Summit Overview

What is the San Diego Wireless Summit?

San Diego Wireless Summit 2026 will be held on January 22 & 23, 2026 as an in-person event hosted by the Center for Wireless Communications (CWC) and Qualcomm at UC San Diego, Atkinson Hall. In this year's Summit, "Wireless Intelligence: Bridging Physical Systems & Human-Centric AI", participants across industry and academia will come together to discuss challenges, innovations and opportunities arising from the applications of Physical AI, the Network Infrastructure and related technology for Physical & Personal AI.

 

When and where is the Summit?

This is a live event taking place from January 22 & 23, 2026 and is held at UC San Diego, Atkinson Hall.

 

Will the sessions and panels be live streamed for me to watch online?

Unfortunately this is an in person only event. You must attend this conference to see the materials and participate in Q&A sessions. Some snippets may be shared to our social media sites afterwards (with permission from speakers) but that content will be minimal.

 

How can I connect with other attendees during the event?

• Meet other attendees in your sessions.
• Explore the community to make connections
• Take advantage of built-in networking opportunities including breaks, poster sessions, and meals.

Where should I stay?

• Hotel La Jolla, Curio Collection by Hilton
• https://www.hyatt.com/hyatt-regency/en-US/jolla-hyatt-regency-la-jolla-at-aventine
• https://www.estancialajolla.com/

Where should I park?

The Blue Line Trolley now comes directly to campus! 
Plan your trip: https://www.sdmts.com/transit-services/trolley

(Hot tip! Park your car at the of the nearby trolley stops and just ride a short distance. The walk from the trolley stop to the event is shorter than the walk from the nearest parking garage on campus to the event. There is no guarantee that there will be any spaces available on campus.)

Exit the trolley at the UCSD Central Campus Station

Walk

• About 7 min, 0.3 mi
• Head northwest toward Innovation Ln (the nearest street you can see)
• Continue onto Innovation Ln
• At the traffic circle, turn left onto Voigt Dr
• At the intersection of Voigt and Matthews cross the street and continue walking forward into the campus
• Walk through Warren Plaza (between HDSI and The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering)
• Turn right at the Warren College Administration Building
• Walk toward the large stone Bear Statue 
• Atkinson Hall is on the other side of the Bear Statue Park and located inside the Qualcomm Institute 
• You will see registration tables outside
• Atkinson Hall, 3195 Voigt Dr, La Jolla, CA 92093
• Image of walking directions:

 

*UC San Diego campus parking is extremely limited and we highly encourage taking the trolley, rideshares, and opting for carpools.*

Here is campus visitor parking information.  You can purchase parking at parking pay stations or on your mobile device. 
The closest parking structures to Atkinson Hall are Gilman and Hopkins. The trolley stop is closer than either of these parking garages. 

Further event parking details: https://transportation.ucsd.edu/visit/event-parking.html

 

Agenda

What is the agenda for this Summit?

The agenda includes two days of speakers, sessions, demos, and networking opportunities. The breakdown of the agenda can be found on the agenda page and the committed conference participants will be added to the speakers page.

 

What topics will be covered?

Physical & Personal AI - Technology and Use Cases
Recent advances in AI and machine learning are creating a tangible expansion from the digital domain to the physical world and personal human experience. Physical AI and personal AI represent the next significant paradigm shift in AI, moving beyond static algorithms to dynamic, embodied intelligence that interacts directly with our environments and personal lives. This session will explore the key technologies and use cases driving this evolution. We will examine transformative use cases across multiple sectors including robotics and humanoids, drones, AR/VR glasses, and personalized digital assistants. To address the requirements and challenges associated with these applications, the session will also discuss foundational technologies such as multimodal foundation models, next-generation robotics platforms, efficient edge and network computing, and the role of wireless communication networks.

Network Infrastructure and related technology for Physical & Personal AI:
AI systems that act (Physical AI) and delegate (Personal AI) demand networks optimized for application-aware, task-level QoE, going beyond QoS. Beyond latency/throughput, what matters is time-to-action, safety margins, smoothness of control, and energy per task (Physical AI), as well as goal-completion rate, intent fidelity, responsiveness, transparency, security and privacy budgets (Personal AI) — much more of application dependent metrics.

A core design goal of this session is to imagine future devices, by devices we mean robots, wearables, phones — shifting heavy compute tasks — perception, planning, and memory to elastic edge or cloud compute. The network must therefore do more than carry bits: it must steer compute within the communication constraints. We’ll examine architectures that unify cloud — edge — device with programmable RAN/Wi-Fi and TSN/DetNet, in-network acceleration (DPUs/SmartNICs), and QoE driven offload (partitioning, model selection, speculative inference) with autoscaling across GPUs/NPUs at the edge. We would invite speakers that provide challenges across these use-cases and application — specifically that ties application targets to compute placement and radio/resource allocation.

Through case studies — humanoids/co-bots, autonomous systems, surgical robotics, and memory-centric Personal AI — we will hope to propose reference scenarios and platforms and show how compute elasticity plus device simplification yields faster, smoother operation with stronger safety and privacy. The session would close with a testbeds roundtable to align on evaluation methods that go beyond QoS and directly optimize for application outcomes.

Radio:
Research in radio technologies is entering an exciting era, with breakthroughs poised to redefine the capabilities of wireless networks for 6G and beyond. This session will showcase the latest advances in areas such as full duplex and Giga-MIMO architectures, next-generation antenna systems, and innovations in coding, modulation, and waveform design. Presentations will address scalable solutions for heterogeneous device ecosystems, uplink capacity and coverage enhancements, and strategies to eliminate bottlenecks for consistent user experience. Emerging technologies bring opportunities for enabling new network services such as integrated sensing, the transition to AI-native wireless architectures, and the development of user-experience-centric protocols and designs. We will provide technical insights into recent research, system prototypes, and deployment approaches that are shaping high-capacity, adaptive, and intelligent radio access networks—laying the foundation for transformative user experiences and services in future wireless ecosystems.

Circuits:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been heralded as the next revolution in circuit and system design—but is it delivering real value or just riding a wave of hype? Despite bold claims of enabling high-performance systems from low-performance circuits and optimizing power management at the edge, evidence of tangible benefits remains thin. Much of the narrative feels driven by marketing rather than measurable engineering outcomes. This session surveys the current state of AI in circuit design and invites a candid panel discussion: Are these techniques genuine innovations, or simply a techbro-fueled mirage distracting us from proven design methodologies?

Is the Summit Schedule final?

Our session schedule may change all the way up until the conference. We will finalize the session schedule a few weeks before the conference, however unforeseen circumstances may result in necessary changes. We will inform attendees if this occurs.

 

Registration

What is included with my registration?

• Full access to all sessions and poster sessions/demos
• Breakfast, lunch, snack, and social hour on day 1
• Breakfast and lunch
   

How do I register?

• Registration closes January 5th, 2026 . Please visit our registration page to register: https://SDWirelessSummit.eventbrite.com

 

How do I register as a Speaker/Panelist?

• Please reach out to Professor Xinyu Zhang, the Director of the Center for Wireless Communications, or Executive Assistant Billiekai Boughton to express your interest. We would be happy to meet and discuss your interest! 
• Slides are due 5 business days prior to the event: January 15 and 16. Speakers need to register for the event to ensure everyone can be accounted for, however there will be no charge. Parking is not guaranteed; we recommend the trolley or a ride share service. 

Speaker Information

What File format should my presentation be in?

• PPTx file format and 16x9 are preferred

 

When do you need my presentation files by?

• 5 days prior to your presentation time

 

How can I send you my presentation files?

• Please send to your UCSD contact