The event aims to inspire Young Professionals through interaction with industry professionals and academics on the benefits of getting involved in various IEEE volunteering, educational and standardization activities. The event is organized by the Communications Chapter and Professional Activities of the IEEE Greece Section, the IEEE ComSoc Young Professionals and the IEEE ComSoc Technical Committee on Information Infrastructure and Networking (TCIIN). The program is supported by the IEEE Student Branch of International Hellenic University (Thessaloniki) and the Communications, Cybersecurity and Internet of Things (CCIoT) research group.
Organizers: Periklis Chatzimisios (International Hellenic University, Greece and University of New Mexico, USA) and Shashank Gaur (TTTech Auto, Austria).
YP Panel Session 1 (Hybrid): “Exploring Excited Career Paths for Young Professionals”
Date/Time: Tuesday, Sept 7th, from 9:40 AM to 11:00 AM Athens time (UTC+3)
This Panel will inspire Young Professionals by interacting with speakers from industry and academia, all of them successful professionals under than 40 years old (?)! The panel discussion will mainly focus on the following topics:
- Industry Talks to Young Engineers & Scientists
- The Long Journey through PhD to Research and Academia
- The Exciting World of a Research Center
- Involvement of Young Researchers with Research Activities
Panelists:
Diomidis Michalopoulos, Nokia, Germany
Charalampos Z. Patrikakis, University of West Attica, Greece
Georgios Z. Papadopoulos, IMT Atlantique in Rennes, France
Aggeliki Sgora, Ionian University, Greece
Dionysis Xenakis, Fogus Innovations and Services P.C. , Greece
YP Panel Session 2 (Hybrid): “5G towards 6G: What can we expect?”
Date/Time: Tuesday, Sept 7th, from 11:15 AM to 12:25 PM Athens time (UTC+3)
This Panel will feature a discussion on the issues related to the current pitfalls of 5G as well as the expected challenges of the transition from 5G to 6G in the coming years. The panel discussion will mainly focus on the following topics:
- Current deployment of 5G networks
- Pitfalls of 5G
- Challenges and applications of 6G
Panelists:
Bernard Barani, European Commission
Symeon Chatzinotas, University of Luxembourg
Merouane Debbah, Technology Innovation Institute, Abu Dhabi
Panagiotis Demestichas, WINGS ICT Solutions, Greece
Panelists Bios
Bernard Barani joined the European Commission in 1994 after 11 years as communications engineer in industry on military optical systems and with the European Space Agency on advanced Satcom programs. Since 1994, he has been responsible for the strategy and the implementation of European research and policy issues in wireless communications, audio visual systems, RFID, Internet of Things, and networked enterprise systems. He is currently Deputy Head of Unit in the CONNECT Directorate General of the European Commission where he leads the definition and implementation of the 5G Public/Private Partnership, the industrial EC initiative launched to support 5G European R&D and deployment. Main field of responsibilities covers strategic R&D planning and implementation including future beyond 5G/6G systems, standardization, international cooperation, demonstration, and pilot programs. He also has a lead role to define the future Public/Private Partnership on Smart Networks and Services (6G) targeted for implementation under the Horizon Europe program in the 2021 – 2027 time frame. He is also vice chairman of the Steering committee of the EUCNC conference, the main showcasing event for telecom research sponsored by the EU programs. He has an engineering degree from the “Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications de Bretagne”.
Symeon Chatzinotas is currently Full Professor / Chief Scientist I and Head of the SIGCOM Research Group at SnT, University of Luxembourg. He is coordinating the research activities on communications and networking, acting as a PI for more than 20 projects and main representative for 3GPP, ETSI, DVB. In the past, he has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Parma, Italy, lecturing on “5G Wireless Networks”. He was involved in numerous R&D projects for NCSR Demokritos, CERTH Hellas and CCSR, University of Surrey. He was the co-recipient of the 2014 IEEE Distinguished Contributions to Satellite Communications Award and Best Paper Awards at EURASIP JWCN, CROWNCOM, ICSSC. He has (co-) authored more than 450 technical papers in refereed international journals, conferences and scientific books. He is currently in the editorial board of the IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Open Journal of Vehicular Technology and the International Journal of Satellite Communications and Networking.
