Keynote Speakers
 Robert KahnCorporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI) |
 Magnus FrodighHead of Ericsson Research |
 H. Vincent PoorPrinceton University |
 Javan ErfanianDMTS, Bell Canada |
 Muriel MédardMassachusetts Institute of Technology |
 Peiying Zhu Huawei |
 Kaniz Mahdi VMware |
 Peter VetterPresident of Bell Labs Core Research Nokia |
 Shen JiaOPPO |
 Sylvain NadeauEXFO, Manager of Edge Innovation |
 Juan MontojoQualcomm |
 Sumit Roy Innovate Beyond 5G Lead, OUSD (R&E) |
Speakers
 Bernard DuvalNext G Consultant, National Account Manager |
 Adrian ScraseETSI |
 Henning SchulzrinneColumbia University |
 Matti Latva-aho6G Flagship Program Univ. Of Oulu, Finland |
 Rahim TafazolliUniversity of Surrey |
 Udayan MukherjeeIntel |
 Gerhard FettweisTechnical University of Dresden |
 Luc SiroisInnovateur en chef du Québec/Quebec’s Chief Innovation Officer |
 Benoit PelletierVMware General Co-Chair |
Robert E. Kahn is Chairman, CEO and President of the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI), which he founded in 1986 after a thirteen year term at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). CNRI was created as a not-for-profit organization to provide leadership and funding for research and development of the National Information Infrastructure.
In his recent work, Dr. Kahn has been developing the concept of digital object architecture as a key middleware component of the NII. This notion is providing a framework for interoperability of heterogeneous information systems and is being used in many applications such as the Digital Object Identifier (DOI). He is a co-inventor of Knowbot programs, mobile software agents in the network environment.
Dr. Kahn is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the IEEE, a Fellow of AAAI, a Fellow of ACM and a Fellow of the Computer History Museum. He is a member of the State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy, a former member of the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee, a former member of the Board of Regents of the National Library of Medicine and the President’s Advisory Council on the National Information Infrastructure.
Dr. SHEN Jia graduated from Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University, China, and then received his Ph.D in Electronics degree from University of York, UK. Dr. SHEN joined in 4G standardization from 2005, and was a key contributor to TD-LTE standards. Since 2009, he has been the chairman of Testing and Specification Group of IMT-Advanced Promotion Group, MIIT of China, and responsible for the specifications and test result analysis in China’s 4G large-scale trial. Dr. Shen has been working with OPPO as a principal researcher of telecommunication standard, and joined in 5G NR standardization and 6G research since 2016. He served as 3GPP Feature Leads on 5G NR-PUCCH and URLLC (Ultra Reliable and Low-Latency Communications) enhancements. Dr. Shen has been the rapporteur of “AI/ML Model Transfer (AMMT) in 5GS” requirements Study/Work Item in 3GPP SA1 since 2019. He is the first author of books ”3GPP Long-Term Evolution (LTE): Technical Principle and System Design ” and “5G NR and Enhancements: From R15 to R16”, and is the inventor of over 100 patents.
Kaniz is leading a multi-faceted global team of research scientists, architects and developers specializing in advanced technologies that sit at the intersection of Wireless, Cloud and AI in the VMWare Office of the CTO. Key focus includes user-centric research and co-innovation with industry and academia to unravel the complexities of Distributed Edge Cloud systems. The outputs of these research and co-innovation efforts will drive recommendations for VMware’s strategic evolution in this space. Prior to VMware, Kaniz held various technology leadership positions at Ericsson, Huawei, Ciena and Nortel. With 45+ patent grants, Kaniz has a stellar record of continuously pushing the envelope on new technologies. She is an inventor of essential technologies underpinning current Voice over LTE systems and has been instrumental in defining the 5G era landscape with disruptive technologies (e.g. SDN/NFV & O-RAN).
Udayan is the Intel Fellow and Chief technologist of Wireless Network for Intel’s Networking and Edge Group. He leads technology and product development related to wireless radio access and core networks, including Cloud-RAN, virtual RAN, base stations based on the 5G and mobile edge platforms, as well as gateways and packet core solutions. Udayan is also responsible for establishing new growth areas for Intel in the telecommunications market segment, a role that includes developing technologies and optimizations for telecom platforms designed for software-based networking and network function virtualization, developing wireless-specific intellectual property, and leading Intel’s 5G wireless network technology development.
