Status and (desired) evolution of Telecommunications Research (and teaching) in Italy
Nicola Blefari-Melazzi – University of Rome Tor Vergata
Nicola Blefari-Melazzi is a full Professor of Telecommunications at the University of Roma Tor Vergata, where he served as Chair of the PhD program in Telecommunications Engineering, Chair of the undergraduate and graduate programs in Telecommunications Engineering and Chair of the Department of Electronic Engineering. From January 2017 to January 2023 he has been the Director of CNIT (National Inter-University Consortium for Telecommunications), a non-profit Consortium made up of 41 Italian Universities. More than 1,300 people, belonging to the participating universities, collaborate with CNIT, while the number of own-employees is more than 100. Since January 2023 he is the president of CNIT.
His research projects have been funded by Italian Ministries, by the Italian National Research Council, by major companies (e.g., Ericsson, Telecom Italia), by the ESA and by the EU. He has participated in 33 EU projects, playing the role of project coordinator and PI for eight of them. He has been a member of the board of the 5G Infrastructure Association, the private side of the 5G Public Private Partnership, a joint initiative between the European ICT sector and the European Commission, which funded with a 1.4 Billion Euro budget the R&D on 5G. He is still a member of the 5G Infrastructure Association, now re-named 6G Infrastructure Association, that recently founded the Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking together with the European Commission, which is funding with 900 MEUR the research and development for 6G and related technologies. He has been appointed by the Ministry of University and Research as Italian representative in the Member States’ Representatives Group of such Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking.
Since September 2022, he is the President of the RESTART Foundation, established primarily for the implementation, coordination and management of the research program “Telecommunications of the Future”, funded by the Italian Ministry of University with 116 M€.
He evaluated many research proposals and projects in EU programs and served as TPC member, TPC Chair, General Chair and Steering Committee Chair for IEEE Conferences and guest editor for IEEE Journals. He has been an area editor for Elsevier’s Computer Networks. He is author/co-author of about 260 papers. His research interests lie in the performance evaluation, design and control of telecommunications networks.
Design for adoption: bringing new AI technologies from paper to workplace
Marina Geymonat – Leonardo Laboratories
Marina Geymonat is a leading expert in AI and data strategy and innovation, with a career spanning TIM, Sisal, Capgemini Invent and currently leading Leonardo AI Lab.
She combines deep technical expertise with humanistic and user centered perspectives, and has contributed to Italy’s national AI strategy as part of the MISE task force.
Consolidation and growth in the UK mobile telecom market
Valeria Baiamonte – VodafoneThree, United Kingdom
Valeria was appointed Director of Network Strategy & Transformation in VodafoneThree in June 2025 following the merger between Vodafone UK and Three approved early this year. With nearly 20 years at the intersection of telecoms technology and policy, Valeria’s career spans the public and private sectors, evolving from a focus on technology and network engineering, to expertise in regulatory affairs, economics, and overall market strategy.Valeria launched her career in deep tech and became one of the UK’s most influential voices in Telecoms—steering market-defining decisions across Europe: the 2016 Three/Telefónica merger block, the 2023–25 CMA Vodafone/Three review, the 2024 Beacon partnership with VMO2, and the 2024 spectrum trade.
At Vodafone UK, she’s held Leadership roles: from heading national radio planning to architecting long-term network investment strategy. At Group level, she built the European strategic planning function from the ground up. Now, in her new role, she leads a team driving the integration of Vodafone & Three UK’s mobile networks—one of the most ambitious Telecoms Transformations in recent history.
Networking for Distributed AI
Mario Baldi – NVIDIA
Mario Baldi is a Distinguished Architect at NVIDIA, Networking Software and System Architecture. Besides being a tenured professor for over two decades, Mario held various positions in startup and established companies in the computer networking industry, as well as several visiting professorships at Universities in four continents. He is currently serving as the Co-chair of the p4.org Architecture Workgroup. He has authored over 150 scientific publications and two books; he is an inventor on 36 issued patents and several more under review. While more recently his focus has been on optimizing networking for distributed AI workloads, over the years, Mario’s research and engineering work has spanned across various computer networks-related areas, including programmable data planes, big data analytics, trust in distributed software execution, internetworking, high performance switching, optical networking, quality of service, multimedia over packet networks.
Mario holds an M.S. with honours (Summa Cum Laude) in Electrical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Computer and Systems Engineering, both from Politecnico di Torino, Italy.