Beyond Shannon and Moore: Rebuilding the Theoretical Foundations of Communications and Computing
Title: Beyond Shannon and Moore: Rebuilding the Theoretical Foundations of Communications and Computing
Date: 15th Oct 2026 (Thursday)
Time: 0930 – 1130 am
Venue: EEE Executive Seminar Rm (S2.2-B2-53)
Abstract:
For almost a century, communications and computing have been built upon a remarkably small set of intellectual foundations: Nyquist sampling, Shannon information theory, the von Neumann architecture, Moore's law, and classical linear signal processing. These principles enabled the digital revolution, but many of the assumptions behind them are increasingly challenged by the requirements of AI, 6G, massive sensing systems, extreme mobility, new electromagnetic architectures, and the physical limits of computation. This talk asks a fundamental question: do we need new theories, rather than simply better implementations of existing ones? I will discuss several directions in which classical abstractions need to be revisited, including electromagnetic information theory, nonlinear signal processing, super-resolution, semantic communications, multi-agent learning, information theory for non-equilibrium systems, non-coherent communications, integrated sensing and communication, and the thermodynamics of computation and communication. These directions reflect a broader transition from optimizing only transmitters and receivers toward optimizing intelligent environments, exploiting memory and data, incorporating physical phenomena directly into communication models, and learning rather than compensating for the imperfections of the physical world. The central message is that the next generation of communications and computing may require something deeper than another waveform, architecture, or neural network: it may require us to rethink some of the theories on which the field has been built.
Speaker: Prof. Merouane Debbah, Senior Director, Digital Future Institute, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi
Bio: Merouane Debbah is a researcher, educator and technology entrepreneur. Over his career, he has founded several public and industrial research centers, start-ups and is now Professor at Khalifa University of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi and founding Senior Director of KU Digital Future Institute. He is a frequent keynote speaker at international events in the field of telecommunication and AI. His research has been lying at the interface of fundamental mathematics, algorithms, statistics, information and communication sciences with a special focus on random matrix theory and learning algorithms. In the Communication field, he has been at the heart of the development of small cells (4G), Massive MIMO (5G) and Large Intelligent Surfaces (6G) technologies. In the AI field, he is known for his work on Large Language Models, distributed AI systems for networks and semantic communications. He received multiple prestigious distinctions, prizes and best paper awards (more than 50 IEEE best paper awards) for his contributions to both fields and according to research.com is ranked as the best scientist in France in the field of Electronics and Electrical Engineering. He is an IEEE Fellow, a WWRF Fellow, a Eurasip Fellow, an AAIA Fellow, an Institut Louis Bachelier Fellow, an AIIA Fellow and a Membre émérite SEE. More recently, his work has focused on the convergence of generative AI and telecommunications. He has contributed to the development of domain-specific foundation models for networks, including TelecomGPT, a family of large language models designed to understand and reason about telecommunications problems. His research also explores agentic AI and multi-agent systems for autonomous networks, RF foundation models, Large Perceptive Models, telecom world models, semantic communications, and the use of generative AI for sensing, network operation, optimization, and reasoning over the physical world. He is actually chair of the IEEE Large Generative AI Models in Telecom (GenAINet) Emerging Technology Initiative and a member of the Marconi Prize Selection Advisory Committee.
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- EEE Executive Seminar Rm (S2.2-B2-53)
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