Udayan’s research interests include mobile computing and communication platforms; Time Sensitive Networking for industrial usage, heterogeneous networks; next-generation air interface technologies; network virtualization; and mobile edge services and applications including private network for industrial. Udayan has been very involved with IEEE, ORAN alliance and TIP/Facebook, has been previous keynote and distinguished speaker @ IEEE Globecom, IEEE WCNC, IEEE 5G silicon valley summits, IEEE NFIC, CTIA, GSMA, Cable Labs, ORAN Summits as well as FCC and other Global forums.
Peter Vetter has recently been nominated President of Bell Labs Core Research and leads an eminent global research organization with the mission to create game changing innovations that define the future of networks and insure portfolio leadership for Nokia’s core business.
During an international career of more than twenty-five years in research leadership in fixed and mobile networks, he and his teams have realized several world-first system demonstrations and successfully transferred industry leading concepts to the business groups.
He is a Bell Labs Fellow and recognized as an expert in the industry with more than hundred peer- reviewed publications.
Keynote Speaker: Javan Erfanian
In his role as Distinguished Member of Technical Staff, at Bell Canada, Javan Erfanian primes wireless technology strategic direction. He has worked with global industry and research community towards vision and formulation of new technologies and service enablers, including NGMN, ETSI, ATIS, IEEE, among others. In particular, Javan was co-lead and chief editor of NGMN 5G initiative, published in early 2015. Recently, he was editor of NGMN’s 6G Drivers and Vision, and co-editor of NGMN’s Green Future Networks, both published in 2021. In his IEEE role, Javan has been an IEEE Communications Society Distinguished Speaker for many years, and a recipient of Millennium medal in 2000. Javan has also taught at the University of Toronto, with IEEE publications and many citations.
Keynote Speaker: H. Vincent Poor
H. Vincent Poor is the Michael Henry Strater University Professor at Princeton University, where his interests include information theory, machine learning and network science, and their applications in wireless networks, energy systems and related fields. He also has held visiting appointments at a number of other universities, including most recently at Berkeley and Cambridge. Among his publications is the book Machine Learning and Wireless Communications, published by Cambridge University Press this year. Dr. Poor is a Member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and a Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society and other national and international academies. Recent recognition of his work includes the 2017 IEEE Alexander Graham Medal, and honorary doctorates from several universities in Asia, Europe and North America.
Keynote Speaker: Magnus Frodigh
Dr. Magnus Frodigh has been Vice President and Head of Ericsson Research since 2018. Dr. Frodigh was Research Area Director for Network Architecture and Protocols at Ericsson Research from 2007 to 2018 with responsibility for driving long-term technology leadership research in the areas of network architecture and protocols comprising radio, transport and core networks, including network management. Dr. Frodigh joined Ericsson in 1994 and has since held various key senior positions within Research & Development and Product Management, focusing on 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G technologies, and expanding collaborations between with both academia and industries. He holds 29 patents. Dr. Frodigh was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1964. He holds a Master of Science degree from Linköping University of Technology, Sweden and earned his Ph.D. in Radio Communication Systems from Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. Dr Frodigh is adjunct Professor at Royal Institute of Technology in Wireless Infrastructures since 2013.
Keynote Speaker: Sylvain Nadeau
Sylvain Nadeau, P.Eng., Manager of Edge Innovation, has more than 20 years of experience in telecommunications industry. Mr. Nadeau joined EXFO in 2007 and has helped lead the technological evolution of EXFO products and the introduction of innovations. He currently leads a team carrying out exploratory work in 5G networks and cloud native technologies as well as applied research in machine learning. Mr. Nadeau was named Distinguished Member of Technical Staff in 2018 for his leadership and continued contribution to innovation at EXFO. His expertise in telecommunication technologies, combined with an outstanding track record in innovation, makes him a strong leader within the CTO organization of EXFO. Before joining EXFO, Mr. Nadeau held engineering roles at Microsemi (formerly PMC-Sierra) and Matrox Graphics. Mr. Nadeau holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Polytechnique Montreal and a master’s degree of Engineering from Sherbrooke University.
