Dr. Steven H. H. Ding is an Assistant Professor at McGill University's School of Information Studies, specializing in cybersecurity, machine learning, and data mining. His research focuses on AI-driven solutions for malware detection, software vulnerability analysis, and reverse engineering. He holds a PhD from McGill University and has been supported by BlackBerry Cylance and DRDC. His work bridges theoretical advancements with practical applications in military systems and avionics cybersecurity. Dr. Ding earned his PhD in 2019 with notable awards including the FRQNT Doctoral Research Scholarship and McGill's Dean’s Graduate Award. His educational background includes degrees from McGill, Concordia University, and the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology. His research interests span cybersecurity domains such as zero-day malware identification, code obfuscation countermeasures, authorship verification for digital forensics, and AI applications in avionics anomaly detection. He actively contributes to open-source tools like the Kam1n0 MapReduce-based assembly clone search system. Recent work emphasizes adversarial machine learning for evasive malware generation, transformer-based anomaly detection in avionics, and automated SBOM generation for firmware analysis. His publications reflect a focus on real-world cybersecurity challenges in both civilian and defense sectors. Dr. Ding leads the L1NNA Lab and collaborates with industry partners on cutting-edge projects. His contributions include novel techniques for phishing detection leveraging large language models and innovative approaches to reverse engineering software composition in JavaScript applications.
Professor Peter Y. K. Cheung is a Professor of Digital Systems at Imperial College London, holding dual affiliations within the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and the Dyson School of Design Engineering. His work focuses on reconfigurable systems, FPGA architectures, and high-level synthesis tools. He co-founded one of the UK's leading FPGA research groups with Professor Wayne Luk, addressing challenges in variability mitigation, reliability, and application-specific FPGA deployments. His research spans Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) Reconfigurable computing Neural network acceleration Cryptographic protocols Embedded systems He has pioneered techniques such as logic shrinkage for FPGA-based neural networks and developed frameworks like LUTNet for efficient inference. His contributions also include fault-tolerant FPGA designs and methodologies for distributed computation protocols. Key collaborations include work with the Department of Computing on FPGA-based AI acceleration and cybersecurity applications. His recent work explores edge computing, secure decentralized systems, and pandemic modeling using adaptive control strategies. Notable projects include the DSCS protocol for secure distributed computation, acceleration of gravitational wave detection algorithms, and energy-efficient CNN implementations. His research bridges hardware-software co-design with real-world applications in healthcare, finance, and aerospace.
Yuankai (Kenny) Tao is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Vanderbilt University's School of Engineering and an SPIE Faculty Fellow. He directs the Graduate Studies program in Biomedical Engineering and leads research in optical imaging systems for clinical diagnostics and therapeutic monitoring in ophthalmology, gastroenterology, and oncology. His lab develops technologies like intraoperative OCT and SECTR, focusing on noninvasive subcellular visualization and biomarker monitoring. Collaborations span engineering, basic sciences, and medicine to translate innovations into clinical tools. Education: Ph.D., Biomedical Engineering, Duke University M.S., Biomedical Engineering, Duke University B.S.E., Biomedical Engineering and Electrical Engineering, Duke University Research Interests: Biomedical optics, optical coherence tomography (OCT), image-guided surgery, therapeutic monitoring, big data analytics, and high-throughput imaging for drug discovery. His work bridges engineering and medicine, emphasizing real-time feedback systems and interdisciplinary innovation. Grants & Labs: Director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Surgery and Engineering (VISE)-affiliated lab, focusing on surgical imaging and translational research. Projects include automated instrument tracking, SECTR systems, and AI-driven imaging analysis. Collaborations involve clinicians and researchers across disciplines.
