IS-WiN Laboratory - Professional Service

IS-WiN Laboratory

Fatemeh Afghah

McQueen Quattlebaum Associate Professor

Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Clemson University

Founding Director, Intelligent Systems and Wireless Networking (IS-WiN) Laboratory

Affiliate Faculty, Savannah River National Laboratory

Awards and Recognitions

McQueen Quattlebaum Faculty Achievement Award, Clemson University, 2025.
Clemson University's nominees for Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists in Physical Sciences & Engineering} (less than 100 nominees across 161 institutions in the US), 2025.
Best paper award nomination at IEEE Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems & Computers, 2025.
Clemson University Board of Trustees, "Focus on Faculty" Recognition, 2024.
Best Paper Award at the 16th IEEE INFOCOM International Workshop on Wireless Sensing and Actuating Robotic Networks (WISRAN), May 2023.
Air Force Research Lab Summer Faculty Fellowship, 2023.
NSF CAREER Award, 2020.
Young Investigator Award, Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFSOR), 2019.
Most Promising New Scholar Award, Northern Arizona University, 2020.
IEEE Senior Member, Feb. 2019.
Best paper, IEEE INFOCOM, Workshop on Wireless Sensor, Robot and UAV Networks (WiSARN), 2018.
Nominated as Exemplary Performer for AY16-17 by School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems Faculty Status Committee
Visiting Faculty Research Program Award, Air Force Research Laboratory, 2017.
NSF CISE Research Initiation Initiative (NSF-CRII) Award, National Science Foundation, 2017.
Recognized as Educator of Influence by a Gold Axe Ward Candidate, 2017.
Visiting Faculty Research Program Award, Air Force Research Laboratory, 2016.
New Investigator Award, NASA/North Carolina Space Grant, March 2014.
N2Women Young Researcher Fellowship, ACM and IEEE Communication Society, 2013.
Maine Economic Improvement Fund (MEIF) Doctoral Fellowship Award}, University of Maine, 2012-2013.
Dissertation Fellowship, University of Maine, 2013.
ITU's Youth Representative in Global Forum on Youth and ICT for Development, Geneva, Sep. 2007.
ITU's Youth Forum Alumni (two representatives from each country), International Telecommunication Union (ITU) TELECOM World 2006, Hong Kong, 2006.

Professional Activities

Co-organizer, NSF Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) PIs Meeting, 2025.
Organizer, NSF CPS PI Meeting Workshop on CPS and Digital Twins, March 2025.
Member, IEEE Standard Group for Self-Organizing Spectrum-Agile Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Communications.
Member, Ad Hoc Committee on Drone, IEEE Vehicular Technology Society, (2022-present).
Organizer, NSF Smart Connected Health PIs Workshop, 2021.
Co-organizer, Artificial Intelligence for Healthcare Workshop, NSF CPS PIs Meeting, November 2022.
Mentoring Co-chair, Networking Networking Women (N2Women) Board, (2019-2021).
Mentor, IranWIC Mentorship Program, (2021-present).
Mentor, IEEE INFOCOM N2Women Mentoring Event, April 2018.
Advocate Co-chair, Networking Networking Women (N2Women) Board, (2015-2016).
NASA Panelist, (2017, 2019, 2022) for Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST) Program and Small Spacecraft Technology Program.
NSF Panelist, (2014 - present), serving on panels for programs like Networking Technology and Systems (NeTS), Smart Connected Health, CIRC, CRII, Signals in the Soil (SitS), Smart and Connected Communities, CAREER, and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS).
Career mentoring for high school students, Flagstaff High School Transitions Program, 2018.
GOLD Chair, IEEE Maine Sectionm, (2010-2012).

