Ali Abedi

Vice Provost for Research, UWM
Professor, Electrical Engineering

Dr. Ali Abedi joined UWM in 2025 after 20 years on the faculty at the University of Maine, where he directed research on wireless communications and sensor networks with applications in environmental and structural monitoring, space explorations and biomedical devices. He also served as Associate Vice President for Research, Director of Experiential Programs Innovation Central (EPIC), the Center for Undergraduate Research (CUGR), and Innovative Media Research and Commercialization Center (IMRC) at the University of Maine. He was visiting Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park and Guest Researcher at NIST in 2012 and Faculty Fellow at NASA MSFC in 2016.

He is a senior member of IEEE and has served on several IEEE Boards and Committees at local, regional, national, and international levels. Dr. Abedi is Co-founder of IEEE International Conference on Wireless for Space and Extreme Environments (WiSEE), served as IEEE Region-1 Northeastern Area chair, Associate Editor for IEEE Journal of RFID, IEEE/KICS Journal of Communications and Networks (JCN), and 2022-25 Vice President of Conferences for IEEE Council on Radio Frequency Identification (CRFID).

Education

BSc, Electrical Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, 1996
MSc, Electrical Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, 1998
PhD, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo, 2004

Research Interests

Coding and information theory
Wireless communications
Sensor networks
Digital twins and artificial intelligence

Google Scholar Link

Selected Publications

Books

H. Rashvand, A. Abedi, Design Solutions for Wireless Sensor Networks in Extreme Environments, Publisher: Artech-House, 380 pages, 2018, ISBN:978-1-6308-1177-8
H. Rashvand, A. Abedi, Wireless Sensor Systems for Extreme Environments, Publisher: Wiley, 500 pages, 2017, ISBN: 978-1-1191-2646-1.
A. Ghassemi, A. Abedi, and F. Ghassemi, Propagation Engineering in Wireless Communications, Publisher: Springer, 452 pages, 2nd Ed, July 2016, ISBN: 978-3-3193-2782-2
A. Ghassemi, A. Abedi, and F. Ghassemi, Propagation Engineering in Radio Link Design, 553 pages, Springer, January 2013, ISBN: 978-1-4614-5313-0
A. Abedi, Random Signal Analysis, 125 pages, Amazon, December 2012, ISBN: 978-1-4812-7271-1

Selected Journals

J. Patton, T. Whitney, T. Russell, S. Muchemore-Allen, A. Abedi, “Development of a Low-Cost Multispectral Sensing CubeSat on Amateur Radio Frequency,” IEEE Journal of RFID, Special Issue on Wireless for Space and Extreme Environments, May 2023.
S. Khosroazad, A. Abedi and M. J. Hayes, “Sleep Signal Analysis for Early Detection of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia (ADRD),” in IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, Jan 2023. (Impact factor: 7.021)
S. Naderi, K. Bundy, T. Whitney, A. Abedi, A. Weiskittel, A. Contosta, “Sharing Wireless Spectrum in the Forest Ecosystems Using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning”, International Journal of Wireless Information Networks, Springer, in press, May 2022.
J. Castro, L. Labonte, C. Clark, H. Roufarshbaf and A. Abedi, “Wireless Sensing of Pressurized Space Structures,” in IEEE Journal of Radio Frequency Identification, Dec 2020.
A. Razi, F. Afghah, A. Abedi, “Channel-Adaptive Packetization Policy for Minimal Latency and Maximal Energy Efficiency,” IEEE Trans. on Wireless Communications, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 2407-2420, March 2016.
Rashvand, H.F.; Abedi, A.; Alcaraz-Calero, J.M.; Mitchell, P.D.; Mukhopadhyay, S.C., “Wireless Sensor Systems for Space and Extreme Environments: A Review,” Sensors Journal, IEEE , vol.14, no.11, pp.3955,3970, Nov. 2014. [Top 50 most downloaded paper in 2014]
S. Kompella, A. Abedi, E. Hossain, M. Nekovee, S. Roy, “Cognitive Networking,” Editorial Paper, IEEE/KICS Journal of Communications and Networks (Special Issue), pp. 1 – 6, April 2014.
A. Razi, A. Abedi, “Convergence Analysis of Iterative Decoding for Binary CEO Problem,” IEEE Trans. on Wireless Communications, vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 2944-2954, May 2014.
A. Razi, F. Afghah, A. Abedi, “Power Optimized DSTBC Assisted DMF Relaying in Wireless Sensor Networks with Redundant Super Nodes,” IEEE Trans. on Wireless Com, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 636-645, 2013.
A. Abedi, M. E. Thompson, A. K. Khandani, “Application of Cumulant Method In Performance Evaluation of Turbo-Like Codes,” IEEE Trans on Comm, vol. 55, no. 11, pp. 2037-2041, Nov 2007.
A. Abedi, A. K. Khandani, “Invariance Properties of Binary Linear Codes over a Memory-less Channel with Discrete Input,” IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, vol. 53, no. 3, pp. 1215-1218, Mar 2007.
A. Abedi, A. K. Khandani, “An Analytical Method for Approximate Performance Evaluation of Binary Linear Block Codes,” IEEE Transactions on Communications, vol. 52, no. 2, pp. 228-235, February 2004.

Community Involvement

Dr. Abedi served on the board of directors for the state of Maine's Space Corporation and is currently a candidate for president-elect at IEEE USA, the largest technical professional society in the world with over 500,000 members.