Communications and Information Systems

Dr. Otman Basir is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He is the also the Associate Director of the Waterloo Institute for Health Informatics Research, Director of Urban Informatics Corporation and Associate Director for the Pattern Recognition and Machine Intelligence Laboratory.

Dr. Basir’s research spans a variety of cutting-edge topics, including Intelligent Embedded Systems, Sensory Systems Design, Biologically Inspired Intelligent Systems, and Human-Computer Interface (HCI) Systems. He has authored and co-authored over 400 scientific publications and holds a remarkable 121 issued and pending patents.

In addition to his academic achievements, Dr. Basir is an entrepreneur. He is the founder, president, and CEO of Intelligent Mechatronic Systems (IMS), a leader in telematics and infotainment technologies. IMS is at the forefront of the connected car industry, merging telematics and infotainment technologies to create safer, smarter, and more sustainable driving experiences. Dr. Basir is also a co-founder of Voice-Enabled Systems and Technology.

Dr. Basir's outstanding contributions have earned him numerous prestigious accolades, including the Ontario Premier Research Excellence Award (PREA), the Canada Foundation Innovation Award, the Academic Leadership Award from the University of Guelph, and the Professor of the Year Award from the University of Guelph. His innovative work continues to influence both academia and industry.

Dr. Mohamed Oussama Damen is a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Waterloo.

Dr. Damen has an extensive background in research positions at multiple academic institutions including École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications in Paris, France; the University of Minnesota and the University of Alberta. In June of 2004, he joined the University of Waterloo, where he then became the Nortel Networks Associate Chair in Advanced Telecommunications from April 2005 to April 2010.

His current research interests include coding theory (particularly regarding lattices, coding and decoding algorithms), cross-layer optimization, multiple-input multiple-output and space time communications, multiuser detection, and wireless communications.

Dr. Damen has received several awards including the University of Waterloo ECE Research Excellence Award in 2007, Early Researcher Award in the Province of Ontario for 2007 to 2010 and the Junior Research Fellowship from the French Research Ministry in 1996 to 1999. Dr. Damen has published numerous articles and journals with, and is currently a senior level member of, IEEE.

Dr. Guang Gong is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo and a former University Research Chair. She is an IEEE Fellow with a distinguished research portfolio spanning multiple domains, including cryptography, security, and wireless communications.

Her research focuses on the design and implementation of lightweight cryptographic systems, cryptography and cryptanalysis, as well as the security and privacy of Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, blockchain-based IoT security, and privacy-preserving machine learning. Dr. Gong also explores security in cloud and network environments, ad-hoc networks, RFID systems, wireless security, multimedia security, and physical layer security.

Additionally, her work extends to signal design for wireless communications, including Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM), and Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) systems.

In 2005, Dr. Gong, in collaboration with former Ph.D. student Yassir Nawaz, proposed the WG stream cipher family, known for its unique randomness properties that distinguish it from other ciphers. More recently, she and Professor Mark Aagaard have implemented lightweight instances of this cipher (WG-5, WG-7, WG-8) in hardware to secure RFID systems and embedded devices. In February 2019, Dr. Gong’s team submitted four lightweight cryptographic schemes—ACE, SPOC, SPIX, and WAGE—to the NIST Lightweight Cryptography (LWC) competition.

Dr. Gong’s pioneering work continues to shape the fields of cryptography, security, and wireless communications.

Dr. Pin-Han Ho is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo. His research spans a wide range of topics, including broadband wired and wireless communication networks, survivable network design, wireless communications, cyber-physical systems, and the Internet of Things (IoT).

One of Dr. Ho's significant contributions, in collaboration with his PhD student Dr. James She, is the invention of Wireless Media Express™, a groundbreaking technology designed to address the challenge of wireless channel fading. This fundamental issue limits the effectiveness of wireless service providers in multicasting to intended receivers. Wireless Media Express™ generates an intelligent multicast signal that optimizes video quality for all receivers, regardless of their channel conditions.

This innovative technology has transformative applications, such as enabling users to access TV channels on handheld devices while maintaining consistent, high-quality live broadcasts. It also allows businesses to efficiently upload video advertising to various digital displays across a city—such as highway billboards, shopping mall screens, and subway terminals—targeted to different audiences based on the time of day.

