The Huddle 2021 - 5G and Beyond: The Wireless World in 2030

Nigel Jefferies is a senior standards manager with Huawei Technologies and Chairman of the Wireless World Research Forum, a global partnership between industry and academia to develop a research agenda for mobile communications. Previously he was Head of Academic Relationships within Vodafone Group Research & Development and a Principal Mathematician at Racal Research Ltd. In the past he led the European-funded IST project SHAMAN, which studied the security of future mobile systems, and ran the Secure Applications Steering Group for Mobile VCE. Other collaborative research projects on various aspects of security for mobile communications include 3GS3 in the UK-funded LINK programme, and ASPeCT and USECA in the European ACTS programme. His research interests include cryptography, security of systems and applications of mathematics to telecommunications. He received a PhD in functional analysis from Goldsmith’s College, London, and an MA in mathematics from the Queen’s College, Oxford, and is a visiting professor at Kingston University. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications and a Chartered Mathematician.

Reg is a seasoned programme director with over 30 years’ experience within the telecommunication industry. Reg has a proven track record of programme delivery within organisations such as Ericsson, Vodafone and the GSMA. Reg is passionate about the Role of Technology in Reducing the Impact on Environment and harnessing the ability of future networks to deliver a better society.

Responsibilities within NGMN:

• Coordination of Strategy Committee
• Management of 6G Work Programme
• Management of Security Work Programme
• Cooperation partner management with standard bodies
• Representation of NGMN at international industry events

Dr. Wen Tong is the CTO, Huawei Wireless. He is the head of Huawei wireless research. In 2011, Dr. Tong was appointed the Head of Communications Technologies Labs of Huawei, currently, he is the Huawei 5G chief scientist and leads Huawei’s 10-year-long 5G wireless technologies research and development.

Prior to joining Huawei in 2009, Dr. Tong was the Nortel Fellow and head of the Network Technology Labs at Nortel. He joined the Wireless Technology Labs at Bell Northern Research in 1995 in Canada.

Dr. Tong is the industry recognized leader in invention and standardization of advanced wireless technologies, he is the key contributor to 3GPP since its inception. Dr. Tong was elected as a Huawei Fellow and an IEEE Fellow. He was the recipient of IEEE Communications Society Industry Innovation Award for “the leadership and contributions in development of 3G and 4G wireless systems” in 2014, and IEEE Communications Society Distinguished Industry Leader Award for “pioneering technical contributions and leadership in the mobile communications industry and innovation in 5G mobile communications technology” in 2018. He is also the recipient of R.A. Fessenden Medal. For the past three decades, he had pioneered fundamental technologies from 1G to 5G wireless and Wi-Fi with more than 450 granted US patents.

Dr. Tong is a Fellow of Canadian Academy of Engineering, and he serves as Board of Director of Wi-Fi Alliance, he is the committee member for “IEEE ComSoc Awards” and “The IEEE Corporate Innovation Award”.

Tony Q.S. Quek is the Cheng Tsang Man Chair Professor with the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), leading the Wireless Networks and Decision Systems (WNDS) Group. He is also the Director of Future Communications R&D Programme, ISTD Pillar Head, Sector Lead of SUTD AI Program,  and Deputy Director of the SUTD-ZJU IDEA. He received the B.E. and M.E. degrees in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Tokyo Institute of Technology, respectively. At MIT, he earned the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He is a Fellow of IEEE.

His current research interests include wireless communications and networks, network intelligence,  6G, URLLC, security, and IoT.

Thomas Magedanz (PhD) has been professor at the Technische Universität Berlin, Germany, leading the chair for next generation networks (www.av.tu-berlin.de) since 2004. In addition, since 2003 he has been Director of the Business Unit Software-based Networks (NGNI) at the Fraunhofer Institute FOKUS (www.fokus.fraunhofer.de/go/ngni) in Berlin. Recently, he also joined the advisory board of Uniberg Group AG in Germany in February 2023.

