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Abstract: The expeditious evolution of wireless technologies and their convergence with diverse applications signify the coming next wave of our increasingly connected society. With the dramatically growing data traffic, massive connected devices and diverse services to be supported, the future success of our society relies heavily on our technical capabilities in the provisioning of massive capacity/connectivity and diverse services from people, society and industry, while using the very limited spectrum. The focus of this lecture is to analyze the main technical challenges of the converged next generation wireless and broadcast systems, identify the essential key spectrum access technologies for highly efficient wireless communications, and present our ongoing research and activities in the related areas. Specifically, this talk will cover the following aspects: i) Technical challenges of highly spectrum-efficient wireless communications; ii) OFDM based 2D and Massive MIMO based 3D transmission schemes; iii) Non-orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) and layered division multiplexing (LDM).

Bio:  Dr. Xianbin Wang is a Professor and Tier-1 Canada Research Chair at Western University, Canada. He received his Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the National University of Singapore in 2001. Prior to joining Western, he was with Communications Research Centre Canada (CRC) as a Research Scientist/Senior Research Scientist between July 2002 and Dec. 2007. From Jan. 2001 to July 2002, he was a system designer at STMicroelectronics. His current research interests include 5G/6G technologies, Internet-of-Things, communications security, machine learning and intelligent communications. Dr. Wang has over 500 highly cited journal and conference papers, in addition to 30 granted and pending patents and several standard contributions. Dr. Wang is a Fellow of Canadian Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of Engineering Institute of Canada, a Fellow of IEEE and an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer. He has received many prestigious awards and recognitions, including IEEE Canada R.A. Fessenden Award, Canada Research Chair, Engineering Research Excellence Award at Western, CRC Presidents Excellence Award, Canadian Federal Government Public Service Award, Ontario Early Researcher Award and six IEEE Best Paper Awards. He currently serves/has served as an Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editor-in-Chief, Editor/Associate Editor for over 10 journals. He was involved in many IEEE conferences including GLOBECOM, ICC, VTC, PIMRC, WCNC, CCECE and CWIT, in different roles such as general chair, symposium chair, tutorial instructor, track chair, session chair, TPC co-chair and keynote speaker. He has been nominated as an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer several times during the last ten years. Dr. Wang was the Chair of IEEE ComSoc Signal Processing and Computing for Communications (SPCC) Technical Committee and is currently serving as the Chair of IEEE London Section.

This event is co-organized by the IEEE ComSoc Seattle Joint Chapter, IEEE Vancouver Joint Communications Chapter, and IEEE Victoria Joint Chapter

Abstract: Given the scarcity of spectrum in the U.S and the world, a new model of spectrum usage is being pioneered by the FCC for use in 5G and WiFi. Spectrum sharing for CBRS band and WiFi 6 GHz band allows for legacy users and new entrants to use the same spectrum, under the management of a spectrum controller. This presentation will discuss the salient aspects of spectrum sharing for the two bands and how the spectrum controllers orchestrate this coexistence between different types of users.

Bio: Dr. Grover is the Director of Software Development at Federated Wireless, a company revolutionizing Wireless Spectrum usage across the United States. He was amongst the first 10 Engineers and built the flagship product of this company and now leads the development team. Prior to Federated Wireless, Dr. Grover has worked in several startups in the Wireless and Telecommunications industry. He received his Ph.D. and Master’s in Electrical Engineering from State University of New York at Buffalo in 2007 and 2004, respectively.

Abstract: With the phenomenal growth of excessive data traffic and the increasing number of connected devices, existing communications solutions are posing unprecedented challenges in terms of capacity, latency, heterogeneity, mobility, coverage, energy efficiency, and reliability. Given the demand for full connectivity, as part of the post 5G era, non-terrestrial and terrestrial networks integration will be a challenging mission that will necessitate redefining a multi-dimensional and fully orchestrated system in terms of sensing, communications, computing, and intelligence. In this talk, I will present non-conventional approaches to address the problems in a non-terrestrial and extreme environment, i.e., underwater. Intelligent and behavior-aware probabilistic solutions will be discussed, with the goal of achieving robust adaptation in terms of required Quality of Service and Quality of Experience to meet the demands in a variety of scenarios.

