Young Professionals

Xingqin Lin is a Master Researcher and Standardization Delegate at Ericsson Research Silicon Valley, driving 5G/6G research and standardization in the area of non-terrestrial communications and networking (satellites/HAPS/airplanes/drones). He is a member of the Ericsson NextGen Advisory Board, collaborating with Ericsson Executive Team on strategic projects. He is an expert in wireless communications and technology strategy. He has been a key contributor to 5G NR, NB-IoT, and LTE standards. His pioneering work on cellular-connected UAVs helped establish the 3GPP Rel-15 work on enhanced LTE support for aerial vehicles. He is co-author of the book “Wireless Communications and Networking for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles” and the lead editor of the book “5G and Beyond: Fundamentals and Standards.” He has been a frequent speaker, panelist, and technical contributor at conferences and workshops. He served as an editor of the IEEE Communications Letters from 2015-2018 and is serving as an editor for the IEEE Network and IEEE Internet of Things Magazine. He is acting as the Industry Liaison Officer for the IEEE ComSoc Emerging Technology Initiative on Aerial Communications.

He received the 2020 IEEE Communications Society Best Young Professional Award in Industry. He is an IEEE Senior Member. He holds a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from The University of Texas at Austin, USA.

Selina Millstam describes herself as a people philanthropist – she makes an active effort to promote the wellbeing of those around her, everyday. She joined Ericsson in 2011 and currently holds the role of Vice President & Global Head of Talent Management. At Ericsson, she works as part of the core team working to transform the organization to sustainable thrive in a digital world. She has led an agenda focused on building a better employee experience through redefining core process and ways of working related to some of the most pressing people topics. – performance management, employee engagement, talent identification, succession, diversity & inclusion, culture transformation, assessment and development and overall building ethical and responsible leaders for the future.

Before joining Ericsson, Selina was a Principal consultant at Mercer Leadership Development. In this role, she helped Fortune 500 organizations achieve high performance through leadership development programs, executive coaching, and organizational change initiatives. Selina also spent a number of years at Nike’s global headquarters in Portland, Oregon, working in sports marketing, total rewards, and leadership development. Before joining Nike, she was an experiential leadership development consultant, mixing her love of the outdoors with a passion for growing people. Her early experience as a social worker at a community mental health agency in Detroit, Michigan still informs how she works with and supports leaders today.

Selina finds inspiration and energy in her work as a founding board member of Giving Wings/The Case for Her, a foundation that drives for social change through educating women and children. She has a BA in psychology and MA in social work business administration from the University of Michigan, USA, as well as Master’s level studies in organizational change from Ashridge Business School, UK.

Selina is originally from the USA, but has lived in Sweden since 2003, with her husband and two children. When not focused on her professional work, you will find her enjoying the outdoors, running, exploring the Stockholm Archipelago with her family, or watching documentary films with friends.

Selina’s true passion is drawing connections between organizational goals and individual strengths to help leaders navigate complexity, drive for high performance by supporting them realize their purpose enabling them to tap into unrealized resilience in service of being the best version of themselves.

Yasaman Ghasempour is a Professor in the Department of Electrical engineering at the Princeton University. Her Research Interests include the Design and Experimental analysis of Architecture s, Protocol s, and Application for next-generation Wireless Communications and Remote Sensing Systems with a focus on Millimeter wave scanner and terahertz networks, Internet of Things, robotic wireless networks, and wireless security. On these topics, her research spans from Theoretical analysis and modeling to hardware Implementation s and experimental evaluations.

She obtained her PhD in Electrical and Computer engineering at Rice University, she works as an Assistant professor at Princeton University in Spring.

Stefan Schwarz (S’09-M’14-SM’19) received his BSc. in electrical engineering in 2007, his Dipl.-Ing. degree (MSc equivalent) in telecommunications engineering in 2009, and his Dr. techn. degree (Ph.D. equivalent) in technical sciences in 2013, all at TU Wien. In 2010 he received the honorary price of the Austrian Minister of Science and Research, for excellent graduates of scientific and artistic universities and in 2014 he received the INiTS award in the category Information and Communication Technologies for innovative scientific works with prospect for economic applicability. In 2019 he was promoted to Assistant Professor at TU Wien, following his habilitation within the scientific field of mobile communications.

From 2008 to 2014 Stefan Schwarz was working as a project assistant at the Mobile Communications group of Prof Markus Rupp at the Institute of Telecommunications of TU Wien, focusing on link and system level simulation of LTE/LTE-A networks and acting as one of the lead developers of the Vienna LTE Simulators. In 2012 he visited The University of Texas at Austin as research scholar, collaborating with Prof. Robert W. Heath, Jr. on limited feedback algorithms for distributed antenna systems. Between 2014 and 2016 he was employed as post-doctoral researcher (University Assistant) at the Institute of Telecommunications, leading contract research projects with General Motors on cellular assisted vehicular communications. Since 2016 he is the head of the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Dependable Wireless Connectivity for the Society in Motion. His research interests are located in the broad fields of wireless communications, signal processing and channel modeling.