For 35 years Prof. Magedanz has been a globally recognized ICT expert, working in the convergence field of telecommunications, Internet and information technologies understanding both the technology domains and the international market demands. He often acts as an independent technology consultant for international ICT companies. In the course of his applied research and development activities he created many internationally recognized prototype implementations of global telecommunications standards that provide the foundations for the efficient development of various open technology testbeds around the globe. His interest is in software-based 5G networks for different verticals, with a strong focus on public and non-public campus networks. The Fraunhofer 5G Playground (www.5G-Playground.org) represents, in this regard, the world´s most advanced Open 5G testbed which is based on the Open5GCore software toolkit (www.open5Gcore.org), representing the first reference implementation of the 3GPP 5G standalone architecture, which is currently also used by more than 110 international customers for testing against different RAN equipment in different use cases. For several years, he is actively supporting the development of open 5G campus networks based on the Open5GCore considering emerging campus networks as the prime spot for 5G innovation and starting point for the evolution towards 6G. Since 2022 he is coordinating the national BMWK flagship project CampusOS (www.Campus-OS.io) which aims to build an ecosystem for emerging open campus networks. In addition he acts as senior principal investigator for 6G core architectures within the two German 6G Hubs, namely Open6GHub and 6G-RIC.

His current research is targeting the 5G evolution towards 6G, including Core-RAN integration (including OpenRAN integration), integration of Satellite/Non-terrestrial Networks and 5G/6G, as well as AI/ML based 5G/6G automated network control and management, in which he is designing a new organic 6G core network. For the most recent research activities see also www.6G-ready.org

Dr. Tsunehiko Chiba is currently Chief Wireless Architect, CTO Office at VIAVI Solutions. He has more than 22-years’ experience in mobile industry including 3G/4G commercial development, 4G/5G standardization & research expert as part of global leading vendor and operator. Especially, he has been one of the main contributors in 3GPP, O-RAN Alliance and ITU with several patent portfolio as well as next generation research forums. His current role at VIAVI Solutions is standardization delegation to 3GPP and O-RAN Alliance as well as technical lead in technology strategy and research.

Alexander Kuhn is a Senior Government Official at the German Federal Network Agency (BNetzA).

He is Deputy Head of Section “International Frequency Affairs, Frequency Utilization Concepts and the Frequency Usage Plan” and the preparation for World Radiocommunication Conferences is under his responsibility. He led the European countries (CEPT) at WRC 2015 and 2019.

Dr. Almazrouei has the distinction of being the first Emirati to hold a PhD in artificial intelligence for wireless communication engineering and computer science. Dr. Ebtesam joins TII with a track record of innovation in advanced technologies and a proven ability to realize the adaptation of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, big data, the Internet of Things (IoT), and wireless emerging technologies for multiple industrial applications. An award-winning public speaker, she is a patent inventor and a scientific author at top-ranking conferences and leading journals.

Dr. Almazrouei delivers big data and AI training courses for various entities across the UAE. Recently, she led a Deep Learning and Artificial Intelligence for Robust Radio Signal Intelligence project. As part of the project, the team developed intelligent spectrum monitoring using AI schemes to identify various radio access technologies and provide robust summary radio access statistics. She has led multiple projects in partnership with British Telecommunications (BT) in the UK, as well as Etisalat, and Khalifa University in the UAE.

Dr. Almazrouei said: “I was always interested in future-focused technologies and kept an eye on what was happening around the world. I saw that AI and the Internet of Things (IoT) were the next breakthrough technologies that will drive the digital economy and decided to steer my career along this path. The UAE government’s initiative of launching its national AI strategy in 2017 reiterated the importance of technological advancements through AI.”

Dr. Ebtesam Almazrouei obtained her PhD and MSc in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Khalifa University of Science and Technology and earned a BSc in Communication and Electrical Engineering from the United Arab Emirates University.

