Speakers

one6G Summit 2023 gathered over 20 international experts from industry, policy, and academia who came together to talk about the ongoing digital revolution. Meet the speakers of the 2023 edition.

Nancy Alonistioti

Chair, one6G Association; Associate Professor, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Nancy Alonistioti is the chair of one6G Association and an associate professor at the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA). She holds a BSc and a PhD in Informatics and Telecommunications. She has over 20 years of experience in numerous national and European projects, including project/technical management experience. She currently leads the SCAN group activities at the National Kapodistrian University of Athens. She is also a member of the ETSI Experts group and the Greek standardization group ELOT (5G, smart city autonomic communications). Nancy is a highly cited author. She authored over 200 publications in mobile networks, IoT, NGI, SDN/NFV, autonomic communications, and reconfigurable mobile systems. She also coauthored 4 WO Patents.

Clemens Baumgärtner

Department head of Labor and Economic Development, City of Munich

Clemens Baumgärtner studied law at Ludwig Maximilians University Munich; also studied European and international business law (LL.M. EUR.). Lawyer at a corporate law firm in Munich, member of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU). Since March 1, 2019: Head of the Department of Labor and Economic Development and, as such, first port of call at the City of Munich for actors on the labor market and in the business community. The Department of Labor and Economic Development pools the city's capabilities in the fields of economic development, municipal labor market policy/qualifications, tourism marketing and the management of municipal companies and affiliates. It also handles interdepartmental activities in the context of local government's European activities and municipal development cooperation, as well as organizing markets and festivals – including the Oktoberfest, the biggest public festival in the world.

David Boswarthick

Director of New Technologies, ETSI

David Boswarthick is the director of new technologies at ETSI, which involves tracking the latest ICT technology and business trends and all relevant research initiatives to identify appropriate technology standards needs and future opportunities for ETSI. In addition, David works on outreach initiatives toward the research and academic communities, both in Europe and globally, as well as engaging with key European research programs, such as Horizon Europe. David has more than 30 years of experience in the telecommunications sector, which includes over 20 years in the ICT standardization field, supporting both 3GPP and ETSI technical and strategic groups.

Giuseppe Caire

Alexander von Humboldt Professor at Technical University of Berlin

Giuseppe Caire received a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Politecnico di Torino in 1990, a M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University in 1992, and a Ph.D. from Politecnico di Torino in 1994. He is currently an Alexander von Humboldt Professor with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany. He received the Jack Neubauer Best System Paper Award from the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society in 2003, the IEEE Communications Society and Information Theory Society Joint Paper Award in 2004 and in 2011, the Okawa Research Award in 2006, the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship in 2014, the Vodafone Innovation Prize in 2015, an ERC Advanced Grant in 2018, the Leonard G. Abraham Prize for best IEEE JSAC paper in 2019, the IEEE Communications Society Edwin Howard Armstrong Achievement Award in 2020, and he is a recipient of the 2021 Leibniz Prize of the German National Science Foundation (DFG). Giuseppe Caire is a Fellow of IEEE since 2005. He has served in the Board of Governors of the IEEE Information Theory Society from 2004 to 2007, and as officer from 2008 to 2013. He was President of the IEEE Information Theory Society in 2011. His main research interests are in the field of communications theory, information theory, channel and source coding with particular focus on wireless communications.

Konstantinos Chalkiotis

Vice President 6G & NTN, Deutsche Telekom

KyungHi Chang

Chairman, 6G Forum Executive Committee; Professor, Inha University

KyungHi Chang is a professor at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Inha University, the Chairman of the 6G Forum Executive Committee and the Chairman of the Technology Committee for National Integrated Public Network. In addition, he has served as the Vice President of the KICS since 2017. KyungHi received his BSc and MSc degrees in electronics engineering from Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, in 1985 and 1987, respectively, and the PhD in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA, in 1992. From 1989 to 1990, he was a member of the research staff at the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT). From 1992 to 2003, he was with the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) as a Principal Member of the technical staff.. He was a recipient of the Haedong Academic Awards, in 2010, MSIT Minister’s Commendation and KICS Fellow in 2020, and Presidential Commendation, in 2021.

