Our Collaboration
CONVENING INDUSTRY, ACADEMIA, AND GOVERNMENT TO SPEED 5G INNOVATIONS TO MARKET
Open Generation advances the entire 5G ecosystem by realizing capabilities that are greater and more impactful than what any member could accomplish independently. Our members multiply the ROI on their R&D by collaborating with a diverse cross-section of tech leaders, vertical pioneers, academic researchers, and industry associations.
Open Generation Management Committee
Ajit Kahaduwe
Managing Director of Incubation and New Product Development, MITRE Engenuity
As the managing director of incubation and new product development, Ajit Kahaduwe leads the team responsible for discovering MITRE ideas which are scalable for the public good with private industry. His team members evaluate market opportunities based on financial and social return criteria and develop ideas using lean startup methodology.
Kahaduwe has extensive global experience working with cellular and public safety systems from planning, deployment, optimization, standardization with a strong focus on regulatory and public requirements in E-911, Public Warning System, and the pre-cursor recommendations for FirstNet. Additionally, he led software development and innovation incubation teams in big data and analytics, cloud services, network health, drones, and location technologies.
After a global career at Nokia and Motorola in addition to a network equipment startup, Kahaduwe joined MITRE in 2021. Prior to joining, he was a senior product management executive at a global SaaS web collaboration and unified communications as a services provider. He is also a Scrum Alliance certified scrum product owner and hold patents in location and security technology.
Kahaduwe holds a BS in electrical engineering with minors in economics and international affairs from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Leila Ribeiro
Technology Director, MITRE Engenuity Open Generation,
Prior to joining the Open Generation efforts Leila was MITRE’s Chief Engineer for the Aviation Concepts and Research division, which included Communications, Navigation, Surveillance and Spectrum aspects related to the civil aviation.
Leila is an experienced wireless communications engineer with a history of solving complex technical problems both for industry and government. As part of her work at MITRE, Leila has led several activities on multi-disciplinary concepts related to wireless networks design and optimization, spectrum engineering, satellite communications, aviation communications, navigation and surveillance systems, unmanned aircraft systems, and vehicular systems. With a solid understanding of U.S. spectrum policy and spectrum management, Leila has also served as a trusted advisor on some of the key questions currently being addressed by government on spectrum management.
Prior to joining MITRE in 2009, Leila worked as Director of Systems Engineering at CelPlan Technologies, where she developed solutions for design and optimization of wireless networks. She has also served as an adjunct professor in Satellite Communications at George Mason University, and co-founded a non-profit organization to help promote cultural diversity and inclusion of the Brazilian culture.
Thierry Klein
President, Bell Labs Solutions Research, Nokia Bell Labs
Thierry E. Klein is the President of Bell Labs Solutions Research at Nokia Bell Labs. His global multi-disciplinary team conducts fundamental and applied research focused on new Nokia value chains, business opportunities and ecosystems. Bell Labs Solutions Research pursues research and innovation into advanced technologies, architectures, systems and applications beyond Nokia’s current product and solutions portfolio, including research into advanced sensing technologies, AI-based knowledge systems and fundamental algorithms, autonomous software and data systems, and integrated solutions and experiences.
Prior to his appointment as President of Bell Labs Solutions Research, Thierry was the Head of the Integrated Solutions and Experiences Research Lab at Nokia Bell Labs, leading a global research team dedicated to applied research, innovation and advanced technologies with the mission to design, develop and prototype massively disruptive solutions, systems and experiences for the next human-industrial revolution. The research domains span new wearable devices, cloud robotics and drones, image and data analytics, industrial process optimization and automation enabled by 5G networking and edge computing technologies.
Previously, he was the Head of Innovation Management for Vertical Industries with a focus on the transportation, automotive and connected industries sectors. He also served as the Founding Vice-Chair of the Board of the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA), a cross-industry association bringing together the telecommunications and automotive industries that he helped found and launch in September 2016. He was also the Program Leader for the Network Energy Research Program at Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent with the mission to conduct research towards the design, development and use of sustainable future communications and data networks. He served as the Chairman of the Technical Committee of GreenTouch, a global consortium dedicated to improve energy efficiency in networks by a factor 1000x compared to 2010 levels.
He joined Bell Labs Research in Murray Hill, New Jersey in 2001 and his initial research was focused on next-generation wireless and wireline networks, network architectures, algorithms and protocols, network management, optimization and control. From 2006 to 2010 he served as the Founder and CTO of an internal start-up focused on wireless communications for emergency response and disaster recovery situations within Alcatel-Lucent Ventures.
Thierry earned an MS in Mechanical Engineering and an MS in Electrical Engineering from the Université de Nantes and the Ecole Centrale de Nantes in Nantes, France. He received a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. He is an author on over 35 peer-reviewed conference and journal publications and an inventor on 36 patent applications. He is the recipient of a Bell Labs’ President Award and two Bell Labs Teamwork Awards. In 2010, he was voted “Technologist of the Year” at the Total Telecom World Vendor Awards and received the 2016 Industrial Innovation Award from the IEEE Communications Society.
Thierry has dual US and Luxembourg citizenship and speaks four languages. He lives in Fanwood, New Jersey with his wife and son.
Paul Challoner
VP Network Product Solutions, Ericsson
Paul Challoner, vice president, Network Product Solutions for Ericsson North America, based in Plano, Texas is responsible for radio products including 4G, 5G, IoT & Open RAN. Prior to his current role, Challoner worked as Head of Product Line Wi-Fi and Head of Ericsson’s CDMA Product Line.
