News & Announcements
Students accepted into our M.S. program in Communications or Computer areas, who are highly motivated to do a competitive, highly cited thesis in a theoretical or applied area of networking are welcome to contact Prof. Uysal.
NEW Postdoctoral Associate and PhD Openings: Please see http://cng.eee.metu.edu.tr/2020/05/06/postdoctoral-and-phd-candidate-openings/
Prof. Uysal's research is currently funded by TUBITAK under the 2247-B Pioneer Researcher Support program. Several members of the research group are supported by the "5G and Beyond Joint Graduate Support Programme" coordinated by the Information and Communication Technologies Authority. We currently have research openings, to which highly motivated researchers are encouraged to send a resume.
The current focus of our research is Semantic-Aware communication, in particular Age of Information as a tool for the optimization of IoT and other networks. A short video description (in Turkish) is here: https://youtu.be/lLoDOk-Zgko
Current Synergistic Activities: Prof. Uysal is currently serving as
- Associate editor, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking.
- Associate editor, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory (starting March 2022).
- Co-chair, IEEE ICC 2022 Communication Theory Symposium.
- TPC Co-Chair, SIU 2022.
- Member, 6G Platform.
- Assistant Director, YTM-MATPUM
- Member of Executive Board, ODTU Parlar Foundation
- Member of Advisory Board, IEEE ComSoc Turkey Branch.
- Member, IEEE Turkey Awards Committee
Education
Ph. D: Stanford University; S.M.: Massachusetts Institute of Technology; B.Sc, METU
Research Interests
- Age of Information and Semantic Communications for Networked Systems
- Random access for IoT
- Ultra Low Latency, real-time and massive machine-type communication
- Energy harvesting communication networks
- Link and transport layer scheduling for data freshness
Publications
Recent papers:
- Analysis of Threshold ALOHA in a Packet Erasure Channel”, O. T. Yavascan and E. Uysal, 30th Signal Processing and Communications Applications Conference (SIU), May 2022.
- Query Age of Information: Optimizing AoI at the Right Time, M. E. Ildiz, O. T. Yavascan, E. Uysal, O. T. Kartal, to appear in IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory, 2022
- An Inequality for Query Age of Information and Age of Information, M. E. Ildiz, S. Avsar, E. Uysal, to appear in Signal Processing and Communications Applications Conference (SIU), 2022
- Implementation and Evaluation of Age-Aware Downlink Scheduling Policies in Push-Based and Pull-Based Communication", K. Oğuz, E. T. Ceran Arslan, E. Uysal and T. Girici, Special Issue Age of Information: Concept, Metric and Tool for Network Control, Entropy, May 2022.
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Semantic communications in networked systems: A Data Significance Perspective, E. Uysal, O. Kaya, A. Ephremides, J. Gross, M. Codreanu, P. Popovski, M. Assaad, G. Liva, A. Munari, T. Soleymani, B. Soret and K. H. Johansson, to appear in IEEE Network, 2022.
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Pull or wait: How to optimize query age of information, ME Ildiz, OT Yavascan, E Uysal, OT Kartal. (submitted)
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When To Pull Data for Minimum Age Penalty, OT Yavascan, ET Ceran, Z Cakir, E Uysal, O Kaya, WiOpt 2021.
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Information Freshness in Random Access Channels for IoT Systems, Andrea Munari and Elif Uysal, BalkanCom, Novi Sad, Serbia, September 20-22, 2021.
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Evaluation of Age Control Protocol (ACP) and ACP+ on ESP32, U Guloglu, S Baghaee, E Uysal, International Symposium on Wireless Communication Systems (ISWCS), Berlin Inst. Tech., Sep. 6-9, 2021.
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Age of Information in Practice, E Uysal, O Kaya, S Baghaee, HB Beytur, to appear in "Age of Information", Cambridge University Press, 2021. (preprint available at: https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.02491)
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MiSTA: Threshold-ALOHA with Mini Slots, M Ahmetoglu, OT Yavascan, E Uysal, BlackSeaCom, 24–28 May, 2021.
