Ben Azvine
- Global Head of Security Research & Innovation, British Telecommunications
Ben is responsible for setting direction and strategy for Security research, identify innovation opportunities and lead a strong international team of researcher to develop new capabilities in collaboration with industrial and academic partners. Ben has 30 years’ experience in both academia and industry. His previous roles included leading the IT research centre and head of business intelligence & customer analytics research at BT Group Chief Technology Office. He holds a BSc in Mechanical Engineering, an MSc in Control Engineering, a PhD in Intelligent Control Systems from Manchester University and an MBA from Imperial College, London. Having held research fellowship and lectureship posts in several universities, he joined BT in 1995 to lead a research programme to develop and exploit novel Artificial Intelligence technology to support next generation IT systems. Since then he has held senior, principal, chief research scientist posts at BT’s global R&D headquarters in Adastral Park, Ipswich where he is currently based. He has edited two books and published more than 100 scientific articles on novel application of intelligent systems. He is an inventor of 50 patent applications, has won 4 BCS and an IET gold medals for IT innovation, holds visiting professorship positions at the Universities of Bristol, Cranfield, Suffolk and Bournemouth. Ben is a current fellow of Institute of Telecom Engineers (FIET) and has acted as the chairman of the European network of excellence for Uncertainty management techniques from 1998 to 2001. His current research interests include the application Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to Cyber security, protection of critical national infrastructure, data analysis and information & knowledge management. His current projects include Visual Analytics for Cyber defence, cloud & Internet security, machine learning and anomaly detection in network data and future identity and access management.
Richard Baker
- CEO, GeoSpock
Richard serves a Chief Executive Officer of Geospock, as well as serving as Non-Executive Director for Falcon Media House, a London Stock Exchange listed global Internet Media Group. He is the Chairman of TAB U.K. Ltd, a Data Science company based in Cambridge. Formerly, Richard was the joint founder and CEO of Cleartrade Exchange (CLTX), incorporated in Singapore, an electronic execution exchange for cash-settled, cleared derivatives and futures contracts. CLTX is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) as a Recognised Market Operator (RMO) and as a Foreign Board of Trade (FBOT) in the USA by the CFTC. CLTX provides a specialised order matching engine giving access to an anonymous central limit order book and block traded futures across multiple asset classes and contracts. CLTX was subject to a 100% majority acquisition by the European Energy Exchange, a Deutsche Bourse company in late 2016.
Richard has held several senior executive positions in technology, media and telecommunications. He has served as a non-executive board member in the internet technology solution sector and has directed and co-founded a digital media consulting services firm.
Richard has a passion for people, innovation, driving high standards and achieving high results. Richard holds qualifications in technology and communications and is a frequent speaker at conferences and roundtables.
Iris Barcia
- COO, Keima
Iris Barcia is Chief Operating Officer and co-owner of Keima, an innovative software company delivering disruptive wireless design solutions worldwide. Iris is an innovator and forward-looking technologist working with the executive teams and engineers at Tier 1 network operators, network infrastructure vendors, neutral-host vendors, government organizations, and international services companies. She has been involved in the proposal and assessment of novel HetNet strategies for nation-wide 4G, 5G, IoT and public-safety networks, with a focus on future capacity provision and multi-technology evolution. Prior to Keima Iris has worked on RAN design, optimization and deployment projects at Telefonica and European rural broadband wireless initiatives. She has a BSc and MSc in Telecommunication Engineering from the University of Vigo (Spain) and an MBA from Cardiff Metropolitan University (UK).
Dean Bubley is the Founder of Disruptive Analysis, an independent technology industry analyst and consulting firm. An outspoken analyst & futurist with over 25 years’ experience, he specialises in communications, mobile, and telecoms fields. He is one of the leading market observers covering network infrastructure & software, telecom business models, voice/video communications and broadband/spectrum policy. He is known as a contrarian and visionary, often with challenging opinions that go against industry consensus. His present focus is on 5G network technology, WiFi, spectrum policy, blockchain & distributed ledgers, the “future of voice and video”, mobile broadband, developer platforms and contextual communications. He also advises on trends in telco service creation & monetisation, mobile devices, IoT, applications ecosystems, broad futurism and telecoms regulation/policy. He provides clients with advice and analytical opinion on topics such as business model validation, technology innovation and go-to-market strategies, "addressable market sizing", planning and due diligence. His clients include many of the world’s leading telecom operators, vendors, regulators and industry associations. Mr Bubley was formerly an equity analyst, covering communications stocks, with the UK arm of investment bank Robert W. Baird. Prior to that, he spent eight years at UK research firm Datamonitor, where he co-founded the company's Technology business, managed the Internet & Networking area and custom consulting operations, with roles of Chief Analyst & Director of Consulting. He holds a BA in Physics from Keble College, Oxford University.
