AWARDS AND HONORS

  • 2025 IIT Madras Young Alumni Award
  • 2024 ACM SIGMOBILE Rockstar Award
  • 2021 ACM SIGBED Early Career Researcher Award
  • 2021 CIT Dean’s Early Career Fellow, CMU
  • 2021 ACM/IEEE IPSN Best Paper Award
  • 2020 ACM MobiSys Best Paper Honorable Mention and Best Demo
  • 2020 ACM/IEEE IPSN Best Paper Award
  • 2019 NSF CAREER Award
  • 2018 ACM/IEEE IPSN Best Paper Award
  • 2017 Google Faculty Research Award
  • 2017 NSF CRII Award
  • 2016 SIGCOMM Best Paper Award
  • 2015 George M. Sprowls Award for Outstanding Ph.D. Thesis in Computer Science, MIT
  • 2014 Communications of the ACM (CACM) Research Highlight for MegaMIMO
  • 2014 MobiCom Best Presentation Second Place Award
  • 2014 MobiCom S3 Workshop Best Poster Award
  • 2013 MobiCom S3 Workshop Best Elevator Pitch Award
  • 2013 MIT 100K Entrepreneurship Contest: Finalist (Business Plan)
  • 2012 MIT 100K Entrepreneurship Contest: Winning Team (Elevator Pitch)
  • 2010 MIT Jacobs Presidential Fellowship
  • 2010 Best Paper Award, SECRYPT
  • 2010 Valedictorian & President of India Gold Medal for Highest CGPA, IIT Madras
  • 2008 Prof. Narasihman Fellowship, IIT Madras
  • 2006 Bronze Medal, International Olympiad on Informatics
  • 2006 Invited to Republic Day parade from Prime Minister’s box for excellence in CBSE exams

RESEARCH GRANTS

Our sincere thanks to the National Science Foundation for supporting our research.

  • NSF 2433903
    Towards Software-Defined Soft Robotic Antennas for Spectrum Era 4 (PI: Swarun Kumar, co-PI: Carmel Majidi)
  • NSF 2111751
    CPS: Frontier: Software-Defined Nanosatellite Constellations: The Foundation of Future Space-Based Cyber-physical Systems (PI: Brandon Lucia, co-PIs: Swarun Kumar, Vyas Sekar, Zac Manchester, Gauri Joshi)
  • NSF 2030154
    SWIFT: Large: Averting Wireless Spectrum Pollution in the Era of Low-Power IoT (PI: Swarun Kumar)Project Website
  • NSF 2106921
    CNS: Medium: Energy Centric Wireless Sensor Node System for Smart Farms (CMU Site PI: Swarun Kumar)Project Website
  • NSF 2007786
    CNS: Small: Harnessing Wireless Actuation (PI: Swarun Kumar)Project Website
  • NSF 1942902
    CAREER: Pushing the Limits of Low-Power Wide-Area Networks (PI: Swarun Kumar)Project Website
  • NSF 1718435
    NeTS: Small: Handheld mm-Accurate Positioning for Wearables (PI: Swarun Kumar)Project Website
  • NSF 1657318
    CRII: NeTS: A Wireless Sensing Platform for Safe Autonomous Driving (PI: Swarun Kumar)Project Website
  • NSF 1738114
    EAGER: SC2: A Systems Approach to Spectrum Collaboration (PI: Swarun Kumar, co-PIs: Anthony Rowe, Bob Iannucci)
  • NSF 1837607
    CPS: Medium: Secure Computing and Cross-Layer Anomaly Detection in the IoT (PI: Soummya Kar, co-PIs: José Moura, Swarun Kumar)
  • NSF 1823235
    CRI: II-New: Mobile Millimeter-Wave MIMO Network Based on CMU Chipscale Beamformers (Rick Carley, Jeyanandh Paramesh, Swarun Kumar — co-PI)Project Website

Other Federal Sources

DARPA ONR ARL

Industry Supporters

Google Bosch Bridgestone CISCO Polaris Jane Street Qualcomm

Research Centers

CyLab Scott Institute IoT@CyLab Afretec Safety21 MFI

PRESS

  • Pushing the Boundaries of Wireless Sensing Technologies July 2025 — Connectivity Technology Blog
  • No, Oct. 4 National Emergency Alert Test Won’t Turn You into a Zombie. Here Are the Facts. Jeff Cercone, October 2023 — PolitiFact
  • Phone Calls on Planes: Should They Be Allowed? 2023 — USA Today
  • Why 5G Can Be Slower Than 4G Networks WTAE Pittsburgh
  • This Fiber Can Turn Your Clothes into Listening Devices The Daily Beast
  • Carnegie Mellon University’s Swarun Kumar On How 5G Technology May Improve and Impact Our Lives David Liu, 2021 — Authority Magazine
  • Why Affordable 5G Is So Important 2021 — Lifewire
  • Carnegie Mellon University’s Swarun Kumar: 5G Could Improve Our Lives in Many Ways 2021 — Thrive Global
  • 5G: It’s Not Just for Your Smartphone 2021 — TechRepublic
  • How True Wireless Headphones Work 2020 — Consumer Reports
  • Empowering Low-Power Wide-Area Networks to Meet the IoT Challenge Alan Weissberger, May 2020 — IEEE ComSoc Tech Blog
  • Bluetooth Contact Tracing Needs Bigger, Better Data Patrick Howell O’Neill, April 2020 — MIT Technology Review
  • Pittsburgh Updates Its Infrastructure In Preparation For 5G Maria Scapellato, February 2020 — 90.5 FM WESA
  • The Next Leap in Wireless Charging Bree Fowler, January 2020 — Consumer Reports
  • The Future of Wireless Is Connecting Everyday Objects July 2019 — TED Talk (TEDxPittsburgh)
  • Technology Hopes to End the Lost Luggage Blues Stephen Mraz, June 2019 — Machine Design
  • 5G — A Homegrown Revolution May 2018 — Washington Post
  • How Your iPhone Could Know When You’re in a Moving Car Rob Verger, June 2017 — Popular Science
  • Wireless Networks That Follow You Around a Room, Optimize Themselves and Even Talk to Each Other Out Loud 2013 — NetworkWorld
  • Making Driverless Cars Safer 2012 — Slashdot
  • Driverless Car Is Wireless Star at MIT 2012 — NetworkWorld
  • Talking Cars Help Each Other See Around Blind Corners 2012 — NewScientist
  • Be Sensitive Thermometers if Not Thermostats 2010 — The Hindu
  • Indian Students Are Set for Informatics Olympiad 2006 — The Hindu
  • Planned Effort the Key for Chennai Students 2006 — NDTV

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

  • Chair / Co-chair: MobiSys 2025, COMSNETS 22-23, Workshop on Communication-aware Robotics in RSS 2014; WinTech 2018; MobiCom 2018 Posters
  • Reviewer: SIGCOMM 2016; MobiCom 2016–Present; INFOCOM 2017–2019; CoNext 2018
  • Associate Editor: IEEE Transactions on Sensor Networks (2018–Present)
  • External reviewer: International Journal for Robotics Research; IEEE Transactions on Networking; IEEE Transactions on Wireless; IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing; INFOCOM; NSDI; IEEE Pervasive Computing