Beng Chin Ooi is a Lee Kong Chian Centennial Professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS), School of Computing (SoC). He holds a B.Sc. (1st Class Honors) and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Monash University. His research focuses on database systems, large-scale analytics, and distributed computing. He has held leadership roles including Dean of School of Computing (2007–2013) and Director of Smart Systems Institute (2011–2021). Key achievements include the Singapore President’s Science Award (2011), ACM Fellow (2011), IEEE Fellow (2009), and multiple best paper awards. His work emphasizes scalable data management, blockchain systems, and healthcare data analytics. Education: Monash University (B.Sc., Ph.D.) Leadership: Dean (SoC), Director (Smart Systems Institute) Awards: Over 15 major honors including ACM SIGMOD E.F. Codd Innovations Award (2020) His research spans distributed databases, big data systems, and innovative applications of blockchain technology. Recent work includes NASI (neural architecture search) and Rafiki (ML-as-a-service).
Katja Hose is a Full Professor of Data Management at TU Wien's DBAI research unit, heading the Data Management and Knowledge-Driven AI Lab. She previously held a Poul Due Jensen Foundation Professorship at Aalborg University. Her research focuses on data and knowledge engineering, including graph databases, knowledge graphs, querying, analytics, and machine learning, with interdisciplinary applications in bioscience, healthcare, and environmental assessment. Education: PhD in Computer Science (Ilmenau University of Technology, 2009), Postdoc at Max Planck Institute for Informatics (2009–2012). Academic roles include Program Co-Chair for ISWC 2024 and EDBT 2023, and editorial board membership at VLDBJ and TGDK. She leads projects like TARGET (health virtual twins) and ARMADA (data management). Research Interests: Knowledge Graphs, Semantic Web, Big Data, Machine Learning, Data Integration, and Provenance Systems. Key contributions include SHACL shape extraction, conversational data analytics, and environmental knowledge graphs. Awards include the 2025 Distinguished Meta-Reviewer Award and 2024 Manfred Paul Award. Advising and Grants: Supervised students including E. Pürmayr (Diploma Thesis 2025). Active in EU projects (TARGET, ARMADA) and grant coordination. Labs/Teams: DMKI Lab at TU Wien, collaborating with interdisciplinary teams in healthcare and environmental science.
Huamin Qu is a Chair Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). He serves as the Founding Dean of the Academy of Interdisciplinary Studies (AIS), Founding Head of the Division of Emerging Interdisciplinary Areas (EMIA), and was the Founding Acting Head of Computational Media and Arts (CMA) at HKUST(GZ). Qu directs the VisLab and coordinates the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) group. He obtained his BS in Mathematics from Xi'an Jiaotong University and MS/PhD in Computer Science from Stony Brook University. Qu's research integrates Data Visualization , Human-Computer Interaction , and Human-Centered AI , with applications in urban informatics, social networks, and explainable AI. His work focuses on developing interactive systems for big data analytics, visual storytelling, and AI-driven decision support. Research extends to multimodal communication, fintech, and augmented reality applications. His publications emphasize visual analytics for complex datasets (mobility, social media, financial), interaction techniques for immersive environments, and AI-enhanced visualization tools. Recent works explore explainable AI interfaces and large-scale data communication frameworks. IEEE Visualization Academy (2020) IEEE VGTC Technical Achievement Award AI 2000 Most Influential Scholar (2019, 2023, 2024) 21 Best Paper/Honorable Mention awards IBM Faculty Award (2009) APICTA Merit Award (2015) Yelp Dataset Grand Prize (2018) Qu has advised 48 PhD graduates (21 now faculty at institutions like UC Davis, University of Minnesota, Texas A&M) and 30 MPhil students. He secured major grants including RGC theme-based projects (digital citizenship, air pollution), UGC AoE (slope safety), and China's 973 Program. As VisLab director, he leads 20+ researchers in visualization/HCI projects adopted by Microsoft, IBM, Huawei, and Tencent.
Cao Jiannong is currently a Chair Professor and Director of the University Research Facility in Big Data Analytics at Hong Kong Polytechnic University . He has held academic roles including Assistant Professor at City University of Hong Kong and University Lecturer at the University of Adelaide and James Cook University. His research spans Cloud and Edge Computing , Parallel and Distributed Systems , Big Data Analytics , and Wireless Sensing . Ph.D. in Computer Science, Washington State University (1990) MSc in Computer Science, Washington State University (1986) BSc in Computer Science, Nanjing University, China (1982) His work focuses on solving theoretical and practical challenges in distributed computing , mobile cloud systems , and wireless sensor networks . Recent projects include coupled network embedding models for heterogeneous networks and SDN architectures for vehicular communication. His research also pioneers WiFi-based non-invasive health monitoring and fault-tolerant sensor deployment for structural health applications. Dr. Cao's publications highlight advancements in network embedding , edge computing , and WSN optimization . Key papers address multi-user computation partitioning , energy-efficient SHM systems , and consensus protocols for mobile networks. These works have been cited over 15,000 times, with an h-index of 60. Ministry of Education (China) Natural Science Award (2018) Distinguished Member, ACM (2017) Fellow, IEEE (2014) Best Paper Awards at IEEE DSAA, SMARTCOMP, and WCNC Dr. Cao has advised multiple PhD students, including Linchuan Xu and Weigang Wu , whose research on WSN-based SHM and coupled network embedding has practical impact. His leadership includes directing Hong Kong Polytechnic University's Big Data Research Facility and serving on technical committees for IEEE INFOCOM and ACM/IEEE conferences.
