Tingjun Chen, Ph.D.

: tingjun.chen [at] duke.edu
: Wilkinson 411 & 429
: (919) 613-1581
: FuNCtions Lab

I am the Nortel Networks assistant professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering with a secondary appointment in Computer Science at Duke University. I direct the , working with a group of talented students on various projects cutting across the networking, communication, sensing, and energy-efficient computing aspects of wireless, mobile, optical, and quantum networked systems. We also investigate new features and novel applications that can be enabled by these networks, and our research spans both the theoretical and experimental domains. In addition, I am a co-founder and advisor of WiLO Networks Inc., a start-up focusing on low-power sensor hardware and end-to-end systems.

Before joining Duke in Fall 2021, I was a postdoc in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Yale University in 2020–2021, working with Prof. Leandros Tassiulas and Prof. Lin Zhong. Before that, I received my Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University in 2020 (advisor: Prof. Gil Zussman) and my B.Eng. degree in Electronic Engineering from Tsinghua University in 2014 (advisors: Prof. Zhisheng Niu and Prof. Sheng Zhou).

Interests: I am interested in the broad areas of future wireless, mobile, optical, and quantum networks as well as intelligent IoT systems. My recent research focuses on both theoretical and experimental aspects of massive antenna systems and millimeter-wave networks, optical and quantum networks, and spectrum sharing systems, and their convergence with edge cloud, energy-efficient computing, and AI/ML. I also enjoy building efficient hardware-software systems and experimental testbeds at scale.

Impacts: My research has been recognized by an NSF CAREER Award (2025), two NVIDIA Academic Awards (2025, 2024), two IBM Academic Awards (2023, 2021), a Google Research Scholar Award (2021), the Columbia Engineering Morton B. Friedman Memorial Prize for Excellence (2021), the Columbia University Eli Jury Award (2021), a Facebook Fellowship (2019), and a Wei Family Private Foundation (WFPF) Fellowship (2014). I have received multiple paper awards from IEEE/Optica OFC’24 (Top-Scored Paper), IEEE/Optica OFC’23 (Top-Scored Paper), ECOC’23 (Best Paper Award), ACM CoNEXT’16 (Best Paper Award), ACM MobiHoc’19 (Best Paper Finalist), and IEEE MTT-S IMS’19 (Advanced Practice Paper Finalist). My Ph.D. thesis received the ACM SIGMOBILE Dissertation Award Runner-up. WiLO Networks Inc. has been supported by NSF SBIR Phase I and Phase II Awards (TI-2108012 and TI-2345381).

I am always looking for motivated and creative B.S., M.S., Ph.D. students, and Postdocs to join my group in Duke ECE. If you are interested, please email me your CV, transcript, and a brief note about your research interests, and I would be happy to chat!

Ongoing Projects:

[NSF CIRC GRAND/ENS] COSMOS3: Enhancing and Sustaining the COSMOS Platform [award info] [Columbia news]
[ARO] Machine Intelligence on Wireless Edge Networks (MIWEN) [proof-of-concept paper]
[NSF CAREER] Toward Efficient and Scalable Mobile Fronthaul Empowered by Analog Radio-over-Fiber [award info]
[NSF CC* Integration-Large] Scaling Scientific Workloads on Distributed Commodity GPUs and Storage through Campus-level RDMA Networking [award info]
[NSF NewSpectrum] Enabling Dense and In-situ Spectrum Monitoring via Circuits-system Co-design
[NSF EAGER] An Integrated Fiber Sensing and Communication Living Lab in the Research Triangle
[SRC/DARPA JUMP 2.0] Center for Ubiquitous Connectivity (CUbiC) [CUbiC website] [center info]
[NSF SII-NRDZ] Spectrum Sharing via Consumption Models and Telemetry in an Urban FCC Innovation Zone
[NSF CISE] Medium: Softwarizing Millimeter-wave Radio Access Networks at the Edge
[NSF NAI] National AI Institute for Edge Computing Leveraging Next-generation Networks [Athena website]

