Dr. Sanjeev Ratna Singh, Consultant, Network 18

Prof. (Dr.) Sanjeev Singh is one of India’s leading digital broadcast leaders with over 23 years as a journalist, editor, and multimedia content producer in senior positions in Digital, TV, and Print before moving to academia. Before serving as Dean, Times School of Media at Bennett University, he was Professor, and Associate Dean, School of Modern Media, UPES Dehradun where his primary work involved revamping the curriculum, building a futuristic digital studio, imparting industry ready skills to students, and handling international partnerships. He also serves as a consultant for one of India’s largest media networks – Network18.

In his earlier avatar as a media professional, he served as Editor, Digital Broadcasting, Times Internet, where his work included creating digital video and audio content for The Times of India and nine other online platforms of the Times Group including Navbharat Times, Maharashtra Times, Vijay Kannada, Ei Samay, I Am Gujarat and other regional languages (across Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam).

As the head of the centralised digital multimedia broadcasting content engine for the Times Group – he led a team of multimedia professionals across several cities and worked closely with Times journalists in 55 print editions around the country and overseas. His responsibilities included creating original content, overseeing daily digital video news bulletins, audio podcasts, weekly shows and special Group productions (Vote’19, Budget With Times, TOI In Depth).

He also managed the production of new audio podcast programming initiatives in partnership with global universities like Harvard India Centre, Columbia University, and other content partners.

Singh was a part of the launch team for creating several data-based interactive media properties using data and video for 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Union Budgets (2018-21) and several assembly elections (2016-2020).

Leszek Sliwko, Founder – CEO, Meta Analyzer, UK

Leszek Sliwko is an experienced IT professional with over two decades of expertise in Java/Scala development and Cloud/Cluster systems architecture. He has a strong understanding of the software development process and a proven ability to deliver effective solutions across various industries. He has worked in sectors such as the UK Government, Investment Banking, Financial Consultancy, and Telecommunications. In roles such as Team Lead, Technical Architect, and Principal Software Developer, Leszek has built a strong track record in team supervision and management. He was awarded a Ph.D in Parallel and Distributed Computing from the University of Westminster (London, UK) in 2019 for his work on developing a novel AI-driven load balancer for cloud systems. He has presented at international events such as IEEE conferences, Machine Intelligence Research Lab lectures, and popular seminars like Scala in the City, JVM Roundabout, and Scala Central.  He is keen on experimenting with the latest technologies, particularly those related to high-performance computing and machine learning. He actively reviews for several scientific journals, and his current research focuses on applying Machine Learning solutions for large-scale distributed workload orchestration.

Rudra Prasad Kasturi is a globally recognized strategist and AI-driven innovator with over two decades of leadership experience across digital transformation, scalable growth, and education initiatives. He is the Founder and CEO of AI Vidhyarthi, an initiative dedicated to democratizing AI education for students from non-metro and underrepresented regions across India, teaching in native languages like Telugu and Hindi.

Previously, Rudra served as Chief Strategy Officer at India Today Group, where he led AI-driven newsroom transformation, digital innovation, and new revenue strategies. His career also spans leadership roles at Times Group, Byju’s, Amazon, Yahoo!, Snapdeal, and Tencent, where he drove audience growth, new business models, and AI-led digital initiatives across India, APAC, and the Middle East. He is also the founder of the Kasturi Trust, supporting grassroots education, health, and livelihood programs. Rudra regularly mentors students at institutes like ITMI and Bennett University, helping prepare future-ready talent for India’s digital economy. As an advisor to leading startups and unicorns such as Tencent, CRED, Interakt, and Klook, Rudra brings deep strategic insight, operational expertise, and a passion for inclusive innovation. His experience will be invaluable to Sai University’s Industry Advisory Board, bridging academia, AI, and real-world applications.

Prof. (Dr). Thomas Hanne
University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern , Switzerland

Prof. Thomas Hanne received master’s degrees in economics and computer science, and a PhD in Economics. From 1999 to 2007 he worked at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics as senior scientist. Since then, he is Professor for Information Systems at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland and Head of the Competence Center Systems Engineering since 2012. Thomas Hanne is author of more than 200 journal articles, conference papers, and other publications and editor of several journals and special issues. His current research interests include computational intelligence, evolutionary algorithms, metaheuristics, optimization, simulation, multicriteria decision analysis, natural language processing, machine learning, systems engineering, software development, logistics, and supply chain management.

