Keynote Speakers

Biography:

Octavia A. Dobre (Fellow, IEEE) is a Professor and Tier-1 Canada Research Chair with Memorial University, Canada. She was a Visiting Professor with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA and Université de Bretagne Occidentale, France. Her research interests encompass wireless communication and networking technologies, as well as optical and underwater communications. She has (co-)authored over 500 refereed papers in these areas. Dr. Dobre serves as the VP Publications of the IEEE Communications Society. She was the inaugural Editor-in-Chief (EiC) of the IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society and the EiC of the IEEE Communications Letters. Dr. Dobre was a Fulbright Scholar, Royal Society Scholar, and Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Communications Society. She obtained 8 IEEE Best Paper Awards including the 2024 Heinrich Hertz Award. Dr. Dobre is an elected member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada, a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Biography:

Debbie Leung has been a Professor at the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) and the Department of Combinatorics and Optimization at the University of Waterloo since 2005. Before that, she was a Tolman postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Quantum Information, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), a program postdoctoral fellow at the Workshop on Quantum Computation 2002, at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, Berkeley, and a postdoctoral fellow at the Physics of Information group at the IBM TJ Watson Research Center, 2000-2002. After a BSc in Phys/Math from Caltech in 1995, she did a PhD in Physics at Stanford under the supervision of Professor Yoshihisa Yamamoto and Professor Isaac Chuang. Her research is in the theory of quantum information, focusing on capacities of quantum channels, quantum data compression, entanglement theory, measurement based quantum computation, quantum error correction and fault-tolerant quantum computation.

Title: Generic nonadditivity of quantum capacity

Abstract:

Determining capacities of quantum channels is a fundamental question in quantum information theory. Despite having rigorous coding theorems quantifying the flow of information across quantum channels, their capacities are poorly understood due to super-additivity effects. Studying these phenomena is important for deepening our understanding of quantum information, yet simple and clean examples of super-additive channels are scarce. Here we study a family of channels called platypus channels. Its simplest member, a qutrit channel, is shown to display super-additivity of coherent information when used jointly with a variety of qubit channels. Higher-dimensional family members display super-additivity of quantum capacity together with an erasure channel. Furthermore, super-additivity can occur between two channels each with large weakly additive capacity. Remarkably, a single, novel transmission strategy achieves super-additivity in all examples. Our results show that super-additivity is much more prevalent than previously thought.

Joint work with Felix Leditzky, Vikesh Siddhu, Graeme Smith, and John Smolin

Biography:

Hossam Hassanein is a leading researcher in the areas of broadband, wireless and mobile networks architecture, protocols, control and performance evaluation. His record spans more than 600 publications in journals, conferences and book chapters, in addition to numerous keynotes and Tutorials in flagship venues. Dr. Hassanein has received several recognition and best paper awards at top international conferences. He is the founder and director of the Telecommunications Research Lab (TRL) at Queen's University School of Computing, with extensive international academic and industrial collaborations. He is the recipient of the 2016 IEEE Communications Society Communications Software Technical Achievement Award for outstanding contributions to routing and deployment planning algorithms in wireless sensor networks, and the 2020 IEEE IoT, Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks Technical Achievement and Recognition Award for significant contributions to technological advancement of the Internet of Things, ad hoc networks and sensing systems. Dr. Hassanein is a fellow of the IEEE, and is a former chair of the IEEE Communication Society Technical Committee on Ad hoc and Sensor Networks (TC AHSN). He is an IEEE Communications Society Distinguished Speaker (Distinguished Lecturer 2008-2010).

Title: Building Trust in Reinforcement Learning for Next-Generation Wireless Networks

Abstract:

Artificial intelligence is envisioned to transform the design and management of future 6G networks. Reinforcement learning (RL), in particular, has emerged as a pivotal approach for realizing this vision, with strong backing from both industry and network standardization bodies to enable seamless RL deployment. While existing research studies highlight RL’s potential, concerns about its trustworthiness remain a key barrier to its broader adoption in real-world next-generation wireless networks. This tutorial will delve into the foundations of trustworthy RL algorithms, focusing on techniques that enhance generalizability, safety, explainability, and robustness. We will illustrate these concepts with concrete examples from emerging wireless network literature. A practical case study on network slicing will follow, showcasing the integration of multiple trustworthy RL components within the open radio access network (O-RAN) architecture. An interactive, hands-on session will guide participants through implementing and testing their own trustworthy RL solutions. Finally, we will discuss open research challenges and promising directions at the intersection of trustworthy RL and wireless networks.

Joint work with Ahmad Nagib, Hatem Abou-Zeid and Hossam Hassanein