Since 2019, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) have attracted a lot of interests from both academia and industry. In this talk, Professor Jie Zhang will first introduce their  pioneering work on Smart Radio Environments (SREs) back to 2012 in a 2.2 million Euros  research project titled “Wireless Friendly Energy Efficient Buildings (WiFEEB)” in which  frequency selective surfaces, intelligent walls and reconfigurable intelligent structures  were studied, laying early foundations for today’s RIS-based paradigms.

Building on this, the talk will introduce a theoretical Building Wireless Performance (BWP) evaluation framework, developed to systematically quantify how “wireless-friendly” a building layout is. Given a building design or floorplan, the framework enables objective assessment of its inherent wireless performance, bridging architectural design and wireless system optimisation.

The talk will conclude with an overview of ongoing work and a reflection on the long-term  realisation of the vision of Wireless Friendly Energy-Efficient Buildings, which he first articulated in 2010.

About Jie Zhang

Professor Jie Zhang is the Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Ranplan Wireless, a publicly listed company on Nasdaq First North, and Cambridge AI+ Ltd, both based in Cambridge, U.K. He has held senior academic positions—at Chair or Full Professor level—as well as visiting appointments at the University of Bedfordshire, the University of Sheffield, and the University of Cambridge. Ranplan Wireless develops Ranplan Professional, one of the world’s leading digital twin platforms for wireless environments, integrating detailed outdoor and indoor environment modelling, advanced radio channel simulation, and comprehensive wireless system design. Ranplan Professional is particularly well-suited for both academic and industrial research into 6G technologies and is trusted by hundreds of industrial and academic clients, including all of the top five telecom equipment vendors, the world’s largest mobile network operators, and numerous leading universities and research institutions.

Professor Zhang has been a pioneer in small-cell and heterogeneous networks since 2006, and has led ground-breaking research on smart radio environments and building wireless performance since 2010. Since 2021, he has also developed an information-abstraction theoretical framework, with broad applications in neural network design, neuromorphic computing, and semantic communications. His research has attracted over 12,500 citations on Google Scholar, with an H-index of 50.

This event will be conducted in English