The 25th Anniversary edition of the IEEE MTT-S WAMICON was held last week in Clearwater Beach, Florida. Along with the three Track conference on the latest in Wireless and Microwave innovations, a dinner boat cruise sponsored by Rohde & Schwarz and a water ski show sponsored by FALCOMM were added to celebrate the 25th Anniversary milestone. WAMICON began as a one-day forum in 1999 as a spinout from the University of South Florida WAMI (Wireless and Microwave) Advisory meetings. The silver anniversary returned to where it all began at the Clearwater Beach Marriott Suites on Sand Key. The unique mix of surf and sand with speakers, exhibitors and attendees representing Industry, Government and Academia has been a recipe for continued success. View the photo gallery for visual evidence of how speeches on beaches just hit a little differently!
The 2024 event had a focus on “Wireless System and Device Innovations for Intelligent Communications and Adaptive Sensing” and had three parallel tracks on all aspects of RF Design and Microwave Microelectronics and Systems.
The two Keynote addresses included, “Accelerating Wireless and Microwave Innovation - No Excuses!”, by Dr. Matt Casto, Chief Technology Officer, The Midwest Microelectronics Consortium (MMEC), and “Trends in Classical and Quantum Optical Communications for Space”, Dr. Harry Shaw, NASA, Principal Investigator Quantum Communications and Computing, Exploration and Space Communications Division. Additionally, our Plenary speakers were Julio Costa, Ph.D., presenting, “RFSOI for the RF Front-End: Then, Now and Tomorrow”; Dr. Paolo Focardi, Group Lead at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, presenting “Antenna Systems for Space Applications”; and Dr. Dimitrios Peroulis, Reilly Professor, Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, presenting, “RF Plasma Circuits and Antennas.”
Technical program highlights included sessions on Advances in Power Amplifiers; Integrated Amplifiers, Systems, Components, and Signal Processing for Communications; Advancements in Radar Technologies; Electromagnetics Interactions with the Human Body; Heterogeneous Integration; Additively Manufactured Components; Sub-THz and THz Systems and Measurements; Innovations in Electromagnetic Systems; and an invited session on Space Technologies.
Additionally, the technical program included an outstanding and packed Radar Workshop, a Poster Session, Student Day activities and an IEEE Young Professionals and Women in Microwave Session and reception.
Paired with the conference is an Industry Exhibition that is headlined by the event Platinum Sponsor, Mini-Circuits. The exhibit area was a great place to interact with all attendees for breaks and to see the latest products and innovations from industry leaders. The Exhibitors and Sponsors included:
- Mini-Circuits – Platinum Sponsor
- Keysight – Gold Sponsor
- Rohde & Schwarz – Gold Sponsor - Yacht Dinner Cruise
- FALCOMM – Gold Sponsor - Water Ski Show
- Accurate Circuit Engineering – Gold Sponsor
- Knowles – Silver Sponsor
- L3Harris – Silver Sponsor
- MACOM – Silver Sponsor
- STI-CO – Silver Sponsor
- Transline Technology – Silver Sponsor
- TTE / Gowanda – Silver Sponsor
- Qorvo – Silver Sponsor & Student Program
- University of South Florida – Silver Sponsor & Student Program
- Microwave Journal – Media Sponsor
- everythingRF – Media Sponsor
- Advanced Test Equipment Corp.
- Atlantic Tech Marketing
- cotsRF
- Cuming Microwave
- Electro Technik Industries
- FormFactor
- Garlock / WavePro
- IEEE MTT-S
- Maury Microwave
- Modelithics
- Precision Circuit Technologies
- Reactel
- SGMC Microwave
- Sonnet
- Spartech South
- T&E Repco
There are numerous awards presented at the WAMICON event including the favored Rudolf Henning Distinguished Mentoring Award. Rudy’s widow, Petey Henning, was in attendance and gave a touching tribute while assisting in presenting the 2024 award to Dr. Dimitrios Peroulis, Reilly Professor, Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University and Senior Vice President, Purdue University Online. Dr. Peroulis was the well-deserving recipient for his outstanding work as a teacher and his role in mentoring many young engineers to advance their careers. WAMICON also presented its annual Distinguished Service Award to Jim Assurian, Reactel, for his valuable contributions to the steering committee and many years of support and service to the conference. The Exhibit and Sponsorship Chair, Angie Rogers, Modelithics, presented the annual Best Exhibitor Award to Rohde & Schwarz for their display, demos and engaging attendee interaction.
Numerous awards were given in conjunction with the technical program to recognize the best work presented at the conference. The winners are as follows:
- Best Conference Paper
- “Multichannel and Multifunction Interferometric Receiver Architectures for Multistandard Millimeter-Wave and Terahertz Applications”
Jie Deng, Pascal Burasa and Ke Wu
Poly-Grames Research Center and Department of Electrical Engineering Polytechnique
University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- 1st Place – “Digitally-Augmented Wideband Self-Interference Cancellation In Full-Duplex Transceiver”
Kefayet Ullah, Satheesh Bojja Venkatakrishnan and John L. Volakis
Florida International University - 2nd Place – “A 290-359 GHz Push-Push Signal Source with 1.7 dBm Pmax using Variable Inductance in SiGe BiCMOS Technology”
Sascha Breun, Albert-Marcel Schrotz, Manuel Koch, Vadim Issakov and Robert Weigel
Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat Erlangen-Nürnberg - 3rd Place – “Physical Layer Security using Chaotic Antenna Arrays in Point-to-Point Wireless Communications”
Thomas Ranstrom, Hüseyin Arslan and Gokhan Mumcu
University of South Florida
- 1st Place – “Additively Manufactured Physically Unclonable Function for Wireless System Security”
Aaron Pendino, Jing Wang and Gokhan Mumcu
University of South Florida - 2nd Place – “Implantable Microsensors for Continuous Intraocular Pressure Monitoring”
Liguan Li and Jing Wang
University of South Florida - 3rd Place – “Characterization of Zynq® FPGA for Microwave Ferromagnetic Resonance Identification (FMR-ID)”
Alex Wege, Bethanie Stadler and Rhonda Franklin
University of Minnesota
WAMICON will return to the East coast of Florida in April 2025. The steering committee is forming and planning is underway for next year’s event. All are encouraged to join WAMICON as speakers, sponsors, exhibitors and attendees and experience what we call “WAMI Magic” for yourself. https://www.ieeewamicon.org/