Below, you will find more details about the York members of the REACH team.
Abdulhamed Waraiet
Abdulhamed Waraiet received a B.Sc. degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Near East University in 2017 and the M.Sc. degree in Signal Processing and Communications from The University of Edinburgh, U.K., in 2019. He is a Dr Research Associate in Electronic Engineering at the University of York and an ICURe Entrepreneurial Lead. His current research interests include developing ultra-resilient wireless communications technology and machine learning-based resource allocation algorithms for IRS-assisted non-orthogonal multiple access systems.
Ahmed Al-Tahmeesschi
Ahmed Al-Tahmeesschi completed his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Electronics at the University of Liverpool, U.K., in 2018. He then served as a postdoctoral researcher at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology from 2019 to 2021, contributing to 5G-Enhance a Horizon 2020 joint project. Between 2021 and 2023, he served as a research associate at the University of Helsinki and was a member of the Finnish Centre of Artificial Intelligence. Currently, he holds a position as a research fellow at the University of York, contributing to the YO-RAN project. His research interests areas include cognitive radio networks, dynamic spectrum access techniques, algorithm design, localization, open radio access networks, and integration of machine learning into wireless networks.
Alister Burr
Alister Burr received a BSc degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Southampton, U.K in 1979 and the PhD from the University of Bristol in 1984. In 1985 he joined the School of Physics, Engineering and Technology at the University of York, U.K, where he has been Professor of Communications since 2000. His research interests are in wireless communication systems, especially modulation and coding and including turbo-codes and turbo-processing techniques, and MIMO, cooperative systems and physical layer network coding. He has published more than 150 papers in refereed international conferences and journals, and is the author of “Modulation and Coding for Wireless Communications” (published by Prentice-Hall/PHEI). In 1999 he was awarded a Senior Research Fellowship by the U.K. Royal Society, and in 2002 he received the J. Langham Thompson Premium from the Institution of Electrical Engineers. He has also held a visiting professorship at Vienna University of Technology, and given numerous invited presentations, including at the First International Conference on Turbocodes and Related Topics, and a keynote at the first WCNC event (now IEEE WiCom), Wuhan, China. He is currently chair, working group 1, of the European COST 2100 programme “Pervasive Mobile and Ambient Wireless Communications”.
David Grace
David Grace received his PhD from University of York in 1999, with the subject of his thesis being ‘Distributed Dynamic Channel Assignment for the Wireless Environment’. He has been a member of staff at the University since 1994 and he is now Professor (Research). He leads the Communication Technologies Discovery Theme and Challenging Environments Translational Theme within School of Physics, Engineering and Technology. He is also Director of the Centre for High Altitude Platform Applications and pillar lead for Advanced Communications within Institute for Safe Autonomy. Current research interests include non-terrestrial networks, aerial platform-based communications, application of artificial intelligence to wireless communications; 6G system architectures; dynamic spectrum access and interference management. He is currently leads the EPSRC HiQ project, developing quantum key distribution via high altitude platforms. He is a recent lead investigator on H2020 MCSA SPOTLIGHT, UK Government funded MANY, dealing with 5G trials in rural areas. He was technical lead on the 14-partner FP6 CAPANINA project that dealt with broadband communications from high altitude platforms. He is an author of over 280 papers, and author/editor of 2 books. He is the former chair of IEEE Technical Committee on Cognitive Networks for the period 2013/4. He is a founding member of the IEEE Technical Committee on Green Communications and Computing. From 2014-8 he was a non-executive director of Stratospheric Platforms Ltd. In 2000, he jointly founded SkyLARC Technologies Ltd, and was one of its directors.
Hamed Ahmadi
Hamed Ahmadi is a Reader in Digital Engineering, at the School of Physics, Engineering and Technology, University of York, UK where he is the deputy pillar lead for Advanced Communications in the university’s Institute for Safe Autonomy. He is also an adjunct associate professor at the school of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University College Dublin, Ireland. He received his Ph.D. from National University of Singapore in 2012 where he was a SINGA PhD scholar at Institute for Infocomm Research, A-STAR. Since then he worked at different academic and industrial positions in the Republic of Ireland and UK. Dr. Ahmadi has published a book and more than 100 peer reviewed book chapters, journal and conference papers. He is the ML/AI work package lead for the York-led YO-RAN and REACH, which are projects developing 5G open radio access networks in collaboration with industry and funded by UK Government. He is Associate Editor in Chief of IEEE Communication Standards magazine, a senior member of IEEE, and Fellow of UK Higher Education Academy. He has been the Networks working group chair of COST Actions CA15104 (IRACON) and CA20120 (INTERACT). He had chairing roles in organising and technical programme committee of several IEEE flagship conferences including IEEE ICC 2024, EUCNC 2025 and 2019, and PIMRC 2024 and 2019. He is also the treasurer of the IEEE UK and Ireland Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. His current research interests include the application of machine learning in wireless networks, Open Radio Access and Networking, green and sustainable networks, airborne networks, Digital twins of networks, and Internet-of-Things.