Prof. (Dr.) Sabrina Senatore
Department of Informatics of Università degli Studi di Salerno, Italy.

Prof. Sabrina Senatore is currently a full Professor at the Department of Informatics of Università degli Studi di Salerno, Italy. Dr. Senatore graduated and received the Ph. D. degree in Computer Sciences, both from the University of Salerno, Salerno, Italy, in 1999 and 2004 respectively. She is an associate professor with the of the University of Salerno. Dr. Senatore is a member of IEEE Computational Intelligence Society and a member of IEEE CIS Task Force on Intelligent Agents (TFIA). She is an Editorial Board member of journals: Information Sciences, Expert Systems and Applications, Applied Intelligence, International Journal of Computational Intelligence Theory and Practice (IJCITP) etc. Her current research interests include the development and application of intelligent systems based on the combination of techniques from Soft Computing, Computational Intelligence, Web Information Retrieval, Semantic Web and Software Agents, areas in which she has published extensively.

Dr. Varun Ojha
School of Computing, Newcastle University
UK

Dr Varun Ojha is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Artificial Intelligence at the School of Computing, Newcastle University. He is the Artificial Intelligence Theme Leader and Co-I on the EPSRC-funded National Edge AI Hub. His core research focuses on the Security, Explainability, and Trustworthiness of Artificial Intelligence. In the past, Dr Ojha served as a lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Reading, UK, and as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), Zurich, Switzerland. Before this, Dr Ojha was a Marie-Curie Fellow (funded by the European Commission) at the Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic. He received a PhD in computer science from the Technical University of Ostrava, the Czech Republic. In his early career, Dr Ojha received a research fellowship position funded by the Govt of India’s Dept of Science and Technology at the Visva-Bharati University, India. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and a Member of ACM. His research works are available in Publications, Google Scholar, and ORCID.

Prof. (Dr.) Xiao-Zhi Gao
University of Eastern Finland
Finland

Xiao-Zhi Gao received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the Harbin Institute of Technology, China in 1993 and 1996, respectively. He obtained his D.Sc. (Tech.) degree from the Helsinki University of Technology (now Aalto University), Finland in 1999. He is now working as a professor of data science at the University of Eastern Finland, Finland. Prof. Gao has published more than 500 technical papers on refereed journals and international conferences, and his current Google Scholar H-index is 50. His research interests are nature-inspired computing methods (e.g., neural networks, fuzzy logic, evolutionary computing, swarm intelligence, and artificial immune systems) with their applications in optimization, data mining, machine learning, networking, control, signal processing, and industrial electronics.

Dr. Sabri Pllana
Director – Centre for Smart Computing Continuum at Forschung Burgenland
Austria

Dr. Sabri Pllana holds a PhD degree in computer science from the Vienna University of Technology. His working experience in the last three decades include, senior scientist at the University of Vienna in Austria, associate professor in Sweden, director of a research center in Austria, and consultant for the World Bank. His research interests include: high performance computing (HPC), AI, modeling and optimization. He also studies properties of various kinds of socio-technical systems using innovative modelling and simulation techniques. He contributed to several EU-funded projects and he coordinated the FP7 project PEPPHER. Sabri Pllana is Senior Member of the IEEE, ACM member, associate editor of Computing journal (Springer), and HiPEAC member.

Dr. Shailendra Singh
TVS Motors, India

Dr. Shailendra Singh is a highly experienced data science professional with over 28 years of experience in the field of software R & D, data science, product management, patent portfolio, and technology planning and management. He is currently working as the Divisional Head – Data Science at the D&AI Group in TVS Motor, where he leads a team of analytics professionals and is focused on building AI/ML solutions to improve customer lifetime value using techniques such as predictive analytics, NLP, recommender systems, social media analytics, and computer vision.

Before his current role, Dr. Singh held several senior positions in the industry, including Data Science Product Head at the Cloud & Cognitive Services Division of Nokia Networks, Vice President – Data Analytics at DIMTS, Senior System Architect at Huawei Technologies, and Chief Engineer at Samsung Electronics.

Dr. Singh holds a Ph.D. from IIT Delhi, MSc from IIT Roorkee, and EGMP from IIM Bangalore, and has a wealth of experience working in various industries such as E-commerce, telecom, transportation, banking, and healthcare. With his rich background in software R&D, product management, and technology planning, Dr. Singh is well-equipped to lead his team in delivering cutting-edge AI solutions for his clients.