Nigel Jefferies is a senior standards manager with Huawei Technologies and Chairman of the Wireless World Research Forum, a global partnership between industry and academia to develop a research agenda for mobile communications. Previously he was Head of Academic Relationships within Vodafone Group Research & Development and a Principal Mathematician at Racal Research Ltd. In the past he led the European-funded IST project SHAMAN, which studied the security of future mobile systems, and ran the Secure Applications Steering Group for Mobile VCE. Other collaborative research projects on various aspects of security for mobile communications include 3GS3 in the UK-funded LINK programme, and ASPeCT and USECA in the European ACTS programme. His research interests include cryptography, security of systems and applications of mathematics to telecommunications. He received a PhD in functional analysis from Goldsmith’s College, London, and an MA in mathematics from the Queen’s College, Oxford, and is a visiting professor at Kingston University. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications and a Chartered Mathematician.

Dr Addom is an Adviser, Agriculture and Fisheries Trade Policy at the Commonwealth Secretariat, London, currently advising the 56 Commonwealth member states on policy issues relating to digital agriculture and digital fisheries through the Commonwealth Connectivity Agenda (CCA) for Trade and Investment programme. He has over 20 years of experience with digitalisation and smallholder agriculture. He holds doctorate in information science and technology from Syracuse University School of Information Studies, USA, and master’s in international agriculture and rural development from Cornell University, USADr Addom is an Adviser, Agriculture and Fisheries Trade Policy at the Commonwealth Secretariat, London, currently advising the 54 Commonwealth member states on policy issues relating to digital agriculture and digital fisheries through the Commonwealth Connectivity Agenda (CCA) for Trade and Investment programme. He has over 20 years of experience with digitalisation and smallholder agriculture. He holds doctorate in information science and technology from Syracuse University School of Information Studies, USA, and master’s in international agriculture and rural development from Cornell University, USA

A Qualified Helicopter and Fixed wing pilot with more than 10 000 hours of flight time on numerous aircraft, currently Leading the Special Projects Division at the Kambyan Network. Previously, as the Head of Training at UAS ROBOTICS ACADEMY, pioneered the Remotely Processed Autonomous Field Operations Concept and the subsequent Training requirements.

Having passed his sixth decade; focused on achieving the Vision of Humanising Technologies related to the Internet of Everything ( with the goal to make things better for everyone.

Specialties: More than 30 years of aviation expertise. Started aviation career in the Royal Malaysian Air Force, in 1996 left the RMAF and has been involved in numerous project management efforts.

An Operational Pilot, instructor and Examiner in both Military and Civilian aviation in Malaysia, also in US, Indonesia and Philippines.

Instrumental in several ICT projects in the domain of the Aerospace industry, and currently involved in the exciting new frontier of autonomous UAS operations, as a Qualified sUAS Instructor.

Veerachai Tanpipat (D.Eng.) is a remote sensing engineer and geographer whose professional interests include applying geoinformatics, S&T, and social science to better manage disaster response and preparedness. His work has largely focused on wildfires, transboundary haze, and flooding throughout SEA. His previous work includes, but not limited, to an advisory role to the DG for the Royal Forestry Department, the DG for the Pollution Control Department, collaborative efforts with NASA-LANCE-FIRMS, NASA-JPL, NASA-GSFC, NASA-AMES, NOAA-NESDIS, NOAA-NGDC and the CAMS-ECMWF. Currently, he is a Senior Expert and Consultant at Hydro- Informatics Institute, a founding member of the Upper ASEAN Wildland Fire Special Research Unit (WFSRU), Senior Expert Faculty Member of Forestry at Kasetsart University under Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation, Advisor to DG of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, DG of the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources and Fire Hawk Special Unit of the Royal Forest Department under Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Co-chair of APAN Disaster Mitigation WG, a member of APAN Technical Comittee, APAN Agriculture WG and Chairperson of APAN Open and Sharing Data WG.

Dr. Rafay Iqbal Ansari is an Engineering professional with over 10 years cumulative experience in the field of engineering and business zone in telecommunications industry and academia. He is currently working at WSP UK Ltd. as a Technology Strategy Consultant (Connectivity), driving the connectivity capability for different sectors. He is experienced in wireless communication design and development with a special interest in 5G and beyond networks. Dr. Ansari has worked on projects related to internet-of-things (IoT) for healthcare and agriculture, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV)-based networks, intelligent surfaces, emergency and public safety networks, and has led R&D on future communication technologies through international collaborations.  He has experience in planning and deployment of PSTN and gigabit passive optical network (GPON). Dr. Ansari has published his work at several reputed journals, book chapters and conferences. He has given several talks and presented innovative technologies at highly reputed forums.

