The Future of Wireless Communications Networks: A Foresight towards 2050 – Dr. Halim Yanikomeroglu

When: Thursday, February 26, 2026 at 7:00 PM

Where: Blackburn Community Hall, 190 Glen Park Drive

Mobile communications and the Internet are among the two revolutionary technological achievements of the 20th century, with transformative impacts on our lives and society. With one-quarter of the 21st century behind us, the two paradigms with separate origins have become tightly intertwined. Most people access the Internet through their mobile devices most of the time. Today, Internet access implicitly means mobile Internet, making connectivity essential everywhere. The immersed connectivity of humans, robots, and all sorts of devices is expected to become part of our natural lives; as such, ubiquitous connectivity is required.

The humanity will demonstrate its full potential in every dimension (economic prosperity, wellbeing, equal opportunity, environmental, and more), when the communities get access to ultra-high-speed connectivity in a sustainable, reliable, resilient, intelligent, green/clean/eco-friendly, secure, ubiquitous, and affordable manner.

Towards that end, in this seminar, we will explore how wireless networks are expected to evolve towards 2050 with terrestrial and non-terrestrial (space and near-space/stratosphere) segments.

Dr. Halim Yanikomeroglu is a Chancellor’s Professor at Carleton University, Canada, and the Founding Director of Carleton-NTN (Non-Terrestrial Networks) Lab. His research covers many aspects of communications technologies with emphasis on wireless networks. He is a Fellow of several scholarly societies, including IEEE, the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC), the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE), and the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA); he served as a Distinguished Speaker for the IEEE Communications Society and the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society. He has coauthored 700+ peer-reviewed research papers including ~350 papers in 33 different IEEE journals; these publications have received 31,000+ citations. He gives around 25 invited seminars, keynotes, panel talks, and tutorials every year. He has had extensive collaboration with industry which resulted in 42 granted patents and successful technology transfer. He supervised or hosted in his lab 180 postgraduate highly qualified personnel. He served as the General Chair, Technical Program Chair, and Steering Committee Chair/Member of several major international IEEE conferences as well as in the editorial boards of several IEEE periodicals. He is currently serving in various leadership roles in the IEEE. Dr. Yanikomeroglu received several awards for his research, teaching, and service. He holds a PhD degree in electrical and computer engineering from University of Toronto.

Admission is free, refreshments will be served and people of all ages are invited to attend.

Questions & Suggestions? Please email barbara@blackburnhamlet.ca.