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CoDaS Summer School 2026 a l'EETAC

https://eetac.upc.edu/ca/esdeveniments/codas-summer-school-2026-a-leetac
CoDaS Summer School 2026 a l'EETAC
2026-07-06T09:00:00+02:00
2026-07-10T17:30:00+02:00

Quan?

06/07/2026 a 09:00 fins a 10/07/2026 a 17:30 (Europe/Madrid / UTC200)

Afegiu l'esdeveniment al calendari

iCal

Program structure

Typical schedule – organization of the sessions

Morning session:

9:00 to 12:30, with a coffee break around 10:30

1h 30/45 mins + 1h 30/45mins

Lunch:

12:30 – 14:00h

In the Campus restaurant

Afternoon session:

14:00h – 17:30 with a coffee break around 15:30

1h 30/45 mins + 1h 30/45 mins

Some days there will be activities after 17:30h (visit, dinner)

Monday 6th July

9:00 Welcome, by Prof. Antoni Gelonch (EETAC Director, UPC), Prof. Stephan Sigg (Aalto),
and Dr David Rincón (UPC)

9:15 Keynote: "What if there is no 7G?", by Dr Jesús Alonso-Zárate (i2Cat)

10:30 Coffee break

10:45 Teambuilding activity (1h 15 min), by Dr Antoni Hernandez (UPC)

12:00 Meeting with CoDaS Alumni: Jack Trimmer, Henry Blue

12:30 Lunch

14:00 “Towards optical data centers in support of the digital society. Enabling automated
and autonomic DC operation – Requirements, challenges and future directions”, by Dr
Albert Pagès (UPC)

15:30 Coffee break

16:00 Description of UPC’s 6G LabNet and visit to the facilities, by Sergi Garcia-Cantón and
Mario Martínez-Morfa (UPC)

17:30 End

Abstract: For decades, the evolution of mobile communications has been defined by successive generations: 3G, 4G, 5G and now 6G. But what if this paradigm is about to change? As Artificial Intelligence becomes deeply embedded in communication networks, edge computing, cloud infrastructures and cybersecurity, the future may no longer be driven by new “Gs”, but by continuously evolving intelligent digital infrastructures. This talk explores how AI-native networking, distributed intelligence, satellite communications, cyber resilience and edge computing are converging to reshape the Internet itself. Rather than predicting the features of a hypothetical 7G, we will discuss why the boundaries between networking, computing and AI are rapidly disappearing, and what this means for the engineers who will build the next
generation of digital systems. Through examples from cutting-edge research at i2CAT, attendees will gain a forward-looking perspective on the technologies, challenges and opportunities shaping the digital infrastructure of the next decade.

Bio: Jesús Alonso-Zarate, PhD, is the Director of R&D at the i2CAT Research and Innovation Centre in Barcelona. He has more than 20 years of experience in advanced digital technologies, with a strong research background in wireless communications, the Internet of Things, and beyond-5G and 6G networks.
Throughout his career, he has participated in numerous national and European research and innovation projects, serving as Principal Investigator in many of them. In his current role, he leads i2CAT’s R&D strategy, fostering multidisciplinary research and innovation at the intersection of Connectivity, Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence to shape the digital infrastructures of the future.

Keynote: “What if there is no 7G?”, by Dr Jesús Alonso-Zárate (i2Cat)

Abstract: Data centers (DCs) are a cornerstone of nowadays digital society, allowing for the access to data and
applications in an ubiquitous way, as well as enabling the materialization of complex services thanks to the collaborative efforts of thousands of servers hosted within their premises. However, with the rise of cloud-based infrastructures and data-hungry applications, electronic-based data center network (DCN) fabrics are being pushed to their limits. As an answer to this bottleneck, optical network technologies have risen as the leading solutions able to withstand the traffic requirements of modern DCs. Despite their benefits, they also come with their own set of challenges, being the control, management and automation of network operations and resource allocation key aspects that should be tackled in efficient ways. In this presentation, the attendees will first familiarize themselves with challenges related to traffic engineering in nowadays data centers, to then see how optical network technologies can overcome said limitations. Next, the presentation will explore the requirements for optical network and computing resource provisioning, with the key goal of joint control and management for efficient data center operation. The presentation will explore from basic control concepts to advanced solutions leveraging on orchestration and data-driven governance, providing a holistic view about the challenges in the control and management of optically interconnected DCs.