Mérouane Debbah received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay, France. He was with Motorola Labs, Saclay, France, from 1999 to 2002, and also with the Vienna Research Center for Telecommunications, Vienna, Austria, until 2003. From 2003 to 2007, he was an Assistant Professor with the Mobile Communications Department, Institut Eurecom, Sophia Antipolis, France. In 2007, he was appointed Full Professor at CentraleSupelec, Gif-sur-Yvette, France. From 2007 to 2014, he was the Director of the Alcatel-Lucent Chair on Flexible Radio. From 2014 to 2021, he was Vice-President of the Huawei France Research Center. He was jointly the director of the Mathematical and Algorithmic Sciences Lab as well as the director of the Lagrange Mathematical and Computing Research Center. Since 2021, he is Chief Research Officer at the Technology Innovation Institute in Abu Dhabi. He leads jointly the AI and Telecommunication centers. He has managed 8 EU projects and more than 24 national and international projects. His research interests lie in fundamental mathematics, algorithms, statistics, information, and communication sciences research. He is an IEEE Fellow, a WWRF Fellow, a Eurasip Fellow, an Institut Louis Bachelier Fellow and a Membre émérite SEE. He was a recipient of the ERC Grant MORE (Advanced Mathematical Tools for Complex Network Engineering) from 2012 to 2017. He was a recipient of the Mario Boella Award in 2005, the IEEE Glavieux Prize Award in 2011, the Qualcomm Innovation Prize Award in 2012, the 2019 IEEE Radio Communications Committee Technical Recognition Award and the 2020 SEE Blondel Medal. He received more than 20 best paper awards, among which the 2007 IEEE GLOBECOM Best Paper Award, the Wi-Opt 2009 Best Paper Award, the 2010 Newcom++ Best Paper Award, the WUN CogCom Best Paper 2012 and 2013 Award, the 2014 WCNC Best Paper Award, the 2015 ICC Best Paper Award, the 2015 IEEE Communications Society Leonard G. Abraham Prize, the 2015 IEEE Communications Society Fred W. Ellersick Prize, the 2016 IEEE Communications Society Best Tutorial Paper Award, the 2016 European Wireless Best Paper Award, the 2017 Eurasip Best Paper Award, the 2018 IEEE Marconi Prize Paper Award, the 2019 IEEE Communications Society Young Author Best Paper Award, the 2021 Eurasip Best Paper Award, the 2021 IEEE Marconi Prize Paper Award as well as the Valuetools 2007, Valuetools 2008, CrownCom 2009, Valuetools 2012, SAM 2014, and 2017 IEEE Sweden VT-COM-IT Joint Chapter best student paper awards. He is an Associate Editor-in-Chief of the journal Random Matrix: Theory and Applications. He was an Associate Area Editor and Senior Area Editor of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SIGNAL PROCESSING from 2011 to 2013 and from 2013 to 2014, respectively. From 2021 to 2022, he serves as an IEEE Signal Processing Society Distinguished Industry Speaker.
Panagiotis Demestichas is a Professor at the University of Piraeus, School of ICT, Department of Digital Systems, Greece. Currently, he focuses on the development of systems for WINGS ICT Solutions (www.wings-ict-solutions.eu) and its spin-out Incelligent (www.incelligent.net). WINGS focuses on advanced solutions, leveraging on IoT / 5G / AI / AR, for the environment (air quality), utilities and infrastructures (water, energy, gas, transportation, construction), production and manufacturing (aquaculture, agriculture and food safety, logistics and industry 4.0), service sectors (health, security). Incelligent focuses on products for banking, the public sector and for telecommunication infrastructures. Panagiotis conducts research on 6G, cloud and IoT, big data and artificial intelligence, orchestration / diagnostics and intent-oriented mechanisms. He holds a Diploma and a Ph.D. degree on Electrical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). He holds patents, has published numerous articles and research papers, and is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and a Senior Member of IEEE.
Diomidis Michalopoulos is Department Head of Device Standardization Research, Nokia, Germany. He and his team conduct research on 5G and beyond networks and devices, with emphasis on radio access and physical layer aspects. Diomidis joined Nokia Bell Labs in 2015 and since then he has been driving research-related activities, including EU-funded projects, technical concept contribution to standards, and customer presentations. Prior to joining Nokia he was employed by the University of British Columbia, Canada, and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, as postdoctoral fellow and teaching instructor. Diomidis obtained the Engineering and PhD degree from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. Diomidis received the Marconi Young Scholar award from the Marconi Society and various prizes for academic research excellence, including the Banting fellowship in Canada. He served as Associate Editor for IEEE Communications Letters and IEEE Networking Letters, while he is currently the industry-academia collaboration coordinator within the IEEE EMEA region.