Talks/Panels

Panel – “Advancing Spectrum Science: Rely on Domain Knowledge or Handoff to Machine Learning Models?”, NSF SWIFT/NewSpectrum PI Meeting, Sep. 2025.
Technical Talk – “Firefighter Drones: Low-altitude Fleet of Drones in Forest Fire Management”, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) Workshop: Autonomy Under Duress – Robots in Wildland Fire, 2025.
Panel – “Robots in Wildland Fire: Research, Operations, and Entrepreneurship”, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) Workshop: Autonomy Under Duress – Robots in Wildland Fire, 2025.
Panel – “Can Open RAN Break Vendor Dominance, Diversify the Market, and Benefit Operators?”, Panelist, IEEE WCNC, 2025.
Panel – “Women in Engineering: The Journey Continues”, IEEE ICC Conference, June 2025.
Panel – “CPS & Digital Twin”, NSF CPS PI Meeting Workshop on CPS and Digital Twins, Organizer and Moderator, March 2025.
Keynote Talk – “Autonomous UAVs for Wildfire Management: AI-Driven Solutions for Next-Generation Emergency Response”, Workshop on Artificial Intelligence for Networked Drone and Sensor Applications – DroneSense-AI, 17th International Conference on Security of Information and Networks (SINCONF-2024), December 2024.
Panel – “Workforce Development for the Dynamically Changing Cyber and AI Fields”, Panelist, Savannah River National Laboratory, August 2024.
Invited Talk – “Advancing Forest Fire Management: The Role of Autonomous Drones in Wildfire Monitoring and Control”, University of South Carolina, May 2024.
Keynote Talk – “UAS in Disaster Management”, IoT Solutions for Agriculture and Smart Farming, AgTech REEU Program at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi, April 2024.
Invited Talk – “First Responder Drones”, Savannah River National Laboratory, Nov. 2023.
Keynote Talk – “Firefighter Drones: Low-altitude Fleet of Drones in Forest Fire Management”, 9th ACM Workshop on Micro Aerial Vehicle Networks, Systems, and Applications (DroNet), co-located with ACM MobiSys, Finland, June 2023.
Invited Talk – “Just in Time Intervention for Patients with Chronic Heart Diseases in Rural Areas”, Clemson Health Advancement Talks, Oct. 2023.
Invited Talk – “Communication, Coordination, and Task Management in Autonomous UAV Systems”, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Florida, 2023.
Invited Talk – “Autonomous Unmanned Vehicles”, Automotive AI Summit, Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR), 2023.
Panel – “Finding Your Voice in Tech”, Clemson’s Girls Who Code Chapter, 2023.
Panel – “Autonomous UAV Systems in Wildfire Detection and Management: Challenges and Opportunities”, Dynamic Data Driven Applications Systems (DDDAS), MIT Media Lab, October 2022.
Panel – “CPS CAREER Proposals”, Panelist, NSF Cyber-Physical Systems PIs Meeting, November 2022.
Panel – “Mentoring Graduate Students and Postdocs Towards Independent Careers in CPS”, Panelist, NSF Cyber-Physical Systems PIs Meeting, November 2022.
Panel – “Dataset Generation Barriers: Software and Human Factors”, NSF Workshop on Radio Frequency Dataset Generation, Access, and Sharing, June 2022.
Plenary Talk – “UAV Communications: Challenges and Opportunities”, 3rd Buffalo Day for 5G and Wireless Internet of Things, November 2021.
Tutorial – “On-demand Key Generation with Tamper-Resistant ReRAMs”, IEEE Microelectronic Design and Test Symposium, 2021 (with Dr. Bertrand Cambou).
Invited Talk – “Toward Utilizing Autonomous UAV Networks in Disaster Management”, University of Buffalo, 2021.
Expert Panel – “Research During a Pandemic – Lessons Learned”, Panelist, NSF Workshop on Smart Health in the AI and COVID Era, March 2021.
Expert Panel – “AI in Health and Biomedical Research – Challenges and Opportunities”, Moderator, NSF Workshop on Smart Health in the AI and COVID Era, March 2021.
Expert Panel – “Novel Spectrum Uses”, Panelist, NSF Workshop on Wireless, Spectrum and Innovation, August 2020.
Talk – “AI-enabled Communications, Spectrum Sharing, and Task Allocation in Autonomous UAV Networks”, Air Force Research Laboratory (virtual), August 2020.
Talk – “Toward Disaster Management with Autonomous UAV Networks”, Wayne State University, March 2020.
Expert Panel – “AI Needs for the Future of Smart Health”, Panelist, NSF Smart and Connected Health PI Meeting, January 2020.
Panel – Society of Women Engineers Professors Event, Northern Arizona University, November 2018.
Invited Talk – “Game Theory for Machine Learning: Applications in Detection of Cardiovascular Events”, NSF Connections in Smart Health Workshop, September 2018.
Panel – “Ethics of Automation and Artificial Intelligence”, Museum of Northern Arizona, September 2018.
Panel – “Accelerating into the Future”, Flagstaff Festival of Science, September 2018.
Talk – “Communication Networks”, Flagstaff Summit Middle School, October 2018.
Invited Talk – “Applications of Game Theory in Cooperative Communication Networks”, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Northern Arizona University, November 2016.
Invited Talk – “Small Satellites: Communication, Networks, and Operation”, NAPSA Workshop on Exoplanets and Habitability, Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ, March 2016.
Invited Talk – “Small Satellite Communications”, North Carolina Museum of Natural Science, Raleigh, NC, August 2015.
Talk – “Communication Networks”, STAR Charter School, Flagstaff Science Festival, September 2016.
Invited Talk – “Intersatellite Communications for Small Satellite Networks”, National Institute of Aerospace, Hampton, VA, September 2014.
Talk – “Relay Technologies for WiMAX and LTE-Advanced Mobile Systems”, IEEE Special Presentation on WiMAX, University of Maine, Orono, ME, Nov. 2009.
Youth Forum Panelist – International Telecommunication Union (ITU) TELECOM World, 2008.

