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Alex Hills

Distinguished Service Professor – EPP; Professor – ECE
Carnegie Mellon, 1989 –

Contact Information
Department	Engineering and Public Policy
Office	129F Baker Hall
Telephone	(412)-268-2122
Fax	(412)-268-3757
Email	ahills@andrew.cmu.edu
Website	http://www.epp.cmu.edu/httpdocs/people/bios/hills.html

Research Interests

Professor Hills has broad experience in information technology, including both technical and business aspects. He is an expert in telecommunications policy, which encompasses engineering, law and economics. His telecommunications policy course addresses the very latest issues in this field and is always quite popular with students. Wireless communications technology has been one of his interests in recent years, and he has written and lectured on the technology's potential for delivering basic telephone service in the developing world and on its implications for ubiquitous (anytime, anywhere) computing. Hills is the founder of Carnegie Mellon's Wireless Initiative, and one of his recent projects is "Wireless Andrew," which is making high speed wireless data network service available to Carnegie Mellon users of laptop and other mobile computers.

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.

In the News

• Hills Elected Alaska Engineer of the Year
• ECE Faculty Win Accolades from IEEE and ACM
• Helium Networks Commercializes Wireless LAN Technology Invented by CMU Researchers
• CMU Researchers Create Tools for Reliable, High Speed "Wi-Fi" Wireless Networks

Keywords

Research in technology and public policy issues relevant to wireless communications

Education

PhD, 1979
Engineering and Public Policy
CMU

MS, 1969
Electrical Engineering
Arizona State University

BS, 1964
Electrical Engineering
RPI