Dr. Tomohiko Moriyama, M.D., Ph.D. is a gastrointestinal endoscopist and a director of Telemedicine Development Center of Asia (TEMDEC), Kyushu University Hospital. For more than 20 years, he has been keen on endoscopic diagnosis and treatment of early gastrointestinal cancer and has taught gastroenterology and endoscopic techniques to more than 100 Japanese residents and 200 foreign trainees. Since 2016, he has been involved in telemedicine projects, which widely and dramatically spread worldwide during the pandemic. He is now the chairman of Asia-Pacific Advanced Network (APAN) Medical Working Group, which promotes better healthcare and medical education through telemedicine.

T. J. Lim is the Deputy Dean and Associate Dean (Education) of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Sydney. From June 2011 to January 2020, he was a tenured professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of the National University of Singapore. He served as Vice Dean (Graduate) in NUS Engineering from September 2015 to December 2019. From December 2000 to May 2011, he was Assistant, Associate then full Professor at the ECE Department of the University of Toronto. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, was a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher in 2017, and was a co-recipient of the IEEE Communications Society Heinrich Hertz Award in 2020. He has also served on editorial boards of several international journals, such as the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, and on organizing and technical program committees of several international conferences. He obtained the Bachelor of Engineering degree with first-class Honours from NUS in 1992, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Cambridge in 1996. His research interests lie in wireless communications generally, and more particularly in the applications of machine learning in that domain with connections to cyber-security.

Dr. Umejima is the expert and the project leader of the Systems Committee on Smart Energy in International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in charge of standard development of the Smart Grid. Dr. Umejima has addressed electricity system research and entrepreneurial education in Keio University, Japan for academic contribution. His research expertises have assigned him to the member of Smart Meter Conference, the chairman of Cyber Security for Energy Resource Aggregation System Promotion Conference, and the Advisor of ICT adoption in Education, in Japanese Government, Dr. Umejima paved the way of deploying the open architecture on the Energy Resource Aggregation System and the distance learning system in K12 education with highlighting security and interface designs. Dr Umejima’s activity has enabled that 100 million devices, e.g. air conditioner, station battery, and nationwide power meters in Japan, speak a common language defined by ISO/IEC14543-4-3(ECHONET Lite). IPv6 Forum awarded him the IPv6 world leader in 2015. 

Dr Sumei Sun is the Deputy Executive Director (Research), Head of the Communications and Networks Department and a Principal Scientist at the Institute for Infocomm Research (I²R), A*STAR, Singapore. She is also holding a joint appointment with the Singapore Institute of Technology, and an adjunct appointment with the National University of Singapore, both as a full professor. Her current research interests are in next-generation wireless communications, cognitive communications and networks, industrial internet of things, communications-computing-control integrative design, joint radar-communication systems, and signal intelligence.

Sumei has a strong passion in industry-relevant research and technology creation. She has authored and co-authored 300 technical papers and received three best paper awards. She is the inventor/co-inventor of over thirty patented technologies, with most of them licensed to industries.

She has served as the Wireless Systems Work Group Chair of the IMDA’s Telecommunications Standard Advisory Committee (TSAC) during 2015-2018, and member of the TSAC since 2018. During 2017-2018, she served in the Advisory Panel for preparing The Singapore Smart Industry Readiness Index (SIRI) white paper championed by the Economic Development Board (EDB). In 2018, she served as Chairperson of the Services and Digital Economy (SDE) Technology Roadmap Work Group 1 (Future Communications and IoT) and member of the SDE Technology Roadmap Technical Committee, for transforming the future of digital services. The SDE Technology Roadmap development was championed by IMDA, in partnership with NRF and A*STAR. Since 2021, she’s been chairing the Special 5G Strategy Task Force under IMDA’s Telecommunications Standards Advisory Committee (TSAC).
Sumei has been an active volunteer in IEEE and is the inaugural Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Open Journal of Vehicular Technology, member of the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications Steering Committee, and a Distinguished Speaker of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society 2018-2024. She is also the Director of IEEE Communications Society Asia Pacific Board and an elected member at large with the IEEE Communications Society.

