Bio: Zerina Kapetanovic is a postdoctoral researcher at Microsoft Research and an incoming assistant professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University. She received her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington in 2022. Her research is focused on ultra low-power wireless communication, sensing, IoT, and wireless sensor networks. Specifically, her research interests lie in the application of low-power wireless sensing system techniques to sustainability and environmental monitoring. Her work has been recognized by the Microsoft Research Dissertation Grant, Yang Research Award, and the University of Washington Distinguished Dissertation Award.
Abstract: Passive wireless communication allows for energy constrained data transmitters to send information by modulating an RF signal generated by an RF source that is not power constrained. This takes the burden off the transmitter and enables it to be orders of magnitude less power consuming than traditional RF communication methods. While this is an attractive solution, these methods still rely on a pre-existing RF signal which can limit the application space. In this talk, I will present a new method for passive wireless communication that does not rely on an RF source. Instead, information bits are wirelessly transmitted by modulating Johnson (thermal) noise. Towards the end of the talk I will discuss my future research directions and the focus of my research lab at Stanford.