Dr. Xiang Sun is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of New Mexico. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NIT) in 2018. He has received several honors and awards, including the 2016 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC) Best Paper Award, the 2017 IEEE Communications Letters Exemplary Reviewers Award, the 2018 NJIT Hashimoto Price, the 2018 InterDigital Innovation Award on IoT Semantic Mashup, and 2019 IEICE Communications Society Best Tutorial Paper Award. His research interests include deep reinforcement learning, distributive learning, generative AI, wireless networks, edge computing, and the Internet of Things. He is an associate editor of IEEE Open Journal of the Computer Society and Elsevier Digital Communications and Networks.
Dr. Rana Albelaihi is the Vice Dean of the Onaizah Colleges. She received her B.S. and M.S. in computer science from Tennessee State University, Tennessee, USA, in 2014 and 2016, respectively, and her Ph.D. in computer science from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA, in 2022. Her research interests include the Internet of Things, federated learning, applied machine learning in communication and networking, and data privacy.
Dr. Sihua Shao joins Mines as an Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineering in August 2024. Before that, he was an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at New Mexico Tech. He obtained a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and the Hashimoto Prize for best doctoral dissertation from the New Jersey Institute of Technology in 2018. In 2023, he was honored to receive the NSF CRII Award and the NM EPSCoR Mentor Award and was elevated to IEEE Senior Member. His area of expertise is wireless communication and networking, mainly focusing on reconfigurable intelligent surfaces, integrated sensing and communication, optical wireless communication, backscatter communication, machine learning in communications and networking, and drone-assisted wireless networks. His research, supported by the NSF, NIOSH, and NM EPSCoR, spans various applications, including drone-based environmental monitoring, wireless infrastructure via drones, intelligent mine rescue operations, large-scale indoor robot navigation, microgrid security, warehouse automation, and smart healthcare systems.