Past Projects:

[Enegis, LLC] Newberry DAS Interrogator and PFI Nodal Seismic Sensor Deployment
[NEC Labs America] Open Optical Transport System for Data Center Applications
[Duke DST Launch] The Duke Quantum Network [Duke news]
[NTT] Machine Learning Technology for Resilient Optical Network
[NSF SWIFT] Spectrum Coexistence with Rapid Interferer Learning, Detection, and Mitigation
[Duke Engineering BtH Initiative] Lighting a Dark Fiber Network for Hybrid Quantum-Classical Experimental Research [Pratt news]
[NSF PAWR] Cloud Enhanced Open Software-defined Mobile Wireless Testbed for City-scale Deployment [COSMOS website]
[NSF EARS] FlexICoN: Full-duplex Wireless: From Integrated Circuits to Networks (Columbia) [FlexICoN website]
[NSF CISE] EnHANTs: Energy-Harvesting Active Networked Tags (Columbia) [EnHANTs website]

Recent Talks:

[Dec. 2025] ``IoT-MCP: Design and Control IoT Systems via LLMs’’, Education Track at NeurIPS.
[Nov. 2025] ``Scalable and Real-time Baseband Processing using Heterogeneous Compute Resources’’, First OAI Foundation U.S. Hands-on Workshop.
[Oct. 2025] ``Scalable Wireless Digital Twins and Machine Learning for High-fidelity RF Signal Mapping’’, NextG Alliance Technology Roadmap Working Group and Wireless Institute at the University of Notre Dame.
[June 2025] ``Scalable Wireless Digital Twins for High-fidelity RF Signal Mapping’’, Nokia Bell Labs and Samsung Research America.
[Apr. 2025] ``Toward Intelligent and Efficient Optical Networks: Performance Modeling, Co-existence, and Field Trials’’, MIT Optics and Quantum Electronics (OQE) Seminar.
[Mar. 2025] ``Scalable ML Models for Optical Transmission System Management’’, IEEE/Optica OFC.
[Mar. 2025] ``Scalable Wireless Digital Twins for High-fidelity RF Signal Mapping’’, FCC Technological Advisory Council Working Group on AI/ML.
[Sept. 2024] ``Toward Intelligent and Efficient Optical Networks: Performance Modeling, Co-existence, and Field Trials’’, 6G-XCEL/ACCoRD Joint Workshop.
[Sept. 2024] ``Scalable Wireless Digital Twins for High-fidelity RF Signal Mapping’’, SpectrumX AI/ML Research Community Seminar.
[Aug. 2024] ``Toward Intelligent and Efficient Optical Networks: Performance Modeling, Co-Existence, and Field Trials’’, Optica Technical Group Webinar (Optical Communications Technical Group).
More talks and videos see below…

Talk at the first OAI foundation U.S. hands-on workshop

Talk at the 6G-XCEL/ACCoRD joint workshop

Talk at the ACM SIGMOBILE community workshop

Overview of the COSMOS testbed at ACM MobiCom'20

My Ph.D. life at Columbia Enginering

Interviewed by WebsEdge Science

Acknowledgments: Our research projects are supported in part by grants from NSF (CAREER, CIRC GRAND/ENS, CC* Integration-Large, NewSpectrum, EAGER, SII-NRDZ, CISE Core, SWIFT, and Athena AI Institute for Edge Computing), ARO (W911NF2510241), SRC/DARPA JUMP 2.0 Center for Ubiquitous Connectivity (CUbiC), Duke Science & Technology Initiative and Pratt School of Engineering, as well as grants and gifts from ACM SIGMOBILE, Enegis, Google, IBM, NEC Labs America, NTT, and NVIDIA. The findings, positions, or opinions of our research projects do not necessarily represent the official policy of any of these organizations.

