Meet the Candidates for the VTS 2026 Board of Governors

Biography: Dr. Alvin Chin is a Visiting Clinical Assistant Professor at the Department of Information and Decision Sciences, College of Business Administration at the University of Illinois Chicago.  Previously, he was a Research Scientist at Discovery Partners Institute. His research is on responsible AI and mobile social networking. He also worked for RXO as a Principal Data Scientist, and for BMW as Innovation Engineer for BMW Manufacturing in Greenville, South Carolina; AI and Emerging Technology Researcher at BMW Technology Office USA in Mountain View, California; and Senior Machine Learning Researcher at BMW Technology Corporation in Chicago, Illinois. During his work at BMW, he worked on causal machine learning; neuromorphic and quantum computing; big data and machine learning for improving driving behavior and enabling intelligent driving; and applying AI to improve vehicle diagnostics, manufacturing and BMW’s internal processes. Dr. Chin has authored over 30 publications and 10 patents, including pending. He received a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Toronto, MASc in Software Engineering from the University of Waterloo, and BASc in Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo. He has previously worked for Nokia Research Center, Nokia and Microsoft in Beijing, China. Dr. Chin is active in the community in data science and machine learning meetups, as member of various program committees of academic conferences, and has given more than 50 talks to universities, meetups and conferences.

IEEE ACTIVITIES

Committee/Boards

• Member-at-Large, IEEE Member and Geographic Activities (MGA) / Technical Activities (TA) Joint Chapter Support Committee, IEEE MGA – January 2026 – present
• Chair, IEEE VTS Industry Engagement Committee – January 2021 to present
• Secretary, Technical Committee of IEEE Vehicular Technology Society Standard on Connected and Automated Vehicles, IEEE Standards Association - January 2020 to present
• Member of Editorial Board, IEEE Open Journal of Vehicular Technology  – August 2019 to 2023

Regions

• Member, Region 4 Climate Change Ad-Hoc Committee, January 2024 to present
• Region Support Chair, Region 4 Executive Committee, January 2025 to present

Sections/Chapters

• Advisory Chair, IEEE Chicago Section, Chicago, IL, USA, January 1, 2025 – December 31, 2026
• Co-chair, IEEE Chicago Climate Sustainability Local Group, Chicago, IL, March 2024 – present
• Co-chair, IEEE Chicago Quantum Computing Local Group, Chicago, IL, April 2024 - present
• Chair, IEEE Chicago Section, Chicago, IL, USA, January 1, 2023 – December 31, 2024
• Vice-Chair, IEEE Chicago Section, Chicago, IL, USA, January 1, 2022 – December 31, 2022
• Treasurer, IEEE Chicago Section, Chicago, IL, USA, January 1, 2021 – December 31, 2021
• Chair, IEEE Computer Society Chicago Chapter, Chicago, IL, USA – July 2019 to Present
• Chair, IEEE Vehicular Technology Society Chicago Chapter, Chicago, IL, USA – January 2018 to present
• Vice-Chair, IEEE Computer Society Chicago Chapter, Chicago, IL, USA, January 2018 – July 2019
• Executive Committee Member, IEEE Chicago Section, Chicago, IL, USA – December 2017 to Present

Society

• Chair, Professional Education Products Committee, Professional and Educational Activities Board, IEEE Computer Society – March 2025 – present

