Dr. Ismail Guvenc Receives the R. Ray Bennett Faculty Fellow Award

Dr. Ismail Guvenc has been selected to receive the inaugural R. Ray Bennett Faculty Fellow Award

The mother of Mr. R. Ray Bennett, Mrs. Alice B. Bennett, endowed a faculty fellowship for the NC State Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as a memorial to her son. The R. Ray Bennett Faculty Fellow Award provides support for high achieving young faculty in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC State in pursuing their academic and cutting-edge research initiatives. This recognition is presented annually by the ECE Department to a single individual with a $40,000 cash award.

Ismail Guvenc has been an Associate Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at North Carolina State University since 2016 and is a multidisciplinary researcher working at the intersection of wireless communications and wireless networking. He has also joined Michael Escuti, a professor of electrical and computer engineering in being elected a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors. Senior Members are active faculty, scientists and administrators with success in patents, licensing and commercialization and have produced technologies that have brought, or aspire to bring, real impact on the welfare of society. Senior Members also foster a spirit of innovation within their communities through enhancing an inventive atmosphere at their institutions, while educating and mentoring the next generation of inventors.

Guvenc plans to use the Bennett Award for the development and support of new, large scale project proposals as well as ongoing research projects at NC State. Guvenc has been leading three large-scale proposal efforts for the following National Science Foundation solicitations: 1) NSF Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research, 2) NSF BWAC I/UCRC, and 3) NSF Expeditions in Computing. He intends to use close to half of the award to support a postdoctoral research associate, to get help in developing capabilities, concepts, and preliminary results related to these efforts.

With the rest of the Bennett Award, Guvenc intends to support postdoctoral research scholar(s) to work closely with the Ph.D. students in his group on research papers. He currently has eight active projects at NC State, from NSF, NASA, Idaho National Labs, and DOCOMO Innovations. These projects involve research and development related to 5G and mmWave communications, UAV communications, and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. He currently advises/co-advises nine Ph.D. students and three postdoctoral research associates related to these research projects. In addition, to support research scholars, Guvenc will use the Bennett Award to support travel to conferences and other research events, publication page fees, professional society membership fees, and purchase of materials and supplies that may be of critical need.