Aditya Prakash is an Associate Professor and Associate Chair for Academic Affairs in the School of Computational Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech. He holds a PhD from Carnegie Mellon University (2012) and a B.Tech from IIT Bombay (2007). His research focuses on data science, machine learning, and AI applied to epidemiology, healthcare, security, and urban computing. His work has led to impactful tools used by organizations like CDC, ORNL, and Walmart. Notable awards include the NSF CAREER Award (2018) and IEEE's 'AI Ten to Watch' (2017). Education: PhD (Computer Science, CMU, 2012), B.Tech (IIT Bombay, 2007) Research Interests: Epidemic forecasting, network analysis, healthcare informatics, and large-scale data-driven solutions for societal challenges. He has authored over 80 papers and holds two patents. His lab develops methods for disease modeling, urban infrastructure analysis, and cybersecurity. Key projects include the NSF-funded BEHIVE initiative for pandemic prediction and collaborations with MIDAS network for infectious disease modeling. Awards: NSF CAREER, Facebook Faculty Award, IEEE AI Recognition, and multiple best-paper awards. His group advises students across PhD, MS, and undergraduate levels, with notable alumni in academia and industry. Labs & Affiliations: Core faculty at ML@GT (Machine Learning Center) and IDEaS (Institute for Data Engineering and Science). Active in organizing conferences like AAAI, KDD, and SIGMOD.
Gaetano Valenza is an Associate Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Pisa, Italy, where he leads the Neuro-Cardiovascular Intelligence Lab at the Enrico Piaggio Research Centre. He holds affiliations with the Neuroscience Statistics Research Laboratory at MIT and has served as a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. His academic work spans bioengineering, computational physiology, and affective computing. His research focuses on statistical and nonlinear biomedical signal and image processing , cardiovascular and neural modeling , and physiologically interpretable artificial intelligence . He develops wearable systems for physiological monitoring, with applications in autonomic nervous system assessment, brain-heart interactions, and mental health. His work has led to novel metrics such as the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic activity indices derived from ECG. The 15 most recent publications reflect a consistent trend in brain-heart interplay , complexity analysis of physiological signals , explainable AI in healthcare , and virtual reality applications in mental health . His work integrates advanced signal processing, nonlinear dynamics, and machine learning to decode emotional and cognitive states from physiological data. Dr. Valenza is a Senior Member of IEEE and serves on several technical committees. He is an active editorial leader, currently serving as Associate Editor for IEEE-EMBC , Plos One , Complexity , and Scientific Reports , and has guest-edited special issues in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A and IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics . He has led or participated in numerous international research projects, including FP7 and H2020 initiatives such as NEVERMIND and EXPERIENCE. He teaches courses in Biostatistics, Probability & Biostatistics, and Advanced Image Processing at the University of Pisa. As lab head and project coordinator, he leads a multidisciplinary team working on neuro-cardiovascular intelligence, wearable systems, and AI-driven mental health interventions.
Dr. Zara Ersozlu is a Senior Lecturer in Mathematics Education within the School of Education at the University of Newcastle, Australia. With a distinguished international career spanning multiple continents, she has held academic positions at prestigious institutions including North Carolina State University (USA), Gazi and Gaziosmanpasa Universities (Turkey), National Taiwan Normal University (Taiwan), The University of Western Australia, Murdoch University, and Deakin University. Her academic journey includes tenured positions as an Associate Professor and leadership roles as Department Head and Chair in teacher education disciplines. Currently, she teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses in mathematics education, including Effective Pedagogies in Primary Mathematics, K-6 Mathematics, K-6 Numeracy, and Digitally Supported Learning. Dr. Ersozlu earned her Doctor of Philosophy from Firat University in Turkey and her Master of Art from Sakarya University. Her extensive academic preparation is complemented by five years of practical teaching experience in public schools prior to entering academia. This blend of theoretical knowledge and practical classroom experience informs her approach to teacher education and educational research. At the broadest level, Dr. Ersozlu's research investigates solutions to real-life problems impacting people's well-being, success, and capacity to achieve. Her scholarly