Science, human sciences and arts research at Macquarie will receive a boost in 2015 via twelve Discovery Projects grants, five Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards and a Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities grant, as part of last week’s Australian Research Council Major Grants announcement.
Professor Stephen Hanly and Dr Philip Whiting from the Department of Engineering have received a Discovery Project grant for their work on WiFi congestion, and are preparing for the exciting challenges ahead.
“It feels great to have your research recognised and supported,” said Professor Hanly. “It also comes with a feeling of responsibility as the hard work starts now, and this includes attracting the best talent we can to join us on the project.”
Professor Hanly says that given the popularity and use of WiFi networks around the world, it’s not surprising they are becoming more and more congested.
“Stable controls are a holy grail in the area of so called ‘ad hoc networking’ in wireless,” he said. “Recently, sophisticated new algorithms have emerged which address this problem but they are still far from being practical.”
The team will use their grant to explore and extend these algorithms on the basis of new analytical techniques which have been developed with partner collaborators.
“We’re very much looking forward to working together on this project over the next three years,” said Professor Hanly. “The project will increase the critical mass in wireless communications at Macqaurie and help the University attract strong HDR students into the program.”