Dr. Ho's ongoing research continues to drive advancements in communication technologies, with real-world applications that significantly enhance both consumer experiences and business operations.

Dr. Amir Khandani is a Professor and NSERC/Ciena Industrial Research Chair in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He previously held a Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Wireless Communications and a Tier I Canada Research Chair in Information Theory. Currently, he holds the Senior Ciena-NSERC Industrial Research Chair on Network Information Theory of Optical Channels. Dr. Khandani has also held two Senior NSERC Industrial Research Chairs, funded jointly by Blackberry/NSERC and Nortel/NSERC.

Dr. Khandani’s research focuses on the physical and media-access control (MAC) layers of telecommunications systems, information theory, and signal processing, with a primary emphasis on wireless and optical transmission. His work aims to deepen the understanding of foundational principles, advance the theory in key areas, and translate this knowledge into practical applications for commutations systems.

Dr. Khandani earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Electrical Engineering from Tehran University in 1985, and his PhD in Electrical Engineering from McGill University in 1992. He joined the University of Waterloo in 1993, where he has since supervised over 45 PhD students, 35 master's students, 35 post-doctoral fellows, and 20 research engineers. Many of his former team members have gone on to successful careers in industry and academia around the world.

Dr. Khandani is an active contributor to the wireless communications community, frequently serving on technical program committees for major conferences. He has also acted as a consultant to various industrial and government agencies, and regularly delivers lectures and keynote speeches globally.

Dr. Oleg Michailovich is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo, where he has been a faculty member since 2007.

His research interests include harmonic analysis, numerical optimization, and the theory of inverse problems, with a particular emphasis on their applications in medical image processing and analysis.

Dr. Patrick Mitran is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo. From 2006 to 2007, he was a Lecturer in Applied Mathematics at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University.

Dr. Mitran’s research interests include information theory and wireless communications, cross-layer design, and signal processing for 5G technologies.

He received the Government of Ontario Early Researcher Award in 2011 and is a Licensed Professional Engineer in the Province of Ontario. Dr. Mitran served as an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Communications from 2012 to 2016, and as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Information Theory from 2016 to 2019.

Dr. Chrystopher Nehaniv is a full professor in the Departments of Systems Design Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo, a position he has held since August 2018. A mathematician, computer scientist, and complex adaptive systems researcher, Dr. Nehaniv is also affiliated with the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom, where he previously served as Director of the Centre for Computer Science & Informatics Research. There, he led research in the Algorithms, Adaptive Systems, and Wolfson Royal Society Biocomputation Research Groups as a Professor of Mathematical and Evolutionary Computer Sciences.

Before moving to Canada, Dr. Nehaniv was a full professor at the University of Aizu in Japan and held visiting professorships in Mathematics at Ibaraki National University, Japan, and the Institute for Mathematics & Informatics at the University of Debrecen, Hungary. He was also a post-doctoral research fellow and lecturer in Mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Nehaniv is the founder of the Waterloo Algebraic Intelligence & Computation Laboratory (WAICL) and, alongside Dr. Kerstin Dautenhahn, co-founded the University of Waterloo's Social and Intelligent Robotics Research Laboratory (SIRRL). He is a member of the Waterloo AI Institute and serves on the steering committee of the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation (WICI).

An active contributor to the academic community, Dr. Nehaniv is an Associate Editor for BioSystems, IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems, Interaction Studies, and Complexity. He previously served as Topic Editor-in-Chief for The International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems in the areas of AI Robotics and Human-Machine/Robot Interaction. He has been involved with the IEEE Task Force for Artificial Life and Complex Adaptive Systems since its inception in 2003, serving as Chair from 2012 to 2018 and as Vice Chair since 2018. He is also a member of the IEEE Cognitive and Developmental Systems Technical Committee (2019-present) of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society.

Dr. Catherine Rosenberg is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo. She is a Cisco Research Chair in 5G Systems (since 2018) and a former Canada Research Chair holder in the Future Internet (June 2010 to June 2024).