work spans primary and secondary mathematics education, the psychology of mathematics (including metacognition, self-regulation, and anxiety), cross-cultural educational studies, teacher education, virtual simulated learning environments, and educational assessment. She has increasingly focused on the transformative potential of AI and machine learning in education, exploring how these technologies alter teaching, learning, and research processes. Her methodological expertise encompasses both quantitative and qualitative approaches, allowing her to effectively analyze both small and large educational datasets. Analysis of Dr. Ersozlu's recent publications reveals a strong emphasis on mathematics anxiety, teacher education, and the integration of technology in learning environments. Her work demonstrates a consistent focus on practical applications of educational research to address real-world challenges in mathematics education. The interdisciplinary nature of her research connects educational psychology, technology integration, and cross-cultural perspectives, with particular attention to how these elements intersect in teacher preparation and student learning outcomes. 2023 ATEA Research Recognition Award from the Australian Teacher Education Association 2021 Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (Advance HE, UK) 2010 Fellowship Program for Postdoctoral Researchers from the Council of Higher Education of Turkey Dr. Ersozlu is deeply committed to mentoring the next generation of scholars, currently supervising four PhD students and having successfully guided ten students to completion. Her grant portfolio includes significant funding for projects such as Best Practice Guidelines for RPL in Initial Teacher Education Programs ($60,000), Exploring the Reciprocal Relationship Between Mathematics Anxiety and Mathematical Resilience ($2,599), and multiple conference travel awards. She serves as an Associate Editor for several prominent journals including the International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education and as Editor for Interdisciplinary STEM Education. Her editorial work reflects her standing as a respected voice in mathematics education research. Dr. Ersozlu's academic leadership extends to her role in developing innovative teaching approaches that integrate virtual simulation technology and learning analytics. Her work with TeachLivE™, a mixed-reality classroom simulation platform, demonstrates her commitment to creating authentic learning experiences for teacher education students. Through these initiatives, she bridges the gap between educational theory and classroom practice, preparing future educators to effectively implement evidence-based teaching strategies in diverse learning environments.
Gabriele Farina is an Assistant Professor at MIT in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) and the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS), with additional affiliations at the Operations Research Center (ORC). Holding the X-Window Consortium Career Development Chair, his research focuses on theoretical and algorithmic foundations for learning and computational decision-making under imperfect information, integrating game theory, machine learning, optimization, and statistics. He previously served as a Research Scientist at Meta's Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) group, where he contributed to Cicero, a human-level AI agent combining strategic reasoning and natural language. Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University (advisor: Tuomas Sandholm) Facebook Fellowship (2019-2020) in Economics and Computation Recipient of multiple awards including ACM SIGecom dissertation award, NSF CAREER, and AI2050 Early Career Fellow His research spans four key areas: (1) No-Regret Learning Dynamics in extensive-form games; (2) Correlation and Mediated Equilibria in sequential decision-making; (3) Team Games and Team Max-Min Equilibria; and (4) Human Modeling and Equilibrium Perfection. His work addresses challenges in scalable equilibrium computation, stability of learning algorithms, and robustness to mistakes in multi-agent systems. Recent publications highlight advancements in polynomial-time equilibrium computation, cautious optimism algorithms, and connections between regret minimization and mirror descent. These contributions appear in top venues like COLT, NeurIPS, ICML, and AAAI, with keywords spanning game theory, optimization, and machine learning. NSF CAREER award AI2050 Early Career Fellow Facebook Fellowship ACM SIGecom dissertation award GameSec 2024 best paper award ICLR 2023 outstanding paper honorable mention His research group at MIT collaborates on projects involving strategic reasoning, human-level AI agents, and equilibrium refinements, with applications to games like Diplomacy and poker. Current efforts include developing faster algorithms for correlated equilibria and exploring connections between machine learning and economic theory.
