Virginia Tech® home

State of CCI Presentation: Luiz Da Silva

Inaugural Executive Director of the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative

Luiz A. DaSilva is internationally recognized for leadership and innovation in wireless communications and networks research.

Luiz DaSilva, executive director, CCI, 2023 Symposium image of

DaSilva’s 24 years of experience in academia include 17 years as a professor at Virginia Tech, where he is the Bradley Professor of Cybersecurity in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

His research interests include wireless networks, particularly networks of adaptive and cognitive radios and the application of game theory to network resource management.

DaSilva was the telecommunications chairholder at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, and director of CONNECT – the Science Foundation Ireland Centre for Future Communications and Network. CONNECT is a multi-university initiative that focuses on future networks and communications, encompassing the expertise of 250 researchers across 10 universities in Ireland.

DaSilva is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) for his contributions to cognitive networking and to resource management in wireless networks. 

He pioneered the application of game theory to analyze and design wireless networks, writing the first book on the topic. He is also responsible for seminal work on cognitive networking and spectrum and network sharing. 

DaSilva has written two books, more than 300 peer-reviewed papers, and is a frequent keynote speaker and lecturer at events around the world. He is an IEEE Communications Society Distinguished Lecturer (2015-18), a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin, and a former Virginia Tech College of Engineering Faculty Fellow.

DaSilva received his bachelor's degree, master's degree, and Ph.D in electrical engineering from the University of Kansas.