Professor Hamid Sharif

Abstract:

High-speed trains, though prevalent in Europe and Asia, are not yet a reality in the US. Interests and industry engagements are growing, especially around commercial hubs close to commuter homes for alleviating commute times. With support from the Federal Railroad Administration in the United States, Dr. Sharif and his team are exploring the design requirements, challenges, and technology capabilities for wireless communications among rail cars, on-board systems and with trackside infrastructure, all using next-generation radio access technologies. A safe, secure, efficient and seamless train operation moving underground or over at a regular or high speed (around 300 km/h) requires reliable wireless communications. The wireless communications to support both in-train passenger services, train signaling and controlling services necessitate serious consideration regarding wireless channel conditions and communications management. When a high-speed train is moving through different terrain environments (hills, flat-rural, urban-dense, etc.) or through railroad infrastructure (bridges, viaduct, tunnel) integrates difficult channel conditions to manage specific channel requirements for a train-to-ground Radio Access Network. key aspects of this work focus on interoperability, modularity of the architecture to facilitate a future-proof design, high-performance operations for passenger services and ultra-low latency capabilities for train control operations. Dr. Sharif will discuss the technical challenges for this unified wireless architecture including modeling and simulations as well as insights into evaluated properties of this system.

Biography:

Hamid Sharif is an IEEE Fellow and the Charles J. Vranek Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). He is also the Director of Advanced Telecommunications Engineering Laboratory (TEL) at UNL. He has over 35 years of academic and industrial experience and his research interests include Mobile Communications, Intelligent Transportation, Wireless for Railroads, Network Security, Mobile Communication Security, and IoT Cooperative Communications. His research has been supported by many US federal agencies and national and international industries. He has published over 350 research articles in national and international journals and conferences and has been serving on many IEEE and other international journal’s editorial boards. He has been the recipient of a number of research awards and best papers. He is also the recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Fellowship Award in Science, Technology and Innovation in 2013. He obtained his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Iowa, University of Missouri-Columbia, and University of Nebraska-Lincoln respectively. He is currently a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society.

Address:Advanced Telecommunications Engineering Laboratory, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Omaha, Nebraska, United States