Dr. Daniel Kofman, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at RAD Data Communications, will address the third Celtic Event, to be held February 27-28 in Helsinki, Finland. Dedicated to the theme of "Telecommunications and Next Generation Internet," a total of 250 participants from 20 countries are expected to attend.
A world-renowned expert in new networking technologies and telecommunications systems, Prof. Kofman holds a doctorate with highest honors from ENST, the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications in Paris, where he taught and conducted research for thirteen years. Apart from serving as a full professor, he also has headed ENST's Networks, Mobility and Security Research Group. In addition, Dr. Kofman is the scientific coordinator and chairman of the steering board of the European Network of Excellence Euro-NGI, composed of 59 partners from the academy and industry in eighteen countries.
"The fixed and mobile convergence that we see today is just a first step towards a world in which components offered by different service providers will be dynamically associated to create personalized services," Dr. Kofman explains. "The future promises an even greater expansion of heterogeneous network presence as more and more objects begin to communicate with each other in the public space," he predicts. "Every electronic gadget in the environment will have a radio link in order to provide identification and location information, transmit sensor data and receive control signals – an Internet of objects will have been born."
Since its launch five years ago, Celtic has produced a number of successful projects that provide end-to-end solutions for future networks. Within the €1 billion program, 45 projects have been started since 2003, and 26 more are expected to be launched in 2008. Currently, there are about 350 companies from 25 countries involved in Celtic projects, about one third of them small and medium-sized enterprises.
Celtic is a EUREKA cluster program that initiates and runs privately and publicly funded R&D projects in the field of telecommunications. The initiative is supported by most of the major European players in communication technologies. Celtic projects focus on telecoms networks, applications, and services based on a complete-system approach. Celtic is the only European R&D program fully dedicated to complete system-integrated telecommunications solutions. The size of the Celtic budget is in the range of €1 billion. Celtic is open to any kind of project participation from all EUREKA countries. So far, 29 countries are participating in Celtic, which is operated and supported by the following major players in telecommunications: Alcatel Lucent, BT, Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, Eurescom, France Telecom, Italtel, Nokia Siemens Networks, RAD Data Communications, Telefónica, Telenor, and Thomson.
Celtic Web site: www.celtic-initiative.org
EUREKA is a pan-European network for market-oriented, industrial R&D. EUREKA supports the competitiveness of European companies through international collaboration to create partnerships and networks of innovation. The objective is to bring high quality research and development efforts to the marketplace and encourage the multiplying effects of cooperation. The aim is to advance and improve the quality of life.
EUREKA Web site: www.eureka.be