Mahesh Uttamchandani is the World Bank’s Manager for Digital Development in East Asia and the Pacific (EAP).  In this capacity, he oversees the World Bank’s lending, advisory and knowledge programs in the area of digital development in all EAP countries.  

Mr. Uttamchandani, a Canadian national, joined the World Bank in April 2006, as Senior Counsel in the Legal Vice-Presidency.  He has since held various positions in both the World Bank and International Finance Corporation, including global manager for Financial Inclusion & Infrastructure where he led the Bank’s work on expanding access to finance through digital financial services and the financial sector aspects of digital ID and digital payments.  

Prior to joining the Bank, Mr. Uttamchandani worked at the EBRD in London, UK and as a commercial litigator at a leading law firm.  Mr. Uttamchandani has taught and lectured at universities around the world and has published extensively, including key World Bank publications on fintech and as an author in the World Bank’s flagship World Development Report, 2022.

Knud Erik Skouby is professor and director of center for Communication, Media and Information technologies, Aalborg University-Copenhagen. Has a career as a university teacher and within consultancy since 1972. The working areas have for the last 25 years been within the telecom area focusing on mobile/ wireless: Techno-economic Analyses; Development of mobile/ wireless applications and services: Regulation of telecommunications.

Project manager and partner in a number of international, European and Danish research projects. He has served on a number of public committees within telecom, IT and broadcasting; as a member of boards of professional societies; as a member of organizing boards, evaluation committees and as invited speaker on international conferences; published a number of Danish and international articles, books and conference proceedings in the areas of convergence, mobile/ wireless development, telecommunications regulation, technology assessment (information technology and telecommunications), demand forecasting and political economy. Co-director of CTIF-International; Chair of WG1 in Wireless World Research Forum; Special Advisor to GISFI (The Global ICT Standardization Forum for India).

Liu Fei is the Chief researcher for 6G trustworthiness in Huawei. Her practice areas include telecom network security standardization, industrialization, and strategy development. 

Her team has been developing 5G security standards accepted by 3GPP and ITU-T, and security solutions for industrial applications. The team currently working on the 6G-oriented security, privacy and trust technologies, including trust model and architecture, consensus schemes, privacy preservation, and trust measurement.

While working at China Mobile, she led the practical projects, Mobile-TV Security Project, Mobile e-Payment Security Project, and Key Infrastructure Project, contributing to cross-industry cooperation. 

She was one of the first major contributors to the opening of China’s cryptographic algorithm to 3GPP standards. As a result of these successful projects, she and her team have received several Science and Technology Progress Awards from the China Communications Standardization Association.

Liu Fei was included as Singapore 100 Women in Tech (SG 100 WIT) list 2021.

Sudipta Chattopadhyay received the Ph.D. degree in computer science from the National University of Singapore, in 2013. He is an Assistant Professor with the Information Systems Technology and Design Pillar, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore. His general research interests lie in the broad area of cyber security including but not limited to security for AI, Wireless Technologies, and Internet of Things (IoTs). Together with his student, he discovered SweynTooth and BrakTooth, families of Bluetooth vulnerabilities that affect billions of devices worldwide. His research has been featured in WIRED, PC Magazine, Hacker News, among others. His discovery of SweynTooth and BrakTooth have also resulted cyber security alerts from government regulatory agencies including CSA (Singapore), DHS (USA), and FDA (USA). 

Hendrik Berndt held various C-level and manager positions in research and operation in the telecommunication industry: 2001–2014, chief technology officer of DoCoMo’s Communications Laboratories in Europe; 1993–2000, in the United States, within Bellcore, Red Bank, New Jersey, later as executive director of advanced technology for Global One in Reston, Virginia, and as the chief technology officer of the Telecommunication Information Networking Architecture–Consortium headquarters in Tinton Falls, New Jersey. From 2000 to 2010, he taught concurrently as visiting professor at the Global Information and Telecommunication Institute, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan. He is currently a senior consultant and communication technology chair at University Kassel, Germany, and vice president of the Wireless World Research Forum for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Adrian Scrase played a central role in the creation of the “3rd Generation Partnership Project” (3GPP) and is responsible for the operations of the 3GPP Project Co-ordination Group. He heads 3GPPs’ Mobile Competence Centre (MCC) which is an International team of 20 experts who provide comprehensive support to the Project.