Francesco Restuccia research interests are the design and experimental evaluation of next-generation wireless systems for the Internet of Things (IoT) and 5/6G communications.

His technical expertise includes (i) FPGA-level embedded wireless system design; (ii) machine learning algorithms and frameworks; (iii) wireless communication standards and architectures; (iv) software-defined radio design and development.

He has been passionate about computers since a long time ago. He is a Linux user since 2000. Francesco strongly believe in open source and sharing ideas with others. 

Francesco a member of the Roux Institute and the Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things at Northeastern University.

Deepankar (Deep) Medhi joined NSF as a Program Director in the Computer & Network Systems (CNS) Division in August 2018. He manages wired networking research in the Networking Technologies and Systems (NeTS) program in CNS as well as several infrastructure programs such as NSF Future Cloud, Mid-Scale Research Infrastructure, and Cloud Access.

He is on leave as Curators' Distinguished Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) under the IPA program. He received B.Sc. in Mathematics from Cotton College, Gauhati University, India, M.Sc. in Mathematics from St. Stephen's College, University of Delhi, India, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. Prior to joining UMKC in 1989, he was a member of the technical staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories where he worked on teletraffic network routing and design. While at AT&T Bell Labs,  he co-developed Facility Diverse Routing - a feature deployed in AT&T's nationwide dynamic routing network.

His testbed and infrastructure experience include an IP/ATM multilayer resilient network testbed development (funded by DARPA), feasibility study on MPLS (for Sprint's network), Broadband Fixed-wireless protocol and feasibility analysis (for Sprint), Great Plains Environment for Network Innovation (GpENI) testbed development, and several networking experimentations on the GENI testbed.

His research interests are in network resilience, network routing and optimization, traffic engineering and design, network management, data center networking, and video quality-of-experience.

He co-authored the books, "Routing, Flow, and Capacity Design in Communication and Computer Networks" (2004) and "Network Routing: Algorithms, Protocols, and Architectures" (1st edition, 2007; 2nd edition, 2017), both published by Morgan Kauffman/Elsevier.

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Andrzej Jajszczyk is Professor at the Department of Telecommunications, the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow, Poland and President of the Krakow Branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences. From 2011 to 2015 he served as the founding Director of the National Science Centre, a Polish research funding agency. He received Ph.D. from Poznan University of Technology in 1979. He was a visiting scientist at the University of Adelaide in Australia, Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, and Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications de Bretagne, France.

His major achievements in the theory of connecting networks include reformulation of Benes's theory of rearrangeable networks, complementing the theory by introducing a new class of repackable networks and proving nonblocking properties of a class of multiconnection networks. He also proposed some new structures of photonic switching networks and networks composed of digital switching matrices. He also contributed to the theory of network survivability and proposed new architectures and protocols for flow-aware networks. He is the author or co-author of 12 books and over 300 research papers, as well as 19 patents. He also published over 80 papers on research funding and higher education. He has been a consultant to industry, telecommunications operators, and government agencies in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Poland, and the USA.

He is 1998 IEEE Fellow, and was elected to the Polish Academy of Sciences and Academia Europaea. He was the founding editor of IEEE Global Communications and Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Communications Magazine. He was Associate Editor-in-Chief of CIC/IEEE China Communications. He held important positions in IEEE Communications Society, such as: Director of Magazines, Director of the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, Vice President – Technical Activities. In 2008, he received the Society’s Joseph LoCicero Award for Exemplary Service to Publications. The same year he received the Foundation for Polish Science Award.

Mandate ERC Scientific Council: 01 Jan 2017 - 31 Dec 2020 (1st term) until the date of entry into force of the Decision of the Council establishing the specific programme implementing Horizon Europe – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.

Professor Andrzej Jajszczyk  is Vice-President of the European Research Council since 01 Jan 2021 and is responsible for the Physical sciences and Engineering domain

Theodore (Ted) Rappaport is the David Lee/Ernst Weber Professor at New York University (NYU) and holds faculty appointments in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department of the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, the Courant Computer Science department, and the NYU Langone School of Medicine. He is the founder and director of NYU WIRELESS, a multidisciplinary research center focused on the future of wireless communications and applications.

His research has led the way for modern wireless communication systems. In 1987, his Ph.D. at Purdue University as part of the first NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC) in the US provided fundamental knowledge of indoor wireless channels used to create the first Wi-Fi standard (IEEE 802.11), and he conducted fundamental work that led to the first US Digital cellphone standards, TDMA IS-54/IS-136 and CDMA IS-95. He and his students engineered the world’s first public wi-fi hotspots, and more recently, his work proved the viability of millimeter waves for mobile communications. The global wireless industry adopted his millimeter wave vision for 5th generation (5G) cellphone networks.

He founded three academic wireless research centers at Virginia Tech, University of Texas, and NYU that have produced thousands of engineers and educators since 1990, and has co-authored over 300 papers and twenty books, including the most cited books on wireless communications, adaptive antennas, wireless simulation, and millimeter-wave communications. He co-founded two wireless companies, TSR Technologies and Wireless Valley Communication, which were sold to publicly traded companies, and has advised many others. He co-founded the Virginia Tech Summer School and Wireless Symposium in 1991, the Texas Wireless Summit in 2003, and the Brooklyn 5G Summit (B5GS) in 2014. He has more than 100 patents, has served on the Technological Advisory Council of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, is Fellow of the IEEE, Fellow of the Radio Club of America, Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, a life member of the American Radio Relay League, a licensed professional engineer in Texas and Virginia, and an amateur radio operator (N9NB). He has received ASEE’s Terman award, the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society’s James R. Evans Avant Garde and Stu Meyer awards, the IEEE Education Society William E. Sayle award for achievement in education, the IEEE Communications Society Armstrong award, the Sir Monty Finniston Medal from the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET), and the Armstrong medal from the Radio Club of America. He was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2018, and was elected to the Wireless History Foundation Hall of Fame In 2019. Rappaport received the IEEE Eric E. Sumner field award in 2020.

Robert W. Heath Jr. joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC State in August 2020. From 2002 to 2020, he was with the University of Texas at Austin where he was involved in the leadership of their wireless group, and created an initiative to bring together communications, sensing, and machine learning. Dr. Heath is also President and CEO of MIMO Wireless Inc. His research has been extensively funded by industry and government.

Dr. Heath’s research interests include wireless communications cellular systems, public safety, and military networks, with recent applications to vehicular communication systems, 5G, and now 6G.

He has authored or co-authored several books including “Introduction to Wireless Digital Communication” (Prentice Hall, 2017), “Millimeter Wave Wireless Communications” (Prentice Hall, 2014) and “Foundations of MIMO Communication” (Cambridge University Press, 2019)

Lola Awoniyi-Oteri currently works as a Principal engineer within the Qualcomm Research organization. In her current role, she is involved in standardization, research and development of 5G mmWave devices. Her focus is on improving connectivity performance, enhancing the mobile user experience, enabling network mobility support and reducing network and device power consumption. Her research interests span multiple Wide Area Network technologies, such as Cellular and Satellite networks; and a myriad of wireless Local Area Network technologies such as WiFi and Bluetooth networks. Prior to joining Qualcomm, she worked at Texas Instruments developing 3G mobile handsets. She received a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering at Georgia Tech and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. Lola has authored/co-authored over 150 approved worldwide patents. She has held many volunteer leadership roles within the IEEE.

Anna Zakrzewska is a Principal Engineer within Telecom Systems Business at Dell Technologies. Prior to that she worked as a Research Scientist at Nokia Bell Labs in Ireland. Her main research interests are in the area of wireless communications and focus on self-organizing networks, which benefit greatly from data analytics and machine learning. Several of her patented network management mechanisms are used to automate and optimize configuration of millions of small cells and Wi-Fi access points around the world. Anna has been an external expert at European Commission and also held research appointments with NTT Communication Science Laboratories in Japan and the Joint Research Centre in Italy. She is a Senior IEEE Member.

Anna received the M.Sc. Eng. degree in information and communication technology from Wroclaw University of Technology, Poland and the Ph.D. degree from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) in 2008 and 2014, respectively. She was awarded with the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education Scholarship and recognized as a double finalist of the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship. Anna enjoys speaking about technology and often participates in various STEM outreach activities.

Dr. Nan Zhang has been in wireless industry for the past 16 years focusing on 3G/4G/5G technologies. Currently he is a senior staff engineer in Qualcomm. He has worked as engineer and feature lead for multiple generations of QCT cellular modem products, and made contributions to areas including digital transceiver, digital frontend and RF compensation. Before joining Qualcomm, he has worked at Samsung, Huawei, and Texas Instruments. He received a B.S. degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, master degree from Chinese Academy of Sciences, and PhD degree from George Washington University all on electrical engineering.

Ben is a Principal Program Manager on the Azure Spectrum Technologies team at Microsoft. Prior to Microsoft, he ran the R&D team at Ettus Research, part of National Instruments and creator of the USRP, and was the Director of Engineering at DeepSig Inc., a venture-funded startup applying AI to the RF physical layer. Ben is also very active in the open-source community, and led the GNU Radio project for several years before joining Microsoft. Ben earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in computer engineering from Virginia Tech.

Melissa believes that even the best science is destined to remain undiscovered unless it’s presented in a clear and compelling way that sparks innovation and drives adoption.

She’s passionate about showing often-skeptical scientists and technical professionals that they really can change how they present for the better, without changing themselves.

For the past decade, Melissa has traveled around the world to work with Fortune 100 corporations, institutions and universities, teaching the proven strategies she’s mastered through her consulting work and her 10 years as a faculty member at Penn State University. In 2019, Microsoft recognized Melissa’s work empowering the technical community to use PowerPoint to design slides more effectively by naming her as one of Microsoft's Most Valuable Professionals (MVP).

You’ll find that Melissa practices what she preaches with her own lively, practical, and transformational talks. For a sneak peek, check out her TED talk, “Talk Nerdy to Me.” It’s been watched by nearly 2.5 million people (and counting).