Keynote Speakers

Mohamed-Slim Alouini

International Member of United States National Academy of Engineering
IEEE Fellow, OPTICA Fellow, SPIE Fellow

Bio: Throughout his 30-year academic career, Professor Mohamed-Slim Alouini, an IEEE, OPTICA, and SPIE Fellow and an International Member of the United States National Academy of Engineering, has developed analytical and simulation tools for evaluating the performance of radio-frequency and optical wireless communication systems. He has also designed and optimized innovative technologies for emerging wireless networks.

Professor Alouini, a co-founder of KAUST's ECE program, inspires future engineers through his pioneering work in wireless communications. His integrated space-air-ground networks, spectrum sharing schemes, and optical wireless communication systems research shape connectivity's future and embody KAUST's scientific excellence and global impact.

Professor Alouini has published numerous conference and journal papers and co-authored the textbook Digital Communication over Fading Channels, published by Wiley Interscience. A former editor of IEEE Transactions on Communications and IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communication, he also served as an editor for IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing and the Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing journal.

He was also a series editor for the IEEE Communication Magazine's Optical Communication and Networks Special Series and the founding field chief editor for the Frontiers in Communications and Networks journal. He is now the Founding Editor-in-Chief for the Nature Partnership Journal (npj) on Wireless Technologies (since 2025) and an editor for the IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronics Systems (since 2022).

Professor Alouini has been an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Communication Society (2016-2017), the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society (2018-2022), the IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society (2023-2024), the IEEE Photonics Society (2025), and the IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology (2026-Present).

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Yonina C. Eldar

Member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, IEEE Fellow

Bio: Yonina C. Eldar is the Aoun Chair Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering with Northeastern University and the Dorothy and Patrick Gorman Professorial Chair of Mathematics and Computer Science with the Weizmann Institute, where she founded and heads the Signal Acquisition Modeling Processing and Learning Lab (SAMPL) and the Center for Biomedical Engineering.

She is also a Visiting Professor at MIT, a Visiting Scientist at the Broad Institute, a Visiting Research Collaborator at Princeton, an Adjunct Professor at Northeastern University and Duke University, an Advisory Professor of Fudan University, a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Tsinghua University, a Visiting Research Collaborator at The University of Hong Kong, and was a Visiting Professor at Stanford.

She is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities (elected 2017) and of the Academia Europaea (elected 2023), an IEEE Fellow, a EURASIP Fellow, a Fellow of the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association, and a Fellow of the 8400 Health Network.

She has received many awards for excellence in research and teaching, including the Israel Prize (2025), the Landau Prize (2024), the IEEE Signal Processing Society Technical Achievement Award (2013), the IEEE/AESS Fred Nathanson Memorial Radar Award (2014), and the IEEE Kiyo Tomiyasu Award (2016).

She received the Michael Bruno Memorial Award from the Rothschild Foundation, the Weizmann Prize for Exact Sciences, the Wolf Foundation Krill Prize for Excellence in Scientific Research, the Henry Taub Prize for Excellence in Research (twice), the Hershel Rich Innovation Award (three times), and the Award for Women with Distinguished Contributions.

She was selected as one of the 50 most influential women in Israel, and was a member of the Israel Committee for Higher Education. She is the Editor in Chief of Foundations and Trends in Signal Processing, a member of several IEEE Technical Committees and Award Committees, and heads the Committee for Promoting Gender Fairness in Higher Education Institutions in Israel.

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Tony Q.S. Quek

IEEE Fellow, WWRF Fellow

Bio: Tony Q.S. Quek received the B.E. and M.E. degrees in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Tokyo Institute of Technology, respectively. At Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he earned the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Currently he is the Associate Provost (AI & Digital Innovation) and Cheng Tsang Man Chair Professor with Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). He also serves as the Director of the Future Communications R&D Programme, and the ST Engineering Distinguished Professor. He is a co-founder of Silence Laboratories and NeuroRAN. His current research topics include wireless communications and networking, network intelligence, non-terrestrial networks, open radio access network, AI-RAN, and 6G.

Dr. Quek was honored with the 2008 Philip Yeo Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Research, the 2012 IEEE William R. Bennett Prize, the 2015 SUTD Outstanding Education Awards -- Excellence in Research, the 2016 IEEE Signal Processing Society Young Author Best Paper Award, the 2017 CTTC Early Achievement Award, the 2017 IEEE ComSoc AP Outstanding Paper Award, the 2020 IEEE Communications Society Young Author Best Paper Award, the 2020 IEEE Stephen O. Rice Prize, the 2020 Nokia Visiting Professor, the 2022 IEEE Signal Processing Society Best Paper Award, the 2024 IIT Bombay International Award For Excellence in Research in Engineering and Technology, the IEEE Communications Society WTC Recognition Award 2024, and the Public Administration Medal (Bronze). He is an IEEE Fellow, a WWRF Fellow, an AIIA Fellow, a member of NAAI, and a Fellow of the Academy of Engineering Singapore.

Speech Title: Token Communications in AI Edge: A Pathway towards Robust and Scalable AI Services

Abstract: Token Communication is an emerging paradigm, where intelligent agents such as small and large language models and general-purpose robots are connected through fundamental AI processing units known as tokens. These discrete units are semantic information employed by foundation models.