Conferences

• Papers Competition Chair and Advisory Chair, IEEE Region 4 Nexus Student Leadership Conference, Chicago, IL-  February 1, 2026 – April 11, 2026
• Track Chair, Emerging Technologies for Real-Time Communications, The IEEE International Conference on Real-Time Communications Conference & Expo at Illinois Tech (RTC2025), Chicago, IL – January 1, 2025 – December 2025
• Advisory Chair, IEEE Chicago 131st Anniversary, Chicago, IL, USA, January 1, 2025 – October 2025
• Program Committee Member, IEEE ETHICS 2025 Conference, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL – February 1, 2025 – June 8, 2025
• Advisory Chair, IEEE Chicago 130th Anniversary Fair, Chicago, IL, USA, January 1, 2024 – October 2024
• Publicity Co-Chair, IEEE Electronic and Information Technology Conference (EIT2024), Eau Claire, WI – January 1, 2024 – June 30, 2024
• Track Chair, IoT Track, The IEEE International Conference on Real-Time Communications Conference & Expo at Illinois Tech (RTC2024), Chicago, IL – January 1, 2024 – December 2024
• Chair, IEEE Chicago Section 129th Anniversary Fair, Chicago, IL, USA, January 1, 2023 – October 2023
• Publicity Chair, IEEE Electronic and Information Technology Conference (EIT2023), Region 4, Romeoville, IL – January 1, 2023 – June 30, 2023
• Track Chair, IoT Track, The IEEE International Conference on Real-Time Communications Conference & Expo at Illinois Tech (RTC2023), Chicago, IL – January 1, 2023 – October 31, 2023
• Paper reviewer, The 97th International IEEE Conference on Vehicular Technology (VTC2023-Spring), Virtual – January 1, 2023 – April 30, 2023
• Member of Advisory Committee, The IEEE International Conference on Real-Time Communications Conference & Expo at Illinois Tech (RTC2023), Chicago, IL – January 1, 2023 – October 31, 2023
• Track Chair, IoT Track, The IEEE International Conference on Real-Time Communications Conference & Expo at Illinois Tech (RTC2022), Chicago, IL – January 1, 2022 – October 31, 2022
• Paper reviewer, The 95th International IEEE Conference on Vehicular Technology (VTC2022-Spring), Virtual – January 1, 2022 – March 1, 2022
• Member of Advisory Committee, The IEEE International Conference on Real-Time Communications Conference & Expo at Illinois Tech (RTC2022), Chicago, IL – January 1, 2022 – October 31, 2022
• Industry Panel Chair, The 94th International IEEE Conference on Vehicular Technology (VTC2021-Fall), Virtual – January 2021 – December 2021
• Member of Advisory Committee, The IEEE International Conference on Real-Time Communications Conference & Expo at Illinois Tech (RTC2021), Chicago, IL – January 1, 2021 – October 15, 2021
• Track Chair, IoT Track, The IEEE International Conference on Real-Time Communications Conference & Expo at Illinois Tech (RTC2021), Chicago, IL – January 1, 2021 – October 15, 2021
• Paper reviewer, The 93rd International IEEE Conference on Vehicular Technology (VTC2021-Spring), Virtual – December 1, 2020 – January 31, 2021
• Publicity Co-Chair, The 92nd International IEEE Conference on Vehicular Technology (VTC2020-Fall), Victoria, Canada – January 2020 to November 2020
• Chair, IEEE Chicago Section 126th Anniversary Fair, Chicago, IL, USA, March 27, 2020-October 3, 2020
• Keynote Sessions Chair, Connected and Autonomous Vehicles, The 90th International IEEE Conference on Vehicular Technology (VTC2019-Fall), Hawaii, USA - September 25, 2019
• Industry Sessions Co-Chair, The 90th International IEEE Conference on Vehicular Technology (VTC2019-Fall), Hawaii, USA - September 22 to 25, 2019
• Program Committee Member, Track 10: Vehicular Communications, Networks and Telematics, The 89th International IEEE Conference on Vehicular Technology (VTC 2019-Spring), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia -April 28 to May 1, 2019
• Promotions Chair, IEEE Chicago Section Fair: A Celebration of 125 Years, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, USA, April 27, 2019
  Program Committee Member, IEEE Connected and Autonomous Vehicles Symposium (CAVS 2018), The 88th International IEEE Conference on Vehicular Technology (VTC-2018-Fall), Chicago, IL, USA - August 27 to 30, 2018
• Industry Track Co-Chair, The 88th International IEEE Conference on Vehicular Technology (VTC-2018-Fall), Chicago, IL, USA, August 27-30, 2018
• Panel Organizer, Autonomous, Connected and Electric Vehicles industry panel, The 88th International IEEE Conference on Vehicular Technology (VTC-2018-Fall), Chicago, IL, USA, August 27-30, 2018
• Panelist, Panel on Smart Cities, The 86th International IEEE Conference on Vehicular Technology (VTC-2017-Fall), Toronto, ON, Canada, Sept. 24 to 27, 2017
• Program Committee Member, 3rd IEEE International Conference on Internet of People (IoP), San Francisco Bay Area, August 4-8, 2017
• Technical Program Committee Member, 10th IEEE International Conference on Cyber, Physical and Social Computing (CPSCom-2017), Exeter, UK, June 21-23, 2017
• Track Co-chair, Track #7: Mobile Network Applications and Services, 2017 IEEE 85th Vehicular Technology Conference, Sydney, Australia, June 4-7, 2017
• Program Committee Member, The 9th IEEE International Conference on Cyber, Physical and Social Computing, (CPSCom 2016), Chengdu, China, December 15-18, 2016
• Workshop Program Committee Member, The First International Workshop on Crowd Intelligence for Smart Cities: Technology and Applications (CISC 2016), IEEE Ubiquitous and Intelligent Computing Conference (UIC 2016), Toulouse, France, Jul. 18, 2016
• General Co-Chair, The 2nd IEEE International Conference on Internet of People (IoP 2016), Toulouse, France, Jul. 18-21, 2016
• General Chair, The 2015 IEEE International Conference on Cloud and Big Data (CBDCom 2015), Beijing, China, August 2015
• Video Co-Chair, The 2015 IEEE International Conference on Ubiquitous Intelligence and Computing (UIC 2015), Beijing, China, August 2015
• Industry Track Co-Chair, The 2015 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Network Analysis and Mining (ASONAM 2015), Wroclaw, Poland, August 2015
• Workshop Co-Chair, 9th IEEE International Conference on Big Data Science and Engineering (BigDataSE 2015), Helsinki, Finland, August 2015
• Program Chair, The 14th IEEE International Conference on Computer and Information Technology (CIT 2014). Xian, China, Sept. 11-13, 2014
• Steering Committee Member, IEEE Cyber, Physical and Social Computing (CPSCom 2014). Taipei, Taiwan, Sept. 1-3, 2014
• Panel Co-Chair, The 2014 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Network Analysis and Mining (ASONAM 2014). Beijing, China, Aug. 17-20, 2014
• Workshop Co-chair, 1st International Workshop on Mining and Understanding Big Data (BigMUD 2013), IEEE ICDM 2013 conference, Dallas, Texas, USA, Dec. 8, 2013
• General Chair, The 6th IEEE International Conference on Cyber, Physical and Social Computing (CPSCom 2013), Beijing, China, Aug. 20-23, 2013
• Workshop Co-Chair, The 3rd IEEE International Workshop on Sensing, Networking, and Computing with Smartphones (PhoneCom 2013), co-located with IEEE CPSCom 2013, Beijing, China, Aug. 20, 2013
• Program Committee Member, The 3rd International Symposium on Trust and Identity in Mobile Internet, Computing and Communications (TrustID 2013), co-located with the 12th IEEE International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications (IEEE TrustCom-13), Melbourne, Australia, July 16-18, 2013
• Program Co-Chair, The 5th IEEE International Conference on Cyber, Physical and Social Computing (CPSCom 2012), Besancon, France, Nov. 20-23, 2012
• Industry Track Chair, The 13th IEEE International Conference on Mobile Data Management (MDM 2012), Bengaluru, India, July 23-26, 2012
• Program Committee Member, 2nd IEEE International Symposium on Trust and Identity in Mobile Internet, Computing and Communications (TrustID 2012), Liverpool, UK, June 25-27, 2012
• Workshop Co-Chair, The 2nd International Workshop on Sensing, Networking, and Computing with Smartphones (PhoneCom 2012), co-located with IEEE ICDCS 2012, Macao, China, June 18, 2012
• Program Committee Member, IEEE International Workshop on Trust and Identity in Mobile Internet, Computing and Communications (TrustID 2011), Changsha, China, Nov. 16-18, 2011
• Workshop Co-Chair, The 1st International Workshop on Sensing, Networking, and Computing with Smartphones (PhoneCom 2011), co-located with IEEE CPSCom 2011, Dalian, China, Oct. 19, 2011
• Program Vice Chair and Workshop Co-Chair, The 4th IEEE International Conference on Cyber, Physical and Social Computing (CPSCom 2011), Dalian, China, Oct. 19-22, 2011
• Industrial Liaison Chair, The 8th IEEE International Conference on Ubiquitous Intelligence and Computing (UIC 2011), Banff, Canada, Sept. 2-4, 2011
• Program Vice-Chair, 3rd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Cyber, Physical and Social Computing (CPSCom 2010), Hangzhou, China, Oct. 30-Nov. 1, 2010
• Demo Co-chair, IEEE Autonomic and Trusted Computing 2010 Conference (ATC 2010), Xi'an, China, October 26-29, 2010
• Program Committee Member, IEEE Social Computing 2009, 2010, and 2011 Conference

