Walid Saad

Walid Saad is a professor at Virginia Tech's Electrical and Computer Engineering Department where he leads the Network sciEnce, Wireless, and Security (NEWS) group. He is also the Next-G wireless lead at the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus. Saad’s research interests include wireless networks (5G/6G/beyond), machine learning, game theory, security, UAVs, semantic communications, cyber-physical systems, edge computing, and network science. Saad is a Fellow of the IEEE. He is also the recipient of the NSF CAREER award in 2013 and the Young Investigator Award from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) in 2015. He was the (co-)author of eleven conference best paper awards at IEEE WiOpt in 2009, ICIMP in 2010, IEEE WCNC in 2012, IEEE PIMRC in 2015, IEEE SmartGridComm in 2015, EuCNC in 2017, IEEE GLOBECOM (2018 and 2020), IFIP NTMS in 2019, IEEE ICC (2020 and 2022). His research was recognized with the prestigious IEEE Fred W. Ellersick Prize from the IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc) in 2015 and 2022. Saad is also a co-author of the papers that received the 2019 and 2021 IEEE Communications Society Young Author Best Paper award. Other recognitions include the 2017 IEEE ComSoc Best Young Professional in Academia Award, the 2018 IEEE ComSoc Radio Communications Committee Early Achievement Award, and the 2019 IEEE ComSoc Communication Theory Technical Committee Early Achievement Award.