Vincenzo Sciancalepore, NEC Laboratories Europe GmbH, Germany,Talk: Rethinking wireless network design for 6G Abstract: Information communication, computation and storage technologies are jointly reshaping the way we leverage on technology. This leads to a wide range of big data and artificial intelligence applications while paving the road to a full customized autonomous user experience. The recent standardized 5G industry is intensively working today on designing, prototyping and testing fundamental technological advances to deliver the promised performance in terms of latency, energy efficiency, wireless broadband capacity, elasticity, etc. Nevertheless, looking at the ever-increasing requests for new services and predicting the development of new technologies within a decade from now, it is already possible to envision the need to move beyond 5G so as to design a new architecture incorporating new key-technologies to satisfy upcoming needs at both individual and societal levels. It is mandatory to fully understand the key enabling technologies that will enable 6G networks to meet its challenging performance targets and how the Cloud will play an additional operational role in future wireless networks. Therefore, there is an impelling need to move to a sixth generation (6G) of mobile communication networks, starting from a gap analysis of 5G, and predicting a new synthesis of near-future services, like holographic communications, high precision manufacturing, a pervasive introduction of artificial intelligence and the incorporation of new technologies, like sub-THz or Visible Light Communications (VLC), in a truly 3-dimensional (3D) coverage framework, incorporating terrestrial and aerial radio access points to bring cloud functionalities where and when needed on demand. All will be encompassed in a full picture by showing the extraordinary opportunities that goal-oriented wireless semantic communications and Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) will offer to 6G systems as core-technologies to control the Smart Radio Environment while achieving unprecedented KPIs. Dinesh Bharadia, University of California San Diego, CA, USA Talk: Breaking the curse of MIMO throughput scalability with Smart Surfaces. Abstract: In the last decade, MIMO spatial multiplexing has promised to increase data throughput by orders of magnitude. However, we are yet to enjoy such improvement in real-world environments, as achieving the capacity of the MIMO channels requires rich scattering and therefore often precludes effective MIMO spatial multiplexing. Furthermore, the gains are limited by scattering of the environment rather than MIMO antennas. In this talk, I would present ScatterMIMO, which uses smart surface to increase the scattering in the environment, to provide MIMO spatial multiplexing gain. Specifically, the smart surface pairs up with a wireless transmitter device say an active AP, and re-radiates the same amount of power as any active access point (AP), thereby creating virtual passive APs. ScatterMIMO allows the smart surface to provide spatial multiplexing gain, which can be deployed at a very low cost. Furthermore, ScatterMIMO can provide signals to their clients with power comparable to real active APs, and can increase the coverage of an AP. Furthermore, we design algorithms to optimize ScatterMIMO’s smart surface for each client with minimal measurement overhead, supporting the high mobility of the clients. Fan Yang, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China Talk: Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface for Future Wireless Communications: Physical Realization and System Demonstration. Abstract: Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) exhibit great potential for future wireless communications. This talk will first present the designs and prototypes of various RISs. Their scattering performance and power consumptions will be discussed in details. Next, representative testing results will be reported where the RISs are incorporated between base stations (BS) and user equipment (UE). It is expected this talk will support the deployment of RIS in future wireless communication systems. Yifei Yuan, China Mobile Research Institute, Beijing, ChinaTalk: Opportunities and challenges of RIS for future generation mobile networks Abstract: Great opportunities of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS) lie in its potential of improving the radio propagation environment in such a profound way that traditional technologies would not be capable of. In this sense, RIS does not only function like low power nodes, but also can be considered as part of the infrastructures widely deployed. However, RIS faces many challenges, as more practical factors and constraints are taken into account. Comprehensive channel models of RIS are still scanty. The lackluster of relay technology in practical networks, a sort of predecessor of RIS, makes wireless industry be very cautious about the cost, the complexity, or even the use cases of RIS. Channel estimation and control mechanisms at physical layers need to be efficient and feasible in real operations. RIS devices should be manufactured at affordable costs, be able to withstand harsh weather, and maintain the desirable electric properties over many years, especially if deployed outdoor.