When 200 committed ELLIIT researchers meet up, so much energy is in circulation that we would need next-generation communications technology to handle it. The creative abilities of these researchers will play a major role in the superfast 6G of the future, bringing unimagined possibilities in such fields as digitalisation, artificial intelligence (AI), and the internet of things (IoT).
“All research constellations working within ELLIIT meet for a workshop once a year, and this year it was held at LiU. I am extremely impressed by the way that this innovative and future-directed research programme has developed, and the achievements of the collaborative environment for Swedish businesses and society. I am particularly looking forward to results from the exciting projects and newly recruited co-workers,” says Per Dannetun, director of research at LiU and chair of the ELLIIT steering group.
200 researchers within ELLIIT gathered for its annual workshop, held this time at Linköping University. The programme included interesting talks within several areas, all of them with IT and mobile communication as a common theme.
ELLIIT is one of the strategic research centres that arose from a government initiative in 2010. It underwent a major expansion in 2020, when it was expanded by a factor of around 3. Its operations are funded by government money, earmarked for research into IT and mobile communication.
ELLIIT is an acronym for the “Linköping-Lund Initiative on IT and mobile communication”, and is a large and broad alliance of complementary research expertise from the universities in Linköping and Lund, with selected research groups at Halmstad University and the Blekinge Institute of Technology. The alliance has been put together to meet future challenges within IT and mobile communication in a unified manner.
The workshop was spread over two days and comprised a broad mixture of interesting talks, mini-workshops, poster sessions, keynote addresses, and – not least – scientific discussions and social events for networking.
Per Runeson from Lund University takes the opportunity to ask a question after one of the talks.
A spellbound audience! Simin Nadjm-Tehrani was eager to learn more and asked the speaker several questions.
“It’s just great to lead such a large and amazingly successful research initiative, and feel the energy pulsing through the workshop during these 2 days, where we share all the research results and activities that are in progress,” says Erik G Larsson, director of ELLIIT.
The ELLIIT organisation covers the complete range within IT and mobile communication, but its ultimate success depends on the performance and results obtained by individual researchers. The research has led to results that benefit the complete chain, from fundamental academic research to products and processes that can be applied in industry, the business world, and society.
Petter Bedoire, chief technology officer at Saab and active within ELLIIT, is a prominent representative from the business world. He held a talk at the workshop, which he experienced as inspiring. It also opened the door to building networks:
“The workshop was incredibly interesting. ELLIIT fits into these research areas perfectly: it covers software, artificial intelligence, digitalisation and communication, which are all areas that we at Saab have identified as extremely interesting for the future. This initiative is exactly what we need. There is one reason that Saab has decided to participate in ELLIIT: this research will undoubtedly strengthen us to face the future.”
Petter Bedoire, chief technology officer at Saab and active within ELLIIT, gave a talk at the workshop that stimulated several questions from the audience. He emphasised how important research is for Saab to remain at the forefront of technology.
As chief technology officer at Saab, Petter Bedoire leads and coordinates the research and development required to ensure that the defence technology group remains at the forefront of technology.
“As part of the collaboration with ELLIIT, it is also valuable for us to be able to provide ideas and describe what research is valuable for us, and the research challenges we face. This interaction works well,” says Petter Bedoire.
A researcher who shared her predictions for the future was Susanna de Rezende from Lund University, newly recruited to a faculty position within ELLIIT. She works with fundamental problems within theoretical computer science, which in turn forms the basis for algorithm development within such areas as artificial intelligence, machine learning and complex systems.
“Becoming part of the ELLIIT community opened my eyes. Through the workshop I have made contact with other areas of research and learnt a lot, I found the presentation on quantum machine learning particularly interesting. I didn’t know much about the field, even though it is relevant to my work, to a certain extent. Learning more about other areas opens doors to future collaboration,” says Susanna de Rezende.
Susanna de Rezende from Lund University shared her expertise in a talk about her research area in theoretical computer science.
Zheng Chen and Fredrik Lindsten from LiU were programme leaders for the annual meeting and are happy with the results. They summarise their impressions:
“It was a great meeting place. Without ELLIIT, many researchers would be working in isolation in their specific area, whereas here they could obtain an overview and see the research that is leading trends in other fields. When researchers from different fields are given the opportunity to work together, it opens the way to more successful research. This is a strength of ELLIIT,” says Zheng Chen.
The two programme leaders Fredrik Lindsten and Zheng Chen, both from Linköping University, were very happy about the workshop, which they promote as an extremely useful meeting place for ELLIIT researchers.
“The workshop lived up totally to our expectations. I’m extremely impressed by the quality of the presentations, and I’m sure the participants learned a lot from them. And they have got to know each other, which may be the most important result. The workshop in this way has laid the foundation for future collaboration and projects,” says Fredrik Lindsten.
Text and photo by Stefan Holgersson
Translated by George Farrants
Here you can download Osvaldo Simeone´s keynote presentation.
Here you can download Jan-Willem van de Meent´s keynote presentation.