Frank Groeger

Director of Technology Management, Rohde & Schwarz

Frank Groeger is Director of Technology Management at Rohde & Schwarz, Test & Measurement division. In his role he is responsible for the 6G engagements of Rohde & Schwarz. That includes the company’s ambitious activities in organizations as well as in research projects and the company’s 6G positioning. In his previous positions at Rohde & Schwarz he was responsible for strategic marketing. Frank holds a master degree in electrical engineering from Budapest University of Technology and Economics and he received his MBA from Robert Kennedy College, Switzerland. For 12 years he was the chairman of the European Benchmarking Forum, an initiative of the T&M industry. Today, he also supervises the Rohde & Schwarz memberships and represents the company in the ETSI GA.

Doré de Morsier

Founder and Chairman of the Board of Trustees, EuroTube

Prior to my strategic and project developer role at the EuroTube Foundation, I led EuroTube's R&D projects and construction project missions. Before founding and building EuroTube, I founded ETH Zürich's hyperloop university team www.swissloop.ch that competed successfully in SpaceX hyperloop contest. My background is in mathematics and physics.

Luca de Nardis

Associate Professor at Sapienza University of Rome

Luca De Nardis is an Associate Professor at the DIET Department of Sapienza University of Rome. He was previously an Assistant professor at the same institution, and he was also a postdoctoral fellow at the EECS Department at the University of California at Berkeley. Luca De Nardis authored or co-authored over 130 publications in international peer-reviewed journals and conferences on topics including UWB radio technology, indoor and outdoor positioning, Medium Access Control, routing and positioning protocols for wireless networks, and cognitive wireless networks. He held several editor positions for international journals published by Hindawi, Springer and MDPI. He was recently General co-Chair of the CROWNCOM 2020 conference, and Technical co-Chair of the 5G-MeMU 2023 workshop at ACM SigComm. Since 2002, he has been participating in EU-funded projects focusing on Ultra Wide Band communication systems, cognitive radio and networks, and indoor and outdoor positioning. He is an IEEE member since 1998.

Albena Dimitrova Mihovska

Associate Professor, Aarhus University

Albena Mihovska has a PhD degree in EEng (2008) from Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark. She has a strong academic research track record as an Associate Professor at Aalborg University (2008-2017) and Aarhus University (2017-2023), Denmark. She is a Senior Research Expert at the Research&Innovation&Development Consortium (RDIC), Sofia, Bulgaria. Further, she holds positions as a CTO, SmartAvatar BV, The Netherlands and as a Research Director at CTIF Global Capsule (CGC) Foundation, Skagen, Denmark. She is a WG3 Vice-Chair of One6G and a Board Member of EUROMERSIVE. Her research interests are in 6G connectivity for applications across vertical market segments. She is an ITU-T Focus Group on Metaverse (FGMV) Expert, and has been active within ITU-T standardisation since 2011. She serves on the Committees of several prominent IEEE events and has more than 200 peer-reviewed research publications, including several books on 6G.

Anita Doehler

CEO, NGMN Alliance

Anita Doehler has extensive international experience in various business areas including senior management positions with mobile network operators, vendors and consulting firms. From 2016 until 2020, she held senior management positions at Accenture. Prior, she worked at Vodafone Group for 16 years, before at E-Plus and Philips, among others. Anita holds a Dipl.-Ing. degree in Telecommunication Engineering as well as an Executive MBA degree. Furthermore, she is a Systemic Business Coach. Anita is passionate about driving technology innovation for the benefit of human and societies and supporting the world’s leading operators, vendors, and research institutes, since July 2020 as CEO of the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance (NGMN). 

Gerhard Fettweis

Vodafone Chair Professor, Technical University of Dresden

Gerhard Fettweis has been the Vodafone chair professor at the Technical University of Dresden since 1994, and the founding director of the Barkhausen Institute since 2018. He earned his PhD under H. Meyr from RWTH Aachen in 1990. After being a postdoc at IBM Research, San Jose, CA, he moved to TCSI Inc., Berkeley, CA. He coordinates the 5G Lab Germany. In 2019, he was elected into the DFG Senate. His research focuses on wireless transmission and chip design for wireless/IoT platforms, with 20 companies from Asia, Europe, and USA sponsoring his research. He also serves on the board of National Instruments Corporation and advises other companies. Gerhard is a member of the German Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina) and the German Academy of Engineering (acatech). He received multiple IEEE recognitions, the VDE Ring of Honor, and the European SEMI Award. In Dresden, his team has spun-out twenty start-ups and set up funded projects amounting to nearly EUR 1/2 billion.

