Thomas Little

Faculty Associate
Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Associate Dean of Educational Initiatives
Associate Director, NSF Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center
tdcl@bu.edu
617-353-9877

Education

PhD, Syracuse University

Biography

Thomas Little is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Principal Investigator, and Associate Director of the NSF Smart Lighting ERC. Little oversees the Boston University effort of the grant as Site Coordinator and is also the Outdoor Communications and Transportation Testbed Leader.

Professor Little’s research focus in the grant is in the Systems area – in the adaptation of novel LED-based materials and devices for the support of visible-light-based communication and communications networking. By exploiting the ubiquity of future man-made lighting from solid state (LED) devices we anticipate ubiquitous network connectivity. Little’s research is directed at the intersection of networking, free-space optical communications, and the “anywhere” computing that they enable. Examples include supporting “trickle” data dissemination in sensor networks, achieving HD video streaming in high bandwidth-density scenarios such as aircraft seating, and improving vehicular safety via robust vehicle-to-vehicle communications.