https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=GRHYG9MAAAAJ
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7258-4872
https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/2163001939_Elif_Uysal
https://publons.com/researcher/AAF-7958-2019
https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=6602270978
Prof.
Elif Uysal
Principal Investigator, Communication Networks Research Group
Fellow, IEEE
Fellow, Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA)
Fellow, Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance (AIIA)
Room No
A207
Tel No
+90 (312) 210-2323
E-mail
uelif metu.edu.tr (admin. contact Ms. Ayça Osunluk aycao@metu.edu.tr)
Research Group Web Page
http://cng-eee.metu.edu.tr/

News & Announcements

Graduate students in Communications or Computer Science related 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 contact the CNG lab coordinator Ms. Ayca Osunluk (aycao@metu.edu.tr).

The current focus of our research is Semantic-Aware communication and Data Freshness in next generation networks, with applications to IoT, NTN/Satellite IoT, Space Communications, and the evolving 6G standard.

This research program builds on our foundational work on the Age of Information (AoI), a data freshness metric that captures the needs of status update-based communication, of growing importance in remote monitoring/actuation and learning. A short video description of the AoI concept (in Turkish) is here:  https://youtu.be/lLoDOk-Zgko

For broad impact of the goal-oriented communication and networking approaches to sustainable cities, we have formed the SUIT (Sustainable Urbanization Through Innovative Technologies) platform, funded by TUBİTAK under the 1004 program. A presentation on SUIT is here. A video description of SUIT (in Turkish) can be found here.

Current Synergistic Activities: Prof. Uysal is currently serving as

Education

Ph. D: Stanford University; S.M.: Massachusetts Institute of Technology; B.Sc, METU

Research Interests

  • Information Freshness and Goal Oriented Communications for Networked Systems, in particular:
    • Link and transport layer scheduling for Remote Inference, and other MTC applications, through exploiting freshness (e.g. AoI, QAoI) and other goal-oriented performance metrics (e.g. mean square error)
    • The development of novel age-aware or goal-oriented random access protocol and implementation in LoRa/LoRaWAN
    • IPR development for massive MTC access, routing and handover in Nonterrestrial Networks (NTN) toward 6G
  • Energy efficient/energy-neutral communication
    • Optimal resource allocation in energy harvesting communication systems
    • Implementation of energy harvesting communication systems

Publications

Patents/patent applications:

Nonterrestrial Networks (NTN):

• A. Topbaş, E. T. Ceran, E. Uysal, A. Arsal, “Multi-User Relay Scheduling with Peak Age Guarantee,” application 2023, pending.
• S. Çıtır, E. T. Ceran, E. Uysal, A. Arsal, “Method For Reducing Handovers In High Altitude Platform Networks Using Dynamically Adjustable Buffer Zones,” application 2023, pending.
• T.Aydın, S. Çıtır, E. T. Ceran, E. Uysal, A. Arsal, “A Method For Dynamically Adjusting Handover Thresholds,” application 2023, pending.
• T.Aydın, E. T. Ceran, E. Uysal, A. Arsal, “A Delay Difference Based Group Handover Method in Non-Terrestrial Networks,” application 2023, pending.
• S. Çıtır, E. T. Ceran, E. Uysal, A. Arsal, “Handover Method Using High Altitude Platforms in Non-Terrestrial Networks and a System,” application 2023, pending.
• S. Çıtır, E. T. Ceran, E. Uysal, A. Arsal, “Orbit Aware Bandwidth Part Configuration in Non-Terrestrial Networks,” application 2023, pending.
• S. Çıtır, E. T. Ceran, E. Uysal, A. Arsal, “Priority-Driven Dynamic Resource Reservation for Random Access in LEO Satellite IoT Networks,” application 2023, pending.
• A. Topbaş, E. T. Ceran, E. Uysal, A. Arsal, “Random Access Method for NB-IoT Devices,” application 2023, pending.

 

Flow Control

  • S. Baghaee, M. S. Herfeh, T. Bacinoglu, E. Uysal, "A3L-FEC: Age Aware Application Layer Forward Error Correction communication protocol", (application 2023, pending).

LP-WAN and Random-Access

  • O. Yavaşcan, M. Ahmetoğlu, E. Uysal, "Çoklu Mini Dilimli Eşikli ALOHA" (Multiple Mini Slotted Threshold ALOHA - MuMISTA), (application no 2021/013006) 2022.
  • O. Gencay, E. Uysal, "LoRaWAN Tunneling Relay", application 2023.

