Best paper awards – and a longstanding contribution

The IEEE Information Theory Society 2025 Aaron D. Wyner Distinguished Service Award has been presented to John B. Anderson, Professor in Digital Communication, Department of Electrical and Information Technology (EIT). The award honors an individual who has shown outstanding leadership in, and provided long-standing, exceptional service to, the information theory community.

The IEEE Antennas and Propagation Edward E. Altshuler Prize Paper Award has been awarded to Johan Lundgren and Mats Gustafsson (EIT). The prize is awarded to recognize the best contribution published in the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine in the preceding calendar year.

Publication:
Degrees of Freedom and Characteristic Modes: Estimates for radiating and arbitrarily shaped objects är publicerad i IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, vol. 66, no. 6, pp. 18-28, Dec. 2024.

Description of the research:
Every object in our surroundings interacts with electromagnetic waves in a way that depends on its geometry and material. Just as a musical instrument can only play certain notes, antennas have particular electromagnetic “vibrations” that they handle best. These are the ones we use when connecting to Wi-Fi, making phone calls, or using the 5G network. The current work studied these “vibrations,” called modes, and showed that the number of significant characteristic modes is limited and can be estimated from simple, measurable quantities: large objects are governed by the average shadow they cast when illuminated, while small objects are constrained by their polarizability – their ability to separate electric charge. This insight bridges theory and practice, helping engineers quickly determine whether an antenna design region is already making full use of its physical potential, or if there are still more “notes” left to play.

Xuesong Cai, Erik L. Bengtsson, Ove Edfors and Fredrik Tufvesson have been awarded The IEEE Antennas and Propagation 2025 Harold A. Wheeler Applications Prize Paper Award, presented to the authors of the best application paper published in the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation during the previous year. The work presents the design, implementation, and measurement-based verification of a reconfigurable channel sounder for a specific radio frequency. Channel sounders are equipment used to explore and evaluate the properties of the radio channel, to enable development and design of efficient wireless networks. The article presents a channel sounder that enables new detailed investigations of the frequency.

Publication:
X. Cai, E. L. Bengtsson, O. Edfors and F. Tufvesson, "A Switched Array Sounder for Dynamic Millimeter-Wave Channel Characterization: Design, Implementation, and Measurements," in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 72, no. 7, pp. 5985-5999, July 2024.