People – Learning, Communications, and Wireless Networks Lab (CWNlab)

CWNLab Team

Dr. Nazanin Rahnavard

Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department

Dr. Nazanin Rahnavard is the director of the Learning, Communications, and Wireless Networks (LCWN) Lab. She received her BS and MS from Sharif University of Technology in 1998 and 2001, respectively, and her Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2007.

Dr. Rahnavard has received NSF CAREER Award in 2011. She is also the recipient of UCF Faculty Excellence in Mentoring Postdoctoral Scholars (2023), UCF Faculty Excellence in Mentoring Doctoral Students (2022), College of Engineering and Computer Science (CECS) Excellence in Research Award (2020), UCF Women’s History Month Honoree (2020), and Outstanding Research Award from the Center of Signal and Image Processing (CSIP) at Georgia Tech (2007). Her bio is listed in the 2010 edition of Who’s Who in America. She serves on the editorial board of the Elsevier Journal on Computer Networks (COMNET) and on the Technical Program Committee of several prestigious international conferences.

Dr. Rahnavard has interest and expertise in variety of research topics in learning, communications and networking areas. She is particularly interested in compressive sensing, cognitive radio networks, machine learning, and deep learning.

Dr. Rahnavard is also a joint faculty in the Computer Science department and an Associate Faculty of Center for Research in Computer Vision (CRCV). She is an Executive Committee member of UCF Artificial Intelligence Initiative (Aii).

Postdocs

Current Students

Nazmul Karim

PhD Student

Nazmul received his BS degree from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. He joined CWNLab in Aug 2018 and his research interests are Machine learning and Reinforcement Learning.

Email: nazmul.karim18@knights.ucf.edu

Katarina Vuckovic

PhD Student

Katarina received her B.S. in Electrical Engineering, B.S. in Aerospace Engineering and M.S. in Electrical Engineering at Florida Institute of Technology. She joined CWNlab as a PhD student in Spring 2020. Her main research interests are deep learning/machine learning applications in next generation wireless communication systems.

Carrie Bass

PhD Student

Email:carrie.bass@Knights.ucf.edu

Saba M. Hosseini

PhD Student

Saba M. Hosseini received her B.Sc. degree from Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran and her M.Sc. degree from Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran, both in Electrical Engineering. She is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Central Florida in the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. She joined LCWNLab in August 2022. Her research interests include machine learning and its applications in Wireless Communications Systems.

Email: saba.mhosseini@Knights.ucf.edu

Amirhossein Safari

Ph.D. Student

Amirhossein Safari received his B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering at the Petroleum University of Technologies. He was awarded his M.Sc. degree in Biomedical Engineering at K. N. Toosi University of Technology and his M.Sc. degree in Informatics at Northern Arizona University. He is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Central Florida in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department. He joined LCWNLab in October 2022. His research interests include machine learning and Reinforcement Learning in Medical and Wireless Communications Systems applications.

Email: Safari.Amirhossein@Knights.ucf.edu

Alumni and Past Visitors

Dr. Farzam Hejazi

Farzam Hejazikookamari received his B.S, M.S and PhD degrees from Sharif University of Technology in 2011, 2013 and 2018, respectively. He was a Postdoc Scholar at LCWN lab 2019-2022. Dr. Hejazi joined Qualcomm Inc in 2022.

Dr. Ashkan Esmaeili

Ashkan Esmaeili received his B.Sc. from Sharif University of Technology, M.S. from Stanford, and PhD. from Sharif University of Technology all in Electrical Engineering. He ranked 1st in Iran’s Math Physics nationwide university entrance exam in 2010. Ashkan was a Postdoctoral Scholar at LCWN Lab 2019-2022. He joined Walmart as a Data Scientist in 2022.

Dr. Marzieh Edraki joined UCF as a PhD Student in 2014 and received her PhD degree in 2021. Her dissertation title is “Implication of Manifold Assumption in Deep Learning Models for Computer Vision Applications”. During her phd, she has published in prestigious conferences such as CVPR, AAAI, and NurIPS. She joined Sony Inc. after her graduation.

Email: M.Edraki@Knights.ucf.edu

Dr. Mohsen Joneidi received his BS and MS degrees from Ferdosi Mashhad University and Sharif University of Technology, respectively. He joined CWNLab in Aug 2014 and graduated in July 2021. His dissertation title is Representative-based Big Data Processing in Communications and Machine Learning. He joined Lunewave Inc. as a Signal Processing Engineer after his graduation.

