Vikram Iyer

vsiyer@uw.edu
185 Stevens Way, AE100R Campus Box 352500
Paul G. Allen Center, ECE Dept.
Seattle, WA 98195-2500

Google Scholar      CV

About Me

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I am an assistant professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering My work takes an interdisciplinary approach to connect ideas between different engineering domains and biology to build end-to-end wireless systems that push the boundaries of technology with particular focus on size, weight, and power. This includes technologies for ultra-low power communication using backscatter, insect-scale wireless robots, battery-free sensors, as well as cameras and sensors small enough to ride on the back of live insects like beetles and bumblebees. In 2020 I worked closely with the Washington Department of Agriculture to wirelessly track the invasive "murder" hornets, which resulted in the destruction of the first nest in the US (featured on Discovery). My work has been recognized by a Microsoft Research Fellowship, the Marconi Society Paul Baran Young Scholar award, a AAAS member spotlight, Geekwire's Innovation of the Year Award, and best paper awards.

My research interests are broad and am currently exploring technologies for use in wildlife tracking and conservation, microrobots, and medical devices. I'm also interested in developing novel bio-integrated sensors and building computing platforms with sustainable materials.

I'm looking for students, you're interested please reach out!

Recent News

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• Accepted an offer to stay at UW as an assistant professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering
• Won Geekwire's Innovation of the Year for my work on tracking the "murder" hornets, thanks to everyone who voted and helped get the word out!
• Finalist for Geekwire Innovation of the Year, vote for me here
• CACM technical perspective article on insect tracking from Living IoT
• Featured in "Attack of the Murder Hornets", now streaming on Discovery+
• IEEE Spectrum article on our Internet of Plastic things
• Featured by AAAS in a Member Spotlight
• Hornet tracking update: Nest found!
• Check out our efforts to help the Washington Dept. of Agricalture track invasive Asian Giant Hornets
• Received the Marconi Society Young Scholar Award
• Featured by Geekwire
• Science Robotics paper and focus article on insect-scale steerable wireless cameras (NPR, CNN, CNBC)
• Check out TinySDR, an ultra-low-power SDR platform for IoT testbeds
• Presented our work on Living IoT, a wireless sensor platform on bumblebees at Mobicom (NBC News, Forbes, Seattle times)
• First wireless fly-sized drone takes off (IEEE Spectrum, Economist, Wired)

Publications

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• Airdropping sensor networks from drones and insects
  Vikram Iyer, Maruchi Kim, Qiuyue Xue, Anran Wang, Shyam Gollakota
  Mobicom, September 2020 [paper] [code]
  
  
• Wireless steerable vision for live insects and insect-scale robots
  Vikram Iyer, Ali Najafi, Johannes James, Sawyer Fuller, Shyam Gollakota
  Science Robotics, July 2020 [paper][code]
  
  
• TinySDR: Low power SDR Platform for Over-the-Air-Programmable IoT Testbeds
  Mehrdad Hessar, Ali Najafi, Vikram Iyer, Shyam Gollakota
  NSDI 2020 [paper] [slides] [code]
  
  
• Living IoT: A Flying Wireless Platform on Live Insects
  Vikram Iyer, Rajalakshmi Nandakumar, Anran Wang, Sawyer Fuller, Shyam Gollakota
  Mobicom 2019 [paper] [slides]
  
  
• 3D Localization for Sub-Centimeter Sized Devices
  Rajalakshmi Nandakumar, Vikram Iyer, Shyam Gollakota
  Sensys, Nov 2018 [paper] [slides] (Best Paper Award)
  
  
• Wireless Analytics for 3D Printed Objects
  Vikram Iyer, Justin Chan, Ian Culhane, Jennifer Mankoff, Shyam Gollakota
  UIST, Oct 2018 [paper] [slides]
  
  
• Liftoff of a 190 mg Laser-powered Aerial Vehicle: The Lightest Wireless Robot to Fly
  Johannes James, Vikram Iyer, Yogesh Chukewad, Shyam Gollakota, Sawyer Fuller
  ICRA, May 2018 [paper]
  
  
• Charging a Smartphone Across a Room Using Lasers
  Vikram Iyer, Elyas Bayati, Rajalakshmi Nandakumar, Arka Majumdar, Shyam Gollakota
  IMWUT, Dec 2017 [paper]

• 3D Printing Wireless Connected Objects Vikram Iyer, Justin Chan, Shyam Gollakota
  SIGGRAPH Asia, 2017 [paper]
  
  
• FM Backscatter: Enabling Connected Cities and Smart Fabrics
  Anran Wang, Vikram Iyer, Vamsi Talla, Josh Smith, Shyam Gollakota
  NSDI, 2017 [paper] [slides]
  
  
• Enabling On-Body Transmissions with Commodity Devices
  Mehrdad Hessar, Vikram Iyer, Shyam Gollakota
  UBICOMP, 2016 [paper] [slides]
  
  
• Inter-Technology Backscatter: Towards Internet Connectivity for Implanted Devices
  Vikram Iyer, Vamsi Talla, Bryce Kellogg, Josh Smith, Shyam Gollakota
  SIGCOMM, 2016 [paper] [slides] (Best Paper Award)
  
  
• FingerIO: Using Active Sonar for Fine-Grained Finger Tracking
  Rajalakshmi Nandakumar, Vikram Iyer, Desney Tan, Shyam Gollakota
  CHI, 2016 [paper] [slides] (Honorable Mention)
  
  
• Encapsulation of integrated circuits in plastic microfluidic systems using hot embossing
  Vikram Iyer, Pramod Murali, Jacob Paredes, Dorian Liepmann, Bernhard Boser Transducers, 2015
  
  

Mentorship

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Masters Students
Nishant Elkunchwar
Yash Talwekar
Suvesha Chandrasekaran

Undergraduates
Kyle Johnson (now at UW CSE for PhD)
Vicente Arroyos (now at UW CSE for PhD)
Hans Gaensbauer
Alaa Sleek
Jose Jaime (now at Sound Life Sciences)
Ian Culhane (now at MRV Systems)
Ryan Feng (now at University of Michigan, Ph.D.)