Vikram Iyer
Email: vsiyer@uw.edu
Office: Allen Center 648
Mailing Address: Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering
185 E Stevens Way NE, Campus Box 352350
Seattle, WA 98195-2350
Google Scholar
About Me
I am an assistant professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering and co-director of the CS for Environment Initiative. I also have an adjunct appointment in Mechanical 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 our group is currently exploring technologies for use in wildlife tracking and conservation, microrobots, and medical devices. We're also working to develop novel bio-integrated sensors and building computing platforms with sustainable materials.
Recent News
- We're building tiny robots that can drive without batteries, see the talk at Mobicom 2023
- Come see our work on miniaturized flybars for stabilizing tiny helicopters at IROS 2023
- New work on battery-free origami microfliers that change shape in mid-air out in Science Robotics
- Can AI tools like GPT-4 reason about designing and debugging hardware? Turns out they're surprisingly good:https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.03817
- Thanks to Google for their support through a Google Research Scholar Award!
- Thanks to Amazon for supporting our work on designing sustainable electronics and computing devices with an Amazon Research Award!
- Hornet tracking work published in theJournal of Hymenoptera Research
- Received SIGMOBILE Dissertation Award
- Check out our work on circular fabrication and food supply chain sensing at Sensys'22
-
Dandelion inspired sensors featured in Nature's collection on AI and robotics
- See our new tiny wireless motion trackers at ICRA 2022
-
Vicente Arroyos to present our work on designing a sustainable computer mouse with biodegradable materials at CHI
-
New work on battery-free wireless sensors that float in the wind like dandelion seeds published in Nature
-
Check out our wearable autoinjector that can reverse opioid overdoses
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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!
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CACM technical perspective article on insect tracking from Living IoT
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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!
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Check out our efforts to help the Washington Dept. of Agricalture track invasive Asian Giant Hornets
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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
-
MilliMobile: An Autonomous Battery-free Wireless Microrobot
Kyle Johnson*,
Zachary Englhardt*,
Vicente Arroyos*,
Dennis Yin,
Shwetak Patel,
Vikram Iyer
Mobicom 2023 (to appear) [paper]
*Co-primary student authors
-
Solar-powered shape-changing origami microfliers
Kyle Johnson*,
Vicente Arroyos*,
Amélie Ferran,
Raul Villanueva,
Dennis Yin,
Tilboon Elberier,
Alberto Aliseda,
Sawyer Fuller,
Vikram Iyer,
Shyam Gollakota
Science Robotics 2023
[paper][preprint]
*Co-primary student authors
Toward Sub-gram Helicopters: Designing a Miniaturized Flybar for Passive Stability
Kyle Johnson*,
Vicente Arroyos*,
Raul Villanueva*,
Adriana Schulz,
Sawyer Fuller,
Vikram Iyer,
IROS 2023 (to appear) [paper]
*Co-primary student authors
-
Exploring and Characterizing Large Language Models For Embedded System Development and Debugging
Zachary Englhardt,
Richard Li,
Dilini Nissanka,
Zhihan Zhang,
Girish Narayanswamy,
Joe Breda,
Xin Liu,
Shwetak Patel,
Vikram Iyer [arXiv preprint]
-
Detection and description of four Vespa mandarinia (Hymenoptera, Vespidae) nests in western North America
Chris Looney, Brant Carman, Jenni Cena, Cassie Cichorz, Vikram Iyer, Jessica Orr, Nathan Roueché, Karla Salp, Jacqueline M. Serrano, Landon Udo, Paul van Westendorp, Telissa M. Wilson, Rian Wojahn, Sven-Erik Spichiger
Journal of Hymenoptera Research
-
Circularity in Energy Harvesting Computational "Things"
Nivedita Arora,
Vikram Iyer,
Hyunjoo Oh,
Gregory Abowd,
Josiah Hester
ENSsys 2022
-
Smart Pallets: Toward Self-Powered Pallet-level Environmental Sensors for Food Supply Chains
Ali Saffari, Vikram Iyer,
Vaishnavi Ranganathan
AgSys 2022
-
Bio-inspired source seeking and obstacle avoidance on a palm-sized drone
Nishant Elkunchwar, Vikram Iyer, Melanie Anderson, Krishna Balasubramanian, Jessica Noe, Yash Talwekar,
Sawyer Fuller
ICUAS 2022
-
Towards Sensor Autonomy in Sub-Gram Flying Insect Robots: A Lightweight and Power-Efficient Avionics System
Yash Talwekar, Andrew Adie, Vikram Iyer,
Sawyer Fuller
ICRA 2022
[paper]
-
Eclipse: An End-to-End Platform for Low-Cost, Hyperlocal Environmental Sensing in Cities
Madeleine Daepp,
Alex Cabral,
Vaishnavi Ranganathan,
Vikram Iyer,
Scott Counts,
Paul Johns,
Asta Roseway,
Charlie Catlett,
Gavin Jancke,
Darren Gehring,
Chuck Needham,
Curtis von Veh,
Tracy Tran,
Lex Story,
Gabriele D'Amone,
Bichlien Nguyen
IPSN 2022
[paper]
[air quality map]
[video]
[demo]
-
A Tale of Two Mice: Sustainable Electronic Design and Prototyping
Vicente Arroyos
Maria Viitaniemi,
Nicholas Keehn,
Vaidehi Oruganti,
Winston Saunders,
Karin Strauss,
Vikram Iyer,
Bichlien Nguyen
CHI 2022
[paper]
[poster]
[presentation]
[video]
- Wind dispersal of battery-free wireless devices
Vikram Iyer,
Hans Gaensbauer,
Tom Daniel,
Shyam Gollakota
Nature, March 2022
- Closed-loop wearable naloxone injector system
Justin Chan,
Vikram Iyer,
Anran Wang,
Alexander Lyness,
Preetma Kooner,
Jacob Sunshine,
Shyam Gollakota
Scientific Reports, November 2021
- Toward battery-free flight: Duty cycled recharging of small drones
Nishant Elkunchwar,
Suvesha Chandrasekaran,
Vikram Iyer,
Sawyer Fuller,
IROS, September 2021
- 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
Students and Mentorship
PhD Students
Kyle Johnson (NSF Fellowship, Google Scholarship, GEM Fellowship, co-advised with Sawyer Fuller)
Vicente Arroyos (GEM Fellowship, Clean Energy Institute Fellowship)
Qiuyue (Shirley) Xue (co-advised with
Shwetak Patel)
Zhihan Zhang (co-advised with
Shwetak Patel, Clean Energy Institute Fellowship)
Zachary Englhardt
(co-advised with
Shwetak Patel)
Yash Talwekar (advised by
Sawyer Fuller)
Masters Students
Nishant Elkunchwar (now at Monarch Tractor)
Suvesha Chandrasekaran(now at Amazon)
Undergraduates
Chun-Cheng Chang
Aisha Cora
Maitri Dedhia
Be-Emnet Elias
Kevin Hernandez-Ramos
Michael Ibrahim
Eric Martin
Dilini Nissanka
William Vera
Matiyas Yared
Raul Villanueva
Dennis Yin (now UW ECE MS)
Tilboon Elberier (now UCLA PhD)
Hans Gaensbauer (now at Gridware)
Jose Jaime (now at Sound Life Sciences)
Ian Culhane (now at MRV Systems)
Ryan Feng (now at University of Michigan, Ph.D.)