Speakers – one6G Summit 2025

Confirmed Speakers

one6G Summit 2025 will gather experts from industry, policy, and academia who will come together to discuss the key drivers and technological pillars that will shape the 6G standards for tomorrow. Meet the speakers and moderators of the 2025 edition!

Abdulhadi AbouAlmal

Coordinator, Arab Spectrum Management Group (ASMG)

Dr. Abdulhadi has held various leadership roles in ETISALAT, UAE, since 2008. He is currently the head of Technology Standardization, Spectrum Management, IoT / Smart City development and Radio Access Transformation (e.g. NB-IoT, 5G). Before 2008, he joined three UAE universities and research centers. In addition, he has been leading several national and international projects including propagation modeling for Gulf region, cost modeling of telecom services, analysis of business challenges/opportunities, and modeling/optimization of wireless systems/networks. With over 10 years of wide experience in the work of international organizations (e.g. ITU, 3GPP and GSMA), he has been chairing various technical groups such as ITU-T SG20/Q6 on IoT / Smart City, ITU-T Focus Group on Data Processing and Management. He is Liaison Rapporteur of ITU-T SG20 with ITU-R and 3GPP on IoT and Smart City. He is a coordinator of Arab Spectrum Management Group (ASMG) for ITU-R WRC-19 agenda on MTC / IoT (AI 9.1.8) and Mobile 5G/IMT2020 (AI 1.13, CPM Group), and he has been ASMG coordinator for relevant agenda in previous ITU-R WRC’s (e.g. 700 Band in Region 1). Dr. Abdulhadi obtained his PhD degree in wireless and mobile communication from University of Bradford, UK, MSc degree in Engineering Systems Management, and BSc in Communication Engineering. He is the author and co-author of many journal and conference papers.

Nancy Alonistioti

Chair, one6G; 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 co-authored 4 WO Patents.

Xueli An

Vice-Chair, one6G WG3; Head of 6G Network Architecture Research Group, Huawei

Dr. Xueli An is the Head of 6G Network Architecture Research Group at Huawei Technologies Duesseldorf GmbH, Munich Research Center, Germany. The focus of her research is on 6G network architecture design based on native-AI approach and corresponding new business sectors that could be enabled by 6G, e.g. industry automation, robotics, etc. Moreover, she is actively involved in many industry platforms. She serves as 5G Alliance for Connected Industries and Automation (5G-ACIA) working group “Use cases and Requirements” Vice Chair since 2018. She is the Vice Chair of NetworldEurope Enabling Technologies for Future Vertical Ecosystem Transformation Working Group since 2020. She also takes the role as working group “Communication and Dissemination” Chair position in one6G Association since 2021. She has many peer-reviewed international journal/conference publications and filed/granted patent applications in the field of mobile communication, networking, etc. She received her Master and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), the Netherlands.

Lina Bariah

Adjunct Professor and AI Scientist, Khalifa University

Dr. Lina Bariah received the Ph.D. degree in communications engineering from Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, UAE, in 2018. She was a Visiting Researcher with the Department of Systems and Computer Engineering at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, in 2019, and an Affiliate Research Fellow at the James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, UK. She also served as a Senior Researcher at the Technology Innovation Institute and Lead AI Scientist at Open Innovation AI. She is currently an Adjunct Professor and AI Scientist at Khalifa University, and an Adjunct Research Professor at Western University, Canada. She also serves as a consultant – AI & Data Science at LightOn, France. She serves as the Industry Chair for the IEEE GenAINet ETI, a member of the Technical Advisory Committee – AI for Good (Innovate for Impact), a Steering Board Member of the Wireless World Research Forum (WWRF), and a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society (VTS). Dr. Bariah is a Senior Member of IEEE, IEEE Communications Society, IEEE Vehicular Technology Society, and IEEE Women in Engineering. She is the founder and lead of the Women in Machine Learning and Data Science (WiMLDS) – Abu Dhabi Chapter, and was recently named among the “100 Brilliant and Inspiring Women in 6G” by the Women in 6G organization. She is a frequent speaker at international forums and industry events on topics related to generative AI, 6G, and AI-driven telecom transformation. She has authored/co-authored over 80 research papers and book chapters in top-tier journals and flagship conferences and currently serves as an Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications. Her research focuses on Generative AI for Telecom, Large Language Models, and AI for Communications.