Zhang Daqing is a Professor at Peking University (Boya Chair Professor since 2014) and Full Professor at Telecom SudParis, France (2007–present). Previously, he held roles such as Department Head at the Institute for Infocomm Research (2004–2007) and Research Scientist positions in Singapore and Italy. He earned his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Rome 'La Sapienza' in 1996. His research focuses on urban computing, context-aware systems, wireless sensing, and big data analytics. His work has been cited over 14,400 times with an H-index of 59. Key awards include the IEEE Fellow (2019) and multiple best paper awards at conferences like ACM UbiComp and IEEE UIC. Zhang has served as General Chair for 17 international conferences and is an associate editor for journals such as IEEE Pervasive Computing and ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems. His contributions to context modeling have significantly impacted pervasive computing and service computing communities.
Gerald Reiner serves as Head of the Institute for Production Management at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU), within the Department of Information Systems and Operations Management. He holds a Magister Degree, doctorate, and Habilitation in Business Administration from WU. His academic career includes positions as full professor in Production Management and Logistics at the University of Neuchatel (Switzerland, 2007-2014) and Universitaet Klagenfurt (Austria, 2014-2018), where he also served as head of the department of Operations, Energy, and Environmental Management. Dr. Reiner has held visiting professorships at Aston Business School (UK), HEC Lausanne (Switzerland), University of Bergamo, and Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan (Italy). His research spans several critical areas including Industry 4.0 implementation, integrated capacity and inventory management, humanitarian logistics operations, circular supply chains, and operations management for base of the pyramid contexts. His work particularly focuses on practical applications addressing food waste reduction, sustainable manufacturing, and blockchain technology in supply chains. His publication portfolio demonstrates a clear evolution toward digital transformation in operations, with recent focus on hydrogen production systems, AI integration in manufacturing, and blockchain applications for food supply chain transparency. The research shows increasing emphasis on sustainability integration within traditional operations management frameworks, particularly addressing European manufacturing challenges and food system inefficiencies. Publication Excellence Award 2021 (2023) Researcher of the month (January 2023) Highly Commended paper in the 2017 Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence ISIR Service Award (2014) Emerald Outstanding Paper Award (2013) Dr. Reiner coordinates multiple significant international research projects including EU-project 'Keeping Jobs in EU', EU/Ecsel-project 'Power Semiconductor and Electronics Manufacturing 4.0', 'Integrated Development 4.0', and 'Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing leading to Sustainability and Industry 5.0'. His current projects focus on FOODIS (cross-border ecosystem for innovation in food supply chains), Circular Design implementation, and blockchain applications for banana supply chains. He actively supervises research teams working on food waste reduction, sustainable packaging systems, and AI applications in operations management.
Jiannong Cao is a Chair Professor and Director of the University Research Facility in Big Data Analytics at the Department of Computing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He has held various academic roles since 1990, including Assistant Professor at City University of Hong Kong and Lecturer at Australian universities. PhD in Computer Science, Washington State University (1990) MSc in Computer Science, Washington State University (1986) BSc in Computer Science, Nanjing University (1982) His research focuses on cloud and edge computing , parallel and distributed computing , and mobile computing , with significant contributions to wireless sensor networks (WSN) for structural health monitoring (SHM) and software-defined networking (SDN) for vehicular communications. Recent work includes WiFi-based non-invasive health monitoring systems and multi-user computation partitioning in mobile cloud environments. Dr. Cao’s publications demonstrate trends in WSN optimization , SDN architectures , and cognitive modeling for network embedding , with applications in smart healthcare , transportation systems , and industrial IoT . Ministry of Education Natural Science Award (2018) ACM Distinguished Member (2017) IEEE Fellow (2014) Best Paper Awards at IEEE DSAA, SMARTCOMP, WCNC He has mentored numerous researchers, including Linchuan Xu , Xuefeng Liu , and Weigang Wu , who have authored key publications in top venues like ACM WSDM and IEEE INFOCOM . His professional roles include chairing IEEE committees and serving on grant panels for the Hong Kong Research Grant Council.
