Hamed Taherdoost is an award-winning leader and R&D professional. He is founder of the Hamta Group | Hamta Business Corporation, Associate Professor and Chair of RSAC at University Canada West, and Director of R&D at Q Minded | Quark Minded Technology Inc. He has over 20 years of experience in both industry and academia sectors. He has worked at international companies from Cyprus, the UK, Malta, Iran, Malaysia, and Canada and has been highly involved in development of several projects in different industries; healthcare, transportation, residential, oil and gas and IT. Apart from industry, he has been a university lecturer in three different parts of the world, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and North America. Currently, he is an Adjunct Professor at Westcliff University, mentor at Futurpreneur Canada, Advisory Board of Cambridge Scholars Publishing, UK, Senior Technical Consultant at CI Solutions Ltd, and Innotek Consulting Ltd. He is a certified cybersecurity technologist and a senior member of IEEE, IAEEEE, IASED, & IEDRC, Fellow Member of ISAC, WGM of IFIP TC11, member of CSIAC, ACT-IAC and AASHE. Hamed has been an active multidisciplinary researcher and R&D specialist involved in several academic and industrial research projects

Dr. Surajit Ray is a Professor of Statistics at the University of Glasgow, with a research focus on uncertainty quantification in AI algorithms, particularly for medical image analysis. His expertise spans the theoretical and geometric aspects of deep learning algorithms, mixture models and functional data analysis, with a special focus on handling the challenges posed by large-scale, high-dimensional data. Dr. Ray's methodological interests include multivariate mixture models, structural equation models, high-dimensional clustering, and functional clustering. These approaches are central to his work in developing innovative statistical models to analyze and interpret complex datasets effectively. In addition to his academic research, Dr. Ray is actively engaged in collaborative projects with small, medium, and large-scale industries, particularly in the realm of medical imaging. These partnerships enable him to translate his research into real-world applications, helping advance technologies in healthcare. His collaborative work extends to medical image segmentation, immunology, and climate-ecosystem modeling, where he contributes valuable statistical insights to interdisciplinary projects. Dr. Ray is also a member of the Gateway Advisory Board for the Newton Gateway to Mathematics at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, where he plays a role in shaping strategic directions for applied mathematical research. Through his work in academia and industry, he contributes significantly to advancing both the theoretical foundations and practical applications of statistics in various fields.

Dr. Luc Rolland has joined the University of the West of Scotland as a lecturer on Robotics,Automation and Controls in the School of Computing, Engineering and Physical Sciences. With industrial partners, he has been working on robotics and automation projects which are now nominated for innovation awards in Scotland and the UK. He is now being invited to participatein the first surgical robotics designs in countries like France, Italy and Switzerland. He graduated in Mechanical Engineering from Montreal Polytechnic (Engineering University) in December 1984 and then obtained his Master degree in Robotics Workcell Simulation where the research was partly funded by General Electric Canada proposing the first digital twins for animated simulation. From 1988 until 1996, he practised engineering in instrumentation, automation, controls and robotics on large scale factory projects for three different companies: SNC-Lavalin, BPCO and Met-chem (USX Consultants). From 1996 until 1998, as a research assistant at the Lausanne Federal Polytechnic (EPFL), he has designed the Manta and Kanuk robots, the first two 4 DOF parallel robots for Schoenflies motion, the resulting paper has been cited more than 100 times. Then, in 2003, he received his PhD diploma in computer science from the University Henri Poincare in Nancy (France), benefiting from three bursaries: the INRIA, Lorraine Region and CMW-Marioni, a company that manufactures high speed milling machines. He contributed to the first parallel robot simulator aimed at milling task certification, verification and fine-tuning. He was awarded two French Government prizes for outstanding research and technology transfer to industry. After his PhD thesis, he has been involved in various robotics and automation projects often involving partnerships with the industry. Recently, at UWS, for a local industrial partner, he designed and made a robotic work cell capable of high precision over large workspaces. He prepared the first automated industrial garment cleaning system based on ozone leaving no pollution. Among others, he has designed and controlled efficient and affordable solar trackers, rapid pointers, five-bar robot for test-tube filling, reconfigurable planar tripod, the fastest linear actuators, rigid revolute joint family including universal joints, hybrid drone. Hoe worked on sense-an-avoid algorithms for drones and the first certification framework for high speed milling and autonomous vehicles. He has worked on the automatic reprogramming of painting robots for Leyland Trucks and also contributed to the dynamics assembly plants by studying integration of articulated robots on mobile vehicles. He has experience in working with the oil and gas industry as he has designed the first redundant Fire and Gas System for the Hibernia offshore platform. He continues the design and controls of parallel robots for high performance with various academic partners in UK, France, Canada, Finland and Germany.

