Keynote Speakers
Ranveer Chandra
Microsoft, USAVisit Homepage
Networking the Soil: Systems Innovations for Sustainable AgricultureData-driven techniques help boost agricultural productivity by increasing yields, reducing losses and cutting down input costs. However, these techniques have seen sparse adoption owing to high costs of manual data collection and limited connectivity solutions. In this talk we will describe our innovations that leverage Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, and Edge Compute in the Farm and Space, to help make affordable digital agriculture solutions. We will also present our product based on this research, which is in preview, and can be used by partners to build their digital agriculture solutions, and how Generative AI can help transform digital agriculture.
Ranveer Chandra is the Managing Director for Research for Industry, and the CTO of Agri-Food at Microsoft. Previously, Ranveer was the Chief Scientist of Microsoft Azure Global. His research has shipped as part of multiple Microsoft products, including VirtualWiFi in Windows 7 onwards, low power Wi-Fi in Windows 8, Energy Profiler in Visual Studio, Software Defined Batteries in Windows 10, and the Wireless Controller Protocol in XBOX One. His research also led to a new product. Ranveer is active in the networking and systems research community, and has served as the Program Committee Chair of IEEE DySPAN 2012, ACM MobiCom 2013, and ACM HotNets 2022.
Ranveer started Project FarmBeats at Microsoft in 2015. He also led the battery research project, and the white space networking project at Microsoft Research. He was invited to the USDA to present his research to the US Secretary of Agriculture, and this work was featured by Bill Gates in GatesNotes, and was selected by Satya Nadella as one of 10 projects that inspired him in 2017. Ranveer has also been invited to the FCC to present his work on TV white spaces, and spectrum regulators from India, China, Brazil, Singapore and US (including the FCC chairman) have visited the Microsoft campus to see his deployment of the world’s first urban white space network. As part of his doctoral dissertation, Ranveer developed VirtualWiFi. The software has over a million downloads and was among the top 5 downloaded software released by Microsoft Research. It is shipping as a feature in Windows since 2009.
Ranveer has published more than 100 papers, and holds over 150 patents granted by the USPTO. His research has been cited by the popular press, such as the Economist, MIT Technology Review, BBC, Scientific American, New York Times, WSJ, among others. He is a Fellow of the ACM and the IEEE, and has won several awards, including award papers at ACM CoNext, ACM SIGCOMM, IEEE RTSS, USENIX ATC, Runtime Verification (RV’16), ACM COMPASS, and ACM MobiCom, the Microsoft Research Graduate Fellowship, the Microsoft Gold Star Award, the MIT Technology Review’s Top Innovators Under 35, TR35 (2010) and Fellow in Communications, World Technology Network (2012). He was recently recognized by the Newsweek magazine as America’s 50 most Disruptive Innovators (2021). Ranveer has an undergraduate degree from IIT Kharagpur, India and a PhD from Cornell University.
Kiran Kumar Kuchi
Indian Institute of Technology HyderabadVisit Homepage
By 2030, most 4G mobile networks are expected to transition to 5G, propelled by rapid technological
advancements. A key driver of this evolution is the adoption of open, intelligent, and programmable
networks. Leading operators are spearheading this transformation by implementing multi-vendor
Open RAN (ORAN) ecosystems, enabled by intelligent network operations. This shift is set to
redefine the telecommunications industry.
In parallel, the ITU-R has initiated deliberations on the IMT-2030 framework, laying the groundwork
for 6G. A foundational document released in mid-2023 outlines the envisioned usage scenarios and
capabilities for 6G. Over the next two years, efforts will focus on defining Technical Performance
Requirements (TPRs), with standardization milestones projected between 2027 and 2030.
India has played a pivotal role in shaping the global 6G vision at the ITU and is actively working to
advance the required technologies. This talk delves into India’s strengths and capabilities in fostering
a robust local ecosystem, detailing its comprehensive 6G roadmap. It explores the transition from 5G
to 6G, identifies gaps in the academic and industrial landscape, and outlines strategic steps to
achieve the 6G vision by 2030. Key areas of focus include the development of critical standards and
the implementation of enabling technologies vital to this transformation.
A notable breakthrough in this journey is the development of a new waveform, OTFDM, engineered
to meet the IMT-2030 framework's critical radio TPRs. These TPRs include high bandwidth, ultra-low
latency, high energy efficiency, and long-range communication. Complementing this innovation is
Structural MIMO (S-MIMO), which utilizes large antenna arrays with minimal RF chains to achieve
exceptional efficiency. Building on these advancements, the talk will introduce a patented 6G New
Radio (6G NR) technology specifically designed to meet the stringent requirements of future 6G
standards, representing a significant step toward achieving the IMT-2030 vision.
Professor Kiran Kuchi is a distinguished faculty member in the Department of Electrical Engineering
at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH). A pivotal figure in India’s 6G Taskforce, he
plays a crucial role in shaping the nation’s 6G vision and advising the government on its
implementation. He leads India’s research and standardization efforts for 5G-Advanced and 6G
technologies at international standards organizations, contributing to the evolution of future
communication systems.
With a remarkable portfolio of over 200 international patents, including several recognized as
essential to 5G standards, Professor Kuchi has made significant contributions to the field. He is also
the founder of WiSig Networks Pvt. Ltd., a startup incubated at IITH. Through this collaboration, IITH
and WiSig have successfully developed and commercialized innovative technologies, including 5G
ORAN base stations currently undergoing pre-commercial pilots and NB-IoT System-on-Chip (SoC)
solutions designed for both terrestrial and non-terrestrial operations.
Nina Taft
Google, USAVisit Homepage
Users struggle to navigate complex privacy controls, burdened by jargon, confusing menus, and endless consent forms. This talk explores the design of privacy assistance tools, examining opportunities, challenges, and risks. We'll analyze existing solutions and their challenges to adoption. To understand which type of privacy agents should be developed, we next examine worldwide perspectives on privacy, and include a focus on privacy concerns in India. Then we will discuss new opportunities for building privacy agents that leverage recent advances in machine learning and foundational models. New directions such as integrating contextual integrity into LLMs and privacy-enhancing prompting, are promising. Yet many challenges remain, including understanding privacy leakage and assessing the privacy-awareness of LLMs. Now is the time to build effective and responsible privacy agents that empower users.
Nina Taft is a Principal Scientist/Director at Google where she leads the Applied Privacy Research group. Nina received her PhD from UC Berkeley, and has worked in industrial research labs since then - at SRI, Sprint Labs, Intel Berkeley Labs, and Technicolor Research before joining Google. For many years, Nina worked in the field of networking, focused on Internet traffic modeling, traffic matrix estimation, and intrusion detection. In the last decade, she has been working on privacy enhancing technologies with a focus on applications of machine learning for privacy.
In 2017 she received the top-10 women in networking IEEE N2Women award. She was the first female “Fellow” at Technicolor. She has been chair of the SIGCOMM, IMC and PAM conferences, has published over 100 papers, and holds 15 patents. She regularly serves on program committees such as IEEE S&P, PoPETS, CCS, Usenix and IMC, and has also served on many award committees (such as the test of time awards for CCS and SIGCOMM). From 2018-2023 Nina was a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Max Planck Institute for Informatics. She is currently a member of the Advisory Board of LINCS (Lab for Information, Networking and Communications Sciences) in Paris, France.
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