IMDEA Networks receives the visit of members of the Ministry for Digital Transformation

The Secretary General for Telecommunications and Management of Audiovisual Communication Services, the Chief of Cabinet, and the Deputy Director General for Planning and Management of the Radio Spectrum, among other senior officials, were present

09 February 2024

IMDEA Networks has received today the visit of prominent members of the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Civil Service. Present at our institute were the Secretary General of Telecommunications and Audiovisual Communication Services Matías González, the head of the Cabinet Juan Santaella, the Deputy Director General of Planning and Management of the Radio Spectrum, among other senior officials. Our management and research team explained to them the initiatives we are currently leading in the area of communication networks, as well as giving them a guided tour of our facilities.

In addition, they have pointed out the benefits of the UNICO program for their research, both the projects and the infrastructure, emphasizing that beyond the project itself, UNICO has been a great vehicle to build an environment, a team and equipment to pursue very ambitious research goals and move to the next level.

First of all, they were introduced to 5TONIC by its vice-president Carlos Jesús Bernardos. This laboratory aims to create an open global environment in which members of industry and academia can work together in the development of 5G/6G technologies. There they have been able to witness an integrated demonstration of digital twins, with integrated sensing and robotic control by 5G.

They then visited the LiFi lab, where, as explained by Javier Talavante and Dayrene Frómeta, research is carried out on visible light communications in free space. They have created prototypes of battery-free IoT devices that communicate only through light. A solar cell in these devices acts as both a power source and a receiver. They have developed several OpenVLC boards, an open source and open hardware initiative led by IMDEA Networks, for rapid prototyping in visible light communication. Based on this knowledge, the team has started the spin off LiFi4Food, where they apply these technologies to precision agriculture.

From there, they went to the millimeter-wave laboratory, where our research director Joerg Widmer explained some of the cutting-edge research carried out by this group. They cover different aspects of communications operating at very high millimeter frequencies, such as the design of hardware experimentation platforms with unprecedented capabilities.

The last lab they visited is IoT and Cybersecurity, whose research ranges from detecting the spread of personal data and unwanted programs in emerging consumer technologies such as smartphones, the Metaverse and IoT devices and applications for the smart home, to the detection of vulnerabilities in critical infrastructures or the fight against online fraud and misinformation.

Finally, our management team gave a brief presentation about IMDEA Networks and some of the achievements since our foundation.