Bio: Dr Albert Pagès received his Ph.D. in Optical Communications (excellent cum laude, 2014) from the Universitat
Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), which included a research stay at the Politecnico di Milano. Currently a Professor at
UPC and a member of the Optical Communications Group (GCO), his research lies at the forefront of next-generation
digital infrastructures. His work primarily focuses on the design, optimization, and management of high-capacity optical
communication systems for cloud computing and advanced data center networks, leveraging on the application of
Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence for quality assurance, Quality of Transmission (QoT), and autonomous
resource management. This expertise spans 5G, Beyond 5G (B5G), and 6G communication frameworks tailored for
Industry 4.0/5.0, as well as emerging frontiers like performance optimization in disaggregated data centers,
deterministic networks, and hybrid quantum-classical computing infrastructures. Throughout his career, Professor
Pagès has established a highly international profile, contributing to multiple European and national research initiatives.
His research has entailed collaborations with global ICT industry leaders such as Telefónica, Orange, British Telecom,
Ericsson, Dell, and IBM, alongside top-tier European universities and research centers. Also a dedicated educator, he
teaches across several schools at UPC (EETAC, ETSETB), at both bachelor and master level, having co-directed
multiple theses alongside advising Ph.D. candidates and visiting international researchers within the GCO.

“Towards optical data centers in support of the digital society.
Enabling automated and autonomic DC operation – Requirements, challenges and future directions”, by Dr Albert Pagès (UPC)

Tuesday 7th July

9:00 “Indoor Localization: Opportunities and Vulnerabilities of Wi-Fi RTT”, by Dr Enrica Zola, Dr Olga León-Abarca, and Dr Israel Martín-Escalona (UPC)

10:30 – 10:45 Coffee break

12:30 Lunch

14:00 “Perspectives into the Evolution of Personal Applications in 6G Networks”, by Prof. Luis M. Correia (Tecnico Lisboa):

15:30 -15:45 Coffee break

17:30 End

Social event: visit to Sitges (to be confirmed)

Meeting point 17:45h, residence door. The visit will take from 19:00h to 20:30h. Dinner is not included, but there are several places for an informal snack in Sitges. Back in Castelldefels by 22:00- 22:30h

Abstract: Recent advances in wireless technologies have driven the widespread adoption of smart devices, accelerating the development of Location-Based Services (LBS). Given the limitations of GPS in indoor environments, alternative localization systems have gained traction, leading to the emergence of Indoor Positioning Systems (IPS). Two main approaches have been devised for indoor localization, depending on the underlying network architecture. This tutorial will introduce representative solutions from both categories, highlighting their advantages, limitations, and deployment requirements.

Among the available wireless technologies, Wi-Fi stands out due to its ubiquity and mature infrastructure, making it a natural candidate for indoor positioning. We will review the evolution of Wi-Fi-based IPS techniques, from fingerprinting and received-signal-strength approaches to ranging-based solutions, before focusing on Wi-Fi Round Trip Time (Wi-Fi RTT).
Introduced in the IEEE 802.11mc standard, Wi-Fi RTT relies on the Fine Timing Measurement (FTM) protocol to estimate
distances from signal propagation times. Increasing support in commercial devices, including Android smartphones, has made Wi-Fi RTT a practical solution for accurate indoor localization without specialized hardware. The tutorial will present the operating principles of Wi-Fi RTT and practical localization algorithms that transform ranging measurements into position estimates. Through real-world examples and experimental results, participants will explore the achievable accuracy of Wi-Fi RTT and the factors that influence its performance, including multipath propagation, non-line-of-sight conditions, access point placement, and device heterogeneity.

A central theme of the tutorial is the tension between accuracy and trustworthiness. While Wi-Fi RTT enables meter-level
positioning using commodity devices, the same mechanisms that support accurate ranging can also introduce security and privacy risks. We will examine attacks such as distance spoofing, relay attacks, rogue access points, and denial-of-service techniques, as well as privacy threats arising from location tracking. Finally, we will discuss existing countermeasures and emerging research directions aimed at improving the robustness, trustworthiness, and security of Wi-Fi-based indoor localization systems.