Sergi Figuerola

Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, i2CAT Foundation; Chief Technology Officer, 5GBarcelona

Sergi Figuerola is the CTIO at i2CAT and the founding member and CTO of 5GBarcelona. He holds a MSc and PhD in Telecommunication Engineering from the Theory and Signal Communications department of the UPC, PDG-2019 from IESE and a Master’s in Project Management from La Salle (URL). He is also a Board Member of the Spanish Digital Association AMETIC and of the Catalan Telecom Association Telecos.cat. At i2CAT, he leads different strategic transversal roles and supervises different areas, such as Innovation Business Development for Public and Private sector, Knowledge and Technology Marketing, Digital Innovation Management Office, and the different 8 R&D areas (5G/6G/SNS, IA, CyberSecurity, SpaceComm, MediaNetworks, IoT). In the last 20 years, he has acted as Project Coordinator, (i.e. 5GCity 5GPPP H2020), Technical Manager (FP7 GEYSERS), and Work Package Leader in several EC-funded research projects. His main research interests are related to 5G/6G, Next Generation Internet, New Space, and Open Innovation.

Maxime Flament

Chief Technology Officer, 5GAA

Dr. Flament represents 5GAA, the global cross-industry association for the development of connected and automated cars, where he works as Chief Technology Officer since April 2018. Maxime was working previously as Head of Department for Connected & Automated Driving (CAD) at ERTICO – ITS Europe, the European association promoting research and deployment on Intelligent Transportation Systems. For 15 years, he has been a leading contributor to many European activities on road safety, connected vehicles, automated driving, large-scale pilots, and digital mapping. Maxime holds a Ph.D. E.E. (2002) and M.Sc. E.E. (1997) from Chalmers Technical University, Sweden. He also holds an “Ingénieur Civil” degree from the Free university of Brussels (1997). In 2001, he was visiting researcher at Stanford University, CA, USA.

Markus Mueck

Principal Engineer and Engineering Manager, Intel

Markus Mueck is a principal engineer at Intel Germany and an engineering director leading Intel’s European standardization organization. He is also a vice chair of the ETSI board, chair of the ETSI OCG AI committee overseeing ETSI’s AI/ML activities, an adjunct professor at the University of Technology, Sydney, and a member of the board of the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) and the ETSI delegation to 3GPP PCG/OP. He is leading the Hexa-X Work Package on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Markus holds Engineer’s degrees from the University of Stuttgart and the ENST (Télécom Paris) and a PhD in Communications from the ENST.

Andreas Mueller

Chief Expert and Project Director, Bosch; General Chair, 5G-ACIA

Andreas Mueller is a renowned expert at the forefront of connectivity research and 5G/6G innovation. As the leader of Bosch's strategic 6G activities across diverse business units and sites, he spearheads holistic transformative endeavors aligned with business imperatives. With his profound expertise in communication technologies for the IoT, he also serves as the chief expert in this field. Andreas has held the position of General Chair of 5G-ACIA, a leading organization driving and shaping industrial 5G, since its establishment in 2018. Andreas’ pivotal contributions also include coordinating and advancing Bosch's Industrial 5G undertakings over the last couple of years, focusing on key areas, such as private networks, Open RAN, AI/ML, and edge computing. Equipped with a robust background in telecommunications and vertical industry applications, Andreas is uniquely positioned to drive the transformative 5G/6G-enabled revolution across various sectors.

Youssef Nasser

5G/6G Business Line Tech. Leader, Greenerwave

Youssef Nasser (PhD, EMBA) obtained his Ph.D. from the National Polytechnic Institute of Grenoble in 2006 and his HDR in 2015 from University of Rennes. He is expected to graduate with an EMBA from ESPC Business School in Paris (2022). He has a long career in the communications community including wireless systems (4G, 5G, 6G, DVB) and fiber optics with a background in both academia and industry. In 2003, he joined the Laboratory of Electronics and Information Technologies in Grenoble where he worked on B3G and 4G systems. In 2007, he has been working as a research engineer with INSA-Rennes and then joined the American University of Beirut (AUB) in 2010. In 2018, he joined Huawei Technologies, Paris Research Center, as a Principal Engineer in the Optical Communications Lab working on developing cutting-edge solutions in this field. In 2022, he joined Greenerwave as 5G/6G Business Line Tech. Leader where he is developing both the technologies and the business of Greenerwave products. He is particularly addressing new use-cases and testbeds for 5G and beyond. In his career, Y. Nasser was actively involved in many European projects including (RISE-6G, ENGINES, WHERE, B21C, NewComm#, etc). Some of these projects received the Golden and Silver awards from the European Union for their achievements. He is also participating or had contributed to many standardization activities (IEEE, ETSI). Y. Nasser was the Chair of the IEEE Lebanon Comm Society Chapter for one term and Secretary of the IEEE Lebanon Section. During these terms he organized many conferences, testbeds, talks, and IEEE student contests/competitions. He has organized several international conferences and had been involved in the organization committees of IEEE flagship conferences (ICC, ICT, PIMRC, SPAWC). He published more than 130 papers in top-tier journals and conferences. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE.