Minjie Chen is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment at Princeton University, serving as Acting Associate Director for Research at the Andlinger Center. He leads the Princeton Power Electronics Lab (PowerLab), which focuses on developing fundamental and novel power electronics solutions for a wide range of applications from mW-scale energy harvesting to MW systems in renewable energy integration. Dr. Chen received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT in 2015 and his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Tsinghua University in 2009. Before joining Princeton as an Assistant Professor in February 2017, he was a postdoctoral associate at MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics. His research spans power electronics, magnetics design, and machine learning applications in energy systems. The PowerLab develops advanced power conversion architectures that enable order-of-magnitude higher power density through high-frequency designs, addressing circuit timing, parasitics, magnetics, and thermal management challenges. Their work targets applications ranging from portable devices to data centers and renewable energy systems. The research group has produced a remarkable series of high-impact publications, with seven IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics Prize Papers in seven consecutive years (2016-2023). Their recent work increasingly integrates machine learning techniques with power electronics, exemplified by the MagNet project which redefines how power magnetics are studied and modeled. NSF CAREER Award, 2019 IEEE PELS Richard M. Bass Outstanding Young Power Electronics Engineer Award, 2023 Power of Associations Silver Award from ASAE for MagNet project, 2024 Multiple IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics Prize Papers (2016-2023) Princeton Engineering Commendation List for Outstanding Teaching (2019, 2020) Dr. Chen advises approximately 15 graduate students who have received numerous awards including the IEEE PELS John G. Kassakian Fellowship, Princeton SEAS Honorific Fellowship, and multiple IEEE conference best paper awards. His research is supported by significant grants from NSF, DOE ARPA-E, Princeton Innovation Fund, C3.ai DTI, and industry partners including Intel, Google, and pSemi. The lab's MagNet project has become a major international initiative with a $60,000 prize pool challenge. The PowerLab maintains strong industry connections and has launched several collaborative projects with Intel, Google, and pSemi. Their MagNet project has evolved into an international challenge with participation from over 40 teams worldwide, demonstrating the growing impact of their approach to machine learning for power magnetics modeling.
Professor Omer Rana serves as Professor of Performance Engineering and International Dean for the Middle East at Cardiff University's School of Computer Science and Informatics. He also holds the prestigious position of Cross-Council Research Director for the UK National Edge AI Hub, demonstrating his leadership in national research initiatives. Previously, he led the Complex Systems research group and served as Dean of International for the Physical Sciences and Engineering College at Cardiff University. Professor Rana is a Fellow of both the Learned Society of Wales and the Higher Education Academy, and serves on the Advisory Board of the Welsh Ethnic Minority Professors Initiative (WEMPI). His research expertise centers on the intersection of intelligent systems and high performance distributed computing, with particular focus on applying intelligent techniques to resource management in distributed systems. His scholarly contributions span edge computing, cloud computing, Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, federated learning, privacy-preserving systems, and sustainable computing. Professor Rana has published extensively in top-tier journals and conferences, with recent work emphasizing practical applications in industrial automation, smart buildings, and sustainable computing solutions. Professor Rana's publication record demonstrates consistent leadership in edge computing and distributed systems research, with a growing emphasis on practical implementations across diverse application domains. His work bridges theoretical computer science with real-world technological challenges, particularly in industrial automation, smart environments, and sustainable infrastructure. Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales Fellow of the Higher Education Academy Professor Rana actively supervises postgraduate students and has secured significant research funding for projects related to edge computing, IoT, and distributed systems. His international collaborations span Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, reflecting his global influence in the field. He serves as a sought-after keynote speaker, workshop chair, and panel moderator at major international conferences including IEEE/ACM Utility and Cloud Computing (UCC) and IEEE Edge Computing. He leads multiple research initiatives, most notably as Cross-Council Research Director for the UK National Edge AI Hub, where he shapes national research directions in edge computing and AI. His work has practical applications across industrial automation, smart building management, electric vehicle infrastructure, and sustainable computing solutions.
