Honors and Awards

 

Chen-Ching Liu was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in recognition of his contributions to computational methods for power system restoration and cybersecurity.

Hesham Rakha was named IEEE Fellow for contributions to optimization, modeling and assessment of transportation systems. 

Haining Wang was named IEEE Fellow for contributions to network and cloud security.

Walid Saad was named a Clairviate Highly Cited Researcher. He was also awarded an Early Achievement Award from the IEEE Communications Society’s Communication Theory Technical Committee for contributions to distributed optimization and learning for heterogeneous wireless systems and a Dean’s Award for Research Excellence.

Mona Ghassemi won an NSF CAREER Award and an AFOSR Young Investigator Program (YIP) award to research insulation failure associated with wide bandgap power electronics.

Harpreet Dhillon was awarded an IEEE Wireless Communications Letters Top Editor Award, IEEE Communications Society, 2019. He was also named Elizabeth and James E. Turner Jr. '56 Faculty Fellow and awarded a Virginia Tech Favorite Faculty Award by the Division of Student Affairs.

Xiaoting Jia was awarded a 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award (NTFA).

Jih-Sheng (Jason) Lai was awarded the Best Technology Award, TECO Green Tech International Competition, Taipei, Taiwan, Aug. 2019.

Yang (Cindy) Yi was awarded a Virginia Tech Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS) Junior Faculty Award (JFA) and named Virginia Tech Engineering Faculty Fellow.

Keynote Addresses

Jih-Sheng (Jason) Lai gave keynote speeches at the Centennial Celebration of National Chung-Hsing University, Nov. 2019, Taichung, Taiwan; the Asian Conference on Energy, Power, and Transportation Electrification, Oct. 2019, Singapore, Singapore; the International Conference in Intelligent Green Building and Smart Grid (IGBSG-2019), Sept. 2019, Yichang, China; and the IEEE Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices and Applications in Asia (WiPDA-Asia), May 2019, Taipei, Taiwan.

Y. Tom Hou gave keynote speeches at the 19th International Conference on Algorithms and Architectures for Parallel Processing (ICA3PP 2019), Dec. 2019, Melbourne, Australia; the Computing, Communications and IoT Applications Conference (ComComAp2019), Oct. 2019, Shenzhen, China; the International Conference on Computing, Networking and Communications (ICNC 2019), Plenary Talk, Feb. 2019, Honolulu, Hawaii.

Best Paper Awards

C. Chaccour, R. Amer, B. Zhou, and W. Saad

“On the Reliability of Wireless Virtual Reality at Terahertz (THz) Frequencies,” 10th IFIP International Conference on New Technologies, Mobility and Security (NTMS), Mobility & Wireless Networks Track, June 2019, Canary Islands, Spain.

T. Chantem and P. Oza

“A Real-Time Server Based Approach for Safe and Timely Intersection Crossings,” IEEE 25th International Conference on Embedded and Real-Time Computing Systems and Applications (RTCSA), Aug. 2019, Hangzhou, China.

J.-S. Lai

“High-Frequency Transformer Design for LLC Resonant Converter with High Insulation Capability,” IEEE International Future Energy Conference, Nov. 2019, Singapore, Singapore.

Fred W. Ellersick MILCOM Award for Best Paper (in Unclassified Technical Program)

Shaoran Li (Ph.D. student), Tom Hou, and Wenjing Lou

“Optimal Power Control with Channel Uncertainty in Ad Hoc Networks,” 2019 MILCOM conference, Nov. 2019, Norfolk, Virginia.

Alumni Best Paper

Young Author Best Paper Award

M. Mozaffari, W. Saad, M. Bennis and M. Debba

“Unmanned Aerial Vehicle with Underlaid Device-to-Device Communications: Performance and Tradeoffs,” 2019 IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc), published in IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, vol. 15, no. 6, June 2016.

