People

Prof. Akan is the Chair Professor of Electronic and Communication Engineering and the Head of the Internet of Everything (IoE) Group at the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge. He is also the AXA Chair Professor in Internet of Everything and the Founding Director of Centre for neXt-generation Communications (CXC) and the Director of Next-generation and Wireless Communications Laboratory (NWCL), Koç University. His current research interests are in wireless, space, quantum and biological communications, machine learning, information theory and IoE.

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Haofan Dong joined the IoE group at the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering as a Ph.D. student in 2023, supervised by Prof. Akan. He completed his MRes in Connected Electronic and Photonic Systems CDT (UCL based) in 2023. He received his BEng in Electronic and Computer Engineering from the University of Leeds and BEng in Communication Engineering from Wuhan University of Technology in 2022. Haofan’s research interests include integrated sensing and communication (ISAC), 6G, satellite communications, and space communications.

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Hongbin Ni received his BEng degree in Mechatronic Engineering from the University of Manchester, UK, in June 2021, and his MSc degree in Biomedical Engineering from Imperial College London, UK, in September 2022. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Engineering at the University of Cambridge, UK, under the supervision of Prof. Akan. His research focuses on developing particle-based communication transceivers for brain organoids.

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Mr. Zhengyang Zhang joined the IoE Group as a PhD student in 2023. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronic Information Engineering from Beihang University, awarded in 2020, and a Master of Research degree in Connected Electronic and Photonic Systems from the University of Cambridge, completed in 2021.

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Shaojie Zhang received his B.Sc. degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from University College London, UK, in June 2023, and his M.Phil. degree from the Department of Engineering, Electrical Engineering Division, University of Cambridge, in October 2024. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in the Department of Engineering, Electrical Engineering Division, University of Cambridge, under the supervision of Prof. Akan.

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O. Tansel Baydas joined Cambridge as a Ph.D. student in 2024. He received his B.S. in Electrical & Electronics Engineering and Mathematics from Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey in 2024. His research interests are broadly in communication and information theory for biological and distributed systems.

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Ayse Sila Okcu received her B.Sc. degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, with a dual degree in Mathematics, from Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey, in June 2024. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at the University of Cambridge, under the supervision of Prof. Ozgur Baris Akan. Her research interests include the Internet of Everything and bio-inspired communication systems, with specific interests in molecular communications, neural computations, and biological network modeling.

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Houtianfu Wang (Tiff) joined University of Cambridge as a Ph.D. student in 2024. He received M.S. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of California, San Diego in 2024, and B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from The Ohio State University in 2022. He is currently a member in Internet of Everything group, under the supervision of Prof. Akan.

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Hanlin Cai (Lance) received the B.Sc. degree from the Engineering College, National University of Ireland (Maynooth) in 2024, and the M.Phil. degree from the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge in 2025, where he is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree under the supervision of Prof. Akan. He is a recipient of the Cambridge Trust Scholarship, China CSC Scholarship and the Undergraduate Scholar Awards from top-tier AI conferences, including AAAI 2024 and ACM SIGKDD 2024. His research interests include wireless communication, federated learning, and the Internet of Agents.

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Melih Sahin is a Ph.D. student in Engineering at the University of Cambridge. He joined the Internet of Everything (IoE) Group in October 2025 and is supervised by Prof. Akan. He received an M.S. in Electrical and Electronics Engineering with thesis in 2025 and a B.Sc. in Computer Engineering with a Mathematics minor and an AI track in 2024 at Koç University, after his first year of undergraduate studies at KAIST. His notable distinctions include an Intel ISEF 4th place Grand Award in Mathematics in 2018. His research interests cover Information Theory, Coding Theory, and Molecular Communication.

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Fatih Efe Bilgen is a Ph.D. candidate in Engineering at the University of Cambridge, where he works under the supervision of Prof. Akan. He completed his B.Sc. in Electrical and Electronics Engineering with a dual degree in Mathematics from Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey, in June 2024, followed by an M.S. degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering in July 2025 from the same institution. His research focuses on advancing the Internet of Everything through innovative, bio-inspired approaches. This includes specialized work in areas such as Odor-based Molecular Communication (OMC), Internet of Plants, and Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC).

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Dilara Aktas received her BS degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering in Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey, in June 2019. She is currently a research assistant at the Next-generation and Wireless Communications Laboratory and pursuing her Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering under the supervision of Prof. Akan at Koc University, Istanbul, Turkey.

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Ahmet Burak Kilic completed his high school education Bilfen Kayseri High School, Kayseri, Turkey. He received his B.Sc. degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey. He is also currently a senior student in Business Administration at Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey. He is pursuing his M.Sc. degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Koç University, under the supervision of Prof. Akan.

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Fatih Merdan completed his high school education at Kırıkkale Science High School. He received his B.Sc. degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Middle East Technical University. He is currently pursuing his M.Sc. degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering under the supervision of Prof. Akan at Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey.

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