Faris Mismar, doctoral student at Texas ECE has been named the recipient of the 2016-2017 Marcus Wallenberg Scholarship for Scientific Research and Education. The Wallenberg Scholarship program promotes scientific and technical research and education in the field of Telecommunications. In an application submitted to The Wallenberg Foundation, Mismar, outlined his ambitions to pursue the doctoral program at Texas ECE with a goal to achieve excellence in the field of telecommunications research.

The Wallenberg Foundation in association with Ericsson offers scholarships and grants to five recipients every year. Mismar, who also works at Ericsson as a Senior Solutions Manager, received recommendations from his manager for The Wallenberg Scholarship. This scholarship provides opportunities to employees who wish to broaden their fields of knowledge and who are interested in assuming increased responsibility in their work in the future.  The Wallenberg Scholarship has awarded Mismar an amount of $41,000, which will be utilized towards pursuing his PhD and research interests at the University of Texas at Austin.

Mismar received his Bachelors in Electrical and Computer Engineering from The University of Jordan, Masters in Electrical Engineering and a Masters in Business Administration in Strategy Management and Leadership in Organizations from The University of Texas at Dallas.  He joined the Texas ECE PhD program in 2015 in the Decision, Information, and Communications Engineering (DICE) track with an emphasis on combining machine learning with wireless communications and Internet of Things applications.  He has been working in the wireless industry for over 12 years and has worked on WCDMA/HSPA+/LTE live networks, 5G trials in North America, Wi-Fi 802.11n/ac, and heterogeneous networks design and RF optimization for both indoors and outdoors.  Previously, he worked for Motorola and consulted with many wireless operators in the USA and across the globe. He has a few patents and publications in the wireless field, and has worked on patent disputes as well.