An Interview with 2022 Student Paper Winner, Pedro Bustamante

Each year, TPRC holds a Student Paper Contest in conjunction with the annual conference in September. The prestigious honor of being named a finalist in this contest comes with a cash prize and a trip to Washington, D.C. to present at TPRC. More valuable, perhaps than the prize itself is the opportunity to receive feedback from scholars from multiple disciplines and with diverse backgrounds. This was certainly the case for Dr. Pedro Bustamante whose paper, “Mitigating conflict situations in spectrum sharing: A localized and decentralized governance approach” was awarded the first prize in 2022 at TPRC50.

At the time of the contest, Pedro was completing his Ph.D. in Information Sciences with a concentration in Telecommunications and Networking at the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to his studies at the University of Pittsburgh, Pedro was part of the Telecommunications Regulator in his home country, Ecuador where he worked with interdisciplinary groups working to create more efficient spectrum management, allocation, and assignment. Currently, Pedro is an Assistant Teaching Professor at the Information Networking Institute (INI) at Carnegie Mellon University.

As the submission deadline for this year’s Student Paper Contest approaches (April 30), Pedro graciously agreed to share his perspective of the competition and his experience as a student at TPRC.

Was TPRC50 (2022) your first time attending a TPRC conference? 

No, I have attended TPRC for several years and have been able to present my work as both a paper and a poster.  In fact, I have submitted, usually more than one paper every year since I started my Ph.D. around 2017. Funny story, the very first abstract that I sent to TPRC was not accepted as a paper. Instead, I was given the opportunity to present it as a Poster, which was a fabulous experience that allowed me to get really good feedback. Using the comments and observations from TPRC, I reformatted the paper and it got accepted in a different venue. 

How did you first learn about TPRC?

I learned about TPRC through my advisor, Martin Weiss [University of Pittsburgh]. When I started working on spectrum problems and policy issues, Martin mentioned the opportunity to talk to scholars from economics, policy, technical, humanities, etc. and I was immediately hooked!

What made you decide to submit your paper to the Student Paper Contest?

I have had the opportunity to present a few papers at TPRC over the years. Every time I presented my work, I received very constructive comments that helped me to improve my research.  I knew that the student paper competition was based on review of a full-paper review, and I thought this is a great opportunity to get feedback on a finished paper. Hence, I decided to prepare the paper and submit it to the student paper competition. 

Was your paper written specifically for TPRC or was it part of your degree program?

The paper was specifically developed for TPRC. Nevertheless, the contents of the paper are part of my Ph.D. dissertation. 

What made you interested in researching spectrum sharing?

Before my Ph.D. I was part of the telecommunications regulator in my home country Ecuador.  I’ve been interested in policy-related issues for many years now. Before meeting my advisor, I was mainly focused on the technical aspects of telecommunications regulation. However, Martin Weiss showed me other research avenues on the topic. How “alternative” governance systems could help us solve some of the challenges for an efficient spectrum allocation. What I like about this topic is how a solution that goes beyond the technical aspects to include policy, economics, governance, etc. can offer a much more complete alternative to alleviate the spectrum allocation and assignment issues.  

How was your paper received at TPRC? Did you gain any new ideas for what to do next with your research?

Yes, the paper was well received at TPRC, and as it is a tradition at TPRC I was lucky to receive multiple comments regarding my research. I really value this input as it comes from scholars with diverse backgrounds. It has allowed me to evaluate my paper and my research from multiple (and different) angles!

It has just been announced that a Graduate Student Workshop will be held prior to TPRC51 in September. Have you ever attended one of the TPRC Graduate Student Workshops?

I did not attend this year’s Graduate Student Workshop, however, I attended the workshop a couple of years ago. This was an amazing opportunity as I was starting to develop ideas for my dissertation. I had the opportunity to meet and show my ideas to professors, industry leaders, policymakers, etc. I think that opportunity really helped to better develop my dissertation and to consider multiple avenues for my then early research path.

*If you are a graduate student or law student interested in submitting a paper for the 2023 TPRC Student Paper Contest, visit www.tprcweb.com/student-paper-contest-2023 The submission deadline is April 30.