VOLUME 13, NO. 1     DEC 1999

Another professor on the CAREER track

John M. Rulnick, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, is WPI's newest recipient of a National Science Foundation Early Career (CAREER) Development Award. The four-year grant, which began in March, is expected to total $210,000. In the first year of his project, "Efficient Distributed Resource Allocation Algorithms," Rulnick is beginning to integrate portions of his research into WPI's undergraduate communications and networking curriculum. "Teams of students in the communications systems area will visit the issues encountered in the design of wireless networks and discover the economic interpretations and implications," he explains. "The research will develop a prototype network and, at the same time, contribute to a new undergraduate course in communication systems design and network resource allocation, with an emphasis on wireless networks."

Rulnick, who joined the faculty in 1996, earned a bachelor's degree at MIT and a master's and doctorate at the University of California, Los Angeles. His WPI research has focused on wireless communications, game theory, stochastic models, and the reliability and security of systems and networks,.

The NSF program fosters the development of young faculty as educators and researchers. Rulnick is the eighth WPI professor to receive the award since the program was established in 1995.