Bio: Dr. Mehdi Rahmati (IEEE Senior Member) is an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Cleveland State University in Ohio. His research is in the areas of wireless communications, underwater communications, and coordination in distributed autonomous systems. He received his PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2020 from Rutgers University in New Jersey. He has published numerous peer-reviewed papers and has received many prestigious awards, including the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society Young Professional Award in 2022 and 2023, the best demo award at the 2019 IEEE International Conference on Sensing, Communication, and Networking (SECON), the first prize in the 2019 IEEE Communication Society (ComSoc) student competition, the best paper award at the 2017 IEEE International Conference on Mobile Ad-hoc and Sensor Systems (MASS), and the best paper runner-up award at the 2015 ACM International Conference on Underwater Networks and Systems (WUWNet).

Abstract: This talk presents a focused overview of mm-wave power-amplifier (PA) designs in silicon, including design fundamentals, advanced PA architectures, and state-of-the-art design examples. The talk will start with an introduction of PA performance metrics and their impacts on wireless systems. Next, it presents the design fundamentals of PA active devices and passive networks as well as power combining strategies. The tutorial discusses advanced PA architectures, including Doherty, Outphasing, and Hybrid PAs, for high efficiency, linearity, and bandwidth. Antenna-PA co-designs are covered as well to achieve on-antenna power combining, active load modulation, and reconfiguration. Further, advance and challenges of high mm-Wave PAs will be covered to address the emerging beyond-5G/6G applications. Finally, the talk will conclude with several state-of-the-art mm-wave PA design examples.

Bio: Hua Wang is a full professor and chair of electronics at Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (D-ITET) of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (ETH Zürich). He is the director of the ETH Integrated Devices, Electronics, And Systems (IDEAS) Group. Prior to that, he was an associate professor with tenure at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Georgia Institute of Technology, USA. He held the Demetrius T. Paris professorship at School of ECE at Georgia Tech. He was the founding director of Georgia Tech Center of Circuits and Systems (CCS) and the director of the Georgia Tech Electronics and Micro-System (GEMS) lab. He worked at Intel Corporation and Skyworks Solutions from 2010 to 2011. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, in 2007 and 2009, respectively. Dr. Wang is interested in innovating analog, mixed-signal, RF, and mm-Wave integrated circuits and hybrid systems for wireless communication, sensing, and bioelectronics applications. He has authored or co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers. Dr. Wang received the DARPA Director’s Fellowship Award in 2020 (the first awardee in Georgia Tech’s history), the DARPA Young Faculty Award in 2018, the National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2015, the Qualcomm Faculty Award in 2020 and 2021, the IEEE MTT-S Outstanding Young Engineer Award in 2017, the Georgia Tech Sigma Xi Young Faculty Award in 2016, the Georgia Tech ECE Outstanding Junior Faculty Member Award in 2015, and the Lockheed Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award in 2015. His research group has won multiple academic awards and best paper awards, including the 2019 Marconi Society Paul Baran Young Scholar, the IEEE RFIC Best Student Paper Awards (2014, 2016, 2018, and 2021), the IEEE International Microwave Symposium (IMS) Best Student Paper Award 2021, the IEEE CICC Outstanding Student Paper Awards (2015, 2018, and 2019), the IEEE CICC Best Conference Paper Award (2017), the 2016 IEEE Microwave Magazine Best Paper Award, and the IEEE SENSORS Best Live Demo Award (2nd Place in 2016). Dr. Wang is a Technical Program Committee (TPC) Member for IEEE ISSCC, RFIC, CICC, and BCICTS conferences. He is a Steering Committee Member for IEEE RFIC and CICC. He is the Conference Chair for CICC 2019 and Conference General Chair for CICC 2020. He is a Distinguished Microwave Lecturer (DML) for the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) for the term of 2022-2024. He was a Distinguished Lecturer (DL) for the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society (SSCS) for the term of 2018-2019. He was the Chair of the Atlanta’s IEEE CAS/SSCS joint chapter that won the IEEE SSCS Outstanding Chapter Award in 2014.

