Research and Projects

Research:

Our research interests lie in the fascinating intersection of machine learning, distributed computing and storage, communication and networking, and information theory. In particular, we are focusing on developing AI algorithms and edge hardware platforms, applying AI to IoT, wireless sensing and wireless networking, and understanding the fundamentals of AI from optimization and information theoretic perspectives.

Projects:

Current

• DOE Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) grant, Transformer-Based Self-Attention Mechanism to Address Secure Spectrum Sharing. This is a joint grant with Drs. Imtiaz Nasim, Vivek Agarwal and Prem Narain from INL.
• National Science Foundation (NSF), Collaborative Research: U.S.-Ireland R&D Partnership: Integrated Sensing and Telecommunications for Intelligent Connection and Transmission (INSTINCT), 11/01/2025 to 10/30/2028. This is a joint award with Prof. Rong-Rong Chen (University of Utah), Prof. Arman Farhang (TCD), Prof. Dmitry Zelenchuk and Prof. Babar Abbasi (QUB).
• National Science Foundation (NSF),  Collaborative Research: CIRC: Dev: UnionLabs: Facilitating Shared Access to Heterogeneous Wireless Testbeds Through Grassroots-Driven Federation, 10/01/2025 to 09/30/2027. This is a joint award with Prof. Zhangyu Guan (UMN).
• NSF Supplement Award for “Collaborative Research: SWIFT: Decentralized Intelligent Spectrum Sharing in UAV Networks (DISH-uNET) via Hardware-software Co-design”, 10/01/2023 to 09/01/2025, Role: PI.
• National Science Foundation (NSF), Collaborative Research: CIF: Medium: Fundamental Limits of Cache-aided Multi-user Private Function Retrieval, 10/01/2023 to 09/30/2027, Role: PI (leading institution), PI (UIC): Daniela Tuninetti (UIC), PI (UNT): Hua Sun.
• National Science Foundation (NSF), Collaborative Research: SWIFT: Decentralized Intelligent Spectrum Sharing in UAV Networks (DISH-uNET) via Hardware-software Co-design, 10/01/2022 to 09/30/2025, Role: PI, Co-PI: Cunxi Yu, Rong-Rong Chen, Zhangyu Guan (University at Buffalo).
  • Project Website: here.
• National Science Foundation (NSF), U.S.-Ireland R & D Partnership: Smart Radio Environments with Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces – Communications Through Blockage in Millimeter-wave Systems (REFLECT-MMWAVE), 08/15/2022 to 08/14/2025, Role: Co-PI, PI: Rong-Rong Chen.
  • Project Website: here.
• National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award titled “CAREER: Heterogeneous Elastic Computing over the Cloud – from Theory to Practice”, 02/01/2022 – 01/31/2027, Role: PI.
• DOE grant titled “Visual-Enhanced Cooperative Traffic Operations (VECTOR) System”, 10/01/2022 – 12/31/2026, Role: Co-PI, Utah PI: Mingxi Liu, Co-PI: Ken Stevens; Leading institution: University of South Florida.

Completed

• INL Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) grant titled “Artificial-Intelligence-based Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability of Wirelessly Transmitted Data in Nuclear Industry”, 02/16/2023 to 09/30/2024, Role: PI (UofU), Co-PI (UofU): Sneha Kumar Kasera, PI (INL): Vivek Agarwal, Co-PI (INL): Joshua E. Daw, Shannon L. Eggers. 
• Idaho National Laboratory (INL) grant titled “Multi-band Wireless Architecture for Nuclear Power Plants: University of Utah Research Scope”, 06/16/2023 to 09/30/2025, Role: Co-PI (UofU), PI (UofU): Sneha Kumar Kasera, PI (INL): Vivek Agarwal.
• DOE Advanced Research Project Aency-Energy (ARPA-E) grant titled Low‐Cost Ultra‐Low‐Power Wireless Chemical Sensor Networks for Early Detection of Invasive Parasitic Weeds and Herbivores in BioFuel Crops, 07/01/2019 to 12/31/2023, Role: Co-PI, PI: Hanseup Kim, Co-PI: Lin Zang, Carlos Mastrangelo, James Schnable.
• National Science Foundation (NSF), CIF: Small: Fundamental Limits of Caching Networks with General Topologies, 10/01/2018 to 09/30/2022, Role: PI, Co-PI: Rong-Rong Chen.
• National Science Foundation (NSF), SpecEES: Dynamic Space Frequency Multiplexing – A New Paradigm for Filterbank Multicarrier Spectrum Access, 09/01/2018 to 08/31/2022, Role: Co-PI, PI: Behrouz Farhang-Boroujeny, Co-PIs: Rong-Rong Chen, Sneha Kesera.
• INL Wireless Security Institute grant titled “Secure mmWave Spectrum Sharing with Autonomous Beam Scheduling”, 11/01/2019 to 10/30/2021, Role: Co-PI, PI: Sneha Kesera, Co-PI: Jacobus van der Merwe.
• National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), Connected Vehicle System Design for Signalized Arterials, 09/01/2018 to 11/30/2019, Role: Co-PI, PI: Xianfeng (Terry) Yang.
• University of Utah Research Foundation, Coded Machine Learning in Large Scale Systems, 07/01/2018 to 11/01/2019, Role: PI