Prof. Samson Lasaulce
Khalifa University, UAE

Samson Lasaulce is a CNRS Director of Research with CRAN at Nancy. From 2023 to 2025, he has been a Chief Research Scientist with Khalifa University (Abu Dhabi) where he has been the holder of the TII 6G Chair on Native AI. From 2016 to 2019, he has been the holder of the RTE CentraleSupelec Chair on the "Digital Transformation of Electricity Networks". From 2002 to 2014, he has also been a part-time Professor with the Department of Physics at École Polytechnique (France). Before joining CNRS he has been working for five years in private R&D research centers (Motorola Labs and Orange Labs). His current research interests lie in distributed networks with a focus on optimization, machine learning, game theory, and optimal control. The main application areas of his research are wireless networks, energy networks, social networks, and climate change. Dr Lasaulce has been serving as an editor for several international journals such as the IEEE Transactions. He has organized many scientific events and 10+ as a general chair. He is the co-author of more than 220 publications, including 15 patents and several books such as "Game Theory and Learning for Wireless Networks: Fundamentals and Applications". Dr Lasaulce is also the recipient of several awards from the IEEE society and also the Blondel Medal award from the SEE French society.

Speech Title: Large Language Models and Optimization

Abstract: In this talk, we will explore the interplay between large language models (LLMs) and optimization. We will start with a motivating use case (smart home energy management), which will allow us to identify several LLM agents to be designed (implementing an agentic approach). The focus of the talk will be mainly on the LLM solver agent. We will survey the main advances in terms of using LLMs for optimization problems solving and then, discuss several recent results.

Prof. Stefano Secci
CNAM Paris, France

S. Secci is professor at Cnam, Paris, since 2018, responsbile of research and teaching activities in networking. He previously held positions at Sorbonne University as associate professor, at George Mason and NTNU Universities as postdoc researcher, at Telecom ParisTech and Politecnico di Milano as Ph.D candidate, and at CNIT and Fastweb as engineer. He graduated from Politecnico di Milano in telecommunications engineering in 2005. His current research interests are about network automation and distributed learning.

Speech Title: Evolution of Resource Allocation with Network Slicing

Abstract: In this talk, resource allocation and scheduling practices will be put in perspective of recent evolutions in network archtiectures, with virtualization and slicing.
The path from single-resource central decision-maker (provider) toward multi-resource multi-provider and multi-domain context will be traced along with novel algorithms and fairness measurements.

Prof Samia Nefti-Meziani
University of Birmingham, UK

Professor Nefti-Meziani is an international leading expert with 25 years of experience in AI and robotics. She has recently been awarded an Order of the British Empire for her services to Robotics and featured as the 2020’s top 30 world’s women in robotics you need to know about by Silicon Valley Robohub, the largest scientific community in robotics.
She is the former Vice Chairman of IEEE Robotics and Automation UK & RI, Co-director of the EPSRC National Hub in Robotics and Future AI for Space Technology (FAIR-SPACE) and Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems and she is serving as an Advisory board member for the RGP, the Asian council and the EPSRC centre for innovative manufacturing and intelligent Automation. She is also a member of the Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Peer Review College and reviewer for UKRI, Finland research funding agency and EC.
Chaired by DSIT, she is currently the lead on the UK Cross-Industry RAS Development Task Force initiative, funded by EPSRC, which aims at shaping the policies and initiatives for the UK's effort to develop a world-leading market and innovation environment for exploiting advancements in RAS. This task force involves Industry influencers, many national infrastructure organizations, including DFT, DEFRA, NHS, UK Space Agency, Lower Thames Crossing, Sellafield Ltd, Network Rail, National Highways and many others from the UK- Cross Industry RAS Development Task Force Network.