Abstract: The application of supervised learning techniques for the design of the physical layer of a communication link is often impaired by the limited amount of pilot data available for each device; while the use of unsupervised learning is typically limited by the need to carry out a large number of training iterations. In this talk, meta-learning, or learning-to-learn, is introduced as a tool to alleviate these problems. The talk will consider an Internet-of-Things (IoT) scenario in which devices transmit sporadically using short packets with few pilot symbols over a fading channel. The number of pilots is generally insufficient to obtain an accurate estimate of the end-to-end channel, which includes the effects of fading and of the transmission-side distortion. To tackle this problem, pilots from previous IoT transmissions are used as meta-training data in order to train a demodulator that is able to quickly adapt to new end-to-end channel conditions from few pilots. Various state-of-the-art meta-learning schemes are adapted to the problem at hand and evaluated, including MAML, FOMAML, REPTILE, and CAVIA. Both offline and online solutions are developed.

Bio: Osvaldo Simeone is a Professor of Information Engineering with the Centre for Telecommunications Research at the Department of Engineering of King’s College London, where he directs the King’s Communications, Learning and Information Processing lab. He received an M.Sc. degree (with honors) and a Ph.D. degree in information engineering from Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy, in 2001 and 2005, respectively. From 2006 to 2017, he was a faculty member of the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), where he was affiliated with the Center for Wireless Information Processing (CWiP). His research interests include information theory, machine learning, wireless communications, and neuromorphic computing. Dr Simeone is a co-recipient of the 2019 IEEE Communication Society Best Tutorial Paper Award, the 2018 IEEE Signal Processing Best Paper Award, the 2017 JCN Best Paper Award, the 2015 IEEE Communication Society Best Tutorial Paper Award and of the Best Paper Awards of IEEE SPAWC 2007 and IEEE WRECOM 2007. He was awarded a Consolidator grant by the European Research Council (ERC) in 2016. His research has been supported by the U.S. NSF, the ERC, the Vienna Science and Technology Fund, as well as by a number of industrial collaborations. He currently serves in the editorial board of the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine and is the vice-chair of the Signal Processing for Communications and Networking Technical Committee of the IEEE Signal Processing Society. He was a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Information Theory Society in 2017 and 2018. Dr Simeone is a co-author of two monographs, two edited books published by Cambridge University Press, and more than one hundred research journal papers. He is a Fellow of the IET and of the IEEE.

Abstract: The next generation of wireless systems will employ networking equipment mounted on mobile platforms, unmanned air vehicles (UAV), and low orbit satellites. As a result, the topology of 6G wireless technology will extend to 3D vertical networking. With its extended service, 6G will also give rise to new challenges which include, the introduction of intelligent reflective surfaces (IRS), the mmWave spectrum, the employment of massive MIMO systems, and the agility of networks. Along with the advancement in networking technology, user devices are also evolving rapidly, with the emergence of highly capable cellphones, smart IoT equipment, and wearable devices. One of the key elements of 6G technology is the need for accurate positioning information. The accuracy of today’s positioning systems is not acceptable for many applications of future, especially in smart environments. In this talk, we will discuss how positioning can be a key enabler of 6G, and what challenges the next generation of localization technology will face when integrated within the new wireless networks.

Bio: Shahrokh Valaee is a Professor with the Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, and the holder of Nortel Chair of Network Architectures and Services. He is the Founder and the Director of the Wireless and Internet Research Laboratory (WIRLab) at the University of Toronto. Professor Valaee was the TPC Co-Chair and the Local Organization Chair of the IEEE Personal Mobile Indoor Radio Communication (PIMRC) Symposium 2011. He was the TCP Chair of PIMRC2017, the Track Co-Chair of WCNC 2014, the TPC Co-Chair of ICT 2015. He has been the guest editor for various journals. He was a Track Co-chair for PIMRC 2020 and VTC Fall 2020. From December 2010 to December 2012, he was the Associate Editor of the IEEE Signal Processing Letters. From 2010 to 2015, he served as an Editor of IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications. Currently, he is an Editor of Journal of Computer and System Science. Professor Valaee is a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada, and a Fellow of IEEE.

