about Me

Innovation is like summer, it’s a state of mind.​

I am a passionate entrepreneur and ICT expert with a digital soul and consolidated hands-on experience in digital innovation. I am a long-time, passionate, energetic technology enthusiast but also an empathetic and compassionate person who values very much the human aspects of technology.

My love for technology was sparked by a visit to the synchrocyclotron at CERN when I was only seventeen years old. Since then I have had the good fortune to be able to work with incredible people. I have learned a great deal about communication networks and artificial intelligence and the power they have to change our lives but I believe that no machine can ever surpass a human being when it comes to appreciating beauty in life as I tried to convey in a recent TedX talk I gave.

After spending many years doing research in the fields of electrical engineering, communication networks and intelligent software agents and earning two PhDs, I felt it was time to get out of the ivory towers to start a new chapter of my life as an entrepreneur.

In a sense this was meant to be since innovation and the ability to exploit change as an opportunity are in my DNA – as Peter Druker puts it “The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.”

I am eager to learn and make a positive impact. I love developing and delivering efficient solutions to complex technical problems and business challenges as well as interacting with people and helping them to bring about their innovative ideas. This is what inspires and drives me as a CEO at Martel Innovate, the company I own. As an entrepreneur, over the years, I have gained a great deal of experience on research and innovation funding, project management, technical and strategic consulting, training, communication and social media, as well as business development for innovative software solutions, especially in the smart cities sector. I also have authored and edited many professional publications as well as research and innovation grants.

I am multitasking and multicultural by birth! I was born in Belgium, grew up in Italy and have been living in Switzerland for the past twenty years. I even claim I can speak 5 ½ languages, but obviously none of them properly! The best thing in my life is my family. My three daughters are my world.

my work

Sometimes I think the best way to explain what I do is to put it in plain English just like my mum does:
“Monique works for the Internet”.

As owner and CEO of Martel I do many things. Even though the workload can be overwhelming at times, I do love my job and enjoy very much working with my team.

I consider myself privileged to be part of an international community of first-class researchers and innovators who drive the digital transformation that is making the world a better place. It is indeed a great honour and privilege and I am committed to building a brighter future for our children.

The many years of experience in the international ICT research and innovation scene along with my technical and scientific background allow me to effectively manage research and innovation projects by combining creative and strategic thinking with a lean organisation of work and resources. At Martel, we believe that success hinges on business agility and as such we flexibly adapt to dynamic requirements while striving for excellence.

As part of my own innovation journey, I provide training on Horizon 2020 proposals and projects and I am in charge of communication and marketing activities for a number of international research and innovation initiatives which aim to develop human-centred digital technologies.

With my team at Martel, we do online and offline dissemination as well as promotion and media for the Next Generation Internet programme, the Collective Awareness Platforms for Social Innovation and Sustainability, the Next Generation Internet of Things initiative and the 5G PPP framework.

Last but not least, I am fully committed to foster Martel’s very own Smart City Services Platform, Orchestra Cities, an ambitious project to combine agile data aggregation and processing with an intuitive collaborative dashboard. Orchestra Cities’ ultimate goal is to empower cities and their citizens with the information they need to make better decisions.

my interests

There is no such a thing as being too busy, at least not for me. If I want something to happen, I make time for it.
All I need is good coffee and great music.

Family

Family

They say you can choose your friends but not your family. Well, I did choose my friends but if I had been given the chance I would definitely have chosen to be born into the same family. My family is such a great gift to me and I consider myself lucky to be able to share my life journey with them.

Innovation

Innovation

To me innovation is like summer, it is a state of mind. It is energy, it is life, it is the power of changing the world. Innovation starts with a dream. I like to help making these dreams come true.

Music

Music

No matter how I feel, happy, sad, tired, excited, nervous, or going crazy, I put some music on. Because God must be a DJ, life is a dance floor, love is the rhythm, and we are the music.
my publications

“If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.”
B. Pascal

2024

K.Ntontin, L. Tomaszewski, J.A. Ruiz-de-Azua, M. Calisti, […], S. Chatzinotas
ETHER: A 6G Architectural Framework for 3D Multi-Layered Networks
Conference Paper | Feb 2024

2022

M. Serrano, M. Boniface, M. Calisti, […], T. Friedman
Next Generation Internet Research and Experimentation
Chapter | Sep 2022

2021

J.K. Soldatos, R.C. Sofia, M. Calisti
The Internet-of-Things Open Source Ecosystem in 2021
Technical Report | Dec 2021

2020

M. Calisti
IoT and 5G City
Technical Report | Jul 2020

2019

M. Calisti, F.M. Facca, M. Brynskov
Next Generation Internet of Things Lead Editors
Technical Report | Sep 2019

2019

M. Calisti
Next Generation Internet, for an Internet of Humans
Article | Aug 2019

2019

S. Taylor, M. Boniface, B. Pickering, […], M. Calisti
D2.3 NGI GUIDE V3
Article | Jan 2019

2018

M. Calisti
The Data Economy and the Next Generation Internet Highlights at DIGITAL ASSEMBLY 2018 26 JUNE 2018, SOFIA (BULGARIA)
Technical Report | Jul 2018

2017

M. Calisti, A. Galati, A. Scicchitano, […], M. Boniface
FLAME D6.3: FMI Ecosystem Engagement Strategy and Plan
Article | May 2017

2016

M. Boniface, M. Calisti, M. Serrano
Next Generation Internet Experimentation – Drivers Transforming Next Generation Internet Research and Experimentation
Working Paper | Jun 2016

2009

M. Calisti, G. Rimassa
Opportunities to support the widespread adoption of software agent technologies
Article in “International Journal of Agent-Oriented Software Engineering” 3(4):411-415 | January 2009

2008

M. Calisti, D. Greenwood
Goal-oriented Autonomic Process Modeling and Execution for Next Generation Networks
3rd IEEE International Workshop on Modelling Autonomic Communications Environments (MACE) | September 22-26, 2008, Samos Island, Greece

2005

M. Calisti, N. Neagu
Integrating Constraint Satisfaction Techniques and Software Agents
Journal of Italian Association of Artificial Intelligence, Anno II, vol. 1 | March 2005, ISSN 1724-8035

2003

M. Calisti, E. Rollon, S. Willmott
E-banking services for automated agent-based trading
in “Agentcities: Challenges in Open Agent Environments”, Springer-Verlag | 2003

2003

M. Calisti, P. Funk, S. Biellman, T. Bugnon
A Multi-Agent System for Organ Transplant Management
in “Applications of Software Agent Technology in the Health Care Domain”, WSSAT, ISBN 3-7643-2662-X | September 2003

2003

M. Calisti, D. Greenwood
On the Road to Ambient Intelligence
European Workshop on Multi-Agent Systems, EUMAS | 2003 – Oxford, UK

2000

S. Willmott, M. Calisti
An Agent Future for Network Control?
Swiss Journal of Computer Science, “Informatique” | January 2000

Want to work together?

Send me an email, and let’s discover how we can help your organization become even greater.