Rockstar Award

The RockStar Award is SIGMOBILE's early career award. The Award recognizes an individual who has made recent outstanding research or product contributions to the field of mobile computing during the early part of his or her career.

Current Recipient

  • 2018Kyle Jamieson

    Kyle Jamieson

    In recognition of his outstanding early-career contributions and impact on our field.

Past Recipients

  • 2017Shyam Gollakota

    Shyam Gollakota

    For contributions to the use of wireless signals in the context of novel applications, including battery-free communications, health monitoring, and gesture recognition.

  • 2016Karthik Sundaresan

    Karthik Sundaresan

    In recognition of significant contributions, early in his career, to wireless connectivity, with an emphasis on novel technologies for wide-area wireless access and smart antenna networking.

  • 2015Romit Roy Choudhury

    Romit Roy Choudhury

    In recognition of significant contributions, early in his career, to mobile sensing and wireless networking, with an emphasis on location and cross-layer protocols.

  • 2014Lin Zhong

    Lin Zhong

    For contributions to understanding mobile design tradeoffs, driven by novel platforms and large longitudinal studies of mobile users.

  • 2013Suman Banerjee

    Suman Banerjee

    For contributions to understanding wireless interference, and for service to the research community.

Award Criterion

The SIGMOBILE RockStar Award recognizes one or more recent technical contribution(s) made in the early part of a mobile computing researcher's career, resulting in notable influence on our field. Early career for an individual is defined as within 10 years of receiving their highest university degree, while being younger than 40 years of age at the time of the nomination. 

Selection is based on the impact of the candidate's work in creating promising new ideas, paradigms, and tools, related to mobile computing. Depth, impact, and novelty of the individual's contributions will be key criteria upon which the RockStar Award Committee (RAC) will evaluate the nominees. 

Deadline for Nomination: 

15th February for award in that calendar year. 

Nomination Process

Following an open call for nominations, nominations should be addressed to the Chair of the RockStar Awards Committee (Prof Edward Knightly - knightly!@!rice.edu). The nominator should solicit recommendations from colleagues in the field who are most familiar with the nominee's achievements. 

Each nomination should consist of the following items: 

  1. Name, phone number, and email address of the person making the nomination. 
  2. Curriculum vitae of the nominee, including name, phone number and email address.
  3. A brief citation, no more than 150 words long. 
  4. A statement, no more than 500 words long, on why the candidate deserves the award. 
  5. Minimum of three and maximum of five supporting letters from individuals who endorse the nomination. The recommender should identify the rationale for the nomination and by what means they know of the nominee's work. Endorsement letters may be sent in the form of emails and should not be more than 400 words.

Selection Committee

1. Edward Knightly (Chair) Email: knightly!@!rice.edu
2. Hari Balakrishnan (Senior Research Community)
3. Anind Dey (Senior Research Community)
4. PR Kumar (Senior Research Community)
5. Suman Banerjee (2013 winner)
6. Lin Zhong (2014 winner)
7. Romit Roy Choudhury (2015 winner)
8. Karthik Sundaresan (2016 winner)
9. Shyam Gollakota (2017 winner)

Retired from Selection Committee

1. Roy Want (SIGMOBILE EC)
2. Marco Gruteser (SIGMOBILE EC)
3. Alec Wolman (SIGMOBILE EC)
4. Lili Qiu (SIGMOBILE EC)