The SMARTNESS Research Center held its Year 3 Workshop online on April 16 and 17. The event brought together more than 60 participants on each of the two days and included researchers, students, and representatives from Ericsson, a strategic research partner. The initiative served as a relevant platform for presenting results and discussing emerging technological trends.
Focused on advancing solutions in artificial intelligence, advanced networks, and distributed computing, the workshop aimed to promote alignment across the center’s different research areas, as well as to foster knowledge exchange between academia and industry.
The event opened with a session led by Professor Dr. Christian Rothenberg, Director and Principal Investigator of SMARTNESS, who presented an overview of the project’s activities, key achievements throughout the third year, and future perspectives.
“As we reach the third year of SMARTNESS, we have consolidated important advances across several strategic areas, strengthening the integration between academic research and practical applications. This workshop is essential for aligning efforts and defining the next steps of the center,” said Rothenberg.
The program featured two keynote presentations with international speakers. On the first day, Carlos Bernardes delivered the talk “Academic Leadership in Global Standards: From Research Projects to IETF and 6G.” On the second day, Arturo Torrealba presented “EURO-3C: Building the Foundations of Europe’s Sovereign Digital Future.”
Throughout the workshop, multiple Work Packages (WPs) presented significant research developments, covering areas such as federated learning in telecommunications, edge computing and WebAssembly-based offloading, AI-driven network control using large language models, O-RAN architectures, immersive media, and intelligent drone management.
In addition to technical presentations, the event also included strategic discussions and collaborative sessions, reinforcing integration among teams and encouraging the joint development of new solutions and research directions.
With a comprehensive agenda and strong engagement from participants, the SMARTNESS Year 3 Workshop reinforced the center’s role in advancing technologies aligned with 5G and future network generations, highlighting trends such as AI-driven network intelligence, edge computing, and distributed systems.
The event also underscored the importance of continuous collaboration between academia, industry, and research institutions to advance technological innovation and build a robust, sustainable, and future-ready digital ecosystem.
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