Dr. Pramod Kumar
Global Delivery Head /Vice President
Tech Mahindra Ltd., India

Dr. Pramod Kumar has been the Global Delivery Head for Tech Mahindra Ltd., India with 30+ years of experience in IT Industry working for Tier 1 Enterprises across the globe in various roles. Worked in client facing roles in USA, UK & Germany for more than 4 years. His specialization include E2E Delivery Management, Pre-Sales and Solutioning, Architecture, Design, Implementation partner as a Large SI, Consulting, Technical & Business solution mapped to ROI , P&L, , RFP/RFI/RFQ/Bid Mgmt. & Capability presentation, Release Management Vendor and Partner Management, Business Operations, Implementation, Pilot and Rollout Planning & Strong technical skills etc. He is an expert in BFSI, E-Governance, OSS, BSS, ERP, Healthcare, Govt. domain etc. and has been a Professor of Practice for SRM University, Amity University etc.

Dr. Ranadhir Ghosh
FIS Global Solutions
USA

Dr Ranadhir Ghosh is an AI thought leader and Data & AI Architect based in Jacksonville, USA. With over 30 years of experience in the fintech space, Ranadhir has a rich mix of finance, technology, and management expertise. He is a dynamic and innovative AI Solution Architect, known for driving digital transformation initiatives through advanced analytics, machine learning, and data engineering. Ranadhir has a proven track record of leading teams, managing end-to-end AI/ML ecosystems, and delivering impactful solutions that align with business strategies. He is passionate about building and cultivating talent in data science and fostering a culture of AI awareness and application within organizations. He has published more than 80 research papers and holds over 30 patents (published and under review). His notable projects include client experience transformation, AIOps for Future, and process automation for building risk models. Ranadhir’s educational background includes a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science from Bangalore University, a Master’s in IT (by Research) from Bond University, and a PhD in IT from Griffith University, Australia.

Prof. (Dr.) Arturas Kaklauskas, Ph.D D.Sc
Vilnius Gediminas Technical University
Lithuania

Professor Kaklauskas is a professor at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, in Lithuania; Head of the Department of Construction Management and Property; laureate of the Lithuanian Science Prize; member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, editor in chief of Journal of Civil Engineering and Management (Web of Science Q1 Journal), editor of Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence (Web of Science Q1 Journal), an international journal and associate editor of journal “Ecological Indicators” (Web of Science Q1 Journal). He contributed to nine Framework, five Horizon 2020 and two Horizon Europe programmes projects and participated in over 30 other projects in the EU, US, Africa and Asia. The Belarusian State Technological University (Minsk, Belarus) awarded him an Honorary Doctorate in 2014. His publications include nine books and 202 papers in Web of Science Journals. Seventeen PhD students successfully defended their theses under his supervision. The Web of Science H-Index of Prof. A. Kaklauskas is 34. Web of Science Journals have cited him 4715 times. His areas of interest include affective computing, neuroscience, affective Internet of Things, smart sustainable cities, Google opinion analytics, Twitter/X sentiment analysis, sentiment analysis, intelligent event prediction, intelligent decision support systems, life cycle analyses, multiple criteria sustainability analyses on countries, energy, climate change, resilience management, big data and text analytics, affective intelligent tutoring systems, massive smart open online courses (MOOCS), COVID-19, etc.

Prof. (Dr.) Albert Zomaya
Peter Nicol Russell Chair Professor of Computer Science
The University of Sydney
Australia

Professor Albert Y. Zomaya is currently is Peter Nicol Russell Chair Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Centre for Distributed and High-Performance Computing in the School of Computer Science at the University of Sydney, Australia.Prior to that he was the Chair Professor of High Performance Computing & Networking (2008-2021). Professor Zomaya was an Australian Research Council Professorial Fellow during 2010-2014 and held the CISCO Systems Chair Professor of Internetworking during the period 2002–2007 and also served as the Head of School for 2006–2007.

Prior to his current appointment he was a Full Professor in the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department at the University of Western Australia, where he also led the Parallel Computing Research Laboratory during the period 1990–2002. He served as Associate–, Deputy–, and Acting–Head in the same department, and held numerous visiting positions and has extensive industry involvement.

