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Hi, I'm Qiang Liu, an Assistant Professor at the School of Computing, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Prior to joining UNL, I was a Member of Technical Staff at Nokia Bell Labs. I obtained my Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, supervised by Tao Han. I received my M.S. degree in Communication and Information System at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China.
Research
My research goal is to design, develop, and implement networking algorithms and systems for next-gen AI-native wireless networks, and support diversified emerging mobile applications, such as Extended Reality, Autonomous Driving, and Internet of Things. My research philosophy is to integrate theoretical optimization and system experiments in real-world at-scale networks and systems. I am the principal investigator of Husker-Net, which is the first multi-campus private 5G network at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, supported by NSF Campus Cyberinfrastructure (CC*) program. My current research interests include:
  • Wireless Networks: Network Autonomy, O-RAN, Digital Network Twin, Network Slicing, Private Cellular Networks.
  • Trustworthy AI: Reinforcement Learning, Bayesian Optimization, Online Learning, including Safety, Robustness, Explainability, and Interpretability.
  • Edge Computing: Multi-DNN Serving, Connected Autonomous Driving, Field Robotics, Agriculture IoT.
Awards
  • Edgerton Innovation Award: College of Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2025
  • Research Excellence Award: College of Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2024
  • Best Paper Award: IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), 2022
  • Best Paper Award: IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), 2019
  • Best Paper Award: IEEE ComSoc on Transmission, Access, and Optical Systems (TAOS), 2019
  • Outstanding Graduate Student Award: The ECE Department, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2019
News
  • [2025/XX] Happy to join an NSF panel and complete the two-day panel discussion.
  • [2025/04] Yuru is awarded the Milton E. Mohr Fellowship (Year 2025-2026) by the College of Engineering, UNL. Congratulations to Yuru Zhang!
  • [2025/03] Received 2025 Edgerton Innovation Award, College of Engineering!
  • [2025/03] Received an NVIDIA Academic Grant (2x RTX PRO 6000 GPUs) to support our Digital Network Twin research. Thanks, NVIDIA!
  • [2025/03] Our poster on Multi-Layer Digital Transportation Twin is accepted by IEEE MOST 2025. Congratulations to Jiahe Cao! See you in Delaware this May.
  • [2025/03] Xiaomeng is awarded the prestigious Othmer Fellowship ($4000 per year, and up to three years) by the College of Engineering, UNL. Congratulations to Xiaomeng Li!
  • [2025/02] Ming Zhao will join Nokia Bell Labs as a Research Intern this Summer (again) at Murray Hill, NJ. Congratulations to Ming Zhao!
  • [2025/02] Call for Posters and Demos, IEEE MOST 2025, will be held in Newark, DE, this May!
  • [2025/02] Received three-year $289K NSF CSR project on Connected Autonomous Driving (Lead-PI), (NSF 2426481)!
  • [2025/02] Our paper on Interpretable Learning-Assisted Network Slicing has been accepted by IEEE INFOCOM NG-OPERA 2025! Congratulations to Ming and Yuru!
  • [2025/02] Received two-year $173K Nebraska DoT project about cost-efficient rural wireless connectivity (Co-PI), with PI Chun-Hsing Ho, and the other Co-PI Kyungki Kim!
  • [2025/02] Received two-year $186K Nebraska DoT project about field C-V2X interoperability in NE highway (Co-PI), with PI Chun-Hsing Ho, and the other Co-PI Li Zhao!
  • [2024/12] Our paper on Adaptive Online Network Slicing in Open RAN has been accepted by IEEE INFOCOM 2025! Congratulations to Ming and Yuru!
  • [2024/11] Received two-year $286K NSF EPSCoR Research Fellowship on Network Automation in AI-RAN (Sole-PI), (NSF 2428427)!
  • [2024/10] Received 2023-2024 Research Excellence Award, College of Engineering!
  • [2024/10] Happy to participate in the 28th NSF EPSCoR National Conference at Omaha, NE, and present our poster regarding Husker-Net!
  • [2024/10] Our paper on Domain Adaptation for AI-assisted Network Slicing has been accepted by IEEE Transactions on Machine Learning in Communications and Networking!
  • [2024/10] Received two-year $1.34M US DoT project on Rural Transportation Safety (Co-PI), with PI Nathan Huynh, and other Co-PIs Li Zhao and Mehmet Vuran!
  • [2024/08] Received two-year $300K USDA NIFA AFRI project on Digital Farm Twin (PI), with Co-PIs Hongzhi Guo, Yufeng Ge, and Saleh Taghvaeian!
  • [2024/08] Received 9-month $5K NASA Nebraska Space Mini Grant (Sole-PI), (NASA #80NSSC20M0112)!
  • [2024/08] Received three-year $531K NSF CNS Core Small Grant (Sole-PI), (NSF CNS 2333164)!
  • [2024/08] One paper is accepted by IEEE GLOBECOM 2024! Congratulations to Jiahe Cao!
  • [2024/08] One paper is accepted by IEEE GLOBECOM 2024! Congratulations to Ming Zhao!
  • [2024/02] One Paper is accepted by IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology 2024! Congratulations to Yuru Zhang!
  • [2024/02] One paper is accepted by IEEE INFOCOM NG-OPERA 2024! Congratulations to Yuru Zhang!
  • [2024/01] Welcome Jiahe Cao to the INT Lab as a PhD student!
  • [2024/01] Ming Zhao will join Nokia Bell Labs as a Research Intern this Summer at Murray Hill, NJ. Congratulations to Ming Zhao!