David Boswarthick

Director of Strategy and Innovation, ETSI

David Boswarthick is the ETSI Director of Strategy and Innovation, where he is responsible for tracking and capturing ICT research & development activities that are ready for standardization. He devotes himself to new business / technology development and the creation of strong links and enablers towards R&D, academia, National, EU, global research projects and the creation of new or enhanced standards groups in ETSI. David has more than 30 years’ experience in the telecommunications sector, which includes over 25 years’ working in ICT standardization supporting both 3GPP and ETSI Technical groups as well as Board level strategic initiatives.

Enrico Buracchini

Vice-Chair of RAN Plenary, 3GPP

Enrico Buracchini Is currently 5G senior project manager into INNOVATION DEPT of TIM (former CSELT R&D labs) and is currently Vice Chairman of 3GPP RAN Plenary . He has been actively participating in 3GPP since 2001 rel5, covering the standardization of WCDMA, HSPA, LTE, LTE ADV and NR, with experience extending across the whole RAN TSGs domain. He is currently RAN1, RAN2 and RAN Plenary Delegate, coordinating TIM technical work into 3GPP RANs groups. Besides of 3GPP, he actively contributed, from 1996 to 1999, to ITU RTG8/1 group dedicated to IMT2000, being one of the inventor of the ITU R 3GPP process. From 2013 to 2018, he actively contributed to ITU R WP 5D, being editor and coordinator of several sections of IMT2020 Vision and IMT 2020 Technology Trends. Besides of standardization activities, His main activities concern: • 5G and its evolution & 6G • EU 6G projects Hexa X 1&2 • RESTART Italian R&D program dedicated to 5Gadv and 6G • More than 700 presentations and business development for TOP/Business TIM customers • 5G courses & training to entire TIM personnel • E2E network manager of TIM 5G San Marino POC (2018), including mmW @26GHz. More than 30 years in wireless comms, managing several innovation projects on 3&4G and consultancy projects in former TIM foreign branches, i.e. in Austrian A1 (1st 3G network in EU, lived in Wien 1 year), Spanish Amena and Greek TIM HELLAS. Graduated with full marks in electronic engineering in 1994 in Bologna University, the oldest WW one and Marconi’s city. Authors of several IPRs, books, papers, tutorials and lectures at several universities.

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.

Berk Canberk

Professor, Edinburgh Napier University

Berk Canberk (Senior Member, IEEE) is a Full Professor in the School of Computing, Engineering and The. Built Environment at Edinburgh Napier University, UK. His research focuses on AI-powered Digital Twins, IoT communication, and Smart Wireless Networks, spanning Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 1 to 6. As a leading expert in Digital Twin technologies, he specializes in real-time synchronization, AI-driven orchestration, and semantic communication frameworks. He leads the Broadband Communication Research Group (www.bcrg.uk), where he currently supervises 1 postdoctoral researcher, 5 PhD students, 2 BSc students, and 2 research associates. He has previously supervised 7 PhD and 20 MSc graduates. His publication record includes more than 90 journal articles, 92 conference papers, and 5 patents, of which 35 journal articles, 40 conference papers, and 3 patents are specifically focused on Digital Twins. Since 2020, he has secured over £1.5M in research funding as Principal Investigator. He serves as Lead Editor of the IEEE ComSoc Best Readings in Digital Twins and as Associate Editor for IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials. He has also served as Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, Elsevier Computer Networks, and IEEE Communications Letters, and has taken on key roles as General Chair, TPC Chair and Organizing Committee Member at several IEEE conferences. Prof. Canberk is also an External Board Member and Academic Advisor to BTS Group, Turkey’s largest network automation and cloud computing company. Prior to his current position, he was a Full Professor at Istanbul Technical University (ITU), where he served as Associate Professor (2016–2021) and Full Professor (2021–2022) in the Department of Computer Engineering. He was previously a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from ITU, an MSc in Telecommunications Engineering from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, and a BSc in Electrical Engineering from ITU.