On the other hand, there is a recent trend to explore the concurrent use of converged computer-and-communications infrastructure to run RAN and AI workloads, enhancing platform utilization and creating new monetization opportunities at the edge. This concept is known as AI Edge, which natively implements AI-driven RAN functionalities, enabling site-specific RAN operations and improving KPIs at the edge.

In this talk, we will provide an overview of how token communications intersect with AI Edge and we will also share some of our recent works in this area.

Xianbin Wang

IEEE Fellow, EIC Fellow, CAE Fellow

Bio: Dr. Xianbin Wang is a Distinguished University Professor and a Tier-1 Canada Research Chair in Trusted Communications and Computing at Western University, Canada. His current research interests include 5G/6G technologies, Internet of Things, machine learning, communications security, and intelligent communications. He has over 700 highly cited journals and conference papers, in addition to over 30 granted and pending patents and several standard contributions.

Dr. Wang is a Fellow of IEEE, a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada. He has received many prestigious awards and recognitions, including the IEEE Canada R. A. Fessenden Award, Canada Research Chair, Engineering Research Excellence Award at Western University, Canadian Federal Government Public Service Award, Ontario Early Researcher Award, and 12 Best Paper Awards. He is currently a member of the Senate, Senate Committee on Academic Policy and Senate Committee on University Planning at Western. He has been involved in many flagship conferences, including GLOBECOM, ICC, VTC, PIMRC, WCNC, CCECE, and ICNC, in different roles, such as General Chair, TPC Chair, Symposium Chair, Tutorial Instructor, Track Chair, Session Chair, and Keynote Speaker. He serves/has served as the Editor-in-Chief, Associate EiC, area editor, associate editor and guest editor for over ten journals. He was nominated as an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer multiple times by different IEEE technical societies. He has served on the Fellow Committees of IEEE and IEEE Communications Society. He was the Chair of the IEEE ComSoc Signal Processing and Computing for Communications (SPCC) Technical Committee and the Central Area Chair of IEEE Canada.

Speech Title: Beyond Connectivity: Toward AI- and Trust-Native 6G Networks

Abstract: The unprecedented evolution of wireless technologies, together with their rapid convergence with artificial intelligence (AI) and vertical industry applications, is profoundly reshaping the design and operation of future networks. To effectively support diverse and dynamic applications, future 6G networks must evolve beyond connectivity by intelligently enabling beyond communication services and trusted collaboration among distributed devices.

This presentation begins by examining the fundamental challenges in 6G and introducing a novel AI- and trust-native architectural paradigm. Our new wireless design strategies and the ongoing research activities for intelligent concurrent provisioning of beyond communication services, e.g. localization, sensing and synchronization will be then presented. Related to this framework, a new multi-dimensional multiple access (MDMA) mechanism is created as an inclusive enabling platform that intelligently coordinates multi-dimensional radio resources for tailored heterogeneous service provisioning.

To achieve the operation goals of complex networked systems, this talk will further explore the critical aspects of trusted machine collaboration in 6G-enabled networked systems. Specifically, key enabling technologies and mathematical frameworks for task-specific trust evaluation, trusted collaborator selection, and effective task completion will be presented. Furthermore, generative AI-driven autonomous trust orchestration, based on a new concept of semantic chain-of-trust, agentic AI and hypergraph models will be discussed as tools to establish, maintain, and adapt spatiotemporal trust relationships among devices for collaborative task completion.

(Kit) Kai-Kit Wong

IEEE Fellow, CIC Fellow, IET Fellow

Bio: (Kit) Kai-Kit Wong was born in Hong Kong and received the BEng, the MPhil, and the PhD degrees, all in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, in 1996, 1998, and 2001, respectively. He is Chair Professor of Wireless Communications at the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University College London after taking appointments at University of Hong Kong and University of Hull and visiting positions at Lucent Technologies, Bell Labs and Stanford University. His current research centers around 6G and beyond mobile communications. He is one of the early researchers who proposed multiuser MIMO. His first paper on multiuser MIMO was published in WCNC 2000 which appeared to be the first ever research paper on this topic. He is Fellow of CIC, IEEE and IET. He served as the Editor-in-Chief for IEEE Wireless Communications Letters between 2020 and 2023.

Speech Title: Fluid Antenna System Redefining Wireless Communications

Abstract: As the late Bruce Lee famously said, ‘Be water, my friend,’ emphasizing the power of adaptability in combat. On a broader scale, this philosophy resonates deeply with the ongoing advancements in reconfigurable antennas, which offer unparalleled flexibility to enhance wireless communications.

In recent years, a groundbreaking concept known as the Fluid Antenna System (FAS) has emerged, pushing the boundaries of reconfigurable antenna technology for wireless communications. FAS introduces unprecedented adaptability in both shape and position, not only adding a new degree of freedom to the physical layer, which is particularly important for integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) and security scenarios, but also unlocking high-resolution signal access in the spatial domain—a capability that revolutionizes multiple access techniques.

This talk begins with a formal definition of FAS and explores how it synergizes seamlessly with existing mobile communication technologies. We will then delve into its transformative potential to address critical challenges in future-generation wireless systems. Finally, the talk concludes with insights into the implementation of FAS, complemented by experimental results showcasing its promising performance.