promising technologies. In addition to the gift, he and his extended team will serve as mentors to NYU WIRELESS student researchers.

“We are excited to be part of what the team at NYU is doing. Our work in 5G with market and technology leaders like Dr. Rappaport has been instrumental in enabling an entire ecosystem to make 5G a reality. As part of the advisory board, I have been inspired watching Ted, his team, and his associates enlighten and enliven the dialogue to make mmWave ready for mainstream communications. Keysight is committed to the future of 5G, as well as enabling broader adoption of mmWave technologies.”

Satish Dhanasekaran, senior vice president of Keysight Technologies, and president of the company’s Communications Solutions Group, also commented: “We are pleased to be collaborating with NYU to develop the future of wireless engineering talent and progress advances in next generation communication technologies.”

The gift includes: