Communications

Wednesday September 27, 2017 at 12:00 p.m. Dr. Kate A. Remley from Wireless Systems Group, NIST, will be presenting “Molecular Bringing Precision to Measurements for Millimeter-wave 5G Wireless: Conducted and free-field modulated-signal measurements”. Day & Time: Wednesday September 27, 2017 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. (Light lunch will be served) Speaker: Dr. Kate A. Remley Wireless Systems Group, NIST Location: Room BA 4287 Bahen Centre for Information Technology 40 St George St, Toronto, ON M5S 2E4 Contact: Arin Minasian Organizers: IEEE Communications Society Event Link: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/47045 Abstract: At millimeter-wave frequencies and for wide modulation bandwidths, the hardware performance of both modulated-signal sources and vector receivers becomes increasingly nonideal. These nonidealities make test and validation of devices, circuits and systems not only more important, but also more difficult. This is especially true because future systems will likely push the limits of modulation complexity and bandwidth to increase data throughput. We will discuss calibration and measurement techniques to correct millimeter-wave modulated-signal measurements illustrating that traditional assumptions at microwave frequencies may not be adequate at millimeter-wave frequencies. Biography: Kate A. Remley (S’92-M’99-SM’06-F’13) was born in Ann Arbor, MI. She received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Oregon State University, Corvallis, in 1999. From 1983 to 1992, she was a Broadcast Engineer in Eugene, OR, serving as Chief Engineer of an AM/FM broadcast station from 1989-1991. In 1999, she joined the RF Technology Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Boulder, CO, as an Electronics Engineer. She is currently the leader of the Metrology for Wireless Systems Group at NIST, where her research activities include development of calibrated measurements for microwave and millimeter-wave wireless systems, characterizing the link between nonlinear circuits and system performance, and developing standardized test methods for RF equipment used by the public-safety community. Dr. Remley was the recipient of the Department of Commerce Bronze and Silver Medals, an ARFTG Best Paper Award, and is a member of the Oregon State University Academy of Distinguished Engineers. She was the Chair of the MTT-11 Technical Committee on Microwave Measurements from 2008 – 2010 and the Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Microwave Magazine from 2009 – 2011, and is the Chair of the MTT Fellow Nominating Committee.

Note: This event has been rescheduled from the original date. The new day and time is Thursday, October 12, 2017. IEEE Toronto is thrilled to present a tour of the Manufacturing Facility of G&W Canada and Survalent in Brampton. This event is a joint event between IEEE Toronto Industrial Relations and Toronto ComSoc Chapter. Day & Time: Thursday, October 12, 2017 9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Location: 7965 Heritage Rd, Brampton, ON L6Y 0B3 Contact: Maryam Alsomahi Organizers: Industrial Relations, Communication Society Chapter RVSP: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/47131 Abstract: G&W Electric has been a global supplier of electric power equipment since 1905. Our product offerings include overhead and underground distribution switches, Lazer® Automation solutions, reclosers, distribution and transmission cable accessories, and current limiting system protection devices. Combining cutting-edge design and manufacturing technology with world-class ISO certified quality systems; G&W specializes in custom solutions to meet specific customer requirements. So whether you are searching for cable terminations and joints, simple manual switching, automation for smart grid applications, or the latest in renewable energy solutions, join G&W for a tour of their SF6 and Solid Dielectric manufacturing process. Fees & Notes: $10 for non-IEEE members and free for IEEE members. 1. Attendees are required to bring their own safety shoes and glasses. However, G&W can loan glasses and toe caps for those who don’t have them. For safety purposes, attendees are not allowed to wear shorts or open shoes. 2. Please add a note if you are able to drive/carpool or if you need a ride.

IEEE Toronto Industrial Relationships, Communication Society chapter and University of Toronto Electrical Engineering Department are excited to invite all interested to a two-days hands-on workshop on: Cyber Security of the Digital Substation: Hands-on Training Facilitated by Steel McCreery, Integration Application Specialist II Communications, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories Day & Time: Saturday & Sunday, October 21-22, 2017 4-hour workshop (10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.) on Saturday 6-hour workshop (9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.) on Sunday Location: Room BA 7180 Bahen Centre for Information Technology 40 St George St, Toronto, ON M5S 2E4 Cost: $10.00 + Tax (event is of limited capacity to 24 seats because of equipment limitations). Register at https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/47504. Requirements: Participants should bring their own laptop that has a 10/100 Base T Ethernet port and have administrator rights for their computer to configure the Ethernet port IP address. Workshop Agenda: Saturday Oct. 21 (10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.) – Ethernet Fundamentals This four hour session will focus on the practical aspects of implementing Ethernet-based LANs within the substation. Topics include: – OSI model – Ethernet media and topologies commonly used within substations – Ethernet hub operation and CSMA/CD – Switch learning and operation – SEL-2730M Managed 24-Port Ethernet Switch hardware overview and ordering options – Hands-on lab exercises using the SEL-2730M Switches include: – Login and account management – Configuration of QoS (VLANs and priority) – Configuration and testing of Rapid Spanning Tree protocol (RSTP) – Time permitting the class will have a brief overview of the routing process: ( IPv4 addressing , DHCP , DNS, ARP, routing process) Sunday Oct. 22 (9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.) – Cyber security In this session, participants will: – Discover that sensible cybersecurity is not difficult. – Learn how to set up a virtual private network (VPN) to provide confidential communications and maintain data integrity. – Understand the importance of authentication. – Configure firewall rules to prevent malicious traffic from entering or exiting private networks to protect cyber assets. – Understand the role of syslog to report and collect device events. – Learn the methods to secure both Ethernet and wireless communications. Trainer Biography: Steel McCreery Integration Application Specialist II Communications with Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories since May 2012. McCreery provides communications and automation applications engineering support to sales, consultants, utility and industrial customers in addition to SEL’s internal Engineering Services team. Professional Experience Summary: – Professional with thirty three years of applications experience in the areas of data communication, automation and training. – Developed national and international training centres for GE Multilin, Siemens and Omron. – The Sales Applications Engineer for Data Communications, Automation and Networking products. – Extensive experience in the design and commissioning of control systems and communication networks for industrial and electrical power utility applications.

Thursday, November 16th at 4:00 p.m. Ekaterina Korolkova, senior teacher in the Siberian Federal University in the Department of Radio Electronics, will be presenting “ComSoc Technical Seminar: Through-the-Earth Mine Communications Theory & Practice”. Day & Time: Thursday, November 16th, 2017 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Speaker: Ekaterina Korolkova Senior Teacher, Department of Radio Electronics, Siberian Federal University Lead Engineer in Research and Manufacturing Company “Iridium” (Russian Federation) Location: Room ENG 460, Ryerson University 245 Church St, Toronto, ON M5B 1Z4 Contact: Eman Hammad Organizer: IEEE Toronto Communication Society Abstract: Safety is an important factor in the mining industry. Through-The-Earth technology can provide communication both in everyday usage and in a case of emergency. Developing the TTE communication systems raises a lot of questions about main system specifications such as a transmitting frequency, current and antenna geometry. This talk is about TTE system experiment in the Republic of Kazakhstan (“Irtishskaya mine”), researches in finding appropriate system specifications and antenna geometry, and finally the implementation of designed system in October 2017. Also we will speak about some propagation difficulties in the real mine and some engineering difficulties connected with mine electromagnetic environment. In this talk we will represent experimental and numerical modeling results. We compare widely used loop antenna and grounded dipole antenna. One of the most interesting novel results is the influence of the antenna grounding depth to the signal level in the mine. Biography: Ekaterina Korolkova is a senior teacher in the Siberian Federal University in the Department of Radio electronics teaching “Power supply of electrical systems”, “Networks and radio systems and information protection” and “Computer networks and Internet technologies”. Also she is a lead engineer in Research and Manufacturing Company “Iridium” which is designing radio electronics and doing research works in the field of seismic prospecting and seismic communications. She graduated from Irkutsk state university of railways in 2011 and for 5 years has been working in JSC “Russian Railways” projecting different telecommunication systems for the railways. In 2011-2015 completed Postgraduate studies in the field of system analysis, management and information processing. In 2013 had a title of “Engineer of a year 2013” nomination in “Youth engineering”. Now she is working on the designing the TTE mine communication system which in October 2017 was successfully implemented in the Republic of Kazakhstan in the mine “Irtishskiy”. Ekaterina’s research interests are in areas of mine and cell communication systems, radio electronics, signal propagation and through-the-earth communication systems.

Tuesday, November 21st at 1:00 p.m., Shahrokh Valaee, Professor in the Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto, will be presenting “ComSoc Tutorial: Cooperative Self-Driving Vehicles”. Day & Time: Tuesday, November 21, 2017 1:00 p.m. ‐ 3:00 p.m. Speaker: Shahrokh Valaee Professor, Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto Location: Room SF (B560) Basement Sandford Fleming Building 10 King’s College Road, Toronto, M5S 3G8 Contact: Eman Hammad Organizer: Communications Society Abstract: We are witnessing the emergence of autonomous Vehicles, which intend to be an assistant to, or completely replace the driver. Unfortunately, we also notice accidents that such self-driving vehicles are involved in. Engineers wonder whether autonomous driving can provide a safe driving experience. In this talk, we will show that autonomous driving will indeed be the start of a new chapter for automobiles that will pave the path for the more advanced Connected Car technology. Autonomous vehicles use advance sensing to enhance safe driving. However, sensing quickly loses its effectiveness in high speeds, severe weather conditions, and non-line-of-sight. In a recent tragedy, a Tesla car could not detect a truck and crashed into it resulting in fatal accident. Most of such accidents can be prevented if wireless communication and networking is available for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication. But, what is the most appropriate communication technology that can be used in cars and also be attractive for future buyers? In this talk, we will review the techniques and challenges for cooperative communication in Connected Vehicles. We will discuss the IEEE1609 and IEEE802.11p suite of standards, and C-V2X. The talk will discuss the shortcoming of these technologies in addressing the most challenging problem of interference management in vehicular communication. We will show how the concept of pseudo-orthogonality, network coding and compressive sensing can reduce congestion on the wireless channel. Biography: Shahrokh Valaee is a Professor in the Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto. He is the founder and the Director of the Wireless and Internet Research Laboratory (WIRLab) at the University of Toronto. Professor Valaee is the Lead TPC Chair of PIMRC 2017, and has served as Networks Track Co-Chair of WCNC 2015, TPC Co-Chair of ICT 2014, Tutorial Chair of PIMRC2014, Co-Chair of the Wireless Networks Track of WPMC 2012, and the TPC chair of PIMRC 2011, among other conference chairing activities. He has served as an Editor of IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, and IEEE Signal Processing Letters, and as a guest editor for several journals including IEEE Wireless Communications Magazine, Wiley Journal on Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing, and EURASIP Journal on Advances in Signal Processing. He is currently serving as an Editor of Journal of Computer and System Science and the Area Editor of Localization and Location Based Services of Springer Encyclopedia of Wireless Networks. Professor Valaee is a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada. His research includes, vehicular networks, localization and tracking, and cellular systems.

Friday, March 23rd at 11:00 a.m., Professor Victoria Kostina, California Institute of Technology, will be presenting an IEEE ComSoc seminar: “Coding Near Shannon-Theoretic Limits in Control”. Day & Time: Friday, March 23, 2018 11:00 a.m. ‐ 12:00 p.m. Speaker: Professor Victoria Kostina California Institute of Technology Location: Room GB221, Galbraith Building, University of Toronto 35 St George St, Toronto, ON M5S 1A4 Contact: Toronto_Chapter@comsoc.org Organizer: IEEE Toronto Communications Society Abstract: We adopt a Shannon-theoretic view of remote stochastic linear control, showing coding theorems linking the amount of information passed through the feedback loop to several operational scenarios of interest. The controller aims to minimize a quadratic cost function in the state variables and control signal, known as the linear quadratic regulator (LQR), while communicating to the system via a rate-limited channel. For several channels of interest, namely, variable-length rate-limited noiseless channels, rate-limited packet drop channels, Gaussian channels, and biomolecular channels, we propose coding strategies that can approach these information-theoretic limits. Based on joint works with B. Hassibi, A. Khina, A. Khisti, E.R. Gårding, G. M. Pettersson, Y. Nakahira, F. Xiao, J. C. Doyle. Biography: Victoria Kostina joined Caltech as an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering in the fall of 2014. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Moscow institute of Physics and Technology (2004), where she was affiliated with the Institute for Information Transmission Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a Master’s degree from University of Ottawa (2006), and a PhD from Princeton University (2013). She is a recipient of the 2013 Princeton Electrical Engineering Best Dissertation Award, the 2015 Simons-Berkeley research fellowship, and the 2017 NSF CAREER award. Her research interests lie in information theory, theory of random processes, coding, wireless communications, and control.

Friday, May 4th at 11:00 a.m., Prof. Yuguang “Michael” Fang, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Florida and fellow of the IEEE, will be presenting a communications seminar: “Beef Up the Edge, How to Build a More Powerful IOT System”. Day & Time: Friday, May 4, 2018 11:00 a.m. ‐ 12:00 p.m. Speaker: Prof. Yuguang “Michael” Fang Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Florida Fellow of the IEEE Location: Room Number: ENG460 George Vari Engineering and Computing Centre 245 Church Street., Toronto, ON M5B 2K3 Contact: Eman Hammad Organizer: Communications Society, Ryerson University Abstract: Connected things in various cyber-physical systems (CPSs), namely IoTs, enable us to sense physical environments, extract intelligent information, and better regulate physical systems we heavily depend on in our daily life. Unfortunately, how to design effective and efficient systems to meet specific applications with diverse quality of service requirements is of paramount importance but highly challenging due to the spatial and temporal variations of user traffic, network spectrum resource, computing capability, storage, and device types. One holistic design approach from the end-to-end perspective seems to be in dire need. In this talk, the speaker will discuss various related problems and challenges in a connected world and then present a novel collaborative network architecture to enabling connected things to effectively harvest in-network capability (spectrum, energy, storage, and computing power) in a cognitive fashion and intelligently manage the spectrum efficiency, energy efficiency, and yes, security! By pushing in-network capability in communications, computing, and storage to the edge, this network architecture provides an effective and robust approach to IoT. Biography: Dr. Yuguang “Michael” Fang received MS degree from Qufu Normal University, Shandong, China in 1987, PhD degree from Case Western Reserve University in 1994 and PhD degree from Boston University in 1997. He was an assistant professor in Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology from 1998 to 2000. He then joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Florida in 2000 and has been a full professor since 2005. He held a University of Florida Research Foundation (UFRF) Professorship (2006-2009, 2017-2020), a University of Florida Term Professorship (2017-2019) and Changjiang Scholar Chair Professorship awarded by the Ministry of Education of China (is currently affiliated with Dalian Maritime University). Dr. Fang received the US National Science Foundation Career Award in 2001 and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award in 2002, 2015 IEEE Communications Society CISTC Technical Recognition Award, 2014 IEEE Communications Society WTC Recognition Award, and multiple Best Paper Awards from IEEE Globecom (2015, 2011 and 2002) and IEEE ICNP (2006). He has also received 2010-2011 UF Doctoral Dissertation Advisor/Mentoring Award, 2011 Florida Blue Key/UF Homecoming Distinguished Faculty Award, and the 2009 UF College of Engineering Faculty Mentoring Award. He was the Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology (2013-2017), the Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Wireless Communications (2009-2012), and serves/served on several editorial boards of journals including IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing (2003-2008, 2011-2016), IEEE Transactions on Communications (2000-2011), and IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications (2002-2009). He has been actively participating in conference organizations such as serving as the Technical Program Co-Chair for IEEE INFOCOM’2014 and the Technical Program Vice-Chair for IEEE INFOCOM’2005. He is a fellow of the IEEE (2008) and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (2015).

Friday, May 4th at 1:00 p.m., Prof. Yi Qian, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Nebraska‐Lincoln will be presenting a distinguished lecture: “Advances and Challenges in 5G Wireless Security”. Day & Time: Friday, May 4, 2018 1:00 p.m. ‐ 2:00 p.m. Speaker: Prof. Yi Qian Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering University of Nebraska‐Lincoln, USA Location: Room Number: ENG LG02 George Vari Engineering and Computing Centre 245 Church Street., Toronto, ON M5B 2K3 Contact: Eman Hammad Organizer: Communications Society, Ryerson University Abstract: Wireless communication technologies are ubiquitous nowadays. Most of the smart devices have Cellular, Wi‐Fi, Bluetooth connections. These technologies have been developed for many years; nonetheless, they are still being enhanced. More development can be expected in the next 5 years, such as faster transmission data rate, more efficient spectrum usage, lower power consumption, etc. Similarly, cellular networks have been evolved for several generations. For example, GSM as part of 2G family, UMTS as part of the 3G family, and LTE as part of 4G family. In the next few years, 5G cellular network systems will continue the evolution to keep up with the fast‐growing needs of customers. Secure wireless communications will certainly be part of other advances in the industry such as multimedia streaming, data storage and sharing in clouds, mobile cloud computing services, etc. This talk covers the topics on security for next generation mobile wireless networks, with focusing on 5G mobile wireless network systems, followed by a discussion on the challenges and open research issues in the area. Biography: Dr. Yi Qian received a Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Clemson University. He is a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Nebraska‐Lincoln (UNL). Prior to joining UNL, he worked in the telecommunications industry, academia, and the government. Some of his previous professional positions include serving as a senior member of scientific staff and a technical advisor at Nortel Networks, a senior systems engineer and a technical advisor at several start‐up companies, an assistant professor at University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez, and a senior researcher at National Institute of Standards and Technology. His research interests include information assurance and network security, network design, network modeling, simulation and performance analysis for next generation wireless networks, wireless ad‐hoc and sensor networks, vehicular networks, smart grid communication networks, broadband satellite networks, optical networks, high‐speed networks and the Internet. He has a successful track record to lead research teams and to publish research results in leading scientific journals and conferences. Dr. Yi Qian is a member of ACM and a senior member of IEEE. He is serving on the editorial board for several international journals and magazines, including serving as the Associate Editor‐in‐Chief for IEEE Wireless Communications Magazine. He is a Distinguished Lecturer for IEEE Vehicular Technology Society and IEEE Communications Society. He is serving as the Technical Program Committee Chair for IEEE International Conference on Communications 2018.

Monday, May 7th at 3:00 p.m., Dr. Giorgio Quer, Sr. Research Scientist at the Scripps Research Institute and Director of Artificial Intelligence at the Scripps Translational Science Institute will be presenting a distinguished lecture: “Machine Learning in Digital Medicine”. Day & Time: Monday, May 7, 2018 3:00 p.m. ‐ 4:00 p.m. Speaker: Dr. Giorgio Quer Sr. Research Scientist, Scripps Research Institute, San Diego, California Director of Artificial Intelligence, Scripps Translational Science Institute Senior Member of the IEEE, Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Communications society Location: Room BA1210 Bahen Centre for Information Technology 40 St George St., Toronto, ON M5S 2E4 Contact: Eman Hammad Organizer: Communications Society Abstract: Digitalize human beings using biosensors to track our complex physiologic system, process the large amount of data generated with artificial intelligence (AI) and change clinical practice towards individualized medicine: these are the goals of digital medicine. At Scripps, we promote a strong collaboration between computer scientist, engineers, and clinical researchers, as well as a direct partnership with health industry leaders. We propose new solutions to analyze large longitudinal data using statistical learning and deep convolutional neural networks to address different cardiovascular health issues. Among them, one of the greatest contributors to premature morbidity and mortality worldwide is hypertension. It is known that lowering blood pressure (BP) by just a few mmHg can bring substantial clinical benefits, but the assessment of the “true” BP for an individual is non-trivial, as the individual BP can fluctuate significantly. We analyze a large dataset of more than 16 million BP measurements taken at home with commercial BP monitoring devices, in order to unveil the BP patterns and provide insights on the clinical relevance of these changes. Another prevalent health issue we investigated is atrial fibrillation (AFib), one of the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia, which is associated with stroke, hospitalization, heart failure and coronary artery disease. AFib detection from single-lead electrocardiography (ECG) recordings is still an open problem, as AFib events may be episodic and the signal noisy. We conduct a thoughtful analysis of recent deep network architectures developed in the computer vision field, redesigned to be suitable for a one-dimensional signal, and we evaluate their performance for the AFib detection problem using 200 thousand seconds of ECG recording, highlighting the potential of this technology. Looking to the future, we are investigating new applications of existing wearable devices, requiring advanced processing and clinical validation, and we are participating to the All of Us research program, an unprecedented research effort to gather data from one million people in the USA to accelerate the advent of precision medicine. Biography: Dr. Giorgio Quer is a Sr. Research Scientist at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, California, and he is the Director of Artificial Intelligence at the Scripps Translational Science Institute. He received the B.Sc. degree, the M.Sc. degree (with honors) in Telecommunications Engineering and the Ph.D. degree (2011) in Information Engineering from University of Padova, Italy. In 2007, he was a visiting researcher at the Centre for Wireless Communication at the University of Oulu, Finland. During his Ph.D., he proposed a solution for the distributed compression of wireless sensor networks signals, based on the joint exploitation of Compressive Sensing and Principal Component Analysis. From 2010 to 2017, he was a visiting scholar at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology and then a postdoc at the Qualcomm Institute, University of California San Diego (UCSD), working on cognitive networks protocols and implementation. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE, a member of the American Heart Association (AHA), and a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Communications society. His research interests include wireless sensor networks, network optimization, compressive sensing, probabilistic models, deep convolutional networks, wearable sensors, physiological signal processing, and digital medicine.

Friday, July 20th at 11:00 a.m., The IEEE Toronto ComSoc Chapter and University of Toronto – ECE are inviting all interested to the distinguished lecture titled: “Integration of Electric Vehicles in Smart Grids”. Day & Time: Friday, July 20, 2018 11:00 a.m. ‐ 12:00 p.m. Speaker: Prof. Ying-Jun Angela Zhang Chinese University of Hong Kong Location: 40 St George Street Toronto, Ontario Canada M5S 2E4 Building: Bahen Centre for Information Technology Room Number: BA4164 Contact: Eman Hammad Organizer: IEEE Toronto Communication Society Abstract: The recent surge in electric vehicle adoption worldwide brings both challenges and opportunities to the electricity power grid. In this talk, we will first introduce our recent work on coordinated electric vehicle charging when the knowledge of future events is unknown. We will then show how the battery systems in electric vehicles can contribute to stabilizing the grid frequency. Biography: Ying-Jun Angela Zhang (S’00-M’05-SM’10) received her PhD degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong in 2004. Since 2005, she has been with Department of Information Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, where she is currently an Associate Professor. Her research interests include mainly wireless communications systems and smart power systems, in particular optimization techniques for such systems. She serves as the Chair of the Executive Editor Committee of the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications. Previously, she served many years as an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, IEEE Transactions on Communications, Security and Communications Networks (Wiley), and a Feature Topic in the IEEE Communications Magazine. She has served on the organizing committee of major IEEE conferences including ICC, GLOBECOM, SmartgridComm, VTC, CCNC, ICCC, MASS, etc.. She is now the Chair of IEEE ComSoc Emerging Technical Committee on Smart Grid. She was a Co-Chair of the IEEE ComSoc Multimedia Communications Technical Committee and the IEEE Communication Society GOLD Coordinator. She was the co-recipient of the 2014 IEEE ComSoc APB Outstanding Paper Award, the 2013 IEEE SmartgridComm Best Paper Award, and the 2011 IEEE Marconi Prize Paper Award on Wireless Communications. She was the recipient of the Young Researcher Award from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2011. As the only winner from engineering science, she has won the Hong Kong Young Scientist Award 2006, conferred by the Hong Kong Institution of Science. Dr. Zhang is a Fellow of IET and a Distinguished Lecturer of IEEE ComSoc.

Thursday December 6th, 2018 at 2:00 p.m. Prof. Halim Yanikomeroglu, Carleton University, will be presenting a ComSoc distinguished lecture: “Integrated Terrestrial/Aerial 6G Networks for Ubiquitous 3D Super-Connectivity in 2030s”. Day & Time: Thursday December 6th, 2018 2:00 p.m. ‐ 3:30 p.m. Speaker: Prof. Halim Yanikomeroglu Carleton University Organizers: ComSoc IEEE Toronto Location: Bahen Centre, Room BA1230 40 St George St, Toronto, ON M5S 2E4 Contact: ComSoc IEEE Toronto Register: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/183175 Abstract: As the 5G standards are currently being developed with a scheduled completion date of late-2019, it is time to reinitiate a brainstorming endeavour followed by the technical groundwork towards the subsequent generation (6G) wireless networks of 2030s. One reasonable starting point in this new 6G discussion is to reflect on the possible shortcomings of the 5G networks to-be-deployed. 5G promises to provide connectivity for a broad range of use-cases in a variety of vertical industries; after all, this rich set of scenarios is indeed what distinguishes 5G from the previous four generations. Many of the envisioned 5G use-cases require challenging target values for one or more of the key QoS elements, such as high rate, high reliability, low latency, and high energy efficiency; we refer to the presence of such demanding links as the super-connectivity. However, the very fundamental principles of digital and wireless communications reveal that the provision of ubiquitous super-connectivity in the global scale – i.e., beyond indoors, dense downtown or campus-type areas – is infeasible with the legacy terrestrial network architecture as this would require prohibitively expensive gross over-provisioning. The problem will only exacerbate with even more demanding 6G use-cases such as UAVs requiring connectivity (ex: delivery drones), thus the need for 3D super-connectivity. In this talk, we will present a 5-layer vertical architecture composed of fully integrated terrestrial and aerial layers for 6G networks of 2030s: – Terrestrial HetNets with macro-, micro-, and pico-BSs – Flying-BSs (aerial-/UAV-/drone-BSs); altitude: up to several 100 m – High Altitude Platforms (HAPs) (floating-BSs); altitude: ~20 km – Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) satellites; altitude: 200-1,000 km – Geostationary Orbit (GEO) satellites; altitude: 35,786 km In the absence of a clear technology roadmap for the 2030s, the talk has, to a certain extent, an exploratory view point to stimulate further thinking and creativity. We are certainly at the dawn of a new era in wireless research and innovation; the next twenty years will be very interesting. Biography: Halim Yanikomeroglu is a Professor at Carleton University. His research covers many aspects of communications technologies with emphasis on wireless networks. He supervised 20 PhD students (all completed with theses). He coauthored 360+ peer-reviewed research papers including 120+ in the IEEE journals; these publications have received 11,000+ citations. He is a Fellow of IEEE, a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Communications Society, and a Distinguished Speaker for the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society. He has been one of the most frequent tutorial presenters in the leading international IEEE conferences (29 times). He has had extensive collaboration with industry which resulted in 25 granted patents (plus more than a dozen applied). During 2012-2016, he led one of the largest academic-industrial collaborative research projects on pre-standards 5G wireless, sponsored by the Ontario Government and the industry. He served as the General Chair and Technical Program Chair of several major international IEEE conferences.

