Advancing the Future of Wireless Communications

Machine Learning, Signal Processing, and Digital Twins for Massive MIMO, 5G, and 6G networks

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About Me

I am Ryan M. Dreifuerst. My core focus lies at the intersection of signal processing and machine learning for next-generation wireless communication networks. I am passionate about solving physical layer challenges for 5G and 6G systems through domain-specific optimization.

I successfully defended my PhD at North Carolina State University on March 20th 2024. This marked the culmination of five years of research working alongside Prof. Robert W. Heath Jr. across both the University of Texas at Austin and NC State.

I am beginning my post graduate professional journey at MITRE.

March 2024
Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering
North Carolina State University

Advisor: Prof. Robert W. Heath Jr.
Thesis: Machine-learning based codebook design for beam management

Dec 2021
M.S. in Electrical Engineering
The University of Texas at Austin

Advisor: Prof. Robert W. Heath Jr.
Thesis: Low resolution sinusoid decomposition and estimation

May 2019
B.S. in Electrical Engineering
Milwaukee School of Engineering

GPA: 4.0

May 2019
B.S. in Electrical and Communications Engineering
Technische Hochschule Lübeck

GPA: 4.0

Research Focus

Massive MIMO & Beam Management

Innovating beamforming and codebook design to enable larger array sizes and optimize extreme MIMO for site-specific sub-6 GHz and mmWave environments.

Machine Learning for Wireless

Leveraging deep learning, reinforcement learning, and neural networks to optimize coverage, capacity, resource scheduling, and signal analysis.

Next-Gen Signal Processing

Developing low-resolution signal decomposition and advanced CSI (Channel State Information) feedback mechanisms to reduce overhead and improve network efficiency.

Selected Publications

Neural codebook design for MIMO network beam management
RM Dreifuerst, RW Heath
IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications 2025
Hierarchical ML codebook design for extreme MIMO beam management
RM Dreifuerst, RW Heath
IEEE Transactions on Machine Learning in Communications and Networking 2024
Massive MIMO in 5G: How beamforming, codebooks, and feedback enable larger arrays
RM Dreifuerst, RW Heath
IEEE Communications Magazine 2023 (90+ Citations)
Optimizing coverage and capacity in cellular networks using machine learning
RM Dreifuerst, S Daulton, Y Qian, P Varkey, M Balandat, S Kasturia...
ICASSP 2021 (115+ Citations)
Deep learning-based carrier frequency offset estimation with one-bit ADCs
RM Dreifuerst, RW Heath, MN Kulkarni, J Charlie
IEEE 21st International Workshop on Signal Processing Advances (SPAWC) 2020
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