Connecting the world and beyond

ITU Journal Webinars Series

The ITU Journal launched its new series of webinars to present insights and forward-looking research on future and evolving technologies. The webinars of this series feature industry leaders and highly cited professors who will share their pioneering studies and visions, as well as their impactful life lessons learned over the years.

The webinars are open to anyone interested in the topics, free of charge. More information, including registration, is available on each event's website.
[Invitation letter]

Please note that this ITU Journal fall webinar season will be kindly hosted by the AI for Good platform, as part of the ITU Journal Discovery Series.

Watch the recordings and subscribe to the ITU Journal Webinars Series playlist on YouTube: WATCH ALL WEBINARS

28 October 2025

The price of distributed machine learning

This talk introduced a low-power backscatter architecture above 100 GHz and explored the largely untapped near-field regime enabled by high-frequency, large-array systems. It highlighted AI-driven self-curving beams for robust connectivity and showcased emerging sensing applications in fields like agriculture and robotics.

25 November 2025

This talk introduced two groundbreaking approaches to solve the unique challenges for multimedia transmission, particularly in supporting oceanic research, the blue economy, and ecological monitoring through sensor networks that underwater acoustic communications present.

15 December 2025

The talk explores the evolution of Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) and a hybrid architecture strategy combining unlicensed spectrum (5–6 GHz) for cost-effective, wide-area coverage and licensed LMDS (28–31 GHz) for high-capacity urban and enterprise connectivity. This approach delivers fiber-like performance, interference-free connectivity, and faster ROI (18–36 months) compared to fiber, as demonstrated by carriers like GeoLinks.

Past webinars - I

Machine learning at the wireless edge
H. Vincent Poor, Princeton University, USA
Edge AI networks: Challenges and opportunities
Mérouane Debbah, CentraleSupélec and TII, France and UAE
Information and communication theory with biochemical and molecular components for biological sensing and control
Massimiliano Pierobon, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA
6G and the metaverse will power a holographic society
Mischa Dohler, Ericsson Inc., USA
Semantic communications: Transmitting beyond bits
Zhijin Qin, Queen Mary University of London, UK
Ultrabroadband communication and networking solutions to unleash the Terahertz Band
Josep Miquel Jornet, Northeastern University, USA
The journey from 5G to 6G: Toward a well-being society
Naoki Tani, NTT DOCOMO, Japan
AI, machine learning RAN intelligent controller for 6G
Alex Jinsung Choi, O-RAN Alliance, Germany
Transformation in the 5G era
Alex Sinclair, GSMA, United Kingdom
A peek into the deep convergence towards 6G
Chih-Lin I, China Mobile Research Institute, China
Wireless networking, security, and sensing above 100 GHz
Edward W. Knightly, Rice University, USA
AI-EDGE: Designing future XG networks and distributed intelligence
Ness B. Shroff, The Ohio State University, USA
Deviation from the standard - Toward opening up 5G telecommunications
Muriel Médard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Disrupting NextG
Andrea J. Goldsmith, Princeton University, USA
Creating the foundation for 6G: Laying the groundwork for the network of the future
Nishant Batra, Nokia USA
Aimed at transformation: Telecom network technology development
Wang Xiaoyun, China Mobile, China
Unlocking new capacity in 6G cellular systems via site-specific ML-aided design
Jeffrey Andrews, The University of Texas at Austin, USA
Waste Figure (W): A figure of merit for the power-efficient ("green") engineering of any device or cascade of circuits and systems
Theodore Rappaport, New York University, USA
Decoding hidden worlds: Unprecedented sensing and connectivity for climate, robotics and smart environments
Fadel Adib, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Pushing the limit of mobile sensing: Smart healthcare in the age of AIoT
Qian Zhang, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), Hong Kong, China

Past webinars - II

The evolution of the Un-carrier Network
Ulf Ewaldsson, T-Mobile, USA
Transparency, privacy and performance: The AI dark triad of next generation Internet
Silvia Giordano, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI), Switzerland
The price of distributed machine learning
Carla Fabiana Chiasserini, Politecnico di Torino, Italy
Semantics-native communication and protocol learning in the 6G era
Mehdi Bennis, University of Oulu, Finland
Empowering the edge: Unleashing the power of generative AI for local data processing
Albert Y. Zomaya, University of Sydney, Australia
Network virtualization: The past, the present and moving forward
Raouf Boutaba, University of Waterloo, Canada
NetRobiCS: Exploring advantages, challenges and perspectives of networked robotics and communication systems
Enrico Natalizio, Technology Innovation Institute, UAE & Université de Lorraine, France
Wireless systems at the intersection of physical and digital time
Petar Popovski, Aalborg University, Denmark
Engineering synthetic organelles and their communication networks to control cell fates
Christopher Contag, Michigan State University & Stanford University School of Medicine, USA
Open6G: Orchestration, conflict management, and explainability in AI-powered next G wireless systems
Tommaso Melodia, Northeastern University, USA
Learned task-oriented compression for 6G
Elza Erkip, New York University, USA
Terahertz beam engineering: A new quality productive force
Chong Han, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
Internet of Everything (IoE): From molecules to the universe
Özgür B. Akan, University of Cambridge, UK
Non-terrestrial networks for 6G: Challenges and opportunities
Michele Zorzi, University of Padova, Italy
Should we be afraid of uncontrolled or malicious reconfigurable intelligent surfaces?
Emile Björnson, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Beyond black-box AI: Expressive neural networks for smarter, lighter intelligence
Ana Pérez-Neira, Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya, Spain
Beyond best effort: Reliable and efficient AI for wireless systems
Osvaldo Simeone, King's College London, UK
MX-AI: Multi-x automation and intelligence ecosystem
Navid Nikaein, Eurecom, France
The path to reliability and resilience in next-generation networks
Luiz A. DaSilva, Virginia Tech, USA