Muhammad Mahtab Alam: Nurture your motivation to withstand challenging times
Inspired and motivated by his early interest in digital signal processing Muhammad Mahtab Alam has walked a very international way in academia to expand his knowledge and to contribute to solving societal issues with his research.
Professor of Communicative Electronics and a head of the multinational research group called “communication systems” at TalTech has recently taken another challenge in his career and is now leading one of the biggest projects at TalTech called 5G-Routes.
Find out about Mahtab’s international experience, teaching style, problem-based research and exciting projects in cooperation with the industry in today’s interview.
Bold decisions
I lived for about four years in Denmark, where I studied my Master’s, then moved to Belgium to work in a multinational company, did my PhD in France and before moving to Estonia I had a Postdoc research in Qatar.
All these journeys and experiences have been very different but each of them had an important takeaway. Thus, in Aalborg University, Denmark, a problem-based methodology was central to our Master’s studies. Every semester we had projects aligned with a specific problem, which we studied, investigated, narrowed it down and finally tried to find a solution for it. It is very similar to how things work in a research and that was the first factor that made me consider a research career . This methodology is deeply rooted in me and until today I am very much a problem-driven researcher working mostly on societal challenges.
Besides, the study environment in Denmark was very independent, which was very different from what I was used to and rather challenging for me. Even though we were forming groups to work on projects, the interaction and cultural differences made it not so smooth at times and it was a steep learning curve.
Working in the competitive environment of the international company in Belgium was another experience that taught me a lot.
And then there was a PhD in France, yet another country in my biography. French are a lot more open and interactive than Scandinavians. It was also helpful that I learned some French partly due to the specifics of the environment, that offers you a very limited choice if you don’t speak the local language, and partly because my wife is Moroccan and that was an additional motivation (French is first foreign language in Morocco so widely spoken by almost every Moroccan).
It is also in France, where my first child was born and so this country is very much connected to this important life event for me.
In my professional life, by doing my PhD I learned how to do a novel research in the contrast of using the research of others on a Master’s level.
In Qatar, again a different, competitive multinational environment and experiences.
Many different experiences, cultures, working with different people makes the journey very unique and sometimes helps a lot to take very bold decisions later on. Such as to step on an adventure of leading a research group with a lot of responsibilities (laughing).
Less is more in Estonia
I arrived in Estonia in autumn 2016 and there were good surprises in autumn and spring, just after a few weeks there were autumn storms and heavy snow in October (laughing, later in spring very early sunrises (laughing). I am a practicing believer of Muslim religion, I do fast on Ramadan and it is challenging here because of the long summer days but it is special and unique at the same time. Estonia has a beautiful nature especially in summer, but also now with so much snow in winter.
Estonian people are quite smart and often less talkative. They do their job well but they don’t talk much about it. It is also something you learn — to only say what is necessary and that “less is more”. People are also very honest and they do what they promised.
Problem-based research focused on societal challenges
The attraction for me to come to Estonia was a prestigious European Research Area Chair holder position of the Cognitive Electronics (COEL ERA Chair). It was a very important step in my career with a lot of responsibilities but with a very supportive team.
The COEL ERA project was unique for me in a sense that a number of activities are required along with the research, such as industrial interaction, international collaboration, all in order to boost research productivity especially in Eastern European countries, i.e. Baltics.
Due to my background in telecommunication also my contribution to the project is mostly in this field. Even more specific — wireless communication — sensors, short range, or classical cellular systems 4G, 5G.
In 2018, I was honored to become a professor of Communication Technologies at TalTech. It makes me especially happy because it gives me an opportunity to make our university research more sustainable.
We have a lot of ongoing projects and research, and I am thankful to everyone contributing. Nothing would be possible without the team. Following is an overview of what we are currently up to.
- Cooperation with Telia
During the last 2 years I have been tightly cooperating with Telia on a number of research topics related to Internet of things, 5G and other communication technologies. In the summer of 2018 TalTech and Telia Estonia Ltd deployed a test network for the internet of things (IoT) at the university campus. We connected the IoT devices with the Telia’s base stations and then we did a coverage analysis and it helped us to do a wider research. Thanks to our research we were able to help Telia to improve their network, to improve the quality of their service for the university. The collaboration with Telia was officially completed in 2020 but I am happy to share that since they were very pleased with our performance — the cooperation is successfully prolonged for two more years. I am very happy to work with one of the leading telecom companies in Estonia and also building more use cases and applications along with them, where maybe smaller companies and startups could be engaged in building applications and useful services for society.