Juan Montojo is VP of Engineering at Qualcomm’s Corporate Standards group. He has Telecommunications Engineering degrees from the Technical University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain, and Institut Eurecom, Sophia Antipolis, France, as well as, MS and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California (USC) and University of California San Diego (UCSD), respectively.
Dr. Montojo joined Qualcomm in San Diego in January 1997 and has worked in the system design and standardization of various communication systems including Globalstar, 3G, 4G, 5G, and WiFi as part of the corporate R&D and Standards groups. He led the 3GPP PHY layer standardization of WCDMA Rel-7 and of LTE Rel-8, 9, 10, and part of 11. He led the Qualcomm Research Germany group from Nov ’11 to July ’15 working on Gbps cable modem design and IEEE standardization, as well as, 802.11ah modem design and implementation. Upon his return to San Diego, Dr. Montojo led the system design of 5G NR unlicensed and spectrum sharing until he moved back to the 3GPP team in January ‘17 where he helped with the execution of the 5G NR acceleration. Currently, Dr. Montojo leads Qualcomm’s 3GPP team.
Dr. Montojo has been a recipient of QCT’s Upendra Patel Achievement Awards for Outstanding Contributions to LTE, Corporate R&D’s Excellence award for Management of Qualcomm Research Germany, and IP Excellence award for his contributions to 5G. Dr. Montojo has over 600 granted US patents and over 5,000 granted patents world-wide.
Bernard Duval is a technology transformation management consultant focusing on 5G disruptive technologies. He manages several collaborative research projects between industry and universities as part of the ENCQOR project, Canada’s first pre-commercial 5G digital infrastructure corridor. The project is intended to make 5G networks accessible to Canadian businesses, researchers and universities, helping them realize its potential, promoting long-term economic growth within Canada’s innovation ecosystem.
Matti Latva-aho is a Director for 6G Flagship Program in Oulu, Finland, and serves as an Academy Professor in the University of Oulu, where he has worked on wireless communications research since early 1990s. He was a Director of Centre for Wireless Communications (CWC) at the University of Oulu during the years 1998−2006, and a Head of Department of Communication Engineering until 2014. Prior to his joining the CWC, Matti worked as a Research Engineer at Nokia Mobile Phones in Oulu, Finland. Matti completed his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at the University of Oulu, Finland in 1998. His research interests lie in the area of wireless radio data communications, and currently his research group focuses on 6G systems research ranging from theory to design and implementation. He has worked so far with all the generations from 1G to 6G of mobile networks. Matti has published close to 500 conference or journal papers in the area of wireless communications. He has received a several awards, including Nokia Foundation Award in 2015 for his achievements in wireless communications research.
Dr. Gerhard P. Fettweis F’09, is Vodafone Chair Professor at TU Dresden since 1994, and heads the Barkhausen Institute since 2018, respectively. He earned his Ph.D. under H. Meyr’s supervision from RWTH Aachen in 1990. After one year at IBM Research in San Jose, CA, he moved to TCSI Inc., Berkeley, CA. He coordinates the 5G Lab Germany, and has coordinated 2 German Science Foundation (DFG) centers at TU Dresden, namely cfaed and HAEC. In 2019 he was elected into the DFG Senate. His research focusses on wireless transmission and chip design for wireless/IoT platforms, with 20 companies from Asia/Europe/US sponsoring his research. He also serves on the board of National Instruments Corp, and advises other companies.
Gerhard is IEEE Fellow, member of the German Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina), the German Academy of Engineering (acatech), and received multiple IEEE recognitions as well has the VDE ring of honor. In Dresden his team has spun-out seventeen start-ups, and setup funded projects in volume of close to EUR 1/2 billion. He co-chairs the IEEE 5G/Future Networks Initiative, and has helped organizing IEEE conferences, most notably as TPC Chair of ICC 2009 and of TTM 2012, and as General Chair of VTC Spring 2013 and DATE 2014.