Prof. Ivan Ganchev is а Senior Member of the URSI1 and a SeniorMember of the IEEE2; the IEEE Communications Society (Essential); the IEEE Computer Society Special Technical Communities on: (i) Smart and Circular Cities, (ii) Wearable and Ubiquitous Computing, and (iii) Reliable, Safe, Secure and Time Deterministic Intelligent Systems; the IEEE Computer Society Technical Communities on: (i) Intelligent Informatics, (ii) Big Data, and (iii) Internet of Everything; the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committees on: (i) Internet, (ii) Computer Communications, and (iii) Cloud Computing; the IEEE Communities on: (i) Cloud Computing, (ii) Big Data, (iii) Future Networks, (iv) Internet of Things, and (v) IEEE Smart Cities; and the IEEE Consultants Network. Prof. Ganchev received his doctoral and engineering (summa cum laude) degrees from the Saint-Petersburg University of Telecommunications in 1995 and 1989, respectively. He is a Deputy Director of the Telecommunications Research Centre (TRC), University of Limerick (Ireland), an ITU-T 3 Invited Expert, and an IET4 Invited Lecturer. In addition, he also holds a Full Professorship at the University of Plovdiv “Paisii Hilendarski” and the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Prof. Ganchev was involved in 40+ international and national research projects. Previously he served as a member of the EU FP5 Academic Network for Wireless Internet Research in Europe (ANWIRE) and 8 European ‘COoperation in Science and Technology’ (COST) Actions: COST 285 “Modelling and Simulation Tools for Research in Emerging Multi-service Telecommunications”, COST 290 “Traffic and QoS Management in Wireless Multimedia Networks”, IC0906 “Wireless Networking for Moving Objects (WiNeMO)”, IC0905 “Techno-Economic Regulatory Framework for Radio Spectrum Access for Cognitive Radio/Software Defined Radio (TERRA)”, IC1304 “Autonomous Control for a Reliable Internet of Services (ACROSS)”, IC1303 “Algorithms, Architectures and Platforms for Enhanced Living Environments (AAPELE)”, CA15127 “Resilient Communication Services Protecting End-User Applications from Disaster-based Failures (RECODIS)”, and CA16226 “Indoor Living Space Improvement: Smart Habitat for the Elderly (SHELD-ON)”. Prof. Ganchev’s research interests include: Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) for smart communications and smart health; novel telecommunication and information paradigms; modelling, simulation, and emulation of complex telecommunication and information systems, networks, and services; information modelling; smart networks and services; smart ubiquitous networking; Internet of Things (IoT); Internet of Services (IoS); Internet tomography; CPS systems; Ambient Assisted Living (AAL); Enhanced Living Environments (ELE). Prof. Ganchev has served on the Technical Program Committee of 40+ prestigious international conferences, symposia, and workshops. He has authored/co-authored 1 monographic book, 3 textbooks, 4 edited books, and 300+ research papers in refereed international journals, books, and conference proceedings. He was a recipient of IEEE IAEAC 2017 Best Paper Award and IEEE IS 2012 Best Paper Award, and was nominated for ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2008 Best Paper Award. He has presented over 20 plenary/keynote/invited talks at renown international scientific forums.