Ray Forbes
Educated at Loughborough University of Technology between 1977 and 1984, he joined Plessey Telecommunications where he worked on Software Engineering and Analysis. Since 1990 he has worked on network development in the area of Intelligent Networks and the standardisation thereof. He has chaired the NGN Protocols in ETSI including the IMS adaptation to fixed networks and the Common IMS programme. He was elected as ETSI TC M2M Protocols WG Chairman. Also, he has been actively involved in the ITU-T Smart Focus Group.
He was appointed as chairman of the M2M Protocols activity in oneM2M the global Standards Partnership Project. Also, he was appointed as Leader of the M2M Service Enablement & Utilities Standardization in LM Ericsson. Currently, he is working for Huawei Technologies to lead and chair the ETSI ISG ENI (Experiential Networked intelligence)
Peter Haigh is Technical Director for Telecommunications at the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre. He is responsible for understanding and reducing the cyber security risk to the UK’s telecommunications networks and works with major operators and vendors on improving cyber security practice in the industry.
Mansoor Hanif
- CTO, Ofcom, UK5G Advisory Board Member, UK5G
Mansoor has 24 years’ experience of planning, building, optimising and operating mobile networks around the world. In 2011 Mansoor joined EE as Director of Network Integration and LTE, accountable for the technical launch of 4G as well as the Integration of the 2G/3G Orange and T-Mobile networks.
From 2013 he was Director of RAN, with responsibility for all of the EE radio access networks. Mansoor was a board member of MBNL (the joint venture of EE with H3G) until 2016.
At BT Mansoor was Director of the Converged Networks Research Lab from 2016 to 2018, and led deep and wide collaboration with UK Universities, innovators, and government bodies. He provided regular inputs to calls for evidence from the UK Government in relation to connectivity: ranging from 5G deployment pilots, rail connectivity and transport strategy to vertical industries.
Mansoor was closely involved in the foundation of several cross-industry initiatives to accelerate innovation with disruptive technologies: in the UK, he co-founded the Scottish Innovation Partnership, and also globally with the Telecom Infra Project (TIP), founding the Europe’s 1st TIP ecosystem acceleration centre in the UK.
In September 2018, Mansoor joined Ofcom as CTO and is also a member of the Advisory Board of the UK5G Innovation Network, the Satellite Catapult Advisory Group and the UCL Electrical and Electronic Engineering Industry Advisory Board
As head of telecoms and mobile at Cambridge Consultants, Derek leads the company’s collaboration within the sector. Central to Derek’s role at Cambridge Consultants is helping create breakthrough innovation that transforms the delivery of high-performance communication for their partners; from mobile carriers and ISPs, to vendors and component manufacturers. With over 20 years’ experience in mobile technology, Derek has held a range of multinational senior management roles and has a wealth of expertise across all generations of mobile and broadband technology, including LTE-A and 5G. Derek holds a PhD in telecommunications from the University of Bristol.
Carsten Maple
- Director for Cyber Security Research, University of Warwick
Professor Carsten Maple is Director of Research in Cyber Security and Professor of Cyber Systems Engineering in the Cyber Security Centre at the University of Warwick, where he leads the GCHQ-EPSRC Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research. He is the Privacy and Trust stream lead and lead the project constellation in Transport & Mobility in PETRAS, the UK Research Hub for Cyber Security of the Internet of Things. Professor Maple has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers has provided evidence and advice to governments and organisations across the world, including being a high-level scientific advisor for cyber security to the European Commission. He is a member of various boards and expert groups.
Arthur Meadows
- Chief Commercialisation Officer, Fetch.AI
Arthur has 25 years’ experience in the software industry in the UK, Europe & in the US. He began his career as a programmer but developed a passion for bringing new products to market using technology to accelerate the business output in his customer’s markets. He joined Fetch.AI in 2017 as one of its first employees.