Email: joneidi@knights.ucf.edu

Mohsen’s Publications

Dr. Alireza Zaeemzadeh joined CWNlab in 2014 after receiving his BS from the University of Tehran and graduated with a PhD degree in Spring 2021. His dissertation title is “Robust and Scalable Data Representation and Analysis Leveraging Isometric Transformations and Sparsity”.

During his PhD, Alireza received several prestigious awards such as UCF Multidisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship, UCF Graduate Dean’s fellowship, and UCF Alireza Seyedi Doctoral Research Innovation Endowed Scholarship. Alireza’s Publications

Dr Zaeemzadeh is currently a Research Associate at the Center for Sleep and Consciousness at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Linkedin: /in/zaeemzadeh/
GitHub: https://github.com/zaeemzadeh
Webpage: https://zaeemzadeh.com/

Dr. Elie Atallah joined CWNlab in 2014 and graduated with a PhD degree in Summer 2019. His dissertation title is Stragglers-Robust First-Order Distributed Optimization Algorithms over Networks utilizing Gradient Coding. Dr. Atallah is now an Assistant Professor at University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

Dr. Behzad Shahrasbi joined LCWNlab in Fall 2008 and graduated with a PhD degree in Dec. 2015. He started his career as a data scientist at Walmart Global Tech Inc. in California. He is currently Applied Science Manager at Amazon Inc.

Dr. Sheng Wang joined CWNlab in Fall 2009 and graduated with a PhD degree in Oct. 2017. He has joined Visa Inc. in Texas after his graduation.

Dr. Ali Talari joined CWNlab in January 2008 and graduated with a PhD degree in Dec. 2012. He joined CISCO Systems in California after his graduation and is currently working at Facebook.

Dr. Mahdi Boloursaz Mashhadi received a dual major B.S. degree in Electrical and Industrial engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 2011. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Sharif University in 2013 and 2018, respectively. He visited CWNLab as a Research Associate in 2017. He is now a PostDoc Research Associate at Imperial College, London.

Dr. S. Iman Taheri

Dr. S. Iman Taheri graduated with a Ph. D in Electrical Engineering/Power Systems at the University of São Paulo – Brazil in May 2021. During his Ph. D program, he could publish 10 papers in top-tier journals and conferences while his CGPA was the highest ranked, 100 out of 100. He received his master’s degree in Electrical Engineering/Power Electronics and Electrical Machinery at the Shiraz University of Technology, Shiraz-Iran. Iman was a postdoctoral Scholar at LCWNLAB in 2022.

Email: s.iman.taheri@knights.ucf.edu
LinkedIn: /in/seyed-iman-taheri-032526189/

Erica Lindbeck joined LCWN lab as an undergraduate researcher in Fall 2020 supported by NSF REU. She is now a PhD student at the University of Florida.

Khushboo Agarwal joined CWNLAB during her masters degree. She graduated in Spring 2018 and is employed by Amazon Inc.

Aram AlMuhana joined CWNLab in summer 2011 to recieve his M.Sc. degree in Jan. 2013. Aram has joined Apple Inc.

Ashish Wani joined CWNLab in Fall 2009 to recieved his M.Sc. degree in Nov. 2011.

Betelhem Matieos graduated with an MS degree in summer 2011. Betelhem received her B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Arba Minch University, Ethiopia and joined CWNLab in Aug 2008. Betelhem recieved “2010 Microsoft Research Graduate Women’s Scholarship”.

Ukash Nakarami graduated with an MS degree from LCWNLAB in Fall 2013. Ukash is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Computer Engineering at the University of Arkansas (UofA).

David Ferlemann joined CWNlab in 2010, when he was an undergraduate student in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at OSU. He conducted several research projects related to wireless sensor networks and robotics. He is now a PhD student at University of Tulsa.

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Homero Daniel Rodriguez

Undergraduate Research Assistant

Email: homerodaniel@Knights.ucf.edu

LinkedIn: /in/homero-daniel-rodriguéz-36b89a89/

Jason Pitts graduated with an MS degree in May 2009. Thesis: Efficient broadcast in mobile ad-hoc networks utilizing rateless coding, May 2009.

Samira Masoudi, Phd Student in the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Wyoming, Visiting Scholar at CWNlab in Summer 2017.

Hossein Khaki, Phd Student in the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Koc University, Istanbul, Turkey, Visiting Scholar at CWNlab, Summer 2017.

Jonghyun Baik, Phd Student in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Korea University, Visited CWNlab in Spring 2014.

Youngkil Suh, Phd Student in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Korea University, Visited CWNlab in Spring 2014.

Ngoc-Hien Lam, Undergraduate Intern from University of Limoges, France, Summer 2009. Research topic: Wireless Mobile and sensor networks.