Robert Schober

University of Erlangen-Nuremberg

Robert Schober is an Alexander von Humboldt Professor and the Chair for Digital Communications at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU), Germany. His research interests fall into the broad areas of communication theory, wireless and molecular communications, and statistical signal processing. Robert received several awards for his work including the 2002 Heinz Maier Leibnitz Award of the German Science Foundation (DFG), the 2004 Innovations Award of the Vodafone Foundation, the 2006 UBC Killam Research Prize, the 2007 Wilhelm Friedrich Bessel Research Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the 2008 Charles McDowell Award for Excellence in Research from UBC, the 2011 Alexander von Humboldt Professorship, the 2012 NSERC E.W.R. Stacie Fellowship, the 2017 Wireless Communications Recognition Award by the IEEE Wireless Communications Technical Committee, and the 2022 IEEE Vehicular Technology Society Stuart F. Meyer Memorial Award. Furthermore, he received numerous Best Paper Awards for his work, including the 2022 IEEE Communications Society Stephen O. Rice Prize. Robert has been listed as a Highly Cited Researcher by the Web of Science since 2017. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada, and a Member of the German National Academy of Science and Engineering. He also serves as the Senior Editor of the Proceedings of the IEEE and as ComSoc President-Elect. Robert holds a MSc and PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg.

Mohammad Shikh-Bahaei

Professor, King’s College London

Mohammad Shikh-Bahaei has been engaged in research in the area of wireless communications for 27 years, both in academic and industrial organizations. He has worked for start-up companies on statistical signal processing for interference cancellation, network planning, and optimization of wireless networks. In 2000, he joined National Semiconductor Corp. (NSC), CA, USA (now part of Texas Instruments) and has worked within a team on the design of 3rd generation handsets based on UMTS standards, for which he has been awarded three US patents as inventor and co-inventor, respectively. He returned to the UK in March 2002 as a Lecturer at King’s College London and is now a full Professor of Telecommunications in the Department of Engineering. He is the chair of one6G Association’s Working Group 1 and its representative in the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a Fellow of IET, a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a Senior Member of IEEE.

Slawomir Stańczak

Professor, TU Berlin; Head of Wireless Communications and Networks, Fraunhofer HHI

Sławomir Stańczak is a Professor of Network Information Theory at the Technical University of Berlin and the Head of the Wireless Communications and Networks Department at the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI). He co-authored two books and over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers in the fields of information theory, wireless communications, signal processing, and machine learning. Sławomir received research grants from the German Research Foundation and the Best Paper Award from the German Society for Telecommunications in 2014. He was an associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing from 2012 to 2015 and the chair of the ITU-T Focus Group on Machine Learning for Future Networks, including 5G, from 2017 to 2020. Since 2020, he has served as the chairman of the 5G Berlin Association, and since 2021, he has been the coordinator of the projects 6G-RIC (Research & Innovation Cluster) and CampusOS.

Juergen Sturm

Chair of the Management Board, AIOTI

Juergen Sturm was born in Regensburg in 1968. After completing his law studies at the University of Passau and the second state examination in law at the Berlin Supreme Court, he worked as a lawyer in Berlin and Brandenburg until 2000. He holds an LL.M. Degree in European and International Law from the University of Aberdeen and between 2001 and 2014 was the managing director of various European sector industry associations. Juergen is chairman of the management board of AIOTI and has been active in AIOTI since its creation in 2015. He holds the position of Director for Public Affairs EMEA with Texas Instruments since 2014 and represents TI also in ESIA, DigitalEurope and ZVEI. He has also recently become a member in the DIN presidential committee FOCUS-ICT.

Itsuma Tanaka

President and CEO, DOCOMO Communications Laboratories Europe

Itsuma has 20 years of experience in the telecom industry, particularly in R&D, international telecommunication business, and HR domains. At DOCOMO R&D, he led 4G and 5G core network standardisation in 3GPP and GSMA. In GSMA, he was the chairman of IREG Packet WG and served as editor of various technical guidelines and specifications that are the basis of today’s telecom services. He holds an MBA from ESADE Business School in Barcelona and an MEng in Information Systems Engineering from Imperial College London.