This event is co-organized by IEEE Seattle Section Joint Chapter, IEEE Vancouver Joint Communications Chapter, and IEEE Victoria Section Joint Chapter.

Title: The Future of UAV Cellular Communications: A Journey from 5G to 6G

Presented by: Dr. Giovanni Geraci, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona

Date and time: June 10, 2021, from 12 pm to 1 pm

Abstract: What will it take for UAVs—and the associated ecosystem—to take off? Arguably, ubiquitous high-capacity links paired with hyper-reliable command and control all along. And indeed, meeting these aspirations may entail a full-blown mobile network support. While the understanding of UAV cellular communications has been advancing, many fundamental challenges remain to be addressed, with new applications demanding original solutions. In this talk, we blend academic and industrial views, navigating from 5G to 6G UAV use cases, requirements, and enabling technologies.

Biography: Giovanni Geraci is an Assistant Professor at University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. He was previously a Research Scientist with Nokia Bell Labs and holds a Ph.D. from the UNSW Sydney. He is an IEEE ComSoc Distinguished Lecturer, an Editor for two IEEE journals, and a co-Editor of the book “UAV Communications for 5G and Beyond” by Wiley—IEEE Press. Giovanni received the IEEE ComSoc Outstanding Young Researcher Award for Europe, Middle East, and Africa.

Abstract: Next generation wireless communication system requirements have spurred recent research activities on multi-antenna transceiver hardware architectures and relevant intelligent communication schemes. Among these are Full Duplex (FD) and Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) architectures, which offer the potential for simultaneous uplink and downlink communications in the entire frequency band. However, as the number of antenna elements increases, the interference signal leaking from the transmitter of the FD radio to its receiver becomes more severe. In this talk, I will present a unified FD massive MIMO architecture comprising analog and digital transmit and receive BeamForming (BF), as well as analog and digital SI cancellation, which can be jointly designed for various performance objectives and complexity requirements. Performance evaluation results for applications of the proposed architecture to fully digital and hybrid analog and digital BF operations using recent algorithmic designs, as well as simultaneous communication of data and control signals, are presented. The proposed architecture, for both small and large numbers of antennas, should enable improved spectral efficiency FD communications with fewer analog cancellation elements compared to various benchmark schemes. The talk will be concluded with a list of open challenges and research directions for future FD massive MIMO communication systems.

Bio: Besma Smida (Senior Member, IEEE) is an Associate Professor of electrical and computer engineering with the University of Illinois at Chicago. After completing her appointment as a Post-Doctoral Researcher and later a Lecturer at Harvard University, she became an Assistant Professor of electrical and computer engineering with Purdue University Northwest. She received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Quebec (INRS), Montreal, QC, Canada. She was a Research Engineer with the Technology Evolution and Standards Group of Microcell, Inc., (now Rogers Wireless), Montreal. She took part in wireless normalization committees (3GPP, T1P1). She has served as the Chair for IEEE Women in Engineering, Chicago Section, from 2011 to 2013, and has been the Chair of IEEE Communication Chapter, Chicago Section, since 2019. She currently serves as Editor for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS, Editor of the IEEE OPEN JOURNAL OF THE COMMUNICATIONS SOCIETY, and a Guest Editor SENSORS OPEN ACCESS JOURNAL.  Previously she served as an Associate Editor for the IEEE COMMUNICATION LETTERS, and a Guest Editor for special issues of the IEEE JOURNAL ON SELECTED AREAS IN COMMUNICATIONS. She is a Communication Society Distinguished Lecturer for 2021-2022. She was awarded the INSIGHT Into Diversity Magazine’s 2015 “100 Inspiring Women in STEM”. She received the Academic Gold Medal of the Governor General of Canada in 2007 and the NSF CAREER award in 2015. Her research focuses on In-band Full-Duplex systems and applications, backscatter modulation, IoT, and two-way communication networks.