Deepak Vasisht

Deepak Vasisht

I am an Assistant Professor in Computer Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). I also hold affiliate appointments in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and the Coordinated Sciences Laboratory at UIUC. I lead the rural connectivity thrust at the Center for Digital Agriculture.

My group's research focuses on designing the next generation of mobile computing and wireless networking systems such as satellite networks, in-body systems, and 6G. I am deeply interested in developing solutions for human-critical problems in various application domains such as rural connectivity, agriculture, and healthcare.

I am a recipient of the NSF CAREER award, two best paper awards, and the ACM SIGCOMM Doctoral Dissertation Award. Prior to UIUC, I graduated with a Ph.D. from MIT, advised by Prof. Dina Katabi. During my Ph.D. (and after), I worked at Microsoft Research on FarmBeats, which has been launched as a product used by farmers across the world. I received my undergraduate degree from IIT Delhi with the President of India gold medal. In 2021, I was named a graduate of the last decade by IIT Delhi.

Active Research Themes

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Low Latency Satellite Connectivity

We aim to enable near-realtime connectivity across Low Earth Orbit Satellites in space and devices on Earth through networking and computing innovations.
Recent Publications: Mobicom 2023, SIGCOMM 2021, HotNets 2020

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Machine Learning for Next Generation Networks

Modern wireless networks are complex systems with varied capabilities and user needs. We are building robust and verifiable ML models to make optimum use of their capabilities.
Recent Publications: NSDI 2023, MobiCom 2021, MobiCom 2020

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Localization and Sensing

Our work focuses on enabling accurate location of devices, people, and robots using radio signals for applications in smart homes, healthcare, indoor navigation, and augmented reality.
Recent Publications: Mobicom 2023, NSDI 2022, Mobicom 2020.

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Rural Connectivity and Data-driven Agriculture

We are studying the challenges and solutions for enabling high-fidelity connectivity for rural applications like digital agriculture and e-learning.
Recent Publications: NSDI 2022, COMPASS 2019 (Best Paper award), NSDI 2017 (product at Microsoft)

View All Projects


Current Ph.D. Students

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Jay Shenoy

Satellite Networks, RF-Privacy

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Zikun Liu

NextG Wireless, Machine Learning

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Bill Tao

Satellite Networks, In-body Devices

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Emerson Sie

RF Sensing, Robotics, Rural Connectivity

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Maleeha Masood

Satellite Networks, Short Video Streaming. Co-advised with Prof. Indy Gupta.

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Ishani Janveja

Satellite Networks, Acoustics

All Students and Alumni


Recent News

  • [Summer 2023] Two papers on satellite networks (Serval, and Spectrumize) accepted to NSDI 2024. Coming soon!
  • [Spring 2023] NSF Career award to Deepak for low latency satellite networking.
  • [Spring 2023] Emerson won the Rambus Computer Engineering fellowship at UIUC and was selected as a Mavis Future Faculty fellow.
  • [Fall 2022/Spring 2023] Umbra, BatMobility, and InnerCompass accepted to Mobicom 2023. Check out our publications page.
  • [Fall 2022] RAFA accepted to NSDI 2023. Check out our publications page.
  • [Spring 2022] Zikun won the Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship.
  • [Spring 2022] Wi-Peep accepted to Mobicom 2022. Check out our publications page.
  • [Spring 2022] RF-Protect accepted to SIGCOMM 2022. Check out our publications page.
  • [Spring 2022] RF-Annotate accepted to ICRA 2022. Check out our publications page.

Awards

  • NSF CAREER Award, 2023
  • Outstanding Advisor Award, Grainger College of Engineering, UIUC, 2022
  • UIUC's List of Teachers Rated as Excellent, 2021
  • IIT Delhi Graduate of the Last Decade (GOLD) Award, 2021
  • Inaugural Microsoft Industry Research Fellow, 2020
  • ACM SIGCOMM Doctoral Dissertation Award, 2019
  • ACM SIGCOMM Best Paper Award, 2016
  • Winning team, Microsoft Oneweek Hackathon (Industries Category), 2016
  • Microsoft Research Ph.D. Fellowship, 2016-18
  • President of India Gold Medal, 2013 for highest CGPA across all departments at IIT Delhi
  • MIT EECS Great Educators Fund Fellowship for academic year 2013-14
  • Had the honor to witness Republic Day of India, 2008 and 2010 from the Prime Minister's box for being among the top 25 students in Class X and Class XII exams respectively

Acknowledgments

We are lucky to have Abigail Barrett manage our group. Our group is generously funded by NSF, USDA, Microsoft, Cisco, and IBM.