Team

Walid Saad,  Professor, Google Scholar

Walid Saad received his Ph.D degree from the University of Oslo, Norway in 2010. He is currently a Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech, where he leads the Network sciEnce, Wireless, and Security (NEWS) laboratory. His research interests include wireless networks (5G/6G/beyond), machine learning, game theory, security, UAVs, semantic communications, cyber-physical systems, and network science. Dr. Saad is a Fellow of the IEEE. He is also the recipient of the NSF CAREER award in 2013, the AFOSR summer faculty fellowship in 2014, and the Young Investigator Award from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) in 2015. He was the (co-)author of twelve conference best paper awards at IEEE WiOpt in 2009, ICIMP in 2010, IEEE WCNC in 2012, IEEE PIMRC in 2015, IEEE SmartGridComm in 2015, EuCNC in 2017, IEEE GLOBECOM (2018 and 2020), IFIP NTMS in 2019, IEEE ICC (2020 and 2022), and IEEE QCE in 2023. He is the recipient of the 2015 and 2022 Fred W. Ellersick Prize from the IEEE Communications Society,  of the IEEE Communications Society Marconi Prize Award in 2023, and of the IEEE Communications Society Award for Advances in Communication in 2023. He was also a co-author of the papers that received the IEEE Communications Society Young Author Best Paper award in 2019, 2021, and 2023. Other recognitions include the 2017 IEEE ComSoc Best Young Professional in Academia award, the 2018 IEEE ComSoc Radio Communications Committee Early Achievement Award, and the 2019 IEEE ComSoc Communication Theory Technical Committee Early Achievement Award. From 2015-2017, Dr. Saad was named the Stephen O. Lane Junior Faculty Fellow at Virginia Tech and, in 2017, he was named College of Engineering Faculty Fellow. He received the Dean's award for Research Excellence from Virginia Tech in 2019. He was also an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer in 2019-2020.  He has been annually listed in the Clarivate Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher List since 2019. He currently serves as an Area Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Communications. He is the Editor-in-Chief for the IEEE Transactions on Machine Learning in  Communications and Networking. 

Christo Kurisummoottil Thomas, Postdoc, Google Scholar

Christo Kurisummoottil Thomas received his BS in Electronics and Communication Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Calicut, India in year 2010, his MS in Telecommunication Engineering from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India in year 2012, and his PhD from EURECOM, France in year 2020. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Virginia Tech. His research interests include semantic communications, statistical signal processing, and machine learning for wireless communications. From 2012 to 2014, he was a staff design engineer on 4G LTE with Broadcom communications, Bangalore, and from 2014 to 2017, he was a design engineer with Intel corporation, Bangalore. During November 2020 till June 2022, he was a staff engineer on 5G modems with wireless research and development division of Qualcomm Inc., Espoo, Finland. He was a recipient of the best student paper award at IEEE SPAWC 2018, Kalamata, Greece, and also received third prize for his team titled “Learned Chester” ML5G-PHY channel estimation challenge, as part of the ITU AI/ML in 5G challenge, conducted at NCSU, US, 2020. 

Mahdi Chehimi, PhD Candidate, Google Scholar

Mahdi Chehimi is a PhD candidate in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech. Mahdi received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering with honors from Kuwait University in 2018 and his M.E. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the American University of Beirut in 2020 with a focus on communications, radio frequency, and physical layer security. His research interests include quantum communications, quantum networking, and quantum machine learning (QML) with applications to communication networks. Mahdi received the best paper award at the 2023 IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing and Engineering (QCE) for his work on the scalability of quantum repeater networks. His seminal work on quantum federated learning (QFL) introduced its inaugural framework using quantum data, which pioneered one of the first open-source quantum federated datasets in literature. In 2022, Mahdi was a visiting scholar in the ACQuIRe Lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In addition, Mahdi held a research stay in summer 2023 at Ingenii Inc. as a quantum scientist, where his work focused on practical QML applications in drug discovery and medical imaging. Mahdi was the lead organizer of the first Quantum Information Summit in Lebanon held at the American University of Beirut. He served as a technical program committee member in multiple QML workshops at flagship IEEE conferences, and is a frequent reviewer at several IEEE journals. Mahdi is a Quantum Formalism fellow, by Zaiku Group in the United Kingdom, where he received multiple grants to support his research on distributed QML applications and QFL.