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Implementation and Evaluation of Age-Aware Downlink Scheduling Policies, TK Oğuz, E Uysal, T Girici, BlackSeaCom, 24–28 May, 2021.
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Analysis of slotted aloha with an age threshold, OT Yavascan, E Uysal, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, vol: 39, no. 5, May 2021, pp: 1456 - 1470.
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O.T. Yavascan, E. Uysal, Analysis of Age-Aware Slotted ALOHA, IEEE GLOBECOM, December. 2020.
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D. C. Atabay, E Uysal, O Kaya, Improving Age of Information in Random Access Channels, AoI Workshop, IEEE INFOCOM 2020-IEEE Conference on Computer Communications, July 2020.
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BT Bacinoglu, Y Sun, E Uysal, On the Trackability of Stochastic Processes, 2020. (short version appeared in IEEE ISIT 2020.)
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HB Beytur, S Baghaee, E Uysal, Towards AoI-aware Smart IoT Systems, 2020 International Conference on Computing, Networking and Communications (ICNC).
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Yin Sun, Yury Polyanskiy and Elif Uysal, "Sampling of the Wiener Process for Remote Estimation over a Channel with Random Delay", IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, Aug. 2019. https://arxiv.org/abs/1701.06734
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T. Bacinoglu, Y. Sun, E. Uysal and V. Mutlu, "Optimal status updating with a finite-battery energy harvesting source", Journal of Communications and Networks, vol. 1, no. 3, 2019.
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J. Ostman, R. Devassy, G. Durisi, E. Uysal, "Peak-Age Violation Guarantees for the Transmission of Short Packets over Fading Channels", 2nd Age of Information Workshop in conj. with IEEE INFOCOM 2019. https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.06771
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R. Devassy, G. Durisi, G. C. Ferrante, O. Simeone and E. Uysal-Biyikoglu, Reliable Transmission of Short Packets Through Queues and Noisy Channels Under Latency and Peak-Age Violation Guarantees, IEEE JSAC, vol. 37, no. 4. 2019.
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H. B. Beytur and E. Uysal, "Age minimization of multiple flows using reinforcement learning", International Conference on Computing, Networking and Communications (ICNC), Honolulu, HI, Feb. 2019.
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S. Chamanian ; S. Baghaee ; H. Uluşan ; Ö Zorlu ; E. Uysal-Biyikoglu ; H. Külah Implementation of Energy-Neutral Operation on Vibration Energy Harvesting WSN, IEEE Sensors Journal, vol. 19, no. 8, 2019.
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Igor Kadota, Abhishek Sinha, Elif Uysal-Biyikoglu, Rahul Singh, and Eytan Modiano, Scheduling Policies for Minimizing Age of Information in Broadcast Wireless Networks, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, December 2018.
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R. Devassy, G. Durisi, G. C. Ferrante, O. Simeone and E. Uysal-Biyikoglu, Delay and Peak-Age Violation Probability in Short-Packet Transmissions, in IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT), 2018.
- T. Bacinoglu, Y. Sun, E. Uysal-Biyikoglu, and F. M. Mutlu, Achieving the Age-Energy Tradeoff with a Finite-Battery Energy Harvesting Source, in IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT), 2018.
- Hakan Sac, Tan Bacinoglu, Elif Uysal-Biyikoglu and Giuseppe Durisi, "Age-optimal channel coding blocklength for an M/G/1 queue with HARQ", Invited paper, IEEE SIGNAL PROCESSING ADVANCES IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS (SPAWC) 2018, June 25-28, Kalamata, Greece.
- Canberk Sonmez, Sajjad Baghaee, Abdussamed Ergisi and Elif Uysal-Biyikoglu, "Age-of-Information in Practice: Status Age Measured over TCP/IP Connections through WiFi, Ethernet and LTE", in IEEE BlackSeaCom, 2018.
