Published on: Sep 16, 2022
Going back on our journey to meet the ESRs, this time we introduce you to Andrea Bedin. ESR 13 doing his PhD at Nokia Bell Labs, Finland.
Who am I?
I’m Andrea, 25 years old, Italian and proud to be so!
How would you define yourself?
50% geek, 50% party animal.
What do you do for fun?
Many things. I have played the piano since I was 10. As a stereotypical good Italian, I like cooking fancy meals, such as lasagna, risotto and polenta. I obviously also like to eat the food I make. Occasionally, when I have the chance to do it, I enjoy brewing beer.
Tell us something interesting about yourself
Even as a kid, I was an engineer at heart. I used to disassemble every electronic device I came across to understand how it worked, and sometimes I even tried to improve it. For example I used to re-wind the coils inside the electric motor of RC cars to make them go faster.
What has been your favorite/least favorite part of living in your host country?
In winter it’s cold and dark, in summer it’s not dark at least 😉
Tell us about your research
My research focuses on mmWave communications for industrial applications, especially focusing on those applications requiring low latency and high reliability. This topic is not familiar to the average smartphone user, as its impact on the application experience is not significant. For example, if a packet is delivered with an excessive delay while streaming a video, it may cause the player to skip a frame. In such a case, the user will barely notice it as a hiccup in the video. In contrast, in industrial applications where heavy machinery is controlled by the network, a delayed packet could cause the machine to damage itself, the factory, or even injure people. For this reason, it is of extreme importance to make sure that the communication equipment is reliable. So that’s what I do, I make sure that packet is actually delivered in due time.
Why did you choose this topic?
I feel like it’s a challenging topic, and the more challenging it is, the more fun you have!
Are you part of a work group? Tell us about the group
I’m part of the Research Department Wireless Advanced Technologies at Nokia Bell Labs. This gives me the chance to work with very experienced and knowledgeable scientists.On top of that, I am also a member of the SIGNET team at University of Padova.
What motivates you at work?
I’m genuinely curious and interested in learning how things work. As such I feel very rewarded when I learn something new.
What is the most important thing you’ve learned in your PhD so far?
Don’t come to conclusions until you have fully analyzed and understood your data, and make sure you have enough data to be confident in what you learn. If you work based on unreliable results, sooner or later you will find that most of your work was useless.
What are your plans after the PhD?
I’ll take whatever life gives me, as long as it lets me keep learning and doing science.
What do you think about your host country? Do you see yourself living there in the future?
As much as I like Finland, and especially its culture and people, I don’t think I will ever get used to the sun setting at 3 pm and to the freezing temperatures of the Finnish winter.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Definitely still learning, probably in Italy, hopefully wiser.
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