By the end of the session, participants will have a comprehensive understanding of both the opportunities and vulnerabilities of Wi-Fi RTT as an enabling technology for next-generation indoor positioning services.

“Indoor Localization: Opportunities and Vulnerabilities of Wi-Fi RTT”, by Dr Enrica Zola, Dr Olga León-Abarca, and Dr Israel
Martín-Escalona (UPC)

Bios:

Enrica Zola received the double M.Sc. degree in telecommunications engineering from Politecnico di Torino, Italy,
and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC-BarcelonaTECH), Spain, in 2003, and the Ph.D. degree from
UPC, in 2011. In 2003, she joined the Department of Network Engineering at UPC as a full-time Lecturer, where she
is now an Associate Professor. She has been involved in several research projects on the performance modeling of
wireless systems and networks, and on localization. Her research interests encompass wireless networking and
communication, with a focus on resource planning and management, and mobility in cellular and Wi-Fi networks;
design of B5G and 6G networks; and, more recently, GPS-less location solutions with and without network infrastructure.

Israel Martin-Escalona received his degree in Telecommunications Engineering from the Universitat Politècnica de
Catalunya (UPC) in 2001, his Ph.D. from UPC in 2010, and a degree in Computer Science from the Barcelona
School of Informatics, UPC, in 2013. In 2003, he joined the School of Telecommunications Engineering at UPC,
where he has taught courses on networking, teletraffic, and simulation. From 2014 to 2020, he led the Research
Group on Cellular Communications Networks at UPC. His research interests include data analysis, self-managed
networks, and, in particular, indoor location solutions, both with and without network infrastructure.

Olga León Abarca received her degree in Telecommunications Engineering from the Universitat Politècnica de
Catalunya (UPC-BarcelonaTech), Spain, in 2001. In 2008, she joined the Information Security Group (ISG) and
obtained her Ph.D. degree from UPC in 2012. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of
Telematics Engineering at UPC. She has participated in several research projects related to wireless network
security, and her research interests include threat detection and mitigation in wireless and Internet of Things (IoT)
networks, as well as vulnerability analysis and the security of localization mechanisms.

“Indoor Localization: Opportunities and Vulnerabilities of Wi-Fi RTT”, by Dr Enrica Zola, Dr Olga León-Abarca, and Dr Israel
Martín-Escalona (UPC)

Abstract: The talk starts by presenting a look into already existing technologies, which enables to establish a perspective for future user interface devices and services (e.g., information access, Internet of Things and geo-location), i.e., the so-called wearables. Then, potential services are identified, after which research challenges for mobile and wireless communications networks are presented. Afterwards, Body Area Networks are addressed, together with their applications. The modelling of bodies, antennas and other devices is then discussed. The bridging with the deployment of mission critical networks (i.e., security and emergency networks) is the presented, namely aspects of a proper and efficient service differentiation and implementation, which is still to be fully understood and taken into account. Radio and network aspects are addressed regarding adaptability and flexibility, looking at radio links quality and capacity, virtualisation / slicing and cloud / edge networking, regarding the quite different characteristics that services present.

Bio: He is a Professor in Telecommunications, with his work focused on Wireless & Mobile Communications, at IST (Univ. Lisbon), with the research activities developed in INESC INOV-Lab. He has acted as a consultant for the Portuguese telecommunications operators and regulator, besides other public and private entities, and has been in the Board of Directors of a telecommunications company. He has participated in 34 projects within European frameworks, having coordinated 6 and taken leadership responsibilities at various levels in many others, besides national ones. He has lectured 82 advanced training courses for industry and academia at the national and international levels. He has supervised over 240 M.Sc./Ph.D. students, having edited 6 books, contribute to European strategic documents, and authored over 550 papers in international and national journals and conferences, for which served also as a reviewer, editor and board member. Internationally, he was part of 43 Ph.D. juries, and 101 research projects and institutions evaluation committees for funding agencies in 13 countries, and the European Commission and COST. He has been the Chairman of Conference, of the Technical Programme Committee and of the Steering Committee of 25 major conferences, besides other several duties. He was a National Delegate to the COST Domain Committee on ICT. He has launched and served as Chairman of the IEEE Communications Society Portugal Chapter, besides being involved in several other duties in this society at the global level.
He is an Honorary Professor of the Gdańsk University of Technology (Poland) and a recipient of the 2021 EurAAP
Propagation Award “for leadership in the field of propagation for wireless and mobile communications”.

