IEEE Awards Booklet - 2016 - 8

2016 ieee medals

IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal

IEEE Edison Medal

Sponsored by Nokia Bell Labs

Sponsored by Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

roberto padovani

robert Brodersen

For innovations enabling efﬁcient, wideband, wireless access to the Internet, that
is central to all third-generation cellular
networks

For contributions to integrated systems
for wired and wireless communications, including wireless connectivity of
personal devices

The third-generation (3G) cellular technology enabled by the
vision and leadership of Roberto Padovani is transforming lives
around the word by supporting voice and wireless Internet access
via mobile devices to over 3 billion people. Padovani provided
key leadership in developing and commercializing code-divisionmultiple-access (CDMA) technology during the 1980s and 1990s
to substantially increase circuit-switched voice capacity and enable efficient high-data-rate (HDR) packet-switched communications. His work has formed the basis for all 3G cellular systems
and has also influenced fourth-generation long-term evolution
(LTE) systems. Padovani later adapted CDMA technology, which
was originally heavily tuned for voice services, to support data
services. To overcome the challenges of asymmetry in data traffic
in the up- and downlinks and the bursty nature of data, Padovani
developed innovations including the scheduling of high and low
rate users, variable modulation and code rate, and power control
strategies for more efficient Internet data transfer, resulting in the
HDR technology. He realized early on that, for packet data, symmetric performance across uplink and downlink and equal grade
of service across users could be relaxed to improve total system
throughput, in contrast to voice designs that focused on giving all
users equal service in all conditions. Slow to be accepted by operators who were primarily concerned only with voice capacity,
the demand for HDR communications grew as mobile phones
began to support e-mail and Internet services. HDR evolved into
the 1X EVDO system, which paved the way for high-speed data
services on 3G systems. The availability of packet-switched Internet access made possible by Padovani's innovations has impacted
business, safety, entertainment, navigation, social networking, education, and health in developed and especially developing countries around the world.
An IEEE Fellow and member of the U.S. National Academy of
Engineering, Padovani is executive vice president and fellow with
Qualcomm Technologies, San Diego, CA, USA.

With the vision that wireless technology would fundamentally
change the way we interact with information, Robert Brodersen
has been at the forefront of introducing innovative technologies
that are changing the wireless landscape even today. Focusing on
using standard low-cost complimentary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technologies for integrated systems, Brodersen's
work has enabled higher data rates, better energy efficiency, and
better spectrum utilization critical to wireless devices. A testament to Brodersen's vision was the development of the Infopad
as the first wireless tablet during the early 1990s. A complete integrated system, the project demonstrated the potential of cloud
computing, broadband wireless connectivity, and low-power mobile computing well before the true emergence of the Internet
and wireless networks. It took technology 15 years to catch up to
his concept with the emergence of devices like the iPad, but the
proliferation of personal devices we now take for granted shows
that Brodersen's vision was spot on. Before energy efficiency of
devices was an issue, Brodersen was one of the first to demonstrate that improving energy efficiency was critical to the continued scaling of digital circuitry. His combination of concurrency
with voltage scaling in 1992 radically changed the way we build
computer systems, making possible the multicore paradigms that
fuel today's high-performance and mobile computing systems. He
later extended this concept to include dynamic voltage scaling,
which allows processors to scale energy efficiency proportional
to the requested performance. In the late 1970s Brodersen also
pioneered the idea of using switched capacitors for monolithic
integrated filters. Originally used for single-chip realizations of
pulse code modulation interfaces for wired telephony, switchedcapacitor circuits have been the preferred choice for the efficient
implementation of on-chip filters for the past four decades.
An IEEE Fellow and member of the U.S. National Academy of
Engineering, Brodersen is a Professor Emeritus with the University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.

Scope: For exceptional contributions to the advancement of communications sciences and engineering.

Scope: For a career of meritorious achievement in electrical science, electrical engineering or the electrical arts.

8 | 2016 IEEE AWARDS BooKLET

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Awards Booklet - 2016