Dr. Hongyi Wu with CACS has just received from the National Science Foundation (NSF), a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award, which is deemed the most competitive and prestigious award from NSF to young faculty members in all science and engineering fields. This five-year award of $460,000 enables him to investigate into two intimately interrelated research thrusts: enhanced communication protocols and self-configurable management schemes. The research project, according to Dr. Wu, is a part of his envisioned future wireless communications based on ubiquitous and integrated architecture to be realizable possibly by integrating multi-hop wireless networking technology with infrastructure-based systems. His award is among several CAREER awards given by the NSF Network Systems program in 2004. The receipt of the CAREER award was even more significant for Dr. Hongyi Wu, since it was the first time he applied after he graduated in 2002. CAREER awardees are rarely of new graduates like Dr. Wu.

The CAREER program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards for new faculty members. It recognizes and supports the early career-development activities of those teacher-scholars. According to the NSF, "CAREER awards support exceptionally promising college and university junior faculty who are committed to the integration of research and education," says NSF Director Rita Colwell. "We recognize these faculty members, new in their careers, as most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st Century." CAREER awardees are selected on the basis of creative, career-development plans that effectively integrate research and education within the context of the mission of their institution. Such plans should build a firm foundation for a lifetime of integrated contributions to research and education. The award places emphasis on high-quality research and novel education initiatives.