Narcís Cardona

Vice-Chair, one6G; Director, iTEAM, Technical University of Valencia

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

KyungHi Chang

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

KyungHi Chang received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electronics engineering from Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, in 1985 and 1987, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA, in 1992. From 1989 to 1990, he was with the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) as a member of the research staff. From 1992 to 2003, he was with the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) as a Principal Member of the Technical Staff. He is currently with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Inha University. He was the recipient of the Haedong Academic Award in 2010, the MSIT Minister’s Commendation and KICS Fellowship in 2020, and the Presidential Commendation in 2021. He is currently the Chairman of the 6G Forum Executive Committee and the Chairman of the Technology Committee for the National Integrated Public Network. He served as a Vice President of KICS from 2017 to 2023.

Periklis Chatzimisios

Vice-Chair, one6G WG1; Professor, International Hellenic University

Dr. Periklis Chatzimisios serves as a Professor in the Department of Information and Electronic Engineering at the International Hellenic University (Greece). Moreover, he has been awarded the title of Researcher Professor by the University of New Mexico (USA). He is also a Visiting Fellow in the Faculty of Science & Technology, Bournemouth University (UK). He is currently serving as Vice-Chair for Working Group 1 (Use cases, KPIs and future market and business scenarios), Chair of Working Item 213 (Multimodal sensing, computing, communication and control for 6G remote operation), and a Board Member for the one6G Association. He is also the Vice Chair of IEEE P1955 Standard for 6G Empowering Robotics. Dr. Chatzimisios has been actively involved in several standardization and IEEE activities, primarily under the IEEE Communication Society (ComSoc). He has served as the co-Chair of the Communications/Networking Committee for the IEEE Public Safety Technology Initiative, Chair of the ComSoc Young Professionals (YP) Standing Committee, and as a Member of the ComSoc Education Services Board, the ComSoc Standards Program Development Board, the ComSoc Industry Outreach Board, and the ComSoc Online Content Board. He is the Chair of the Communications Chapter and of Professional Activities for the IEEE Greece Section. In the past, he served as Chair/Vice Chair/Secretary of the Technical Committee on Information Infrastructure and Networking (TCIIN), Vice Chair of the Technical Committee on Big Data (TCBD), and Secretary of the Technical Committee on Cognitive Networks (TCCN). He is an active member of the IEEE Future Networks Initiative. Professor Chatzimisios has participated as a researcher and scientific officer in many European and national research and development projects funded by the European Commission, the Institute of International Education (IIE), and national agencies. He holds various management positions as Coordinator/WP Chair and Training/Standardization Chair in several research projects. He was in the Top 2% Most Influential Scientists in the Stanford University list for the years 2020-2024 in the area of Networking & Telecommunications.

Andrea Conti

Founding Director, Wireless Communication and Localization Networks Laboratory, University of Ferrara

Andrea Conti (Fellow, IEEE) is currently a Professor and founding Director of the Wireless Communication and Localization Networks Laboratory, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy. Prior to joining the University of Ferrara, he was with CNIT, and with IEIIT-CNR. In Summer 2001, he was with the Wireless Systems Research Department, AT&T Research Laboratories. Since 2003, he has been a frequent visitor with the Wireless Information and Network Sciences Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA, where he is currently holds the Research Affiliate appointment. His research interests involve theory and experimentation of wireless communication and localization systems. His current research topics include network localization and navigation, distributed sensing, adaptive diversity communications, and quantum information science. Dr. Conti was an Editor for IEEE journals and chaired international conferences. He was an elected Chair of the IEEE Communications Society’s Radio Communications Technical Committee and is Co-Founder of the IEEE Quantum Communications and Information Technology Emerging Technical Subcommittee. He was the recipient of the HTE Puskás Tivadar Medal, the IEEE Communications Society’s Fred W. Ellersick Prize, and the IEEE Communications Society’s Stephen O. Rice Prize in the field of Communications Theory. He is an elected Fellow of the IEEE and of the IET, and a member of Sigma Xi. He has been selected as an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer.