news

Feb 28, 2026	Two papers on agentic AI frameworks for (i) Automated photonic device characterization and measurement, accepted to APS/IEEE/Optica CLEO’26, and (ii) Scalable and robust optical systems control [tech report].
Feb 27, 2026	Three papers papers were accepted to IEEE DySPAN’26: (i) Multi-channel real-time D-band beamformer based on the RFSoC ZCU216 platform, (ii) Real-time imaging processing for spectrum energy detction, and (iii) Radio dynamic zone management system design for the PAWR COSMOS testbed.
Jan 31, 2026	Our paper on simultaneous radar-based odometry and synthetic-array sensing for UAVs was accepted to IEEE ICRA’26.
Jan 29, 2026	Our paper on mmWave ISAC with sub-symbol beam switching was accepted to IEEE MTT-S RFSA’26.
Dec 22, 2025	Our paper in collaboration with the Duke Quantum Center on the first coexistence field Trial of 1092 nm quantum link, coherent 400 GbE, and 5G Service was accepted to IEEE/Optica OFC’26.

selected publications

MobiCom

Wireless

Systems

Nexus: Efficient and Scalable Multi-Cell mmWave Baseband Processing with Heterogeneous Compute

Zhenzhou Qi, Chung-Hsuan Tung, Zhihui Gao, and Tingjun Chen

In Proc. ACM International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking (MobiCom’26), 2026

Bib Code

@inproceedings{qi2026nexus,
  title = {Nexus: Efficient and Scalable Multi-Cell mmWave Baseband Processing with Heterogeneous Compute},
  author = {Qi, Zhenzhou and Tung, Chung-Hsuan and Gao, Zhihui and Chen, Tingjun},
  booktitle = {Proc. ACM International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking (MobiCom'26)},
  year = {2026},
  topic_primary = {Wireless},
  topic_secondary = {Systems}
}

RFSA

Wireless

Systems

Chameleon: Integrated Sensing and Communication with Sub-Symbol Beam Switching in mmWave Networks

Zhihui Gao, Zhecun Liu, and Tingjun Chen

In Proc. IEEE MTT-S RF Systems & Applications Symposium (RFSA’26), 2026

Bib

@inproceedings{gao2026chameleon,
  title = {Chameleon: Integrated Sensing and Communication with Sub-Symbol Beam Switching in mmWave Networks},
  author = {Gao, Zhihui and Liu, Zhecun and Chen, Tingjun},
  booktitle = {Proc. IEEE MTT-S RF Systems \& Applications Symposium (RFSA'26)},
  year = {2026},
  topic_primary = {Wireless},
  topic_secondary = {Systems}
}

OFC

Optics

Systems

Coexistence Field Trial of 1092 nm Quantum Link, Coherent 400 GbE, and 5G Services

Zehao Wang, Denton Wu, Mingzhe Han, Mika A. Zalewski, Ana Luiza Ferrari, Yuanheng Xie, Norbert M. Linke, and Tingjun Chen

In Proc. IEEE/Optica Optical Fiber Communications Conference (OFC’26), 2026

Bib

@inproceedings{wang2026coexistence,
  title = {Coexistence Field Trial of 1092 nm Quantum Link, Coherent 400 GbE, and 5G Services},
  author = {Wang, Zehao and Wu, Denton and Han, Mingzhe and Zalewski, Mika A. and Luiza Ferrari, Ana and Xie, Yuanheng and Linke, Norbert M. and Chen, Tingjun},
  booktitle = {Proc. IEEE/Optica Optical Fiber Communications Conference (OFC'26)},
  year = {2026},
  topic_primary = {Optics},
  topic_secondary = {Systems}
}

JOCN

Optics

AI/ML

Scalable ML Models and Cascaded Learning for Efficient Multi-Span OSNR and GSNR Prediction

Zehao Wang, Agastya Raj, Giacomo Borraccini, Shaobo Han, Yue-Kai Huang, Ting Wang, Marco Ruffini, Dan Kilper, and Tingjun Chen

