Nokia Research Center Names Two PhD ECE Fellows

Nokia Research Center (NRC), Palo Alto has named two new Ph.D. student fellows at Carnegie Mellon University’s Silicon Valley campus, in association with the CyLab Mobility Research Center.  Feng-tso “Lucas” Sun and Heng-Tze “Michael” Cheng will each receive this appointment for the academic year.  As Nokia Fellows, Sun and Cheng will both focus on context-aware mobile computing.

Sun, whose research area is in the field of mobile health, says, "I am really excited about this unique connection with Nokia Research Center. With Nokia's leading technology and very human culture, my dream of connecting people to empower the mobile services for healthcare and wellness won't be too far. " 

Cheng, whose research explores multiple sensors to generate or capture context on mobile phones, agrees, "Because of my strong research interest in context-aware mobile computing, I really appreciate the opportunity to collaborate with Nokia Research Center. I believe the interaction with Nokia can equip us with the leading mobile technology and industrial experience, which are essential for us to innovate and contribute to the era of mobility." 

The two Ph.D. students will be assigned to a corporate mentor who will act as a industry advisor on their research.  The Nokia Fellows will also have access to Nokia Research Center project groups, and access to Nokia’s research lab.

Nokia Research Center, which was a founding sponsor of the CyLab Mobility Research Center, has recently increased its collaboration with Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley.  In addition to appointing Ph.D. fellows, NRC has participated in software engineering practicums, provided guest lecturers for the MS Software Engineering and MS Software Management programs, and worked with faculty in using student-tested prototypes.  John Shen, head of NRC Palo Alto believes the interaction between Carnegie Mellon and NRC is complementary. “Nokia Research Center believes in open innovation. To us this means using both external and internal ideas to advance technology. Working with Carnegie Mellon helps us achieve this vision and we are pleased to have this collaboration with Carnegie Mellon,” says Shen.

Martin Griss, director of the Silicon Valley campus and co-founder of the CyLab Mobility Research Center, is equally pleased.  “We are excited about the growing relationship between our campus and NRC.  When industry and academia work together, advances in research can be made at a more rapid pace, to the betterment of society.  Nokia has one of the largest labs in mobile services and has been a solid supporter of our CyLab Mobility Research Center.

Nokia Research Center has seven labs in eleven locations around the world. In California, the labs are located in Palo Alto, Berkeley and Hollywood. More information can be found at http://research.nokia.com.