Adrian Scrase played a central role in the creation of the “3rd Generation Partnership Project” (3GPP) and is responsible for the operations of the 3GPP Project Co-ordination Group. He heads 3GPPs’ Mobile Competence Centre (MCC) which is an International team of 20 experts who provide comprehensive support to the Project. He is CTO within ETSI with operational responsibility for all of ETSI’s standards production activities. He has more than 30 years experience in the telecommunications field, which includes 25 years of experience in standardization.
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Peiying Zhu
Dr. Peiying Zhu, Senior Vice President of Wireless Research, is a Huawei Fellow, IEEE Fellow and Fellow of Canadian Academy of Engineering. She is currently leading 5G and beyond wireless research and standardization in Huawei. The focus of her research is advanced radio access technologies. She is actively involved in 3GPP and IEEE 802 standards development. She has been regularly giving talks and panel discussions on 5G/B5G vision and enabling technologies. She led the team to contribute significantly to 5G technologies and standardization. She served as the guest editor for IEEE Signal processing magazine special issue on the 5G revolution and IEEE JSAC on Deployment Issues and Performance Challenges for 5G.
Prior to joining Huawei in 2009, Peiying was a Nortel Fellow and Director of Advanced Wireless Access Technology in the Nortel Wireless Technology Lab. She led the team and pioneered research and prototyping on MIMO-OFDM and Multi-hop relay. Many of these technologies developed by the team have been adopted into LTE standards and 4G products. Dr. Zhu has more than 200 granted patents.
Keynote Speaker: Muriel Médard
Muriel Médard is the Cecil H. and Ida Green Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) Department at MIT, where she leads the Network Coding and Reliable Communications Group in the Research Laboratory for Electronics at MIT. She obtained three Bachelors degrees (EECS 1989, Mathematics 1989 and Humanities 1991), as well as her M.S. (1991) and Sc.D (1995), all from MIT. She is a Member of the US National Academy of Engineering (elected 2020), a Fellow of the US National Academy of Inventors (elected 2018), American Academy of Arts and Sciences (elected 2021), and a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (elected 2008). Muriel was elected president of the IEEE Information Theory Society in 2012, and served on its board of governors for eleven years. She holds an Honorary Doctorate from the Technical University of Munich (2020).
She was co-winner of the MIT 2004 Harold E. Egerton Faculty Achievement Award and was named a Gilbreth Lecturer by the US National Academy of Engineering in 2007. She received the 2022 IEEE Koji Kobayashi Award, the 2017 IEEE Communications Society Edwin Howard Armstrong Achievement Award and the 2016 IEEE Vehicular Technology James Evans Avant Garde Award. She received the 2019 Best Paper award for IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering, the 2018 ACM SIGCOMM Test of Time Paper Award, the 2009 IEEE Communication Society and Information Theory Society Joint Paper Award, the 2009 William R. Bennett Prize in the Field of Communications Networking, the 2002 IEEE Leon K. Kirchmayer Prize Paper Award, as well as eight conference paper awards. Most of her prize papers are co-authored with students from her group.
She has served as technical program committee co-chair of ISIT (twice), CoNext, WiOpt, WCNC and of many workshops. She has chaired the IEEE Medals committee, and served as member and chair of many committees, including as inaugural chair of the Millie Dresselhaus Medal. She was Editor in Chief of the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications and has served as editor or guest editor of many IEEE publications, including the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, the IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology, and the IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security. She was a member of the inaugural steering committees for the IEEE Transactions on Network Science and for the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Information Theory. She is serving as the Editor in Chief of the IEEE Transactions in Information Theory since July 2021.
Muriel received the inaugural 2013 MIT EECS Graduate Student Association Mentor Award, voted by the students. She set up the Women in the Information Theory Society (WithITS) and Information Theory Society Mentoring Program, for which she was recognized with the 2017 Aaron Wyner Distinguished Service Award. She served as undergraduate Faculty in Residence for seven years in two MIT dormitories (2002-2007). She was elected by the faculty and served as member and later chair of the MIT Faculty Committee on Student Life and as inaugural chair of the MIT Faculty Committee on Campus Planning. She was chair of the Institute Committee on Student Life. She was recognized as a Siemens Outstanding Mentor (2004) for her work with High School students. She serves since 2015 on the Board of Trustees of the International School of Boston, for which she is treasurer.