- Project with NATO Science for peace and security
A project within NATO Science for peace and security with the purpose to establish connectivity with people trapped in the attacks to the law-enforcement agencies.
TalTech has a coordinating and lead role and we work in a consortium with other universities. The project relates to my previous experience but focuses on disasters, such as terrorist attacks.
If I am using a smartphone and the telecom infrastructure is jammed or damaged, how should I be able to communicate outside my office or building? We proposed an idea, using a technology that works in an autonomous way, and which you can enable just like we enable WIFI. A mobile phone needs to have a specific chip with suitable radio technology to start communicating with a neighboring device directly, through which we can disseminate the very basic information, like how many people are trapped, what is their location and their IDs, knowing which law-enforcement agencies can improve their response time. Such a communication paradigm is called device-to-device communication.
In my lab we are developing solutions and prototypes to actually enable this type of communication between the devices autonomously. The project runs until early autumn 2021.
- Projects related to health care
Within Estonian research grants we are working on a project related to health care, more specifically to a multiple sclerosis disease, where a person develops disabilities in their muscles. We are working to create an assistive technology device, which can help people to activate their muscles, when they are walking. There are quite interesting challenges here, because the stimulation has to be carried out in real time and has to be very accurate. We cannot abuse the muscles with unnecessary strength of stimulation and frequency, it has to be well controlled so that patients can use it. We are in very close cooperation with the Tallinn West-Central and East-Central hospitals. We are currently developing the technologies and we are already ready to use them on some patients starting from the next year. It is quite an innovative project that is connected with society.
- 5G Routes
Last year we submitted and won a proposal to the industrial Leadership ICT work programe of 2020 to prepare modern, digital, connected cross-border corridors. As a result we are leading an ambitious project called 5G-Routes called to test 5G network technology interoperability across Finland, Estonia and Latvia — a cross-border corridor known as Via Baltica-North. It’s a big project with 22 partners, we are for the first time in such a big consortium. It is a great honour and learning opportunity for us at the same time to showcase our leadership and competences related to 5G.
Be aware what you want to achieve
My main message to students would be that it is very important for them to be aware of what it is they want to achieve. There has to be a very strong motivation to drive you. For me in my student times it was my strong interest in digital signal processing. It can be a very specific, very narrow field, but again, something you are passionate about. Take your vision, where you want to be. Without this motivation it is difficult to withstand challenging times.
Flexible and adaptive
Currently I am teaching two courses at TalTech: System Aspects in Communication, one of the main courses in Wireless communication at TalTech; and Applied Signal Processing, where I give a wider perspective on different issues and topics.
I am a bit different type of teacher, meaning I am not very methodological in a sense that I don’t follow any scripts by heart. I am rather more pragmatic. In my two courses here I have been teaching for the last four years I use a lot of my experience from my research and working with the industry.
That comes with a lot of practical discussions. I am not very theoretical but rather a more conceptual teacher. My aim is to give students a takeaway, so that they learn the concepts.
Sometimes I am less interactive, in a sense that I don’t keep asking students questions or demand them to pose me a question. I go with a flow and my intuition when I plan and execute the lecture.
Currently I am presented with the challenge of online teaching, and students are often asking to record lectures, which is something new for me. But just like in the case with new countries and international environments I am being adaptive and heavily rely on my flexibility. If you are in a challenging situation there are so many ways to come out of it.
Free-time activities
I was a very sportive teenager and played different games, one of which is cricket, very popular in South Asia. You might be surprised but there are quite some active cricket clubs here in Estonia. When I just arrived I joined one of them to play weekly but it gets more and more challenging to find time. I have two kids and spend my weekends with the family. Time management is becoming an issue– how to manage time and responsibilities, it’s not easy.
Travelling is another activity that I like. I like to explore new places and honestly my favourite destination is Mediterranean, because of the moderate climate. I haven’t been there a lot but whenever I find an opportunity I go.
Interestingly, I have never been to the States, which is surprising because I am doing so much research and have some colleagues from the US, but it happened somehow. I have been to Australia but not to the States (laughing).
Plans for future
There are a number of ongoing projects. My research group and I have been very successful and the plan is to continue and make our research more sustainable. My group is very international with the colleagues from Africa, South- Asia, South America and Europe, but my intention is to involve Estonian colleagues in order to give them the leadership so they are ready to take over from me at some point of time.
Learn more about Communicative Electronics MSc programme and join the most innovative university in Estonia!
