ISLANDS doctoral candidate Yuhao Zhang, hosted at Chalmers University of Technology (CHAL), presented his recent research at a flagship international conference of the IEEE Communications Society in December 2025.
From 8–12 December, Yuhao delivered his paper at the IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM) 2025 in Taipei, Taiwan. Under the theme “Sustainable Communications for Ubiquitous Intelligence”, the conference serves as a premier global forum for breakthroughs in communications and networking. His work, “UNILoc: Unified Localization Combining Model-Based Geometry and Unsupervised Learning”, proposed an innovative framework for high-precision positioning tailored to 5G/6G applications such as autonomous driving and navigation.
Accurate mobile device localization is critical, yet existing methods—model-based geometry and machine learning (ML)—each have limitations, especially in challenging non-line-of-sight (NLoS) environments or when labelled data is scarce. Yuhao’s work proposes a unified method that synergistically integrates both approaches by exploiting available map information. To bypass the need for manually collected labelled datasets, the method automatically generates training labels via optimal transport (OT), fusing geometric estimates with building layouts. Ray-tracing simulations demonstrate that UNILoc significantly improves accuracy for both line-of-sight users (compared to pure ML methods) and NLoS users (compared to pure model-based methods). Remarkably, it achieves competitive performance with fully-supervised methods, while eliminating the cumbersome need for labelled data measurement.
Under the supervision of Dr. Musa Furkan Keskin and Dr. Henk Wymeersch, Yuhao’s work drew notable attention from the international research community, stimulating discussions on scalable and robust next-generation positioning systems.
The conference provided an ideal platform for Yuhao to share his findings, engage with global experts, and elevate the visibility of the ISLANDS project at the forefront of telecommunications research.