Grégoire Besnier is a seasoned innovation leader and technology strategist with a diverse career spanning Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and digital transformation. His expertise lies in fostering innovation ecosystems, designing AI-driven solutions, and leveraging emerging technologies to drive impactful outcomes. Currently serving as Innovation Manager at Gemdat Niederösterreich, Grégoire oversees cutting-edge digital transformations with AI and dedicated machine learning contents for public administration in Austria. Grégoire is a pioneer in incorporating AI into design thinking processes, enabling organizations to accelerate and enhance innovation. For example, he uses AI to create synthetic personas, a revolutionary approach that generates 12 highly relevant personas in just 13 minutes—a task that traditionally required two days of workshop facilitation. This cutting-edge method enables more efficient ideation, faster prototyping, and deeper customer insight integration into innovation projects. Gregoire is an advocate for ethical AI, having shared his insights at the World Economic Forum and with European policymakers like Thierry Breton, emphasizing "ethics by design" as a foundational principle for AI legislation. In addition, Grégoire was instrumental in launching École 42 Vienna, part of a global network of teacher-less, collaborative coding schools. As Co-Founder and Managing Director, he implemented disruptive AI-enabled B2B training programs, and collaborated with institutions like Volkswagen Group Academy. His efforts fostered the growth of AI-driven learning models and entrepreneurial talent. At HYVE, an innovation consultancy, Grégoire led groundbreaking projects, including “emotional AI” to explore the intersection of AI and user innovation with Professor Eric von Hippel of MIT, demonstrating how machine learning supports the identification of lead innovators and ideations in crowdsourcing campaigns. Previously, Grégoire worked with the startup Mediawen, leveraging IBM Watson’s AI capabilities for multilingual video translation solutions. These technologies provided seamless translations across web, mobile, and TV platforms, empowering global clients such as Amazon, Volkswagen, and BBC to reach wider audiences. Mediawen’s AI-driven platform facilitated innovative approaches to global communication, addressing the challenges of localization at scale. Grégoire’s forward-thinking vision, paired with hands-on expertise in implementing AI and ML solutions, makes him a sought-after speaker and thought leader. His contributions span industries, including IT, aerospace, education, and public administration, showcasing his ability to bridge theoretical AI concepts with practical applications to shape the future of innovation.

Dr Valerio Frascolla (MSc and PhD in Electronic Engineering) works as Director of Research and Innovation at Intel, as consultant for applications at the convergence of data and AI, as expert evaluator for the European Commission and three EU member state funding agencies, and open calls reviewer in several EU-funded projects. He had been working at Ancona University, Comneon, Infineon, also attending standardization workgroups (3GPP, ETSI, IEEE) for 10 years. He serves as advisory board member of 9 EU- and national-funded research projects and covered various roles in other 22, currently being Standardization Manager in VERGE, Innovation Manager in PREDICT-6G, Quality Manager in 6G-SENSES. Valerio has expertise in wireless system architecture, standardization and business aspects, program management, coaching and mentoring; his main research domains are wireless systems design with focus on 6G, spectrum management, IoT-Edge-Cloud Continuum, AI, and green technologies. Valerio represents Intel in the European R&D ecosystem, being elected in November 2023 for a second mandate as Vice-President of BDVA, covering driving roles in AIOTI, and participating to 6G-IA and the DigitalEurope R&I workgroups. He is author of 90+ peer-reviewed publications (Google Scholar h=24), TPC member of 130+ conferences, reviewer for 70+ journals, serving as Associated Editor of IET Quantum Communications, Guest Editor of MDPI Sensors, of IEEE Transaction on Vehicular Technology and IEEE Networks Magazine, and of Frontiers in Robotics and AI.

