International fellowship for radio spectrum expert
Professor Amit Kumar Mishra.
20 December 2024
The Director of the National Spectrum Centre at Aberystwyth University is travelling to India this month as part of a prestigious fellowship scheme set up by the Indian government.
Professor Amit Kumar Mishra, who is an internationally recognised expert on spectrum communications and sensing, will spend time at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Hyderabad under the Visiting Advanced Joint Research Faculty Scheme (VAJRA).
Awarded through the Indian Government’s Anusandhan National Research Foundation (formerly the Science and Engineering Board, SERB), the VAJRA award is designed to recognise the value of international collaborative research in solving complex problems.
The scheme was developed exclusively for overseas scientists and academics to work for up to three months in a year at a hosting Indian public-funded academic or research institution.
Professor Mishra first received the honour when he worked at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. The award was renewed for an additional year, following his move to Aberystwyth in 2024.
Professor Mishra is collaborating with scientists at the IIT Hyderabad on developing systems which use ‘TV White Space’ – the spectrum bandwidth once used to broadcast analogue television but which is now largely redundant.
Professor Mishra said: “I am delighted that my VAJRA faculty award has been renewed for an additional year and look forward to continuing to work with scientists and PhD students in India as well as welcoming researchers here to Aberystwyth in this international exchange of knowledge and expertise.
“Our focus will be on the potential applications for using ‘TV White Space’ in rural areas of India. This bandwidth, which has become more available following analogue television’s switch to digital, can be used for a range of other purposes - for example, providing high-speed internet to people living in sparsely populated areas.
“This technology has huge possibilities in other places like Africa where relatively low numbers of people are spread across large geographical areas. There are synergies too with the National Spectrum Centre’s aim of transforming connectivity in rural areas of Wales and other parts of the UK.”
About Professor Mishra
Professor Mishra joined Aberystwyth University as Director of the National Spectrum Centre and Professor of Communications Engineering in March 2024. Since gaining his PhD at Edinburgh University in 2006, he has worked in research institutions in India, Australia and Sweden. He moved to Aberystwyth from the University of Cape Town where he was Professor (2019-2024), Associate Professor (2016-2019) and Senior Lecturer (2011-2015) as well as a member of the institute’s Radar Remote Sensing Group.
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