Associate Editor & Guest Editor

Associate Editor, IEEE Communications Letters, (2025 - present).
Editorial Board, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), Biomedical & Health Informatics Track, 2024.
Guest Editor, "Special Issue on Advanced Aerial Mobility," IEEE Open Journal on Vehicular Technology, 2023.
Guest Editor, Special Issue on Generative AI for Cognitive Computation, Springer Cognitive Computing Journal, 2023.
Associate Editor, ACM Transactions on Computing for Healthcare, (2022 - present).
Editorial Board Member, Elsevier Computer Networks, (2021 - present).
Editorial Board Member, Elsevier Journal of Network and Computer Applications, (2021 - present).
Editorial Board Member, Elsevier Ad Hoc Networks, (2020 - present).
Associate Editor, Aerial and Space Networks, Frontiers Journal, (2020 - present).
Associate Editor, Springer Neural Processing Letters, (2020 - present).
Guest Editor, "Spectrum Sharing for Future Networks," International Journal of Wireless Information Networks, 2021.
Guest Editor, Special Issue on Applications of Artificial Intelligence for 5G and Other Telecommunication Technologies, Computational Intelligence (Wiley), 2021.
Editorial Board Member, IET Wireless Sensor Systems Journal, (2018 - 2021).
Guest Editor, Special Issue on Simulations and Machine Learning via Big Data for Prediction, Detection, Treatment, or Rehabilitation, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, MDPI, 2020.
Topic Editor, MDPI Sensors Journal, (2020 - present).
Guest Editor, Special Issue on Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS)-Aided Wireless Communications for 6G Cellular Networks, Electronics, 2021.

