The AICON Lab, led by Dr. Fang (Fiona) Fang, is affiliated with the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering and the Department of Computer Science at Western University. AICON develops AI-native and quantum-enabled connectivity, optimization, and networking technologies that embed intelligence directly into communication, computing, and network infrastructure.
Our research advances an AI–network co-evolution paradigm in which AI autonomously optimizes network operation, resource orchestration, and system performance, while connectivity infrastructure operationalizes and scales distributed intelligence, including edge and federated learning. We also develop resource-efficient and scalable quantum optimization and machine-learning methods for complex problems in wireless communications, networking, and other industry applications.
Our work emphasizes deployable solutions, including intelligent radio environments such as RIS-enabled systems, AI- and quantum-driven system optimization, integrated communication–sensing–computing, and wireless edge intelligence. Through experimental testbeds, system prototyping, quantum-hardware validation, and industry collaboration, AICON translates these innovations into practical technologies for 6G networks, smart infrastructure, autonomous systems, and mission-critical industrial applications.
Latest news and updates about the research group.
Congratulations to Oladayo on embarking on a new industry role as a Quantitative Risk Management Associate at TD Bank Group. Wishing you great success in this exciting new chapter!
Congratulating Yushen Chen on the acceptance of the paper at Personalized Vehicular Health Diagnosis via Large Language Model, titled: Personalized Vehicular Health Diagnosis via Large Language Model.
Congratulating Bibo Wu on the acceptance of the paper at IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, titled: Straggler-Resilient Federated Learning over A Hybrid Conventional and Pinching Antenna Network.
Congratulating Guan Qiang on the acceptance of the paper at IEEE Internet of Things Journal, titled: Joint Computational Resource Allocation and Layer Partitioning for Federated Learning.
We proudly congratulate Dr. Hong Chen on her new appointment as assistant professor at University of New Brunswick.
Congratulating Dr. Xie on the acceptance of the paper at IEEE Transactions on Communications, titled: Power-Efficient Optimization for Coexisting Semantic and Bit-Based Users in NOMA Networks.
Congratulating Dr. Xie on the acceptance of the paper at IEEE Communications letters, titled: A Low-Complexity Placement Design of Pinching-Antenna Systems.
Congratulations to Bibo Wu on the acceptance of the paper at IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, titled: Stackelberg Game-Based Performance Optimization in Digital Twin-Assisted Federated Learning over NOMA Networks.
Prof. Fang has been awarded the Engineering Junior Faculty Award for Excellence in Research for the 2024–2025 academic year. This prestigious recognition is presented to an outstanding Western Engineering faculty member who has demonstrated exceptional potential in research through the high quality of their contributions.
Congratulating Dr.Xie on the acceptance of paper at at IEEE Communications letters, titled: Rethinking Power Minimization in a Downlink Hybrid NOMA Network.
Congratulations to Oladayo Richard Ogunjimi on the acceptance of the paper at IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC) 2025 Workshop - TOGC6G, titled: A Goal-Oriented Context-Aware Adaptive Semantic Communication Scheme Using a Semantic Mask Module.
Big congratulations to Dr. Hong Chen for receiving the Assistant Professor position at University of New Brunswick!
IEEE ICC Conference, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. June 10, 2025
We proudly congratulate Dr. Chen on her appointment as Assistant Professor.
We proudly congratulate Dr. Chen on her appointment as Assistant Professor.
We are always looking for self-motivated students who want to pursue a Ph.D.
degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
If you are interested in Machine Learning for Intelligent Wireless
Communications, Semantic Communications, Edge AI, or similar topics and
have a solid background in wireless communications or computer science,
please email us your CV and research plan.
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Thompson Engineering Building,
Room TEB 261
Western University
Tel: 519-661-2111, ext. 82135
Email:fang.fang@uwo.ca