We are pleased to share that Prof. Qurrat-Ul-Ain Nadeem, Co-PI at the NYUAD Wireless Research Center, participated as an invited panelist at the 6G MENA Summit, organized by the UAE’s Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA).
Prof. Mahmoud Rasras, co-PI, and Amir Masood Khalid, participated in the 6G Tech & Innovation Day, hosted by du on September 22, 2026. Prof. Rasras offered an overview of the Centre’s wide-ranging research activities, highlighting key areas of ongoing work and some of the team’s most recent achievements. Amir Masood Khalid also gave attendees a closer look at the Centre’s LiFi prototype—the first fully developed LiFi system built in the UAE—and demonstrated how it uses light to deliver fast and highly secure communications. By using light to transmit data, the prototype offers fast, highly secure communication and highlights the UAE’s growing role in shaping future connectivity technologies. The event brought
NYUAD Wireless Center has contributed to an important milestone in the UAE’s progress toward future 6G networks through its participation in a joint technical study on the Upper 6 GHz band.
The IEEE Information Theory Society is pleased to announce that Elza Erkip has been selected as the recipient of the 2026 Aaron D. Wyner Distinguished Service Award. The award was presented during the 2026 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT) Awards Ceremony.
The Aaron D. Wyner Distinguished Service Award recognizes outstanding leadership and exceptional, long-standing service to the Information Theory community.
Professor Elza Erkip, co-PI of the NYUAD Wireless Center, delivered a keynote at the IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC) 2026 in Glasgow, Scotland. Her presentation, Learning Task-Oriented Compression for Wireless Networking, explored emerging learning-based approaches for efficient wireless signal compression to support next-generation communication networks. As one of the IEEE Communications Society’s flagship conferences, ICC brings together approximately 3,000 researchers and industry leaders from around the world each year.
The NYUAD Wireless Center proudly announces that its Director, Prof. Murat Uysal, has been selected as an IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc) Distinguished Lecturer. Through this prestigious appointment, Prof. Uysal will engage with ComSoc chapters worldwide over the next two years, sharing insights into cutting-edge research and emerging trends in next-generation wireless communications, while helping shape the future of global connectivity.
The NYUAD Wireless Center congratulates Prof. Dr. Qurrat-Ul-Ain Nadeem, co-PI of the Center, on receiving the 2025 IEEE Communications Society Distinguished Service/Research in Developing Areas Award for the EMEA region. This prestigious recognition celebrates her exceptional research achievements, leadership, and contributions to advancing next-generation wireless communications and supporting the growth of the global IEEE community across emerging and developing regions.
The NYUAD Wireless Center has joined the TDRA-led 6G National Initiative, strengthening its role within the UAE’s national wireless research and development ecosystem. Represented by Prof. Marwa Chafii and Prof. Murat Uysal, the Center is contributing to key working groups shaping the country’s long-term 6G strategy, while advancing research, innovation, and strategic partnerships in next-generation wireless technologies.
The NYUAD Wireless Center and e& UAE have jointly unveiled a forward-looking vision for 6G through the white paper Building the Fabric of 6G: Spectrum Frontiers and Enabling Technologies. Led by Prof. Murat Uysal, the collaboration explores the evolution of spectrum usage and key enabling technologies for future networks, while reinforcing the importance of the omni-band communication paradigm at the heart of the Center’s research and innovation efforts.
The NYUAD Wireless Center, in collaboration with e& UAE, has achieved a historic milestone by demonstrating the Middle East’s first 6G terahertz (THz) trial. Led by Prof. Murat Uysal, the breakthrough showcased ultra-high-speed wireless communications reaching up to 145 Gbps, highlighting the transformative potential of THz technology to power next-generation 6G applications such as extended reality, holographic communications, and digital twin ecosystems.
We are pleased to share that Prof. Qurrat-Ul-Ain Nadeem, Co-PI at the NYUAD Wireless Research Center, participated as an invited panelist at the 6G MENA Summit, organized by the UAE’s Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA).