Conference Chair Organizer

Symposium Chair, Cognitive Radio and AI-Enabled Networks Symposium, IEEE GLOBECOM, 2026.
Track Co-chair, IoT and Cyber-Physical Systems Track, 35th International Conference on Communications and Computer Networks (ICCCN), 2026.
Track Chair, Aerial Communications SAC, IEEE ICC 2025.
TPC Chair, IEEE COINS: IEEE International Conference on Omni-layer Intelligent Systems, 2025.
Workshop Chair, IEEE International Workshop on Computer-Aided Modeling and Design of Communication Links and Networks (IEEE CAMAD), 2025.
Co-chair, Artificial Intelligence for Networked Drone and Sensor Applications Workshop (DroneSense-AI 2025), IEEE WoWMoM, Fort Worth, Texas, May 2025.
Co-Chair & Organizer, 5th IEEE Workshop on Wireless Networking, Planning, and Computing for UAV Swarms (SwarmNet), in conjunction with IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (IEEE PIMRC 2023), Toronto, Canada, 2023.
Co-organizer, "AI in Healthcare," NSF CPS PIs meeting, 2022.
Co-Chair & Organizer, First Workshop on "Test and Evaluation of Programmable Networks," in conjunction with IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing in Sensor Systems (IEEE DCOSS), 2022.
Co-Chair & Organizer, Fourth IEEE Workshop on Wireless Networking, Planning, and Computing for UAV Swarms (SwarmNet), in conjunction with IEEE International Symposium on a World of Wireless, Mobile, and Multimedia Networks (WOWMOM) 2022.
Publication co-chair, International Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems (ICCPS) 2022.
Publicity Chair, IEEE International Conference on Omni-layer Intelligent Systems (COINS), 2022.
Track Chair, Communication, Connectivity, and Networking Track, IEEE International Conference on Omni-layer Intelligent Systems (COINS), 2022.
Tutorial Co-chair, 19th IEEE Annual Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (CCNC 2022).
Organizer, NSF Smart Health PIs Workshop on "Smart Health in the AI and COVID Era," 2021.
Co-Chair & Organizer, IEEE Workshop on Wireless Networking, Planning, and Computing for UAV Swarms (SwarmNet), in conjunction with IEEE International Symposium on a World of Wireless, Mobile, and Multimedia Networks (WOWMOM) 2021.
Publicity Chair, IEEE International Conference on Omni-layer Intelligent Systems (COINS), 2021.
Student Travel Award Co-Chair, Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet-of-Things (CPS-IoT) Week 2021.
Track Chair, Communication, Connectivity, and Networking Track, IEEE International Conference on Omni-layer Intelligent Systems (COINS), 2021.
Co-Chair & Organizer, IEEE Workshop on Wireless Networking, Planning, and Computing for UAV Swarms (SwarmNet), in conjunction with IEEE International Symposium on a World of Wireless, Mobile, and Multimedia Networks (WOWMOM) 2020.
Publicity Chair, 18th IEEE Annual Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (CCNC 2021).
TPC Chair & Organizer, the 12th International Workshop on Wireless Sensor, Robot, and UAV Networks, in conjunction with IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications (IEEE INFOCOM), 2019.
Co-chair and Organizer, CPC-UAV: Communications, Data Processing, and Control for Unmanned Autonomous Systems Workshop, co-located with IEEE International Conference in Sensing, Communication, and Networking (IEEE SECON), 2018.
Area Chair, Workshop for Women in Machine Learning 2019, co-located with 2019 Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS).
Co-chair and Organizer, First Workshop on Small Satellites, IEEE International Conference on Wireless for Space and Extreme Environments (WiSEE 2018).
Registration chair, IEEE International Conference on Wireless for Space and Extreme Environments (WiSEE 2019).

