Tom Pratt

Biography

Thomas G. Pratt serves as a Research Affiliate at the Notre Dame Turbomachinery Laboratory (NDTL) supporting research in advanced sensor systems including the development of Radio Frequency (RF) based inlet debris and engine health monitoring systems for gas turbine engines. Pratt’s research interests focus on radio frequency systems, particularly “physical layer” issues such as signal processing, system architectures, signal propagation, and multi-port techniques.

Pratt is a Research Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. He heads the RF Communications and Sensing Laboratory, which consists of research engineers, administrative staff, and doctoral students. His laboratory conducts research on projects for applications such as radar, communications, and sensing systems, and supports technology transition efforts for medical monitoring, cyber security, and industrial equipment monitoring applications. Under Pratt’s leadership, the research group has acquired approximately $12M in research and equipment funding since 2008. Lab facilities and equipment include two field research vehicles, coherent MIMO transceiver systems, and a wide assortment of software-defined radio platforms.

Pratt completed his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1999; he worked at the Georgia Tech Research Institute for 23 years as a research engineer before coming to Notre Dame. Pratt holds 13 patents related to his research.