An opportunity to learn about the SYSTRON Lab’s innovative work across a variety of systems and interoperability topics, yesterday we hosted a Research and Demo Day. The event brought together researchers and collaborators from our lab and other leading institutions to showcase the cutting-edge work being done in the fields of 6G networks, protocols, privacy and security.
Morning Session
The day began with a focus on two of the most critical challenges in modern technology: data control and network security.
Vijon Baraku (University of York & SEERC) gave a talk entitled “Data Sovereignty in the Digital Society: A Framework for Empowering Data Generators.” His work on data sovereignty tackles the crucial question of who controls our data, proposing a system that puts power back into the hands of the users who generate it.
Dr Kangfeng Ye (University of York) then took the audience into the complex world of “Formal Verification of Physical Layer Security Protocols for Next-Generation Communication Networks.” His talk detailed rigorous formal methods to prove that our future communication channels, from 6G to IoT, are fundamentally secure at their most basic level.
Dr. Ahsan Raza Khan (University of York) presented a “Secure-Large Wireless Model for Physical Layer Wireless Communication”, a novel approach using AI models to enhance security and efficiency in physical layer wireless communications.
Rehab Alawadh (University of York) demonstrated the power of “Dynamic Graph Neural Networks for Real-Time Failure Recovery in IIoT Networks,” a system that can intelligently and automatically heal industrial networks in response to different types of link failures.
Afternoon Session
The afternoon sessions broadened the scope, featuring esteemed guests from CHEDDAR Hub partners at the Universities of Oxford and Cranfield, highlighting the SYSTRON Lab’s collaborative spirit.
Joshua Levett (University of York) showcased his work on “Automated Routing Emulation at Internet Scale with Kubernetes,” a powerful platform for testing how network routing protocols will behave on the real-world internet.
Dr Steven Dai (University of York) explored the fascinating concept of a “Digital Twin for AI-enabled Safety-Critical Cyber-Physical Systems,” creating virtual replicas of real-world systems to safely test and validate AI controls in critical infrastructure.
Dr Yun Tang (Cranfield University) looked towards the horizon with a talk on “End-to-end Edge AI Service Designing and Provisioning in 6G,” outlining a vision for how the ultra-fast, low-latency networks of the future will deliver seamless AI services right where they are needed.
Dr Peng Qian (University of Oxford) introduced “Planter”, a groundbreaking tool for the “Rapid Prototyping of In-Network Machine Learning Inference.” This allows network devices themselves, like routers and switches, to run ML models, paving the way for truly intelligent and responsive networks.
Lab Demos
The “Demo Day” truly came to life during the afternoon’s demo sessions. Attendees had the chance to move beyond presentations and see the outcomes of our research in action.
Mohit Bidikar (University of York) presented the O-RAN Testbed, a platform for developing and testing the open and intelligent radio access networks that will form the backbone of 5G and 6G.
Anthony Moulds (University of York) demonstrated the Thread Testbed, a setup for experimenting with the low-power mesh networking protocol crucial for the Internet of Things (IoT).
Dr Kangfeng Ye presented an accessible and intuitive demo on “User-Guided Accessible Verification of Security Protocols via Sound Animation,” a tool that helps even non-experts understand and validate complex security systems.
Vijon Baraku gave a live demonstration of his Data Sovereignty framework, showing how users could manage and control their data in a practical setting.
Conclusions
As the day drew to a close, Dr Poonam Yadav delivered her concluding remarks, summarising the incredible breadth of research presented, and sharing her thoughts on her recent attendance at the IETF and 3GPP.