Joseph Eichinger

Chair, one6G WG4; Head of 6G Research and Prototyping, Huawei Munich Research Center

Josef Eichinger joined Huawei Technologies in 2013 to strengthen the 5G Research team in Munich. He started his professional carrier as technical expert in the field of industry energy and electronic systems. After the study he joined Siemens AG 1994 and was working in development of high frequency radar systems, optical networks and as researcher on radio technologies as HSPA and LTE. He changed to Nokia Siemens Networks 2007 as LTE Product Manager and was head of LTE-Advanced FastTrack Programs until 2012. Currently he is leading research on 5G and 6G enabled industrial communication in Huawei Munich Research Center. The focus are 5G/6G for industry 4.0, vehicle-to-vehicle communication and hospitals. Complementary to the research and standardization he is also responsible for the prove of the new concept by trials and live experiments e.g. Industrial Control in the Cloud, Robot as a Service, Tele-operated Driving, etc. Since April 2018 he is also member of the 5G-ACIA steering board and leading the Huawei delegation. Josef is also founding member of one6g.org and chairing the one6G WG4 Evaluation, Testbeds and Pilots because of his the long expierences with prototypes and test systems.

Taro Eichler

Technology Manager for Wireless Communications and Photonics, Rohde & Schwarz

Taro Eichler is Technology Manager for Wireless Communications and Photonics at Rohde & Schwarz in Munich, where he drives the company’s technology strategy and research engagement for 6G. With over 15 years of experience in wireless communications, he plays an active role in numerous 6G industry research initiatives, focusing on key areas such as THz for communication and sensing, photonics, channel characterization, and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS). He also represents the company on various research advisory boards and contributes to pre-standardization efforts in sub-THz and photonic technologies, including through his role as a delegate to the ETSI ISG THz working group. Before joining Rohde & Schwarz, he held senior roles at Intel Corporation, where he specialized in integrated photonic communication systems, and at NTT Basic Research Laboratories, working on quantum optical research. Taro's academic background is rooted in quantum optics and fundamental physics. He conducted research at the University of Tokyo under an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation fellowship, holds a Diploma in Physics from the Technical University of Munich completing his thesis at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics and the University of Bonn, where he earned his Ph.D. in Physics.

Javan Erfanian

Senior Director of Strategy, GTI Alliance

Javan Erfanian is a senior consultant at Veezhen, a member of one6G, with extensive experience within industry, research, IEEE, SDOs, and industry alliances such as GTI, NGMN, one6G, Next-G Alliance, and ETSI, with many publications and numerous citations. Javan is Senior Director of Strategy at GTI Alliance. He has been an IEEE Communications Society Distinguished Speaker for many years and a recipient of IEEE Comsoc Millennium Medal, and NGMN Lifetime Achievement Award. He actively contributed to development of ITU-R IMT-2030 Framework.

Gerhard Fettweis

Vodafone Chair Professor, TU-Dresden

Gerhard P. Fettweis is the Vodafone Chair Professor at TU Dresden and the founding Scientific Director of the Barkhausen Institute. In 1990, he earned his Ph.D. under H. Meyr at RWTH Aachen. He then worked as a postdoctoral researcher at IBM Research in San Jose and later joined TCSI in Berkeley, California. His research focuses on wireless communications and chip design. He coordinates 5G++Lab Germany and the German Cluster of Excellence SEMECO. His team has spun out 20 startups. Gerhard is a member of the German Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina), the German Academy of Engineering (Acatech), and the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. He is also a Fellow of IEEE, VDE/ITG, NAI, EURASIP, WWRF, and DATE. His most recent honor is the Bavarian Pioneer Award 2025.

