EDEN (IRES-US-UK): Enabling Ultra-Dense Future Cellular Networks (5G)

EDEN is an International Research Experience for students (IRES) project. This project provides opportunity to US university students (US national or permanent residents) for an 8-week fully paid summer placement at the internationally recognized 5th Generation Cellular Systems Innovation Centre (5GIC) at the University of Surrey, U.K. 5GIC is the largest and one of the most reputed wireless research group in Europe. This IRES project will provide up to fifteen US students (graduate and under graduate) an opportunity to work on world’s first and only outdoor 5G test-bed for wireless cellular system innovation that has recently been established at the University of Surrey as part of 5GIC, with over $100 million public and industrial funding. For each of the three years of EDEN project, a cohort of 4-5 students will be recruited for this program. The program will last for 12 weeks (4 weeks at the University of Oklahoma, Tulsa, and 8 weeks at 5GIC, UK) starting around May each year. Flights, accommodation costs and bench fee at the 5GIC during UK visit will be covered by the EDEN project. Additionally, each student will be paid bursary of about $500/week for the 12-week duration of the program. At the beginning of the program, the participating students will attend an intensive four-week research preparation training at the University of Oklahoma. In this pre-departure preparation phase students will be guided to select a project of their choice to work on during the program. Student projects will fall within the broader domain of 5G networks. Some indicative project topics include: Interference Mitigation, Energy Efficiency and Mobility Management in ultra-dense wireless networks. Team projects consisting of up to 2 students per team are allowed. This preparation phase will be followed by eight week's research placement at the 5GIC, UK. A publishable quality outcome is expected out of each student project by the end of program. During these visits, in addition to closely interacting with over 20 industrial partners, 15 fulltime faculty, 40 post-doctoral fellows, and over 100 PhD students at 5GIC, US students will be closely mentored by two globally recognized researchers Dr. Muhammad Imran, and Prof. Rahim Tafazolli at the 5GIC. During this visit, students will also attend weekly research meetings conducted at 5GIC in which large number of 5GIC researchers regularly participate and present their work. Students will also be taken for site visits to the campuses of the industrial partners of 5GIC that include: Vodafone, Samsung, Huawei, and British Telecom among others. EDEN Project PI, Dr. Imran already has ongoing collaboration in place with researchers at 5GIC, and will accompany students for first week of their visit to help them get oriented.

  1. Prof. Ali Imran (Principal Investigator- University of Oklahoma)
  2. Prof. Pramode Verma (University of Oklahoma)
  3. Prof. Hazem Refai (University of Oklahoma)
  4. Prof. Muhammad Ali Imran (University of Surrey)
  5. Prof. Rahim Tafazolli(University of Surrey)
  6. Asad Zaidi (PhD candidate - University of Oklahoma)
  7. Umair Hashmi (PhD candidate - University of Oklahoma)
  8. Azar Taufique (PhD candidate - University of Oklahoma)
  9. Hasan Farooq (PhD candidate - University of Oklahoma)
  10. Ahmad Asghar (PhD candidate - University of Oklahoma)
  11. Haneya Naeem Qureshi (PhD candidate - University of Oklahoma)
  12. Arsalan Darbandi (Master's degree candidate - University of Oklahoma)
  13. şinasi çetinkaya (Master's degree candidate - University of Oklahoma)
  14. Marvin Manalastas (Master's degree candidate - University of Oklahoma)
  15. Shruti Bothe (Master's degree candidate - University of Oklahoma)
  1. US Cellular
  2. 5GIC University of Surrey, UK
  3. University of Glasgow

$249,394.00 from National Science Foundation (NSF) over 3 years