🇫🇮 Celebrating 6G Flagship’s triumphs in generative AI and antenna innovations

The University of Oulu has recently achieved significant recognitions from IEEE. 6G Flagship’s work on mitigating hardware impairments with generative AI algorithms won the Best Paper Award at the 2024 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC 2024), while their innovative antenna designs have become the most-read article in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

A Landmark Achievement at IEEE WCNC 2024

Mehdi Letafati, flanked by colleagues Raed Shubair (General Chair) and Marco Di Renzo (TPC Co-Chair), proudly receives the Best Paper Award at the IEEE WCNC 2024 25th Anniversary Conference in April 2024.

At the prestigious IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC) 2024 in Dubai, the 6G Flagship team’s Mehdi Letafati achieved a remarkable feat by winning the Best Paper Award in the Resource Allocation and Machine Learning track. Their paper, entitled Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models for Hardware-Impaired Communications, presents a novel approach to address the challenges imposed by transceivers’ residual impairments in communication systems by using advanced generative AI techniques.

The award-winning paper discusses the use of denoising diffusion probabilistic models (DDPMs) for practical wireless communication systems plagued by hardware impairments. Their generative AI-based approach stands out for its ability to effectively mitigate the impact of hardware impairments such as noise and distortion on communication systems – a critical challenge in developing reliable communication networks.

Recognition in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation

From the left: custos Professor Aarno Pärssinen from the University of Oulu, Zeeshan Siddiqui, and opponent Associate Professor Tim Brown from the University of Surrey at Siddiqui’s doctoral dissertation in May 2024. 

Another success for 6G Flagship is a paper titled Dual-Band Dual-Polarized Planar Antenna for 5G Millimeter-Wave Antenna-in-Package Applications by Zeeshan Siddiqui and his team, which became the most-read article in the prestigious IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation for 2023. The work, which focuses on innovative antenna design for millimetre-wave communication systems, has garnered significant attention from the scientific community, with an impressive 18,872 reads and a well-deserved feature as one of IEEE’s Monthly Featured Articles on IEEE Xplore.

The paper discusses the design and implementation of a cutting-edge dual-band, dual-polarized planar antenna specifically tailored for 5G millimeter-wave applications. Operating within the frequency range of 24 GHz to 40 GHz, this antenna targets the 5G New Radio (NR) millimetre-wave Frequency Range 2 (FR2), positioning it as a key enabler for high-efficiency, high-performance 5G communication systems that demand robust and reliable wireless connectivity.

Zeeshan Siddiqui, who recently defended his doctoral dissertation on antenna designs for sub-6 GHz and millimetre-wave communication systems, commented: “I’m truly elated that our team’s tireless efforts to advance antenna technology have garnered this recognition from the scientific community. When you invest immense energy and creative thinking into an endeavour, it’s incredibly rewarding to have those labours appreciated by esteemed peers.”