Ray Forbes

Chair, ETSI’s Industry Specification Group on Experiential Networked Intelligence

Educated at Loughborough University of Technology between 1977 and 1984, he joined Plessey Telecommunications where he worked on Software Engineering and Analysis. Since 1990 he has worked on network development in Intelligent Networks and the standardisation thereof. He is a global standards leader. He led the standardisation on NGN Protocols in ETSI, IMS adaptation to fixed networks, the Common IMS programme, the ITU-T Smart Focus Group, the M2M Protocols activity in the global Standards Partnership Project, the ETSI ISG ENI (Experiential Networked intelligence) on data processing in AI and ETSI ISG PDL (Permissioned Distributed Ledger) on blockchain.

Rosa Grimaldi

Deputy Mayor of Bologna

Rosa Grimaldi is a distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management at the University of Bologna's Department of Management. Beyond her academic role, she holds a significant civic position as Deputy Mayor for Innovation and Economic Development for the city of Bologna. Her teaching expertise is evident in the "Technology Entrepreneurship" courses she leads at the School of Engineering, catering to both postgraduate and executive education levels. Furthermore, she directs the Executive Master in Technology and Innovation Management (EMTIM) at Bologna Business School (BBS). Her influence also extends to the corporate world, where she serves as a Board Member for Maps S.p.A. and BolognaFiere S.p.A. From 2016 to 2021, Professor Grimaldi dedicated her efforts to the University of Bologna as Vice-Rector for Entrepreneurship and Relations with Companies. Her extensive scientific work primarily focuses on crucial areas such as New Business Creation, Entrepreneurship, Technology Transfer, and University-Industry Collaborations. Her research has been widely published in both national and international journals, including prestigious outlets like Research Policy, Technovation, Journal of Business Venturing, Small Business Economics, Scientometrics, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Technology Transfer, and R&D Management.Rosa Grimaldi is a distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management at the University of Bologna's Department of Management. Beyond her academic role, she holds a significant civic position as Deputy Mayor for Innovation and Economic Development for the city of Bologna. Her teaching expertise is evident in the "Technology Entrepreneurship" courses she leads at the School of Engineering, catering to both postgraduate and executive education levels. Furthermore, she directs the Executive Master in Technology and Innovation Management (EMTIM) at Bologna Business School (BBS). Her influence also extends to the corporate world, where she serves as a Board Member for Maps S.p.A. and BolognaFiere S.p.A. From 2016 to 2021, Professor Grimaldi dedicated her efforts to the University of Bologna as Vice-Rector for Entrepreneurship and Relations with Companies. Her extensive scientific work primarily focuses on crucial areas such as New Business Creation, Entrepreneurship, Technology Transfer, and University-Industry Collaborations. Her research has been widely published in both national and international journals, including prestigious outlets like Research Policy, Technovation, Journal of Business Venturing, Small Business Economics, Scientometrics, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Technology Transfer, and R&D Management.

David González G.

Senior Researcher, Continental Automotive Technologies

David González G., PhD. (S’06–M’15–SM’18) has a master in Mobile Communications and PhD in Signal Theory and Communications from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain. He has served as post-doctoral fellow in Aalto University, Finland (2014-2017). During 2017 and 2018, he served as Research Engineer with Panasonic Research and Development Center, Germany. Since 2018 until 2025, David was with Continental Automotive Technologies, Germany. David is with Continental Automotive Technologies, germany, where he conducts and manages research projects focused on diverse aspects of wireless and vehicular communications (V2X), integrated sensing and communications (ISAC), and automotive applications for 5G-Advanced and 6G. David participates as delegate in 3GPP RAN1, 5GAA, and ETSI ISG ISAC.

Aryan Kaushik

Chair, IEEE Emerging Technology Initiative on Electromagnetic Signal and Information Theory