Other

• Guest Co-editor, Special Issue on Connected and Autonomous Driving, IEEE IT Professional, November/December 2018 issue – January to November 2018 
• Guest Co-Editor, IEEE IT Professional, May 2016

Qualifications

What makes me an ideal candidate for this position is that I have been active in the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society Chicago Chapter for 8 years as Chair where I organize chapter meetings with speakers in the vehicular technology industry. I have also been active in the IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference since 2017, serving in various conference leadership roles as Panelist in 2017, Program Committee member in 2018 Spring conference, Industry Sessions Co-Chair and Industry Panel Chair for Connected and Autonomous Driving in 2018 Fall conference, Industry Sessions Co-chair and Keynote Chair for Connected and Autonomous Driving in 2019 Fall conference, and Publicity Co-chair in 2020 Fall conference. For the past 5 years, I have been appointed as Chair of the IEEE VTS Industry Engagement Committee to help promote industry to participate in the IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference and IEEE Vehicular Technology Society. As shown from above, I have been Chair of other IEEE conference committees besides VTC. I also have leadership experience in board committees such as The Mid-America Club and The Metropolitan Club (a private business and social club) and my own condominium board association. I was the Chair of the IEEE Chicago Section (2023-2024), and I am currently the Chair of the IEEE Computer Society Chicago Chapter and Secretary of the IEEE Connected and Autonomous Vehicles Standards Committee. My passion for engaging the Chicago community in IEEE Chicago from the IEEE Chicago 125th Anniversary Event as Publicity Chair in 2019, led to me becoming Chair for the IEEE Chicago 126th Anniversary Event held in 2020 and Chair for the IEEE Chicago 129th Anniversary held in 2023. Therefore, all these leadership positions described above show my dedicated leadership qualities, which I believe will serve me well as a Member of the VTS Board of Governors.

