About the RTC Lab
The Real-Time Communications (RTC) Lab at the Illinois Institute of Technology (Illinois Tech) is an educational facility dedicated to teaching, research and development activities that further the advancement of networked communications. The lab welcomes projects from partners in industry and academia provides a unique venue in which industry and academia connect and collaborate. The RTC Lab is affiliated with Illinois Tech's Wireless Network and Communications Research (WiNCom) Center and is directed by Carol Davids, and Vijay K. Gurbani. The RTC Lab collaborates closely with Illinois Tech's Active Computational Thinking (ACT) Center.
Areas of research include:- Indoor Location for Emergency Response using BlueTooth Low Energy beacons and Wifi
- WebRTC Solution for Next Generation Emergency Communications
- Multimedia signaling performance benchmarking
- Application of machine learning techniques to real-time communication networks and VoIP
- Natural language understanding/processing pipelines in real-time communication systems
Direction
The RTC Lab is directed by Carol Davids and Vijay K. Gurbani, faculty members in IIT's Computer Science Department. Carol Davids designed the RTC Lab in the early 2000's to support the weekly hands-on assignments and semester projects essential to her real-time communications and networking courses. Soon the lab became a venue for projects proposed by industry- and academic partners. Before joining the faculty at IIT, Carol worked at Ameritech, Motorola and Tellabs. Vijay Gurbani's work also spans both industry and academia. He has worked in industry at Fermi National Labs and Bell Laboratories and is currently Chief Data Scientist at Vail Systems, Inc. Professors Davids and Gurbani have worked together for many years, collaborating on research, publications and conferences. They plan to expand the scope of the lab's work to include the integration of VoiceTech, BlockChain, AI and IoT with Real Time Communications technologies.
Management
The RTC Lab is managed by Joe Cusimano. He maintains the lab resources, mentors lab students and interfaces with our industry partners. Joe oversees the operation of the NG9-1-1 Test Bed in the RTC Lab, where the National Emergency Numbers Association (NENA) holds its periodic Industry Collaboration Events (ICE). Before joining the RTC Lab, Joe worked for many years supervising operations in Illinois Bell/Ameritech, and currently is the principal consultant at Elec-Tel Communications.
Students
Students are at the heart of the lab's activities. Lab assignments and semester projects associated with courses are done here. Students also engage in all the events and activities of the lab. They support and participate in the lab's public events including the annual RTC Conference, STEM Week and the Ethics and Technology Panels. Students also provide support for industry-focused activities including NENA testing events, ClueCon, and TADHack.
Here are some videos made by IIT Graduates who describe how their work at IIT and in the RTC Lab has helped them in their careers.
Events
- October 2-5, 2023: Real Time Communications Conference at IIT - an International Conference of the IEEE a globally recognized collaborative event, where industry and academia connect. Held on Illinois Tech's Main Campus in Chicago, this event will be face-to-face this year. Visit the RTC Conference and Expo website to view a description of the tracks on the Program tab and to find the schedule when it is available . Meanwhile, please visit last year's website at RTC Conference and Expo-2022 where you can find a list of speakers, including recordings of their presentations.
The link the Call for Papers is at Call for Papers These papers will be peer reviewed and papers that are accepted and presented by an author will be submtted for publication to IEEE XPlore archive.
A call for talks and demos related to the conference scope will be issued soon. These talks and demos can serve as a source of new ideas and research partners in industry. Presentations and demonstrations will be selected by the RTC Conference Track Chairs and Steering Committee based on relevance and technical content.
- September 13-15, 2022:IEEE ComSoc International Communications Quality and Reliability Workshop (CQR) IEEE CQR The CQR workshop offered technical sessions, original paper presentations, and keynotes panels designed to further career opportunities and the in-depth understanding of key issues impacting communications networks quality and reliability.The program and related material can still be viewed at the link above.
- May 10, 2022: Tech and Social Justice: Personal Data, Data Literacy and Discriminationn Personal Data, Data Literacy and Discrimination This discussion described how your personal data—from sources such as your social media—is being used by others to make decisions about things such as your interest rate, job offers, university admissions, and much more. The Question and Answer session featured Tamara K. Nopper, a sociologist, writer, and editor.The session was moderated by Carol Davids, Research Associate Professor, CS Department at IIT.
- March 15, 2022: Tech and Social Justice: Digital Shackles, the Impact of E-Carceration Description and Video recording.
- October 12-14, 2021: The Real Time Communications Conference and Expo - an IEEE International Conference at IIT The Real Time Communications Conference and Expo 2021 videos and slide decks from the talks, panels and keynotes of this a globally recognized collaborative event, where industry and academia connect are available at Conference Speakers.
- October 14, 2021:IPTComm 2021: IPTComm 2021 is the academic track within the RTC Conference. Its publications are avaiable on IEEE XPlore and its talks and kenotes are available Conference Speakers.
- May 18, 2021: Tech and Social Justice: Tech Companies - Equal Opportunity Policies vs. Realities: Description and Video recording
- May 13, 2021: IEEE Communications, quality and Reliability Workshop: CQR2021The workshop identified problems and solutions to bring quality, reliable, and secure access to the under-served in rural and urban areas. The discussions focused on Reachability, Equity and Extensibility.
- April 20,2021: Tech and Social Justice: What we can do: Part 2 - Practitioners and their Employers: Description and Video recording
- March 16,2021: Tech and Social Justice: What we can do: Part 1 - Researchers and our research: Description and Video recording
- Dec.11,2020: Tech and Social Justice: AI-based applications and their impact on employment opportunities: Description and Video recording
- Nov. 13,2020: Tech and Social Justice: Technology, Modern Redlining and Credit Algorithms: Description and Video recording
- October 13-15, 2020: RTC Conference and Expo - 2020: The Real Time Communications Conference and Expo
- October 13-15, 2020: IPTComm - 2020: IPTComm 2020
- Oct.9,2020: Tech and Social Justice: Biased algorithms Create Negative Outcomes for people of color: Description and Video recording
- Sept. 11,2020: Tech and Social Justice Series: Biased outcomes of Facial Recognition Applications: Description and Video recording.
- 2019 Real Time Communications Conference and Expo: IIT Real Time Communications Conference 2019
- 2019 TACHACK Chicago: TADHack Chicago 2019
- December, 2019 Tech and Social Justice: Technology, Policing and Surveillance: Description
- 2017 NENA Industry Collaboration Event ICE-7: National Emergency Numbers Association Industry Collaboration Event 7
- 2014 NENA Industry Collaboration Event ICE-6: National Emergency Numbers Association Industry Collaboration Event 6
- 2013 NENA Industry Collaboration Event ICE-8: National Emergency Numbers Association Industry Collaboration Event 8
RTC Lab research projects related to real-time applications and the networks that transport them are listed below. The links lead to brief descriptions of the work. Selected publications highlighting work in the RTC Lab.
Here are some interesting books, publications and websites related to Real-Time Communications, software design and development, Artificial Intelligence Internet of Things, and the many technologies and sciences that contribute to our understanding of the world we are creating. This list is a work in progress. Your comments and suggestions are welcome.
Projects
Publications
Interesting