Robert Heath, UC San Diego
Charles Lee Powell Chair in Wireless Communications
Professor Heath works in wireless communications, especially the area known as MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) wireless communication for more than two decades. In a MIMO system, multiple antennas at the transmitter and receiver are leveraged to improve the wireless communication link, for example to provide higher data rates in a given amount of radio spectrum. MIMO communication is a key technology in cellular communications, starting with later releases of 3G, then into 4G and now 5G, as well as in wireless local area networks including IEEE 802.11n/ac/ad/ay/ax among others. His group has made diverse contributions to advance MIMO technology in commercial wireless systems including analysis, algorithms and prototyping.
Professor Heath’s current research focuses on MIMO communications for next generation wireless networks. His group is looking at three areas: (1) developing new approaches for realizing and exploiting large MIMO systems in spectrum such as the upper midband, millimeter wave and teraHertz, (2) investigating the applications of reconfigurable antennas, metasurface antennas and photonics for MIMO communication and (3) devising new machine learning algorithms to configure MIMO links. He is interested in bridging the gaps between communication theory, information theory and circuits. He is also open to exploring new topics outside of MIMO including quantum communications. He welcomes collaborations with government and industry.