- Hasan Burhan Beytur and E. Uysal-Biyikoglu, "Minimizing Age of Information for Multiple Flows", in IEEE BlackSeaCom, 2018.
- Egemen Sert, Canberk Sönmez, Sajjad Baghaee and Elif Uysal-Biyikoglu, "Optimizing Age of Information on Real-Life TCP/IP Connections through Reinforcement Learning", in IEEE Signal Processing and Communication Applications (SIU), 2018.
- Hasan Burhan Beytur and E. Uysal-Biyikoglu, "Minimizing Age of Information on Multi-Flow Networks", in IEEE Signal Processing and Communication Applications (SIU), 2018.
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T. Bacinoglu, O. Kaya and E. Uysal-Biyikoglu, "Energy Efficient Transmission Scheduling for Channel-adaptive Wireless Energy Transfer", IEEE WCNC, April 2018.
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Yin Sun, Elif Uysal-Biyikoglu, and Sastry Kompella, ``Age-Optimal Updates of Multiple Information Flows”, 1st Workshop on the Age of Information (AoI Workshop), Honolulu, HI, April 2018. [Technical Report]
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Yin Sun, Elif Uysal-Biyikoglu, Roy Yates, C. Emre Koksal, and Ness Shroff, "Update or Wait: How to Keep Your Data Fresh," in IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, vol. 63, no.11, 2017. pp: 7492 - 7508.
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T. Bacinoglu, E. Uysal-Biyikoglu , C. E. Koksal, “Finite Horizon Energy-Efficient Scheduling with Energy Harvesting Transmitters over Fading Channels”, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communication”, Vol. 16, no. 9, pp: 6105 –6118, 2017.
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T. Bacinoglu and E. Uysal-Biyikoglu, "Scheduling Status Updates to Minimize Age of Information with an Energy Harvesting Sensor", IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT), Aachen, Germany, June 27, 2017.
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Yin Sun, Yury Polyanskiy, and Elif Uysal-Biyikoglu, "Remote Estimation of the Wiener Process over a Channel with Random Delay", IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT), Aachen, Germany, June 27, 2017.
- A Akman, F Ozelik, E Uysal-Biyikoglu, C Kement, "Energy Harvesting Communication System", Patent Registration no. 2013 01138 (Turkey), May 21, 2015.
Selected invited presentations:
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"Optimizing Peak Age of Information and Delay Violation Probability in the Finite Blocklength Regime", Information Theory and Applications Workshop, University of California San Diego, February 12, 2019.
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"Age-optimal Threshold Policies for an Energy Harvesting Sensor", SPAWC 2018 Invited Session on Age of Information (19th IEEE Int. Workshop on Signal Processing Advances in Wireless Communications), Kalamata, Greece, 25-28 June, 2018.
- "Scheduling Status Updates from a Sensor to Minimize the Age of Information at the Destination", presented at the Foundations of Wireless Networking Workshop at Schloss Dagstuhl, Wadern, Germany, July 3, 2017.
- Age-Optimal Status Updating with an Energy Harvesting Sender, Information Theory and Applications Workshop, University of California San Diego, February 13, 2017.
- “Lazy Schedules for Freshest Data and Optimal Use of Renewable Energy in Networks”, Micro and Nano Technology Lab, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, Sept 30, 2016.
- "Energy Harvesting Networks”, Northeastern University, Boston, April 23, 2016.
- AGELESS: Scheduling Policies with Age as Objective”, ITA 2016, Information Theory and Applications Workshop, University of California San Diego, February 5, 2016.
- “Age_of information: controlling the freshness of status updates under energy constraints”, Keynote, The Gelenbe Symposium, Imperial College, London. September 21, 2015.
- “When to Update Data”, LIDS, MIT, October 2015.