“Perspectives into the Evolution of Personal Applications in 6G Networks”, by Prof. Luis M. Correia (Tecnico Lisboa)

Wednesday 8th July

9:00 “”These data are all you have”: some practical use cases of mobile
operator datasets”, by Prof. António Grilo (Técnico Lisboa):

10:30 – 10:45 Coffee break

12:30 Lunch

14:00 “Deep Reinforcement Learning for Joint Path Planning and Service Allocation in 6G Vehicular Networks”, by Carlos Ruiz de Mendoza (UPC)

15:30 -15:45 Coffee break

The session will include hands-on activities. Bring your laptops!

The end of the session will include a short tine for Q&A about how is it to pursue a PhD

17:30 End

Abstract: In academic research, authors often prioritize the development of new algorithms, assuming that the available data will align with algorithmic requirements—an assumption that holds true for simulated datasets. However, real-world datasets provided by mobile operators are typically generated by network equipment, each with its own set of variables and sampling frequencies. This raises a fundamental que stion: "What can be achieved with these data?". This lecture will showcase recent works by Master's students, where industry-provided data not only shaped research objectives but also transformed dataset constraints into compelling challenges. These constraints led to innovative approaches in fault detection, energy consumption analysis, and coverage optimization, demonstrating how real-world data can drive
meaningful discoveries.

Bio: He was born in Portugal in 1973. He holds the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from IST, where he is currently Associate Professor. Since 1996, he has been working in European Commission (EC) projects related with communication networks. He is currently a Researcher with INESC INOV-Lab, Lisbon, in the Intelligent Communication Networks research area. He is the author or coauthor of more than eighty scientific articles on subjects related with communication networks. His current research interests include UxV networks, Internet of Things, Edge Computing, and applications of Artificial Intelligence in Communication Systems and Networks.

““These data are all you have”: some practical use cases of mobile operator datasets”, by Prof. António Grilo (Tecnico Lisboa)

Abstract: What if a vehicle could learn on its own where to go and where to run its computations, all at once? Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) operating over 6G networks face exactly this challenge. Their applications span a wide range of quality-of-service (QoS) demands, from safety-critical ultra-low-latency control to broadband services, executed across three tiers: vehicular edge computing (VEC), multi-access edge computing (MEC), and Cloud. 6G promises extreme connectivity, but the network state at the next hop is unknown at decision time, making joint routing and service placement a problem that must be solved on the fly, not planned in advance.

This talk takes that problem as a starting point to introduce Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL). We will go from the basics (agent, environment, reward, policy, …) to seeing how Deep Q-Networks (DQN) make decisions in practice, and where the limitations of DQN motivate the need for more powerful approaches.
We close with an example from our research by combining DRL with Graph Neural Networks (GNN) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks, the agent learns to jointly solve routing and service placement for CAVs over a 6G edge-cloud network infrastructure, a level of complexity that vanilla DRL alone cannot handle.

Bio: Carlos Ruiz de Mendoza is a Ph.D. candidate in Network Engineering (Telematics) at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), where his work sits at the intersection of deep reinforcement learning and B5G edge network management. His research focuses on intelligent resource allocation and autonomous decision-making for connected vehicles operating over edge-cloud infrastructures, where he has published on AI-driven resource management for connected vehicular environments. He has contributed to European and national research projects, and his broader interests extend to agentic AI systems for next-generation networks

“Deep Reinforcement Learning for Joint Path Planning and Service Allocation in 6G Vehicular Networks”, by Carlos Ruiz de Mendoza (UPC)

Thursday 9th July

9:00 “Causality-based interpretability of complex AI systems” (online session) by Prof. Michel Besserve (TU Braunschweig)

10:30 – 10:45 Coffee break

10:45 “Design of Application-Specific Instruction-Set Processors − From Low-Power Systems to High-Performance Systems and Beyond (part 1)”, by Prof. Guillermo Payá Vayá (TU Braunschweig)

12:30 Lunch

14:00 Visit to CTTC (Telecommunications Technology Centre of Catalonia)

14:00 – Meeting point at EETAC’s main door

It will include a presentation of CTTC, Q&A, a short talk about a researcher’s professional career, and visit to the laboratories

17:30 End

Social event: Dinner at Castelldefels beach – restaurant to be confirmed.