He was also principally involved in the formation of the “oneM2M” Partnership Project and oversees ETSI’s support to that initiative.

He is CTO within ETSI with operational responsibility for all of ETSI’s standards production activities.  He has more than 40 years experience in the telecommunications field, which includes 34 years of experience in standardization.

Mérouane Debbah is Chief Researcher at the Technology Innovation Institute in Abu Dhabi. He is an Adjunct Professor with the Department of Machine Learning at the Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence. He received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay, France. He was with Motorola Labs, Saclay, France, from 1999 to 2002, and also with the Vienna Research Center for Telecommunications, Vienna, Austria, until 2003. From 2003 to 2007, he was an Assistant Professor with the Mobile Communications Department, Institut Eurecom, Sophia Antipolis, France. In 2007, he was appointed Full Professor at CentraleSupelec, Gif-sur-Yvette, France. From 2007 to 2014, he was the Director of the Alcatel-Lucent Chair on Flexible Radio. From 2014 to 2021, he was Vice-President of the Huawei France Research Center. Since 2021, he is leading the AI & Telecom Systems center at the Technology Innovation Institute. He is an IEEE Fellow, a WWRF Fellow, a Eurasip Fellow, an AAIA Fellow, an Institut Louis Bachelier Fellow and a Membre émérite SEE.

Prof. Maziar Nekovee is Managing Director of 6G Lab at the University of Sussex and Dean of the Sussex-Zhejiang Gongshang AI Institute.  His current research focus is on energy efficient and sustainable radio access technologies for 6G, and 5G/6G/AI for vertical sectors. More recently, he has been also working on 5G/6G NTN and positioning for the space, satellite, and navigation sectors. Maziar is the founding Chair of Networld Europe “Enabling Technologies for Future Vertical Ecosystem Transformation” WG and is anl academic member 6G Infrastructure Association (6GIA) and the UK’s SONIC ((SmartRAN Open Network Interoperability Centre) Labs Industry Steering Group. Prior to joining the University of Sussex in 2017, he was with Samsung Electronics R&D, where he established and led the company’s overall and highly successful H2020 research and collaborations in 5G, working with industry, SME and academia across the EU, the UK and internationally in several 5GPPP projects, as well being an industry member of 5GIA.  Prior to that he was a team leader and senior scientist at BT, where he was involved in leading several EU and UK-funded research collaborations consortia with industry, academia, and SMEs. Maziar is the author of 200+ highly cited papers and a bestselling academic book and has 15 patents. He has a PhD in Physics and a first degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering (cum laude) from Delft University of Technology, the Netherland. Maziar is a sough-after speaker and panellist in international conference and industry events, having delivered 100+ keynote, invited talks and panels in the last ten years.

Dr. LEE, Hyeon Woo is a Professor at DanKook University in Korea, a TTA 5G Standard Committee vice chair, and a 5G forum executive committee vice chair. 

He served as a National R&D Program Director under Ministry of Knowledge Economy of Korea from 2009 until 2013. He was a head of Global Standard & Research Lab. of Samsung Electronics from 1984 until 2009. 

He received BSEE from Seoul National University in 1985, MBA from Sogang University in 1989, ME and Ph.D degree at KAIST in 1994 and 2003 respectively. 

He works on 5G/6G mobile communication, international standards, and R&D strategy planning. He is a member of KICS, IEEE and IEICE.

Reg is a seasoned programme director with over 30 years’ experience within the telecommunication industry. Reg has a proven track record of programme delivery within organisations such as Ericsson, Vodafone and the GSMA. Reg is passionate about the Role of Technology in Reducing the Impact on Environment and harnessing the ability of future networks to deliver a better society.