Alexander DeRieux, PhD Student, Google Scholar

Alexander DeRieux received his BS in Electrical Engineering with honors and his BS in Computer Science with honors from Virginia Tech in 2016, and his MS in 2022. He is currently a PhD student at the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech. He works for the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Naval Center for Space Technology (NCST) Space Systems Development Division (SSDD) researching, designing, and developing space-system technologies in the areas of rocketry, communications, optics, networking, tactical network modeling, surveillance and tracking, software engineering, Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT), and Precise Time and Time Interval (PTTI) theory and applications. His research interests include quantum machine learning, machine learning, and wireless networks.

Kimia Ehsani, PhD Student,

Kimia Ehsani received her BS in Electrical Engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology in 2021. She is currently a direct PhD student at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Virginia Tech. Her research interests include wireless communications, 6G networks, machine learning, causal inference, and semantic communications.

Jeremy Bernard Gatineau, PhD Student

Jeremy Gatineau received his BS in  Electrical and Computer Engineering from ENSEA, France in 2019 and his MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2022. He is currently a PhD student at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Virginia Tech. His research interests include multi-agent systems, decentralized learning, emergent communication, emergent collective intelligence, neuro-symbolic reasoning, and deep-reinforcement learning .

Omar Hashash, PhD Student, Google Scholar

Omar Hashash received his B.E. in Communications and Electronics Engineering from Beirut Arab University, Lebanon in 2019 and his M.E. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon in 2021. He is currently a Ph.D. student at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Virginia Tech. His research interests include 6G, artificial intelligence (AI), digital twins, metaverse, and edge intelligence. He is a finalist for the 2023 Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship in North America. He has published one of the first works that explores the synergy between wireless, computing, and AI techniques that can come together to support massive digital twinning of physical systems in the metaverse. He is also among the first to propose a decentralized digital world architecture for the metaverse over 6G and beyond edge networks. He served as a technical program committee member in multiple flagship IEEE conferences, and is a frequent reviewer at several IEEE journals.

Minsu Kim, PhD Candidate, Google Scholar

Minsu Kim received his BE with honors in School of Undergraduate Studies from the DGIST in 2019 and his MS in Information and Communication Engineering from the DGIST, Korea in 2021. He is currently a PhD student at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Virginia Tech. He is awarded the best paper award at IEEE ICC 2022 and IEEE TAOS Technical Committee 2022. He is also the recipient of the Pratt Scholarship. His research interests include distributed machine learning, Internet of Things, and 6G networks.

Tingyu Shui, PhD Student, Google Scholar 

Tingyu Shui received his BS in Network Engineering from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, China in 2020 and his MS in Information and Communication Engineering from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, China in 2023. He is currently a PhD student at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Virginia Tech. His research interests include wireless communications, resilient communications, machine learning and 6G networks.  

Nitisha Singh, PhD Student,

Nitisha Singh received her BS in Electronics and Communication Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Durgapur, India in 2022. She is currently a direct PhD student at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Virginia Tech. Her research interests include wireless communications, 6G, machine learning, and semantic communications. 

Saeed Mohseni seh deh, PhD Student, Google Scholar

Saeed Mohseni seh deh received his BS in Electrical Engineering from the Amirkabir University of Technology, Iran in 2020, his MS in Electrical Engineering from the Sharif University of Technology, Iran in 2022. He is currently a PhD student at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Virginia Tech. His research interests include Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Wireless Communication Systems, Optimization and Signal Processing. 

Jhonny Velasquez, PhD Student,

Jhonny Velasquez received his BS in Electrical Engineering, with honors, with a focus in Control, Robotics, and Autonomy from Virginia Tech in 2023. He is currently a M.S. student at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Virginia Tech. His research interests include generalizable machine learning algorithms, deep reinforcement learning techniques, and the foundational challenges underlying the pursuit of artificial general intelligence.

