Michele Polese
Assistant Research Professor,
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Contact
- m.polese@northeastern.edu
- EXP 650A
815 Columbus Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
Research Focus
Open RAN, O-RAN, 5G/6G wireless networks, mmWave and terahertz mobile networks, performance evaluation of end-to-end, complex networks, open source networking software
About
Michele Polese is a Research Assistant Professor at the Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things, Northeastern University, Boston, since October 2023. He received his Ph.D. at the Department of Information Engineering of the University of Padova in 2020. He then joined Northeastern University as a research scientist and part-time lecturer in 2020. During his Ph.D., he visited New York University (NYU), AT&T Labs in Bedminster, NJ, and Northeastern University.
His research interests are in the analysis and development of protocols and architectures for future generations of cellular networks (5G and beyond), in particular for millimeter-wave and terahertz networks, spectrum sharing and passive/active user coexistence, open RAN development, and the performance evaluation of end-to-end, complex networks. He has contributed to O-RAN technical specifications and submitted responses to multiple FCC and NTIA notice of inquiry and requests for comments, and is a member of the Committee on Radio Frequency Allocations of the American Meteorological Society (2022-2024). He is PI and co-PI in research projects on 6G funded by the NTIA, the O-RAN ALLIANCE, U.S. NSF, OUSD, and MassTech Collaborative, and was awarded with several best paper awards and the 2022 Mario Gerla Award for Research in Computer Science. Michele is serving as TPC co-chair for WNS3 2021-2022, as an Associate Technical Editor for the IEEE Communications Magazine, as a Guest Editor in an IEEE JSAC Special Issue on Open RAN, and has organized the Open 5G Forum in Fall 2021 and the NextGenRAN workshop at Globecom 2022.
Honors & Awards
Research Overview
Open RAN, O-RAN, 5G/6G wireless networks, mmWave and terahertz mobile networks, performance evaluation of end-to-end, complex networks, open source networking software
Selected Research Projects
- Sharing Spectrum, Services, and Infrastructure in Spectrum Era 4
- – Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
- AutoRAN: Automated End-to-End Continuous Testing for Open and Disaggregated Cellular Systems
- Principle Investigator, CHIPS and Science Act
- DigiRAN: High-Fidelity Digital Twins for Interoperability, Security and Performance Testing of Open RAN Systems
- – co-Principle Investigator, CHIPS and Science Act
- Dynamically Adjustable Spectrum Sharing between Ground Communication Networks and Earth Exploration Satellite Systems Above 100 GHz
- – co-Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
Sep 23, 2025
2025 Stanford University Annual Assessment of Author Citations
The following COE professors are among the top scientists worldwide selected by Stanford University representing the top 2% of the most-cited scientists with single-year impact in various disciplines. The selection is based on the top 100,000 by c-score (with and without self-citations) or a percentile rank of 2% or above. The list below includes those who published a paper in 2025 or later.
Jul 28, 2025
Polese Elected For AI-And-RAN Working Group
ECE Assistant Research Professor Michael Polese was elected as Chair of the WG2 AI-and-RAN Working Group.
Jul 15, 2025
Sharing Radio Waves For Better Connections
Assistant Research Professor Michael Polese, William Lincoln Smith Professor Tommaso Melodia, and WIoT Research Scientist Paolo Testolina were awarded a $759,422 NSF grant for “Sharing Spectrum, Services, and Infrastructure in Spectrum Era 4.”
Jun 03, 2025
Can the Dept. Of Transportation and Sean Duffy Fix an Antiquated and Frequently Broken Air Traffic Control System?
Michele Polese is an assistant research professor of electrical and computer engineering at Northeastern University and expert in wireless networks. He called the plan to upgrade the air traffic control […]
Feb 07, 2025
Patent for AI-Driven Wireless Beam Management
ECE Principal Research Scientist Michele Polese, Assistant Professor Francesco Restuccia, and Professor Tommaso Melodia were awarded a patent for “Coordination-free mmWave beam management with deep waveform learning.”
Jan 31, 2025
2024 Stanford University Annual Assessment of Author Citations
The following COE professors are among the top scientists worldwide selected by Stanford University representing the top 2% of the most-cited scientists with single-year impact in various disciplines. The selection is based on the top 100,000 by c-score (with and without self-citations) or a percentile rank of 2% or above. The list below includes those who published a paper in 2024 or later.
Nov 26, 2024
Optimizing Wireless Backhaul Networks
ECE Research Scientist Gabriele Gemmi, Assistant Research Professor Michael Polese, and William Lincoln Smith Professor Tommaso Melodia received the Best Paper Award for “Optimizing and Managing Wireless Backhaul for Resilient Next-Generation Cellular Networks” at the 20th International Conference on Network and Service Management (CNSM).
Oct 23, 2024
Patent for Improving O-RAN Efficiency and Flexibility
ECE Associate Research Professor Salvatore D’Oro, William Lincoln Smith Professor Tommaso Melodia, Assistant Research Professor Michele Polese, and Associate Research Scientist Leonardo Bonati were awarded a patent for “Intelligence and learning in O-RAN for 5G and 6G cellular networks.”
Jun 05, 2024
Best Paper Runner-Up for X5G Open Testbed
ECE PhD students, and ECE and WIOT faculty and research staff received the Best Paper Runner-Up for their paper, “An Open, Programmable, Multi-Vendor 5G O-RAN Testbed With NVIDIA ARC and OpenAir Interface,” at the 2nd Workshop on Next-Generation Open and Programmable Radio Access Networks (NG-OPERA).
Jun 05, 2024
Best Short Paper Award for Simulating Connected Cars With ColosSUMO
ECE Research Engineer Gabriele Gemmi, Principal Research Scientist Pedram Johari, Assistant Research Professor Michael Polese, and William Lincoln Smith Professor Tommaso Melodia received the Best Short Paper Award for their paper “ColosSUMO: Evaluating Cooperative Driving Applications With Colosseum” at the 2024 IEEE Vehicular Networking Conference (VNC) in Japan.