Welcome

The field of telecommunications is in the middle of enormous change. Fueled by the widespread development of the Internet, as well as digital cellular voice service, the vision of voice, video, and data communication anytime, anywhere is becoming closer to reality every day. Fast developments in optical communications have made a tremendous amount of backbone bandwidth available and the speed with which the rate of computations increases has been consistent for decades. It is safe to say that these developments will inevitably lead to a communications paradigm much different than today. For example, broadband voice, video, and data communication for the enterprise and the home will increase. In the near future, cellular handsets will have increased capabilities in terms of data transmission speeds as well as image and video handling capabilities. Wireless LANs are already becoming commonplace in the enterprise, educational institutions, and homes. Several companies are developing products for video distribution in the home. Many see the convergence of cellular voice wireless and wireless LANs a likely scenario. Several companies are already building products based on this scenario. Visions of wearable computers with wireless connections that enable anyone to have continuous voice, video, and data connectivity are considered possible. In fact, technologies to realize this vision will be within our reach in a few years. The availability of these capabilities will enable the vision of not only man-to-man but man-to-machine and machine-to-machine communication anytime, anywhere possible.

The Center for Pervasive Communications and Computing (CPCC) at UCI is dedicated to serving this vision. The center was founded on the basis of a gift in spring 2000 by two local high-technology corporations, Conexant Systems, Inc. and Broadcom Corporation, in order to serve this vision, develop technology, train highly skilled students, build intellectual property, and accomplish technology transfer to the industry. Now, in the fall of 2002, nearly three years after the original gift agreement, the CPCC is on solid ground. At UCI, through the funds made available by the gift, three new faculty have been hired, 18 graduate students have been funded as fellows in the first year of their graduate program, and three postdoctoral fellowships have been granted. Currently we have three member companies. In the coming years, the CPCC will grow more and will become a breeding ground of new ideas, productive members, bright students, and new technology that will define tomorrow's world of pervasive communications: broadband voice, video, and data communication among people and machines, anytime, anywhere.

Last, but not the least, on the UCI campus, the CPCC is the centerpiece of California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology (Cal-(IT)²). Cal-(IT)² is one of four institutes established through the California Institutes for Science and Innovation initiative proposed in the year 2000 by the State of California. Cal-(IT)² focuses on telecommunications and information technologies, the main research area of the CPCC. The four institutes represent a billion-dollar, multidisciplinary effort that employs both public and private resources and expertise. The institutes are already overwhelmingly supported by California business and industry leaders. In terms of its innovation accomplishments, Cal-(IT)² has the ambition of becoming the new Bell Labs. In spring 2004, the CPCC will move to the new Cal-(IT)² building on UCI campus. By that time, the CPCC will be well on its way of becoming a leading edge center of excellence, on par with the new Bell Labs vision for Cal-(IT)².

Welcome. On this Web site you will find some of our history, our past and present fellows and faculty, and our current activities. If you join our mailing list, you can find out about our ongoing activities. We are looking forward to your participation.