Nof Abuzainab,

Nof Abuzainab received her BE in Computer and Communications Engineering from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon and her MS and PhD degrees from the University of Maryland College Park, USA. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Bradley department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech working on the Internet of Things (IoT) and network security. Prior to joining VT, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute of Computer Science and Automation (INRIA) in France. She is currently a Senior Researcher at Intelligent Automation Inc in Maryland.

Bochra Bouchhima, 

Bochra Bouchhima received her engineering degree in Telecommunication from Telecom SudParis in 2012 and her PhD in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) from Ecole Nationale d'Ingénieurs de Tunis (ENIT) in 2017. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Virginia Tech. Her research interests include machine learning, compressive sensing, inverse problems, optimal transport, and optimization. She is the recipient of the Fulbright scholarship for the year 2018-2019.

Seyed Rasoul Etesami,

Seyed Rasoul Etesami received his B.S in Electrical Engineering and Applied Mathematics from Isfahan University of Technology, his M.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and his Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Electrical Engineering Department at Rutgers University and was jointly co-advised by Dr. Walid Saad. His research interests include social and distributed networks, networked games, smart grids, algorithm design, and computational complexity. Dr. Etesami is the recipient of the best CSL PhD thesis award in the engineering school of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2016. He is currently an Assistant Professor at Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering at UIUC.

Minchae Jung, 

Minchae Jung received his BS in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the Yonsei University, South Korea and his PhD in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the Yonsei University, South Korea in 2014. He  was a postdoctoral researcher at Yonsei University, South Korea and he a postdoctoral fellow at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Virginia Tech from 2019 to 2020. His research interests include massive MIMO, large and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces, and SWIPT system. He is currently an Assistant Professor at Department of Electronic Engineering at Soonchunhyang University, Korea.

Bo Zhou,

Bo Zhou received his B.E. degree in electronic engineering from South China University of Technology, China and his PhD from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech from 2018 to 2021. His research interests include age of information, wireless caching, stochastic network optimization, the Internet of things, and machine learning. He is now a faculty at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Christina Chaccour, PhD Candidate, Google Scholar

Christina Chaccour received the B.E. degree (Summa Cum Laude) in Electrical Engineering from Notre Dame University-Louaize, Lebanon, in 2018 and the M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA, in 2020. She received her PhD degree from the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech in 2023. Her research interests include wireless communications, 5G and 6G networks, extended reality, terahertz frequency bands, machine learning, and semantic communications. She has derived some of the first performance analysis results on the potential of networking at THz frequencies. She is now a network solutions manager at Ericsson Inc., 

Ursula Challita, LinkedIn

Ursula Challita received her BS in Computer and Communications Engineering from Notre Dame University (NDU), Lebanon in 2012, her MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from American University of Beirut (AUB), Lebanon  in 2014, and her PhD from The University of Edinburgh (UoE), School of Informatics in 2018 under the supervision of Dr. Saad. She is currently a senior researcher at Ericsson Research, Sweden. Her research interests include resource allocation, spectrum management, optimization, game theory, and machine learning. She is the recipient of the Edinburgh Global Research Scholarship and Principal's Career Development Scholarship (2014-2017).

Mingzhe Chen, LinkedIn

Mingzhe Chen received his BS in Telecommunication Engineering from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China and his MS in Telecommunication Engineering from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT), China. He received his PhD degree from the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT), School of Information and Communication Engineering. He was a postdoctoral researcher jointly at the Electrical Engineering Department of Princeton University and at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China from 2019 - 2021. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Miami.

Yaman Sharaf-Dabbagh, LinkedIn

Yaman Sharaf-Dabbagh received his BE in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from the University of Aleppo, Syria and his MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from American University of Beirut (AUB), Lebanon. He received his PhD degree from the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech. His research interests include machine learning, distributed systems, task scheduling, optimization, security, cyber-physical systems, and data analytics. He is currently a Software Engineer at Google. 

