When Mingzhe Chen was hired by the University of Miami in 2022, the hope was he would lead revolutionary research projects that will help usher in the next generation of wireless networks.

Since then, he has launched and grown his research lab, won three critical National Science Foundation (NSF) grants, and authored or co-authored more than 50 research papers. He received two Communication Society journal paper awards from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), including the IEEE Marconi Prize Paper Award in Wireless Communications and the Young Author Best Paper Award, and also won the conference best paper award at the 2023 International Conference on Computer Communications and Networks (ICCCN).

Well-Deserved Recognition

For all that work, Chen was named a John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Chair in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.

Chen, who has a joint appointment as an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and as a core faculty member at the Frost Institute for Data Science and Computing (IDSC), said he was honored to receive the title and its additional funding to support his lab and the students who work there. But more than that, Chen called the appointment a validation that his research is on the right track.

“The most important thing is that both IDSC and the university recognize the need for my work,” he said. “I definitely like it here. UM provides very good support for me.”

Chen became only the third IDSC core faculty member to be named Knight Chairs. Yelena Yesha, the director of IDSC’s Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Unit, was the first and David Chapman, who has a joint appointment in the Department of Computer Science, was the second.

NextG Wireless

Chen’s research has primarily focused on developing 6G wireless networks to replace and augment the current 5G system. To do so, he’s been developing a replica of the way wireless networks work, a simulator known as a “digital twin” that allows Chen and his team to experiment with new approaches in a controlled, virtual setting.

That project received a major boost last year when Chen and his co-principal investigator won a 3-year, $600,000 grant from NSF to build a next-generation (NextG) digital twin enabled wireless network. But with so many factors affecting how a wireless network operates— high numbers of users flooding the system, software malfunctions, hardware problems—creating those digital twins will take years.

The work blends machine learning, communication theory, and distributed optimization to replicate crowded, complicated, ever-changing wireless networks. The work is so ambitious that one of Chen’s students has been focused solely on minimizing the differences between the real-world networks and the digital network twins they’re developing.

Expanding Performance with UAVs

As they build and expand their digital twin, they’ve been able to start experimenting with novel solutions to breakdowns in the network. For example, Chen’s team has been testing whether unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) carrying equipment to extend wireless signals can help cover gaps in a wireless network. In theory, that could help boost people’s ability to connect their devices to the internet during busy sporting events or in the aftermath of natural disasters when wireless infrastructure has been destroyed.

“We don’t know at which locations these UAVs should be deployed, so we can try to put them over the twin network first,” he said. “We use simulations, we use software, to see whether we can get good performance. After that we can deploy them over the actual network.”

Chen is also experimenting with a new concept that could replace the GPS system we use each day on our phones and in our cars. GPS has been instrumental in the day-to-day lives of humans for decades now, but Chen said anybody who’s lost their signal while looking for directions in a crowded area understands it has its limitations.

Removing Barriers to Communication

GPS technology is entirely dependent on a user’s connection to a satellite. Chen said that the signal takes longer to transmit and can be obstructed by mountains, skyscrapers, and a variety of other obstacles. That’s why he’s trying to use wireless, ground-based technology that can more closely track a user’s location. Since the wireless signal is coming from a base station closer to the user, the speed will increase. And since wireless signals can pass through physical barriers like cars and walls, it can be more reliable.

Chen is even experimenting with the idea of using the cameras installed on our phones and vehicles to help pinpoint the users’ exact location.

“This topic is very hot,” he said. “We try to find a way to combine this data together and do a quick and accurate position.”

New Lab Dives In

To tackle all those research projects, Chen opened his own lab called the Wireless, Intelligent Network, and Security (WINs) Lab. That lab has grown to include four graduate research students and Chen said their contributions have been invaluable to his work.

Together, they plan to continue developing their digital twins and exploring two emerging areas: quantum computing and semantic communications. IDSC has been trying to create a consortium to bring one of the first quantum computers to South Florida, which Chen will gladly take advantage of once it arrives.

Until then, he wants to dive into semantic communications, which is a new field that transmits data but also delivers the core idea behind that data. Chen gives the example of a sentence that includes the word “apple.” With semantic communications, the delivery system is capable of using the context around that word to understand it as the technology company, Apple, instead of the fruit.

“We want to care more about whether the receiver can receive the meaning of the data instead of accurately receiving the source data,” he said.