WAH Wan-Sang Benjamin is a Research Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and Franklin W. Woeltge Emeritus Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), USA. He previously served as Provost and Wei Lun Professor of Computer Science and Engineering of CUHK, Chair of Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, and Franklin W. Woeltge Professor of UIUC. He received his Ph.D. degree in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA, in 1979. Wah's contributions to the field of computer science and engineering have been recognized with numerous prestigious awards. These include the IEEE CS Technical Achievement Award, the IEEE Millennium Medal, the IEEE-CS W. Wallace-McDowell Award, the IEEE-CS Richard E. Merwin Award, the IEEE-CS Tsutomu Kanai Award, and the Distinguished Alumni Award in Computer Science of the University of California, Berkeley. His current research interests in big data and multimedia systems have led to significant advancements in these areas. Notably, between 2013-18, he served as the Chief Scientist of the China 973 Project entitled “Theory and Applications of Network Big Data Computations.’’ Wah's commitment to advancing knowledge in his field is further evidenced by his editorial roles and affiliations. He co-founded the IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering in 1988 and served as its EIC between 1993 and 1996. He also co-founded and currently serves as the co-EIC of the Journal of Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence (Elsevier) and is the Honorary Editor-in-Chief of Knowledge and Information Systems. His expertise is sought after by various journals, as he serves on the editorial boards of Information Sciences, International Journal on Artificial Intelligence Tools, Journal of VLSI Signal Processing, World Wide Web, and Journal of Computer Science and Technology. He has served the IEEE Computer Society in various capacities, including Vice President for Publications (1998 and 1999) and President (2001). The Hong Kong SAR government awarded him the Bronze Bauhinia Star (2021). He is a Fellow of the AAAS, ACM, and IEEE.

Ghada M. Amer is the CEO of Middle East Information Technology Company, Professor of Power Engineering and Smart Systems, Fellow and Technology Lecturer at Nasser Military Academy for Graduate Studies, Technical Ambassador of the Egyptian Space Agency, Head of the Center for Strategic Studies for Science and Technology, and Vice President of the Arab Science and Technology Foundation. She has held a number of other positions, such as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Misr University for Science and Technology, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Engineering for Graduate Studies and Research, Benha University, Director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Academy of Scientific Research - Egypt, Director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Benha University, Former Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering at Benha University and Executive Director of Global Endowments. She was also selected to be a member of the jury of the Rolex Innovation Awards in Switzerland. Her efforts have been internationally recognized. She was selected by the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies (IFEEES) and the Global Engineering Deans Council (GEDC) in the United States of America as one of the best inspiring stories of women in engineering and technology in Africa. This was mentioned in the book “Rising to the Top in STEM” for the year 2021-2022. In January 2014, she was named one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Muslim Women Scientists in the World” by an international panel in Muslim-Science magazine in the United Kingdom and was named “Person of the Year” by Muslim Science magazine in 2015. She was ranked first in the “Top 50 Most Influential Arab Women Entrepreneurs” in 2014 by Sayidaty magazine, and in 2016 and 2017, she was ranked as one of the “500 Most Influential Muslims in 2016” in the field of science and technology by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center. In 2023, as a result of her research in the field of advanced technology in general and artificial intelligence in particular and their relationship to national security, she was selected as a member of the advisory board of the “National Security and Strategy” magazine issued by the Military Academy for Graduate Studies and Strategy.

Xiaoyan Dai has received her Ph.D in image processing from Muroran Institute of Technology in Japan in 2004 where she specialized in computer vision and machine learning. Since then, she has focused on image processing and document processing in Canon Inc. From 2019, she joined Research Center of Kyocera Corporation as an Expert. Her current interests include deep learning and computer vision for objects detection, fraud detection, object recognition and object tracing. She serves as committee member for multiple international conferences

Lu Leng received his Ph.D degree from Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, P. R. China, in 2012. He performed his postdoctoral research at Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea, and Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, P. R. China. He was a visiting scholar at West Virginia University, USA, and Yonsei University, South Korea. Currently, he is a full professor, the dean of Institute of Computer Vision, and the office director of Key Laboratory of Jiangxi Province for Image Processing and Pattern Recognition at Nanchang Hangkong University. Prof. Leng has published more than 100 international journal and conference papers. He has been granted several scholarships and funding projects, including six projects supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). He serves as a reviewer of more than 100 international journals and conferences. His research interests include computer vision, biometric template protection and biometric recognition. Prof. Leng is an outstanding representative of "Innovation Talent" of Jiangxi Enterprise in "Science and Technology China", received "Jiangxi Youth May Fourth Medal", "Jiangxi Hundred-Thousand-Ten-thousand Talent Project", "Jiangxi Voyage Project", etc.

