Wireless tech pioneer Prof Arogyaswami Paulraj inducted into Wireless History Foundation Hall of Fame

The Wireless History Foundation (WHF), a Washington-based nonprofit organization (NG) formed to preserve and promote the history of the wireless industry, has inducted two Indian Americans, including noted Stanford University professor and wireless technology pioneer Arogyaswami Paulraj into its hall of fame. The official induction will take place this year on October 20 at the annual WHF dinner.

In its citation, the WHF said, “Dr Paulraj is the inventor of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless technology, which has increased the data capacity of wireless systems exponentially. MIMO technology is now at the core of all WiFi, and 4G /5G Mobile networks. Since his early work on the MIMO concept at Stanford University in 1992, Dr. Paulraj has continued to refine, commercialize and advance MIMO technology. He faced many challenges, not uncommon for new technologies, for at least a decade. The massive footprint of MIMO today (billions of user devices) has required the contributions of thousands of researchers and engineers, many of them eminent. However, Dr. Paulraj clearly stands out as a key enabler of MIMO wireless, who persisted in the face of skepticism and obstacles to nurture a revolutionary technology from inception to global adoption.

The WHF also announced its decision to induct Indian American tech business leader and pioneer Neera Singh into its hall of fame. The WHF said, “Ms. Singh was the co-founder of LCC International (LCCI) when the cellular industry was in its infancy and the spectrum that would make it possible was just being released by the FCC. LCCI established itself as the leading wireless engineering firm, whose independence from communications equipment manufacturers allowed it to be objective and efficient. Ms. Singh developed the underlying algorithms and authored LCCI software. She was also in charge of software development as the company expanded. As the industry grew, LCCI was responsible for the design of initial wireless networks across the globe including in the USA, Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain, India, Mexico and a number of other countries. Ms. Singh’s contributions span engineering, technology, and operations and finance/investments in the wireless industry. She not only served in leadership, oversight and management roles, but she also created software and algorithms used throughout the industry.”