To date, he has published more than 700 scientific papers and articles and is (co-)author/editor of 30 books. A sought-after speaker, he has delivered more than 250 keynote addresses, invited seminars, and media briefings. He is currently the Editor in Chief of the ACM Computing Surveys and served in the past as Editor in Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Computers (2010-2014) and the IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Computing (2016-2020). Professor Zomaya is the Founding Editor of several book series, such as, the Wiley Book Series on Parallel and Distributed Computing and the IET Book Series on Big Data.

Dr. Sabri Pllana
Director – Centre for Smart Computing Continuum at Forschung Burgenland
Austria

Dr. Sabri Pllana holds a PhD degree in computer science from the Vienna University of Technology. His working experience in the last three decades include, senior scientist at the University of Vienna in Austria, associate professor in Sweden, director of a research center in Austria, and consultant for the World Bank. His research interests include: high performance computing (HPC), AI, modeling and optimization. He also studies properties of various kinds of socio-technical systems using innovative modelling and simulation techniques. He contributed to several EU-funded projects and he coordinated the FP7 project PEPPHER. Sabri Pllana is Senior Member of the IEEE, ACM member, associate editor of Computing journal (Springer), and HiPEAC member.

Prof. (Dr.) Yukio Ohsawa
The University of Tokyo
Japan

Prof. Yukio Ohsawa received the Ph.D. degree from the School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, in 1995. He is currently a Professor of systems innovation with the School of Engineering The University of Tokyo. Before moving back to The University of Tokyo, he was a Research Associate with the School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, from 1995 to 1999, and subsequently, he was an Associate Professor with the Graduate School of Business Sciences, University of Tsukuba, from 1999 to 2005. In the field of artificial intelligence, he has created a new domain known as “Chance Discovery” to discover events with significant impact on decision making. He has delivered many keynote talks about Chance Discovery at conferences, such as the International Symposium on Knowledge and Systems Sciences, the International Conference on Rough Sets and Fuzzy Sets, the Joint Conference on Information Sciences, and Knowledge-Based Intelligent Information and Engineering Systems. Chance Discovery has been embodied as an innovators’ marketplace, a methodology for innovation that is borrowed from principles of market dynamics. He has also published 100 journal articles and initiated symposia and workshops on data-based approaches to business innovation. His original concepts and technologies have been published as books and monographs by global publishers, such as Springer, Verlag, and Taylor and Francis. The two most important books among these are Chance Discovery (Springer, 2003, Eric von Hippel gave the opening) and Innovators’ Marketplace: Using Games to Activate and Train Innovators (Springer, 2012, Larry Leifer gave the opening). He has edited special issues as a Guest Editor for journals mainly related to chance discovery such as Intelligent Decision Technologies (2016), Information Sciences (2009), New Generation Computing (2003), and the Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management (2002).

Prof. (Dr.) Keshav Dahal
University of West Scotland
UK

Professor Keshav Dahal is a chair in Intelligent Systems and the Director of Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Communication and Networks (AVCN) research institute and Director of DeLTA (Data Analytics for Intelligent and Autonomous Systems) Research Group at UWS. He has also been appointed as a visiting professor at Amity University India, Kantipur Engineering College Nepal and Chiang Mai University Thailand. He has an extensive experience in terms of research supervision and management of funded projects. He has been principal/co-investigator of 26 EU/UK/Industry funded projects worth over £30 million. He has successfully supervised the completions of 11 Post-Doctoral and 30 PhD studies. Prof. Dahal has published over 200 peer-reviewed journals/conferences papers and 4 edited books, and has sat on organising/programme committees of over 60 reputed international conferences; including as the General Chair and the Programme Chair.

Professor Dahal’s current research activities lie in the areas of applications of data science, AI and blockchain technology for modelling, analyss and solving challenging real-world problems. The application domains of his current work are in the Optimisation/Scheduling, Disaster Management, Remote Healthcare Systems, Communication Networks and Electrical Power Systems. Recently, he has worked on a number of projects funded by EU and Innovate UK: 3 KTP projects funded by InnivateUK and 3 local businesses – Little ltd (2019-2022), PG Paper (2023-2026), WellFish Tech (2023-2026); 3 EU funded eACCESS (2019-2024), Sunspace (2018-2023) and Biper projects (2020-2023). He has coordinated a consortium of 20 partners for EU Erasmus Mundus Action 2 ‘SmartLink’ project (2014-2019) focusing on the applications of smart technologies to a wide range of application domains. He was the local coordinator of EU ‘gLINK’ project (2014-2019) focusing on the applications of smart technologies. He was also a co-investigator of the EU H2020-ICT-2014-2 “SELFNET – Framework for Self-organized network management in virtualized and software defended networks” project (2015-2018). Currently, 7 PhDs and 2 KTP associates are working under his supervision.