Challoner currently serves as Vice Chair, Board of directors of the CBRS Alliance, Large Company representative, for the Board Wireless Innovation Forum and on the Board of Governors for 5G Americas. He joined Ericsson in 2010 from Nortel where he held executive roles leading the GSM product line, Intelligent Networks and Broadband Wireless businesses. He has global experience working in the US, Canada, France, India and the UK. With 25 years in the telecom industry he possesses extensive industry experience and has innovated bringing numerous radio products to market specializing in the field of wireless communication.
Challoner holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from Brunel University, London, UK.
Stefano Faccin
Director, Technical Standards, Qualcomm Technologies Inc.
Stefano has 26 years of experience in standardization and R&D for cellular networks and Wi-Fi, having been active in 3GPP, IETF, IEEE, WFA, and WBA where he has been chairing several activities (with 20 years of presence in 3GPP SA2). Stefano is active in 3GPP standardization for system architecture and verticals enablement, and is the rapporteur for the UAVs related work in 3GPP SA2. In the 3GPP system architecture, Stefano is also working on network slicing, non-3GPP access integration, satellite network architecture, edge computing, and WWC broadband fixed integration. Stefano is also involved in ATIS, FAA, GUTMA, ASTM, and FCC activities related to UAVs. Stefano has previous experience in Telecom Italia, Nokia, Intel, Marvell, and BlackBerry.
Tom Sawanobori
Senior Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, CTIA
Tom Sawanobori is CTIA’s Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. He is responsible for technology evolution to 5G and beyond, spectrum planning, network evolution, cybersecurity, and device certification to benefit CTIA’s members and to serve as a technical resource to policymakers. He has 22 years of technology planning, network engineering and operational experience for a large, national operator.
He served on the FCC Communications Security Reliability Interoperability Council (CSRIC) and the FCC Technical Advisory Council (TAC).
Prior to CTIA, Tom was Vice President of Network Planning at Verizon, where he was responsible for technology planning and capital budget management. He led the technology evolution of the network from 2G/3G/4G including spectrum planning, 4G LTE technology rollout, and core network evolution. In addition to his career at Verizon, Mr. Sawanobori worked at Hughes Electronics on Navy Communications and Combat Systems. He served 20 years in the Navy including submarine warfare and Naval planning roles before retiring as a Commander.
Mr. Sawanobori holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Duke University and a Master of Engineering from California State University-Fullerton.
Daniel Jakubisin
Research Assistant Professor, Virginia Tech
Daniel Jakubisin is a Research Assistant Professor with the Virginia Tech National Security Institute and with the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech, by courtesy. His research is directed towards advancing the security and resiliency of wireless communication systems. Prior to joining Virginia Tech, he was a technical advisor supporting IP/patent matters in the telecommunications sector. He received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees from Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA and his B.S. degree from UNC Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA.
Amresh Singh
Director, Business Partnerships Networks Division, Samsung Electronics America, Inc.
Amresh Singh is the Director of Business Partnerships for Samsung Electronics America, where he is responsible for fostering effective and impactful partnerships with companies in order to address strategic goals forSamsung’s North American Networks division. Amresh, joined Samsung in 2019, has more than 15 years of strategy, technical marketing, product management, and engineering experience in the wireless industry. Prior to Samsung, Amresh worked for Intel managing global service provider technical marketing team. He also worked asa Director of Intel infrastructure strategy group. Amresh also worked for different business development and technical roles at Apple and Qualcomm. For Apple he worked on wireless system design and helped in commercialization of Apple products. For Qualcomm he worked as a Technical Account Manager leading commercialization of smartphone products based on Qualcomm solution across EMEA region. Amresh holds an MBA from Warwick Business School, United Kingdom and Bachelor’s in Computer Science from National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, India.
Renu Chaudhry
Chief Strategy Officer, OST
Renu Chaudhry is the Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) for OST. She leads the Center of Engineering and Innovation (CoEI) where OST researches, experiments and deploys emerging technologies to bring operational efficiency and increased situational awareness to current and potential customers. Throughout her career, Renu has focused on fusing mission-centric innovations into operational systems for the DoD, NASA, IRS and FEMA. Her recent endeavors include experimenting and integrating 5G, IoT, AR/VR and AI/ML technologies to test their operations viability at the Virginia Smart City testbed in Stafford County, Smart Airport FAA Test Lab in Atlantic City, FEMA National Flood Insurance Program and Airforce Base in OH.
Open Generation Members
Open Generation members are titans of industry, foremost researchers in academia, and disruptive startups making the unbelievable achievable. All our members contribute to make generational impact.
Core Members
Founding Member
Founding Member
Founding Member
Case Members
Associate Members
Affiliates
WAYS TO PARTICIPATE
Revolutionary advances in 5G technology can only be realized with collaboration among industry visionaries. Open Generation provides an unrivaled opportunity for organizations of any size to advance the commercialization of next-generation services that dramatically improve the safety, convenience, and accessibility of humans.
Core Members
Industry-leading enterprises steer the overall 5G ecosystem by contributing their expertise and technical focus on advanced network technologies, edge computing, cloud environments, and IoT.
Case Members
Pioneering organizations evolve their operations and drive the market by striving to realize end-to-end solutions that require advanced network technologies.
Associate Members
Disruptive startups, leading academic institutions, non-profits, and industry associations bring diversity and nimble innovation to evolving 5G technologies and standards.
Affiliates
Government organizations and key associations enable market acceleration in the public interest by actively contributing to working groups, projects, and challenges.
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BECOME A 5G COLLABORATOR
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