Room 340, Packard Elec. Engg.
MC: 9515, Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-9515
Telephone: (650) 724 4796
Fax: (650) 723 9251
syed@systems.stanford.edu
http://www.stanford.edu/~syed/
Syed Ali Jafar
Objective
Looking for Summer Internship opportunities in Wireless Communications Research.
Education
Stanford University, Stanford
PhD Candidate in Electrical Engineering (GPA: 4.0/4.0)
Advisor: Prof. Andrea J. Goldsmith
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
MS in Electrical Engineering (GPA: 4.2/4.0)
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi (India)
Bachelor of Technology, Electrical Engineering (Minor area: Computer Science)
CGPA: 9.3/10 (Ranked 3rd in the branch)
(Expected) Sept. 2002
Jun. 1999
Jul. 1997
Distinctions & Awards







Ranked 7th out of 144 students taking the PhD Qualifying Examination at Stanford University.
Recipient of institute merit prize, IIT Delhi, for seven semesters, for ranking among the top 3
students in the department each semester.
Among the best three undergraduate theses in EE department, IIT Delhi.
Ranked among top 0.2% in Joint Entrance Exam (IIT’JEE) for admission to Indian Institutes of
Technology.
Stood 1st (out of 1400 students) in Senior Secondary School Examination-II (Class XII)
conducted by AMU, India. Recipient of University Gold Medal.
Ranked 1st (out of 1400 students) in Senior Secondary School Examination-I (Class XI)
conducted by AMU, India.
Ranked 1st (out of 900 students) in Secondary School Examination for Classes IX and X.
Recipient of University Merit Scholarship.
2000
1993-97
1997
1993
1993
1992
1992
Work Experience

Software Engineer, Satellite Networks Division at Hughes Software Systems, India.
 Developed system software for Cellular Air to Ground Communication System
(CLAIRCOM Project).
 Part of a team responsible for design and testing of Air Interface Protocol for ICO User
Terminal Simulator.
PhD Research



6/97 - 09/98
Since Jun. 1999
Interested in the capacity and complexity issues of wireless multiple antenna systems and multirate CDMA systems.
Worked on the optimal rate and power adaptation strategy for Multirate CDMA systems.
Studied the complexity-capacity tradeoff for multiple antenna systems.
o Showed that even with imperfect feedback, if quality of feedback is good enough, capacity is
achieved with 1-D codes.
o Analyzed the tradeoff between the quality of feedback and decoding complexity required to
achieve capacity.
1
o Obtained precise expressions for the quality of feedback required for achieving
capacity with scalar coding.
Syed Ali Jafar
Undergraduate Research



Proposed new jamming techniques effective against Frequency Hopped Communications.
Implemented a QPSK modem using the processor ADI-DSP2101 for a data rate of 4800b/s
according to CCITT standards.
Developed general-purpose software for the design of a high speed Surface Acoustic Wave
(SAW) filter device.
1996-97
1995-96
1995-96
Academic Experience

Served as Teaching Assistant at Caltech for the following courses:
o Introduction to Linear Systems.
o Communication System Fundamentals.
List of Publications







Syed A. Jafar and A. J. Goldsmith, Adaptive multicode CDMA for uplink throughput
maximization, submitted to IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications.
Syed A. Jafar and A. J. Goldsmith, Adaptive multicode CDMA for uplink throughput
maximization, proceedings of Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC) 2001.
Syed A. Jafar and A. J. Goldsmith, Optimal Rate and Power Adaptation for Multirate CDMA,
proceedings of Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC), September 2000, Boston, USA.
Syed A. Jafar and A. J. Goldsmith, Beamforming Capacity and SNR Maximization for Multiple
Antenna Systems with Covariance Feedback, proceedings of Vehicular Technology Conference
(VTC) 2001.
Syed A. Jafar and A. J. Goldsmith, On Optimality of Beamforming for Multiple Antenna systems
with Imperfect Feedback, submitted to International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT)
2001.
Syed A. Jafar, S. Vishwanath and A. J. Goldsmith, Channel Capacity and Beamforming for
Multiple Transmit and Receive Antennas with Covariance Feedback, proceedings of ICC2001.
Syed A. Jafar and A. J. Goldsmith, Vector MAC Capacity Region with Covariance Feedback,
submitted to International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT) 2001.
Computer Skills





Experience in system design, analysis, simulation, and code generation using Telelogic’s design
tool SDT.
Considerable experience with Windriver’s Real Time Operating System VxWorks.
Did Configuration Management using ClearCase by Atria Software.
Worked with DOS, HP-UNIX, Sun, Linux, Windows95, and Windows NT machines.
Experienced in Unix networking and programming.
2
1998-99