Major Accomplishments

One major contribution that I brought to the IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference 2018-Fall in Chicago, is that I advocated for a Panel on Connected and Autonomous Vehicles to show the topics that needed to be addressed in this area, which was not addressed in previous conferences. I took charge of this Panel and I convinced my company, BMW, to be a sponsor of the conference. I saw there were few automotive companies in this conference since the conference was more of an academic nature. I also was a member of the conference committee and contributed my thoughts on how to attract more industry professionals to attend this conference, which included providing a discounted one-day pass to industry professionals. 

Second, in 2015, I was looking to join the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society Chicago Chapter, but discovered that this chapter had dissolved due to a lack of leadership. I volunteered to become the Chair of this chapter. The chapter was revived 7 years ago and has been successful with at least 4 meetings per year, along with being able to get successful funding from the IEEE VTS Chapters Chair. 

Third, while I was working for Nokia Research Center, I contributed to creating a new team and research area for Mobile Social Networking. I suggested this research area by writing a technical report and proposal which was read by the Director of the Nokia Research Center lab in Beijing. The Director decided to create the Mobile Social Networking Team and made me the Project Lead for a mobile social networking project which became Nokia Find & Connect, an application used for conferences and meetings for connecting with people. This contributed to Nokia with the publication of 1 patent and 10 research papers.

Statement

If I am selected for this position, I plan to involve more professionals from the automotive industry, vehicular technology and transportation industries to join the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society. This would be achieved by providing industry professionals a discounted IEEE VTS membership and have them be involved in IEEE VTS standards activities as well as involvement in the IEEE VTS conferences. As well, companies in the industry would have the opportunity at a conference discount, to be a sponsor or have a booth showcasing their products as well as being able to provide recruiting activities to the many students who are looking for career opportunities during these conferences. I would also propose having a separate industry track in the IEEE VTC conferences to allow industry researchers and industry professionals to submit papers in this area. Often, they would not submit before because the tracks were more of an academic and theoretical nature. I want to dramatically expand industry engagement in VTS. I have the experience and commitment to achieve this goal.

Lajos Hanzo

Biography: Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, FIEEE, FIET, Fellow of EURASIP, DSc received his degree in electronics in 1976 and his doctorate in 1983.  In 2009 he was awarded the honorary doctorate ``Doctor Honoris Causa'' by the Technical University of Budapest and in 2016 by the University of Edinburgh.  During his career in telecommunications he has held various research and academic posts in Hungary, Germany and the UK. Since 1986 he has been with the School of ECS, University of Southampton, UK, where he holds the chair in telecommunications.  He has successfully supervised 126 PhD students, co-authored 20 John Wiley/IEEE Press books on mobile radio, published 2000+ contributions at IEEE Xplore, acted both as TPC and General Chair of major IEEE conferences, presented keynote lectures and has been awarded a number of distinctions. Currently he is directing an academic research team and manages a number of research grants. He was also a holder of the Royal Society's Global Research Challenges Grant. He is a former Wolfson-Research-Merit-Award Leaureate.  During 2009 – 2012 he was a Chaired  Professor also at Tsinghua University, Beijing.  He was bestowed upon the 2022 Erci Sumner Technical Filed award.

IEEE ACTIVITIES

Committee/Boards

• Elected Governor;
• I contributed to the work of the VTS Fellow Committee and Awards Committee;
• I have organized several VTCs as General Chair, including 2011S, 2022F, 2026S;
• I also acted as Keynotes Chair of numerous VTCs, including 2025S, 2024S, 2023S

Sections/Chapters

I have visited many chapters as a Distinguished Lecturer and supported the membership development, as exemplified by my numerous Distinguished Lecturer Talks.

Student Branches

I started the IEEE Student Branch in Southampton, UK.

Society

Vehicular Technology Society, Communications Society, Signal Processing Society & Information Theory Society

Conferences

• General Chair of WCNC 2009, VTC 2011s, ICC 2013, EUSIPCO 2016, ICASSP 2019, GC 2020, Quantum Week 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, WCNC’23, VTC 2022F;
• Acted as TPC Chair, Keynotes Chair and Award Chair of numerous VTCs, most recently VTC’2020F; VTC19F; VTC Helsinki twice; VTC’23S; 2011S, 2022F, 2026S;
• The VTC I organized in Budapest 2011 was the largest ever VTC since we have had two/year

Qualifications

I have missed only one VTC since 1990 and hence have an innate cohesion with this society. I understand its membership and what makes it a moderately sized, but very stable, vibrant and successful, yet evolving society, which reinvents itself for every new era. I personally know possibly half of the members and have acted in diverse capacities. I have also been educating the membership for over 20 years in form of cutting-edge tutorials. I have been running the historic vision-panels, which was often one of the highest-rated events of the conferences. I conceived the 'out-of-hotel' banquet concept in Budapest, which has become popular since then. I have also been a member of the Fellow Committee and Awards for many years; In 2022 I was Co-Chair of the experimental twin-venue VTC in London and Beijing.