Dr. Aziz Fellah is an Associate Professor at Northwest Missouri State University. He holds a B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. in Computer Science and has extensive experience teaching and conducting research in the field at various institutions. Dr. Fellah’s research interests encompass both theoretical and practical aspects of computer science, including software engineering, algorithmic and machine learning, programming languages, model checking, information flow control, and distributed/parallel systems. He has been highly active in these areas, publishing extensively and contributing to the advancement of the field. In addition, Dr. Fellah has served on numerous international scientific and research committees, collaborating closely with academic communities and industry partners. He is deeply committed to enhancing students' educational experiences and fostering strong connections between academia and industry.

SADI ALAWADI received his Ph.D. in Computer Science/AI from the Research Center of Intelligent Technologies (CiTIUS) at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, in 2018. He also holds a Master's degree in Soft Computing and Intelligent Systems from Granada University, awarded in 2012. Currently, he is working as an associate professor at the Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden. His academic journey has seen him in various research and teaching roles, including his previous position as an Assistant Professor at Halmstad University, Sweden. He has also held Postdoctoral Research positions at esteemed institutions such as the Department of Information Technology, Division of Scientific Computing at Uppsala University, the IOTAP Research Center at Malmö University, and the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) - ISTI in Pisa, Italy. He has several publications in top-tier journals and conferences, including Neural Networks, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management (TEM), IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics (TII), INFSOF, NCA, JKSUCIS, CCGRID, and more.

Shing-Tai Pan was born in Pingtung, Taiwan, on November 4, 1966. He received the M.S. degree in electrical engineering from National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in 1992 and the Ph. D. degree from National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, in 1996. In 2006, he joined the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National University of Kaohsiung, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. He is currently a Professor. He is a member of Taiwanese Association for Artificial Intelligence (TAAI) and Chinese Automatic Control Society (CACS). He is also a member of The Association for Computational Linguistics and Chinese Language Processing (ACLCLP).

Dr. Ali Soofastaei is a seasoned technology leader and expert in full-stack data governance, AI, and advanced analytics. With over 15 years of global experience, Ali has led high-impact projects in the mining and resource industries, utilizing data-driven solutions to drive operational excellence, sustainability, and innovation. As the Program Leader for Data and Analytics at Newmont, the world’s largest gold mining company, Ali oversaw multi-million-dollar initiatives, focusing on predictive analytics, AI applications, and digital transformation. His leadership in developing Centers of Excellence (CoE) has been instrumental in positioning organizations as leaders in data-driven decision-making and operational efficiency. Ali holds a Ph.D. in Information Technology and Mechanical Engineering from the University of Queensland and has held senior roles at Vale, BHP, and Shell. He has published over 60 journal papers, authored 25 book chapters, and holds multiple patents in AI-driven technologies. Ali is recognized as a thought leader in AI, machine learning, and business intelligence, frequently speaking at international conferences and contributing to the advancement of digital technologies across industries.

Dr. Shen Guohao is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He received his Ph.D. degree in Statistics from The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2022. His research interests span the areas of statistical machine learning and nonparametric statistics, with a focus on the foundations of deep learning. His research findings have been published in journals and conference including Annals of Statistics, Biometrika, Journal of Machine Learning Research, Journal of Econometrics, NeurIPS, and ICML. He is a recipient of 2024 John Aitchison Prize in Statistics and the 2024 Junior Researcher Award Honorable Mention of ICSA China conference.