Technical Program Committee

IEEE International Symposium on Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks (DySPAN), 2025.
IEEE INFOCOM 2025 Demo.
IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM), Mobile and Wireless Networking Symposium, 2025.
2024 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC): Signal Processing for Communications.
2025 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC): Cognitive Radio and AI-Enabled Networks.
2025 IEEE 21st Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (CCNC), Beyond 5G and Towards 6G Track, 2025.
IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM), Mobile and Wireless Networking Symposium, 2024.
2024 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC): Cognitive Radio and AI-Enabled Networks.
2024 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC): Aerial Communications.
IEEE International Symposium on Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks (DySPAN), 2024.
2024 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), Mobile and Wireless Networks Symposium.
10th Workshop on Micro Aerial Vehicle Networks, Systems, and Applications (DroNet 2024), ACM MobiSys 2024.
2024 IEEE 21st Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (CCNC), 2024.
17th IEEE INFOCOM International Workshop on Networked Robotics and Communication Systems NetRobiCS (formerly known as WiSRAN), 2024.
IEEE 16th International INFOCOM Workshop on Wireless Sensing and Actuating Robotic Networks (WISARN), 2023.
IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), Selected Areas in Communications - Aerial Communications Track 2023.
IEEE Globecom Workshop on Next-Generation Radio Access Networks: Architectures, Interfaces, and Implementations (NxtGenRAN), 2022.
IEEE 20th Annual Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (CCNC), 5G and Towards 6G Track, 2023.
IEEE 33rd Annual International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC), 2022.
8th ACM Workshop on Micro Aerial Vehicle Networks, Systems, and Applications (DroNet 2022), Co-located with ACM MobiSys, 2022.
International Workshop on Wireless Communications and Networking in Extreme Environments (WCNEE), 2022.
IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), Selected Areas in Communications - Aerial Communications Track 2022.
IEEE International Symposium on Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks (DySPAN), 2021.
IEEE 19th Annual Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (CCNC), 5G and Towards 6G Track, 2022.
IEEE 32nd Annual International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC), 2021.
ACM/IEEE International Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems (ICCPS), IoT-CPS Week 2021.
Workshop on Machine Learning for Smart Wireless Systems, in conjunction with IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing in Sensor Systems (DCOSS), 2021.
5th IEEE International Workshop on Wireless Communications and Networking in Extreme Environments (WCNEE), in conjunction with IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing in Sensor Systems (DCOSS), 2021.
IEEE International Conference on Omni-layer Intelligent Systems (COINS), 2021.
IEEE International Conference on Wireless for Space and Extreme Environments (WiSEE), 2021.
IEEE International Symposium on Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks (DySPAN 2019), Newark, NJ.
17th IEEE Annual Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (CCNC 2020).
ACM/IEEE International Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems (ICCPS2020), Zurich, Switzerland.
Annual IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC 2019), Istanbul, Turkey.
16th Annual IEEE International Conference on Sensing, Communication and Networking (IEEE SECON 19), Boston, USA.
5th ACM Workshop on Micro Aerial Vehicle Networks, Systems, and Applications (DroNet), ACM International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services (ACM MobiSys), 2019.
IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing in Sensor Systems (IEEE DCOSS), Workshop on Wireless Drones over Internet of Things, 2019.
1st IEEE WoWMoM Workshop on Wireless Networking, Planning, and Computing for UAV Swarms (SwarmNet 2019), IEEE International Symposium on a World of Wireless, Mobile, and Multimedia Networks (IEEE WOWMOM), 2019.
12th International Workshop on Wireless Sensor, Robot and UAV Networks, in conjunction with IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications (IEEE INFOCOM), 2019.
16th IEEE Annual Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (CCNC 2019).
16th International Conference on Wireless Information Networks and Systems (WINSYS 2019), Prague, Czech Republic.
Annual IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC 2018).
27th International Conference on Computer Communications and Networks (ICCCN 2018).
Annual IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC 2017).
International Conference on Wireless Information Networks and Systems (WINSYS 2017).
IEEE International Conference on Wireless for Space and Extreme Environments (WiSEE 2016), Germany.
International Conference on Wireless Information Networks and Systems (WINSYS 2016), Lisbon, Portugal.
IEEE International Workshop on Wireless Mesh and Ad Hoc Networks (WiMAN 2016), Hawaii, 2016.
Conference on Information Sciences and Systems (CISS 2015), John Hopkins University, Maryland.
IEEE International Conference on Wireless for Space and Extreme Environments (WiSEE 2015), Florida.
International Conference on Wireless Information Networks and Systems (WINSYS 2015), Alsace, France.
IEEE International Conference on Wireless for Space and Extreme Environments (WiSEE 2014), Noordwijk, The Netherlands.

Reviewer

Journals:

IEEE Transactions on Communications
IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine
IEEE Communications Magazine
IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
IEEE Transactions of Automatic Control
IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society
IEEE Journal of Selected Areas in Sensors
Expert Systems With Applications
Elsevier Digital Communications and Networks
Elsevier Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine
IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics
IEEE Journal on Miniaturization for Air and Space Systems
BMC Informatics and Decision Making
Elsevier Computers & Security Journal
Elsevier Ad Hoc Networks
Journal of Communications and Networks
IET Communications Journal
IEEE Communication Letters
Springer Telecommunication Journal
Springer International Journal of Wireless Information Networks

Conferences:

IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR)
IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM)
IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC)
International Conference on Communications (ICC)
Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM)
IEEE International Symposium on Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks (DySPAN)
IEEE International Conference in Sensing, Communication and Networking (IEEE SECON)
International Conference on Computer Communications and Networks (ICCCN)
IEEE Annual Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (CCNC)
Annual IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC)
Conference on Information Sciences and Systems (CISS)
IEEE International Conference on Wireless for Space and Extreme Environments (WiSEE)
International Conference on Telecommunications (ICT)
Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering (CCECE)
Biennial Symposium on Communications (QBSC)
International Conference on Computing, Networking and Communication (ICNC)
International Conference on Cyber-enabled Distributed Computing and Knowledge Discovery (CyberC)

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