A project developed by l'X and CTU selected for the conference IEEE MeditCom

A fine example of academic and scientific collaboration, which the European university EuroTeQ seeks to foster and support: Opening École Polytechnique’s course "Wireless Networks: from Cellular to Connected Objects" to students from the five European partner universities as part of a shared course catalog allowed Jesus Cumana-Morales, a PhD student at the Czech Technical University' (CTU) faculty of Electrical Engineering, to take this course and work on a project under the supervision of Juan-Antonio Cordero-Fuertes, associate professor at École Polytechnique, and Marceau Coupechoux, professor at Télécom Paris, one of the five founding institutions of Institut Polytechnique de Paris alongside l’X.

"Being able to take courses at excellent partner European universities such as École Polytechnique, the Technical University of Munich, or the Technical University of Eindhoven is a fantastic opportunity for students. There were many interesting courses to choose from. Still, I particularly wanted to learn more about wireless systems", explains Jesus Cumana-Morales, who, while completing his PhD at CTU, already works as an engineer specializing in the design of radio-frequency components. He emphasizes his gratitude for the availability of the two professors teaching the course he took, as they made themselves available to exchange on the necessary prerequisites beforehand and supported him beyond the course period.

"The subject was complex, but I learned a lot. The level at l'X is high, but I could see that you receive all the support and help you need, even though my participation was entirely remote", he stressed.

The quality of the project initiated and developed by Jesus Cumana-Morales as part of the course prompted the two professors to offer their guidance and support to finish it and submit it to the international conference IEEE MeditCom, focused on wireless network technologies and data transfers. The commitment of Juan-Antonio Cordero-Fuertes and Marceau Coupechoux to support the student from the Czech partner university CTU way beyond the course format was rewarded! The scientific paper was selected for publication at this year’s MeditCom conference, held from September 4th to 7th, 2023, in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Understanding the behavior of meta-surfaces

The course "Wireless Networks: from Cellular to Connected Objects", in which Juan-Antonio Cordero-Fuertes and Marceau Coupechoux teach, also focuses on the technology of meta-surfaces, also known as RIS (Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces). This technology enhances the physical data transmission performance of wireless communication systems.

Jesus Cumana-Morales's project contributes to explaining the behavior of these surfaces that reflect the radio signal from a relay antenna to direct it with a narrow beam towards a user who may have poor coverage, like a sort of mirror. Supported by the two professors, Jesus Cumana-Morales identified the challenges related to angular errors and proposed relevant solutions.

"Meta-surfaces substantially improve the performance in the physical transmission of data for wireless communication systems and are part of the technologies considered for 6G. Jesus' research helps to better understand the behavior of these surfaces, with a study on the losses induced by a specific type of error and the proposal of correction methods", explains Juan-Antonio Cordero-Fuertes, Associate Professor at École Polytechnique

The ambition of the European university EuroTeQ

Recognizing the importance of training the next generation of engineers on current and future socio-environmental concerns, EuroTeQ Engineering University seeks to include students and professors in various educational initiatives tailored for this purpose. The collaboration of Jesus Cumana-Morales, Juan-Antonio Cordero-Fuertes, and Marceau Coupechoux has advanced research while providing a solution to a wireless network issue. It demonstrates how high-quality education closely aligned with real-life challenges can directly contribute to addressing global issues.

The EuroTeQ shared course catalog enables students to enroll in various courses offered by partner universities, remotely or in hybrid mode. Students from École Polytechnique have the opportunity to enrich their academic program according to their interests and discover the educational environment at the five partner universities of the project - Technical University of Eindhoven (TU/e), Technical University of Munich (TUM), Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), and Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU).