History

In 1972 J.P.M. (Piet) Schalkwijk was appointed as full professor in the field of Information Theory in the Electrical Engineering Department at Eindhoven University of Technology. Together with his staff (Joop de Brouwer, Jan Rooijackers, and Han Vinck) Piet Schalkwijk founded the Informatie en Communicatietheorie Group (EI). In the eighties Frans Willems and Tjalling Tjalkens joined the group. The research of the group focussed on three areas: (I) Source Coding, (II) Channel Coding, and (III) Multiuser Information Theory. After the retirement of Prof. Schalkwijk, the research in Information and Communication Theory was continued by Tjalling Tjalkens and Frans Willems. In 2013 Tanya Ignatenko and in 2016 Alex Alvarado were appointed as Assistant Professors. The group now also hosts two PostDocs (Bin Chen and Francesco Laghezza) and several PhD students.

The group has produced several IEEE Fellows, and also received IEEE Best Paper Awards. Alumnus Kees Schouhamer Immink (PhD, in 1985) will receive the prestigious IEEE Medal of Honor in May 2017.