Christoph Thuemmler

Chief Medical Officer, 6G Health Institute

Professor Christoph Thuemmler is a Professor of eHealth and a Consultant Physician and specialist for Care of the Elderly. He studied Medicine, Political Science and Education and gained his PhD in Neurology at Heidelberg University. After specialist training in General Medicine in Germany he worked in the NHS in Scotland where he completed specialist training in General Internal Medicine. He spent 15 years in the United Kingdom, where he became Professor of eHealth at Edinburgh Napier University. Christoph’s research interest revolves around mobile radio connectivity and signal processing in the healthcare and MedTec context. During his tenure he was advisor to the EC at the EU-China Round table on the Internet of Things and convener of the eHealth vertical in the EC’s 5G PPP initiative. After relocating back to Germany he took up a clinical post as Head of the Clinic for Care of the Elderly at Helios Park-Klinikum Leipzig, Germany. Helios Park Klinikum Leipzig is a teaching hospital for the medical faculty of Leipzig University. In 2019 Christoph also became Director of one of five national Centre for Care of the Elderly and is one of two directors of the certified Old Age Trauma Centre at Helios Park Klinikum Leipzig. After successfully implementing a private 5G Network at Helios Park-Klinikum Leipzig Prof. Thuemmler took over the lead of the 6G Health Institute in Leipzig. In his clinical capacity he is the Clinical Lead for Care of the Elderly at Erzgebirgsklinikum, Saxony. Prof. Thuemmler published around 100 papers and reports and also several books on the topic of eHealth and in particular the application of mobile radio technology in the health domain and in the eHealth vertical. Professor Thuemmler has been a longstanding IEEE Senior Member.

Wen Tong

CTO, Huawei Wireless,
President, Huawei Canada R&D

Dr. Wen Tong is the CTO, Huawei Wireless and a Huawei Fellow. He is the head of Huawei wireless research, and the Huawei 5G chief scientist and led Huawei’s 10-year-long 5G wireless technologies research and development. Dr. Tong is the industry recognized leader in invention of advanced wireless technologies, Dr. Tong was elected as a Huawei Fellow and an IEEE Fellow. He was the recipient of IEEE Communications Society Industry Innovation Award in 2014, and IEEE Communications Society Distinguished Industry Leader Award for “pioneering technical contributions and leadership in the mobile communications industry and innovation in 5G mobile communications technology” in 2018. He is also the recipient of R.A. Fessenden Medal. For the past three decades, he had pioneered fundamental technologies from 1G to 6G wireless and WiFi with more than 550 awarded US patents. Prior to joining Huawei in 2009, Dr. Tong was the Nortel Fellow and head of the Network Technology Labs at Nortel. He joined the Wireless Technology Labs at Bell Northern Research in 1995 in Canada. Dr. Tong is a Fellow of Canadian Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow Royal Society of Canada. Dr. Tong is based at Ottawa, Canada

Dimitris Varoutas

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Dimitris Varoutas has been the Vice President for Electronic Communications at EETT (Hellenic Telecommunications & Post Commission) since February 2020 and a member of BEREC (Board of European Regulators for Electronic Communications). From 2007 to 2016, he was a Member of the Board of the Hellenic Authority for Communication Security and Privacy. He has been an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Informatics and Telecommunications, School of Sciences at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens since 2005. He has been participating in numerous European R&D projects in the areas of telecommunications and technoeconomics since the 90s. He also participated in and managed national projects and initiatives related to technoeconomic evaluation of broadband strategies, telecommunications demand forecasting, price modeling, etc. His research interests span from the design of optical and wireless communications systems to technoeconomic evaluation of network architecture and services. He has published more than 120 publications in refereed journals and conferences including leading IEEE Journals and conferences. He is a Senior Member of IEEE. He also serves as the editorial board member and reviewer in several journals and conferences, including IEEE. He holds a degree in Physics, MS, and a PhD in telecommunications and technoeconomics from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

Patrick Waldemar

Vice President, Telenor Research

Patrick Waldemar is the vice president of Telenor Research. He has over 20 years of management and education experience in strategic management, strategic marketing, and information technology. He holds a PhD in Telecommunications from the NTNU and an MSc in Management from the BI Norwegian Business School. He has experience in research and development, software development, and strategic management gained in the telecommunications and oil industries. Patrick joined Telenor in 2002, and over the last decade, he has been leading Telenor's research on next-generation network technologies focusing on 5G and 6G. Previously he was the head of development at Canal Digital.

