6G Expert Days 2025

Prof. Stefanie Speidel, TU Dresden

Advanced surgical technologies, such as digital ORs and robotics, generate vast data for enhancing patient care, yet their real-time use still relies heavily on surgical staff experience. This talk explores AI-powered robotic surgery and the analysis of intraoperative data to enable real-time human-machine collaboration and remote surgery. By quantifying surgical experience and making it accessible to machines, we aim to democratize surgical skills and optimize therapy along the entire treatment path.

Stefanie Speidel is a professor for “Translational Surgical Oncology” and director at the National Center for Tumor Diseases Dresden since 2017 as well as one of the speakers of the DFG Cluster of Excellence CeTI and the Konrad Zuse AI school SECAI. She received her PhD from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in 2009 and had a junior research group “Computer-Assisted Surgery” from 2012 – 2016. She is an elected MICCAI board member and fellow, has co-authored 150+ publications, organizes key workshops and challenges, and has served as general as well as program chair for major international conferences including IPCAI and MICCAI. Her research focuses on machine learning for image- and robot-assisted surgery.

Uwe Löwenstein, ITU

As ICT-specialised UN organisation, amongst others, ITU is responsible for the maintenance of the Radio Regulations (RR) as well as the conceptual and technical considerations of the various IMT-generations. This presentation will touch upon the WRC-27 preparation and the status regarding the development of IMT-2030, incl. potential non-terrestrial-networks.

Uwe Löwenstein joined ITU in April 2020 as Counsellor for ITU-R Study Group 5 (Terrestrial Services) in the Radio Communications Bureau (BR). In this role, he supports the work of the four ITU-R SG 5 Working Parties dealing with land mobile service (including RLAN, IMT and PPDR), fixed services, amateur services, maritime mobile service, aeronautical mobile service and radiodetermination service.

Before joining the United Nations specialised agency, he worked for more than 20 years at Telefónica (o2) Germany, starting there in 1997, when “VIAG Interkom” built up the 4th GSM network in Germany. He participated at the German UMTS auction (2000), the 4G/LTE-auction (2010 & 2015) as well as the 5G-auction in 2019. Furthermore, he was the Telefónica representative at ITU-R WP 5D and ECC/CEPT PT1 (both responsible for IMT) and member of the German delegation at WRC-03 / WRC-07 / WRC-12 / WRC-15 and WRC-19.

Stefan Brueck, Qualcomm

In this presentation we discuss several 5G-Advanced features that will play a major role in 6GR. In addition, we provide an overview of new features for the 6G air interface to enhance capacity and coverage including their impacts on testability.

Stefan Brueck is Senior Director of the department ‘Modem Technology’ in Qualcomm Germany and General Manager of Qualcomm Germany GmbH. He and his team are working on PHY receiver design for 5G NR and in the past for LTE-Advanced Pro and Wifi 11ac/11ax. In addition, he is visiting lecturer for '5G/6G Mobile Communications Systems' at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg and University of Bremen. Stefan Brueck started his career in Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies in 1999. Since then, he held R&D positions in Alcatel-Lucent and Qualcomm focusing on PHY and MAC layer technologies for GSM, UMTS/HSPA, LTE, 5G NR and now 6GR. Stefan Brueck studied mathematics and electrical engineering at TU Darmstadt, Germany and Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. He received Dipl.-Math. and Dr.-Ing. degrees from TU Darmstadt in 1994 and 1999, respectively.

Alkan Ozturk, Dave Mitesh, Meta

At Meta; our strategic vision for the future of Extended Reality (XR), focusing also on its integration with 6G technology and Agentic AI. We envision a future where AI-powered smart glasses seamlessly blend the physical and virtual worlds, offering augmented reality experiences and real-time assistance. Key challenges addressed include miniaturization, latency, and quality of experience (QoE), which 6G is expected to overcome by providing ubiquitous and low-latency connectivity. Meta emphasizes the need for AI-native mobility and support for diverse XR device types to enable truly immersive communication and interaction.

Alkan Ozturk is the Director of Engineering at Meta Reality Labs and Head of Meta’s San Diego R&D Site. With a career spanning leadership roles at Nokia, Intel, Apple, and Meta, he has been at the forefront of consumer device innovation—from the early days of feature phones to smartphones, and now augmented and virtual reality technologies.

Born in Istanbul, Turkey, Alkan studied Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering before moving to Germany. There, as a DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) scholar, he earned his Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering at Ruhr University Bochum. Alkan also holds an Executive MBA from San Diego State University and has completed executive education programs at MIT Sloan and UC San Diego.