Editorships

IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, Y. Tom Hou, Editor

IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics, Jih-Sheng (Jason) Lai, Editor

IEEE Wireless Communications Letters, Harpreet Dhillon, Editor

Area/Associate Editorships

ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks, Y. Tom Hou, Associate editor

Journal of Intelligent Procedures in Electrical Technology (JIPET), Ali Mehrizi-Sani, International editorial board member

IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics, Qiang Li, Associate editor

IEEE Transactions on Cognitive Communications and Networking, Allen B. MacKenzie, Walid Saad, Associate editor

IEEE Transactions on Communications, Walid Saad, Editor-at-large

IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Ali Mehrizi-Sani, Associate editor

IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking, Harpreet Dhillon, Area editor

IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, Walid Saad, Associate editor

IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, Jung-Min (Jerry) Park, Walid Saad, Associate editor

IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering, Y. Tom Hou, Associate editor

IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems, Lingjia Liu, Associate editor

IEEE Transactions on Power Engineering, Ali Mehrizi-Sani, Associate editor

IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Ali Mehrizi-Sani, Associate editor

IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, R. Michael Buehrer, Harpreet Dhillon, Walid Saad, Associate editor

IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, Harpreet Dhillon, Associate editor

Nature’s Scientific Reports, William T. Baumann, Editorial board member

Wiley International Transactions on Electrical Energy Systems (ITEES), Ali Mehrizi-Sani, Editorial board member

Conference Chairs

Harpreet Dhillon served as Technical Programming Committee Co-chair, Wireless Communications Symposium, 8th IEEE/CIC International Conference on Communications in China (ICCC), Aug. 2019, Changchun, China; and Technical Programming Committee Co-Chair, Wireless Communications Symposium, IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), May 2019, Shanghai, China.

Y. Tom Hou served as Chair, IEEE INFOCOM Steering Committee.

Jih-Sheng (Jason) Lai served as General Chair, IEEE International Future Energy Electronics Conference, Nov. 2019, Singapore, Singapore.

Jung-Min (Jerry) Park served as Technical Programming Committee Co-Chair, IEEE Conference on Communications and Network Security (CNS), June 2019, Washington, D.C. 

Walid Saad served as Track Co-Chair, IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications, Track 3: Mobile and Wireless Networks, Sept. 2019, Istanbul, Turkey and Tutorial Chair, IEEE International Symposium on Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks, Nov. 2019, Newark, New Jersey.

Haining Wang served as Technical Programming Committee Co-Chair, 50th IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN), June-July 2020, Valencia, Spain.

Exceptional National and International Service

Y. Tom Hou serves as a Board Member, IEEE Communications Society Board of Governors, and IEEE Communications Society Distinguished Lecturer

Faculty and Tenure Promotion

Walid Saad was promoted to full professor.

Alumni Honors

Pratik Joshi (M.S.E.E. ’15), second place, Ionosphere-Thermosphere (IT) Student Poster prize competition, CEDAR 2019 Workshop, June 2019, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Garima Malhotra (M.S.E.E. ’16), honorable mention, Mesosphere-Lower-Thermosphere (MLT) Student Poster prize competition, CEDAR 2019 Workshop, June 2019, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Evan Thomas (Ph.D. ’16) won the Basu United States Early Career Award for Research in Sun-Earth Science from the Space Physics and Aeronomy Section of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

Student Awards

Muhammad Rafiq won second place in the MLT Student Poster prize competition of the NSF Coupling, Energetics, and Dynamics, of Atmospheric Regions (CEDAR) 2019 Competition, June 2019, Santa Fe, New Mexico for his poster, A Deep Learning Based Approach to Predict the Onset of Magnetic Substorm, created with Maimaiti, M., B. Kunduri, J.M. Ruohoniemi, and J.B. H. Baker.

Vishnu Vardhan was awarded the Pratt Fellowship for excellence in academics and research at Virginia Tech.

Chiranjib Saha won a Conference travel award from IEEE ComSoc and National Science Foundation to attend IEEE Globecom 2019.

Mohammad Mozaffari was awarded the 2019 Outstanding Dissertation Award in the "Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics" category from the Virginia Tech Graduate School.

The following students/postdocs received reviewer appreciation awards from IEEE journals:

Praful Mankar, IEEE Wireless Communications Letters, 2020

Priyabrata Parida, IEEE Wireless Communications Letters, 2020

Mehrnaz Afshang, IEEE Transactions on Communications, 2019

Vishnu Vardhan Chetlur, IEEE Transactions on Communications, 2019

Books Published

Walid Saad co-authored Game Theory for Next Generation Wireless and Communication Networks: Modeling, Analysis, and Design (Cambridge University Press 2019) and, with Mohammad Mozaffari (Ph.D. ’18), Communications and Networking for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Cambridge University Press 2020).