Alex Hills

Office: Baker Hall 129F

Phone: (907) 232-6088

Email: ahills@cmu.edu

Assistant: Marilyn Walgora, (412) 268-1703

Distinguished Service Professor, Engineering and Public Policy and School of Computer Science

Research in technology public policy issues relevant to wireless communications and the development of new telecommunications infrastructure.

B.S. 1964, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

M.S. 1969, Arizona State University

Ph.D. 1979, Carnegie Mellon University.

Carnegie Mellon, 1992-.

Professor Alex Hills is the founder of Carnegie Mellon's Wireless Initiative, a research program which concerns mobile computers and their ability to have continuous, high speed access to the Internet. He is also the creator of Wireless Andrew, Carnegie Mellon's groundbreaking campus wireless network. Working with colleagues, Professor Hills has developed a methodology for designing large scale wireless LANs. He also recently invented a semi-automated design tool called Rollabout, which dramatically improves and speeds up the design process.

In addition, Professor Hills works on technology and policy issues relevant to establishing new telecommunications infrastructure in developing and remote areas of the world. His work with wireless local loop technology, for example, has shown that it can be extremely cost effective but that national decision makers must allocate sufficient radio spectrum to guarantee its feasibility

Representative Publications

Hills, A., "Large-Scale Wireless LAN Design," (Invited paper) IEEE Communications, vol. 39, no. 11, pp. 98-104, November 2001.

Hills, A. and H. Y. Yeh, "Spectrum Use and Carrier Costs: A Critical Tradeoff," Telecommunications Policy, vol. 23, no. 7-8, pp. 569-584,August-September 1999.

Hills, A., "Wireless Andrew," IEEE Spectrum, vol. 36, no. 6, pp. 49-53, June 1999.

Hills, A., "Terrestrial Wireless Networks," Scientific American, vol. 278, no. 4, pp. 86-91, April 1998.