Dr. Rosenberg began her career at ALCATEL in France, and then at AT&T Bell Labs, USA. From 1988-1996, she was a faculty member in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at École Polytechnique, Montreal, Canada. In 1996, she joined Nortel Networks in the UK where she created and headed the R&D Department in Broadband Satellite Networking. In August 1999, Dr. Rosenberg became a Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University where she co-founded in May 2002 the Center for Wireless Systems and Applications (CWSA). She joined the University of Waterloo in September 2004 as the Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering for a three-year term.

Catherine Rosenberg was on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Orange Group (France-Telecom) from 2007 to mid 2015. She became its president from January 2013 to mid 2015. She is currently the president of the Scientific Advisory Board of the French IRT (Research and Technology Institute) BCOM on multimedia and networking (since 2014). She is also on the Editorial Board of the Proceedings of the IEEE.

She is an IEEE Fellow and was elected a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering in 2013.

She has authored over 200 papers on wireless networking, traffic engineering and energy systems, and has been granted eight US patents.

• Wireless Networks (5G, IoT, etc.)
• Internet
• Multimedia
• Energy Systems

Dr. Xuemin (Sherman) Shen is a University Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo, specializing in wireless communications and networking. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Royal Society of Canada, the Canadian Academy of Engineering, and the Engineering Institute of Canada. Professor Shen also serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Internet of Things Journal and Springer Peer-to-Peer Networking and Applications.

His research focuses on a wide range of topics in wireless communication networks, including capacity analysis, mobility and radio resource management, quality-of-service provisioning, wireless/Internet interworking, network modeling, and stability and performance analysis. He has also been at the forefront of developing algorithms and protocols for wireless network security and privacy preservation. His work has been applied to various areas, including vehicular networks, wireless body area networks, remote e-healthcare systems, wireless ad hoc and sensor networks, and smart grid technologies.

Dr. Shen has received numerous accolades for his contributions to the field, including the R.A. Fessenden Award (2019) from IEEE Canada, the James Evans Avant Garde Award (2018) from the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society, the Joseph LoCicero Award (2015), and the Education Award (2017) from the IEEE Communications Society. He has also been recognized with the Award of Excellence in Graduate Supervision (2006) and the Outstanding Performance Award (5 times) from the University of Waterloo.

• Wireless communications and networking
• Resource allocation and mobility management
• Wireless network security and user privacy
• Connectivity and Internet of Things
• Autonomous and connected car
• Smart communities

Dr. Zhou Wang is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) – Academy of Science, and the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE). In addition, he is a certified Professional Engineer.

Dr. Wang has received numerous prestigious awards, including the 2021 Faculty of Engineering Excellence in Graduate Supervision Award, 2021 Technology Emmy Award, 2017 IEEE Signal Processing Society Sustained Impact Paper Award, and 2015 Primetime Engineering Emmy Award. Other accolades include the 2014 NSERC E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship Award, 2013 IEEE Signal Processing Magazine Best Paper Award, 2009 IEEE Signal Processing Society Best Paper Award, and several NSERC and Ontario Early Researcher grants.

An active contributor to the academic community, Dr. Wang has served on the editorial boards of IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing, and IEEE Signal Processing Letters, among others. He has also contributed to the IEEE Technical Committees on Image, Video and Multidimensional Signal Processing and Multimedia Signal Processing.

Dr. Wang’s research interests encompass signal and image processing, computational vision and pattern analysis, multimedia coding and communications, and biomedical signal and image processing. With over 200 publications and more than 80,000 citations, his work has made a significant impact on the field.
 

Dr. Liang-Liang Xie is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo.

Dr. Xie’s research interests span wireless networks, information theory, adaptive control, system identification, and Shannon theory. He has published extensively in leading journals, including IEEE Transactions on Information Theory and IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications. His conference contributions have been presented at major events such as the IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), IEEE Globecom, and the IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT).

• Information theory
• Adaptive control
• System identification
• Communication & Information Systems
• Wireless communications/networking

Dr. En-Hui Yang is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo and the founding Director of the Leitch-University of Waterloo Multimedia Communications Lab. He is also the co-founder of SlipStream Data Inc. (now a subsidiary of BlackBerry Inc., formerly known as Research In Motion) and a former associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Information Theory. He previously held a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Information Theory and Multimedia Data Compression.

