New challenges in the design of electromagnetic communication systems

Summary form only given. Space exploration is an exciting scientific endeavor, and it has recently engendered considerable recent interest because of the success of the Mars mission, among others. We have been intrigued by the prospect of communicating with life in other planets, or at least finding their existence, even if in the form of microbes not visible to the naked eye. Although we have not really had any success in locating such life to-date, many scientists believe the chances are good that we will at least find living organisms, if not ET and his friends, sometime in not too distant a future. Thus our search for life in other planets and distant galaxies continues unabated. The success in this endeavor will depend squarely on our ability to meet the challenges of designing the sensors, and antennas which relay the information gathered by the sensors back down to earth, where they can be processed by astro-biophysicists, for instance. Of course we need to communicate not only in, and from, outer space, but also down on earth. There is no denying of the fact that today\´s children are growing up in the world of video games, twitter, Facebook and this, in turn, is fueling the need for data transfer, e.g., videos, at a very high data rate. An intriguing idea--that is not as far-fetched as one might think--is to communicate to the PlayStation on the computer, not in the usual way by manipulating the controller with our hands, but by using brain waves instead. Given this background, the talk will take a quick look at what is happening in this challenging world of communication with machines but not in the old-fashioned way like your parents did. Finally, it is evident that the world of communication today is exploding in more new directions that we ever even imagined a few years ago, when we were only communicating the “usual" ways. This is because the scope of communication is growing rapidly, and new applications such as sensing and relaying of inform- tion in the context of healthcare and patient monitoring are coming into vogue. The talk will present some examples of new concepts in RF and Optical Communication, including those that might have a substantial impact on the exciting world of cyber communications of the future.