Aryan Kaushik is the Chief Innovation Officer at RakFort, Ireland and an Adjunct Prof. at IIITD. Before, he was an Associate Professor at Manchester Met, UK (2024-25), as Assistant Professor at the University of Sussex, UK (2021-24), Research Fellow at the University College London, UK (2020-21), and also associated with University of Edinburgh, UK (2015-19), Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong (2014-15). He has held Visiting/Adjunct Professor/Researcher appointments at the IIITD, India (2025-27), University of Bologna, Italy (2024), Athena RC, Greece (2021), Imperial College London, UK (2019-20), University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg (2018), and Beihang University, China (2017-19 and 2022). He has been External Assessor (Academic Promotion) at University of Hertfordshire, UK (2025), External PhD Examiner internationally such as at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden (2025), NITJ, India (2025), and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), Spain (2023). He has been an Invited Panel Member at the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) ICT Prioritisation Panel in 2023, UK EPSRC Proposals Reviewer since 2023, French National Research Agency (ANR) Proposal Reviewer in 2025, Core Member of the IEEE P1955 Standard on 6G-Empowering Robotics, Chair of the IEEE ComSoc ETI on ESIT, Co-Chair of the IEEE ComSoc SIG on AITNTN, Vice Chair of one6G WG3, Founding Member of the IEEE ComSoc SIG on FAS, Elections Committee Member for the IEEE ComSoc UK & Ireland Chapter, Editor of 5 books by Elsevier and Wiley on variety of topics such as ISAC, NTN, ESIT, Intelligent Metasurfaces and Digital Twins/Imaging, and several journals such as IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials, IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society (Best Editor Award 2024 and 2023), IEEE Communications Letters (Exemplary Editor 2024 and 2023), IEEE Internet of Things Magazine (Top Editor Award 2024), IEEE CTN, and several special issues such as in IEEE Wireless Communications, IEEE Network, IEEE Communications Standards Magazine, etc. He is also the founder and host of the IEEE Communications Society Technology News (CTN) Podcasts Series, since 2023. He has been invited/keynote and tutorial speaker for 120+ academic and industry events, and conferences globally such as at IEEE ICC 2024-25, IEEE GLOBECOM 2023-25, etc., and chairing in Organizing and Technical Program Committees of 15+ flagship IEEE conferences such as IEEE ICC 2024-26, IEEE GLOBECOM 2026 etc., and has been General Chair of 30+ workshops and special sessions such as at IEEE ICC 2024-25, IEEE GLOBECOM 2023-25, etc. Website: https://sites.google.com/view/aryankaushik

Mattia Lecci

R&D Researcher, Keysight Technologies

Mattia Lecci received his Ph.D. in Information Engineering from the University of Padova, Italy, in 2022. During his academic journey, he participated in exchange programs with the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), Northeastern University, and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. In 2022, he joined Keysight Technologies as an R&D Researcher and contributed to ITU-T standardization as both a delegate and editor. His research covers a broad range of topics, including mmWave channel modeling, Machine Learning applied for telecommunications, Quality of Experience for multimedia applications, and Open RAN benchmarking.

Stefan Leutenegger

Professor, ETH Zurich

Stefan Leutenegger has been Associate Professor of Mobile Robotics at ETH Zurich since April 2025. His research focuses on Spatial AI and its use for various kinds of mobile robots – from drones to mobile manipulators that operate in potentially unknown, dynamic, and obstructed environments, carrying out a multitude of tasks that require robust navigation, intelligent planning, and physical interaction including fine-grained manipulation. Previously, Stefan Leutenegger held a position as Assistant Professor (Tenure Track) at TUM since 2021. Before, he was Lecturer (since 2014) and later Reader at Imperial College London. Prof. Leutenegger received his PhD in 2014 from ETH Zurich working on Unmanned Solar Airplanes including their navigation and control in Prof. Roland Siegwart's Autonomous Systems Lab. Previously, he received BSc (2006) and MSc (2009) in Mechanical Eng. from ETH Zurich. Presentation title: Multi-Sensor Fusion for State Estimation and Mapping in Mobile Robotics

Uwe Löwenstein

Counsellor for ITU-R Study Group 5, ITU

Uwe Löwenstein joined ITU in April 2020 as Counsellor for ITU-R Study Group 5 (Terrestrial Services) in the Radio Communications Bureau (BR). In this role, he supports the work of the four ITU-R SG 5 Working Parties dealing with land mobile service (including RLAN, IMT and PPDR), fixed services, amateur services, maritime mobile service, aeronautical mobile service and radiodetermination service. Before joining the United Nations specialized agency, he worked for more than 20 years at Telefónica (o2) Germany, starting there in 1997, when “VIAG Interkom” built up the 4th GSM network in Germany. He participated at the German UMTS auction (2000), the 4G/LTE-auction (2010 & 2015) as well as the 5G-auction in 2019. Furthermore, he was the Telefónica representative at ITU-R WP 5D and ECC/CEPT PT1 (both responsible for IMT) and member of the German delegation at WRC-03 / WRC-07 / WRC-12 / WRC-15 and WRC-19.

