IEEE Fellow Chengshan Xiao, Chandler Weaver Professor and Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Lehigh University, has been elected as the Vice President for Conferences of the IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc).
Xiao, who is IEEE ComSoc’s current Vice President for Publications, has held many leadership positions in the 30,000-member international organization throughout more than 30 years of developing products and conducting research in wireless communications and signal processing. His career has spanned industry, academia, and government, and he brings experience garnered in China, Australia, Canada, Germany, and the United States to the position.
IEEE ComSoc “promotes technological innovation and fosters creation and sharing of information among the global technical community,” according to its website. The organization publishes 26 journals and five technical magazines and sponsors more than 60 conferences—with an annual total of over 18,000 submissions and 7,000 published papers and the involvement of 5,000 volunteers and 12,000 attendees, says Xiao.
“Conferences sponsored by the IEEE Communications Society cover a vast array of topics—with an impressive number of attendees and global reach,” he says. “By continuing to expand, diversify, and strengthen these premier platforms, we have a remarkable opportunity to empower our members in their professional journeys and shape the future our field as a whole.”
Xiao has also served as Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications (2010-2013), Member-at-Large (2012-2014 and 2019-2021), Director of Conference Publications (2014-2015), and Awards Committee Chair (2018-2019). He was the Technical Program Chair for IEEE ICC 2010 (Cape Town, South Africa) and Technical Program Co-Chair for 2017 IEEE GLOBECOM (Singapore).
He joined Lehigh’s P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science in 2017. His research explores topics such as wireless communications, signal processing, underwater acoustic communications, and artificial intelligence.
Xiao previously served as a professor at Missouri University of Science & Technology, and as a Program Director with the National Science Foundation’s Division of Electrical, Communications, and Cyber Systems. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and has received numerous distinguished honors and recognitions, such as the Humboldt Research Award, Harold Sobol Award, and Joseph LoCicero Award.
Xiao says one of his top goals for his upcoming term (beginning January 1, 2024) is to “focus on enhancing diversity across all dimensions, so that the conferences we sponsor reflect the global landscape of communication and information technologies.”
He also wants to “streamline the submission-to-conference process without compromising review quality” and “expand conference portfolios to increase participation from academia, industry, and government entities—especially early-career professionals and industry recruiters—while keeping affordability in mind and increasing opportunities for student travel grants.”
Xiao served on the society’s Fellow Evaluation Committee from 2012 to 2015 and was also the Founding Chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on Wireless Communications (2007-2008). He served as Symposium/Track Chair for GLOBECOM ’05, WCNC ’07, ICC ’08, ICC ’12.
He holds a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Sydney (Australia), as well as an MS from Tsinghua University and a BS from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, both in electronic engineering.
