WiCI Webinar: Experiences on the Integration of Computing and Communications in the Rural Areas
![Wang, Jie [E CPE]'s profile photo](http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a-/ALV-UjWEHWMGRo79Vh72_httmG7NtqkoYhLHAmCsGgRLRAiEtNS0eA=s40-c)
Wang, Jie [E CPE]
WiCI Webinar
Experiences on the Integration of Computing and Communications in the Rural Areas
|
Dr. Stefano Giordano |
Date: Wednesday, August 6, 2025
Time: 10:00 AM CT / 08:00 AM PT
Abstract
A true shift towards the Society 5.0 paradigm requires even engineers recognize not only the importance of digital transformation but also the equally critical role of the green transition. Environmental and social sustainability must be prioritized over purely technical or economic performance.
This webinar will highlight the research activities of the Telecommunications Networks Research Group at the University of Pisa, emphasizing how they align with this vision. Technologies such as 5G and other advanced innovations often fail not due to technical limitations, but because their real-world applications are not clearly demonstrated or understood.
In this context, the RESTART programme “Telecommunications of the Future” has strongly encouraged the Italian research community to bridge the gap between actual societal needs and the deployment of smart technologies. Among the 32 projects funded, the Watchedge Project stands out as a focused initiative aimed at addressing the excessive presence of wild animals in rural areas of Tuscany. These animals have caused significant damage to high-value crops (e.g., vineyards), increased road and railway accidents, contributed to the spread of diseases (such as African swine fever), and created imbalances in the local ecosystem. The project focuses on two main goals:
a) Enhancing situational awareness through smart surveillance in rural areas
b) Validating technological “repulsion” solutions aimed at managing wildlife presence.
The core concept involves the deployment of smart islands equipped with radar, fixed and drone-mounted cameras, and embedded AI capabilities. These islands form part of a cloud continuum architecture, integrating edge computing (including a private 5G “network-in-a-box”), far-edge gateways, and extreme-edge AI-enabled cameras. The objective is to enable real-time animal detection directly at the extreme edge of the network.
To support this, the project is developing a robust and balanced image dataset, evaluating the performance of multiple neural networks, and implementing them in hardware-accelerated prototype cameras. The network infrastructure includes LEO satellites for backhauling, sub-6 GHz point-to-point links for midhauling, and IEEE 802.11ah HaLow technology for fronthauling. All gateways and cameras are battery-powered and operate autonomously through solar energy harvesting.
The aim of this talk is to demonstrate how addressing real-world problems through practical field trials can generate insights that are unattainable through theoretical analysis alone, while simultaneously collecting new data on actual processing and communication functionalities. These insights and data will serve as a foundation for the future orchestration of computing, storage & communications resources.
Biography
Professor Stefano Giordano received the master's degree in electronics engineering and the Ph.D. degree in information engineering from the Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy, in 1990 and 1994, respectively. He is currently Full Professor with the Department of Information Engineering, University of Pisa, where he is responsible for the telecommunication networks laboratories. He is president of the Master Degree in "Computer Science and Networking” at Univ. of Pisa that produced a new proposal for a Master on "High Performance Computing and Infrastructures". His research interests are telecommunication networks analysis and design, simulation of communication networks, and multimedia communications. He was the Chair of the Communication Systems Integration and Modeling Technical Committee and at present of the Tactile Internet Technical Committee of IEEE Comsoc. He was one of the referees of the European Union, the National Science Foundation, and the Italian Ministry of Economic Development. He was an Associate Editor of IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials and of the International Journal on Communication Systems and the Journal of Communication Software and Systems technically cosponsored by the IEEE Communication Society. He is at present Chair of the Italian Chapter of IEEE Comsoc and of the Italian Chapter of the Internet Society. Over the past years, he has developed extensive experience in remote monitoring within agriculture, focusing on the application of Wireless Sensor Networks in rural and forestry contexts. He has worked on innovative projects, including the development of applications for animal repelling devices in smart agriculture, remote control of hydroponic greenhouses through wearable devices, and improving the reliability of rural networks using Software-Defined Wide Area Networks. Additionally, he has contributed to the experimental evaluation of a LoRa network for wildlife monitoring in forested areas and the creation of IoT solutions for crop protection against wildlife attacks. He is at present President of the board of the CUBITLAB consortium working on IoT and Cyberphysical Systems. He is member of the Educational Services Board of IEEE Comsoc where he is leading the pre-University STEM activities.
The Center for Wireless, Communities and Innovation (WiCI) at Iowa State University focuses on advancing the frontiers of mission-critical wireless at the far edge, as well as the platform and practice of research, education, innovation, and community empowerment.
The WiCI seminar series offers an open forum for interdisciplinary dialogues on the technical, social, economic, and policy dimensions of far-edge wireless innovation. If you are interested in sharing your insight through a WiCI seminar or if you have any questions/suggestions on the seminar series, please feel free to contact us at wic...@iastate.edu .