Professor Dahal’s research direction is to develop hybrid frameworks to bring together inter-disciplinary Machine learning, Decision making and Data mining algorithms for solving complex problems in wider application domains. This includes Big Data Analytics for processing and learning from overwhelming amount of data generated by web, IoTs and sensors for useful information for problems, such as service delivery, cyber physical systems security, personalised health treatment, fraud detection, national intelligence etc.

Dr. Shailendra Singh
TVS Motors, India

Dr. Shailendra Singh is a highly experienced data science professional with over 28 years of experience in the field of software R & D, data science, product management, patent portfolio, and technology planning and management. He is currently working as the Divisional Head – Data Science at the D&AI Group in TVS Motor, where he leads a team of analytics professionals and is focused on building AI/ML solutions to improve customer lifetime value using techniques such as predictive analytics, NLP, recommender systems, social media analytics, and computer vision.

Before his current role, Dr. Singh held several senior positions in the industry, including Data Science Product Head at the Cloud & Cognitive Services Division of Nokia Networks, Vice President – Data Analytics at DIMTS, Senior System Architect at Huawei Technologies, and Chief Engineer at Samsung Electronics.

Dr. Singh holds a Ph.D. from IIT Delhi, MSc from IIT Roorkee, and EGMP from IIM Bangalore, and has a wealth of experience working in various industries such as E-commerce, telecom, transportation, banking, and healthcare. With his rich background in software R&D, product management, and technology planning, Dr. Singh is well-equipped to lead his team in delivering cutting-edge AI solutions for his clients.

Dr. Pramod Kumar
Global Delivery Head /Vice President
Tech Mahindra Ltd., India

Dr. Pramod Kumar has been the Global Delivery Head for Tech Mahindra Ltd., India with 30+ years of experience in IT Industry working for Tier 1 Enterprises across the globe in various roles. Worked in client facing roles in USA, UK & Germany for more than 4 years. His specialization include E2E Delivery Management, Pre-Sales and Solutioning, Architecture, Design, Implementation partner as a Large SI, Consulting, Technical & Business solution mapped to ROI , P&L, , RFP/RFI/RFQ/Bid Mgmt. & Capability presentation, Release Management Vendor and Partner Management, Business Operations, Implementation, Pilot and Rollout Planning & Strong technical skills etc. He is an expert in BFSI, E-Governance, OSS, BSS, ERP, Healthcare, Govt. domain etc. and has been a Professor of Practice for SRM University, Amity University etc.

Dr. Ranadhir Ghosh
FIS Global Solutions
USA

Dr Ranadhir Ghosh is an AI thought leader and Data & AI Architect based in Jacksonville, USA. With over 30 years of experience in the fintech space, Ranadhir has a rich mix of finance, technology, and management expertise. He is a dynamic and innovative AI Solution Architect, known for driving digital transformation initiatives through advanced analytics, machine learning, and data engineering. Ranadhir has a proven track record of leading teams, managing end-to-end AI/ML ecosystems, and delivering impactful solutions that align with business strategies. He is passionate about building and cultivating talent in data science and fostering a culture of AI awareness and application within organizations. He has published more than 80 research papers and holds over 30 patents (published and under review). His notable projects include client experience transformation, AIOps for Future, and process automation for building risk models. Ranadhir’s educational background includes a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science from Bangalore University, a Master’s in IT (by Research) from Bond University, and a PhD in IT from Griffith University, Australia.