Riccardo Marini

Head of Research at CNIT/WiLab

Riccardo Marini is the Head of Research at WiLab, the National Laboratory of Wireless Communications of CNIT, and has served as the Area Leader for the Large-Scale Wireless Networks Research Area since 2023. He earned both his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Telecommunications Engineering from the University of Bologna. He coordinates multiple research projects in collaboration with industrial partners and leads the Grand Challenge on Network Digital Twins within Italy’s national RESTART program. His research focuses on autonomous networks, non-terrestrial networks (NTNs), and AI-native paradigms, through the design and validation of next-generation protocols, architectures, and proof-of-concepts. His work bridges academic and industrial domains and contributes to standardization initiatives. Presentation title: Building the Network Digital Twin: From Research Vision to Industrial Impact in the RESTART Program

Barbara M. Masini

Director of Research, National Research Council (CNR) of Italy

Barbara M. Masini is the Director of Research at the Institute of Electronics, Computer and Telecommunication Engineering of the Italian National Research Council (CNR). She is a co-founder of CNIT’s National Laboratory for Wireless Communications (WiLab) and an adjunct professor at the University of Bologna. An expert in wireless systems, she leads research activities in the field of vehicular communications, with a focus on connected and autonomous vehicles and intelligent transportation systems. She coordinates several research projects on connected vehicles and sustainable mobility and is the author of over 100 publications on heterogeneous wireless systems for safer and more efficient mobility.

Juha Röning

Vice-President Research, euRobotics

Juha Röning is Professor of Embedded System at the University of Oulu and Visiting Professor of Tianjin University of Technology, P. R. China. He is head of the BISG research unit. From 1985 to 1986 he was a visiting research scientist in the Center for Robotic Research at the University of Cincinnati via Asla/Fullbright scholarship. From1986 to1989 he held a Young Researcher Position in the Finnish Academy. In 2000 he was nominated as Fellow of SPIE. He has three patents and has published more than 400 papers in the areas of computer vision, robotics, intelligent signal analysis, and software security. He is currently serving as a Board of Director for euRobotics aisbl (Vice-President Research) and Adra (Robotics Research Vice-President).

Mohammad Shikh-Bahaei

one6G President; 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.

Sparsh Singhal

Senior Programme Manager, NGMN Alliance

Sparsh is an enthusiastic professional, carrying 18+ years' experience in Telecom (2G till 5G) and ICT Industry. He was instrumental in transformation of MS and telco tools applications and platforms with CI/CD exploring AI/ML use cases. He had stints with conglomerates like Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Accenture and Rakuten Symphony. Sparsh served organisations in diverse roles as SME, Team Lead, Portfolio Management, Programme Management, Consultant and Network Specialist. His last assignments - Launch of Germany's first and world's second successful O-RAN on Open Network unleashing the Vendor agnostic Network - was one of its kind. He contributed this journey as consultant for process frameworks and supply chain of logistics and inventory, managing network rollout - DC, CU/DU, Edge-DC, and Network testing on Prod. Sparsh is holding a bachelor’s degree in electronics and communication engineering and MBA in sales and marketing. At NGMN he is responsible for the Work Programmes on 6G, Cloud Native Solutions, Framework for Future Communication Networks, Network Automation, and Security Competence.

