Biography

Amir K. Khandani is a Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo, and holds an NSERC Industrial Research Chair (funded by NSERC and Nortel) on "Advanced Telecommunications Technologies" and a Canada Research Chair (Tier I) on "Wireless Systems".

Dr. Khandani received his M.A.Sc. degree from University of Tehran in 1985 (under the supervision of S. Safavi-Naeini ), and his Ph.D. degree from McGill University in 1992 (under the supervision of P. Kabal ). From 1985 to 1988, he worked as a design engineer in Iran Communication Industries Ltd. on circuit design for telecommunication systems. From 1992 to 1993, he worked as a Research Associate at INRS Telecommunications (Quebec University) in Montreal, and then joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo, in 1993.

Dr. Khandani's current research interests are in the Physical Layer of Wireless Systems with emphasis on Source/Channel Coding, Multiple-Access, Multiple Antenna Systems, Co-operative Networking, and Information Theory. He is the author or co-author of more than 200 refereed articles and several high impact patents, including US patent 6,298,463 on symbol-based Turbo-codes, a technique that is incorporated in multiple telecommunication standards, including DVB-RCS, ETSI EN 301 790, and IEEE802.16. He has been one of the main contributors to the standard on shell mapping for constellation shaping that is widely used in commercial telephone line modems. A project supervised by him on the topic of Turbo-codes has been the winner of the "ITRC Innovation Award for Increasing Awareness in Leading Edge Technologies", and a project supervised by him is documented as a CITO success story. He is awarded a "Certificate of Achievement" by Nortel in 2002, a second "Certificate of Achievement" in 2003, and a third "Certificate of Achievement" in 2004 for his contributions to technology advancement related to Nortel funded research projects. He is currently acting as the director of the Nortel Networks Institute at the University of Waterloo.

He has frequently served on technical program committees of major conferences in his area, has acted as a consultant to various industrial and government agencies, and has delivered invited talks and keynote speeches worldwide. He is currently serving as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Communications in the area of Coding and Communication Theory and is acting as the chair of the Information Theory Chapter of the regional IEEE.

Contact Information

NSERC-Nortel Industrial Research Chair
Canada Research Chair (Tier I)
Director, Nortel Networks Institute
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
University of Waterloo
200 University Ave. W.
Waterloo, ON, Canada, N2L3G1
Phone: +1 519 888 4567 extension 35324

Research interests
Coding theory
Communication networks
Source coding