Professor Robert Stewart

Electronic and Electrical Engineering

Contact

Personal statement

Bob Stewart is a Professor at the University of Strathclyde in the Dept of Electronic and Electrical Eng, where he leads the 20-strong StrathSDR engineering team working on software defined radio (SDR) and next generation radio access networks using shared spectrum with dynamic spectrum access (DSA).   In recent years, Bob has led a number of DCMS 5G Testbed and Trials projects including 5GRuralFirst and 5G NewThinking, both with a focus on rural connectivity, and also 5GRailNext designing networks for operation in Glasgow’s underground rail subway.  

In 2019, working alongside partners Scottish Futures Trust and University of Glasgow, he was part of the founding partners team working with Scottish Government to create the Scotland 5G Centre.   In 2004, Bob was a co-founder of the start-up digital communications company Steepest Ascent Ltd, which was later acquired by MathWorks in 2013.  He is currently Director of Neutral Wireless Ltd designing new RAN and radio solutions for 5G private networks.

From 2014 to 2017 Bob was the term Head of Department of EEE at Strathclyde, and the Director of the Institute for Sensors, Signals and Communications. From 2006-2012 he was the Xilinx Professor of DSP and Digital Logic at Strathclyde, and from 1997 to 2017 he was a visiting Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Extension School where he taught industry courses on DSP, SDR and FPGA implementations.  Other appointments include a Visiting Professor at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, and a first and rewarding job at Wolfson Microelectronics back in the 1980s in the early days of the DSP revolution.

Over a 30 year Bob has published 4 books and more than 200 papers and presented and attended many international conferences.

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Area of Expertise

  • Digital Signal Processing (DSP)
  • Software Defined Radio (SDR)
  • FPGA Implementations for SDR
  • Shared Spectrum and Private 5G SA Networks
  • MATLAB./Simulink SDR Design

Prize And Awards

Award for Digital Inclusion
Recipient
1/6/2019
Awarded University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Extension Distinguished Professor Award 2010.
Recipient
1/2009
Xilinx Professor of Signal Processing. Xilinx Inc, a US based company have endowned a professorial chair in Digital Signal Processing, since 2006 and to be extended to end 2013.
Recipient
6/2006

More prizes and awards

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Publications

Low latency wireless broadcast production over 5G
Yoffe Samuel R, Allan Douglas G, Barlee Kenneth W, Anderson Dani, Muir Damien, Brew Malcolm R, Speirs Cameron, Stewart Robert W, Waddell Mark B, Kröger-Mayes Jonas, Stante Giulio
NAB Broadcast Engineering and IT Conference 2025 (2025)
Off-piste 5G in the Broadcast Auxiliary Service band
Allan Douglas G, Yoffe Samuel R, Barlee Kenneth W, Anderson Dani, Chalmers Iain C, Brew Malcolm R, Speirs Cameron A, Stewart Robert W, Breant Nicolas, Tastet Jeremy, Roques Sebastien, Chague Bastien
NAB Broadcast Engineering and IT Conference 2025 (2025)
RFSoC modulation classification with streaming CNN : data set generation & quantized-aware training
MacLellan Andrew, Crockett Louise H, Stewart Robert W
IEEE Open Journal of Circuits and Systems Vol 6, pp. 38-49 (2025)
https://doi.org/10.1109/OJCAS.2024.3509627
Optimising 5G for low latency broadcast production
Waddell Mark, Kröger-Mayes Jonas, Yoffe Samuel R, Allan Douglas, Brandstrup Morten, Christoffersen Jens, Brew Malcolm Ronald, Stewart Robert
IBC 2024 Conference (2024)
Exploring the boundaries of connected systems : communications for hard-to-reach areas and extreme conditions
Imran Muhammad A, Zennaro Marco, Popoola Olaoluwa R, Chiaraviglio Luca, Zhang Hongwei, Manzoni Pietro, van de Beek Jaap, Stewart Robert, Cox Mitchell Arij, Mendes Luciano Leonel, Pietrosemoli Ermanno
Proceedings of the IEEE Vol 112, pp. 912-945 (2024)
https://doi.org/10.1109/jproc.2024.3402265
Shared Spectrum for Low and Midband Private 5G Networks
Stewart Robert, Crockett Louise Helen
(2024)

More publications

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Teaching

  • Digital Communications
  • Software Defined Radio
  • FPGAs for DSP and Digital Communications
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Professional Activities

Short Course: AMD Radio Frequency System on Chip (RFSoC) – Architecture, System Development, and Applications
Speaker
22/1/2025
RFSoC with PYNQ: A Crash Course
Speaker
13/12/2024
RFSoC with PYNQ: A Crash Course
Speaker
9/12/2024
RFSoC with PYNQ: A Crash Course
Speaker
6/12/2024
The 30th IEEE International Symposium on Field-Programmable Custom Computing Machines
Participant
16/5/2022
The 30th IEEE International Symposium on Field-Programmable Custom Computing Machines
Participant
16/5/2022

More professional activities

Projects

5G Standalone Private Networks (UK-India Pilot)
Stewart, Robert (Principal Investigator)
01-Jan-2025 - 31-Jan-2025
Industrial CASE Account - University of Strathclyde 2024 | Gillan, Euan
Stewart, Robert (Principal Investigator) Crockett, Louise (Co-investigator) Gillan, Euan (Research Co-investigator)
01-Jan-2024 - 01-Jan-2028
Spectrum Sharing and Sensing in non-3GPP Bands for 5G/6G
Stewart, Robert (Principal Investigator) Crockett, Louise (Research Co-investigator)
01-Jan-2024 - 31-Jan-2025
Open Networks Shared Spectrum and Innovation Design Environment ONSIDE
Stewart, Robert (Principal Investigator) Crawford, David H (Research Co-investigator) Crockett, Louise (Research Co-investigator)
01-Jan-2023 - 31-Jan-2025
The Scotland 5G Centre (2023-24)
Stewart, Robert (Principal Investigator)
01-Jan-2023 - 31-Jan-2025
Towards Ubiquitous 3D Open Resilient Network (Tudor).
Stewart, Robert (Principal Investigator)
01-Jan-2023 - 31-Jan-2025

More projects

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Contact

Professor Robert Stewart
Electronic and Electrical Engineering

Email: r.stewart@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 548 2396