Biography

I am a Research Professor at Virginia Tech National Security Institute. My research experience is in wireless communications, networks, security, 5G/6G, machine learning, and data analytics. I have been also a Visiting Research Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park. Prior to joining Virginia Tech, I was the Director of Networks and Security at Intelligent Automation Inc. (IAI) / BlueHalo, where I directed more than 50 scientists and engineers, and managed a broad portfolio of cutting-edge research and product development efforts covering different aspects of wireless communications, networks, security, machine learning, and data analytics (ranging from theory and algorithm design to software and hardware implementation). 

I received my Ph.D. in 2007 from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park, where I worked as a Research Assistant at the Institute for Systems Research (ISR). Later, I was a Visiting Assistant Research Scientist with ISR. I also worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Northwestern University.

My research interests are in wireless communications, networks, security, machine learning, and 5G/6G systems (see Expertise). I published over 190 papers in these areas as of 2023 (see Publications). My work has also contributed to various commercial products such as deep learning-based radio platform, FPGA IP core for deep neural networks, social media analytics software, network emulation and software-defined radio (SDR) programming tools. My work has been cited as an ARO success story and transitioned to various Government and industry venues.

As part of my professional activities, I have organized and chaired conference tracks (IEEE PIMRC, IEEE GlobalSIP, and IEEE MILCOM), served in the conference organizing committee (IEEE GLOBECOM and IEEE MILCOM), organized and chaired several workshops (at IEEE CNS, IEEE ICNP, ACM Mobicom, and ACM WiSec), organized tutorials (at IEEE MILCOM and IEEE GLOBECOM) and invited sessions (at IEEE MLSP and WICON). I am an Editor of IEEE Transactions on Communications and an Editor of IEEE Transactions on Cognitive Communications and Networking. I was invited by academia, industry and government agencies to give talks and serve on panels in the areas of machine learning, wireless security, and 5G/6G. I have served on TPCs of major IEEE and ACM conferences and served as reviewer for major IEEE journals and transactions. My paper "Active Deep Learning Attacks under Strict Rate Limitations for Online API Calls" received the Best Paper Award at the IEEE Symposium on Technologies for Homeland Security (HST). I am a Senior Member of IEEE.