5G-SOLUTIONS - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Technical Coordinator of Urban Planning
• Technical Coordinator, Agencia De Ecología Urbana De Barcelona ( BCNecologia ), Barcelona, Spain

Cynthia Echave is the Technical Coordinator of Urban Planning and Public Space in BCNecologia (the Urban Ecology Agency of Barcelona), a public consortium consisting of the City Council of Barcelona, the Municipal Council and Metropolitan Area of Barcelona and the Barcelona Provincial Council. BCNecologia has done projects for various public institutions, foundations, organisations and companies, both nationally and internationally. BCNecologia applies a systemic approach to the management of cities to encourage a more sustainable model. In order to achieve this, the agency provides sustainable solutions related to mobility, energy, waste management, water management, urban planning, biodiversity and social cohesion. Cynthia specializes in Urban Ecology. She studied Architecture at the National University of Mexico (UNAM) and she has been awarded with a PhD in Energy and Environment by the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. Currently, Cynthia coordinates projects of urban transformation based in a holistic vision, developing assessment methodologies and implementation strategies. Some of the most relevant projects carried out are: Sustainable Mobility Plan of Vitoria-Gasteiz, Green Corridors Network in Barcelona, Revitalization Plan for Historic Center of Quito, Urban Design Guidelines for Buenos Aires and Urban Liveability Index Assessment tool. She is also a Professor at the Architecture School of University La Salle in Barcelona, and frequent speaker at several national and international conferences.

Job Titles:

• Chief Technology Officer, GRNET, Athens, Greece.
• Position of Chief Technology Officer at the Greek Research

Dr. Afrodite Sevasti holds the position of Chief Technology Officer at the Greek Research and Technology Network (GRNET) S.A. where she is currently leading next-generation network and cloud activities. She has also worked for 20 years within GÉANT, the pan-European Research and Education Network, on SDN and automation/orchestration solutions. Prior to joining GRNET, she worked as an R&D Computer Engineer at the RA Computer Technology Institute (Greece). Dr. Afrodite graduated from the Computer Engineering and Informatics Department of Patras University, Greece, where she also received her PhD in the field of QoS enhancements on IP-based networks. She also holds an MSc degree in Information Networking from the Information Networking Institute of Carnegie Mellon University.

Job Titles:

• Secretary General, Independent Regulators Group, Brussels, Belgium

Delphine is the Secretariat General of the Independent Regulators Group (IRG) in Brussels, which was established in 1997 as a group of European National Telecommunications Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) to share experiences and points of views among its members on important issues relating to the regulation and development of the European telecommunications market. Delphine is a Brussels-based Senior expert with 16 years of experience in EU Public Affairs, Communications & Government relations with Project management and Business and Administration skills. Her specific areas of expertise are focused in various sectoral policies of the EU (Regional/Interregional cooperation, Agriculture, External Relations and Development, EU Industrial Policy, EU 2020, and in the Digital Sector for 14 years).

Job Titles:

• Director CNIT, Parma, Italy.
• Professor of Telecommunications at the University of Roma 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, Chair of the undergraduate and graduate programs in Telecommunications Engineering and Chair of the Department of Electronic Engineering. He is currently the Director of CNIT (National Inter-University Consortium for Telecommunications, http://www.cnit.it/), a non-profit Consortium among 37 Italian Universities. More than 1,300 people, belonging to the participating universities, collaborate with CNIT, while the number of employees is more than 100. In the EU H2020 program, CNIT has obtained 41 projects and coordinated 10 of them. Dr. Blefari-Melazzi has participated in about 30 EU projects, playing the role of project coordinator for six of them. He has been an elected member of the 5G Public Private Partnership association (https://5g-ppp.eu/), a 1.4 Billion Euro initiative established to create the next generation of communication networks. He served as TPC member, TPC Chair and General Chair for IEEE Conferences and guest editor for IEEE Journals. He is author/co-author of about 200 papers. His research interests lie in the performance evaluation, design and control of telecommunications networks.