She holds Master and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Technical University of Sofia (TUS); PhD degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Porto (FEUP), Portugal in 2003 and D.Sc. in Informatics from University of Aveiro, 2022.

She has held several visiting positions: A visiting faculty at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) – Silicon Valley in 2019 (Fall Semester), CMU-Pittsburgh in 2012 (Fall Semester), an invited professor at Rowan University, Glassboro, New Jersey, USA in 2016 (Spring Semester), an invited researcher at the School of Computing and Communications, University of Lancaster, UK in 2010.

Dr. Georgieva has given a number of invited talks – the plenary talk at the EPIA Conference on Artificial Intelligence (Faial, Portugal, 2023); the plenary talk at the IEEE Workshop on Communication Networks and Power Systems (WCNPS’23, Brazil); the plenary talk at the International Conference Automatics, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (ICARAI, 2023, Bulgaria); the keynote talk at the 9th EAI International Conference on Smart Objects and Technologies for Social Good (GOODTECHS, 2023, Portugal), the keynote speech at the 9th Balkan Conference in Informatics (Sofia, Bulgaria, 2019); the keynote speech at the 10th International Conference on Soft Computing and Pattern Recognition (Porto, Portugal, 2018).

Using VLC for indoor positioning is one of the most promising uses for this technology and is generally referred to as visible light positioning (VLP). Recently, VLP is an active area in research for 6G technology and it has great promise for real-life applications. This is largely due to the wide range of potential applications accelerated by leveraging, industry 4.0, the internet of things (IoT) and the demand for a more customised experience in indoor spaces. Additionally, the wide adoption of smartphones and wearable devices by the public meant that VLP can be provided to any user for localisation and guiding purposes. However, with the advances in VLP for indoor applications such UAVs, there are still many challenges to practical implement it at different system levels. This talk will cover the recent research in 3D VLP systems, particularly its advances and challenges.

Dr Ijaz has received his M.Sc. in Optoelectronic and Communication Engineering from Northumbria University at Newcastle upon Tyne, UK in 2009. He has also been awarded Northumbria University studentship to pursue his Ph.D. He was awarded his PhD degree in 2013 at the same Northumbria University, UK for his research work in Free-Space Optical (FSO) Communications. He also worked as Research Fellow in Visible Light Communication/LiFi at University of Edinburgh, UK between 2013-15.

Dr Ijaz is currently working as Reader (Associate Prof.) and International Lead at Department of Engineering, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. He is also head of Laser and Optics Communication (LOC) lab from 2017 at the department where he is leading applied research and has been working with a number of industries, technopreneurs, international collaborators and successfully leading knowledge transfer partnership projects funded by Innovate UK in the areas of optical wireless communications, embedded systems, IoT, cloud, communication networks 6G, digital signal processing and smart sensors design and secure more than £900K funding from 2020-2023. He has an exciting publication record (85 in total) with high quality journals mostly in Quartile 1, one book chapter, and high-quality conference papers, international collaboration, research presentations and awards.

Gustavo A. Siles (Senior Member, IEEE) was born in Cochabamba, Bolivia, in 1979. He received the B.S. degree in electronic engineering from the Universidad Mayor de San Simón, Cochabamba, in 2002, the master’s degree in optoelectronic, microwaves, and telecommunication systems from the Université de Montpellier 2, Montpellier, France, in 2006, and the Ph.D. degree in telecommunications systems and technologies from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), Madrid, Spain, in 2012.,From 2009 to 2015, he was a Research Assistant with the Department of Signal, Systems, and Radiocommunications, UPM. From 2015 to 2017, he was a Ground Segment Engineer and a Projects Coordinator with the Bolivian Space Agency, La Paz, Bolivia. He is currently a Research Professor with Universidad Privada Boliviana, Cochabamba, where he is the Director of the Radiocommunications Laboratory. He was involved in satellite propagation experiments with UPM using Ka-band (HB6 and Ka-Sat) and Q-band (Alphasat) beacons, as well as in propagation research initiatives funded by the Spanish Government, such as the TeraSense project, and by the European Space Agency. He has authored and coauthored technical articles in international peer-reviewed journals and international conference proceedings. His current research interests include wireless communication systems, radiowave propagation, and radiometeorology.

The Internet of Things and Ubiquitous Computing Research Lab (IoT-UC) is a new research group at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, focused on wireless communication and networking for IoT and cyber-physical systems. We investigate how commodity technologies like Wi-Fi, LoRa, and 5G can support advanced capabilities in sensing, localization, embedded intelligence, and real-time operation.

This talk presents current work led by the lab’s students and principal investigator, including overwater RF propagation, real-time communication, sensing, and direct-to-satellite IoT. We also explore emerging topics such as reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS), TinyML, and AI-driven coordination, while addressing challenges related to robustness and system integration.

IoT-UC research is conducted in close collaboration with leading IoT groups in Portugal, Italy, and France, including CISTER and INESC TEC, the University of Cagliari, and INRIA in Paris and Lyon. This talk highlights how IoT-UC contributes to global research in wireless IoT, and invites others to engage with our growing network of collaborative projects and experimental platforms.

This talk will explore some of the most significant challenges faced by wireless communication technologies when implementing the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm in water environments (e.g., coastal marine zones, lakes, and estuaries). It will provide an in-depth summary of recent findings related to overwater RF propagation for WiFi and LoRa technologies, with a particular emphasis on the detrimental effects of tides and intertidal zones on link quality. The presentation will cover both theoretical and experimental insights into channel modeling and characterization across various settings, showcasing results for emerging IoT use cases involving overwater sensor networks and wireless-networked autonomous vessels. Notably, the talk will share innovative methods designed to predict and mitigate signal degradation caused by water-related influences, while demonstrating potential improvements of up to 40 dB.

Miguel Gutiérrez Gaitán is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC Chile), where he leads the IoT-UC Research Lab. He holds a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Porto, an M.Sc. in Telecommunications Engineering from Politecnico di Torino, and a B.Sc. in Electronics Engineering from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso. His research focuses on wireless networks, real-time communication, and the Internet of Things (IoT), with emphasis on channel modeling, sensing, and network design in vehicular, industrial, and maritime environments. He has co-authored over 60 peer-reviewed publications in venues such as IEEE Sensors Journal, ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems, IEEE VTC, IEEE WF-IoT, and IEEE GLOBECOM. He has been a visiting researcher at INRIA Paris (2022) and INESC TEC, Portugal (2025). He has participated in over 10 research projects, including European projects and national grants from Chile, Portugal, and France. Miguel is a Senior Member of the IEEE, Chair of the IEEE ComSoc Chile Chapter, and currently serves on the IEEE ComSoc Latin America Board and the ComSoc Young Professionals Standing Committee. He is also an Associate Editor of IEEE Communications Letters.

Zabih Ghassemlooy (Senior Member, IEEE) received the B.Sc. degree (Hons.) from Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, U.K., in 1981, and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Manchester, Manchester, in 1984 and 1987, respectively.,From 1987 to 1988, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with City University, London, U.K. From 1988 to 2004, he was with Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, U.K., and in 2004, he joined Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K., where he was the Head of Photonics Technology Laboratory and Optical Communications Research Group and is currently an Emeritus Professor. He was a Research Fellow from 2016 to 2022 and the Distinguished Professor from 2015 to 2022 with the Chinese Academy of Science, Quanzhou, China. He has supervised 76 Ph.D.s, 12 Research Fellows, and with over 1000 publications (430 journals and 8 books). His research interest includes optical wireless communications, free space optics, visible light communications, and hybrid RF-OWC.,Dr. Ghassemlooy was the Vice Chair of EU Cost Actions IC1101 from 2011 to 2016 and CA19111 from 2020 to 2024. He was a IEEE Distinguished Lecturer from 2024 to 2025. He was Chief Editor of British Journal of Applied Science and Technology and International Journal of Optics and Applications, and an Associate Editor of a number of other journals (IEEE, IET). He has been the Vice Chair of OSA Technical Group (Optics in Digital Systems) since 2018. He is a Fellow of OPTICA and IET. He is a Chartered Engineer.

Prof. Stanislav Zvanovec received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from Czech Technical University (CTU) in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic, in 2002 and 2006, respectively. He is currently a Full Professor and the Deputy Head of the Department of Electromagnetic Field and leader of the Wireless and Fiber Optics team, CTU (http://optics.elmag.org/). He is the author of 2 books (including Visible Light Communications: Theory and Applications) and more than 350 journal articles and conference papers. He is the main leader of several national and international projects (project coordinator of new HORIZON-MSCA-DN Project «OWIN6G» Optical and Wireless Sensors Networks for 6G Scenarios) and WP3 chair of COST CA19111 project European Network on Future Generation Optical Wireless Communication Technologies (NEWFOCUS). His current research interests include free-space optics (FSO), visible light communications (VLC), optical camera-based communications (OCC) and fiber optical systems including RF over optics (RoF and RoFSO).