Prof. (Dr.) Ana Madureira
Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto
Portugal

Prof. Ana Madureira received the B.S. in Computer Science Engineering, M.S. degree in Electrical and Computers Engineering, Ph.D. in Production and Systems degrees, Habilitation in Informatics, in 1993, 1996, 2003 and 2022, respectively. She is Coordinator Professor with Habilitation at ISEP/P.PORTO and has a significant experience in teaching Computer Science undergraduate and graduate courses and in master and PhD thesis supervision (since 1994). Ana Madureira is Director of Interdisciplinary Studies Research Center (ISRC). She has been involved in more than 20 R & D projects from which she was principal investigator of 4 R&D projects, mainly on the AI based developing of intelligent systems. Ana Madureira has a patent published on this research area “Multi-Agent System for Distributed Manufacturing Scheduling with Genetic Algorithms and Tabu Search”. She was Chair of IEEE Portugal Section (2015-2017) and she is IEEE Senior Member since 2010. She has published 8 books and over than 150 papers in international scientific conference proceedings, journals and book chapters. Chair of 20 special sessions. She has participated in the organization of 11 Intational Scientific Conferences, 50 International Program Committees and organized more than 15 special sessions. Also participated as Invited Editor of 3 journals and as associate editor for IEEE TNNLS and EAAI, editor of 8 books and more than 17 proceedings of International Scientific Conferences. Her main research areas are related to the application of Optimization and Artificial Intelligence Techniques to the design of approaches based on Nature Inspired Computation for scheduling on
Manufacturing Systems, including, Meta-Heuristics, Evolutionary Computation, Swarm Intelligence, Machine Learning techniques, User preferences modelling, Intelligent and adaptative interfaces for
Intelligent Scheduling Systems, Decision Support Systems, Data Science/Data Engineering and Data-driven Healthcare.

Prof. Madureira has been a lecturer at the Institute of Engineering from Polytechnic Institute of Porto since 1994. She is currently Coordinator Professor with Habilitation, in the Department of Informatics Engineering of ISEP/ P. Porto, where she has taught curricular units at the level of Bachelor, Licentiate and Master in Computer Engineering. He taught a module under the Doctoral Program in Informatics at UTAD. She has taught a wide range of curricular units, having been regent and taught the theoretical classes of 15 different curricular units at the level of the bachelor’s degree and the master’s Degree. She supervised more than 7 PhD thesis and more than 35 master’s thesis. She participated in 5 Juries of PhD assessments as principal and in more than 54 master’s Juries. Supervised about 80 Projects/Internships in the degree in Computer Engineering. Elaborated pedagogical material to support the curricular units taught. He taught a course under the Community teacher exchange programme SOCRATES. Participated in the elaboration of the Syllabus within the scope of the CDIO Initiative for the Bachelor’s and master’s degree in computer engineering of ISEP.

Prof.(Dr.) Patrick Siarry
University of Paris-Est Créteil, France

Patrick Siarry was born in France in 1952. He received the Ph.D. degree in computer science and optimization from University Paris VI, Paris, France, in 1986, and the Doctor of Sciences (Habilitation) degree in computer science and optimization from University Paris XI, Orsay, France, in 1994. He was first involved in the development of analog and digital models of nuclear power plants with Electricité de France, Paris. Since 1995, he has been a Professor of Automatics and Informatics with Université Paris-Est Créteil, Créteil, France. His main research interests include computer-aided design of electronic circuits, cognitive intelligence, and the applications of new stochastic global optimization heuristics to various engineering fields, also including the fitting of process models to experimental data, the learning of fuzzy rule bases, and neural networks.

Prof.(Dr.) James F. Peters
University of Winnipeg
Canada

Prof. James F. Peters, B.Sc.(Math), M.Sc.(Math), Ph.D. (CS & Math in Constructive Specification of Communicating Systems), was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Syracuse University and a Researcher in the Rome AI Laboratory, Griffiss Air Force Base, New York in 1991. He served as an Asst. Prof. at the University of Arkansas from 1991-1994, and a Researcher in the Mission Sequencing and Deep Space Telecommunications Divisions at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech, Pasadena, California between 1991-1994. He joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), University of Manitoba, Canada in 1995. He is now a Full Professor at the ECE Department, University of Manitoba. He has published over 353 journal articles, 47 edited volumes and books, 111 conference papers and 84 book chapters, 11 technical reports, with an average of 10 journal articles per year during the past 5 years. His Erdös number is 2. His main research interests are computational geometry, topology and proximity spaces in the mathematics of characteristics near sets with applications in Computer Vision. He introduced near sets in 2002 and formally introduced descriptively near sets in 2007, tolerance near sets in 2009, descriptive proximity spaces in 2011, topology and proximity spaces in 2012, computational proximity in 2016, computational geometry, topology and physics of digital images in 2017- 2021.

