University of Bristol Scholar to Lead Esteemed Tech Conference in San Diego

Professor Dimitra Simeonidou, Director of the Smart Internet Lab at the University of Bristol, will take a leading role at the upcoming Optical Fiber Communications (OFC) Conference and Exhibition being held in San Diego, California.

As the OFC’s General co-Chair, Professor Simeonidou will be opening this year’s conference, which promises to be a pivotal gathering for leading experts in the field.

The OFC conference, running from 24-28 March, is a leading global event for professionals working on optical communications and networking. The 2024 edition is expected to attract more than 13,000 participants from 74 countries with 603 exhibiting companies showcasing the latest industry advancements and emerging technologies in optical communications, quantum networking, AI and data centre connectivity.

Professor Simeonidou said: “I am honoured to be the General Chair of OFC’24 and privileged to showcase the pioneering research of the University of Bristol and its partners towards 6G and quantum networking. It is very exciting to be part of this amazing event showcasing technologies that will shape the future of the Internet.”

Professor Reza Nejabati, Head of the High Performance Networks Research Group at the University of Bristol, will be leading a workshop on “How Can OFC, with a Real Life Test-Bed, Accelerate Innovation in the Optical Photonic Networks?” together with colleagues from the Netherlands, the UK and Canada. Other colleagues from Smart Internet Lab will also be representing the University with their most recent papers on classical and quantum networking technologies, including two live demos at the OFC Exhibition floor.

This event follows a very successful presence of the Smart Internet Lab team at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) and the announcement of JOINER (joint open infrastructure for networks research) in February 2024. JOINER is funded through UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) £70million Technology Missions Fund (TMF) Future Telecoms Mission to support the development of technologies that will be crucial to future telecoms networks.

The Smart Internet Lab is one of the UK’s most renowned Information and Communications Technology (ICT) research centres which addresses grand societal and industrial challenges.

The Smart Internet Lab features 200 experts on 5G radio/wireless, optical communications and networks fusing research expertise and innovation in a range of research areas such as the Internet of Things, 5G and beyond, future transport networks, smart cities, autonomous networks, machine learning, artificial intelligence and more.