Major Accomplishments

• Following a 10-year career in industry, I moved to academia and recruited as well as funded a 50-strong team;
• I have personally trained 126 PhD students and over 200 MS students;
• I was the EIC of the IEEE Press during 2009 – 2012 and secured a 200K New Initiative Grant to create the electronic book-library to Xplore. Furthermore, I introduced free access to the classic book series as a free membership benefit. For the first time in its history I succeeded in making the Press hugely profitable.
• I acted as Awards Committee Chair of ComSoc for 4 years and a ComSoc Gov. for six years;
• Currently I am  working on a multi-society IEEE-level new initiative on quantum technologies and I am I was also a founding member of the Quantum Engineering journal;
• I have formed the new ComSoc Cttee on quantum communications, which has 500+ members

Statement

I have a passion for educating the membership in all possible form,  for rewarding the deserving researchers by nominating award candidates, serving on the Fellow Cttee, advising the TVT, organizing VTCs, running vision-panels, liaising with the chapters as DL, etc. When I can reduce my workload in my salaried job, I might like to step up to lead the society.

David W. Matolak

Biography: David W. Matolak received the BS degree from The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA; the MS degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA; and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, all in electrical engineering. He has over thirty years’ experience in communication system research, development, and deployment, with government institutions, academia, including nine years in industry with AT&T Bell Laboratories, L3 Communication Systems, MITRE, and Lockheed Martin. He spent thirteen years as a faculty member at Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, and is currently an MCEC Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC. He has published several hundred refereed papers, has eleven patents, and has delivered several dozen invited talks at international venues. He has organized multiple conference workshops and special sessions, and was Associate Editor for several journals for a total of over 22 years. He has been a visiting professor at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the University of Malaga, Spain, NASA Glenn Research Center, and the German Aerospace Center. He has conducted sponsored research for DARPA/AFRL, NSF, NASA, NIST, ONR, and the FAA, and for private industries including L3 Communication Systems, Texas Instruments, Mosaic-ATM, and Roberson and Associates. His research interests include measurement and modeling of non-stationary wireless channels, modulation and detection, and secure and covert communications. He is a member of standards groups in RTCA and ITU, and a member of Eta Kappa Nu, Sigma Xi, Tau Beta Pi, URSI, ASEE, and AIAA. 

IEEE ACTIVITIES

Committee/Boards

• IEEE APS Technical Committee on Propagation, Scattering, & Channel Characterization, 2024-present
• IEEE Communications Society Awards Committee, 2024-present
• IEEE VTS Propagation Committee Chair, 2023-present
• IEEE Communications Society P1944 Site Specific Channel Modeling Subgroup, 2022-present
• IEEE Communications Society P1944 UAV/V2V Channel Modeling Subgroup 2022-present
• IEEE Communications Society Education Board, 2012-2015

Regions

IEEE member while previously residing in Regions 1, 2, & 6; Region 3 member since 2012

Sections/Chapters

Columbia, SC, USA Section (current)

Student Branches

Penn State University
University of Massachusetts
University of Virginia

Society Memberships

Current: Vehicular Technology Society, Communications Society
Past: Aerospace & Electronics Systems, Information Theory, Signal Processing, Social Implications of Technology, Antennas & Propagation

Conferences

Conference Reviewer:
Globecom 2000-present
ICC 2002-present
WCNC 2002-2018
MILCOM 2004-present
VTC Spring/Fall 2004-present
WiVeC, Intell. Transp. Systems 2008-2020
Digital Avionics Sys. Conf. 2015-2025

Conference Technical Program Chair, Committee Member and/or Session/Workshop Organizer:
IEEE MILCOM, 2004-06, 2015-present, 
    TPC Co-chair, 2019, 
    Track Chair, 2018 (Waveforms &SP)
IEEE/AIAA Digital Avionics Systems Conference, 2012-2024, 
    TPC Co-chair, 2016
IEEE Southeastern Symposium on System Theory, 2001
NASA NExTNAS CNS Workshop, 2003
IEEE Aerospace Conference, 2005
IEEE Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications Workshop, 2007, 2008
IEEE European Wireless Conference, 2008, 2009
IEEE Wireless Vehicular Communications Symposium, 2008, 2010, 2011
IEEE International Conference on Communications, 2009, 2012, 2013
IEEE 18th International Conf. on Computer Communications & Networks (ICCCN), 2009
IEEE Vehicular Networking Conference (VNC), 2009-11, Publicity Chair ’09; Publication Chair ‘10
IEEE Radio Wireless Symposium (Veh. Comm. Workshop Organizer), 2011
ACM Vehicular Ad Hoc Network (VANET) Workshop, 2009 
IEEE Integrated Communications, Navigation, & Surveillance Conf., 2011, 2012
European Conference on Antennas & Propagation, 2012-present, (Workshop organizer, 2017)
URSI General Assembly, 2014-present, (Workshop co-organizer, 2016, 2017)
IEEE International Conf. on Comm. (Intelligent Veh. Networking Workshop Organizer, 2012;
Emerging Veh. Networks Workshop Organizer, 2013)
IEEE Globecom Conf. (Veh. Network Evolution Workshop Organizer, 2013; High-Reliability/Low-
       Latency & Attocells Workshop Organizer, 2015)
URSI GASS (High-Mobility Communications and Channels Special Session Organizer, 2014)
IEEE Consumer Comm. & Networking Conf. (Special Session Organizer, 2013, 2017)
European Conf. Antennas & Prop. (Frontiers in Prop. & Chan. Modeling Workshop Organizer, 2017)
IEEE Wireless Communications & Signal Processing Conf. (Comm. Theory Chair, 2017)
IEEE Global Conf. on Signal and Information Processing, Workshop Organizer, 2018