Charalampos Z. Patrikakis is a Professor at the Dept. of Electrical and Electronics Engineering of the University of West Attica. He is the Director of CoNSeRT (Computer Networks & Services Research laboraTory), which researches on Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing and Networking, Web and Internet of Things and Blockchain technologies and for the design and implementation of mobile and network applications and services. He is also the Director of the MSc Program “Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning”. His research experience includes participation in in over 50 research projects, from which in more than 20 he has been involved as technical coordinator or principal researcher. He has over 200 publications in chapters of books, international journals and conferences, and has 2 contributions in national legislation. He is the Associate Editor in Chief of the IEEE IT Professional Magazine, responsible for Special Issues, and a senior member of IEEE.
Georgios Z. Papadopoulos is an Associate Professor at the Telecom Bretagne, IMT Atlantique in Rennes, France. Prior to joining IMT Atlantique, he was a Research Associate at the University of Bristol and a Postdoctoral Researcher Engineer at the University of Strasbourg. He received a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science in 2015 from the University of Strasbourg (France), a M.Sc. in Telematics Engineering from University Carlos III of Madrid (Spain) in 2012 and a B.Sc. in Computer Science from Alexander T.E.I. of Thessaloniki (Greece) in 2011. He is author of more than 70 peer-reviewed publications in the area of computer communications, networks, and cybersecurity. He actively participates at the IETF standards organization with multiple drafts in the ROLL, DetNet, 6lo, and RAW Working Groups. Dr. Papadopoulos has received the Best Ph.D. Thesis Award granted by the University of Strasbourg and he was a recipient of two Best Paper Awards (IFIP Med-Hoc-Net’14 and IEEE SENSORS’14).
Aggeliki Sgora is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Digital Media and Communication at the Ionian University, since July 2019. From January 2018 to July 2019 she was Vice President for the electronic communications sector of the Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission (EETT). During this period she is was also an Alternate Member of the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) Board from EETT, as well as, a Member of the BEREC Office Management Committee from EETT.From November 2015 to March 2017, she worked as a Special Scientist at the General Secretariat for Media and Communication and during the period March-November 2017, as a Special Advisor at the Ministry of Digital Policy, Telecommunications and Media.
Dionysis Xenakis holds a Ph.D in the area of Heterogeneous Wireless Networks Analysis and Optimization from National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) since 2014, while he is teaching assistant at UOA, holder of the prestigious ONASSIS FOUNDATION scholarship (2017-2019) and Marie Curie Postdoc Fellow in various EU-funded MSCA actions (FP7-IAPP SMART-NRG, H2020-RISE CASPER, etc.). He has a distinguishing publication record, including 13 journals, 19 conferences, 5 book chapters, with more than 600 citations with h-index 15. Dionysis carries vast experience (more than 10 years) in the implementation of EU projects (CROSSFIRE, SMART-NRG, ICT-RECRED, 5GENESIS, CASPER, etc.). He is currently the Innovation Manager in Fogus Innovations and Services P.C. (Greece).
Organizer’s Bio
Periklis Chatzimisios serves as Professor in the Department of Department of Information and Electronic Engineering of the International Hellenic University (Greece). Moreover, he has been awarded the title of Researcher Professor by Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the University of New Mexico (USA). He is also a Visiting Fellow in the Faculty of Science & Technology, at Bournemouth University (UK). Dr. Chatzimisios is/has been involved in several standardization and IEEE activities serving as a Member of IEEE ComSoc Education Services Board, Member of the IEEE ComSoc Standards Program Development Board and Industry Outreach Board under the IEEE Communication Society (ComSoc). He is the Chair of the Communications Chapter and Professional Activities for the IEEE Greece Section and also serves as the Chair of ComSoc Technical Committee on Information Infrastructure and Networking (TCIIN), the Vice Chair of ComSoc Technical Committee on Big Data (TCBD) and an active member of the IEEE Future Networks (5G) Initiative.