Since 2013, he has published 5 books including foundations of computer vision that include applications of AI:
➢ James F. Peters, Computational Geometry, Topology and Physics of Digital Images with Applications. Shape Complexes, Optical Vortex Nerves and Proximities, 2020, Springer Nature, Switzerland AG.
➢ James F. Peters, Foundations of Computer Vision. Computational Geometry, Visual Image Structures and Object Shape Recognition, 2017, Springer Int. Publishing, Switzerland.
➢ James F. Peters, Computational Proximity. Excursions in the Topology of Digital Images, 2016, Springer Int. Publishing, Switzerland.
➢ James F. Peters, Topology of Digital Images: Visual Pattern Discovery via Proximity Spaces, 2014, Springer, Berlin.
➢ James F. Peters and Som Naimpally Topology with Applications: Topological Spaces via Near and Far, 2013, published by World Scientific, Singapore.

He has co-edited the following books:
➢ James F. Peters and S.K.Pal, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India, Rough Fuzzy Image Analysis: Foundations and Methodologies, published in 2010 by Chapman & Hall/CRC Press.
➢ E. Orlowska, G. Rozenberg, James F. Peters, A. Skowron, New Frontiers in Scientific Discovery Commemorating the Life and Work of Zdzislaw Pawlak, published in 2007 by IOS Press.

He served as the Founding Editor and co-Editor-in-Chief of Springer Transactions on Rough Sets Journal.

A complete list of his publications can be found on:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/James-Peters-3

Prof. (Dr.) Irina Perfilieva
University of Ostrava
Czech Republic

Professor Irina Perfilieva, Ph.D., received the degrees of M.S. (1975) and Ph.D(1980) in Applied Mathematics from the Lomonosov State University in Moscow, Russia. She is Professor Honoris Causa in Amity Institute of Information Technology, Noida, India, and Doctor Honoris Causa in the University of Latvia, Latvia. At present, she is full professor of Applied Mathematics in the University of Ostrava, Czech Republic.
She is the author and co-author of six books on mathematical principles of fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic, the co-editor of one book and many special issues of scientific journals. She has published over 270 papers in the area of multi-valued logic, fuzzy logic, fuzzy approximation and fuzzy relation equations. She is an area editor of Soft Computing, member of editorial boards of the following journals: Fuzzy Sets and Systems, IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, Journal of Computational Intelligence Research, Iranian Journal of Fuzzy Systems. She works as a member of Program Committees of the most prestigious International Conferences and Congresses in the area of fuzzy and knowledge-based systems.

For her many years of scientific achievements, she has received several awards, including an IFSA fellow and an honorary member of EUSFLAT. She received the 1st memorial Da Ruan award in 2012. She has two patents in the area of time series processing and the Internet service technique.

Her research interests are in the areas of fuzzy logic, mathematical modeling based on rigorous functional analysis, image processing, and complex numerical methods. She has recently published several papers on the mathematics of machine learning and neural network computations.

She is the author of the generally accepted method of fuzzy transforms, successfully used in image and time series processing, numerical analysis and methods to solve differential and differential-integral equations, including fractional ones and those over fuzzy-valued functions. Her recent interests are in the area of data analysis and the mathematical foundation of neural networks. She successfully uses modern as well as classical approaches.

According to ScholarGPS analytics, she is a highly ranked lifetime scholar, ranking 9th in the field of fuzzy logic.

Prof.(Dr.) Soumya Banerjee
University of Cambridge
UK

Prof. Soumya Banerjee is a senior research fellow at the University of Cambridge, UK. He has a PhD in Computer Science and has worked in Los Alamos National Laboratories, USA while he was in graduate school. Prior to graduate school, he was a software engineer working in the financial services sector for Fortune 500 clients. His work is at the intersection of computer science and biological systems – he uses tools from computer science to study biological systems and takes inspiration from biological systems to design more efficient human-engineered systems. He is skilled in machine learning techniques and mathematical modelling using spatially explicit agent-based models and computationally tractable differential equation models. He works closely with people from other domains, especially experimentalists and clinicians. His work has been recognized with a University of New Mexico Student Award for Innovation in Informatics in 2010.

