Dr. Syed Ali Raza Zaidi

Vision and Expertise:
My expertise is in applying system level approaches to telecommunication networks. I am particularly interested in the AI-native design of future wireless networks. I am interested in modelling and design of large scale networks. My recent work has focused on connected intelligent systems including robotics and autonomous systems (RAS). I have explored RAS for communication and communication for RAS themes.

Background:
I joined the University of Leeds as University Academic Fellow under the 250 Great Mind Initiative. I became Associate Professor at Leeds in 2021. My research interests are in the area of Communication and Networking for IoT, Robotics and Autonomous Systems. Previously I worked on the US Army Research Lab (ARL) funded project: `Cognitive Green Wireless Communication- A Network Science Perspective’. I received my B.Eng degree in information and communication system engineering from the School of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, NUST, Pakistan in 2008. I was awarded the NUST’s most prestigious Rector’s gold medal for my final year project on Analysis of Forward Error Correction Schemes over Wireless Channels with Memory under the supervision of Dr Syed Ali Khayam.
From September 2007 till August 2008, I served as a Research Assistant in Wireless Sensor Network Lab on a collaborative research project between NUST, Pakistan and Ajou University, South Korea. In 2008, I was awarded an overseas research student (ORS) scholarship along with Tetley Lupton and Excellence Scholarships to pursue my PhD at the School of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, University of Leeds, U.K. I was also awarded COST IC0902, DAAD and Royal Academy of Engineering grants to promote my research.
I was a visiting research scientist at Qatar Innovations and Mobility Center from October to December 2013. I have served as an invited reviewer for IEEE flagship journals and conferences. Over the past few years, I have served as TPC Member for IEEE WCNC, IEEE VTC, IEEE Globecom, IEEE ICC. My research is focused on design analysis and implementation of large scale ad-hoc wireless networks by employing tools from stochastic geometry and random graph theory. I am also an embedded system and programming enthusiast with several international certifications from Microsoft, IBM and Sun Microsystems.

Track-record:
I have received more than £6 million as lead investigator on various EPSRC and Horizon EU funded projects. I have published more than 150 papers in leading IEEE Journals and conferences. I have guest-edited IET’s flagship book on 5G communication. I have been lead editor for IEEE JSAC Special Issue on Industrial Internet-of-Things. I have served full-term as Associate Technical Editor for IEEE Communication Magazine. Prior to this, I was editor for IEEE Communication Letters. I have helped several start-ups to translate academic research. I regularly provide advice to third sector on technology policy issues.