As a start-up enthusiast, Arthur has worked in a variety of positions in product management and marketing in digital advertising, assisted sales platforms and web performance optimisation. He started the Cambridge Product Management Network, a professional network for technology product managers in Cambridge. He has an MBA from Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
Chris Murphy
- Director of Research, VIAVI Solutions
Chris has nearly 20 years of commercial experience in telecommunications covering network performance measurement, optimization and SON, particularly in cellular RAN including LTE, UMTS, CDMA and 5G. His focus has been on the modelling, simulation and optimization of next generation technologies to build a revenue stream early in the life cycle of each new generation of telecommunication systems. He has contributed to various industry and standardisation bodies including 3GPP, NGMN, ATIS and the WiMAX Forum. Chris holds a degree in Mathematics and Computing and a Ph.D. in the calibration of oceanic remote sensing satellites for improved models of climate change. He has authored numerous journal and conference papers and has filed 16 patent applications.
Tero Rissa
- Chief Architect, Machine Learning , Nokia
Tero has over 20 years of industrial experience of scaling new technologies from research and concept engineering into commercial products. He started working with artificial neural networks in 2009, and has since held senior positions in both engineering and management. Most recently before joining Nokia Networks, he was a director of R&D at Microsoft and the lead architect of OZO in Nokia Technologies.
Tero holds MSc in CS/EE, Digital and Computer Systems from TUT Finland, and PhD in Computing from Imperial College London UK. He is also an emeritus member of the Nokia CEO Technology Council and Bell Labs Distinguished Member of Technical Staff.
Key topics:
Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
Theory and practice
Productization
Software frameworks
Hardware architectures for training and inference (CPU, GPU, ASIC, TPU, FPGA, etc)
Academic & research collaboration; most important future research directions from industrial point of view
David Salam
- Director of Mobile Networks, British Telecommunications, Director of Mobile Networks, EE
Dave Salam is Director of Mobile Networks at BT, with overall responsibility to Design and Build the leading Mobile Network in the UK. Dave has a 25-year history is Mobile Technologies working across Network Strategy, Architecture, Design and Operations both in UK and Internationally. Recently, Dave has also led teams in Big Data technologies with a specific focus on developing real-time Customer Experience Insight and Operational simplicity.
Toby Simpson
- Co-founder and CTO, Fetch.AI
Toby is a pioneer in AI, autonomous agents and shared virtual world technology. He produced the cult hit Creatures series and was one of the initial team at DeepMind looking at nature’s contribution to Artificial General Intelligence. It was the investigation into P2P distributed ledger technology and blockchain which led to the realisation that the Fetch’s vision is within reach.
Stephen Unger
Steve Unger was until recently CTO of Ofcom, and a member of the Ofcom Board. Whilst at Ofcom he was responsible for understanding technological change in the comms sector, and developing practical strategies to promote the interests of people and businesses in the UK. Before joining Ofcom, Steve worked in industry, for various companies looking to exploit new wireless technologies. He has a Physics MA and a PhD in Astrophysics.
Yue Wang is a Principal 5G Researcher at Samsung Electronics R&D Institute UK. Over the past 10 years in her career, she has held various roles in the US and the UK, and has worked on a number of technical subjects in wireless communications research and standards. Her current interest is on the strategy and innovation of applying AI in communication networks. She leads the research activities of AI within the 5G team, is the Samsung delegate of ETSI ISG ENI (Experiential Networked Intelligence), and the Secretary and Rapporteur of ENI. She also sits in the Industry Advisory Board of two Universities, and is the industry supervisor of a 5-year research program, all on the area of AI in 5G and beyond.
Dr Ian Wassell joined the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory as a Senior Lecturer in January 2006. Prior to this, he was with the Department of Engineering for six years. He received the PhD degree from the University of Southampton in 1990 and the BSc., BEng. (Honours) Degrees (First Class) from the University of Loughborough in 1983. He has in excess of 25 years experience in radio communication systems gained via positions in industry and academia and has published more than 200 papers. His research interests include broadband wireless networks, wireless sensor networks, radio propagation, coding, communication signal processing, compressive sampling, and image processing and classification.
