Industry Workshop - Connecting the Unconnected

Mohamed-Slim Alouini

IEEE Fellow, Al-Khawarizmi Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering & Holder UNESCO Chair on Education to Connect the Unconnected
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) – Thuwal, Makkah Province, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

TALK TITLE: Towards Connecting the Remaining Unconnected

SUMMARY

The impact of Internet and Communication Technology (ICT) continues to reshape society, influencing areas from the economy to education and healthcare. As 5G deployment expands, attention is shifting towards the sixth generation (6G) of wireless communication systems (WCSs), expected to define the future of connectivity in the 2030s. 6G aims to provide unprecedented communication capabilities to meet the demands of an increasingly hyper-connected world.
While technological advancements in WCSs have historically favored densely populated urban areas, the vision for 6G extends far beyond city limits. In alignment with the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, 6G aspires to democratize access to ICT, promoting global connectivity in a sustainable manner. This talk explores this forward-looking vision of 6G, offering insights into the future of wireless communication and directing research towards sustainable, inclusive, and high-speed connectivity solutions.

Mohamed-Slim Alouini, was born in Tunis, Tunisia. He earned his Ph.D. from the California Institute ofTechnology (Caltech) in 1998 before serving as a faculty member at the University of Minnesota and later at Texas A&M University at Qatar. In 2009, he became a founding faculty member at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), where he currently is the Al-Khawarizmi Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the holder of the UNESCO Chair on Education to Connect the Unconnected. Dr. Alouini is a Fellow of the IEEE and OPTICA and his research interests encompass a wide array of research topics in wireless and satellite communications. He is currently particularly focusing on addressing the technical challenges associated with information and communication technologies (ICT) in underserved regions and is committed to bridging the digital divide by tackling issues related to the uneven distribution, access to, and utilization of ICT in rural, low-income, disaster-prone, and hard-to-reach areas.

Gabriele Elia

Head of Standard and IPR function at TIM – Telecom Italia

TALK TITLE: 5G Satellite Integration: Development and Trends

SUMMARY

The race for mega constellations in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO), the innovation and cost reduction in rocket launching solutions, and the great investment from private companies has renewed the interest for satellite communication. 3GPP standard started to integrate NTN (Non Terrestrial Networks) into 5G since 2017. The vision of 3GPP for mobile and satellite integration, the use cases for broadband, direct-to-cell and IoT services, and the main initiatives driving this evolution will be presented.

Gabriele ELIA is the Head of Standard and IPR function at TIM – Telecom Italia, the main mobile and fixed operator in Italy, where he deals with innovation and development of European and national research collaborations and with academic contexts, coordination activities related to standardization, development of intellectual property, and technical communication. He is currently coordinating the activities of national technical standardization of TIM (involving around 20 technical and standardization associations including ETSI, 3GPP, SmartM2M, TMForum, Linux Foundation, ISO, CEINorme , etc), and responsible for the technical coordination of European funded research collaborations in the TIM technological area, as well as the development and promotion of TIM’s patent assets (around 2600 patents). Gabriele got a Master Degree in Electronic Engineering, and a PhD in Computer and Systems Engineering at Politecnico di Torino.

Mohamed Amin

IEEE Region 8 Careers Subcommittee Chair

Mohamed Amin has 15+ years of experience in the telecommunication industry. He is a strong believer in the role of technology in industrial transformation and strives to challenge the silos that prevent innovation and business success. His experience ranges from engineering to pre-sales, business development and sales with Alcatel-Lucent & Nokia in different roles covering Europe, Middle East & Africa region. Amin has received several awards in his professional career from Nokia & IEEE. He is also an active volunteer and IEEE member, serving currently as Industry Engagement committee member at IEEE and Careers Subcommittee Chair at IEEE R8 (EMEA).

John Matogo

Corporate Social Responsibility Leader for Middle East & Africa at IBM

John Matogo is the Corporate Social Responsibility Leader for Africa & the Middle East at IBM. He joined IBM in Sept 2014 bringing with him vast experience from the academic community and innovation ecosystem in Africa. His role involves leading IBM’s social impact programmes in the Middle East and Africa. These social impact programs include initiatives around skilling learners at various levels, volunteerism and sustainability. This involves working with various partners such as academia, government, non-profit organizations and private sector players.
John has been instrumental in forging collaborations for IBM with numerous institutions of higher education and ministries of education in the MEA region. The outcome of which resulted in having over 5000 certifications and over tens of thousands trained students and faculty members on the new and emerging technologies including cloud computing, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, Internet of Things, data science, cyber security and many more.
Prior to joining IBM, John was the founding Manager of @iBizAfrica, the business innovation center at Strathmore University and a faculty member in the Faculty of Information Technology at the same institution, teaching software engineering and computing courses. He was instrumental in coordinating the first ever e-readiness survey of over 50 universities in East Africa while working with KENET. He is interested in the application of technology in educational environments and developing digital skills among young professionals. His research interests include ICTs in education, ICT4D, Free & Open source software and Innovation & entrepreneurship.
His contribution to the local technology community was recognized at the iHub Tech Community Award ceremony on 8th March 2015.
He is a Senior IEEE member and an active volunteer with IEEE in Region 8 (EMEA region) and is a member and immediate former chair of the Action for Industry sub-committee in Region 8. He served as Chair for the IEEE Kenya Section 2014-2015. John is a former board member of AfriLabs (2012-2015), which is the umbrella body for innovation hubs on the African continent. He previously served as a Council member of the Free and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA).

