The IEEE 'Wireless Communications and Networking Conference' took place in Glasgow 26th to 29th March at the famous Scottish Event Campus (SEC) and was a resounding success - which was excellent news for academics from the University of Glasgow and the James Watt School of Engineering's Communications, Sensing and Imaging Group, whose members helped organise and host the event.

A packed series of sessions included industry speakers from Amazon, Ericsson, Nokia, China Mobile, Huawei, academics from the University of Leeds, Northwestern University, University of West of Scotland, and the Weizmann Institute of Science. The Keynote was delivered by Dr Robert (Bob) Stewart of the University of Strathclyde - also a member of the Board of the Scotland 5G Centre, with whom JWSE partners - on "the spectrum, and how the broadcast use case is helping drive 5G private network growth - unencumbered!"

Professor Muhammad Imran, Dr Qammer Abbasi and colleagues at the 2023 IEEE WCNC

A well attended and exciting workshop and panel discussion on 'Women in Smart Communications: Breaking the Barrier through Social Innovation' was delivered by female speakers from academia and industry with expertise in the broad area of smart wireless communications networks. Featured speakers included Dr Carol Marsh OBE from Celestia, UK and Dr Lina Bariah from Technology Innovation Institute (TII), UAE. This was organised by Glasgow College UESTC Lecturer, CSI Group researcher, and IEEE "Women in Engineering UK&I Ambassador" Dr Lina Mohjazi.

Group of academics on stage at 2023 IEEE WCNC Conference

A workshop on Optical Wireless Communications (OWC) was organised and chaired by Dr Hanaa Abumarshoud, another Lecturer within Glasgow College UESTC. The workshop brought together researchers and developers from academia and industry to share their latest work on OWC systems and networks. The programme included two keynote speeches by two pioneers in the field, Professor Harald Haas (University of Strathclyde) and Professor Mohamed-Slim Alouini (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology).

Reader Dr Qammer H. Abbasi chaired two sessions - one on 'Communications, Sensing and Localization' and another on 'RIS and Comms' - as well as presenting some of his latest research into Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces, alongside  colleagues.

Last but not least, another extra special moment at the event saw Dean of Engineering Education and Head of the ASC Division Prof. Muhammad Imran become Fellow of the IEEE Communications Society. Pictured below, he receives his award on stage from Professor Halim Yanikomeroglu (Carleton University).

Professor Muhammad becomes IEEE Fellow

After the event, a reception was held for all at Glasgow's beautiful marble-draped City Chambers.

The full programme of events and details of the conference are available on the public website here.


First published: 5 May 2023