Other

Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, 2017-2021
Editorial Board, UAV Communications for 5G and Beyond, Wiley-IEEE Press, 2019
IEEE Fellow, for contributions to wireless channel modeling and applications, 2021

Other, Non-IEEE

Eta Kappa Nu, 1983-present
Chair, Geo Mobile Radio Standards Group, Telecomm. Industries Assoc. Satellite Comm. Division, 1999-2001
Sigma Xi, 2000-present
American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2002-present
American Society for Engineering Education 2005-present
Editorial Board, Advances in Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks: Developments & Challenges, IGI Publishing, 2010
International Union of Radio Science (URSI), 2012-present
Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA), Special Committee (SC)-228 (Unmanned Aircraft Systems Control & Non-Payload Communications), 2012-2020
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2014-present
Board of Directors, European Association of Antennas and Propagation, 2014-2017
AIAA Digital Avionics Technical Committee, 2014-2025
ITU Radiocommunication Study Group 3, working party 3K, Point-to-Area Propagation, 2016-present
Tau Beta Pi (invited 1992, inducted 2017)
National Academy of Engineering Review Panel, review of National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) Communications Technology Laboratory, June 2019
National Academy of Engineering Review Panel, review of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Communications Technology Laboratory, September 2025

Qualifications

As described in my list of prior and current professional service activities, I have over 25 years of professional service in multiple organizations, much within the VTS. In my earlier years (~ 1999-2015) I was a regular committee member, contributing to conference organization, outreach, and collaborations. In recent years I have taken on more active leadership roles (e.g., Chair of Technical Committee on Propagation, multiple conference Track Chair positions, etc.).
    Having been a member of VTS for 27 years, I have developed a strong understanding of its technical areas, particularly Mobile Radio, which is my own area of research. I have attended on the order of 20 Vehicular Technology and related VTS-sponsored conferences, and have been a TPC member, workshop organizer, and reviewer for more than 20 events, as well as an Associate Editor for TVT for 12 years. 
    In the past several years I have successfully led and coordinated committee activities, delegated and reviewed committee member work, and helped build productive collaborations. As Chair of the Technical Committee on Propagation, I have submitted regular Technical Committee reports to the VTS Board of Governors (BoG), and have also attended several BoG meetings, giving me practical familiarity with BoG operations and expectations. I also recently led the composition of, and submitted, the Technical Committee (TC) Activity & Evaluation Report for our committee.
    I have succeeded as a researcher, teacher, industry engineer, government employee, project leader, and professional society volunteer. My diligence, organizational skills, technical background, and industry connections enable me to contribute effectively as a member of the VTS BoG.

Major Accomplishments

I was a founding member of the IEEE VTS Drone Connectivity Committee in 2018, and assisted the committee chair in elevating this committee from an ad hoc to a standing Technical Committee. With other committee members, I helped develop a student competition and a series of webinars available on the committee’s webpages. Together with the former chair and two other committee members, we gave a well-received presentation on our work to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in May 2024.
    As member of both the IEEE Communications Society’s P1944 Standard for Channel Models of Wireless Systems, Site-Specific Channel Modeling Subgroup and UAV/V2V Channel Modeling Subgroup, I helped recruit new members, expanding these committee rosters from the original 4 or 5 members each, to over 20 members on each committee. I encouraged and contributed to a collaborative paper by the Site-Specific Subgroup (and we are at work on another), and for the UAV/V2V Channel Subgroup I am assisting on work toward an IEEE standard.
    My largest accomplishments have come from work as Chair of the Technical Committee on Propagation. Since beginning this position in May 2023, I have helped grow the committee from 5 original members to over 35 current members, organized into four subcommittees, for which I defined a set of subcommittee operating guidelines. Our Steering Committee published a joint paper in the IEEE VTS Magazine in 2025, and we edited a special issue in that magazine on mobile propagation in 2025. We have also conducted 3 workshops at VTCs, and plan to continue these on a yearly basis. Our committee instituted a new Technical Committee Award for the Best Propagation Ph.D. Thesis, begun in 2025 and continuing yearly. Multiple committee members are cross-collaborating, and we have begun work on a formal liaison with the APS Technical Committee on Propagation. 

Statement

 If elected to the VTS BoG, I will dedicate time to learning more about VTS operations and procedures while serving in whatever specific capacities the VTS President recommends. Serving on the BoG would also enable me to attend more VTCs; I would use those opportunities to speak with more VTS members in person, with an emphasis on gathering their perspectives. My aim would be to understand what members value most in VTS membership; although such input will initially be informal, it can help guide more formal surveys and potentially yield new initiatives that extend VTS’s impact.
    A long-term goal would be to increase industry participation in VTS. This is not a new idea, but gaining more and sustained industry involvement has been challenging. Hence, I will work to test various ideas for enlarging the number of VTS activities that attract industry professionals. Examples include focused VTC workshops, industry-led VTC sessions, invited industry speakers to Technical Committee meetings, etc.
    I would also work to identify whether any existing VTS processes and procedures, for example those related to new awards, could be streamlined. This could also include supporting the development of new activities for both Young Professionals and Women in Engineering.