Slawomir Stańczak

Professor, TU Berlin; Head of Wireless Communications and Networks, Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications

Sławomir Stańczak is a Professor of Network Information Theory at the Technical University of Berlin and a Head of the Wireless Communications and Networks Department at the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI). He has co-authored two books and more than 200 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers in the field of information theory, wireless communications, signal processing, and machine learning. Prof. Stańczak 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 chair of the ITU-T Focus Group on Machine Learning for Future Networks including 5G from 2017 to 2020. Since 2020 Prof. Stańczak is chairman of the 5G Berlin Association and since 2021 he has been the coordinator of the 6G-RIC (Research & Innovation Cluster) and CampusOS projects. He has also been the project coordinator of xG-Incubator since November 2023, which is part of StartUpConnect.

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.

Wen Tong

CTO, Huawei Wireless

Wen is an industry-recognized leader in the invention of advanced wireless technologies. He is a Huawei Fellow and an IEEE Fellow. He was the recipient of the IEEE Communications Society Industry Innovation Award in 2014, and the 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 the R.A. Fessenden Medal. In the past three decades, Wen has pioneered fundamental technologies from 1G to 6G wireless and WiFi with more than 550 awarded US patents. Before joining Huawei in 2009, Wen was a Nortel Fellow and the head of the Network Technology Labs at Nortel. He joined the Wireless Technology Labs at Bell Northern Research in 1995 in Canada. Wen is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Roberto Verdone

Professor of Telecommunications, University of Bologna & CNIT/WiLab

Roberto Verdone has been a Full Professor of Telecommunications at the University of Bologna since 2001. In 2020, he was among the co-founders of the Wireless Communications Laboratory (WiLab) of CNIT, where he now serves as Director. Since 2021, he has also co-led the WiLab-Huawei Joint Innovation Centre on 6G for the IoT. His research interests include Radio Resource Management and network architectures for 5G and 6G, as well as the Internet of Things, with a particular focus on industrial applications. He coordinates the activities of a national initiative called Orizzonte 6G, which aims to foster innovation in Italian companies in preparation for 6G.

Henk Verkerk

Vice Chair, Electronic Communications Committee

Vice chair of Electronic Communications Committee (ECC), which develops spectrum management policies to enable digital connectivity for all. Experienced policy advisor. Coordinator International Affairs at the Spectrum management department of the Dutch Authority for Digital Infrastructure (former Radiocommunications Agency). Educated in economics (MSc) and technics (BSc). Expert in government policy using standardisation, conformity assessment and accreditation, and enforcement policies.

Walter Weigel

Honorary Professor, Technical University of Munich

Walter Weigel is an honorary professor at the School of Computation, Information and Technology at the Technical University of Munich and a member of the IEEE-SA Board of Governors. He graduated from the Technical University of Munich, Germany with a Master's degree in electrical engineering in 1984 and a PhD degree (thesis about speech recognition) in 1990. From 1984 to 1991 he was an assistant at the Institute for Data Processing at the Technical University of Munich. Between 1991 and 2015, he held several positions within Siemens AG, including VP of external cooperations and head of standardization in corporate technology, VP of the research & concepts department of the mobile networks business unit as well as head of the business segment video processing for the semiconductor business unit (today, Infineon). From 2006 to 2011, Walter was the general director of the European Telecommunication Standards Institute ETSI. From 2015 to 2022 he was a VP and CSO of the European Research Institute of Huawei with headquarters in Leuven, Belgium. He has been a consultant for Huawei Technologies since 1. September 2023. He was a member of Innovationsdialog of the German Government, the Big Data Value Association Board of Directors, the Senate of Acatech (German Academy of Technical Sciences), the Board of the 5G Automotive Association, the Digital Manufacturing Executive Council of Digital Europe, and the Advisory Committee of CTIF Global Capsule (CGC) of Aarhus University.

Geoffrey Ye Li

Chair Professor, Imperial College London

Geoffrey Ye Li, FREng and Chair Professor at ICL, made fundamental contributions to OFDM for wireless communications, established a framework on resource cooperation in wireless networks, and initialized deep learning for communications. He won 2024 IEEE Eric E. Sumner Award and 2019 IEEE ComSoc Edwin Howard Armstrong Achievement Award. Presentation title: Large AI Model for Wireless Communications