Drawing on professional experience across Germany, the U.K., and the U.S., Alkan has led global teams in advancing connectivity, hardware design, and product ecosystems. At Meta, he is driving design validation and certifications through lab infrastructure development and strategic investments in AI, AR glasses, and VR/MR headsets, while expanding Meta’s innovation footprint in Southern California.

In addition to his industry role, Alkan serves on the board of the San Diego Chamber of Commerce, supporting regional growth, technology advancement, and business-community partnerships

Sajeev Alakkatt Paleri, Google

We envision a world where digital and physical realities seamlessly merge through smart glasses, eliminating handheld devices and enhancing AI experiences. With 6G approaching, the critical architectural decision for Next-Gen AR smart glasses is between a fully standalone device with integrated AI and 6G connectivity, OR a split-compute model where glasses act as a thin client tethered via Wi-Fi 8 to a powerful, 6G-enabled smartphone for computation and AI acceleration.

This presentation will deeply examine the engineering trade-offs and user experience implications, particularly how AI is integrated and enabled by 6G. We will compare their performance envelopes, considering how 6G's capabilities (extreme bandwidth, sub-millisecond latency, pervasive AI/edge integration) can be best leveraged for advanced use cases like real-time object recognition and contextual assistance. Key metrics such as device weight, thermal management, battery life, computational flexibility, and cost will be thoroughly analyzed.

The goal here is to provide a comprehensive view of when standalone 6G AR glasses are ideal for highly distributed experiences, versus when the optimized form factor, extended battery life, and upgradeable AI processing of the split-compute model offer a superior balance for diverse indoor and outdoor user experiences.

Sajeev Alakkatt Paleri, born and raised in India, earned his Bachelor's in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Anna University. He spent a decade as a Research Scientist at SAMEER, Chennai, India, an R&D lab specializing in RF systems and EMI/EMC, and received a UNDP fellowship at Georgia Tech Research Institute. Sajeev then moved to Vancouver, BC, Canada, for a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering at University of British Columbia, Vancouver with focus on RFIC and systems. A Senior IEEE member since 2007, Sajeev is currently an expat Engineering Lead in Taipei, establishing a Center for Excellence for HW engineering for Google’s Android XR organization. He has over 20 years of North American Tech Industry experience in design, development, and engineering management, including roles at VTECH Telecom, Sierra Wireless, Apple (9 years since 2014), and Google (3 years since 2022). In his free time, Sajeev enjoys biking, hiking, exploring places & food, and learning music and languages.

Dr. Guangyi Liu, CMCC

6G will be far beyond traditional communication, which will reuse the hardware for communication to support the sensing as a service. For sensing, the traditional "A transmit and A receive" mode will introduce serious self-interference and demand complicated hardware upgrade. To solve this issue, a cooperative sensing by "A transmit and B/C/D receive" is a good solution. For the cooperative sensing, the synchronization among different sites which cooperates will impact the sensing performance heavily and thus the high accuracy sychronization is needed. To achieve this, some prototype has been developed to verify the performance, the trial results prove that the cooperative sensing works well and is a promising solution for ubiquitous sensing with low cost.

Dr. Guangyi Liu, Chief Scientist of 6G in China Mobile Communication Corporation (CMCC), founding member and co-chair of the 6G Alliance of Network AI (6GANA), Board member of NGMN (Global mobile operator alliance), Vice chair of THz industry alliance in China, vice chair of the wireless technology working group of IMT-2030 (6G) promotion group supported by Ministry of Information and Industry Technology of China. He is leading the 6G R&D in CMCC since 2018. During 2014~2020, he has led the 5G R&D in CMCC; During 2006~2016, he has led the R&D of 4G’s evolution in CMCC. He has acted as spectrum working group chair and project coordinator of LTE evolution and 5G eMBB in Global TD-LTE Initiative (GTI) from 2013~2020 and led the industrialization and globalization of TD-LTE evolution and 5G eMBB.

Dr. Alexander Artemenko, Bosch

Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) holds immense potential for transformative applications in automotive and industrial manufacturing, promising unparalleled new sensing prospective. However, a significant challenge lies in the insufficient definition of specific requirements from these diverse sectors, hindering targeted ISAC development. This lack of clarity contributes to the current fragmented progress in ISAC research and implementation, leading to questions about whether initial hype is giving way to a more pragmatic, yet slower, evolutionary phase. To unlock ISAC's full capabilities, a concerted effort is needed to establish precise, application-driven requirements from industry stakeholders, guiding future innovation effectively.