Monday April 1st, 2019 at 3:00 p.m. Dr. Ashutosh Dutta, Director, Industry Outreach-IEEE Communications Society, will be presenting an IEEE ComSoc distinguished lecture “Security in SDN/NFV and 5G Networks-Opportunities and Challenges”. Day & Time: Monday April 1st, 2019 3:00 p.m. ‐ 4:00 p.m. Speaker: Dr. Ashutosh Dutta, Director, Industry Outreach-IEEE Communications Society, IEEE 5G Initiative Founding Co-Chair and Senior Scientist JHU/APL (Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Lab) Organizers: IEEE Toronto ComSoc Location: Room Number: BA 4287 40 St George St, Toronto, ON M5S 2E4 Contact: Eman Hammad Abstract: Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) are the key pillars of future networks, including 5G and Beyond that promise to support emerging applications such as enhanced mobile broadband, ultra low latency, massive sensing type applications while providing the resiliency in the network. Service providers and other verticals (e.g., Connected Cars, IOT, eHealth) can leverage SDN/NFV to provide flexible and cost-effective service without compromising the end user quality of service (QoS). While NFV and SDN open up the door for flexible networks and rapid service creation, these offer both security opportunities while also introducing additional challenges and complexities, in some cases. With the rapid proliferation of 4G and 5G networks, operators have now started the trial deployment of network function virtualization, especially with the introduction of various virtualized network elements in the access and core networks. These include elements such as virtualized Evolved Packet Core (vEPC), virtualized IP Multimedia Services (vIMS), Virtualized Residential Gateway, and Virtualized Next Generation Firewalls. However, very little attention has been given to the security aspects of virtualization. While several standardization bodies (e.g., ETSI, 3GPP, NGMN, ATIS, TIA) have started looking into the many security issues introduced by SDN/NFV, additional work is needed with larger security community involvement including vendors, operators, universities, and regulators. This tutorial will address evolution of cellular technologies towards 5G but will largely focus on various security challenges and opportunities introduced by SDN/NFV and 5G networks such as Hypervisor, Virtual Network Functions (VNFs), SDN Controller, Orchestrator, Network slicing, Cloud RAN, and security function virtualization. This tutorial will also highlight some of the ongoing activities within various standards communities and will illustrate a few deployment use case scenarios for security including threat taxonomy for both operator and enterprise networks. In addition, I will also describe some of the ongoing activities within IEEE Future Network initiative including roadmap efforts and various ways one can get involved and contribute to this initiative. Biography: Ashutosh Dutta is currently Senior Wireless Communication Systems Research Scientist and JHU/APL Sabbatical Fellow at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Labs (JHU/APL), USA. Most recently he served as Principal Member of Technical Staff at AT&T Labs in Middletown, New Jersey. His career, spanning more than 30 years, includes Director of Technology Security and Lead Member of Technical Staff at AT&T, CTO of Wireless at a Cybersecurity company NIKSUN, Inc., Senior Scientist in Telcordia Research, Director of Central Research Facility at Columbia University, adjunct faculty at NJIT, and Computer Engineer with TATA Motors. He has more than 90 conference and journal publications, three book chapters, and 30 issued patents. Ashutosh is co-author of the book, titled, “Mobility Protocols and Handover Optimization: Design, Evaluation and Application” published by IEEE and John & Wiley that has recently been translated into Chinese Language. Ashutosh served as the chair for IEEE Princeton / Central Jersey Section, Industry Relation Chair for Region 1 and MGA, Pre-University Coordinator for IEEE MGA and vice chair of Education Society Chapter of PCJS. He co-founded the IEEE STEM conference (ISEC) and helped to implement EPICS (Engineering Projects in Community Service) projects in several high schools. Ashutosh currently serves as the Director of Industry Outreach for IEEE Communications Society and is the founding co-chair for IEEE 5G initiative. He also serves as IEEE Communications Society’s Distinguished Lecturer for 2017-2018. Ashutosh serves as the general co-chair for the premier IEEE 5G World Forum. He was recipient of the prestigious 2009 IEEE MGA Leadership award and 2010 IEEE-USA professional leadership award. Ashutosh obtained his BS in Electrical Engineering from NIT Rourkela, India, MS in Computer Science from NJIT, and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University under the supervision of Prof. Henning Schulzrinne. Ashutosh is a senior member of IEEE and ACM.