Alumni Testimonial – Anh Khoa Dang, now PhD engineer at Ericsson

I am currently an industrial PhD student in collaboration with Ericsson France and Cnam, Paris, France, under the supervision of Prof. Stefano Secci, Prof. Stéphane Rovedakis, and Dr. Hicham Khalifé. My research focuses on developing a data-driven methodology for sustainable mobile networks. Specifically, I investigate the application of artificial intelligence to optimize energy consumption in mobile networks by intelligently deactivating network components while ensuring an acceptable quality of user experience.

My journey from Vietnam to France

Before starting my PhD journey, I received my Bachelor’s degree in Telecommunications from Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST), Vietnam. I then pursued a Master’s at HUST, where I worked with Prof. Nguyen Huu Thanh (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Lcnk_lYAAAAJ) on topics related to Software Defined Networking (SDN). During this time, I stumbled upon a seminar at CNAM by Prof. Stefano on the Computer Network and IoT master’s program. The program immediately caught my attention, as it aligned with my research interests in SDN and offered a partnership that would allow me to continue my second year at CNAM. I applied right away and, with strong support from Prof. Stefano Secci and Mrs. Kim Vu, I was awarded the French government’s Eiffel scholarship. This has helped me alleviate financial barriers to fully focus on my studies, which later allowed me to graduate first in the master’s program.

My journey through the Master’s Program at Cnam

With my background in SDN, the curriculum of the master’s program is very intriguing to me. I have gained a broader understanding of the field of Computer Networks through the NEVA course, which covers the evolution of networking, from its early days to the current advancements in Network Virtualization. Furthermore, I had the opportunity to study the fundamentals of machine learning (ML) through Pedro’s AI course and use it straight away in a networking context in the Advanced Project, where I used ML to predict packet loss on a softwarized RAN testbed. The technical hands-on experience in the Advanced Project and good grades later helped me secure three internship offers (two at Nokia Bell Labs and one at Ericsson).

I then decided to pursue an internship at Ericsson under the supervision of Dr. Hicham Khalifé, where I’m working on a cloud-based environment to scale reinforcement learning (RL) training for RAN use cases. During the internship, we proposed and showcased a RAN energy-saving use case leveraging RL, which later laid the foundation for my paper at IEEE ICC 2024. Realizing the potential of energy efficiency for mobile networks, the topic was able to extend into a PhD contract, which I am currently working on.

I truly appreciate my journey with CNAM, as it has helped me reach where I am today, and it is still ongoing. I believe that future students who follow this program with strong dedication will also achieve good skills for their careers, just as my classmates and I have.