IEEE Workshop on Network Automation, March 25th, 2024 (free virtual event) Network Disaggregation and Network Softwarization are revolutionizing the design, deployment, management, and operation of networks. The objective of Network Automation is to enable Service Providers to achieve "Zero Touch Provisioning" throughout the entire network, encompassing physical and virtual domains across Transport and Data Center Networks. The growing maturity of cloud technologies, coupled with the adoption of open-source software and DevOps/GitOps principles, is fostering an Open End-to-End Network Automation framework. Intent-based Networking is driving the demand for increased Network abstraction, while Network Slicing, particularly in the context of 5G, necessitates automation support at the granular level of Slices. Furthermore, Service Providers are harnessing Artificial Intelligence, including the latest advancements in Generative AI, to plan, deploy, configure, orchestrate, analyze, and assure mobile networks and services. This simultaneously enhances Network efficiency, reduces operating costs, and improves both service quality and customer experience. Underpinning these advancements, the IEEE Workshop on Network Automation is uniting leading experts from communication service providers, telco vendors, software service providers, open-source network automation projects, industry consortiums, and academia. They convene to discuss the latest technical innovations, opportunities, and challenges in Network Automation. Co-sponsored by IEEE Communications Society and IEEE Princeton Central Jersey Section, this single-day workshop offers a unique platform for Architects, Developers, Testers, Business Leaders, students, and researchers to gain insights into the evolving landscape of Network Automation technologies, deployment use cases, business models, and engage with industry experts. Please provide your name, affiliation, email address and contact information, so we can send out the zoom link! Co-sponsored by: Baltimore Section Communications Society Agenda: Time (US EST) | Speaker ----------------------------------------- 09:00 – 09:15 AM | Welcome Remarks, Workshop Chair 09:15 – 09:40 AM | COINS:Composable Orchestration of Infrastructure and Network Services, Oleg Berzin, Equinix 09:40 – 10:05 AM | How AI is shaping Telecom, Arvinder Anand, Ericsson 10:05 – 10:30 AM | Building increasingly autonomous networks: Learnings from Google and the Nephio Initiative, Ramesh Nagarajan, Google 10:30 – 10:55 AM | Cloud-native and AI-native Telco Operations, Rajarajan Sivaraj, Mavenir 10:55 – 11:10 AM | Coffee Break 11:10 – 11:35 AM | RAN Automation, Adam Loddeke, AT&T (Keynote) 11:35 – 12:00 PM | Transforming Network Management with Intelligent Automation, Ciaran Johnston, Ericsson 12:00 – 12:25 PM | Automation for 5G Core Networks, Bryan Monaghan, Red Hat 12:25 – 12:50 PM | Automating Cloud Infrastructure and Network Functions with Nephio, Amar Kapadia, Aarna Networks 12:50 – 01:50 PM | Lunch Break 01:50 – 02:15 PM | Clusters, Clusters, Everywhere, Adam Dorenter, Microsoft AON 02:15 – 02:40 PM | AI-Driven Slice Orchestration in 5G and Beyond Networks, Raouf Boutaba, Univ. of Waterloo 02:40 – 03:05 PM | Intent-based Services, Mehmet Toy, Verizon 03:05 – 03:35 PM | Intelligent Programmable 5G Network Automation on AWS, Vara Prasad Talari, AWS 03:35 – 03:50 PM | Coffee Break 03:50 – 04:15 PM | Striking a Balance: Automation for Agile Telco Operations, Padma Sudarsan, VMWare 04:15 - 04:40 PM | O-RAN Network Automation – Architecture and Open-Source Aspects, N.K. Shankaranarayanan, WINLAB 04:40 – 05:05 PM | Telco Cloud Native Automation – Challenges and Opportunities, Sana Tariq, TELUS 05:05 – 05:30 PM | Enabling optimized network operations with data models, open APIs and cloud-native architectures, Raghavan Subramanian, Fujitsu 05:30 – 05:55 PM | IEEE 5G/6G Innovation Testbed, Ashutosh Dutta, JHU/APL and Anwer Al-Dulaimi, Veltris 05:55 – 06:05 PM | Closing Remarks Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/408934

The ECE Students from UMU will be participating in a technical visit to Foxconn. Below is a copy of the email sent by a representative from Foxconn to promote the visit. We are presently building electric tractors for a company named Monarch. We are also in negotiations with several manufacturers regarding new business opportunities. These are all related to Electric Vehicle manufacturing. Some of these products are ride share vehicles. Others are midsize and full-size delivery vehicles. In our body shop, we build the entire cab of the vehicle from steel and aluminum parts. We place the parts in custom designed mechanical fixtures. We use welding robots to automatically weld the parts together. Then material handling robots pick up the new assembly and move it to the next automation station. The next station may automatically dispense adhesive or sealer under robot control. Then more parts may be added, and more welding takes place. All the robotic welding and sealing is coordinated by Allen Bradley PLCs that communicate to the robots, weld controllers and sealant systems. We need: - Mechanical engineers to design and analyze fixture details and subassembly dimensions. - Controls engineers to write and adjust PLC programs to control the automation. - Electrical engineers to design and maintain the control circuits and safety systems. - Computer Engineers to design, program and maintain the vision systems, data collection equipment and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES). - Industrial engineers to design, analyze and improve the production processes. Co-sponsored by: University of Mount Union, School of Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering 2300 Hallock Young Road, Lordstown, Ohio, United States, 44481

The term “Artificial Intelligence” was coined by John McCarthy in 1956 to attract more attention to the planned Computer Science Conference at Dartmouth. Ever since, the society expected someday machines will do the manual labor and thinking for us and we will live in a society of leisure surrounded by unlimited number of “Machine-Servants.” Even after 68 years, we have not realized that Utopian Society. We may be closer than ever, but we are not there, and may never be. If we examine the history of science and technology, we will realize mere invention of a technology will not automatically improve the society. Machines that can do what we do must be invented before the promise of the inventions could be fully realized. Invention of steam engine did not automatically benefit farmers until machines like tractor and harvester were developed. Invention of electricity didn’t automatically impact society until the lightbulb, motors, etc. were developed. Recent developments in Generative AI and the possibility of developing Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) has led to wild speculations on the future of society. In this talk I will discuss the concept of Knowledge Advantage and how it could be exploited by Knowledge Workers using Personal Knowledge Advantage Machines that are within reach. Speaker(s): Ramana Reddy, Room: G102, Bldg: Engineering Sciences Building, 1306 Evansdale Drive, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States, 26506, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/410295