AraFest’24 Online Program

August 26, 2024 (Monday)

9:00 – 9:30 am: Welcome Remarks by ISU, PPO, NSF, USDA (Webex Link) (Presentation)

  • W. Samuel Easterling, James L. and Katherine S. Melsa Dean of Engineering, Iowa State University
  • Mari Silbey, Program Director, PAWR Project Office; Senior Director (Partnerships and Outreach), US Ignite
  • Alhussein Abouzeid, Program Director, National Science Foundation (NSF); Professor (Electrical, Computer and Systems Engineering), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
  • Melvin Carter, Director (Division of Agricultural Systems), USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)

9:30 – 10:00 am: ARA Update (Webex Link, Presentation )

  • Hongwei Zhang, ARA PI; Director (Center for Wireless, Communities and Innovation – WiCI), Richardson Professor (ECE), Iowa State University

10:15 am – 11:00 am: Keynote: Democratizing 5G: Open Source and (Much) More (Webex Link, PDF)

  • Larry Peterson, Robert E. Kahn Emeritus Professor of Computer Science & Senior Research Scholar, Princeton University; Chair, Technical Steering Team, Aether, a project of Linux Foundation

11:00 – 12:15 pm: Panel: Wireless and Agriculture (Webex Link)

  • Moderator: Hongwei Zhang, ARA PI, Director (WiCI), Richardson Professor (ECE), Iowa State University
  • Ranveer Chandra, CTO of Agri-Food, Managing Director of Industry Research, Networking Research Lead, Microsoft
  • Monisha Ghosh, Professor, University of Notre Dame; Policy Outreach Director, SpectrumX; former CTO of FCC, former Program Director at NSF CISE
  • Sampath Ramaswami, Vice President (Strategy), Hughes
  • Soumik Sarkar, Professor (ME), Director (Translational AI Center – TrAC), Iowa State University; Associate Director, AI Institute for Resilient Agriculture (AIIRA) (Presentation)
  • Christopher Stewart, Associate Professor (CSE), Ohio State University 

1:30 pm – 2:15 pm: Fire-Side-Chat: Christopher Parry, Research Scientist, Corteva AgriScience (Webex Link)

2:15 – 3:00 pm: Lightning Talks (Chair: Yong Guan, ARA co-PI, Professor (ECE), Iowa State University) (Webex Link)

3:15 – 4:30 pm: Plenary Demos with public-private ARA partners (Chair: Daji Qiao, ARA Co-PI, Professor & Associate Chair (ECE), Iowa State University) (Webex Link, Presentation )

August 27, 2024 (Tuesday)

9:00 – 9:15 am: Welcome Remarks: Jason Keith, Provost & Senior Vice President, Iowa State University (Webex Link, Presentation)

9:15 – 10:30 am: Panel: Real-Time and Mission-Critical Wireless Systems (Webex Link)

  • Moderator: Hongwei Zhang, ARA PI, Director (WiCI), Richardson Professor (ECE), Iowa State University (Slides)
  • Mohamed Hany, Research Scientist, Industrial Wireless Systems Lab, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) (Slides)
  • Dave Cavalcanti, Principal Engineer & Team Lead (Industrial / Time-Sensitive Networking), Intel Labs; President, Avnu Alliance (Slides)
  • Benjamin Haan, Director (Mission Systems & Advanced Technology Center), Collins Aerospace
  • Song Han, Associate Professor (CS), University of Connecticut (Slides)

10:45 – 12:00 am: Panel: Government & Communities (Webex Link, Presentation)

  • Moderator: Mark Berman, CEO, Smart Information Flow Technologies (SIFT)
  • Melvin Carter, Director (Division of Agricultural Systems), USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)
  • Martin Doczkat, Chief (Electromagnetic Compatibility Division), Office of Engineering and Technology (OET), Federal Communications Commission (FCC) (Slides)
  • Scott Fox, Senior Advisor / 5G & Cyber SME Team Lead, OUSD(R&E) | DCTO(S&T) | FutureG, Office of the Secretary of Defense | Pentagon (Slides)
  • Jaydee Griffith, Managing Director, Next G Alliance; Former Chief Technologist, Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund, National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) (Slides)
  • Ellen Zegura, Director (Division of Computer and Network Systems), National Science Foundation (NSF); Fleming Chair and Professor, School of Computer Science, Georgia Tech