Dr. Martin Birk
Martin Birk is an optical consultant with more than 25 years of industry experience. Martin is a former Director of Optical Platforms at AT&T Labs, an AT&T Fellow, and an individual contributor in AT&T Research. He has a strong technology background in Optics, Microwave and Semiconductor Design and Technologies. Martin holds a Ph.D., MS, and BS from the University of Ulm, Germany
Dr. Rongqing Hui
Rongqing Hui is a professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Kansas in Lawrence Kansas. His research interests are in lightwave communication systems and subsystems, photonic devices, optical instrumentation and photonic sensors. Prior to joining the faculty of the University of Kansas, he was a member of Scientific Staff at Bell-Northern Research and Nortel Networks in Ottawa, Canada. He served as a Program Director for the Electronics, Photonics, and Devices Technologies (EPDT) program at the US National Science Foundation from 2006 to 2008. He has published more than 100 papers in leading engineering Journals in the field of photonics and optics, and two books: “Fiber optic measurement techniques” (Academic Press 1st edition 2009, 2nd edition 2022), and “Introduction to fiber-optic communications” (Academic Press 2019).
Dr. Koteswararao Kondepu
Koteswararao Kondepu is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Dharwad, India. His present research is focused on 5G and beyond networks, softwarization and virtualization of mobile networks, AI/ML for networks, and communication networks reliability. He has participated in several national and international projects. Koteswararao Kondepu holds a Master degree in Computer Applications (Gold Medalist) from Indian School of Mines (IIT) Dhanbad in 2007. He obtained his PhD degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Institute for Advanced Studies Lucca (IMT), Italy in 2012. Thereafter, he worked as a Research Fellow in the TeCIP institute at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna of Pisa, Italy till December 2020. He is also co-author of IEEE Communications Society Charles Kao Award (2018) for the Best Optical Communications and Networking Paper. He also won SoftFire Challenges award for “VERIFIRE” project, 2018.
Dr. Paolo Monti
Paolo Monti is a Professor and the Head of the Optical Networks Unit at Chalmers University of Technologies. His main expertise is with the design and operation of optical communication infrastructures where he focuses on various network aspects including energy efficiency, resiliency, programmability, automation, and techno-economics. He has been involved (as PI, co-PI, and/or main technical leader) in several national and international projects funded by the main research bodies in EU, USA, and Asia. His educational portfolio includes both teaching courses (undergrad, MS and Ph.D. level) and running and developing education programs in the broad ICT area. He is a Senior Member of IEEE.
Dr. Sebastian Troia
Sebastian Troia is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering at Politecnico di Milano (Italy) and a Fulbright Research Fellow with the Erik Jonsson
School of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Texas at Dallas (USA). His current research interests are in the field of edge network softwarization and Machine Learning for
communication networks. His work encompasses the development of intelligent control and orchestration plane architectures for SDN and SD-WAN in multi-layer (Optical and IP) network scenarios.
He has participated in various European Projects and served as an editor for the ITU Focus Group on Machine Learning for Future Networks including 5G (FG-ML5G). He is an active member of the IEEE Communication Society and serves as Technical Program Committee (TPC) member for several international conferences, including IEEE ICC and IEEE GLOBECOM.
Dr. Naoaki Yamanaka
In 1983 he joined Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation’s (NTT’s) Since 1994, he has been active in the development of backbone network and system including Tb/s electrical/optical backbone switching as NTT’s Distinguished Technical Member. He moved to Keio University, and since then he is Professor in Dept. of Information and Computer Science, Keio University, Japan, Director of Keio Leading-edge Laboratory of Science and Technology and chair of Photonic Internet Labs. For research, he published more than 200 transaction papers and 320 International conferences. He received IEEE best transaction paper and 4 large International conference best paper including GLOBECOM. Dr. Yamanaka was Technical Editor of IEEE Communication Magazine, Broadband Network Area Editor of IEEE Communication Surveys, Former Editor of IEICE Transaction, Director of IEEE Communications Society as well as Board member of IEEE CPMT Society. He is former vice-President of IEICE. Dr. Yamanaka is an IEEE Fellow and an IEICE Fellow.
Dr. Tianliang Zhang
Tianliang Zhang earned his PhD from the Open Networking Advanced Research (OpNeAR) Lab at the University of Texas at Dallas. Specializing in optical transmission and networking, his experience encompasses quality of transmission, Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Routing and Wavelength Assignment (RWA), and open networking. He has been involved in collaborative efforts at OpenLab and has supported public demonstrations for OpenROADM initiatives. He currently serves as a Product Line Manager within the Network Design Team at Fujitsu Network Communications.