Nokia Bell Labs taps NYU Tandon to accelerate the next-generation of wireless innovators

While it’s widely accepted that partnerships between industry and academia can be beneficial, few such partnerships have had the seismic impact of the one between Nokia Bell Labs, an arm of the Finnish-based telecommunications giant, and NYU WIRELESS, an academic research center based at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering and now led by Distinguished Industry Professor Thomas Marzetta, who is known as the originator of Massive MIMO, one of the cornerstones of fifth-generation wireless technology. 

It’s been a long-standing and steadily growing relationship: in 2014, the company and NYU WIRELESS — which had been founded just two years before by Tandon’s Theodore Rappaport, who had pioneered the use of the millimeter-wave spectrum that made 5G a viable possibility — partnered to launch the first-ever Brooklyn 5G Summit, which quickly evolved into one of the premiere annual events in the wireless world: in the years since then, with the company’s support, NYU WIRELESS researchers having been paving the way for 6G and beyond, thanks to their advancements in new areas of the electromagnetic spectrum, sensing, and other vital topics. (The reality of commercially available 6G is so near that the annual Summit has changed its name to reflect that.) 

So important is the work that has resulted from the partnership that on a 2023 trip to the U.S., Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin made a stop at NYU WIRELESS to meet the faculty and students, hear about their progress firsthand, and learn about the collaborative innovation going on. 

Now, that partnership has deepened even further with the announcement that Nokia Bell Labs is generously funding a series of fellowships aimed at supporting a diverse group of NYU Tandon graduate students in disciplines important to the company’s mission, such as computer science, electrical engineering, and applied physics. 

The fellowships are a valuable addition to Tandon’s doctoral programming and will join the host of professional development, academic, and research resources available at the School’s Ph.D. Hub, which functions as a one-stop shop for everything a graduate student needs to thrive in a dynamic and challenging academic environment.

Employees from the Labs’ Murray Hill facility will serve as mentors to the awardees, forging connections and ensuring that the Fellows see a clear path from their work in the lab to real-world application.

“While doctoral programs are sometimes thought of solely as a path to academic research, at NYU Tandon, we are committed to providing our Ph.D. students with opportunities to explore any avenue they choose,” Linda Ng Boyle, NYU Tandon’s Vice Dean for Research, says. “Partnering with industry leaders like Nokia allows us to present them with new possibilities, and many of our graduates are now leading the way as innovators, inventors, and valued contributors in every sector.”

“We are enormously grateful to Nokia Bell Labs for their continued support over the years and for spearheading this new fellowship initiative,” says Marzetta. “Because it also broadens the talent pipeline for the Labs, it’s a win for everyone involved, and we’re looking forward to seeing all that the Fellows accomplish as a result.”  

“As Nokia’s award-winning industrial research lab, we are excited to strengthen our partnership with NYU WIRELESS. We believe that by working with leading universities and harnessing a diverse set of perspectives and ideas, we can tackle the challenges facing humanity and develop technologies that will transform the way we live,” said Dr.Thierry E. Klein, President, Nokia Bell Labs Solutions Research. “By supporting and collaborating with the talented minds that will become the next wave of inventors, entrepreneurs and creators, we will accelerate technology innovation that will have a positive impact on society.”