Giuseppe Di Fatta is a Professor at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (Italy) since 2022. He is the Director of the MSc Computing for Data Science and of the executive MSc Artificial Intelligence Applications and Innovations. Previously, from 2006 to 2021 he was with the University of Reading (UK), where he served as Head of the Department of Computer Science from 2016 to 2021. From 2004 to 2006, he was with the University of Konstanz, Germany, where he joined the initial development team of KNIME, a popular data science and machine learning platform. From 2000 to 2004, he was with the High-Performance Computing and Networking Institute of the National Research Council, Italy. In 1999, he was a research fellow at the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI), Berkeley, CA, USA. His research interests and expertise include artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science and data-driven multidisciplinary applications for scientific and industrial domains. He has published over 130 articles in peer-reviewed conferences and journals. He has participated in several research projects, including some funded by the EU Horizon programme. He has been a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) since 2002 and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy since 2009. He is a member of the Technical Committee on Machine Learning (TC-ML) of the IEEE SMC Society.

Gerald Penn is a Professor of Computer Science at University of Toronto, and a Fellow of Computer Science at St. Michael's College. His research interests are spoken language processing and computational linguistics. He is a senior member of IEEE and AAAI, and a past recipient of the Ontario Early Researcher Award. His joint work with Geoffrey Hinton and Hui Jiang on signal processing with neural networks revolutionized acoustic modelling for speech recognition systems, and received the IEEE Signal Processing Society's Best Paper Award. He has led numerous research projects, including those funded by Avaya, Bell Canada, CAE, the Communications Security Establishment, the Connaught Fund, Microsoft, Naver Corporation, NSERC, the German Ministry for Training and Research, SMART Technologies, the U.S. Army and the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Muniba Talha is an accomplished academician and industry professional, currently serving as a Associate Professor in Business Economics and IT at the esteemed Copenhagen School of Design and Technology (KEA)where she teaches courses ranging from Data Science and Machine Learning to Leading Digital Transformation.Muniba brings a unique blend of academic expertise and practical industry insights to her role. Prior to her academic tenure, Muniba distinguished herself in the corporate arena, excelling in Project and Team lead positions where she spearheaded the delivery of robust software products and nurtured agile teams for optimal performance. Her hands-on experience in software development and agile methodologies equips her with a holistic understanding of the challenges and opportunities in the technology landscape.

Dr. Overmyer is currently Instructional Assistant Professor at Illinois State University in Bloomington/Normal, Illinois, where he teaches programming languages, software engineering, and computer architecture. Dr. Overmyer started his career in the software field with TRW, Inc. as a user interface designer and requirements engineer on the Space Defense Operations Center project in Colorado’s Cheyenne Mountain NORAD Complex. After completing several government projects with TRW, he was appointed manager of TRW’s Research and Technology Center in Virginia. He earned a Ph.D. in Information Technology (Information and Software Systems Engineering), while appointed as Research Instructor in George Mason University’s Center of Excellence in Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence. Dr. Overmyer has nearly 10 years of industrial experience, followed by over 30 years of academic experience. During his academic career, he was awarded two summer faculty fellowships at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and a National Science Foundation research grant. While an Associate Professor at Drexel University, he was also the Founding Director of the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for Information Technology, a five-week summer residential program for talented high school students. Internationally, he served at Subject Coordinator for both Software Engineering and Information Systems while at Massey University in New Zealand, and taught for 3 years as a founding Professor of Computer Science at Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Jeshwanth Challagundla is a Senior Machine Learning Software Engineer at Google, where I focus on advancing the capabilities of machine learning models and AI-driven systems. My primary work has been with the Gemini project, where I led the development and launch of the advanced data analysis feature and seamlessly integrating it with Google Workspace and other tools. I have architected scalable infrastructure for agent orchestration, dynamic prompting and multi-step planning, which enhances model adaptability and flexibility across diverse tasks. My work has also involved improving model quality using prompt engineering, fine-turning and reinforcement learning. Before Google, I worked on autonomous driving technologies at General Motors, where I helped improve perception and localization for autonomous vehicles. I have a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington, where my research focused on second-order optimization for neural network training, and I’ve published papers on topics ranging from optimization to autonomous robotics. In addition to my engineering work, I regularly contribute to the research community by reviewing papers for leading conferences like NeurIPS, ICLR, and IEEE Transactions. My interests span LLMs, deep learning, computer vision, and agentic workflows. I’m continuously seeking new ways to push the boundaries of AI and multimodal understanding to solve complex, real-world problems.

