Joy Laskar

Director, Georgia Electronic Design Center

As the director of the Georgia Electronic Design Center (GEDC) and Schlumberger Chair in Microelectronics in Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Professor Joy Laskar is widely respected as one of the world's leading academicians in the field of high-speed, mixed-signal technology.

Laskar's research, and that of the GEDC as a whole, centers on creating front-end elements for RF networks, and then making them "spectrally efficient" -- improving the efficiency of a given technology to achieve higher data rates, lower power consumption and support additional functions. The increased versatility of RF networks and their components facilitates a range of new applications, from wireless medical implants that exchange information with doctors to automobile tires with embedded sensors that relay information to the instrument panel about inflation level and tread wear.

One of Laskar's current research projects includes a National Science Foundation-funded effort to investigate cognitive radio -- reconfigurable, adaptive communication devices that automatically respond to changes in their environment with different protocols or data rates. Laskar and his team of graduate students were among a handful of groups selected to lead the multi-year effort of demonstration and testbed activities.

Another significant area of Laskar's research examines the hardware requirements and enabling technology for very high-speed links in wireless networks, and tests ways to increase data transmission speeds in Wi-Fi networks by a factor of up to a thousand.

Additional research areas include microwave integrated circuits; complementary metal-oxide semiconductors; silicon germanium, gallium arsenide and indium phosphide devices; integration and packaging techniques for RF/microwave applications; and fourth-generation wireless and hybrid RF-optoelectronic integrated circuits.

At Georgia Tech, Laskar is a member of both the Electronic Design and Applications (EDA) and Electromagnetics technical interest groups and he is research leader for Broadband Access Hardware in GEDC.

The founder of two spin-off technology companies, Laskar has written more than 150 articles and invited papers, and received numerous professional honors, including designation as an IEEE Fellow in 2005.

For the 2004-2006 term, Dr. Laskar served as an IEEE Distinguished Microwave Lecturer, and currently he is an IEEE EDS Distinguished Lecturer. Laskar's writing appeared in two books and 22 journals last year. He also conducted 31 conference presentations and received 10 patents.

A graduate of Clemson University, where he received his undergraduate degree, Laskar earned master's and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received the 2003 Outstanding Young Alumnus Award from the College of Engineering and Science at Clemson.

Dr. Laskar received Georgia Tech’s “Outstanding Faculty Research Author” award in 2007, and has been appointed General Chairman of the IEEE International Microwave Symposium 2008.

Phone: 404-894-5268
Fax: 404-385-2140
E-mail: joy.laskar@ece.gatech.edu
More information: http://faculty.ece.gatech.edu/joy.laskar