On October 19th at 13:00 CET, UNIC is hosting a seminar on the role of ICT in post-industrial era for sustainable development. Join the seminar to hear an international panel of speakers discuss how ICT can help society in digital and green transition towards sustainability goals.

Sustainability is driving green and digital transformations in societies, which is enabled by information and communication technologies (ICTs). ICT-based solutions can help different sectors of society to significantly renew their operations to meet sustainable development requirements. Similarly, the development of future wireless ICT solutions has to be aligned with sustainability considering the triple bottom line of economic, social and environmental sustainability.

5G networks are coming to daily use and offer a platform for digitalization. At the same time the mobile communications community has started to look 10 years ahead. The next generation of mobile communication networks - 6G – aiming at deployment in 2030s is already in research phase. There is common consensus that the key driver for 6G research and development is sustainability, especially through sustainable development in the UN SDG framework. This seminar focuses on how ICT can help society in digital and green transition towards sustainability goals.

Program of the seminar

Introductions by moderator

Lecture by Dr. Marja Matinmikko-Blue

Roundtable and Q&A with guest panelists

Panelists include:

Dr. Marja Matinmikko-Blue is 6G Flagship Research Coordinator at Centre for Wireless Communications (CWC), University of Oulu, where she holds an Adjunct Professor position on spectrum management. She conducts multi-disciplinary research on technical, business and regulatory aspects of mobile communication systems in close collaboration with industry, academia and regulators. She holds a Dr.Sc. degree in telecommunications engineering and a Ph.D. degree in management sciences from University of Oulu from 2012 and 2018. She has coordinated several national research project consortia that have successfully demonstrated the world’s first licensed shared access spectrum sharing trials and introduced a new local 5G operator concept that has become a reality. She has published 170+ scientific publications and prepared 150+ contributions to regulatory bodies in national, European and international levels. She coordinated the preparation of twelve 6G White Papers in 6G Flagship and led the development of the White Paper on 6G Drivers and the UN SDGs.

Petri Ahokangas is the professor of Future digital business at Martti Ahtisaari Institute, Oulu Business School, University of Oulu, Finland and adjunct professor at Aalborg University, Denmark. Currently he is working within the 6G Flagship program at the University of Oulu. He received his M.Sc. and D.Sc. degrees from the University of Vaasa. His research interests are in the intersection of mobile communications, especially 5G and 6G, and digital business creation and transformation in different industries and verticals. His specific research themes include future business models, ecosystems and strategies. Ahokangas has over 190 scientific publications and is actively working in several ICT focused research consortia.

Alex Rayón Jerez is currently the Vice-Rector for International Relations and Digital Transformation at the University of Deusto. He is also the director of Deusto BigData. He understands this new digital era not only as a mere technological challenge, but also as a social, organizational and economic issue. He has centered all his research and work on the assessment of competencies and the use of learning metrics as a tool to improve those processes. Additionally, he has been involved in many projects around the most relevant IT paradigms lately (mainly Big Data), helping on developing business strategies in an age of constant technological disruption. Having lived and worked in Europe, North and South America, he has a real international perspective on how technology is shaping our future and how societies must be ready for the change that is happening. Accordingly, he has experience managing diversity and technological talent, linking those skills to deal with the challenges of the digital era is provoking.

Farshida Zafar, LL.M is the Director of ErasmusX at Erasmus University Rotterdam and also serves as Senior Fellow Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence for Digital Governance. Farshida has a track record in the field of educational innovation. In the past years she co-designed, developed and implemented both educational programs as well as new (mobile) applications and platforms for educational purposes. Currently leading the ErasmusX initiative at Erasmus University Rotterdam, Farshida’s ambition is to ‘future proof’ education. The Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence for Digital Governance focusses on the impact of AI and Big Data on Law and Governance. Farshida is in the lead of creating open education themed around Digital Governance.