Doctoral students of the center faculty, grouped by primary advisor. The director's group is the Advanced Communication Networks Laboratory.
Student spotlight, September 2026
Three journal articles in six months on how fiber-optic networks can keep up with AI, and an open-source platform the field can build on.
Ph.D. Candidate, joined 2022
AI-driven resource allocation in optical networks; impairment-aware provisioning in multi-band, space-division multiplexed networks; spectral versus spatial capacity scaling; reproducible optical network benchmarking with FUSION.
4 journal papers, 15 conference papers with the center
Selected paperQoT-Aware Dynamic Resource Allocation and Grooming in Multi-Band Space-Division Multiplexing NetworksIEEE/Optica Journal of Optical Communications and Networking, vol. 18, no. 10, Oct. 2026
117 citations, 6 h-index, 3 i10-index on Google Scholar, Nov. 2026
Ph.D. Candidate, joined 2024
Co-founder and lead developer of FUSION (github.com/SDNNetSim/FUSION), supported by MIT I-Corps and AT&T; reinforcement learning for software-defined elastic optical networks; failure-aware routing and realistic simulation of elastic optical and mesh networks.
3 journal papers, 11 conference papers with the center
Selected paperFUSION: A Flexible Unified Simulator for Intelligent Optical NetworkingIEEE International Conference on Advanced Networks and Telecommunications Systems (ANTS), pp. 1-6, Dec. 2024
61 citations, 5 h-index, 2 i10-index on Google Scholar, Nov. 2026
Ph.D. Candidate, joined 2022
Scalable, real-time detection of cyber attacks on smart power grids with machine learning; adaptive transfer learning for day-zero network intrusion detection; the NATIG cyber-physical co-simulation testbed (HELICS, GridLAB-D, ns-3).
59 citations, 5 h-index, 3 i10-index on Google Scholar, Nov. 2026
Ph.D. Candidate, joined 2023
Federated learning to detect cyber attacks in the smart grid; smart false data injection attacks and anomaly detection in smart meters (IEEE SmartGridComm 2025); centralized versus federated learning for grid anomaly detection.
1 conference paper with the center
Selected paperExploring a Smart FDI Attack and Enhancing Anomaly Detection in Smart MetersIEEE International Conference on Communications, Control, and Computing Technologies for Smart Grids (SmartGridComm), pp. 1-6, Sept. 2025
Ph.D. Student, joined 2024
Smart grid cybersecurity and AI for cyber-physical systems.
Ph.D. Student, joined 2024
Impact of individual physical layer impairments on elastic optical network performance; impairment-aware routing, spectrum, modulation, and power allocation; dynamic optical networking.
Ph.D. student, Research and Evaluation in Education, joined 2024; co-advised by Hsien-Yuan (Mark) Hsu
Artificial intelligence and computational thinking in STEM education, with a focus on student learning, skill development, and evolving educational practices.
174 citations, 2 h-index, 1 i10-index on Google Scholar, Nov. 2026
Ph.D. student in Computer Engineering, joined January 2025
Digital twin modeling for cyber-physical systems; coordination and synchronization of networked digital twins; blockchain for data integrity and provenance; and fault-tolerant distributed systems.
Ph.D. student, School of Education, joined fall 2024; co-advised by Hsien-Yuan (Mark) Hsu
AI literacy and ethical AI use in research: designing instruction that helps researchers ask better questions, critically evaluate AI outputs, and make sound, accountable decisions.
Center-run club
A student club for open-source software and hardware, run by the center. Members work on the center's open-source tools, FUSION, NATIG, and GridShift among them, and on projects with the club's sponsor. It is a way into center research before joining a group.
Friendly Fedora capstone. Since 2020 Red Hat has sponsored a senior capstone team each year, advised directly by a Red Hat director or manager, to make Fedora Linux friendlier for university and academic use around the world. The teams have integrated academia-focused open-source tools into the current Fedora release, including large language model and container tools, and in the last two years have contributed new development on Podman.
Lab life in 33 seconds
Advanced Communication Networks Laboratory. Lab life: the people behind the research. Fifteen photos of lab members at conferences, poster sessions, demonstrations, and dinners, including: Arash Deylamsalehi presenting his research; The lab's ESnet OSCARS demonstration at SC15; At the Electrical and Computer Engineering demonstration booth; The RINSE poster: network survivability and the environment; Energy-cost-aware routing with real-time power prices. Come work with us. smartcyberphysical.org/acnl
The Advanced Communication Networks Laboratory through the years.