Mohammed S. Elbamby, LinkedIn

Mohammed S. Elbamby received his BS in electronics and communications engineering from the Institute of Aviation Engineering and Technology (IAET), Egypt, in 2010 and his MS in communications engineering from Cairo University, Egypt, in 2013, and the Doctor of Science degree (with distinction) in communications engineering from the University of Oulu, Finland, in 2019. He is currently a researcher in the Network Systems and Security Research Lab at Nokia Bell Labs. His research interests span resource optimization, network management, and machine learning in wireless cellular networks. 

Abdelrahman Eldosouky, LinkedIn

Abdelrahman Eldosouky received his BS in Computer and Control Engineering and MS in Computer and Systems Engineering from Zagazig University, Egypt. He received his PhD degree from the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech in 2019. His research interests include resilient critical infrastructure, moving target defense, mechanism design, contract theory, and wireless security. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Carleton University.

Georges El Rahi, LinkedIn

Georges El Rahi received his BE degree in Electrical Engineering from the Lebanese American University (LAU) in Byblos, Lebanon. He defended his MS thesis entitled "Demand-Side Energy Management in the Smart Grid: Games and Prospects" in May 2017 at the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech. He is currently a managing consultant at Network Rail Consulting in Washington DC-Baltimore Area.

Aidin Ferdowsi, LinkedIn

Aidin Ferdowsi received his BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tehran, Iran. He received his  PhD degree from the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech in 2020. He was also a Wireless@VT Fellow. His research interests include cyber-physical systems, smart cities, security, and game theory. He is currently a principal associate ML engineer at Capital One.

Kenza Hamidouche, LinkedIn

Kenza Hamidouche received her engineering diploma in computer science from Ecole nationale Supérieure d'Informatique, Algiers, in 2012. In 2013, she was selected for a scholarship program at the university of Rennes 1, from which she received her Research Master's degree in computer science. In December 2016, she received her PhD from Paris - Saclay, co-advised by Dr. Walid Saad and Dr. Merouane Debbah. She is currently a Wireless Systems Architect at Apple.

Ye Hu, LinkedIn

Ye Hu received her BS in Communication Engineering from the Hebei University of Technology, China, and her MS in Electronic and Communication Engineering from  Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunication, China. She received her Ph.D. from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Virginia Tech in 2021. Her research interests include non-terrestrial networks (NTNs), machine learning, and   game theory. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University.

Gilsoo Lee, LinkedIn

Gilsoo Lee received his BS and MS in Electronic Engineering from Sogang University, South Korea. He received his PhD degree from the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech in 2020. His research interests include resource management, online optimization, and game-theoretic approaches with application to fog computing and energy-harvesting wireless networks. He is currently a senior standardization specialist in Nokia Standards at Nokia.

Zahra (Kiana) Moghimi, 

Zahra (Kiana) Moghimi received her BS in Electrical Engineering from the Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST), Iran. She received her MS degree from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Virginia Tech in 2021. Her research interests include Machine Learning, Deep Neural Networks, and Generative Models with applications in Computer Vision and Networking problems.

Mohammad Mozaffari,  LinkedIn

Mohammad Mozaffari received his BS in Electrical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Iran and his MS in Electrical Engineering from University of Calgary, Canada. He received his PhD degree from the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech in 2018. His research interests include wireless communications and statistical signal processing with focus on unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communications and networking, localization, and GPS signals. He is currently a Senior Researcher at Ericsson Research, Santa Clara, CA, USA.

Francesco Pantisano,

Francesco Pantisano received his B.Eng and M.Sc (Hons.) degrees in Telecommunications Engineering from the University of Bologna, in 2005 and 2008. In 2013, he received his PhD degree in Computer networks and Information technology, from the University of Oulu, Finland. Dr. Pantisano's first job was a scientific project officer at the Digital Earth and Reference Data Unit of the Joint Research Centre, European Commission, working in the area of Big Data, Smart city, IoT and Cellular Network Evolution. Currently, he joined the Ernst & Young Consulting firm in Italy.