Energy Harvesting Communication Systems:

  • A Akman, F Ozelik, E Uysal-Biyikoglu, C Kement, "Energy Harvesting Communication System", Patent Registration no. 2013 01138 (Turkey), May 21, 2015.

Recent papers: 

Selected invited presentations:

  • "Goal Oriented Communication for the Scale-up of MTC", CS Distinguished Seminar,  Chalmers University, Sweden (https://cng-eee.metu.edu.tr/blog/2023/11/15/prof-uysal-gave-an-online-p…), Nov. 10, 2023.

  • Native AI as Enabler of Semantic or Goal-Oriented Communication in 6G and Beyond, in Native AI and Semantic Communications Workshop at PIMRC 2023, Toronto, Canada, Sep. 5, 2023.

  • The Role of Information Freshness and Semantics in 6G, 3rd 6G Summit on Connecting the Unconnected, KAUST, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Jan. 30, 2023.

  • The Role of Information Freshness in Next Generation Communication Systems, Invited Talk, Sabanci University, Sep. 29, 2022. 

  • The Role of Information Freshness and Semantics in Next Generation Networks, Invited Tutorial (with Onur Kaya), Advanced Satellite Multimedia Conference, Graz, Austria, Sep. 7, 2022.

  • Query Age of Information: An Operational Metric for Semantic Communication, Huawei – IEEE ITSoc Hong Kong Joint Workshop on Semantic Information Theory (Online), May 25, 2022:  Slides  & Talk Video

  • Age-aware Random Access, Bilkent University, Dec. 25, 2021.

  • Update or Wait: Redesigning Networks for Information Freshness, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Automatic Control Dept. Sweden, 2019.

  • Optimizing Peak Age of Information and Delay Violation Probability in the Finite Blocklength Regime, Information Theory and Applications Workshop, University of California San Diego, Feb. 12, 2019.

  • 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, Jun. 25-28, 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, Jul. 3, 2017.
  • Age-Optimal Status Updating with an Energy Harvesting Sender, Information Theory and Applications Workshop, University of California San Diego, Feb. 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, USA, Sep. 30, 2016.
  • Energy Harvesting Networks, Northeastern University, Boston, Apr. 23, 2016.
  • AGELESS: Scheduling Policies with Age as Objective, ITA 2016, Information Theory and Applications Workshop, University of California San Diego, Feb. 5, 2016.
  • Age of Information: Controlling the Freshness of Status Updates Under Energy Constraints”, Keynote Speech, The Gelenbe Symposium, IEEE Symp. on Computers & Communication, Imperial College, London. Sep. 21, 2015.
  • When to Update Data, Lab. for Information and Decision Systems, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, Oct. 2015.

Awards & Grants

  • ERC Advanced Grant 2024
  • Fellow,  Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance (AIIA), 2024
  • Fellow, Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association, 2023
  • 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.)
  • 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

EE306: Introduction to Stochastic Processes

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 is 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, and on Youtube.

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 was elected a Fellow of IEEE in 2022 for “pioneering contributions to energy-efficient and low-latency communications”. She is a Fellow of the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association, and of the Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance, a recipient of the ERC Advanced Grant 2024, TUBITAK BIDEB National Pioneer Researcher Grant 2020, 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 has been serving as the Chair of the Executive Board and the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the METU Parlar Foundation for Education and Research, and assistant director of METU YTM-MATPUM, since 2022. In 2022, she founded FRESHDATA Technology. She is an inventor on more than 20 patents, with emphasis on Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN).

Dr. Uysal has served on the editorial boards of the IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, and the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communication, and as Lead Guest Editor for the IEEE Journal on Special Areas in Information Theory; as co-chair, IEEE ICC 2022 Communication Theory Symposium, general co-chair of the AoI Workshop under IEEE INFOCOM 2021,TPC Co-Chair, IEEE SIU 2021 and IEEE SIU 2022, the TPC co-chair of the First Workshop on the Age of Information (in conjunction with IEEE INFOCOM 2018), track co-chair for IEEE PIMRC 2019, TPC co-chair of IEEE SIU 2021 and IEEE 2022, TPC co-chair of WiOpt 2021, on the organizing committees of conferences including IEEE SIU 2025, IEEE PIMRC 2025 and on the TPCs of various conferences including IEEE INFOCOM 2018, IEEE WiOpt 2018, IEEE ISIT 2021, ISIT 2022, IEEE MobiHoc 2017, IEEE ICC 2017, IEEE Globecom 2017.