Rate My Professor Sunil Maharaj

Professor Sunil Maharaj is Vice-Principal: Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Education at the University of Pretoria, a role he has held since 1 August 2022. He is a Professor in the Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering and previously served as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology from 2014 to 2022 and as Head of the Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering. He holds a BSc Engineering (Electronic), MSc Engineering (Electronic), MSc Operational Telecommunications and a PhD Engineering from the University of Pretoria. He is a registered Professional Engineer with the Engineering Council of South Africa, a Fellow of the South African Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers and a Senior Member of IEEE.

Professor Maharaj has more than 35 years of combined experience in industry as a microwave and RF design engineer, in academia and in consulting. Since 2008 he has held the Sentech Chair in Broadband Wireless Multimedia Communications. His research focuses on broadband wireless communications, including 5G cognitive radio sensor networks resource allocation, OFDM-MIMO systems, wireless channel modelling and edge computing communications systems. He has authored more than 170 international peer-reviewed conference and journal articles and holds two international patents. He has received ten national and international awards. Professor Maharaj served as President of the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers in 2021/2022 and has been Chair of the TuksNovation NPC Board since 2017. He was the first African elected as Chair of the Global Engineering Deans Council, assuming the position in November 2021. He has organised numerous international conferences, including serving as General Conference Chair for the IEEE VTS 2019 Wireless Africa Conference.