As part of the panel “Future Connectivity Without Boundaries: Integrating Space and Terrestrial Networks in the 6G Era,” Prof. Nadeem joined industry leaders to discuss the technical challenges and opportunities in achieving seamless integration of terrestrial and satellite networks.
Drawing on the Center’s ongoing research, she shared insights into 3GPP standardization, frequency and network selection, mobility management, and the evolution from 5G NR-NTN toward natively integrated 6G networks.
The discussion highlighted the importance of collaboration between academia, industry, and policymakers in shaping the future of integrated terrestrial and non-terrestrial connectivity.
Prof. Mahmoud Rasras, co-PI, and Amir Masood Khalid, participated in the 6G Tech & Innovation Day, hosted by du on September 22, 2026. Prof. Rasras offered an overview of the Centre’s wide-ranging research activities, highlighting key areas of ongoing work and some of the team’s most recent achievements. Amir Masood Khalid also gave attendees a closer look at the Centre’s LiFi prototype—the first fully developed LiFi system built in the UAE—and demonstrated how it uses light to deliver fast and highly secure communications. By using light to transmit data, the prototype offers fast, highly secure communication and highlights the UAE’s growing role in shaping future connectivity technologies. The event brought together experts from across government, academia, industry, and the telecommunications sector to exchange ideas about the development of 6G and beyond.
NYUAD Wireless Center has contributed to an important milestone in the UAE’s progress toward future 6G networks through its participation in a joint technical study on the Upper 6 GHz band.
As the global wireless community advances toward 6G, the UAE is taking concrete steps to make new spectrum available and accelerate the transition of emerging wireless technologies from research and validation toward commercial deployment. The Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) was among the first regulators globally to identify the Upper 6 GHz band (6425–7125 MHz) for IMT-2030, helping establish an important spectrum foundation for future mobile networks.
Building on this regulatory initiative, e& UAE announced the rollout of the world’s first commercial 256TRX Giga-MIMO network operating in the Upper 6 GHz band. This milestone is supported by a joint white paper developed by TDRA, e& UAE, Khalifa University, and NYUAD, providing the engineering foundation behind the deployment. Prof. Murat Uysal, Founding Director of NYUAD Wireless Center, together with Dr. Eduard Bahingayi, led the Center’s contributions in channel modeling and related technical analysis for the study. Beyond its near-term role in 5G-Advanced, the Upper 6 GHz band is expected to become an important capacity layer for 6G, offering wide contiguous bandwidth together with propagation characteristics suitable for wide-area cellular deployment.
The IEEE Information Theory Society is pleased to announce that Elza Erkip has been selected as the recipient of the 2026 Aaron D. Wyner Distinguished Service Award. The announcement was made during the ISIT 2026 Award Ceremony.
The Aaron D. Wyner Distinguished Service Award has been instituted to honor an individual who has shown outstanding leadership in, and provided long-standing, exceptional service to, the Information Theory community.
Elza Erkip is an Institute Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at New York University Tandon School of Engineering. She received the B.S. degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. Her research interests are in information theory, communication theory, and wireless communications.
Dr. Erkip is a member of the Science Academy of Turkey and is a Fellow of the IEEE. She received the NSF CAREER award in 2001, the IEEE Communications Society WICE Outstanding Achievement Award in 2016, the IEEE Communications Society Communication Theory Technical Committee (CTTC) Technical Achievement Award in 2018, and the IEEE Communications Society Edwin Howard Armstrong Achievement Award in 2021. She was the Padovani Lecturer of the IEEE Information Theory Society in 2022. Her paper awards include the IEEE Communications Society Stephen O. Rice Paper Prize in 2004, the IEEE Communications Society Award for Advances in Communication in 2013 and the IEEE Communications Society Best Tutorial Paper Award in 2019. She was a member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE Information Theory Society 2012-2020, where she was the President in 2018. She was a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Information Theory Society from 2013 to 2014. She is currently the Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Information Theory and the Chair of IEEE Communications Society Communication Theory Technical Committee.
