Biography

Syed Waqas Haider Shah (Member, IEEE) is a Juan de la Cierva Research Fellow at IMDEA Networks in Madrid, Spain, and previously held a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowship at the same institution. He received his MS degree in Electrical Engineering from the National University of Science and Technology, Pakistan, in 2016, and his PhD from the Information Technology University, Pakistan, in 2021. During his doctoral studies (2019-2021), he was a Commonwealth split-site PhD student at the Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Cambridge, UK, working under the supervision of Prof. Jon Crowcroft. Dr. Shah has published his research in prestigious venues, including IEEE INFOCOM, ACM MobiSys, IEEE ICC, IEEE Wireless Communication Letters, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, and IEEE Transactions on Green Communication and Networking. He is an active member of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), contributing to Industry Specification Groups focused on Integrated Sensing and Communications (ISAC) and Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS). His distinctions include a Commonwealth and Cambridge Trust PhD Scholarship, an MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship, and a two-year Spanish Juan de la Cierva (JDC) Research Grant. Dr. Shah’s primary research interests encompass ISAC, mmWave networks, 6G, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces, analytical modeling of mobile networks, and quality-of-service provisioning. He actively contributes to the academic community, serving as a program co-chair and technical program committee member for several IEEE and ACM conferences, and as a reviewer for numerous international journals.

Personal Grants and Awards

• Juan de la Cierva Postdoctoral Fellowship (December 2024 – December 2026), Fund = 76,000 €
• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship (September 2022 – September 2024), Fund = 181,000 €
• Commonwealth Split-site PhD program at University of Cambridge, UK (October 2019 – April 2021), Fund = 47,000 €
• Cambridge Trust Fellowship at University of Cambridge, UK (October 2019 – April 2021), Fund = 21,000 €
• Doctoral Fellowship at Information Technology University, Pakistan (February 2017 – December 2021), Fund = 34,000 €

Projects

• TUCAN6 (Tecnologías para la detección y comunicación en redes 6G) (2025 – 2029) funded by the Department of Education and Research of the Regional Government of Madrid, Spain. (Co-PI)
• RISE-MM (Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface-enabled mmWave Communication in Beyond 5G Cellular Networks) (September 2022 – September 2024) funded by Horizon Europe 2020 (Principle Researcher)
• ENABLE-6G (January 2022 – December 2024) funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, European Union NextGeneration (Team member, Responsible for technical deliverables and reporting)
• RISC-6G (Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces and Low-power Technologies for Communication and Sensing in 6G Mobile Networks) (January 2022 – December 2024) funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, European Union NextGeneration-EU TSI-063000-2021-59 (Team member, Responsible for technical deliverables and reporting)

Services and Professional Activities

• Member of ETSI Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) Industry Specification Group
• Member of ETSI Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) Industry Specification Group
• TPC Chair of IEEE VTC2025-Spring 3rd workshop on Advanced and Lightweight Security Solutions for V2X Networks
• Track Chair of IEEE International Mediterranean Conference on Communications and Networking (IEEE MeditCom 2024) 
• Program Chair of IEEE PIMRC 2024 3rd workshop on Advanced & Lightweight Security Solutions for 6G Systems (ALSS-6G)
• Program Chair of IEEE MeditCom 2024 2nd workshop on Advanced & Lightweight Security Solutions for 6G Systems (ALSS-6G)
• Session Chair of “Transmission and Reception 1” at the IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference Spring 2024. 
• Track Chair of Wireless Communications Symposium at IEEE International Conference on Communications (IEEE ICC 2024) 
• TPC member of IEEE GLOBECOM Workshop on Physical Layer Schemes for Security and Privacy in Beyond 5G/6G and Internet of Things (PHYSEC 2023) 
• TPC member of IEEE International Conference on Advanced Communication Technologies and Networking (IEEE CommNet 2023)