Rahul Mangharam is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering and Applied Science, with a secondary appointment in Computer and Information Science. He directs the Safe Autonomous Systems Lab (mLAB) and is a founding member of the PRECISE Center. Mangharam serves as Penn Director for the Safety21 DoT National University Transportation Center ($20MM), Director of the Autoware Center of Excellence, and leads the F1Tenth Autonomous Racing Community. Education: Ph.D. in Electrical & Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University M.S. in Electrical & Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University B.S. in Electrical & Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University His research bridges formal methods, machine learning, and control systems with applications in medical devices, autonomous systems, and energy-efficient buildings. Key focus areas include safety verification for autonomous vehicles, real-time control systems, and patient-specific cardiac modeling for clinical applications. Recent work explores conformal prediction for safe perception, differentiable control barrier functions, and explainable autonomous systems. Mangharam's publication trends show strong emphasis on autonomous systems safety (control synthesis, uncertainty quantification) and biomedical applications (cardiac modeling, clinical decision support). His 2022-2023 publications demonstrate cross-disciplinary approaches combining control theory, machine learning, and formal methods for robust autonomous systems. Awards and Honors: Presidential Early Career Award (PECASE) 2016 IEEE Benjamin Franklin Key Award 2014 NSF CAREER Award 2013 Intel Early Faculty Career Award 2012 National Academy of Engineers US Frontiers of Engineering (2012, 2018) Stephen J. Angelo Term Chair (2008-2013) He leads multiple major grants including NSF CAREER, DoT Safety21 Center ($20MM), DoE Energy-Efficient Building Hub ($160MM), and DARPA HACMS. Current PhD students include Zirui Zang. Mangharam founded the F1Tenth autonomous racing platform used globally for education and hosts international competitions through the Autoware Center of Excellence.
Matthieu Cord is a Professor at Sorbonne University and Scientific Director of valeo.ai, leading research in computer vision, deep learning, and computational cooking. He heads the MLIA team at ISIR Lab, focusing on multimodal models, transformers, and efficient architectures. Research areas include computer vision, large language models with vision, and AI-driven food analytics. Key projects: VISA-DEEP AI chair, Foundation VaViM models, and SmolVLA collaboration with Hugging Face. His recent work examines scalable multimodal models , trajectory prediction , and diffusion-based segmentation , with studies on in-context learning and biased shortcut learning in visual question answering. Articles highlight DeiT variants , fishr for OoD generalization , and STEEX for counterfactual explanations . Scientific awards include IUF Honorary Membership (2009), BMVC 2017 Best Paper, and ICIP 2018 Best Paper. As an advisor, he supervised PhD theses on topics like GAN editing , semantic segmentation , and multimodal retrieval . Current roles involve mentoring the 'Research Band' at MLIA and leading EU-funded initiatives like SCAPE. His work bridges theoretical AI exploration with practical applications in autonomous driving and food technology.
Varun Jog is Professor of Information Theory and Statistics in the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics (DPMMS) at the University of Cambridge, Faculty of Mathematics. Previously, he served as Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2016-2020) and at the University of Cambridge (2021-2024). His academic background includes a B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay (2010) and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from UC Berkeley (2015). Professor Jog's research centers on fundamental questions at the intersection of information theory, statistics, and machine learning. He develops theoretical frameworks for statistical inference under constraints such as limited communication and privacy requirements, with significant contributions to hypothesis testing, differential privacy, adversarial risk analysis, and information-theoretic inequalities. His work bridges abstract mathematical principles with practical applications in data science and robust machine learning. Recent publications demonstrate a concentrated focus on distributed inference systems, particularly examining sample complexity limits in hypothesis testing under information constraints and privacy-preserving mechanisms. His research consistently reveals deep connections between information theory and statistical learning, with increasing emphasis on adversarial robustness and foundational inequalities. His scientific contributions have earned recognition through prestigious awards: NSF-CAREER Award (2020) R. Narasimhan Memorial Lecture Award (2020) Eli Jury Award from UC Berkeley EECS Department (2015) Jack Keil Wolf student paper award at ISIT (2015) Professor Jog maintains an active research group, currently supervising one PhD student while having graduated four PhD students and four Master's students. His mentorship extends to postdoctoral researchers including Amir Asadi, Deepanshu Vasal, and Andre Wibisono. Research funding includes the competitive NSF-CAREER grant. He co-organizes the Cambridge Information Theory Seminar, fostering academic exchange and collaboration within the theoretical research community.
