The main scientific results of the project include a book chapter, 3 published journal articles and 2 journal articles under submission. The book chapter constitutes a comprehensive study of the technologies and potential applications of RIS on future wireless networks, corroborating the conclusion that the application of RISs has the potential of making future wireless networks sustainable. Hence, this work serves in the direction of setting the theoretical and algorithmic foundations of RIS enabled wireless 2.0 networks, which constitutes the overarching objective of Pathfinder. The 3 published journal articles investigate complementary wireless technologies, providing the system-level communication-theoretic models necessary for the project. The derived models arise as valuable tools, of significant practical value, for the optimization of the network deployment by the network operator. Subsequently, the journal article under submission, explores a practical aspect of RIS-assisted communications, that is, security engineering, where a signal initially reflected through objects to malicious eavesdroppers can be redirected through RISs only towards the intended users. This work answers whether this can be implemented in practice, with the employment of the RIS for the suppression of the wiretap signal or for the maximization of the main link, with a corresponding optimization of the RIS elements. Last but not least, the last journal article under submission, focuses on the energy harvesting aspects of RIS that is crucial for the commercial success of passive RISs.
The exploitation and dissemination of these results included, among others, an interview of the MSCA fellow by the OECD & European Commission as an expert in the field of information and communications technologies (ICT). The interview was aimed at a non-technical audience of stakeholders and policy makers, in the framework of a 2023 collaborative OECD & European Commission project. Moreover, the fellow was invited as speaker to the foresight OECD & European Commission workshop on digitalization & green value chains, to be held by the end of 2023. The workshop will comprise a non-technical audience of stakeholders and policy makers. Additionally, the fellow has been selected as the Secretary of the RIS Emerging Technology Initiative (ETI) of the IEEE Communications Society, the Secretary of the Special Interest Group (SIG) on Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces for Smart Radio Environments (RISE) of the IEEE Communications Society and the Secretary of the Special Interest Group (SIG) on REconFigurabLE Intelligent Surfaces for Signal Processing and CommunicatIONS (REFLECTIONS) of the IEEE Communications Society. Moreover, he participated in the organization of Globecom2022 and Globecom2023.
