MARIETTA, Ga. | Feb 7, 2024

Kennesaw State University’s master’s in information technology student, Yongshuai Wu, was honored with the prestigious Globecom 2023 Best Paper Award for the Internet of Things (IoT) and Sensor Networks Symposium on December 7, 2023, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Globecom conference, organized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) Communications Society, serves as a premier platform for global innovation in communications technology, and receives over 2,000 research paper submissions annually.

Wu, an international student from China, was enthusiastic about his first major accolade at such a renowned conference. “This was my first peer-reviewed academic research paper, and it was a total surprise to me when I learned that my work had been chosen to win the Best Paper Award.” The award-winning paper, titled, “Cross-Modal Reasoning Model for Improved Learning Efficiency in IoT Environments,” proposes a revolutionary approach to managing multiple sensors in complex tasks.

His research focuses on embedded intelligent systems, particularly autonomous robots in logistics, bridging artificial general intelligence, robotics, IoT, and cyber-physical systems. The model, known as CMRM, extracts high-dimensional information from various sensors, efficiently reasons from multiple modalities, and aligns learned task policies to offer zero-shot generalization to unseen environments. 

The methodology of the award-winning paper involves a unique encoder-decoder network structure with transformer layers for relationship extraction. Wu’s team successfully deployed the CMRM to a robot for radio-frequency identification (RFID) based inventory tasks, showcasing a 20-times improvement in learning efficiency. Wu further emphasized the framework’s ability to handle multiple sensors outputting different data modalities, offering significant improvements in task generalization for unseen scenarios.

When asked about his paper, Wu expressed sincere gratitude to his advisors, Prof. Jian Zhang and Prof. Shaoen Wu for their guidance and explained how their expertise helped him plan his research. He confided, “During the process, I struggled and encountered challenges with maintaining the project, changing methodology, and drafting the paper. But Prof. Wu, as a senior researcher, gave me a high-level view of research, so I learned how to plan my research journey. Meanwhile, Prof. Zhang, with his years of research and work experience, taught me a lot about the importance of the details.” He stressed that the effort to face the challenges paid off and now he can be more efficient when working on future projects.

Reflecting on his success, he acknowledged the challenges faced during the project but emphasized the valuable lessons learned. He credited teamwork as a cornerstone, highlighting the contributions of undergraduate students, Chris Turner and Hanson Chaney to the virtual warehouse development using a game engine. Additionally, he expressed gratitude to Dr. Ying Wang from the Department of Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering, Prof. Shiwen Mao from Auburn University’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and the National Science Foundation (NSF) for sponsoring his research projects.

Wu also attributed credit to Dr. Wu regarding his decision to attend KSU. “Before coming to KSU, I focused on engineering projects, especially electric circuits design, and I was part of a research group to help the professor with project implementation, hardware, and software design. During my study, I realized that a good project is one that combines research and implementation.” However, he felt he needed to be more knowledgeable in the latest research and therefore wished to connect with those who are at the forefront of innovation. That’s when one of his friends recommended Dr. Shaoen Wu, Professor and the Department Chair of Information Technology at KSU. After Wu contacted Dr. Wu, he knew he found the mentor he was searching for.

Looking ahead, Wu outlined future research directions, focusing on addressing limitations in complex environments and general tasks. His personal aspirations include staying abreast of the latest trends, publishing more papers, and enhancing his engineering and research capabilities. As he continues to make strides in the field of information technology, his Globecom 2023 Best Paper Award stands as a testament to his dedication, innovation, and the promising future of IoT and sensor networks research.

-Tracy Gaudlip