Top grad student streamlines microwave design

Rambabu Governor General's Gold Medal

Rambabu Karumudi has come a long way from the small 30-house village in India where he grew up to win this year’s Governor General’s Gold medal as the top graduate student in the faculty of graduate studies.

After earning a bachelor’s degree from Nagarjuna University and a master’s from Banaras Hindu University, Rambabu came to UVic to work with Dr. Jens Bornemann, an international leader in the field of microwave engineering.

For his dissertation research, Rambabu created design procedures that will greatly streamline the development of microwave components used in applications as far-flung as cell phones to air traffic control radar to wireless Internet communications.

In conventional microwave system design, the circuits are designed and built, then physically tested in the lab, and usually go through several lengthy cycles of adjustment and retesting to meet the required performance specifications.

Rambabu’s work provides accurate circuit models based on the physics of a component. These models are used as the building blocks for a computer-based simulated testing environment, a virtual lab where designs can be tested and optimized, saving time and costs.

"Rambabu is a hands-on design engineer," says Bornemann. "He thinks in terms of electromagnetic fields, and his design concepts are based on that. He’s also a very good teacher."

Rambabu taught two fourth-year engineering classes and was awarded an Andy Farquharson Graduate Teaching Award in 2004. "At the beginning of my PhD program, I was not interested in teaching at all," he says. "But when you see the face of a student light up with understanding, that is very satisfying."

In July, Rambabu will take up a position at the Institute for Infocomm Research in Singapore, where he’ll be a research scientist and have the opportunity to continue with teaching at National University of Singapore.