Prior to joining the UD faculty in 2002, Leonard Cimini, professor of computer and electrical engineering, spent 20 years at Bell Labs and AT&T Labs in Monmouth County, N.J. His early work, from 1982–1985, established the first real application of orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) to wireless systems.
Today, OFDM is a mature technology used for wide band digital communication in applications relating to wireless networks, mobile Internet access and next-generation cellular systems.
In 2010, Cimini was recognized with the Innovators Award from the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame for his critical role in high-speed wireless communication.
For more than a decade, UD has been a charter member of Internet2, www.internet2.edu, a consortium of 221 universities in partnership with industry and government, that is developing new applications and services to meet the needs of researchers and educators, including a 100 gigabit/second network.
This advanced network connects more than 66,000 institutions in the U.S. and international research networks representing more than 50 countries.
Mark Laubach, who earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in computer science from UD, is a key figure in modern international cable modem technology development.
Laubach devoted more than 14 years with the Hewlett-Packard Company to Internet and broadband technologies, services and standards. He conducted research instrumental in the high-speed use of TV cable networks, the focus of several companies he co-founded.
From 1986 to 1995, UD alumnus Walter David Sincoskie led the world’s leading switching research organization at Bellcore, which spearheaded the telecommunications transition from circuit-switching to packet-switching, a key factor in the Internet’s successful commercialization.
From 1996 to 2008, he was senior vice president of Telcordia’s Networking Systems Laboratory where, among other achievements, he pioneered the creation of Internet telephony — the use of the Internet to make voice calls.
Sincoskie made many seminal contributions to the science and technologies of communications networks, according to UD’s Dave Farber, who was his doctoral adviser, including the first voice-over-packet phone, first virtual local area network (LAN), first description of a digital video server and first wide-area gigabit computer network.
Sincoskie received his bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from UD. He joined the UD faculty in 2008. Sadly, he died unexpectedly in 2010.
Edward Szurkowski, founder and managing partner of Blue Mill Group, is a pioneer in networking applications.
Previously, he was vice president of the Wireless and Broadband Access Research Center at Bell Laboratories, Alcatel-Lucent, in Murray Hill, N.J., where he led development of new products and services in wireless, optical and data networking, satellite systems and software.
Szurkowski received bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering at UD and now serves on the UD Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Advisory Board.
UD students have helped to develop Phoebus, the “architectural evolution” of the Internet.
The brainchild of Martin Swany, former UD professor now at Indiana University, Phoebus improves network performance by enabling Internet2 to transparently switch large data flows (high-demand applications) from its IP (internet protocol) network, shared among all Internet2 users, onto dedicated circuits or paths. It is expected to play a critical role in major scientific projects that require high-performance networks to connect researchers.