Cisco Talent Tapped to Head Samueli School Research Center

Ender Ayanoglu to Lead the School's Center for Pervasive Communications

The Henry Samueli School of Engineering recently hired Ender Ayanoglu, an expert in wireless broadband technologies and former technical leader of the Wireless Access Business Unit of Cisco Systems, Inc. Ayanoglu will act as interim director of the Center for Pervasive Communications, the research center formed in 2000 with a $6 million gift from Broadcom Corp. and Conexant Systems, Inc., and hold the appointment of professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science,

"Professor Ayanoglu's extensive industry experience, energy and proven leadership capabilities make him an outstanding addition to the Center for Pervasive Communications," said Dwight Decker, chairman and chief executive officer of Conexant. "Many of the communication industry's current products, including our own, build upon his innovative contributions. In addition, he clearly understands the critical importance of talent development to the growth of Southern California's high-tech business community. I am confident that, under his leadership, the CPC will create a large pool of students well-trained in communications and networking technologies, as well as become recognized as a breeding ground for breakthrough technical advancements."

Ayanoglu currently works in the area of wireless broadband systems, technologies that will enable Internet access anywhere by eliminating the need for traditional cable or DSL lines. He holds more than a dozen patents in this rapidly evolving research area, and was named a fellow of the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers (IEEE), the international professional society, in 1998. His research publications have garnered numerous awards, including the IEEE Communications Society Stephen O. Rice Prize Paper Award in 1995 and Best Tutorial Paper Award in 1997.

Prior to joining Cisco, Ayanoglu spent 13 years working with Bell Laboratories, first as part of AT&T and then with Lucent Technologies. He holds a doctoral degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University.

Ayanoglu is the latest in a string of big name engineers to join the Samueli School. Two weeks ago, the school announced the arrival of three microdevice experts, Professors Abraham P. Lee, Marc J. Madou and William C. Tang.

"Pervasive communications" represents the convergence of wireless and broadband communications, combining telecommunications, information technology and Web content. The Center for Pervasive Communications (CPC) seeks to further this convergence by promoting the development of technologies that allow people to access information from anywhere, anytime. Drawing faculty from the Department of Information and Computer Science along with the Samueli School, the CPC is one of the many campus research centers involved with the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology.