I just came off the 6G CTO Panel I organized and chaired at 6G@UT in Austin. My esteemed guests on stage were Austin Bonner, Deputy CTO Policy, White House; Erik Ekudden, Group CTO, Ericsson; Danijela Cabric, Prof UCLA & Fellow IEEE; and Ronnie Vasishta, SVP Telecoms, Nvidia.
I started off with some introductory remarks on the importance of innovation, and that it often takes more than a decade to turn a vision into reality. I gave the example of 5G-enabled robotic telesurgery, a field I pioneered almost 10 years ago when at King’s College London. It is only now that this vision is becoming reality!
On the back of these remarks, we started our panel discussions on their personal view of a notable 6G use-case. Not surprisingly, I got a lot of different answers – including automation, education, immersion. We then briefly touched on the lessons learnt from 5G, and how 6G truly differs from 5G. We also discussed some key 6G technologies and the underlying compute fabric.
The two big topics, however, were spectrum and AI. We agreed that the mid/centimetric band spectrum offers most value to the telco stakeholders, however, that hurdles need to be overcome in terms of spectrum co-existence and sharing. AI was centerpiece of our discussions, with important insights on how, where and why AI plays such a pivotal role in 6G.
We are taught by the machinery of society to study hard, work, family, career – in one word, to find our purpose. He was different. He saw across time, space, societal rules. His happiness was deep inside. Like a small but persistent flame. Until it was no more.
It took me years to process his absence. The void which never got filled. Only many years later did I find the strength to compose “Timeless Memories” for him. The piece I love to play most. The piece I struggle to play most.
Anita and I are grateful to all the people who have supported him, unconditionally, over his last years, months and days. Rest in peace, our little brother ❤️
MWC is special every year! This year, I had the unique opportunity to interview and discuss with some industry leaders on all things AI, API and AR (the “3x As” as I call them) as well as all things 5G, 6G and Open Networks.
Interestingly, the attendance stats of MWC 2024 bear an intriguing foresight to our industry: more than 50% of this year’s attendees were not from the (classical) mobile industry! Is it becoming a new “CES”? No, it is even bigger and more inclusive: enterprise and consumer-centric companies in attendance sought to understand the opportunities that the API-enabled open programmable 5G networks would yield.
We touched on all of these proof points, as well as other emerging and exciting developments in the telco industry, with the following industry leaders:
Proud and humbled to be nominated by a leading US Chief Innovation Officer Magazine as one of the “visionary leaders making waves in mobile”. Great timing, given we are all at our largest tradeshow, #MWC2024!
𝐌𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞: Really love some of the elements they picked up on my professional telco live but also my artistic and cross-disciplinary achievements. The full cover is here.
𝐅𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐐𝐮𝐨𝐭𝐞: “Mischa’s influence extends to prestigious stages, delivering plenary keynotes that captivate audiences. A journalist once remarked on his impactful presence, stating, ‘𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘵𝘺𝘭𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘌𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘦.'”
𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜 & 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡: My work is often years ahead, corroborated by our pioneering work on 5G-enabled remote concerts with my daughter Noa (https://lnkd.in/eRHfcJ9d) which 6 years later has become https://lnkd.in/ei3eiVgT.
𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 & 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡: I deeply care about making this world a better place and our pioneering work on 5G-enabled robotic telesurgery (https://lnkd.in/eKdnnisT) has now become a reality (https://lnkd.in/e2-NqrGe).
𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞: Innovation is hard, and innovation takes time. Yet, this world thrives because of innovation! I argue that more artistic and cross-disciplinary foundations are vital.
𝐁𝐢𝐠 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐬: Without the amazing and often unconditional support of some extraordinary collaborators and mentors, I would not have made it thus far. I want to thank you all!
𝗜 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗵𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆! There is – after all – something magical about humanity!
The weekend 3-4 February 2024, I have attended a remarkable event! The mission? Saving lives through the magic of skilled surgeons, pioneering robotics and the lightning speed of 5G networks. I had the honor of demystifying the buzz around 5G and latency.
The mastermind behind all that: Vip Patel, MD. An incredible robotic surgeon, a great visionary, a relentless professional, and a wonderful human being.
About 40 years ago, Rick Savata pioneered the concept of robotic surgery. About 30 years ago, Fred Moll – often called the “father of robotic surgery” – commercialized the idea through Intuitive Surgical. About 20 year ago, Jacque Marescaux pioneered remote robotic surgery through his famous Lindbergh Operation.
About 10 years ago, when at King’s College London and sponsored by Hans Vestberg, Ulf Ewaldsson and Erik Ekudden, I pioneered the notion of 5G-enabled surgery as I understood that end-to-end slicing would address SLA, performance and reliability issues. My collaborator then was the amazing robotic surgeon Prokar Dasgupta OBE.
Zoom forward to today: innovation brought us great robotic surgery solutions + slicing-enabled 5G Stand Alone is being deployed globally + robotic surgical skills grow + regulators start to listen. And above all, many surgeons came forward to become pioneers in the use of this magical technology.
So much happened over these 48h in Orlando, so here a summary on my personal highlights:
listening first-hand to the tech pioneers Rick, Fred and Jacque about the untold stories of their robotic surgery journeys;
spending quality time with Omar Al Kalaa, PhD (FDA) and Ankit Mathur (White House) to understand some other fundamental challenges;
incredibly engaging panels with robust yet humorous and kind discussions, with a real appetite to push this forward;
learning about the wonderful mission and leadership of the Society of Robotic Surgery (SRS) from Vipul (Exec Dir), SHARONA B. ROSS MD FACS (President), Martin Martino MD, MBA (past President);
UNBELIEVABLE (!) live operation over 10,000 km from Orlando to Dubai and Shanghai, using 5G – yes, 5G (!)
meeting in-person Silivia Lutucuta, Angola’s Minister of Health; A. Novello, former Surgeon General of the USA; and 10 sitting Presidents of Medical Societies
We know now what immediate issues need to be overcome, from a tech, regulatory and perception point of view. Let’s walk this beautiful journey together!
As for today, I am feeling infinitely grateful for the brilliant minds and spirited discussions. Here’s to pushing boundaries, one bettered life at a time. ❤️
I have always had a deep fascination with how humanity’s perception of time has evolved, shaping our interactions with the world and each other. From the present-focused lives of Hunter-Gatherers, through the Agricultural Revolution’s forward gaze nurtured by the needs of crops, to the Industrial Revolution’s backward glance seeking optimization from the past, each epoch has uniquely contributed to our collective consciousness, and understanding of the Present, Future and Past.
Humanity has historically been cast into three distinct silos: the Past, where scientists toil to decode the gifts of nature; the Present, where artists strive to interpret the daily human condition; and the Future, where engineers envision and create from the void. This segmentation, although productive, often overlooks the potential of interdisciplinary synergy.
Historically, the Renaissance stands as a testament to the power of bridging these silos, igniting a period of unprecedented creativity and innovation. Today, I argue, we stand on the cusp of a new renaissance, one where the symbiosis between humans and machines catalyzes a leap into uncharted territories of coexistence and collaborative creation.
My professional endeavors reflect this belief. In medicine, the advent of 5G-enabled telesurgery represents a bond between healthcare and technology, pointing towards a future where distance and latency no longer hinder life-saving interventions. In the arts, our work with the National Gallery and the National Theatre reveals a shift from transactional to value-driven engagements, highlighting how digital enhancements can deepen our appreciation and understanding of art. Here, technology and creativity converge, not as adversaries, but as partners in innovation.
The ethos of creation over consumption permeates my family life as well. Encouraging our daughters to be creators, we have witnessed firsthand the birth of new renaissance individuals. Dalia combines her martial arts prowess with her artistic talent, transforming broken karate boards into canvases for her paintings. With Noa, we have married tech with the performing art in a groundbreaking and creative way in 2018, which has inspired the pioneering holographic concert of Lang Lang at MWC 2024 in Barcelona.
Yet, a new era is being ushered in: I call it the Era of HumAInity. It is an emerging era with a blend of human ingenuity and AI’s capabilities. My thoughts are increasingly occupied by the challenges and opportunities this coexistence presents. How do we prepare ourselves, our families, and humanity at large for a world where machines are not just tools, but partners? The Era of humAInity demands a reevaluation of our roles, responsibilities, and potentialities in a shared world.
Felt privileged to represent our industry at a full-day 6G event organized by the National Security Council, The White House.
We had some fantastic speakers, including Anne Neuberger, Deputy Assistant to the President & NSC; Jessica Rosenworcel, Chairwoman of the FCC; Alan Davidson, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce & NTIA; and Sethuraman Panchanathan, Director of the NSF.
The technical panels covered 6G technologies, skills, funding and spectrum. I was on the opening 6G tech panel with Tingfang Ji (Qualcomm) and Azita Arvani (Rakuten) and chaired by energetic Robert C. Hampshire (USG DoT).
Post event, The White House’s National Security Council released its principles for 6G technologies. Prior to that, the FCC released its “Principles for Promoting Efficient Use of Spectrum and Opportunities for New Services”.
Policy is moving; now it’s for the industry to make 6G happen!
I was privileged to attend an amazing and truly eye-opening two-day workshop in Hollywood, LA, learning about latest production technologies. I met some of the best people in the field, from innovators to directors and even actors. The highlight to me was to meet in person the wonderful and truly humble crew behind the edits of “Stranger Things”.
Today, I met award-winning science fiction and cyberpunk author Neal Stephenson at a Stanford human-centred AI event. He coined the term “metaverse” in his 1992 science fiction novel “Snow Crash” as a portmanteau of ‘meta’ and ‘universe.’ I asked him if today he is working on another prediction for the next 30 years. I will keep his response to myself …
On October 21, 2021, amidst the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, my family and I touched down in the United States. It was a moment of overwhelming emotion and amazement, as this marked our eighth international move. Despite the global restrictions in place, we were given exceptional permission to fly—a privilege we didn’t take lightly.
The airports were eerily quiet, with many shops and services closed. The pandemic still had a grip on the world. Yet, our excitement outweighed any sense of unease. This was the first time my family had set foot on American soil, and the magnitude of the step we were taking was undeniable. New beginnings in a new country—again—but this time in the land of endless possibilities. Silicon Valley!
Traveling with our beloved pets added another layer of complexity and concern. Our dog and cat were stowed away in the cargo area of the plane, and throughout the flight, thoughts of their safety and comfort were constantly in the back of our minds. What a relief when we got reunited with them at SFO.
As we stepped out of the airport, we were filled with a sense of uncertainty but also hope. The idea of starting fresh, especially during a global pandemic, was daunting and exhilarating. Changing countries for the eighth time was an incredible milestone for us, but it also underscored the resilience we had developed as a family.
This move wasn’t just about geography—it was about new opportunities, embracing change, and, above all, the joy of facing it together. Despite the challenges, we knew that this new chapter in the U.S. would be an adventure unlike any we had experienced before.
NFT Crypto Art: The hottest thing in town for artists in 2021! I just put up on rarible.com/mischadohler an ultra-rare onetime piano recording of my piece “Timeless Memories” from my album “Stories From Another World”. You can find it here. Follow me on Rarible, and let’s start the crypto art revolution :). #nft #rarible
Hello Future! Today, I went back to our server farm at King’s College London, after months of lockdown. I was troubleshooting with brilliant colleagues, i.e. implementing power redundancy, formating servers, and configuring iDRAC. In one word, we are gearing up for 6G! Feels great to be in the field again …
Really proud to be on Amazon Prime as part of an amazing series on cross-disciplinary innovation with the famous 3-Star Michelin Roca Brothers. Commissioned by The Macallan, “Distil Your World London” is a journey of learning and change. You can watch it on Amazon Prime UK under https://www.amazon.co.uk/London/dp/B08PCR4Z2P. For any other territories, just search for “Distil Your World London”. There is more information about the project on The Macallan website.
Spent all day today at an incredible policy event at Cambridge University, working on policies for all things digital and AI. Among many prominent scientists and politicians, we were lucky enough to have had former Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, with us. What an incredibly warm and knowledgeable person he is!
I am very proud to be part of an amazing team which has co-founded the joint initiative between King’s College London and the iconic National Gallery. The new venture is called National Gallery X (NGX), and was inaugurated by none less than Tim Berners-Lee. NGX will explore cross-disciplinary approaches to creating new museum and arts experiences and technologies of the future. Today.
I drove the Karma Revero today in Los Angeles. You cannot buy it yet but soon. The most stunning car I have driven. EVER. From zero to 100km/h (62mph) in 3 (!) seconds. All electric. I am in love, again!
What a great holiday trip that was, Vietnam 2019: Beautiful landscapes, amazing sun sets and outstanding food. I was blown away by the pristine waters of Halong Bay, the ancient lantern-city of Hoi An and the party-skyline of Saigon.
“World’s First 5G Music Lesson by Superstar Jamie Cullum”
OMG. We pulled it off again and demonstrated the magic of 5G. What a night! Jamie is now my favourite musician, not only because of his incredible music but also because of him being such a warm human being. All this was done for the wonderful charity Music For All. More info is under https://www.facebook.com/musicforallcharity/videos/1331546793678732/.
Didn’t expect IEEE ICASSP 2019 to be that large! More than 3,000 people attended my Plenary Keynote which I gave 15 May 2019 in Brighton, UK, at the world’s largest Signal Processing conference. I spoke about King’s pioneering works in designing the Internet of Skills, Soft Robotics, Explainable AI and Spatial Audio Surround.
Another great day at H-Farm, this time with Francesca Bellettini, the CEO of Yves Saint Laurent, now Yves Laurent. Is she the most down-to-earth CEO of a global brand? What a wonderful person, and so smart — asking the right questions and making incredible observations. YSL is really lucky to having her
So pleased to have become good friend of Rob del Naja, founder and lead singer / artist of British band Massive Attack. Not only is he a wonderful person but also one of the most interesting and progressing thinkers of our generation. Very excited to be part of the AI and robotics painting project, as covered by Wired under https://www.wired.co.uk/article/massive-attack-mezzanine-dna.
Spent the day with none less than Pablo Ettinger, the co-founder of Caffè Nero. He grew the famous coffee chain into a >£100m business. We talked about my company Moving Beans and the challenges around selling coffee and being sustainable. But we also talked about music. Yes! Pablo is actually a musician, a pianist, like me. This is the reason you hear amazing classical music when sitting in at Caffè Nero. He is now supporting emerging artists. Truly inspiring!
Great day out with Marco Bizzarri, the CEO of Gucci. Really intelligent and forward-looking CEO, exploring next generation technologies which could give his industry an edge. One of the few looking beyond his own industry vertical, and a fantastic person too!
Did this just happen? I won the “21st Century Icon Award” for global contributions to technology and the arts. I did not expect this, but am very happy – no doubt :). Here, with incredibly talented painter artist Yuliya Zelinskaya.
At King’s, we did the world’s first 5G concert. Whilst networked performances had been done before, it was the first time that a “commodity” system was used which everybody has access to. I was playing the piano in Berlin under the Brandenburger Tor, whilst my daughter Noa was singing in London in the Guildhall. The latency was just under 20ms and gave us a complete feeling of immediacy. What an emotional night that was! We have discussed the challenges in a 2020 TEDx talk.
What a magic night that was! Organised by amazing Laura Westcott, I was performing in front of an intimite crowd in London in memory of my late brother. I played “Timeless Memories” and “Ouroboros”.
I launched my 5th album “Stories From Another World” in Los Angeles today, with my record label. And we did it in style! Playing in front of 4,000 people. I cannot deny that I was very, very nervous but it went all well! For many years, I had stage fright and the best way to overcome it was, I thought, by going big. That was my largest piano performance. Ever!
I couldn’t believe that news. I was just elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. All the hard work over past years to evangelize technology into the arts and pushing for co-design technology/arts has paid off, not to mention my music compositions. I am very happy and proud to be part of one of the most creative group of people on the planet.
I just met the Latvian President. Humble and approachable, a man of the people. He invited me to speak in front of a large government crowd about innovation and the changing innovation cycles. The video of that talk is below.
Approved by the French government, INSA Lyon awarded me the prestigious Doctor Honoris Causa on Thursday 18 June 2015. This is an immense privilege and honour, and I am proud to represent King’s College London at this occasion. The awards ceremony was a mix of formal and informal talks, accompanied by a lecture I gave on disruptive technologies and the next tech frontier.
This was maybe the most exciting Mobile World Congress (MWC) I have ever witnessed. And if my predictions hold true, it is only to get better. It wasn’t anymore about boring boxes of cellular tower hardware. It was all about software, startups and innovation, new handsets with sexy features, and over-the-top applications for both consumers and industries. We are clearly seeing a fundamental shift on how the telco industry ticks – and that is very timely!
The first disruption is internal to the industry: 2015 is the year where we are truly going software. The implications are that we are now able to reconfigure the telco operations of an entire country from a single software script, e.g. over a cup of coffee in the morning. This means, capacity requirements can be addressed on the fly without needing to send in engineering staff. You guessed it, today’s large operational costs are thus minimized.
The second disruption is external to the industry: Having softwarized the telco operations makes it much easier to address the (often capricious) needs of industries; this MWC thus featured a huge amount of industrial applications, ranging from a connected car to tactile excavator (yes, I am talking about a mobile congress here!). The softwarization, however, also ensured that innovation becomes so much more affordable; the congress was swamped with startups and young industries – innovators and investors alike suddenly started to feel that the huge telecom opportunity is actually addressable, no matter the size.
All that buzz leaves me wondering when the MWC will be the same as CES – 2020? But it gets event better! Ericsson’s CEO Hans Vestberg stated in his VIP keynote: “Telecom in the 90s was manufacturer driven, in the 2000s operator driven, and now vertical industry driven.” With 3G, we figured out that selling hardware boxes is maybe not all we can do with the cellular opportunity; with 4G, we thus focused on offering services to optimize the cellular experience. I am happy, however, that we have finally realized what every decent Internet entrepreneur could have told us some years back: The true value is in offering a compelling solution which addresses a real problem in industries.
As Scania’s CEO Martin Lundstedt has said, “this suddenly transforms the expensive telecoms equipment from being costly to being valuable.” The projected transition towards the digital data value chain will take a while, however. Until then, Mark Zuckerberg will continue flying into Barcelona every year, drink his champaign on the keynote stage, and fly back … without having left a paycheck to improve the underlying infrastructure which actually enables his business.
Off I am to keynote and panel at one of the world’s largest tech events which is happening in Barcelona this week – the Mobile World Congress (MWC). Over the years, it has transformed from being a pure telecoms playing ground to a show of innovation, rivaling CeBIT (Germany) and CES/CTIA (US). I am so happy to go back to the city where I spent 5 wonderful years of my life, and meet friends and colleagues. I will keep you updated on some of the most exciting developments at the event …
… what a Mobile World Congress that was! The best I have attended in years! There is a real buzz and excitement going on in the community, some of which I tried to capture in my subsequent opinion blog. I was involved in an amazing panel organized by the UKTI and the Future Cities Catapult on the “Industrial Internet of Things”. And I (as the only academic throughout the event) was on the main MWC stage for a 5G panel with the CTO of Ericsson, CSO of Huawei, Director of 3GPP, and Director of the ITU, and other luminosities. The room was burstingly full! The other highlight for me was to stand next to the world’s first 5G working system, designed by Ericsson – amazing!
I am so excited to be judge today at the largest hackathon the UK has ever seen, https://hacklondon.org/. HackLondon is a 24 hour hackathon hosted by KCL Tech, UCL TechSoc and UCLe. Fares, our amazing undergrad student, told me “it’s going to be epic, everything is free, and any student can participate (no experience required)”. I am coming after they have programmed already for almost 30h without any notable sleep – I can’t wait to see all those lovely zombie faces …
… what an event that was! Full house and truly (!) emotional. Fares got a standing ovation from the crowd. And I also got carried away and decided ad-hoc to give my own prize of 2h mentoring + £200 book vouchers for a mixed technical and artistic writing hack called #TwitterNovel. It is a crowdsourced way of writing a novel via Twitter – great, isn’t it?
I gave a keynote at yesterday’s “Innovation in 5G” event at the Digital Catapult in London, arguing that the softwarisation of 5G gives us a unique opportunity to innovate in features rather than systems. That in turn, may very well mean the end of the telco generations “Gs”. I also argued for shortening the Transport Networks to ensure we can meet latency requirements. The keynote did not go down well with everybody …
I felt very privileged to talk along Dr Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany. She was clearly briefed for her talk, but I was massively impressed by her native knowledge on the fairly narrow subject related to telecommunications. Kudos, Chancellor!
I spoke today on a panel at London’s Smart City event organized by the city hall. This is where I met our Mayor, Boris Johnson, and where we discussed a car-free London. He did love my red shoes! Definitely very charismatic!
Today was a special day! I met my life-long idol and mentor Sir Richard Branson. He is surprisingly shy but a wonderful person to talk to. I helped his Carbon War Room initiative, and learned a lot on the way.
