Ana I. Pérez-Neira

Over-the-air computation (OAC) is an emerging wireless paradigm that merges communication and computation by harnessing radio signal interference as a computational tool rather than suppressing it. Instead of transmitting raw data to a central processor, OAC-enabled networks allow multiple devices to transmit simultaneously so their signals naturally combine in the air to perform calculations like sums or averages directly in the wireless medium. Researchers have built prototypes using both analog-style signaling on digital radios and purely digital schemes, with potential applications in autonomous vehicles, IoT sensor networks, and real-time AI model training where bandwidth and latency are critical constraints.