STORRS, CT — Shengli Zhou, director of the Wireless Communication Research Laboratory at the University of Connecticut, has received a prestigious presidential award for his work on improving the efficiency of underwater acoustic communications.
Zhou was one of 67 researchers nationwide to receive the 2007 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in a Dec. 19 ceremony in Washington D.C. The award is the nation’s highest honor for professionals at the outset of their independent scientific research careers.
An assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, Zhou is believed to be the first UConn faculty member to receive such a distinction.
The awards are handed out by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Nine federal departments and agencies annually submit nominations on behalf of scientists and engineers whose work shows exceptional promise for leadership at the frontiers of scientific knowledge. Zhou was among 15 scholars nominated by officials at the U.S. Department of Defense.
As part of the award, Zhou will receive a $1 million federal grant over the next five years to expand his research in underwater acoustic communications, which involves novel transmitter design and advanced receiver processing, as well as development of an underwater modem prototype.
Communicating and transferring data underwater present unique obstacles in naval operations, scientific exploration and commercial industry. Radio communications that work so effectively on land do not work as well underwater so they must be replaced by acoustic communications. Due to the challenging characteristics of underwater channels, current acoustic communication technologies are extremely slow.
Zhou has conducted extensive research on broadband wireless communications over radio channels in the past, but has focused on underwater acoustic communications over the last four years. Zhou is currently working on the creation of innovative algorithms to address the unique challenges encountered in underwater acoustic communications.
Zhou said the fact that the presidential award honors advances in both science and engineering reflects the widespread applications associated with his research.
“With this technology, if you have the right links available, you can facilitate all different kinds of operations,” Zhou said.
Some examples of the practical applications of Zhou’s research include improved naval submarine communication with land-based operations, networking of autonomous underwater vehicles for cooperative missions, coastline defense monitoring, and various scientific applications involving long-term aquatic monitoring or short-term aquatic exploration.
Shengli Zhou earned his Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota in 2002. He joined the University of Connecticut in 2003. He was presented with an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program award in 2003 and last fall was selected as one of five recipients of the United Technologies Corporation Professorship in Engineering Innovation Award in the School of Engineering.
Shengli Zhou serves as co-director of the University of Connecticut’s Underwater Sensor Network (UWSN) Lab with Jun-Hong Cui. UConn’s UWSN lab serves as a nexus for an interdisciplinary team of 20 faculty from throughout the School of Engineering as well as Marine Sciences, the National Undersea Research Center and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology.
The University of Connecticut is the top-ranked public university in New England and its School of Engineering is the only public, accredited engineering program in Connecticut. The School of Engineering’s world class faculty include 40 fellow distinctions from professional organizations; 18 National Science Foundation CAREER award recipients; five Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award recipients; two U.S. Army Research Office Young Investigator Award recipients; one NASA Young Investigator Award recipient as well as two elected members of the National Academy of Engineering.
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