IEEE/Optica Journal of Optical Communications and Networking, 2026

Invited Paper to the JOCN Special Issue on Invited/Top-Rated Papers from IEEE/Optica OFC’25

Bib

@article{wang2026scalable,
  title = {Scalable ML Models and Cascaded Learning for Efficient Multi-Span OSNR and GSNR Prediction},
  author = {Wang, Zehao and Raj, Agastya and Borraccini, Giacomo and Han, Shaobo and Huang, Yue-Kai and Wang, Ting and Ruffini, Marco and Kilper, Dan and Chen, Tingjun},
  journal = {IEEE/Optica Journal of Optical Communications and Networking},
  volume = {18},
  number = {1},
  pages = {A88--A99},
  year = {2026},
  publisher = {IEEE},
  topic_primary = {Optics},
  topic_secondary = {AI/ML}
}

Sci. Adv.

AI/ML

Wireless

Disaggregated Machine Learning via In-Physics Computing at Radio Frequency

Zhihui Gao, Sri Krishna Vadlamani, Kfir Sulimany, Dirk Englund, and Tingjun Chen

Science Advances, 2026

Bib

@article{gao2026disaggregated,
  title = {Disaggregated Machine Learning via In-Physics Computing at Radio Frequency},
  author = {Gao, Zhihui and Vadlamani, Sri Krishna and Sulimany, Kfir and Englund, Dirk and Chen, Tingjun},
  journal = {Science Advances},
  volume = {12},
  number = {2},
  pages = {eadz0817},
  year = {2026},
  publisher = {American Association for the Advancement of Science},
  topic_primary = {AI/ML},
  topic_secondary = {Wireless}
}

JLT

Optics

Systems

Optical Link Tomography: First Field Trial and 4D Extension

Takeo Sasai, Giacomo Borraccini, Yue-Kai Huang, Hideki Nishizawa, Zehao Wang, Tingjun Chen, Yoshiaki Sone, Minami Takahashi, Tatsuya Matsumura, Masanori Nakamura, and others

IEEE/Optica Journal of Lightwave Technology, 2025

Invited Paper to the JLT Special Issue on Postdeadline Papers from IEEE/Optica OFC’24

DOI Bib

@article{sasai2025optical,
  title = {Optical Link Tomography: First Field Trial and 4D Extension},
  author = {Sasai, Takeo and Borraccini, Giacomo and Huang, Yue-Kai and Nishizawa, Hideki and Wang, Zehao and Chen, Tingjun and Sone, Yoshiaki and Takahashi, Minami and Matsumura, Tatsuya and Nakamura, Masanori and others},
  journal = {IEEE/Optica Journal of Lightwave Technology},
  volume = {43},
  number = {24},
  pages = {10776--10787},
  year = {2025},
  publisher = {IEEE},
  doi = {10.1109/JLT.2025.3620127},
  topic_primary = {Optics},
  topic_secondary = {Systems}
}

JOCN

Optics

AI/ML

Multi-Span Optical Power Spectrum Prediction Using Cascaded Learning with One-Shot End-to-End Measurement

Zehao Wang, Yue-Kai Huang, Shaobo Han, Daniel Kilper, and Tingjun Chen

IEEE/Optica Journal of Optical Communications and Networking, 2025

Invited Paper to the JOCN Special Issue on Top-Scored Papers from IEEE/Optica OFC’24

DOI Bib Code

@article{wang2025multj,
  title = {Multi-Span Optical Power Spectrum Prediction Using Cascaded Learning with One-Shot End-to-End Measurement},
  author = {Wang, Zehao and Huang, Yue-Kai and Han, Shaobo and Kilper, Daniel and Chen, Tingjun},
  journal = {IEEE/Optica Journal of Optical Communications and Networking},
  volume = {17},
  number = {1},
  pages = {A23--A33},
  year = {2025},
  publisher = {IEEE},
  doi = {10.1364/JOCN.533634},
  topic_primary = {Optics},
  topic_secondary = {AI/ML}
}