Geoffrey Ye Li

Chair Professor in Wireless Systems, Imperial College London

Geoffrey Ye Li is a Chair Professor in Wireless Systems at Imperial College London. Before joining Imperial in 2020, he was a professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, for 20 years and a principal technical staff member at AT&T Labs – Research (previous Bell Labs) in New Jersey, USA, for five years. He made fundamental contributions to orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) for wireless communications, established a framework on resource cooperation in wireless networks, and introduced deep learning to communications. Geoffrey was elected IEEE Fellow and IET Fellow for his contributions to signal processing for wireless communications. He won 2024 IEEE Eric E. Sumner Award and several prestigious awards from IEEE Signal Processing, Vehicular Technology, and Communications Societies, including 2019 IEEE ComSoc Edwin Howard Armstrong Achievement Award.

Wang Zhiqin

Vice President of the CAICT, Chair of the Wireless Technical CCSA

Wang Zhiqin is the Vice President of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT). She is the Chair of the Wireless Technical Committee of China Communications Standards Association (CCSA). She has long been dedicated to the in-depth studies on mobile communications technologies and standards, serving as Chair of the IMT-2020（5G）Promotion Group.

Moderators

Monique Calisti

CEO, Martel Innovate; President, Digital for Planet

Monique Calisti is the CEO of Martel Innovate and the president of Digital for Planet. She is a passionate entrepreneur and ICT expert with consolidated experience in research and innovation funding, strategic consulting, training, communication, social media marketing, and business development of sustainable and innovative software solutions across several industry segments. She is a member of the board of directors of the European AI, Data and Robotics Association, a director of the European Next Generation Internet Outreach Office, and the coordinator of the European Next Generation Internet of Things Coordination and Support Action. Monique holds a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne and a PhD in Telecommunications Engineering from the University of Bologna.

Narcís Cardona

Director of iTEAM, Technical University of Valencia (UPV)

Narcís Cardona is the Director of the Research Institute of Telecommunications and Multimedia Applications (iTEAM) at the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). In 1990, he received his MSc in Communications Engineering from ETSI Telecommunications, Polytechnic University of Catalonia, and in 1995, his PhD in Telecommunications from the Polytechnic University of Valencia. Narcís authored several research books and more than 200 publications in the most relevant international journals and conferences in the communications field, and he holds ten patents. His research interests include mobile channel characterization, broadcast cellular hybrid networks, and body area networks.

Roberto Verdone

Professor, University of Bologna

Special session speakers

Mehmet Basaran

6G Senior Researcher at Turkcell

Mehmet basaran (Member, IEEE) received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical and electronics engineering from Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey, in 2008 and 2011, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electronics and communication engineering from Istanbul Technical University (ITU), Istanbul, in 2018. He was a Research Assistant with ITU. He was a Visiting Researcher with RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, in 2017, in the context of the FET EU Horizon 2020 Project. He was an R&D Operations Manager with ITU Vodafone Future Lab between 2018 and 2021. He was a 5G Research Professional with Siemens Turkey between 2021 and 2023. He has been a 6G Senior Researcher with Turkcell since February 2023. His general research interests mainly include next-generation communication systems and signal processing for wireless communications.

Alexander Blass

Head of Operations, Neura Robotics

Dr. Alexander Blass leads the Operations department at Neura Robotics with a passion for innovation and process optimization. His career began with a degree in mechanical engineering, followed by a master's degree in aerospace. Through his doctorate in turbulence research, he gained a profound insight into complex dynamic systems. At Neura, Alexander is also responsible for balancing turbulent dynamics and structured development. As Head of Operations, he ensures that the company operates effectively and continues to evolve to drive technological innovations. Through progress in combining modern agile methods with established structures, he has coined the term "hybrid agility," always striving to find new ways to improve the efficiency and flexibility of companies and prepare them for the challenges of the modern business world.

