Andrea Zanella took part in the J.T. Schwartz International School for Scientific Research in Lipari, dedicated this year to “Cutting-Edge Research Topics in Networking in the Era of AI Pervasiveness.”
Invited by Prof. Giuseppe Bianchi and Prof. Sergio Palazzo, he delivered a keynote entitled “Goal-Oriented Communications: from formal models to applied algorithms.”
The topic is central to MAGIC-6G, the European project coordinated by Zanella at the University of Padua.
During the session, he explained how Goal-Oriented Communication moves beyond traditional bit-accurate transmission by focusing on the effectiveness of information for a specific task.
This approach jointly optimises communication and control, identifying what information matters, when it should be transmitted and how it can improve system performance.
The keynote also addressed theoretical challenges, analytical tools based on POMDPs and game theory, and practical Deep Reinforcement Learning solutions such as VQ-VAE, LIBRA and HR3L.
Particular attention was given to cybersecurity risks, including side-channel attacks based on inter-packet timing and targeted jamming.
The event offered the opportunity to exchange ideas with leading researchers, including Tony Ephremides, Ian Akyildiz and Osvaldo Simeone, as well as around 50 PhD students from institutions worldwide.
