Channel estimation and modelling in cmWave, mmWave and THz bands
Integrated sensing and communications
Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) assisted non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA)
Machine learning (classical and Quantum) and data analytics
Impact of wireless networks on health (e.g. RF-EMF)
Wireless spectrum assessment and modelling (e.g. sensing and spectrum access)
Testbeds, trials and prototypes (e.g. 5G in a box and channel sounder )
Interested candidates in the areas of wireless communications, signal processing and machine learning, please send your CV with subject "AA/RS_position".
IoT-Assisted Smart Fire Door Inspection System (SFDIS) (over £220,000)
Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP)
Principal Investigator / Academic Lead (2025-26), funder (Innovate UK and ASSA ABLOY, UK)
The Belfast 5G Innovation Region (£3,800,000)
Use case: 5G Film Anywhere (Studio Ulster) and UU share (£834,000)
Co-Investigator and UU Project Lead (2023-25), funder (DSIT, UK) and LINK
Multi-band Wideband Channel Characterization in Indoor Environments (6G) (Research Fellowship)
Host (2024-25), funder (TÜBİTAK, Turkey)
Multi-User Vector Signal and Network Analysis (VSNA) Instrumentation (£782,502 )
Co-Investigator and lead [specs to setup](2023-24), funder (EPSRC, UK) and LINK
IoT-based Air Pollution Monitoring System (£12,500)
Co-Investigator (2020-21) and funder (Local+ 2020 – Leicester City Council, UK).
LPWAN Large-Scale Regional Network Deployment (£216,932)
Co-Investigator (2017-20) and funder (Digital Catapult, UK and local councils).
Others
Building Digital Future using Transformative Technologies: a joint initiative of Ulster University and Brazil (£13,156 )
Networking grant - round trip to Brazil and engagement activities etc.
Co-Investigator (2024), funder (ISPF funding call, DfE, UK)
Investigation of 5G impact on the health of community: a measurement-based study (£9,026 )
PI (2020-21), funder (UU ECR grant, UK)
Development and testing of First 6G testbed using software defined radios (SDR) in Northern Ireland (£12,124)
PI (2021), funder (UU/DfE, UK)
Journals:
F. Naz, M. Fahim, A. A. Cheema, Bradley D. E. McNiven, T-V. Cao, R. Hunter, and T. Q. Duong, "Air Quality and Healthy Ageing: Predictive Modelling of Pollutants using CNN Quantum-LSTM," in IEEE Access, (Accepted May'25).
K. M. Raziul Islam, A. Rahimian, G. G. Machado, M. A. Babar Abbasi, and A.A. Cheema, "Design and Experimental Performance Analysis of a Low-Profile Dual-Band Microwave Absorber," in Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications, (Accepted April'25).
C. Nguyen, A. A. Cheema, C. Kurnaz, A. Rahimian, C. Brennan and T. Q. Duong, "Deep Learning Models for Time-Series Forecasting of RF-EMF in Wireless Networks," in IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society, vol. 5, pp. 1399-1414, 2024.
K. M. Raziul Islam, A. Rahimian, G. G. Machado, M. A. Babar Abbasi, A.A. Cheema, and B. J. Meenan, "Design and Experimental Performance Evaluation of a Single-Layer Polarization-Insensitive Asymmetric Microwave Metasurface Absorber," in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, 2024.
S. Hussain, S. F. N. Bacha, A. A. Cheema, B. Canberk, and T. Q. Duong, "Geometrical Features based mmWave UAV Path Loss Prediction using Machine Learning for 5G and Beyond," in IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society, 2024,(accepted).
B. K. Engiz, C. Kurnaz, A. A. Cheema and M. U. Rehman, "Modeling RF-EMF at Sports Events: User Density Impact," in IEEE Access, (Accepted, Nov'24).
K. M. Raziul Islam, A. Rahimian, G. G. Machado, M. A. Babar Abbasi, A.A. Cheema, and B. J. Meenan, "A compact single‐layer reflective metasurface for high‐efficiency polarisation conversion applications in C and X bands," in IET Microwaves, Antennas and Propagation, 1-13, 2024.
F. Naz, M. Fahim, A. A. Cheema, N. T. Viet, T-V. Cao, R. Hunter, and T. Q. Duong, "Two-Stage Feature Engineering to Predict Air Pollutants in Urban Areas," in IEEE Access, 2024, vol. 12, 114073 - 114085.
