Mridul Mishra receives Rackham Non-Traditional Fellowship

Mridul Mishra, a graduate student in the Electrical Engineering:Systems program, received a Rackham Non-Traditional Fellowship to pursue his studies in wireless communications.

Mr. Mishra received his bachelor’s degree from Indian Institute of Technoloyg (IIT)-BHU, India, in 2004. He immediately took a job at Freescale Semiconductor rather than continue his studies so that he could contribute financially to the education of his younger sister. While at Freescale, he became lead architect for wireless products, and became interested in some of the fundamental problems of wireless communication such as channel estimation and receiver synchronization. Based on his work in this area at Freescale Semiconductor, he has one patent and is co-author on a second patent.

As a master’s student at Michigan, he has strengthened his fundamental understanding of wireless communications through his coursework as well as through independent research with Prof. Sandeep Pradhan.

The Rackham Non-Traditional Fellowship program was established to aid first or second year master’s students who have returned to graduate school after an absence of at least five years. Because an interruption in schooling may place such students at a disadvantage in competing for financial assistance awarded at the time of admission, these awards help non-traditional students fund their return to formal education.