Alon Newton

Biography: Experienced Electrical Engineer with 30 years’ experience in RF/Microwave, Consumer Electronics, Electro-optics, and Computer Engineering field. I was born, raised, educated, and started my professional career in Israel. After years in defense electronics, I made a shift to consumer electronics and moved to Hong Kong. I migrated to Canada from Hong Kong and worked for a few international and US employers and startup companies for over 15 years. In 2011 I moved to Seattle and have been working for Microsoft & Pivotal Commware, Ossia & Amazon. I volunteered with various organizations over the years: Scouts movement, Israeli Alpine Club and for the last 16 years with the IEEE. I took part in STEM activities and other volunteering opportunities through work. I served in the army (IDF) and is registered as a P.Eng in the province of BC, Canada since 1999. ISO9000 auditor Six Sigma Green Belt. I like climbing, hiking, skiing, and diving.

IEEE ACTIVITIES

Positions

• IEEE AI New Era 2025 Summit Treasurer (present)
• CCECE2025 General Co-chair
• IEEE AI New Era Conference 2024 Treasurer 
• IEEE R6 NW Area Chair (2020 – present)
• IEEE Seattle Section Past Chair 2019/20
• IEEE Seattle Section Chair 2017/18
• IEEE Seattle Section Vice Chair 2016
• IEEE Seattle Section K12 Co-Chair 2015
• IEEE Vancouver Section Past Chair 2014
• IEEE Vancouver Section Chair 2013
• IEEE Vancouver Section Vice Chair 2012
• IEEE Vancouver Section Treasurer 2011
• IEEE Vancouver Section Secretary 2010

Committee/Boards

• IEEE TEC VP of Membership 2026
• IEEE VTS Awards Committee member 2021 – Present
• IEEE VTS Chapters Committee Chair from 2019 – Present
• IEEE GHTC 2016 Organization Committee Seattle Section representative
• IEEE UWB 2009 Organizing Committee (As Exhibitions Coordinator)
• IEEE Vancouver Centennial Logo & Slogan Committee member 2011

Regions

Region 8 

• IEEE Israel Section student member (1988 – 1989)
• IEEE Israel Section member (1991 – 1992)

Region 10

• Maintained my IEEE membership while working in Hong Kong (1992 – 1996)

Regio 7

• IEEE R7 member (1997 – 2014)

Region 6

• IEEE R6 member (2015 – present)

Sections/Chapters

IEEE Vancouver Section (1997 – present)
IEEE Seattle Section (2015 – present)

Student Branches

IEEE Israel Section Technion Student Branch member (1988 – 1989)

Societies

Communications Society (ComSoc)

• IEEE ComSoc member (1997 – present)

Vehicular Technology Society (VTS)

• IEEE VTS member (2000 – present)

Photonics Society (PHO)

• IEEE Photonics member (1999 – 2002)

Intelligent Transportation Systems Society (ITSS)

• IEEE ITSS member (2022 – present)

Conferences

IEEEUWB2009

• IEEE UWB 2009 Organizing Committee (As Exhibitions Coordinator)

GHTC

• IEEE GHTC 2016 Organization Committee Seattle Section representative

CMOS

• I volunteered as a session chair at the CMOS conference in Vancouver

CCECE2025

• I volunteered as a general co-chair at the CCECE conference at UBC in Vancouver

Qualifications

I have all the required experience to contribute to the future of VTS. I have been training the next generation of leaders for the past few years and would like to do more. I am from the industry which lacks proper representation in the IEEE Technical Societies. I currently work in the space industry and would be a great addition to the BoG.

Major Accomplishments

• Expanded the IEEE Vancouver Joint Communications Chapter to include Broadcast Technologies, Intelligent Transportation Systems, Information Theory & Society and Photonics (formerly LEOS). It already included Communications Society and Vehicular Technology Society.
• Established the IEEE Consultants Network in Vancouver (2011) – This affinity group did not exist, and I managed to create interest, hold meetings, and recruit a successor as a Chair for the following years.
• Won best VT-S Chapter 2009 in Vancouver (As the Joint Chapter Chair)
• Won best Worldwide Section in 2010 in Vancouver (As the Vancouver Section Secretary)
• Participated in the centennial committee which chose the Logo, Slogan and the IEEE monument. 
• Expanded the IEEE Seattle Joint Communications Chapter to include VTS, Broadcast Technologies, Intelligent Transportation Systems & Information Theory. 
• Organized VTS Chapter Chairs training for Region 10 in 2023 & 2024
• Won outstanding large technical Chapter in Vancouver Section awards for 2022 & 2023
• Won the Comsoc 2025 North America Region Exceptional Service Award

Statement

If selected, I believe I can represent the interest of VTS within the IEEE TEC. Just within Region 6 where I reside & volunteer, there are quite a few automotive related industries. Volunteering as Chapters Committee Chair for the last few years & being a regional Chapters Coordinator for many years, I learned a lot about VTS governance, and I would like to take an active part in it in the years to come.