Soham is a third CSE PhD student at University of Washington in the AI for biomedical sciences (AIMS) Lab. Prior to starting his Ph.D, he spent a year as a data engineer at Microsoft in the Windows Experience team. Soham completed his master’s from Stanford in Computer Science with a depth in AI, where he was a research assistant in the Computational Neuroimage Science Lab (CNSLAB) and part of the AI for Healthcare (AIHC) bootcamp in the Stanford ML Group. Soham’s research lies at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare, focusing on understanding the reasoning processes of machine learning models. He is developing AI techniques to increase model interpretability in settings where features are not trivial to obtain (like Emergency Medicine), auditing AI models to make them more trustworthy by exploring causal relationships between inputs and predictions, and using multi-modal datasets (images, text, time-series, etc.) with deep learning to perform diagnoses and treatment of various ailments.

Hazrat Bilal received his MS degree in Control Science and Engineering in 2018 from Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, China, and his PhD degree in Control Science and Engineering in 2024 from the University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, respectively. His research interests include robot control, fault diagnosis of robot manipulator, trajectory tracking of manipulator, Autonomous driving and Artificial Intelligence. In 2018, considering his research achievement, the Nanjing University of Science and Technology awarded him with the outstanding graduate award, while the University of Science and Technology of China award him CAS-TWAS Fellow Award. He is currently a member of IEEE, Member of IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, and Member of IEEE Control Systems Society.

I am located in Atlanta USA heading in AI based product for Retail Industry in North America. I bring over 13+ years of hands-on experience in artificial intelligence and machine learning, spanning both from independent research at IEEE and industry leadership for Retail Industry through my organization. As the Head of AI based Product Management at TCS, I spearhead the development and implementation of AI solutions that are now industry benchmarks for Retail Merchandising and Sustainable Operations. My unique perspective combines deep technical expertise in neural networks and natural language processing with a strong focus on responsible AI development and governance. I've 12 patents published and granted across India, USA, Europe and Australia. I have also published on AI solutions and adaption in leading journals, and trade media. I frequently speak at IEEE conferences on emerging AI trends. My current role as a Product head and advisor to 2 AI-based platform TCS Optumera and TCS Omnistore has kept me at the forefront of cutting-edge developments in the field.

Stephen Afrifa is a PhD candidate in Information and Communication Engineering at Tianjin University, China. He also holds a Master of Science in Engineering in the field Information and Communication Engineering from the same University. Additionally, he holds a first class bacherlor of Science Information Technology from the University of Energy and NAtural Resources, Ghana. Afrifa's work is characterized by its interdisciplinary approach, integrating various advanced computational techniques to address complex challenges in diverse domains. In climate modeling, he utilizes AI to predict and analyze climate patterns, aiming to contribute to more accurate and reliable climate forecasts, such as groundwater level changes. His expertise in applied machine learning and NLP is evident through his development of sophisticated algorithms that enhance the understanding and processing of human language by machines. In the realm of cybersecurity, Afrifa's research focuses on leveraging AI to develop robust security systems that can detect and mitigate cyber threats more effectively. His contributions are aimed at improving the resilience and security of digital infrastructures (IoT, networked computers, robots) against evolving cyber threats.

Srijita Basu is currently working as a postdoc researcher at Chalmers, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. She received her PhD in the year 2023 from Indian Institute of Information Technology, India. She has an overall academic and research experience of 8 years. Her domain of expertise includes but is not limited to Cloud Computing, Cybersecurity, Autonomous Software Security, Software Defined Networking, and Blockchain. She has published in several reputed conferences and IEEE transactions as well as acted as reviewer for several international conferences and journals like, The Journal of Systems & Software, CMC: Computers, Materials & Continua, Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience, Journal of Cloud Computing, etc.