Monisha Ghosh

Program Director, NSF

 

Dr. Monisha Ghosh joined NSF as a rotating Program Director in September 2017, in the Computer and Network Systems (CNS) division within the Directorate of Computer & Information Science and Engineering (CISE). She manages wireless networking research within the Networking Technologies and Systems (NeTS) program of CNS.  Dr. Ghosh is a Research Professor at the University of Chicago, with a joint appointment at the Argonne National Laboratories, where she conducts research on wireless technologies for the IoT, 5G cellular, next generation Wi-Fi systems, coexistence and machine learning for predictive oncology. Prior to joining the University of Chicago in September 2015, she worked at Interdigital, Philips Research and Bell Laboratories, on various wireless systems such as the HDTV broadcast standard, cable standardization and on cognitive radio for the TV White Spaces. She has been an active contributor to many industry standards and was recognized with a Certificate of Appreciation for her outstanding contributions to IEEE 802.22. She is a Fellow of the IEEE. 

She received her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California in 1991, and her B. Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (India) in 1986.

Vanitha Kumar                                                              

Vice President-Software Engineering, Qualcomm Technologies Incorporated

 

Vanitha Kumar is a Vice President of Software Engineering at Qualcomm Technologies Incorporated.  Vanitha holds a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University, and a Bachelor of Electronics & Communication Engineering degree from PSG College of Technology, India. Vanitha has 20 years  of  experience in the wireless telecommunications industry and  in embedded  software architecture, design, and  development. She has also contributed actively to cellular technology standards. She has about  20 issued patents and several more  pending.

In her current role, Vanitha leads  the modem SW air interface technology including  5G, 4G-LTE, and Cellular IoT  across multiple global locations. Vanitha played a key role in the commercialization and launch of CDMA  in Qualcomm’s chipsets in early/mid 2000.  After that she led the   4G-LTE SW team and  has been responsible for integration , commercialization and launch of 4G  in  1000s of products globally.  She  is  currently also responsible  for  the  5G   and Cellular IoT SW roadmap.  She also has vast experience leading multiple generation of Qualcomm chipsets and working closely with customers , vendors and cellular carriers to  enable launch of  many devices.

Vanitha is passionate about the role of women in science and technology.  She has chaired and put together panels for the Grace Hopper  and  IEEE women leadership  conferences. She is on the board  of  Qualcomm Foundation in   charge of  Corporate Giving. She is also on the board  of Elementary Institute of Science which is a non-profit organization  that focuses  on developing exposure and interest in STEM careers  among  young  children. She  is one of the recipients  of   the prestigious YWCA  TWIN (Tribute to Women and Industry) award  for  2016.  Vanitha also coaches   science Olympiad and Robotics  teams   at her  daughter’s  school.

The joint N2Women and WICE workshop aims to foster connections among women and researchers from underrepresented groups and minorities in communications, computer networking and related research fields. The workshop also welcomes men who share the same research interests, often face similar career hurdles as women, acknowledge underrepresentation of women and other minority groups in the field and believe proactive action is required for improving retention rate.

Submit posters by March 30th.  Authors of all accepted posters will have their workshop registration reimbursed after they attend the conference. Among them, students will receive a complementary ICC main conference registration as well.

 

A limited number of travel grants are available for students (undergraduate or graduate), postdocs or young professionals who present a poster at this workshop, up to $800 for attendees from North America, and $1500 for attendees from the rest of the world. Students will receive a complementary ICC main conference registration as well.