MobiCom

Wireless

Systems

Savannah: Efficient mmWave Baseband Processing with Minimal and Heterogeneous Resources

Zhenzhou Qi, Chung-Hsuan Tung, Anuj Kalia, and Tingjun Chen

In Proc. ACM International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking (MobiCom’24), 2024

DOI Bib Code

@inproceedings{qi2024savannah,
  title = {Savannah: Efficient {mmWave} Baseband Processing with Minimal and Heterogeneous Resources},
  author = {Qi, Zhenzhou and Tung, Chung-Hsuan and Kalia, Anuj and Chen, Tingjun},
  booktitle = {Proc. ACM International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking (MobiCom'24)},
  year = {2024},
  doi = {10.1145/3636534.3690707},
  topic_primary = {Wireless},
  topic_secondary = {Systems}
}

MobiCom

Wireless

Systems

Mambas: Maneuvering Analog Multi-User Beamforming Using an Array of Subarrays in mmWave Networks

Zhihui Gao, Zhenzhou Qi, and Tingjun Chen

In Proc. ACM International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking (MobiCom’24), 2024

DOI Bib Code

@inproceedings{gao2024mambas,
  title = {Mambas: Maneuvering Analog Multi-User Beamforming Using an Array of Subarrays in {mmWave} Networks},
  author = {Gao, Zhihui and Qi, Zhenzhou and Chen, Tingjun},
  booktitle = {Proc. ACM International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking (MobiCom'24)},
  year = {2024},
  doi = {10.1145/3636534.3649390},
  topic_primary = {Wireless},
  topic_secondary = {Systems}
}

DySPAN

Wireless

AI/ML

Geo2SigMap: High-Fidelity RF Signal Mapping Using Geographic Databases

Yiming Li, Zeyu Li, Zhihui Gao, and Tingjun Chen

In Proc. IEEE International Symposium on Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks (DySPAN’24), 2024

DOI Bib Code

@inproceedings{li2024geo2sigmap,
  title = {{Geo2SigMap}: High-Fidelity {RF} Signal Mapping Using Geographic Databases},
  author = {Li, Yiming and Li, Zeyu and Gao, Zhihui and Chen, Tingjun},
  booktitle = {Proc. IEEE International Symposium on Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks (DySPAN'24)},
  year = {2024},
  doi = {10.1109/DySPAN60163.2024.10632773},
  topic_primary = {Wireless},
  topic_secondary = {AI/ML}
}

JLT

Optics

Systems

Field Trial of Coexistence and Simultaneous Switching of Real-Time Fiber Sensing and Coherent 400 GbE in a Dense Urban Environment

Zehao Wang, Yue-Kai Huang, Ezra Ip, Zhenzhou Qi, Gil Zussman, Dan Kilper, Koji Asahi, Hideo Kageshima, Yoshiaki Aono, and Tingjun Chen

IEEE/Optica Journal of Lightwave Technology, 2024

Invited Paper to the JLT Special Issue on Top-Scored Papers from IEEE/Optica OFC’23

DOI Bib

@article{wang2024field,
  title = {Field Trial of Coexistence and Simultaneous Switching of Real-Time Fiber Sensing and Coherent 400 {GbE} in a Dense Urban Environment},
  author = {Wang, Zehao and Huang, Yue-Kai and Ip, Ezra and Qi, Zhenzhou and Zussman, Gil and Kilper, Dan and Asahi, Koji and Kageshima, Hideo and Aono, Yoshiaki and Chen, Tingjun},
  journal = {IEEE/Optica Journal of Lightwave Technology},
  volume = {42},
  number = {4},
  pages = {1304--1311},
  year = {2024},
  publisher = {IEEE/Optica},
  doi = {10.1109/JLT.2023.3319166},
  topic_primary = {Optics},
  topic_secondary = {Systems}
}