Collaborative Top-Level Research

Dr. Joerg Widmer is one of 20 scientists who have won the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel-Research Award for outstanding research. The award, which is endowed with 45,000 EUR, is given to internationally renowned scientists by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, an institution promoting scientific co-operation between excellent foreign and German researchers. The prize was followed by an invitation to carry out self-selected research projects in Germany for up to one year in cooperation with specialist colleagues. The selection committee continues to expect top performances and scientific influence within and beyond their own research field.

Widmer studied computer science and earned his doctorate at the University of Mannheim. Currently, he is Research Professor and Research Strategy Manager at IMDEA (Madrid Institute of Advanced Studies) Networks Institute, Madrid. Widmer's research focuses on wireless communication.

Widmer's lecture at etit’s Institute of Multimedia Communication, where he works as a guest scientist from January 2017 until the end of May 2017, dealt with the topic of „scaling up next-generation wireless networks.“ His research addresses the problem of increasing data traffic in wireless networks and how these networks can maintain the necessary performance despite changing conditions. Widmer: „The big issue is how wireless networks evolve. My research is aimed at the different layers of data transmission. In the future, networks have to develop much faster in order to keep pace with the volume of data.“

Widmer's solution is the anticipation of increased data volume as well as the subsequent adaptation of the network to the new conditions. Using high frequencies in the millimeter-wave spectrum, he intends to ensure stable data rates, even under uncertain conditions at a correspondingly high level. An application currently being considered is the use of a wireless location system to easily align the millimeter-wave directional antennas with little effort.