Dr. Alexander Artemenko is a recognized expert driving advanced connectivity research and 5G/6G innovation at Robert Bosch GmbH. Within Bosch, he spearheads initiatives across diverse business units and sites, specializing in ultra-reliable, low-latency wireless networks critical for automotive and Industry 4.0 applications. His work integrates cutting-edge technologies like Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC), edge computing, and AI/ML, actively shaping their application within Bosch's product portfolio. Dr. Artemenko holds a Ph.D. from Ilmenau University of Technology and has prior postdoctoral research experience at UCLA and TU Ilmenau. With a robust portfolio of numerous publications and patents, he is a leading voice in the evolution of future communication systems.

Frank Schaich, Nokia

In my presentation I will give an overview about the work on our real-time ISAC PoC. I will provide details about its technical components and configuration, our findings on the way towards todays status and some use case studies we did using this setup. Our target has been to be as close as possible to a real productized solution, so we have based our PoC on real 5G hardware as being placed in the field as of today. While doing the implementation it became apparent that using hardware being optimized for communications has some interesting impacts to using it for sensing which we need to take into account. As ISAC is not supposed to be a one-trick Pony we have analysed various application scenarios from out-door to in-door and from wide-area to local-area.

Frank Schaich received his Dipl.-Ing. and Dr.-Ing. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Stuttgart. 2007 he joined Alcatel-Lucent’s wireless access physical layer group. Dr. Schaich served as work package leader for various European Union’s FP7 projects (PHYDYAS, ACCORDANCE). He has been active on developing solutions for the next generation of wireless cellular communication systems in the framework of 5GNOW and METIS. Dr. Schaich has coordinated FANTASTIC-5G and ONE5G in the EU framework of horizon 2020 targeting the definition of the air interface for 5G. Currently, he is leading the department Hardware Platforms and Research Testbeds in Stuttgart being a part of the Access & Devices Lab within Nokia Bell Labs. He is author of numerous publications and patent filings.

Abdelrahman Abdelkader, Nokia

For 6G to be truly AI native and capable of powering AI use cases of every kind, it has to be more than an overlay or add-on to the 6G system. AI-powered components need to be built into the architecture and be scalable, secure and ensure privacy. This talk explores what it means to be an AI-native network as well as the crucial role standards play in ensuring interoperability, safety and trust while supporting competitive value creation and flexibility for faster innovation cycles.

Abdelrahman Abdelkader is Lead Architect for AI-Native 6G at Nokia, based in Munich, Germany. He drives AI-related strategy and standardization efforts across leading industry bodies, including 3GPP, O-RAN, ITU, and ETSI.

Previously, Abdelrahman served as rapporteur for the ETSI ZSM012 specifications on AI/ML enablers for zero-touch network automation and contributed to O-RAN as a Nokia delegate, focusing on AI/ML and data related topics. His career bridges cutting-edge research and industry impact, with prior roles as a Research Associate at the Technical University of Dresden (TUD), where he completed his PhD in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology.

Abdelrahman holds a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from Cairo University and a double Master of Science degree from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Technical University of Catalonia (UPC).

Sebastian Cammerer, NVIDIA

AI will become a cornerstone of future wireless communication systems, enabling radio access networks (RANs) that dynamically adapt to specific radio frequency (RF) environments and enhance their performance even after deployment. Novel paradigms such as end-to-end learning for pilotless transmissions and semantic communications add to the transformative potential of AI. Integrating neural network components into the signal processing pipeline of wireless transceivers poses research challenges, particularly in meeting the stringent, often sub-millisecond, inference latency required by RANs. As such, the full potential of AI-native RANs depends on three main factors: (a) the development of robust software tools, (b) the deployment of specialized hardware platforms for real-time AI acceleration, and (c) the design of fundamentally new transceiver algorithms.

In this talk, we outline a path toward prototyping an AI-native RAN using the Sionna Research Kit—an open-source platform designed for development, training, and deployment of AI-native wireless communication systems. We present a 5G NR-compliant real-time neural receiver connected to commercial user equipment, demonstrating how research ideas can be rapidly transformed into over-the-air prototypes using open-source tools. To foster collaboration and accelerate progress in the field, all experiments and results will be made openly available, lowering the barrier to entry and enabling researchers worldwide to translate their ideas into real-world wireless communication systems.

Sebastian Cammerer is a Senior Research Scientist at NVIDIA, working at the intersection of wireless communications and machine learning. He is one of the core developers and maintainers of the Sionna open-source link-level simulator. Before joining NVIDIA, he received his PhD in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology from the University of Stuttgart, Germany. His main research interests are machine learning for wireless communications and channel coding. His work has been recognized with several awards, including the VDE ITG Dissertationspreis 2022, the IEEE SPS Young Author Best Paper Award 2019, and third prize in the Nokia Bell Labs Prize 2019.