Kwang-Cheng Chen

IEEE Fellow, Professor
University of South Florida

Prof. Dr. med Dirk Wilhelm is with the Technical University of Munich, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Surgery. His scientific focus is with colorectal surgery, robotic surgery, artificial intelligence, biomedical engineering, workflow. Scientific career: 2022 - Lead of medical robotics of Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence of TUM; 2021 - President of CTAC (Section for computer and telematic assisted surgery of DGCH); 2020 - Head of Center for medical robotics and machine intelligence of MRI (rechts der Isar/TUM); 2018 - Recognition as Professor for surgery; 2018 - Head of robotic surgery of the Surgical Department; 2018 - Head of the research group MITI at MRI (Minimally invasive therapeutoic intervention); 2017 - Assistant managing director of the department of surgery; 2017 - Sepcialist for advanced visceral surgery; 2014 - Specialist for visceral surgery; 2013 - Head of IBD and colorectal surgery, Coordinator of the center for colorectal cancer; 2012 - Specialits for surgical intensive care, 2012 - Postgradual lecture graduation: Kombinierte laparoskopisch-endoskopische Interventionen - eine neue Dimension der Traumareduktion in der Viszeralmedizin; 2007 - Specialist for General Surgery; 2006 - Graduation: Kombinierte endoluminale-intracavitäre Eingriffe Scientific achievements and recognition: 2022 - Editorial board member Viceral Medicine; 2021 - President of CARS (Computer Aided Radiology and Surgery); 2021 - Steering committee member CURAC; 2020 - Training authorization for visceral medicine (BLAEK); 2020 - Consultant in the field of Robotics of the Bavarian State Ministry for Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy; 2020 - Chair president CARS; 2020 - Consultant of the Committee for Innovation of the Federal Joint Committee; 2019 - Steering committee member DGEBV; 2019 - Innovation Award of Boston Scientific 2019; 2018 - Certified Investigator for AMG/MPG studies; 2015 - Surgical head of interdisciplinary department of endoscopy; 2010 - Innovation Award of Boston Scientific 2010; 2008 Award of Bayerischen Gastroenterologen e.V. 2008; 2008 - Günter-Schaller Award 2008 of DGEBV; 2007 - Karl-Langenbuch Award 2007 of DGAV

Marco Controzzi

Assistant Professor at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna

Marco Controzzi received the M.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pisa, Italy, in 2008, and the Ph.D. in Biorobotics from the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa, Italy, in 2013. He is currently Assistant Professor at The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa, Italy. He joined the ARTS-Lab of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in 2006 as Research Assistant. Marco Controzzi is founder of a spin-off company of the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna: Prensilia Srl.

Ali Hessami

Director of Research, Development and Innovation, Vega Systems

Ali is currently the Director of R&D and Innovation at Vega Systems. He extensive track record in systems assurance and safety, security, sustainability, knowledge assessment/management methodologies and has a background in design and development of advanced control systems for business and safety critical industrial applications. Ali is a UK expert on CENELEC & IEC safety/security systems, hardware & software standards committees. He was appointed by CENELEC as convener of a number of Working Groups for review of Safety Critical Software Standards. Ali also a member of CENELEC WG26 Group and IEC PT63452 Cyber Security Standardisation. A past Section chair in the UK and Ireland section of IEEE, he currently chairs the Humanitarian Technologies (SIGHT) group and Systems Council Chapter in the section. During 2017 Ali joined the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE SA) initially as a committee member for the new landmark IEEE 7000 standard focused on “Addressing Ethical Concerns in System Design”. He was subsequently appointed as the Technical Editor and later the Chair of IEEE 7000 standard. In November 2018, he was appointed as the Vice Chair and Process Architect of the IEEE ‘s global Ethics Certification Programme for Autonomous & Intelligent Systems (ECPAIS). This is now a global programme under IEEE CertifAIEd brand for criteria development, evaluation, conformity assessment and certification of products, systems and services hinged around AI technologies. Ali is a Visiting Professor at London City University’s Centre for Systems and Control in the School of Engineering & Mathematics and at Beijing Jiaotong University School of Electronics & Information Engineering. He is also a Fellow of Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), Fellow of the UK Institution of Engineering & Technology (IET) and a Life Senior Member of IEEE.

Azmat Hossain

Business Development Director, Extend Robotics

Azmat has over 10 years of experience across the globe in building and delivering innovative technology solutions. He previously worked for Axiata Group, which is one of the largest telecommunication infrastructure providers in Asia. At Axiata, Azmat planned and deployed the latest telecom infrastructure including 3G, 4G and Remote Monitoring Systems (RMS) to over 2000 sites across multiple countries. Since completing his MBA from University of Edinburgh, Azmat has worked for the National Robotarium, the largest centre for Robotics in the UK, and has recently joined Extend Robotics with the vision to help in the build-up and adoption of an intuitive and user-friendly robotic control system.

