Media Contact: 
Anne Veigle
anne.veigle@fcc.gov

For Immediate Release

FCC ANNOUNCES EXCELLENCE IN ECONOMICS,
ENGINEERING AWARD WINNERS

WASHINGTON, September 29, 2022—The Federal Communications Commission announced today the winners of the agency’s Excellence in Economic Analysis and Excellence in Engineering Awards.  The Excellence in Economic Analysis Award recognizes Commission staff for outstanding economic analysis conducted in the course of their work at the FCC, while the Excellence in Engineering Award recognizes Commission staff who have made outstanding engineering, scientific or technical contributions.

Chairwoman Rosenworcel made the announcement at today’s Open Meeting, commending the winners:  “Every day, the FCC benefits from the immense source of talent working within the agency.  I’m proud to recognize Mack, Robert, Janet and Kambiz for their commitment to using their creativity and ingenuity in service of the public.”

Excellence in Economic Analysis Award – Maciej (Mack) Wachala of the Office of Economics and Analytics has won the 2022 Excellence in Economic Analysis award for his outstanding work adapting a machine learning algorithm to a regulatory context to support device reimbursement for the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) program.  Mack proposed a method of determining a representative price for a product that did not have a retail presence by implementing a similarity analysis to group devices with known prices based on their observable characteristics.  His work on this project was invaluable for the program’s integrity review, and can also be used to determine a reasonable range of prices for subsidized devices in the Affordable Connectivity Program or any other set of devices for which the Commission provides, or will provide, reimbursement.  His creative economic analysis will help the Commission in its decision-making process to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse and further the public interest.   

Excellence in Engineering Award – Robert Pavlak from the Office of Engineering and Technology and Janet Young and Kambiz Rahnavardy from the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau share the 2022 Excellence in Engineering award for their outstanding work creating highly complex models to detect harmful radio interference. Their work will help ensure that rapid, efficient, nation-wide radio communications service is available to all the people of the United States.

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This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action.  Release of the full text of a Commission order constitutes official action.  See MCI v. FCC, 515 F.2d 385 (D.C. Cir. 1974).