Mikael Höök, Ericsson

AI based algorithms have evolved as a natural toolbox in advanced receiver design. However, in typical scenarios already conventional advanced receivers perform close to ideal. So where can we expect gains by introducing AI for PHY?

Mikael Höök joined Ericsson in 1994 and has held various positions targeting the research and standardization of cellular generations from 2G to 6G. He is currently Research Area Director for Radio-research within Ericsson Research and based in Kista, Stockholm. The responsibility covers research on air-interface design, advanced signal processing, multi-antenna systems, radio network performance and propagation. Results are fed into standardization, regulation, and product development. The work addresses 5G and 6G technologies, spectrum and wireless backhaul.

He was born 1968 and received his M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm 1995.

Ralf Irmer, Vodafone

• AI, Robots, Devices with XR and support for critical infrastructure as drivers
• Architecture to include local connectivity up to networks with simple user interaction
• Cost, energy reduction and simplified, cost-effective rollout using current operator assets and software oriented

Ralf Irmer received the Ph.D. degree from Technische Universität Dresden. He has studied in Dresden and Edinburgh. In 2005, he joined Vodafone Group Research and Development, U.K. He was responsible for wireless access innovation and initiated the first 5G program of Vodafone Group. In 2015, he joined Vodafone GmbH, Germany, for the spectrum auction, where he is focusing more on 6G. He is currently the Chief Innovation Architect with Vodafone, Germany. He is also the Head of the new Vodafone Tech Innovation Center Dresden. His passion was and is to drive 5G/6G and technology innovation with an impact on business verticals–such as public safety, healthcare, railways, automotive, industry production, and sports. He is on the Advisory Board of the 5G Laboratory, Germany, an Advisor to the 6G Research and Innovation Cluster (6G-RIC), the National 6G Platform. He leads one German large 6G project “6G Health” with 19 partners and has a leading part in 6G projects on security, resilience, and system architecture, such as 6G-ANNA. He has filed more than ten patents and has published more than 40 research papers.

Jonas Friden, Ericsson

3GPP conformance testing of active antenna systems includes radio and antenna spatial and frequency performance. Since 3GPP Rel 15 the conformance testing has been part of the standard but in the telecom industry the major part of the total test scope is performed in a conducted interface. Hence, the experience of full OTA test scope is limited. With the emerging 6G standard and introduction of cm-wave bands and hybrid beamforming it is envisioned that a significantly larger number of radiating elements and radio branches will be used, and hence full OTA testing becomes more appealing. Testing emissions, out-of-band blocking, co-location requirements at the OTA interface comes with challenges related to link budget, spatial sampling, new dependencies between tests, measurement uncertainty, implications for in-field testing etc. A leading star in the way towards full OTA test scope is to make use of the technology inherent in the AASs also in the test requirements and measurement techniques.

Jonas Fridén was born in 1965. He received the B.S. degree in mathematics and physics and the Ph.D. degree in theoretical physics from the University of Göteborg, Göteborg, Sweden, in 1987 and 1996, respectively. Since 2002, he has been with Ericsson Research, Ericsson AB, Göteborg, Sweden. In 1996 –1999, he was a lecturer with the College University of Borås. In 1999, he was with Ericsson Microwave Systems AB, where he worked with radar antennas, radar system, and radome design. He has also been a member of the European Electromagnetic Data Interface Group. His major areas of research are electromagnetic compliance, OTA measurement techniques, near field retrieval techniques, antenna theory, bandwidth limitations of antennas, and MIMO antenna system performance. Appointed Senior Specialist in Over-the-Air Methodologies at Ericsson 2018. Leading OTA testing standardization for 3GPP 5G and 5G advanced, ANSI and CEPT. Active in several ANSI working groups on OTA chamber technology. University research coordinator for OTA related research. Appointed Expert in Over-the-Air Evaluation Methodologies 2024.

Adam Cooman, IMEC

Future communication networks require advanced Analog to Digital Convertors (ADCs). Characterization of these ADCs pushes the measurement equipment to its limits. ADCs for wireless systems will require sub 10fs jitter and linearity levels below 80dBc, while next generation optical transceivers require a bandwidth over 100GHz. In this talk we will discuss how IMEC characterizes ADCs and how we plan to address the future measurement challenges.

Adam Cooman got his degree in electrical engineering and his PhD at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). After a post-doc about circuit stability analysis at INRIA in France, he joined for Ampleon in the Netherlands where he developed 5G power amplifier measurement setups for digital predistortion. Now Adam is a researcher at IMEC where he is responsible for the characterization of future ADCs.