Dr. Andreas Pedross-Engel

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"Systems engineer and architect specializing in radar, millimeter-wave imaging, and wireless communication & sensing. Spent nine years building ThruWave Inc. from a whiteboard idea into a fielded 3D millimeter-wave imaging system serving CBP, DoD, and Fortune 500 customers, following a decade of radar, microwave / millimeter-wave imaging, and ultra-wideband wireless communication research at the University of Washington and Graz University of Technology." 

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andreas.pedross-engel@ieee.org

Biography

Andreas Pedross-Engel received the Dipl.-Ing. degree in electrical engineering and the Ph.D. degree in information and communications engineering from Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria, in 2009 and 2014, respectively.

From 2008 to 2009 he was with Infineon Technologies Austria AG, were he held the position of a Concept Engineer with focus on signal processing for low-power receiver designs. In 2009 to 2010 he was employed at TeleConsult Austria GmbH (now OHB Austria GmbH) as a Research and Development Engineer with the focus on signal processing for global navigation satellite systems (GNSS). From June 2010 to July 2014 he was with the Signal Processing and Speech Communication Laboratory at Graz University of Technology, working as Research Associate toward his Ph.D. degree focusing on nonlinear and mixed-signal processing, design, and modeling of noncoherent ultra-wideband (UWB) receivers. From November 2014 to August 2020 he was with the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA, working as postdoctoral Research Associate and later as Research Scientist in the area of microwave and millimeter-wave imaging systems. From May 2017 - June 2026 he was founder and Chief Technology Officer (previously Co-CTO and VP of Technology & Engineering) of the millimeter-wave imaging firm ThruWave Inc., helping grow it into a fielded 3D mmWave imaging system serving CBP, DoD, and Fortune 500 customers. He helped raise $10.6M in total funding and secured over $5.6M in federal SBIR and contract awards as Principal Investigator. ThruWave wound down in mid-2026 after an expected multi-million dollar contract fell through. He was an Associate Member of the IEEE Computational Imaging Technical Committee between 2020 - 2024. He is an Affiliate Assistant Professor at the University of Washington.

Awards and Honors

  • ASciNA Young Scientist Award 2018 (a national honor for early-career Austrian scientists working abroad), Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research, Dec. 2018.
  • "15 Most Highly Cited Articles since 2016," Journal of the Optical Society of America A, March 2018.
  • IEEE Senior Member, IEEE, August 2017.
  • CoMotion Commercialization Fellows Award, University of Washington, May 2017.
  • Best Poster Award, Joint Center for Aerospace Technology Innovation (JCATI) 2017 Symposium, April 2017.
  • Best Student Contribution Award, IEEE Forum on Signal Processing for Radio Frequency Systems 2013, June 2013.

In the News

  • "X-ray vision in the warehouse: ThruWave raises $6.4M to help online retailers see through packages," GeekWire, Sept. 2020 (read here).
  • "Preise für exzellente Auslandsösterreicher," ("Prizes for Excellent Austrians Abroad"), Die Presse (Austrian daily newspaper), Dec. 2018 (read here in German or here the English translation).
  • "Forschen im Ausland, Forschen nach der Flucht," ("Researching Abroad, Researching After the Escape"), Ö1, Wissen aktuell (Ö1 is an Austrian public radio station of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation ORF), Dec. 2018 (read here in German or here the English translation).
  • "Ascina-Award an die Analytikerin von Machtstrukturen," ("Ascina-Award to the Analyst of Power Structures"), Der Standard (Austrian daily newspaper), Dec. 2018 (read here in German or here the English translation).
  • "Auszeichnungen für österreichische Wissenschafter in den USA," ("Award for Austrian Scientists in the USA"), Wiener Zeitung (Austrian daily newspaper), Dec. 2018 (read here in German or here the English translation).
  • "ASCINA-Preise für exzellente österreichische Forscher in den USA," ("ASCINA Award for Excellent Austrian Scientists in the USA"), Austrian Press Agency, also published by Tiroler Tageszeitung (Austrian daily newspaper), Dec. 2018 (read here in German or here the English translation).
  • "Bundesminister Faßmann verleiht ASciNA Awards 2018 an exzellente österreichische Forschende in Nordamerika," ("Austrian Federal Minister Fassmann Awards the ASciNA Award 2018 to Excellent Austrian Scientists in North Anerica"), Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science, and Research press release, Dec. 2018 (read here in German or here the English translation).
  • "Seattle: Erfindungsreiche Metropole zu Gast im Tiroler Bergdorf," ("Seattle: Ingenious Metropolis as a Guest in the Tyrolean Mountain Village"), Der Standard (Austrian daily newspaper), Aug. 2018 (read here in German or here the English translation).
  • "Seattle: Innovations-Hotspot oder Alptraum?," ("Seattle: innovation hotspot or nightmare?"), Austrian Press Agency, also published by ORF (Austrian Broadcasting Corporation), Trend (Austrian weekly business magazine), Tiroler Tageszeitung (Austrian daily newspaper), Aug. 2018 (read here in German or here the English translation).
  • "Signal processing for RF event is developing into open forum," IEEE Region8 News, Dec. 2013 (read here).