Ian P. Roberts

UT Austin

I am a first second third-year Ph.D. student in the electrical engineering program at the University of Texas at Austin. I am fortunate to be supervised by Prof. Jeff Andrews and to be part of his research group. I am also advised by Prof. Sriram Vishwanath and part of his Laboratory of Informatics, Networks, and Communications (LINC). Along with many others, we are members of the Wireless Networking and Communications Group (WNCG).

I am fortunate to have been selected as a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow beginning in Fall 2020. I appreciate their support of my research and studies.

I was recently affiliated with GenXComm, a local startup that develops a suite of solutions that enable simultaneous transmission and reception in-band for various applications. GenXComm was founded in 2016 by Prof. Sriram Vishwanath and Hardik B. Jain.

I received my undergraduate electrical engineering degree from Missouri University of Science and Technology in May 2018. I was involved in undergraduate research supervised by Prof. Y. Rosa Zheng on the topic of underwater acoustic communication.

I have created and released MIMO for MATLAB (https://mimoformatlab.com/), a package for conveniently simulating and demonstrating multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication. Its development and documentation are ongoing.

I am a licensed amateur radio operator. My callsign is KE0QVW.

Research

My graduate research aims to bring in-band full-duplex capability to millimeter-wave communication systems. This largely involves system-level analyses and the design of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmission and reception strategies. The goal of my research is to develop solutions that mitigate self-interference and enable reception while transmitting in-band.

Interests

My broad interests are in the theory and implementation of millimeter-wave communication, in-band full-duplex, and communication system optimization. Specifically, my interests and skills include PHY layer, MIMO, millimeter-wave, in-band full-duplex, optimization of MIMO communication systems, cellular systems, array signal processing, and communication system design and simulation. I enjoy learning new concepts and implementing them in MATLAB and Python.

My short-term goals are to build my knowledge of wireless and to develop myself as an independent researcher. While doing so, it is my goal to mentor undergraduate students and introduce them to signal processing for communication systems. My long-term goal is to have extensive theoretical background combined with an understanding of how concepts are implemented practically. Once I am finished with school, I want a career where I can research, develop, and prototype wireless technologies.

News

Education

University of Texas at Austin, August 2018 – Present
Ph.D. Electrical Engineering

Missouri University of Science and Technology, August 2014 – May 2018
B.S. Electrical Engineering

Experience

University of Texas at Austin, August 2020 – Present
Graduate Research Assistant

GenXComm, Inc., August 2019 – August 2020
Wireless Research Engineer

Amazon, Summer 2019
Wireless Systems Development Intern

University of Texas at Austin, August 2018 – May 2019
Graduate Research Assistant

GenXComm, Inc., May 2018 – May 2019
Wireless Engineering Intern

Sandia National Laboratories, May 2017 – May 2018
R&D Electrical Engineering Intern

Missouri University of Science and Technology, January 2017 – May 2018
Undergraduate Research Assistant

Dynetics, Inc., Summer 2016
Electrical Engineering Intern

Publications

I. P. Roberts and S. Vishwanath, “Beamforming Cancellation Design for Millimeter-Wave Full-Duplex”, Proceedings of the IEEE Global Communications Conference, Waikoloa, Hawaii, USA, Dec. 2019. [PDF] [IEEE] [arXiv] [slides]

H.B. Jain, I. P. Roberts, and S. Vishwanath, “Enabling In-Band Coexistence of Millimeter-Wave Communication and Radar”, Proceedings of the IEEE International Radar Conference, Washington, D.C., USA Virtual, Apr. 2020. [PDF] [IEEE] [arXiv] [YouTube] [slides]

I. P. Roberts, H. B. Jain, and S. Vishwanath, “Frequency-Selective Beamforming Cancellation Design for Millimeter-Wave Full-Duplex”, Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Communications, Dublin, Ireland Virtual, Jun. 2020. [PDF] [IEEE] [arXiv] [YouTube] [slides]

I. P. Roberts, H. B. Jain, and S. Vishwanath, “Equipping Millimeter-Wave Full-Duplex with Analog Self-Interference Cancellation”, Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Communications Workshop on Full-Duplex Communications for Future Wireless Networks, Dublin, Ireland Virtual, Jun. 2020. [PDF] [IEEE] [arXiv] [YouTube] [slides]

R. K. Mishra, Y. Chen, I. P. Roberts, and S. Vishwanath, “Collision Detection in Dense Wi-Fi Networks using Self-Interference Cancellation”, Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Communications Workshop on Full-Duplex Communications for Future Wireless Networks, Dublin, Ireland Virtual, Jun. 2020. [PDF] [IEEE]

I. P. Roberts, J. G. Andrews, H. B. Jain, and S. Vishwanath, “Millimeter Wave Full-Duplex Radios: New Challenges and Techniques”, IEEE Wireless Communications Magazine, Feb. 2021. [PDF] [arXiv]

Graduate Coursework

Wireless Communication, J. G. Andrews
Fundamentals of wireless communication.

Space-Time Communication, R. W. Heath
MIMO information theory and communication systems.

Convex Optimization, A. Mokhtari
Theory, applications, and algorithms of convex optimization problems.

Analysis and Design of Communication Networks, G. de Veciana
Modeling and analysis of queues and queuing networks.

Probability and Stochastic Processes, S. Shakkottai
Theory of probability and random variables/processes.

Numerical Analysis of Linear Algebra, P-G. J. Martinsson
Analysis of linear algebra operations and algorithms when performed in floating point.

Data Mining, E. Thomaz
Interpreting and learning from large amounts of data.

Statistical Methods, M. Hersh
Applied statistics, estimation, and regression.

Introduction to Radar Systems, R. Zoughi (Missouri S&T)
Fundamentals of radar technologies and applications.

Wireless Ad Hoc & Sensor Networks, M. Zawodniok (Missouri S&T)
QoS, power control, routing, and scheduling in wireless networks.

Recent Involvement & Service

Contact

[my three initials] [at] utexas [dot] edu

My Talented Friends