He takes pride in writing industrial-strength software, which he attributes to years working in industry and skills honed in academia. As of January 2015, he was ranked within the top 200 worldwide on MATLAB Central (an online repository for Matlab code contributed by users all over the world).
He is a researcher in ethical artificial intelligence applied to complex systems. He applies artificial intelligence techniques to solve human problems. He is also very passionate about outreach, science communication and policy for using science for social good.

Prof. (Dr.) Seán McLoone
Queens University of Belfast
UK

Prof. Seán McLoone is Director of the Centre for Intelligent Autonomous Manufacturing Systems at QUB. He has expertise spanning 30 years in AI and computational intelligence techniques, with a particular interest in Industry 4.0/5.0 applications, including AI enhanced collaborative robotics, condition monitoring, process optimisation, energy efficiency and sustainability. He has graduated over 30 PhD students, published more than 270 international peer reviewed journal and conference papers on his research, and secured funding in excess of £25M (£6M as PI). At QUB, he is a member of the AMIC Academic Board and Digital Factory Technology Strategy Group. Externally he serves on the Editorial Board of Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, the IFAC Technical Committee on Computational Intelligence and Control (TC 3.2) and the AI and Data Grand Challenges Research Committee of the UK Advanced Control Engineering (ACE) network. He has previously served as a Member of the Board of Directors of Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR) (2014-2021), as Chairman of the UK & Ireland Section of the IEEE (2006-2009), as Head of the Department of Electronic Engineering at Maynooth University (2009-2012), and as Director of the Energy Power and Intelligent Control Research Centre at QUB (2012-2024).

Prof.(Dr.) Dalia Kriksciuniene
Vilnius university
Lithuania

Prof. Kriksciuniene is a Professor of the Department of Informatics of Vilnius University in Lithuania, She‘s got her Diploma of engineer-mathematician at Kaunas University of Technology (Lithuania), and the degree of doctor of social sciences (management and administration) in 2004 at University of Management and Economics (Lithuania). Dalia Kriksciuniene is the member of the International Advisory Council for the Marketing Profession (IACMP). She published numerous articles, where about 20 of them have been presented in the international conferences and included to publications, indexed by Thomson Scientific database, Springer, IEEE and other scientific databases. Dr. Kriksciuniene served as program committee chair of the scientific workshops and streams, organized in conjunction with many prestigious scientific conferences, Dalia has experience as member of editorial and program committees, reviewer and sessions chair at international scientific conferences. She’s got her experience of professional practice in the positions of Marketing and information systems manager at Baltic Clipper Ltd. (1994-2000) and director of J. Masiulis Ltd. Bookstore “Knygu aleja” (2001-2004). She is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Institute of Marketing Professionals Journal and Member of the International Advisory Council for the Marketing Profession (IACMP).

Prof.(Dr). Bernard De Baets
Ghent University,
Belgium

Prof. Bernard De Baets is a senior full professor in applied mathematics at the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering of Ghent University, a top-ranked Belgian university. He is leading the research unit KERMIT and acts as head of the Department of Data Analysis and Mathematical Modelling. He has been an affiliated professor at the Anton de Kom Universiteit (Suriname). Bernard is an Honorary Professor of Budapest Tech (Hungary), a Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Turku (Finland), a Profesor Invitado of the Universidad Central “Marta Abreu” de las Villas (Cuba) and a Professor Extraordinarius of the University of South Africa. As a trained mathematician, computer scientist and knowledge engineer, Bernard has developed a passion for multi- and interdisciplinary research.

While being deeply involved in fundamental research in three interlaced research threads, namely knowledge-based, predictive and spatio-temporal modelling, he also aims at innovative applications in bioscience engineering. Over the past 25 years, 108 PhD students have graduated under his (co-)supervision. Bernard is a prolific writer, with a bibliography comprising over 700 peer-reviewed journal papers, accumulating more than 36000 Google Scholar citations (h-index 91). Several of his works have been bestowed upon with a best paper award. Moreover, he is a much-invited speaker, having delivered over 250 lectures world-wide. He actively serves the research community, in particular as co-editor-in-chief of Fuzzy Sets and Systems and as a member of the editorial board of several other journals. In 2011, he was elected Fellow of IFSA (International Fuzzy Systems Association) and, in 2012, he was a nominee for the Ghent University Prometheus Award for Research. In 2019, he received the EUSFLAT Scientific Excellence Award and in 2021 he was declared an Honorary Member of the EUSFLAT Society.