Dr. Erkip has had many past editorial and conference organization responsibilities. Some recent ones include IEEE Communication Theory Workshop Technical Chair in 2024; IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Information Theory Guest Editor in 2021, 2022 (lead) and 2023; IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications Guest Editor in 2023; IEEE International Conference on Communications, Communications Theory Symposium Technical Co-Chair in 2021; IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference Technical Co-Chair in 2017; and IEEE International Symposium of Information Theory General Co-Chair in 2013.
Professor Elza Erkip, co-PI of the NYUAD Wireless Center, delivered a keynote at the IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC) held in Glasgow, Scotland, on May 26, 2026. Her keynote, “Learning Task-Oriented Compression for Wireless Networking,” examined emerging approaches for compressing wireless signals to support fast, efficient, and reliable communication in next-generation wireless networks. ICC is one of the two flagship conferences of the IEEE Communications Society, together with GLOBECOM. Spanning five days, this highly anticipated annual event attracts around 3,000 attendees from around the world.
The NYUAD Wireless Center is pleased to announce that its Director, Prof. Murat Uysal, has been selected as a Distinguished Lecturer by the IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc). The Distinguished Lecturer Program is a prestigious initiative that connects ComSoc chapters worldwide with leading experts to share cutting-edge research and insights on emerging trends shaping the future of communications.
As part of this appointment, Prof. Uysal will participate in the Distinguished Lecturer tours over the next two years, delivering invited talks to ComSoc chapters across the globe. His lectures will highlight recent advances and future directions in next-generation wireless technologies
Prof. Dr. Qurrat-Ul-Ain Nadeem, co-PI of the NYUAD Wireless Center has received the 2025 IEEE Communications Society Distinguished Service/Research in Developing Areas Award for the Europe, Middle-East, and Africa (EMEA) region. This award recognizes her outstanding research contributions and professional leadership in advancing wireless communications across emerging and developing regions. It highlights her impact on next-generation wireless systems and her active service within the global IEEE community.
Prof. Marwa Chafii, Co-PI of the NYUAD Wireless Center and Prof. Murat Uysal, Director and PI of the Center have been invited to represent the Center in the TDRA-led 6G National Initiative, marking a significant step in its integration into the UAE’s national wireless R&D ecosystem.
Launched by the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA), the initiative brings together key stakeholders from government, industry, and academia to shape the UAE’s long-term 6G strategy. The NYUAD Wireless Center actively participates in both the Research and Development (R&D) Working Group and the Integration and Strategic Partnerships Working Group, with Prof. Marwa Chafii also leading Track 2 – Sensing and Communications within the R&D Working Group.
The Center’s involvement reflects its recognition as a key stakeholder in the national wireless R&D ecosystem, as well as its growing role and unique expertise in experimental wireless system.
Prof. Murat Uysal, Director of the NYUAD Wireless Center, led a collaborative effort with e& UAE to co-author the joint white paper “Building the Fabric of 6G: Spectrum Frontiers and Enabling Technologies.”
The white paper outlines the strategic importance of spectrum evolution—from sub-7 GHz to terahertz (THz) bands—and emphasizes the need for integrated use of spectrum across all domains to realize future 6G networks. It further highlights key enabling technologies, including AI-native networks, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS), and integrated sensing and communication (ISAC).
The report also provides strong validation, from the UAE’s leading telecommunications operator, of the omni-band communication paradigm, which serves as a cornerstone of the NYUAD Wireless Center’s research agenda.
In a landmark achievement for regional and global connectivity, NYUAD Wireless Center and e& UAE and have jointly demonstrated the first 6G THz pilot in the Middle East. The demonstration was made at GITEX Global held in Dubai during October 13-17, 2026.
Prof. Murat Uysal, Director of the NYUAD Wireless Center, led the research team behind this breakthrough for the development of a THz testbed operating at a carrier frequency of 288 GHz. The system utilized 64 QAM modulation, and advanced signal processing techniques to enable data rates of up to 145 Gbps. The demonstration highlights the ultra-high data rate potential of THz bands to enable transformative 6G applications — from holographic telepresence and extended reality (XR) to terabit-class backhaul and digital twins.