As the wireless standards occupy larger parts of the spectrum with an ever-larger number of antennas, there is an opportunity to also use the communications spectrum for “imaging” the environment. Thus, there is an opportunity for next-generation networks like 6G to be multi-function, i.e., use the same spectrum for multiple functions. In this talk, we will show how multipath propagation can be harnessed to improve radar-based sensing to (i) image beyond the radar's field of view and (ii) estimate the full velocity vector using multipath reflections. We will also touch upon our recent work on converting base stations into weather radars.
Ashutosh Sabharwal is the Ernest D. Butcher Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at Rice University. He works in two independent areas - wireless networks and digital health. His ongoing work in wireless focuses on theory and methods for joint wireless communications & imaging, as well as large-scale experimental platforms. He was one of the inventors of in-band full-duplex communications, a technology used in wireline and wireless standards. He founded the WARP project (warp.rice.edu), an open-source project used by 150+ research groups worldwide. He also led Rice RENEW (renew-wireless.org), which developed an open-source software-defined massive MIMO wireless network platform. Concurrent with his wireless research, he also leads the Rice Digital Health Initiative (dhi.rice.edu) and is the Co-director of a new Methodist-Rice Digital Health Institute. His digital health research focus is the development of devices and data science to quantify behavior-biology pathways across many diseases. He received the 2017 IEEE Jack Neubauer Memorial Award, the 2018 IEEE Advances in Communications Award, the 2019, 2021, and 2025 ACM Sigmobile Test-of-time Awards, the 2019 ACM MobiCom Community Contribution Award, and the 2023 ICC Best Paper Award. His research has led to multiple startups and FDA-approved products. He is a Fellow of IEEE, ACM, and the National Academy of Inventors.