Responsibilities within NGMN:

• Coordination of Strategy Committee
• Management of 6G Work Programme
• Management of Security Work Programme
• Cooperation partner management with standard bodies
• Representation of NGMN at international industry events

Iwao Hosako received his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo in 1993. After two years with NKK Corp’s ULSI Laboratory from 1993 to 1994, he joined Communications Research Laboratory (former name of NICT). 　He is currently the Executive Director of the Beyond 5G Research and Development Promotion Unit and the Terahertz Research Center at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Japan. His research focuses on terahertz band semiconductor devices, cameras, and wireless systems. He was the Vice-Chair of the IEEE 802.15.3d Task Group and is currently the Vice-Chair of the IEEE 802.15 Standing Committee Terahertz (SC-THz) and IEEE 802.15.3mb. He was serving as a working group member of the Beyond 5G (6G) Promotion Strategy Roundtable of the Ministry of Internal affairs and Communications, Japan from Jan. 2020 to Jun. 2020.

Eng Wei Koo is the Head of Standards and Solutions Strategy at Keysight Technologies. Eng Wei has over 20 years of experience working on mobile network standards and developing lab tests and live network assurance and optimization solutions for radio access and core networks. Eng Wei is responsible for Keysight’s strategy for its mobile networks test solutions portfolio and standards engagements for 5G/B5G in 3GPP and O-RAN ALLIANCE.

He is currently a co-chair of the O-RAN ALLIANCE Minimum Viable Plan Committee (MVP-C), which is primarily responsible for the O-RAN roadmap and release planning.

Eng Wei has co-authored two books focusing on 4G and 5G lab testing, field optimization, and assurance, several whitepapers, and holds several patents for 5G radio test and optimization techniques.

Mr. Bharat Bhatia has over 45 years of experience in Telecom and ICT policy, regulations and spectrum management.

Mr. Bhatia is the President of ITU-APT Foundation of India. Mr. Bhatia also chairs the PPDR working groups under ITU and APT. Earlier he was also the President of TEMA – India’s Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association and Vice President of ATIS -Association of Telecom Industries of Singapore. Earlier he was also head of international spectrum team of Motorola Solutions Inc. where he worked for over 23 years in India and Singapore. Mr. Bhatia is also a governing council member of WWRF.
Mr. Bhatia actively participates in various ITU and APT meetings and has attended all World Radio Conferences during the last 20 years. Mr. Bhatia has lived in India and Singapore and frequently travels all over the world to speak at various conferences and events.
Bhatia was the key originator of ITU World Radio Conference Resolution (WRC) 646 on PPDR approved at WRC-2003 and 2015.
He was a senior regulator with the Indian Government for 22 years as a spectrum regulator and Telecom policy specialist and was actively involved in opening of the Indian telecom to the private sector, including the first ever GSM metro licensing in India through a beauty contest in 1992 designed by him. He was also a key architect of India’s first ever National Frequency Allocation Plan (NFAP) in 1981 and the first ever published NFAP in 2000.
Mr. Bharat Bhatia holds a B. E. degree from University of Delhi in Electronics and Telecommunications and is a fellow member of IETE, the Institution of Electronics & Telecommunications Engineers. He did his Foundational Course from Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in 1976. Mr. Bhatia has completed a number of management courses from various institutes and universities including National University of Singapore and George Washington University.

Nigel Jefferies is a senior standards manager with Huawei Technologies and Chairman of the Wireless World Research Forum, a global partnership between industry and academia to develop a research agenda for mobile communications. Previously he was Head of Academic Relationships within Vodafone Group Research & Development and a Principal Mathematician at Racal Research Ltd. In the past he led the European-funded IST project SHAMAN, which studied the security of future mobile systems, and ran the Secure Applications Steering Group for Mobile VCE. Other collaborative research projects on various aspects of security for mobile communications include 3GS3 in the UK-funded LINK programme, and ASPeCT and USECA in the European ACTS programme. His research interests include cryptography, security of systems and applications of mathematics to telecommunications. He received a PhD in functional analysis from Goldsmith’s College, London, and an MA in mathematics from the Queen’s College, Oxford, and is a visiting professor at Kingston University. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications and a Chartered Mathematician.