Josh Shackleton
Josh Shackleton is a Senior Research Engineer at University of York. He is a multidisciplinary engineer with experience in research fields including, high altitude platforms, communication systems, vacuum/space technologies, and beam profile gas detectors.
Kanapathippillai Cumanan
Dr. Cumanan is a Professor at the School of Physics, Engineering and Technology, University of York, York, UK. He received the BSc degree with first class honours in electrical and electronic engineering from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka in 2006 and the PhD degree in signal processing for wireless communications from Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK, in 2009. From March 2012 to November 2014, he worked as a post-doctoral research associate (PDRA) at School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Newcastle University, UK. Prior to this, he was a PDRA at the School of Electronic, Electrical and System Engineering, Loughborough University, UK between January 2010 and December 2011. His research interests include non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), cell-free massive MIMO, physical layer security, cognitive radio networks, artificial intelligence and
optimization techniques for 6G and beyond. He has published more than 100 journal articles
and conference papers. He is currently serving as an associate editor for IEEE JSAC-
Machine Learning in Communications and Networks, IEEE Wireless Communications
Letters and IEEE Open Journal of Communications Society. Dr. Cumanan has received
Exemplary Editor Award from IEEE Open Journal of Communications Society. He was the
recipient of an overseas research student award scheme (ORSAS) from Cardiff University,
Wales, UK, where he was a research student between September 2006 and July 2007.
Mohit Bidikar
Mohit Bidikar is a Software Engineer at the University of York. He is a software developer with 5+ years of experience across full-stack software development, complemented by an MSc and B.Eng in Computer Science. His work involves integrating open-source and commercial RAN components to validate interoperability in Open RAN, collaborating with a team from VIAVI Solutions to integrate the OSC RIC with AI-RSG and develop xApps, and contributing to open-source Open RAN software.
Poonam Yadav
Poonam Yadav is a senior Lecturer in the Computer Science Department at the University of York, UK and a visiting research fellow at Computer Lab, Cambridge University. Her current research is focused on making the Internet of Things (IoT) and edge computing-based distributed systems resilient, reliable and robust. This is an interdisciplinary research area that requires expertise in system design and integration along with knowledge of sensor systems, wireless networking, and domain and contextual understanding. Her PhD work was focused on Design of Wireless communication stack for Event-driven applications, especially for low-power embedded systems. It is an interdisciplinary research area involves background knowledge of embedded system design, communication systems, and software engineering and bio-inspired computing. Her research interests include IoT and Wireless Networks, Machine Leaning (TinyML/UltraML), Citizen Science, Complex and Dynamical Systems. She leads System and Network Interoperability (SYSTRON) Lab, exploring distributed systems, interoperability, and network technologies. She has authored over 30 papers in distributed systems, social computing, sensor systems, and Internet of Things. Dr. Yadav was a recipient of the U.K.–India Education and Research Initiative Ph.D. Award.
Salahedin Rehan Sarria
Salahedin Rehan Sarria is a Research Fellow and educator at the University of York.
Swarna Chetty
Swarna Chetty is a Research Associate, an ICURe Entrepreneurial Lead, and a Specialist in 5G, ORAN, Machine Learning & Market Strategy. She received a B.E. degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Sathyabama University, Chennai, India, in 2014, an M.S. degree in Mobile Communication Systems from the University of Surrey, U.K., in 2016, and her Ph.D. degree from University College Dublin, Ireland, in 2023. Prior to her doctoral studies, she gained professional expertise as a Software Developer. Her research interests include network virtualization, resource allocations, microservices, machine learning (especially reinforcement and deep learning), open radio network access, 5G, and beyond communications.
Tareq Al-Shami
Tareq Al-Shami is a Research Software Engineer at the University of York.
Vahid Kouh Daragh
Vahid Kouh Daragh, Research Fellow at the University of York, contributed to the development of xApps and rApps for controlling massive MIMO and beamforming parameters. His work also involves the application of machine learning techniques for this purpose. Additionally, he has implemented network slicing in a massive MIMO environment through xApps.
Yi Chu
Yi Chu received his Ph.D. degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of York in 2014. His research interests include wireless and quantum communications applications on aerial platforms, AI/ML for O-RAN networks, communications system evaluation using software defined radio, wireless signal propagation, physical layer network coding and intelligent medium access control for wireless sensor networks. He is a research fellow working on YO-RAN and REACH projects. His role includes integrating open source and commercial O-RAN networks, assisting with field trials and developing cell-free MIMO networks with O-RAN architecture.
Yifan Liu
Yifan Liu is a Research Associate in Wireless Communications at the University of York. She joined REACH as a research software engineer in February 2024. Prior to that, she completed her PhD at University of Warwick with the topic Deep Learning applications in Optical Communications. Her work in REACH involves leading the integration of the near-RT RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) in Open RAN (ORAN) systems, collaborating with industrial partners such as VIAVI Solutions and IS-Wireless to bridge open-source projects and commercial products on interoperability in ORAN. She also developed the version of the adaptation layer that acquires metrics from non-ORAN-compliant devices in ORAN system.