Michael Mühlebach is a Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen, Germany, leading the independent Learning and Dynamical Systems group. His academic journey began at ETH Zurich where he earned his B.Sc. (2010) and M.Sc. (2013) in mechanical engineering, specializing in robotics, systems, and control. He completed his Ph.D. at ETH Zurich in 2018 under Prof. R. D'Andrea, followed by postdoctoral research at UC Berkeley with Prof. Michael I. Jordan. Dr. Mühlebach's research spans machine learning, dynamical systems, control theory, and optimization . His work bridges theoretical foundations with practical applications in robotics, developing methods that incorporate physical constraints and system dynamics into learning frameworks. His group focuses on online learning, physics-informed machine learning, and large-scale optimization for cyber-physical systems, with applications in electromagnetic navigation, robotic table tennis, and energy-efficient flight systems like the shape-changing robot Floaty . His publication record shows a strong focus on constrained optimization, with recent work exploring decision-dependent stochastic optimization, nonlinear feedback, and the theoretical foundations of reinforcement learning. His research integrates perspectives from control theory, dynamical systems, and optimization to develop algorithms with strong theoretical guarantees and practical performance. Outstanding D-MAVT Bachelor Award Willi-Studer prize for best Master's degree ETH Medal and HILTI prize for doctoral thesis Branco Weiss Fellow (2018) Emmy Noether Fellowship (2020) Amazon Fellowship (2024) Dr. Mühlebach actively mentors doctoral researchers and is seeking talented students for PhD and Master's projects. His research group has received funding from multiple prestigious fellowships and maintains collaborations across institutions including ETH Zurich, UC Berkeley, and various Max Planck research units. The group's work spans theoretical developments to practical implementations on robotic systems, demonstrating strong connections between mathematical theory and physical realization.
David Lie is a Professor at the University of Toronto, jointly appointed in the Edward S. Rogers Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department of Computer Science, and Faculty of Law. He directs the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, co-founded the IT3 Lab, and serves as Associate Director at the Data Sciences Institute. His research focuses on securing computer systems through operating systems, architecture, and formal verification approaches. B.A.Sc (University of Toronto, 1998) M.S. (Stanford, 2001) Ph.D. (Stanford, 2004) His research emphasizes building secure systems for mobile platforms and cloud computing, with significant contributions to trusted execution environments (XOM architecture precursor to Intel SGX/ARM TrustZone) and Android permission mapping (PScout tool). Recent work spans cryptographic side-channels, web tracking detection, and AI safety. Key honors include SOSP 2003 Best Paper, Ontario MRI Early Researcher Award (2008), Connaught Global Challenge Award (2017), and Canada Research Chairs (Tier 2 2013-2018, Tier 1 current). He has secured over $30M in research funding and served as General Chair for CCS 2018. Lie leads the IT3 Lab (Technology and Policy Integration), collaborates with industry leaders (Google, VMware, Telus), and mentors graduate students working on practical security implementations. He co-teaches ECE1724: Privacy Problems with Lisa Austin from the Faculty of Law, reflecting his technology-policy interests.
Steve Hailes is a Professor of Wireless Systems at the Department of Computer Science, University College London. He has served as Head of Department since 2019 and Deputy Head from 2005. His research spans wireless networks, computational trust, AI, and sensor systems for health, ecological, and environmental applications. Education: PhD and undergraduate degree from Cambridge University Appointment: Joined UCL in 1991 (postdoc), Lecturer in 1992 Research interests include: Trust and security in networked systems (co-founder of computational trust) Security of industrial control systems AI/ML applications in security and causal discovery Multi-agent reinforcement learning and moral behavior modeling Gas sensor fabrication and deployment for diverse applications Recent publications focus on feature selection for cybersecurity , moral alignment in LLM agents , trust-based consensus algorithms , and causal discovery using reinforcement learning . Collaborations include co-authors like Westphal, Musolesi, and Tennant. Applications span healthcare (dementia, JIA), ecology (endangered species in Botswana), and environmental monitoring (CO distribution, meth lab detection).