Taehyun Park, 

Taehyeun Park received his BE in Electrical Engineering from the Cooper Union. He received his PhD degree from the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech in 2020. His research interests include machine -to-machine communications, the Internet of things, learning, and game theory.

Anibal Sanjab, 

Anibal Sanjab received his B.E. in Electrical Engineering from the Lebanese American University (LAU), Lebanon, in 2012 and his M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech, VA, USA, in 2014. He received his Ph.D. degree from the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech in 2018. His research interests include the security of cyber-physical systems, game theory, smart grids, energy economics and power system operation, and control. Dr. Sanjab has been awarded the best student paper award at the IEEE SmartGridComm'15. Dr. Sanjab is the recipient of the Fulbright scholarship for the years 2012-2014. He is valedictorian of the Lebanese American University class of 2012 and the recipient of the 2012 LAU president's award for high leadership skills and academic achievements. Dr. Sanjab has served on the organizing and technical program committees of a number of conferences and workshops.

Omid Semiari,

Omid Semiari received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in communication systems from University of Tehran in 2010 and 2012, respectively. He received his Ph.D. degree from the Bradly department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech in 2017. In 2014, he has worked as an intern at Bell Labs, on anticipatory, context-aware resource management. In 2016, he has joined Qualcomm CDMA Technologies (QCT) for a summer internship, working on LTE-Advanced modem design. Dr. Semiari is the recipient of several research fellowship awards, including DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) scholarship and NSF student travel grant. He has actively served as a reviewer for flagship IEEE Transactions and conferences and participated as the technical program committee (TPC) member for a variety of workshops at IEEE conferences, such as ICC and GLOBECOM. His research interests include wireless communications and networking, millimeter wave communications, context-aware resource allocation, matching theory, and signal processing. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.

Mehdi Naderi Soorki, visitor

Mehdi Naderi Soorki received his BS in  Electrical Engineering from the Iran university of science and technology (IUST), Iran and his MS in Telecommunication Networks  from  Isfahan university of technology (IUT), Iran. He received his PhD from Isfahan university of technology (IUT), department of electrical and computer engineering. His research interests include applying game theory, machine learning, and stochastic network optimization to design new mechanisms for different 5G technologies, including millimeter wave communications, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces, and UAV communication. 

Yunpeng Wang,

Yunpeng Wang received his BS from North China Electric Power University, China and his MS from Stevens Institute of Technology, USA, he received his PhD degree from University of Miami, USA in 2015. He is currently at the Smart Grid Corporation of China (SGCC).

Xiangxiang Xu, visitor

Xiangxiang Xu received his PhD degree from the Department of Electronic Engineering at Tsinghua University, China in July 2016. He was co-advised by Dr. Saad. Currently, he is working in consulting in China.

Ali Taleb Zadeh, 

Ali Taleb Zadeh received his PhD degree from the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech in 2022. He is now a Research Machine Learning Engineer at HUMA.AI. 

Tengchan Zeng, 

Tengchan Zeng received his PhD degree from the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech in 2021. He is now a Wireless Connectivity Engineer at Ford Motors.

Qianqian Zhang, 

Qianqian Zhang received her BS in Telecommunication Engineering with Management from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing. She received her PhD degree from the Bradley department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech in 2021. Her research interests include machine learning, millimeter wave communications, game theory, and smart cities.

Samad Ali, PhD Student

Samad Ali received his PhD degree from the Center for Wireless Communications at University of Oulu in 2020. He is currently a Wireless Research Specialist in AI and ML at Nokia Bell Labs. 

Ramy Amer, PhD Student

Ramy Amer received his PhD degree from the CONNECT Center, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. His research interests include wireless caching, cross-layer design, Cognitive Radio, Energy Harvesting, and Stochastic Geometry. He is also certified as a Cisco instructor and has other Cisco data and voice certificates.