Awards & Grants
- IEEE Fellow, 2022
- Young Scientist Prize Scholarship, The Science Academy (Turkey), 2014-2016
- IBM Faculty Award, 2011
- TUBITAK Kariyer Research Grant (2007-2009.)
- NSF Foundations of Communication Research Grant (2006-2009.)
- Runner up for best paper, INFOCOM 2001.
- First place in the EE Ph.D. Quals at Stanford University, among 144 candidates (1999.)
- Stanford Graduate Fellow (1999-2003.)
- MIT Vinton Hayes Fellow (1997-1998.)
- NATO Science Fellow (1997, scholarship not used)
- Ranked 1 in the graduating class of 1997 of the Middle East Technical University
- Bulent Kerim Altay Prize, awarded 6 times by METU EE Dept. (1994-1997.)
- First place in the nationwide University Entrance Examination (OYS) in Turkey, among 750,000 entrants (1993.)
Courses / Laboratories
SPRING 2022 TEACHING at METU:
EE306: Statistical Signal Processing
Open CourseWare content (including lecture videos and handouts): https://ocw.metu.edu.tr/course/view.php?id=349
You can find EE306 lectures recorded in Spring 2022 on YouTube
EE532: Communication Network Analysis: This is a course that teaches the theoretical underpinnings of the design of communication networks and networking algorithms. Topics include Resource Allocation, Switch Scheduling, Scheduling in Wireless Networks, and Routing. EE532 is one of the required courses of the Communications area M.S. program, alternatively with EE536. A selection of the lectures are available on YouTube. EE531 or equivalent knowledge of discrete stochastic processes is strongly recommended.
ONLINE COURSES: (Open Courseware)
EE230: Probability and Random Variables: An introductory course on probability. Lecture videos recorded live at METU are available on YouTube. Lecture notes available here.
E435: Communications I.
EE531: Probability and Stochastic Processes: A graduate course on probability with emphasis on Discrete Stochastic Processes. Lecture videos recorded by METU GISAM are available on Open Courseware.
EE590: Seminar. This is for our master's students to polish their presentation skills.
EE690: Graduate Seminars. The seminars are broadcast on YouTube. For the seminar program see https://eee.metu.edu.tr/seminars.
Biography
Elif Uysal is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at the Middle East Technical University (METU), in Ankara, Turkey. She received the Ph.D. degree in EE from Stanford University in 2003, the S.M. degree in EECS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1999 and the B.S. degree from METU in 1997. From 2003-05 she was a lecturer at MIT, and from 2005-06 she was an Assistant Professor at the Ohio State University (OSU). Since 2006, she has been with METU, and held visiting positions at OSU and MIT during 2014-2016. Her research interests are at the junction of communication and networking theories, with particular application to energy-efficient wireless networking. Dr. Uysal is a Fellow of IEEE, a recipient of the BIDEB 2247-B National Pioneer Researcher Grant, 2014 Young Scientist Award from the Science Academy of Turkey, an IBM Faculty Award (2010), the Turkish National Science Foundation Career Award (2006), an NSF Foundations on Communication research grant (2006-2010), the MIT Vinton Hayes Fellowship, and the Stanford Graduate Fellowship. She is an editor for the IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, and served as associate editor for the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communication (2014-2018).
Past activities: Prof. Uysal served on the TPCs of IEEE MobiHoc 2017, IEEE ICC (International Conference on Communications) 2017, IEEE Globecom 2017. The First Workshop on the Age of Information (in conjunction with IEEE INFOCOM 2018), IEEE INFOCOM 2018, IEEE WiOpt 2018. She was track 3 co-chair for IEEE PIMRC 2019, general co-chair of the 2021 AoI Workshop (in conjunction with IEEE INFOCOM 2021), TPC co-chair of IEEE SIU 2021, TPC co-chair of WiOpt 2021, TPC member, IEEE ISIT 2021, 2022.