Z. E. Albayrak, C. Kurnaz, T. Karadag and A. A. Cheema, "Comprehensive Analysis of Magnetic Flux Density and RF-EMF Exposure in Electric Buses: A Case Study from Samsun, Turkey," in Sensors, 2024, 24(17), 5634.
C. Nguyen, T. M. Hoang and A. A. Cheema, "Channel Estimation Using CNN-LSTM in RIS-NOMA Assisted 6G Network," in IEEE Transactions on Machine Learning in Communications and Networking, vol. 1, pp. 43-60, 2023. [Most popular paper of Journal, Nov'24]
A. F. Kola, Ç. Kurnaz, A. A. Cheema, and A. Rahimian, "Millimeter-Wave Dual-Band MIMO Channel Capacity Analysis Based on Climate Data: A Samsun Province Case Study," in Electronics, 2023, vol. 12, no. 10, p. 2273.
M.U. Hadi, J. Song, S. Soman, A. Rahimian, A. A. Cheema, "Experimental Evaluation of Hybrid Fibre–Wireless System for 5G Networks," in Telecom 2022, 3, no. 2: 218-233.
M. Mone, A. Rahimian, A. A. Cheema, "Model-Based Software Design of a Large-Scale Butler Matrix Beamformer for Hybrid 5G Subsystems," in IEICE Communications Express, 2022.
C. Nguyen and A. A. Cheema, "A Deep Neural Network-Based Multi-Frequency Path Loss Prediction Model from 0.8 GHz to 70 GHz," in Sensors, 2021, 21, 5100.
A. Ahmad, A. A. Cheema and D. Finlay, "A Survey of Radio Propagation Channel Modelling for Low Altitude Flying Base Station," in Computer Networks, 2020, vol 171, 107122.
S. Salous, J. Lee, M. D. Kim, M. Sasaki, W. Yamada, X. Raimundo, A. A. Cheema, "Radio propagation measurements and modelling for standardisation of the site general path loss model in ITU recommendations for 5G wireless networks," in Radio Science, January 2020, vol. 55. [Linked to ITU-R recommendation 1411]
A. A. Cheema and S. Salous, "Spectrum Occupancy Measurements and Analysis in 2.4 GHz WLAN," in Electronics, 2019, 8(9), 1011.
J. Huang, Y. Cao, X. Raimundo, A. A. Cheema and S. Salous, "Rain Statistics Investigation and Rain Attenuation Modeling for Millimeter Wave Short-Range Fixed Links," in IEEE Access, 2019, vol. 7, 156110 - 156120.
P. A. Catherwood, B. Black, E. Bedeer Mohamed, A. A. Cheema, J. Rafferty, J. Mclaughlin, "Radio Channel Characterization of Mid-Band 5G Service Delivery for Ultra-Low Altitude Aerial Base Stations," in IEEE Access, 2019, vol. 7, 8283-8299.
X. Raimundo, S. Salous, A. A. Cheema, "Indoor dual polarised radio channel characterization in the 54 GHz and 70 GHz bands," in IET microwaves, antennas and propagation, June 2018, vol. 12, pp. 1287-1292.
A. A. Cheema and S. Salous, "Digital FMCW for ultra-wideband spectrum sensing," in Radio Science, August 2016, vol. 51, pp. 1413-1420.
Salous, S. M. Feeney, X. Raimundo, A. A. Cheema, "Wideband MIMO channel sounder for radio measurements in the 60 GHz band," in IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communication, December 2015, vol. 15, pp. 2825-2832.
Conferences:
N. Q. T. Thoong, A. A. Cheema, S. R. Khosravirad, O. A. Dobre, T. Q. Duong, “Deep Learning for Channel Estimation of 6G RIS-NOMA Systems with Hardware Impairments,” in IEEE ICC Workshop, Montreal, Canada, June. 2025. (accepted)
N. Q. T. Thoong, A. A. Cheema, S. R. Khosravirad, O. A. Dobre, T. Q. Duong, “Channel Estimation for Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface-aided 6G NOMA Systems using CNN-based Quantum LSTM Model,” in Proc. of IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC2024-Fall), Washington DC, Dec. 2024.