Dr. Yang is known for co-developing the Yang-Kieffer algorithm, a numerical set of rules that use grammar-based coding to achieve lossless compression of text and image files. He is also the co-inventor of soft decision quantization (rate distortion optimization quantization or trellis quantization), an efficient coding technology used in image and video applications to improve compression, with widespread use in products like smartphones and web browsers.

His research interests span multimedia compression, information theory, digital communications, image and video coding, image understanding and management, big data analytics, information security, and deep learning. His work aims to develop technologies that enhance storage capacity of computers, accelerate and improve reliability of data transmission, improve data security, and make big data more understandable.

Dr. Yang is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the IEEE, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2024, he was honored with the title of 'University Professor' by the University of Waterloo in recognition of his exceptional scholarly achievements and international pre-eminence.

Dr. Weihua Zhuang is a University Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo. She was previously a Tier I Canada Research Chair in Wireless Communication Networks. Dr. Zhuang has been recognized with fellowships from prestigious organizations including the IEEE, the Royal Society of Canada (RSC), the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE), and the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC). In 2021, she was honored by the University of Waterloo with the designation of "University Professor" in recognition of her exceptional scholarly achievements and international pre-eminence.

Dr. Zhuang’s current research involves engineering solutions for future communication networks, for applications in industrial IoT, autonomous driving, and smart communities, to name a few. Her research program encompasses topics such as network virtualization and slicing, service customized topology for virtual network over both wireless and wireline domains, adaptive networking protocols for virtual networks, and multi-dimensional resource allocation for transmission, processing, and caching. The research is empowered by both technical insights from model-based theoretical analysis and machine learning tools, in order to efficiently and effectively accommodate temporal-spatial dynamics and uncertainties of data traffic load due to user mobility and new use cases. Through her research, Professor Zhuang hopes to develop cost effective algorithms and protocols for network automation in future integrated space, air and terrestrial communication systems, to facilitate various new applications and to enhance users’ experience.

• Wireless communications and networking
• Connectivity and Internet of Things (IOT)
• Connected and autonomous vehicles
• Smart grid

Dr. George Freeman is an Adjunct Professor Emeritus in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo.

His research focuses on signal processing for digital communications, the development of optimal lossless data compression algorithms, and applications in storage and recognition for speech and image coding.

Beyond his research achievements, Dr. Freeman has been honored with the Dedicated Service Award from the Canadian Association of University Teachers, recognizing his outstanding service to academic staff associations.

• Signal Processing
• Wavelet Analysis
• Medical Image Processing
• Speech Recognition
• Data Compression

Dr. Fakhri Karray is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He previously held the Loblaws Research Chair in Artificial Intelligence and served as co-Director of the University of Waterloo Artificial Intelligence Institute.

His research focuses on operational artificial intelligence, cognitive machines, natural human-machine interaction, and autonomous intelligent systems. Dr. Karray’s work has applications in the development of cognitive, self-aware machines, robots, and vehicles, as well as in predictive analytics for supply chain management and intelligent transportation systems. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, the Engineering Institute of Canada, and the IEEE, and has served as an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer.

• Operational Artificial Intelligence
• Computational intelligence
• Natural Human-machine interaction
• Cognitive Robotics
• Autonomous and self aware machines
• AI Based Supply Chain

Dr. Ravi Mazumdar is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo, where he also held a University Research Chair. He has been recognized as a Fellow of the IEEE for his significant contributions to modeling, control, and performance analysis of networks, and is also a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society. Dr. Mazumdar received the Best Paper Award at IEEE INFOCOM 2006 and was a Finalist for the Best Paper Award at INFOCOM 1998.

Since 2012, Dr. Mazumdar has served as the J. D. Gandhi Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He is also a Senior Editor for the IEEE Journal of Selected Areas in Communications.

His research interests encompass applied probability and stochastic analysis, with a focus on complex networks, network science, randomized algorithms, and wireless systems.