Paolo Volpato

IEEE European Public Policy Committee (EPPC) Member

Paolo is Chief Engineer and Senior Standardization Manager in the European Branch of Standardization and Industry Development (SID) at Huawei Technologies. Prior to joining Huawei he worked for companies such as Alcatel-Lucent, Wind, Infostrada, and Italtel.
Paolo holds a Degree in Electronic Engineering from the Polytechnic of Milan and a master in “Marketing & Communication” from IlSole24Ore Business School of Milan. In his current role, he is involved in the technical work of the standards organizations that deal with the evolution of the global Internet and of the internetworking technologies. In particular, he is involved in the IETF, IEEE and ETSI. He authored or contributed to a number of RFCs, drafts, papers and best current practices in the areas of Datacom technologies, Software Defined Networking and 5G backhauling. He is author of the book “An Introduction to Packet Microwave Systems and Technologies.
As for IEEE, he is a member of the European Public Policy Committee (EPPC) ICT
working group, where is acting as the editor on a position paper on the Gigabit
Infrastructure Act (GIA) from the European Commission.

Nihel Ben Youssef

IEEE Region 8 Action for Industry Subcommittee Member

Nihel Ben Youssef (Senior Member, IEEE) is an Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity at the Institut Supérieur d’Informatique-ISI (Higher Institute of Computer Science) in Tunisia with more than 15 years of professional experience. Dr. Nihel obtained her B.Sc, Engineering .Sc., and Ph.D. degree, in ICT and cybersecurity.
She is actively engaged in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) community, Her commitment to mentorship and community development is evident in her role as the Co-Founder of SecuriNets Association in 2003, where she actively guides and inspires the next generation of cybersecurity professionals.
As the leader of the OWASP Tunisia Chapter, she spearheads initiatives to promote secure software development practices. Additionally, Nihel serves as the IEEE Industry Ambassador for the Tunisia Section and member of IEEE region8 Action for Industry subcommittee.
Nihel is a prominent advocate for cybersecurity awareness and education, with contributions to the national security strategies within the working group committees organized by the Ministry of ICT and the National Cybersecurity Agency in Tunisia.
Nihel is recognized as one of the “TOP 50 Women in Cybersecurity in Africa” by Cyber In Africa and AWISN.. She received several honorary awards such as Outstanding Achievement Award from IEEE Tunisia Section in 2019 and Best Industry Ambassador in 2021 from IEEE R8 Action for Industry Subcommittee.

Mohammad Galal Khafagy

IEEE Region 8 Action for Industry Subcommittee Member

Mohammad Galal Khafagy (S’06–M’15–SM’17) is currently a Radio Strategy & Design Sr. Tech. Lead at Vodafone Egypt, as well as a part-time research scientist at the American University in Cairo (AUC), Egypt. Prior to joining Vodafone, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, from May 2018 to May 2019. Also, from Dec. 2016 to Apr. 2018, he was affiliated with Qatar University as a postdoctoral researcher. He received the Ph.D. degree from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Makkah, Saudi Arabia, in 2016, the M.Sc. degree in wireless communications from the School of CIT, Nile University, Egypt, in 2011, and the B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University, Egypt, in 2009. He recently received, as a member of the winning team, the Vodacom CEO Innovation Award 2023, as well as a Vodafone Egypt Top Performer for the years 2022-2023 and 2023-2024. Mohammad co-authored around 20 conference and journal papers, in addition to a filed GB patent. His current research and development interests focus more on applied topics such as machine-learning-aided communication systems (like in Open Radio Access Networks), while he also pursues fundamental research on intelligent reflecting surfaces, multiple-antenna techniques, relay-aided communication, performance analysis and protocol design over fading channels, buffer-aided cooperation, and statistical signal processing for communications. He is a long-term IEEE member, and has volunteered since 2007 as a student, young professional, and later as the 2022-2023 IEEE Egypt Section Industry Ambassador. Currently, He is serving as a committee member of IEEE Region 8 Action for Industry. He is also a reviewer in IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology and IEEE Communications Letters.