B. D. Tran, M. Fahim, A. A. Cheema, S. Czarnuch, B. D. E. McNiven, O. A. Dobre and T. Q. Duong, "Estimation of Energy Expenditure in Wearable Healthcare Technology by Quantum-Based LSTM Modeling," in International Conference on Quantum Communications, Networking, and Computing (QCNC), 2024, Kanazawa, Japan. [Invited Paper]
F. Naz, M. Fahim, A. A. Cheema, N. Trung Viet, Tuan-Vu Cao and T. Q. Duong, "Features Inspired PM2.5 Prediction: A Belfast City Case Study," in EAI INISCOM, 2024, Da Nang, Vietnam.
J. L. Towers, S. Salous, X. Raimundo, and A. Cheema, "Building Entry Loss for Traditional and Thermally Efficient Houses Between 0.4 and 73 GHz," in IEEE EUCAP, 2018, London, UK.
S. Salous, X. Raimundo and A. Cheema, "Pathloss model in typical outdoor environments in 50 – 73 GHz Band," in IEEE EUCAP, 2017, France.
X. Raimundo, S. Salous and A. A. Cheema, "Indoor radio propagation measurements in the V-band," in IET radio propagation and technologies for 5G, 2016.
A. A. Cheema and S. Salous, "Dual-band wideband chirp channel sounder receiver for spectrum occupancy measurements," in Radio Science Conference (URSI AT-RASC), 2015 1st URSI Atlantic, 2015, pp. 1-1.
A. A. Cheema and S. Salous, "High-resolution temporal occupancy measurements to characterize idle time window in ISM band," in General Assembly and Scientific Symposium (URSI GASS), 2014 XXXIth URSI, 2014, pp. 1-4.
S. Salous, A. Cheema and X. Raimundo, " Radio channel propagation measurements using a multiband agile chirp sounder," in General Assembly and Scientific Symposium (URSI GASS), 2014 XXXIth URSI, 2014, pp. 1-4.
Others:
T. Q. Duong and A. A. Cheema, "Quantum Machine Learning Applications for 6G: A Channel Estimation Scenario," in IET 12th Colloquium on Antennas and Wireless Electromagnetics, Belfast, UK, 2024.
A. A. Cheema, "Application of Machine Learning for 6G," invited talk at UK-Brazil via ISPF networking activities, 2024.
A. A. Cheema, "Wireless spectrum utilization, a measurements based reality," invited talk at the De Montfort University, UK, 2021.
A. A. Cheema, "Air to ground radio propagation channel for future networks," invited talk at the University of West Scotland, UK, 2018.
A. A. Cheema, "Drone-based hotspot: an internet-on-the-go service for disaster management," invited talk at the University of York, UK, 2018.
A. Cheema and S. Salous, "Cooperative spectrum occupancy measurements and analysis in 2.4 GHz ISM band," in URSI GASS 2017, Canada.
X. Raimundo, A. Cheema and S. Salous, "Simultaneous outdoor channel sounding in the V and K bands," in URSI GASS 2017, Canada.
A. A. Cheema, "Multi-band channel sounder for radio propagation study," in Durham University research day, UK, 2016.
A. A. Cheema and S. Salous, "Long-term measurements over fixed links in the mmWave band," in 2nd meeting of COST IRACON, UK, 2016.
A. A. Cheema, "Radio propagation studies and spectrum sensing," in IET Colloquium on Antennas, Wireless and Electromagnetics, London, UK, 2014.
S. Salous, A. Cheema and X. Raimundo, "Radio channel propagation measurements and spectrum sensing using an agile chirp sounder," in 9th MCM COST IC1004, Italy, 2014.
S. Salous, X. Raimundo and A. Cheema, "Wideband measurements in the 60 GHz band," in 10th MCM COST IC1004, Denmark, 2014.
S. Salous, X. Raimundo and A. Cheema, "Small cell wideband measurements in the 60 GHz band," in 11th MCM COST IC1004, Poland, 2014.
S. Salous, A. Cheema, Y. Nechayaev and C. Constantinou, "On-body network measurements in the 60 GHz band using a VNA and a custom designed channel sounder," in 8th MCM COST IC1004, Belgium, 2013.
A. A. Cheema and S. Salous, "Durham sensing engine for Cognitive Radio," in URSI Festival of Radio Science, UK, 2013.
A. A. Cheema and S. Salous, "Cooperative spectrum sensing in Cognitive Radio," in Durham University research day, UK, 2012.