Weihua Zhuang

Biography: Weihua Zhuang is a University Professor and a University Research Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo, Canada. She was a Tier I Canada research Chair in Wireless Communication Networks during 2010-2024.  

Weihua has published 15 monographs, 300 journal papers and 200 conference papers, 13 patents and applications, with an H-index of 89 and 29,500 citations, and 15 Best Paper Awards. She delivered 30 keynote presentations at international conferences including 2025 IEEE International Conference on Communications. She has supervised 35 PhD students, 30 MASc students, 27 postdoctoral fellows, and 100 undergraduate co-op students and research assistants.

Weihua is a Fellow of the IEEE, Royal Society of Canada, Canadian Academy of Engineering, and Engineering Institute of Canada.

IEEE ACTIVITIES

Committee/Boards

Technical Activities Board (TAB)

• Periodicals Partnership Opportunities Committee Chair, 2025-2027
• Periodicals Review and Advisory Committee, 2025-2027
• Fellow Committee, 2025-2026 and 2019-2021
• TAB/PSPB Products & Services Committee, 2024

Publication Services & Products Board (PSPB)

• TAB Rep and Member-at-Large, 2026 and 2022-2024
• Publishing Conduct Committee, 2024-2025
• Ad Hoc Committee on Open Review, 2023
• Strategic Planning Committee, 2022
• Nominations and Awards Committee, 2022
• IEEE Access Editorial Board, 2022-2026 and 2017-2019
• TechRxiv Editorial Advisory Board, 2024-2026

Sections/Chapters

Chair, VT Chapter, IEEE Kitchener-Waterloo Section, 2020-2025

Society

Junior Past President, VTS, 2025-2026
President, VTS, 2023-2024
Executive Vice President, VTS, 2022
Chair, TAB Strategic Planning Committee, VTS, 2022
Vice President – Publications, VTS, 2016 – 2021
Chair, IEEE VTS Distinguished Lecturer (DL) Selection Committee, 2013-present

Conferences

Tutorials Co-Chair, IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications, Toronto, Canada, September 2023
General Co-Chair, IEEE/CIC International Conference on Communications in China (ICCC), Xiamen, China, July 2021
Technical Program Committee (TPC) Chair, IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC) 2017 Fall, Toronto, Canada, September 2017
TPC Co-Chair, IEEE VTC 2016 Fall, Montreal, Canada, September 2016

Other

Senior Editor, IEEE Access, 2022 - present
Editor, IEEE Access, 2017 - 2019

Qualifications

I have been actively participating in various volunteer activities in IEEE VTS for more than 20 years and made important contributions in services to the VT community. I have extensive interactions with the VT community via the VTS publications and conferences, which provides me with clear insights on how the VTS can provide better services to its members in the dynamics of its memberships and technical areas. I will continue the endeavors and dedicate time to enhance the benefits and experience of VTS members with the Society.

Major Accomplishments

As VTS President, strengthened member engagement through technical committees and standards, expanded programs for young professionals, and established new Student Scholarship Awards, contributing to membership growth of 20% in 2023 and 22% in 2024.

As the VP for Publications of IEEE VTS (2016-2021), I spearheaded the activities for launching (1) new journal "IEEE Open Journal of Vehicular Technology" in 2019 and (2) new "IEEE Vehicular Technology Society Section" of IEEE Access in 2020, and for growing the new journal which is on the way to receive the impact factor this year. I worked closely with all the Editors-in-Chief of VTS publications, and achieved significant results in growing the journals in quantity (increased submissions and publication page numbers) and quality (increased IFs, H5 index, and Xplore downloads), while improving diversity in the editorial boards.

As the Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions of Vehicular Technology (2007-2013), working diligently with my editors, we significantly improved the journal profile: the annual paper submission number increased from 739 to 1919, annual publication page number increased from 2000 to 4500, average submission to e-publication duration reduced from 22 to 7.5 months, impact factor increased from 1.191 to 2.642, and IEEE Xplore "hits" ranking increased from top 28th to top 20th.

As the TPC Chair of IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference 2017 Fall, working closely with all the symposium co-chairs, we developed an inspiring and solid technical program, with 841 paper submissions, the highest number among the previous six conferences.

Statement

If elected as a member of the VTS Board of Governors, I will work closely with other VTS volunteers in order to:

• grow the VTS membership, especially in under-represented geographical regions, provide VTS members more benefits and services, and engage more volunteers in VTS activities;
• promote and advance VT technical areas via journal publications, conference organizations, standards, and technical committees, such as in Beyond 5G and 6G communication systems, connected vehicles, autonomous driving, vehicle electrification, and land transportation;
• develop new technical initiatives, help junior researchers and engineers in their career progression, grow the VTS Young Professional program, and enhance education activities.