Aryan Kaushik

Assistant Professor at the University of Sussex

Prof. Aryan Kaushik is Assistant Professor at the University of Sussex, UK, since 2021. Prior to that, he has been with University College London, UK, University of Edinburgh, UK, and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong. He has also held visiting appointments at Imperial College London, UK, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, Athena RC, Greece, and Beihang University, China. He has been a panellist for the UKRI EPSRC ICT Prioritisation Panel 2023, Editor of two upcoming books on Integrated Sensing and Communications, and Non-Terrestrial Networks to be published by Elsevier, and in PhD Thesis Evaluation Committee internationally such as at University Carlos III de Madrid, Spain. He has been an Associate Editor for IEEE Communications Technology News, IEEE OJCOMS, IEEE Communications Letters, Guest Editor for IEEE IoT Magazine, IEEE OJCOMS, and many others, Invited Panel Speaker at IEEE VTC-Spring 2023, EuCNC and 6G Summit 2023, IEEE Globecom 2023 Workshop, IEEE PIMRC 2023 Workshop, and IEEE BlackSeaCom 2023, and Tutorial/Invited Speaker at IEEE Globecom 2023, IEEE WCNC 2023, EuCNC and 6G Summit 2023, and many other conferences. He has been involved in Organising Committees and chairing technical program such as at IEEE ICC 2024, IEEE WCNC 2023-24, IEEE ICMLCN 2024, IEEE WF-PST 2024, and chairing at workshops such as at IEEE ICC 2024, IEEE Globecom 2023, IEEE WCNC 2023, IEEE PIMRC 2022-23, and many others.

Ralf Mueller

Professor, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU)

Reinhard Lafrenz

Secretary-General euRobotics

After studying Informatics with a focus on AI and robotics with a minor in Electrical Engineering at the University of Kaiserslautern, Reinhard Lafrenz worked at the University of Stuttgart, where he got a PhD in Cooperative Autonomous Mobile Robots and was strongly involved in RoboCup competitions. In 2009, he moved to the Technical University of Munich, where he worked as a senior researcher, and gave lectures and seminars on AI and robotics, organised the interdisciplinary Master course “Robotics, Cog¬nition, Intelligence” and participated in the curriculum development. He also worked as project manager for ECHORD, ECHORD++, projects focusing on technology transfer and SME support as well as RoboEarth, the first cloud robotics project. He took on several community activities, acted as co-leader of the newly created euRobotics topic group on “Software Engineering, System Integration, and System Engineering”. Since Feb. 2016, he is the Secretary-General of euRobotics aisbl, the Private side of the SPARC PPP . Besides association management and organisation of events such as the European Robotics Forum (ERF), the European Robotics Week (ERW), and the European Robotics League (ERL), he was also involved in European Projects related to Digital Innovation Hubs, RODIN and DIHNET.EU.

Dirk Wilhelm

Chair of Research at Technical University of Munich

Muhammad Zeeshan Shakir

Professor, University of the West of Scotland

Muhammad Zeeshan Shakir is a Professor of Wireless Communication and the Director of Digital Connectivity and Innovation for Sustainable Futures at the University of the West of Scotland. With over two decades of experience, he has secured nearly £5 million in research funding from esteemed organizations, including Innovate UK, the ERASMUS program, Qatar National Research Fund, British Council, and the Scottish Government. He has authored over 150 research articles and contributed to 10 books. His research focuses on the design and development of small cell networks for urban and rural coverage using both aerial and terrestrial architectures. Dr. Shakir has held leadership roles in organizing committees for numerous conferences and symposiums at IEEE flagship events, including Globecom, ICC, and WCNC. He currently serves as the Executive Chair for IEEE ICC 2026 in Glasgow and the Technical Program Committee Chair for IEEE WCNC 2023 in Glasgow. A sought-after speaker, he has delivered keynote addresses and tutorials at IEEE flagship conferences and international events. Dr. Shakir chairs the IEEE Communications Society's Emerging Technologies Committee on Backhaul/Fronthaul and the Public Safety Technology Committee Informatics. He has received multiple research awards and prizes, including The Herald Higher Education Award 2023, SAMEE STEM Inspiring Diversity and Inclusion Award 2022, SICSA Best Poster Award 2022, IEEE Communications Society Fred W. Ellersick Award 2021, IEEE Communications Society and China Institute of Communications Best Journal Article Award 2019, and UWS STARS Awards in 2020 and 2018 for outstanding research, teaching, and enterprise contributions. Dr. Shakir is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in the UK, a Senior Member of IEEE, and an active member of the IEEE Communications Society. He is also a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh's Young Academy of Scotland.