Wireless is back: The 6G Revolution Towards Connected Intelligence

Abstract: Wireless is back: The 6G Revolution Towards Connected Intelligence 6G vision is quickly emerging as one of massive and complete connectivity and of true convergence of communications, computing, and AI; enabling unprecedented applications in transportation, medicine, agriculture, and digital access for all. Wireless connectivity is at the heart of this vision: judicious design and utilization of the unique opportunities the wireless medium provides are becoming essential once again, much like ahead of the first mobile revolution, but now fueled by a nexus of advances from across the board, electronics to machine learning. 6G, with its envisioned programmable open network architectures, is expected to be the first generation where fundamental innovations at the wireless edge can truly be integrated into the networked system design, shifting the network intelligence to the edge. In this talk, we will provide an overview of our activities and present our recent results in two directions relevant to this paradigm, inspired by the unique features and challenges of interacting in the wireless medium.

First, we will consider semantic communications, an emerging paradigm that aims for transceiver designs to convey the meaning of information needed at the receiver. Implementing judicious designs that guarantee reliable communication of semantics, this paradigm promises efficient use and reuse of wireless resources and is particularly fitting for 6G where dynamic and programmable transceiver design and AI-guided strategies are expected to be the norm. As an example of this approach, we will present some of our recent results in semantic classification utilizing pre-trained models that have comparable performance in wireless channels to conventional communications while providing orders of magnitude savings in transmissions. Next, we will consider joint communications and edge learning by wireless edge devices. Focusing on over-the-air federated learning (OTA-FL) in realistic wireless environments, we will demonstrate that jointly optimizing communication (power) and learning (computation) resources of the edge devices in concert with programming the wireless environment (using reflecting intelligent surfaces) facilitates distributed learning effectively handling data heterogeneity. We will conclude by discussing open directions wireless in 6G, including wireless semantic networks and learning by the wireless edge.

Bio:  Aylin Yener is the Roy and Lois Chope Chair Professor at The Ohio State University in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, with joint appointments in Computer Science and Engineering and Integrated Systems Engineering. Prior to her present post, she was a Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Dean’s Fellow at Penn State. She held visiting appointments at Stanford University (2008-2009, 2016-2017), Telecom Paris Tech (2016). She received her Ph.D. and MS degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Wireless Information Networks Lab (WINLAB), Rutgers University, and her BS degrees in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and Physics from Bogazici University. Her expertise is in wireless communications, information theory and learning, with a recent focus on various pillars of 6G including new advances in physical layer designs, edge learning/computing, system design for confluence of sensing, communications, computing, and learning, energy conscious networked systems, and security and privacy. She leads the 6g and beyond initiative at Ohio State. Yener received the 2020 IEEE Communication Theory Technical Achievement Award, 2019 IEEE Communications Society Best Tutorial Paper Award, 2018 IEEE Women in Communications Engineering (WICE) Outstanding Achievement Award, 2014 IEEE Marconi Paper Award, and several other research and technical awards. She is a fellow of the IEEE and a member of the National Science Academy of Turkey.

Yener is presently IEEE Board of Directors elect as the incoming director of Division IX (consisting of Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society, Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society, Information Theory Society, Intelligent Transportation Systems Society, Oceanic Engineering Society, Signal Processing Society and Vehicular Technology Society) for 2024-2025. She previously served as president of the IEEE Information Theory Society, as well as in other leadership posts of the society and that of IEEE. She is the Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking and serves as area editor for IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, as senior and guest editor for IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Information Theory and IEEE Journal on Selected Topics in Signal Processing.  A passionate advocate for educational broader impact, she co-founded the IEEE North American School of Information Theory, which has run annually since 2008 and is the newly appointed Education and Workforce Development Director for Spectrum X, the national NSF Center for Spectrum Innovations.

*** The event will take place in a hybrid format. The location for in-person attendance will be room 3427 EECS.   Attendance will also be available via Zoom.

Join Zoom Meeting at https://umich.zoom.us/j/99102451525

Meeting ID: 991 0245 1525

Zoom Passcode information is also available upon request to Sher Nickrand ([email protected])