Meeting point: residence door, around 19:00h (exact time to be confirmed).

Abstract: Pending

Bio: Pending

“Causality-based interpretability of complex AI systems”, by Prof. Michel Besserve (TU Braunschweig)

Abstract: Over the past years, the research field of embedded systems has expanded to include a wide variety of
applications, ranging from portable multimedia devices to sensor networks and medical systems. Many of these applications have stringent processing performance requirements and continually demand smaller and more energy-efficient processing systems. These design constraints, in combination with the increasing demand for flexibility (i.e., programmability, due to the continuous algorithm improvements), make the research field of embedded systems challenging.

Nowadays, in order to meet the abovementioned design goals, there is a trend toward customizing generic processor
architectures for a specific set of target applications. The resulting processors are known as application-specific
instruction-set processors (ASIP). Customization is usually performed not only by inserting complex custom instructions into the baseline instruction-set, but also by implementing complex mechanisms in the processor architecture, such as enhanced forwarding mechanisms or new concepts of instruction parallelism. This customization requires the use of flexible compiler frameworks and new embedded parallel programming paradigms.

This talk presents current trends in application-specific instruction-set processor architectures and their software
programming for embedded systems, such as those implemented in advanced driver assistance systems or hearing aid
devices. The results of different research projects initiated at the Chair for Chip Design for Embedded Computing will provide a basis for the discussion.

Bio: Guillermo Payá Vayá obtained his engineering degree from the School of Telecommunications Engineering,
Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Spain, in 2001. During the period from 2001 to 2004, he was a member of the Digital
System Design research group at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, where he worked on VLSI dedicated architecture design of signal and image processing algorithms using pipelining, retiming, and parallel processing techniques. In 2004, he joined the Department of Architecture and Systems at the Institute of Microelectronic Systems, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany, and received his Ph.D. degree in 2011. In April 2013, he became a junior professor for application-specific instruction-set processors and a member of the Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all at Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany.
Since April 2021, he has been a professor and head of the Chair for Chip Design for Embedded Computing at the
Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany. His research interests include embedded computer architecture design for signal and image processing systems

“Design of Application-Specific Instruction-Set Processors − From Low-Power Systems to High-Performance Systems and Beyond”, Prof. Guillermo Payá Vayá (TU Braunschweig)

Friday 10th July

9:00 “Design of Application-Specific Instruction-Set Processors − From Low-Power Systems to High-Performance Systems and Beyond (part 2)”, by Prof. Guillermo Payá Vayá (TU Braunschweig)

10:30 – 10:45 Coffee break

12:30 Lunch

14:00 “Building the AI-native 6G era”, by Dr Dariush Salami (Aalto)

15:30 -15:45 Coffee break

17:30 Closing and Farewell, by Prof. Stephan Sigg (Aalto) / Dr David
Rincón (UPC)

“Design of Application-Specific Instruction-Set Processors − From Low-Power Systems to High-Performance Systems and Beyond”, Prof. Guillermo Payá Vayá (TU Braunschweig)

Abstract: Building the AI-native 6G era explores how future wireless networks are evolving from simply connecting people and devices to supporting AI-native services, autonomous operations, and new forms of intelligence at scale. The talk will cover the main pillars shaping 6G development, including performance, built-in AI, sustainability, and security, as well as the standardization timeline, spectrum outlook, and emerging use cases such as non-terrestrial networks and integrated sensing.

Bio: Dr. Dariush Salami is a Radio Research Scientist at Nokia Bell Labs in Finland, where his work focuses on AI-enabled wireless systems, 6G radio technologies, sensing, and resilient communications. His recent work spans the use of machine learning and large language model-based methods for radio intelligence, defense-oriented wireless applications, jamming detection and mitigation, and robust network automation. He received his PhD from Aalto University, where his research focused on spectrum-aware human-centric sensing using mmWave radars. In addition to his research role, he is the founder and CEO of SensWear, an open wearable hardware platform for next-generation sensing and AI applications.