Advanced Internet Technologies: Winter PhD School 2024

The i2CAT Foundation is hosting a five-day Winter PhD School in Barcelona, designed for up to 20 doctoral students and early-stage postdocs. Participants will have the opportunity to engage with cutting-edge research topics in areas such as 5G/6G, IoT, AI, immersive communications, cybersecurity and advanced digital technologies.

The program will feature research presentations and live demonstrations at i2CAT and Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) facilities. Additionally, participants will present their research through poster sessions, providing a platform to showcase their work, sharpen their communication and presentation skills in front of an audience and receive feedback from other experts. Work in progress, already published content or project results can be submitted.

Throughout the event, attendees will gain insights into i2CAT’s ongoing research projects, as well as future directions in key technological fields. This immersive experience aims to foster collaboration, knowledge sharing, and innovation among the next generation of researchers.

Participation is open to PhD students currently enrolled in European universities (excluding Spain) focusing on telecommunications, computer science, electrical and electronic engineering, or related disciplines.

The Winter School will cover flight expenses, accommodation, and lunch.

Agenda

Monday 25 – Nexus Auditorium -1 floor

• 09.30 – 10: 00 – Registration on arrival
• 10:30 – 11: 00 – Welcome session (Jesus Alonso, i2CAT’s R&D Director)
• 11: 00 – 11: 30 – Breakfast break
• 11: 30 – 12:30 MediaTech presentations:
  • Towards the future of Media (Sergi Fernández, Director of the Media Technologies Research Area)
  • Volumetric Video Compression in Dynamic Environments and Live Digital Twins (Leonel Toledo, PhD)
  • Realistic Holoportation in XR: Capturing and Enhancing Volumetric Point Clouds for Human 3D Reconstruction (Diego González, PhD)
  • Next-generation networked media services (Mario Montagud, PhD, Associate Researcher of the Media Technologies Research Area & Research Scientist at University of Valencia)
• 12:30 – 12:45 – Break
• 12:45 – 13:30 – Media Technologies demos on the i2CAT Main Office (Nexus building – 2nd floor)
  • HoloMIT Next-Gen Communications
  • HoloMIT Holograms
  • HoloMIT & Gaussians – Enhancing Media Content
• 13:30 – 14:45 – Lunch
• 15:00 – 15:45 – AI-based Volumetric Content Creation for Immersive XR Experiences and Production Workflows (Aljosa Smolic, PhD, Professor and Co-Head Immersive Realities Research Lab, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU)
• 15:45 – 16:00 – Coffee break
• 16: 00 – 17:00 – IoT presentation:
  • Ambient Intelligence for IoT (Marisa Catalán, PhD., Director of the IoT Research Area, David Sarabia, PhD, Antoni Adame, Senior R&D Engineer)

Tuesday 26 – TeleEnsenyament UPC Room

• 10:00 – 11: 00 – Distributed Artificial Intelligence presentation:
  • Scaling Intelligence: How Decentralized AI Powers Real-World Optimization (Josep Escrig, PhD, Director of the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Area)
  • Integrating the Senses with AI: Advancing Multimodal Perception for Deeper Understanding (Ivan Huerta, PhD, Multi-modal AI Perception Research Line Manager)
• 11: 00 – 11: 30 – Breakfast break
• 11: 30 – 12:30 – Data presentation:
  • Added-value data optimizations for efficient and privacy-aware AI (Rizkallah Touma, PhD, Research Line Manager Distributed Data Architectures; Carlos Pérez, PhD, and Aleix Boixader)
• 12:30 – 12:45 – Break
• 12:45 – 13:30 – Distributed Artificial Intelligence & Data Space demonstrations:
  • Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (Alejandro Espinosa)
  • Breaking Boundaries in 3D: NeRF and Gaussian Splatting for Next-Gen Free-Viewpoint Video and Reconstruction (Sergio Montoya)
• 13:30 – 14:45 – Lunch

• 15:00 – 16:00 – Space Communications presentations:
  • Towards the adoption of satellite systems into 6G – Implementing Non-Terrestrial Networks (Joan A. Ruiz-de-Azua, PhD, Director of the Space Communications Research Area)
  • Applying virtualization mechanisms in satellite systems towards Software-defined satellites paradigm (Hossein Rouzegar, PhD)
  • Quantum technologies to support secure satellite networks (Xavier Jordan)
• 16:00– 16:15 – Coffee Break
• 16:15 – 17:00 – Digital Social Technologies presentation

Wednesday 27 – Nexus Auditorium -1 floor

• 10:00 – 11: 00 – Mobile Wireless Internet – SDWN presentation:
  • Trends in mobile network architecture towards 6G (Daniel Camps, PhD, Director of the Mobile Wireless Internet Research Area)
• 11: 00 – 11: 30 – Breakfast break
• 11: 30 – 12:30 – V2X presentation:
  • The Road Ahead: Enabling the Future of Connected and Automated Mobility (Francisco Vázquez, PhD, V2X Research Line Manager)
• 12:30 – 12:45 – Break
• 12:45 – 13:30 –  Explainability in Artificial Intelligence (Karina Gibert, PhD, Full professor at UPC and Head Director of Intelligent Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Research)
• 13:30 – 14:45 – Lunch
• 15:00 – 15:45- AI-Driven Systems presentation:
  • Open6G: AI-driven O-RAN for 6G Systems (Carmen Delgado, PhD, Esteban Municio, PhD, Filip Lemic, PhD, Andra Blaga, First Stage Researcher)
• 15:45 – 16:00 – Coffee Break
• 16: 00 – 17:00 – SDWN & V2X demos (i2CAT lab – Nexus building 1st floor)

Thursday 28 – TeleEnsenyament UPC Room

• 10:00 – 11: 00 – Software Networks presentations:
  • An Approach to Ubiquitous Connectivity and Computing in 6G (Shuaib Siddiqui, PhD, Director of the Cybersecurity & Blockchain DLT Research Area)
  • Generative AI for the Interpretation of Protocol Learning in Network Slicing (Hatim Chergui, PhD)
• 11: 00 – 11: 30 – Breakfast break
• 11: 30 – 12:30 – Cybersecurity & Blockchain presentation
  • Robust AI (Shuaib Siddiqui, PhD, Director of the Cybersecurity & Blockchain DLT Research Area)
  • Blockchain and Decentralized Identity: Redefining the Web (Alfonso Egio)
• 12:30 – 12:45 – Break
• 12:45 – 13:30 – Trustworthy Reinforcement Learning in Beyond 5G Radio Access Networks (Oriol Sallent, PhD, Full Professor at the UPC)
• 13:30 – 14:45 – Lunch
• 15:00 – 15:45 – Infrastructural e-waste and the dismantling of mobile network generational promises (Cristina Cano, PhD, Associate Professor of Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
• 15:45 – 16:00 – Coffee Break
• 16:00 – 16:30 – Funding opportunities for research careers (Violeta Morquecho, Head of Pre-Award, Project Management Office)
• 16:30 – 17:00- Presentations closing session

Friday 29- Nexus Auditorium -1 floor

• 10:00 – 14:30 – PhD poster presentations
• 14:30 – 15:30 – Lunch
• 15:30 – Check out and farewell

This initiative is part of TelecoRenta, a project funded by the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Service of the Spanish Government within the 5G Networks Program UNICO I+D (reference number TSI-063000-2021-68). Teleco Renta aims to promote telecommunication engineering studies at different education levels to improve the incorporation of young talent (predominantly female talent) into the telecommunications ecosystem.

Find out more about the application process here.