13th TMA PhD School

Data-Driven Intelligence for Secure, Scalable,
and Reliable Networks

Following the success of the previous editions, the 13th TMA PhD School will take place on June 10 and 11 2025 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The school will include 4 tutorials, by 5 distinct lecturers, over a 2-days program. Lectures are accompanied by related practical lab sessions, where students have the opportunity to put into practice learned notions.

The 13th TMA PhD School will follow a tried and tested format, in which four topics are covered by field-renowned experts both from academia and industry. The topics will be introduced through tutorial-style lectures combined with hands-on lab work. Our topic for 2025 is Data-Driven Intelligence for Secure, Scalable, and Reliable Networks. To cover this topic, the programme will cover state-of-the-art methods and tools to
extract knowledge from networks and communication systems, ultimately making them more secure, scalable, and reliable.

The PhD school program will include social activities on both days, where students, lecturers and attendees of the main TMA conference will have the opportunity to interact informally. A social dinner would be organized.

PhD School Speakers

The list of speakers for the 13th TMA PhD school includes:

Jim Kurose is a Distinguished University Professor in the College of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His research interests include computer network architecture and protocols, network measurement, sensor networks, and multimedia communication. He is proud to have mentored several students, and to have received a number of awards for his research, teaching and service, including the IEEE Infocom Award, the ACM SIGCOMM Lifetime Achievement Award, the ACM Sigcomm Test of Time Award, and the IEEE Computer Society Taylor Booth Education Medal. Through his keynote, Jim will share his experience with PhD students on how to make impactful research in networking.

Simone Ferlin-Reiter is a Senior Performance Engineer with Red Hat AB and an Adjunct Senior Lecturer with Karlstad University. Her research interests are in network and system measurements, performance analysis, security and congestion control. Simone’s tutorial will demonstrate how to build a measurement setup to infer performance of lightweight container orchestration platforms in edge deployments.

Maria Christopoulou is a Research Associate at the Institute of Informatics and Telecommunications in NCSR “Demokritos” and Technical Manager of PRIVATEER, an EU-funded 6G privacy-first security project. George Xilouris is a Research Scientist and Head of the Network Operations Center at the Institute of Informatics and Telecommunications at NCSR “Demokritos”. Maria and George’s tutorial will provide students with a comprehensive understanding of cybersecurity and privacy challenges in modern mobile networks, presenting theoretical foundations, emerging threats, and the role of AI/ML in enhancing security, complemented by empirical insights from real-world datasets.

Romain Fontugne is the Deputy Director of IIJ Research Laboratory and an active member of the WIDE Project. His current research interests include network measurement, networked data analytics, and network security.  In his tutorial, Romain will present the Internet Yellow Pages (IYP), a knowledge graph for Internet resources that leverages the flexibility of graph databases and ontology-based data integration. Students will conduct hands-on experiments that showcase how IYP allows users to seamlessly navigate and quickly get insights into networking data coming from numerous underlying sources.

 

Andra Lutu is a Senior Researcher at Telefonica Research in Madrid, Spain. Her main research interests lie in the areas of network measurements, inter-domain routing and mobile networks. Through her keynote, Andra will share her insights on working in both research institutes and industrial environments, including possible strategies on how to navigate the delicate balance between long-term academic research and practical, industry-driven innovation.

Poster Sessions

Every student who registers will be asked to present a poster at the PhD school about their own current research. Throughout the PhD School, there will be two poster sessions during the lunch break.

The program will also include an informal interactive session between students and the speakers, with the explicit goal of fostering “vertical” interaction between students and the speakers, and “horizontal” interaction between the students themselves. Students will have the opportunity to interview the speakers, asking for their expert opinion on general aspects (non-technical) of the current research dynamics in the field of traffic monitoring and analysis (e.g., how they see the prospective development of a particular research topic in the near future, or what are the key ingredients that drive the success of an experimental measurement platform, etc).

Registration

Registrations are now open, you can apply at https://crp.info.ucl.ac.be/tma2025phd

As the PhD school is popular, we encourage students to register early. Our goal is to admit as many students as possible but we do note that we might have limited room availability. To foster interaction with the TMA community, students are encouraged to join the TMA Conference in the days following the PhD School. PhD students participating to the school are invited to join the main TMA conference free of charge (except for those participants authors of an accepted paper).

Deadlines:

Application deadline: April 30, 2025 at 23:59 CEST
Tentative decision notification: May 15, 2025

How to apply and Travel Grants

The price for registration for the TMA 2025 PhD school will round the usual fee of about EUR 270,00. This fee will be levied on all attending students, also those receiving travel grants (see below). PhD students participating to the school are invited to join the main TMA conference free of charge (except for those participants authors of an accepted paper/extended-abstract).

In order to apply, please submit the following as a single PDF document:

  • the title and abstract of your poster (in the fields required by the submissions system)

  • a current CV with contact information and e-mail address

  • a short personal statement, including: i) a description of the research subject followed by the student, and (ii) information that the applicant feels is relevant to support his/her application, e.g., why the PhD School attendance is important to the applicant’s research and career development;

In case you also want to apply for optional travel support, we ask you to also include:

  • a letter from your advisor which should: (i) confirm the applicant’s good standing in the institution; (ii) explain why the applicant would benefit from attending the TMA PhD School

  • the estimated expenses for attending the TMA PhD School (total, and breakdown by travel and lodging), and an indication of which cost items would need to be covered by the grant; if the applicant will be unable to attend the school without a travel grant, they should explain why this is the case (in this case the advisor’s letter should additionally explain the current funding status of the applicant and why the applicant is in need of the travel grant);

The organization will prioritize awarding of travel grants to students who will be unable to attend without a grant, and additionally based on diversity and the region from which the applicant has to travel, to ensure representation from traditionally underrepresented regions. Note that this year, different from previous editions, the number (and amount) of available travel grants is limited – grants would be in the order of EUR 500,00. In special cases, where the registration fee is also prohibitive, the organization may decide to waive the fee at its discretion.

Any decision made by the organization regarding attendance and awarding of travel grants is final. Be advised that reimbursements of travel grants may take up to several months to complete.

Notes

Please pay attention to the following details about the student travel grant application and reimbursement process:

  • The School will admit a limited number of students.

  • Students enrolled in PhD study programs will receive preference both in the admission to the School and the travel grant awarding.

  • Students admitted to the school are encouraged to attend the TMA conference.

  • We expect a student travel grant will at least partially offset air fare and shared hotel accommodation, but most probably not in full, since our desire is to maximize participation by students.

  • In order to obtain reimbursement, you must provide original receipts for air fare and hotel expenses, along with boarding passes (plane or train) for both outbound and inbound journeys.

  • All students participating in the School are required to present a poster describing their research and to actively engage with all activities. Failing to do so will lead to admission rejection.

  • Please provide complete contact information. You will be notified via email, so make sure your email address is correct on your application.