She has over fifty US and international patents awarded, the vast majority of which have been licensed or acquired. For technology transfer, she has co-founded two companies, CodeOn, for which she consults, and Steinwurf, for which she is Chief Scientist.
Muriel has supervised over 40 master students, over 20 doctoral students and over 25 postdoctoral fellows.
Luc Sirois holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from McGill University and an MBA from Harvard University. Recognized in Canada and around the world for his creative approach to innovation, M. Sirois is a leader and entrepreneur in digital technology, with investments in numerous startups and non-profit organizations focused on youth, health, science and education. He co-founded the health innovation movement Hacking Health as well as its digital health accelerator and pre-seed fund. He is co-founder of Resonant Medical, now Elekta Canada, a leading manufacturer in the field of radiation oncology and image-guided treatments. He has also served as Vice President of Consumer Health at TELUS Health, Telesystem and Nightingale, and as Manager at McKinsey & Company with offices in Montreal, Toronto, Zurich and Paris.
Until recently, he was Managing Director of Prompt, a not-for-profit organization that facilitates R&D partnerships between the industry and research institutions to improve the competitiveness of companies in the ICT, artificial intelligence and other digital technology markets. Mr. Sirois is also strategic advisor to the Minister of the Economy and Innovation of the Quebec government. As such, he currently works on deploying new tech transfer models, on the culture of innovation in institutions, on issues of business creation and scientific entrepreneurship, as well as on the transfer of social innovations and their adoption in society.
In December 2020, he was appointed Chief Innovator of Quebec and Director General of the newly created Quebec Innovation Council.
Speaker: Benoit Pelletier
Benoit Pelletier is currently Director, Next Gen Ecosystems & Alliances in the Advanced Technologies SEBU at VMware with a Global mandate. Co-founder of the Open Grid Alliance as well as the $400M ENCQOR 5G Public Private Partnership initiative with international collaboration between Canada, USA, Europe and UK, executive member of the board for Innovation ENCQOR, a NPO created to deliver this PPP across Quebec-Ontario corridor.
Serving as co-chair of the Next G Alliance Steering Group, on the board of 5G Americas, 6G World Advisory Council, general co-chair of IEEE 5G World Forum and Industry Fora conference.
Creative thinker and passionate about collaborative innovation, disruptive technologies, and execution! Proven leader with an intrapreneur mindset who creates rich and unique ecosystems that connect multinational corporations, SMBs, governments and academia.
“Innovate or Evaporate” has been his mantra over the last 30 years in different industry markets: Telecom at VMware, Ciena and Nortel, Transport at Bombardier, and Military-Aerospace at Oerlikon Aerospace.
Benoit held several leadership positions in design, system integration, program management and business development. Broad knowledge in Product Development and expertise in New Product Introduction of cutting-edge technologies along with government relationships. Benoit holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Sherbrooke.
Keynote Speaker: Sumit Roy
Dr. Sumit Roy is Innovation Lead at the U.S. Department of Defense. He received the B. Tech. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (Kanpur) in 1983, and the M. S. and Ph. D. degrees from the University of California (Santa Barbara), all in Electrical & Comp. Engineering in 1985 and 1988 respectively, as well as an M. A. in Statistics and Applied Probability in 1988.
He served as Integrated Systems Professor (2014-19) of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Univ. of Washington-Seattle where his research and technology transition interests include analysis/design of wireless communication and sensor network systems with an emphasis on 5G & beyond standards, multi-standard inter-networking and spectrum coexistence using software-defined networks. He spent 2001-03 at Intel Wireless Technology Lab as a Senior Researcher engaged in systems architecture and standards development for ultra-wideband systems (Wireless PANs) and next generation high-speed wireless LANs. He has active been in IEEE Communications Society in various roles (journal editor and Distinguished Lecturer) and was elevated to IEEE Fellow (2007) for “contributions to multi-user communications theory and cross-layer design of wireless networking standards”. He currently serves as Program Lead for Innovate Beyond 5G for OUSD R&E Beyond 5G initiative
More information is coming about speakers shortly. Sign up for email alerts to learn the latest news and announcements for the 2021 IEEE 5G World Forum.