Biography

Ahmed Arafa received the B.Sc. degree, with highest honors, in electrical engineering from Alexandria University, Egypt, in 2010, the M.Sc. degree in wireless technologies from the Wireless Intelligent Networks Center (WINC), Nile University, Egypt, in 2012, and the second M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland at College Park, MD, USA, in 2016 and 2017, respectively. He has been with the Electrical Engineering Department at Princeton University as a Postdoctoral Research Associate during 2017–2019. Currently, he is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Dr. Arafa's research interests are in communication theory, information theory, machine learning, and signal processing, with recent focus on federated and distributed learning, semantic communications, and information-theoretic security and privacy. He was the recipient of the Distinguished Dissertation award from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Maryland, in 2017, for his Ph.D. thesis work on optimal energy management policies in energy harvesting communication networks with system costs. In 2022, he received the NSF CAREER Award. He currently serves as an Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking.

Awards and Honors

• NSF CAREER Award, 2022.

• ECE Distinguished Dissertation fellowship, University of Maryland, Spring 2017.

• ECE Distinguished Teaching Assistant, University of Maryland, Spring 2017.

• TA Training and Development fellowship, University of Maryland, Fall 2016.

• Future Faculty Program fellowship, University of Maryland, Spring 2016.

• Distinction with Honor for the B.Sc. degree, ranked in top 4%, Alexandria University, 2010.

Service

Editorial Board

• Editor, IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking (Green IoT & Energy Harvesting)

• Associate Editor, Springer Wireless Personal Communications

• Associate Editor, Frontiers in Communications and Networks (Data Science for Communications)

• Review Editor, Frontiers in Communications and Networks (Communications Theory)

Leadership & Organizing

• Publication Chair: WiOpt (2025)

• TPC Co-Chair: 6th Age of Information Workshop (in conjunction with INFOCOM) (2023)

• Co-Organizer / Co-Chair:

  • Invited/Special Sessions: Asilomar (2023, 2024), SPAWC (2023), CISS (2020, 2022)

  • Workshops: IEEE ICC (2024), IEEE SECON (2023), IEEE ICASSP (2023)

Technical Program Committee (TPC) Member

• 2026: IEEE Globecom (GCSN), INFOCOM (AoIS Workshop), WiOpt, IEEE ICC (SPC, SAC-ISAC, SAC-NGMA), IEEE WCNC (Tracks 1 & 2)

• 2025: IEEE Globecom (CT), INFOCOM (AoIS Workshop), IEEE ICC (SPC)

• 2023–2024: IEEE Globecom, IEEE ICC, IEEE WCNC, INFOCOM AoI Workshop, SECON

• 2018–2022: TPC member for various flagships including IEEE ICC, Globecom, WCNC, INFOCOM AoI Workshop, VTC, and CISS.

Conference Session Chair

• Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems, and Computers: Federated Learning (2024), Semantics and Age of Information (2024), Age of Information and Beyond (2023)

• IEEE Global Communications Conference (Globecom): Low Latency Communications (2019)

• Allerton Conference on Communication, Control, and Computing: Algorithms and Data Over Networks (2019), Sensor Networks and Security (2018)

• Conference on Information Sciences and Systems (CISS): Control and Scheduling (2018)

• IEEE INFOCOM Workshops: AoI in Communications and Networking (2021)

Technical Reviewer

• IEEE Journals: JSAC, JSAIT, T-IT, TCOM, TWC, TSP, TIFS, TGCN, TVT, TMC, IoT-J, Wireless Comm. Letters, Comm. Letters, Networking Letters, Wireless Comm. Magazine, Comm. Magazine

• ACM Journals: Transactions on Sensor Networks (TOSN)

• Major Conferences: ISIT, INFOCOM, Globecom, ICC, WCNC, VTC, CNS