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From November 25 to November 29, i2CAT hosted a total of 16 European doctoral students and early-stage postdocs to participate in a five-day Winter PhD School to engage with cutting-edge research topics in areas such as 5G and 6G, IoT, AI, immersive technologies, cybersecurity and digital social technologies. Participants came from different European universities, including the Ghent University and the University of Antwerp (Belgium), the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, the University of Palermo and the University of Cagliari (Italy), the University of Coimbra and the University of Aveiro (Portugal), the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (Luxembourg), and the Coventry University (UK).
During five days, participants had the chance to attend different presentations and live demonstrations led by i2CAT research group directors and researchers to gain insights into the Catalan research centre’s ongoing research projects and future directions in key technological fields. The Winter Doctoral School also included three keynote lectures by prestigious researchers in advanced digital technologies. On Monday, Aljosa Smolic, Professor and Co-Head of Immersive Realities Research Lab, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU), offered the “AI-based Volumetric Content Creation for Immersive XR Experiences and Production Workflows” session. On Wednesday, Karina Gibert, Full professor and Head Director of the Intelligent Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Research Center (IDEAI-UPC), intervened with the “Explainability in Artificial Intelligence” session. Finally, Cristina Cano, Associate Professor of Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) offered the “Infrastructural e-waste and the dismantling of mobile network generational promises” session on Thursday.
The Winter PhD finished on Friday with a poster presentation session, conceived as a platform where participants could showcase their work and sharpen their communication and presentation skills. “This initiative aimed to foster collaboration, knowledge sharing, and innovation among the next generation of European researchers in the field of advanced digital technologies”, explain Roger Wold Onnen Grima, director of the People&Talent department, and Alicia Pallarés, UNICO I+D project manager.
i2CAT organized this Winter PhD School within TelecoRenta, a project of the UNICO I+D 6G programme promoted by the Spanish Government with NextGenerationEU funding as a part of its Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. Teleco Renta aims to promote engineering telecommunication studies at different education levels to improve the incorporation of young talent (predominantly female talent) into the telecommunications ecosystem.