Professor Moncef Gabbouj is a distinguished academic and researcher currently serving as Professor of Signal Processing at the Department of Computing Sciences, Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences, Tampere University, Finland. Previously, he held the same position at Tampere University of Technology before the merger in 2019. He has also held visiting professorships at prestigious institutions including Hong Kong University of Technology and Science, University of Southern California, and Purdue University. Ph.D. and MSc. in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University, USA (1989 and 1986) B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Oklahoma State University, USA (1985) Prof. Gabbouj's research spans multiple domains within signal and image processing, with a strong focus on machine learning applications. His primary research interests include artificial intelligence, machine learning, Big Data analytics, multimedia content-based analysis, indexing and retrieval, nonlinear signal and image processing, voice conversion, and video processing and coding. His work bridges theoretical advancements with practical applications across various industries, particularly in multimedia communications and biomedical applications. His extensive publication record demonstrates a clear evolution from traditional signal processing techniques toward more sophisticated machine learning and deep learning approaches. Recent work shows increasing focus on convolutional neural networks for various applications including ECG classification, video processing, financial time-series analysis, and image recognition tasks, reflecting the broader trend in the field toward deep learning methodologies while maintaining strong foundations in signal processing theory. IEEE Fellow (2011) Member, Finnish Academy of Science and Letters (2014) Knight, First Class, of the Order of the White Rose of Finland (2006) Nokia Foundation Recognition Award (2005) Nokia Foundation Visiting Professor Award (2012) Finnish Cultural Foundation for Art and Science Award (2017) TUT Foundation Grand Award (2015) Prof. Gabbouj has supervised 64 doctoral and 72 Master's theses, demonstrating his significant contribution to academic mentoring. His research has been supported by substantial funding, including research grants totaling 8.5 million Euro (2001-2015). He has served as Academy of Finland Professor during 2011-2015 and has been involved in numerous EU research projects including Horizon, ESPRIT, HCM, IST, COST, Tempus and Erasmus programs. As Editor, Guest Editor or member of the Editorial Board of 6 international scientific journals, he has significantly influenced the academic discourse in his field. He leads the Signal Analysis and Machine Intelligence (SAMI) research group at Tampere University and serves as the Finland Site Director of the NSF IUCRC funded Center for Visual and Decision Informatics. His research unit focuses on applying advanced machine learning techniques to solve complex problems in signal processing, computer vision, and multimedia analytics, with applications ranging from healthcare to multimedia communications and financial analysis.
Viktor Prasanna is the Charles Lee Powell Chair in Engineering and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Southern California. He holds courtesy appointments in Computer Science and leads the Center for Energy Informatics, focusing on interdisciplinary research linking energy technologies, computer science, and engineering. Education: BE in Electronics (Bangalore University), ME (Indian Institute of Science), PhD in Computer Science (Pennsylvania State University) His research spans reconfigurable computing, FPGA accelerators, parallel and distributed systems, and big data applications. He has pioneered high-performance architectures and algorithms using FPGAs, impacting domains like networking, security, HPC, and machine learning. Prasanna has published over 600 papers, received 22 best paper awards, and secured >$50M in grants. His work emphasizes energy-efficient computing, with recent grants totaling $12.9M (2016–2021). His h-index is 73, with 23,454 total citations. Scientific Awards: IEEE Fellow, ACM Fellow, AAAS Fellow, W. Wallace McDowell Award, multiple Distinguished Alumnus Awards He has advised over 70 doctoral students and led major centers including CiSoft (Big Data in oilfield tech) and CAST. His editorial roles include Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Computers and Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing.
Zeshui Xu is a Full Professor at the Business School of Sichuan University, China, with concurrent roles as Adjunct Professor at multiple prestigious institutions including Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Southeast University. He has held distinguished positions such as Chair Professor at PLA University of Science and Technology and was part of the Cheung Kong Scholars Program. His research focuses on decision-making theory, information fusion, clustering algorithms, and fuzzy systems. He is a highly cited researcher (2014–2021) and holds fellowships from IEEE, RSA, IFSA, and others. Education: M.Sc. in Operations Research and Cybernetics, Qufu Normal University Ph.D. in Management Science, Southeast University Research Contributions: Dr. Xu has authored 18 Springer monographs and 700+ SSCI/SCI papers, achieving over 73,000 citations with an h-index of 138. His work includes groundbreaking contributions to intuitionistic fuzzy aggregation operators, hesitant fuzzy systems, and probabilistic linguistic decision-making frameworks. Awards & Recognition: Member of EASA and IASCYS Fellowships: IEEE, RSA, ORS, AAIA, and others Natural Science Awards (Ministry of Education) State Council Expert with Special Allowance Editorial Roles: Associate Editor/Editorial Board Member for over 30 journals, including IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics and Fuzzy Systems. Invited to 50+ academic conferences.
Prof. Viktoria HSE Robertson is a Professor of Corporate Law, Antitrust Law, and Digitalization at Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Vienna), where she also serves as Head of the Department of Antitrust Law and Digitalization. Her research focuses on European and international antitrust law, digitalization's impact on competition, and comparative legal frameworks. She teaches courses such as *Corporate Law*, *Competition, Antitrust and Intellectual Property Law*, and *Competition Law in the Digital Economy*, emphasizing digital markets and regulatory challenges. Her work bridges antitrust law with digital innovation, addressing topics like algorithmic pricing, data governance, and the role of competition law in safeguarding democracy. Robertson is affiliated with organizations such as the Academic Society for Competition Law and the Women in Competition Law Network Austria. Her recent research includes studies on DMA implementation, computational antitrust, and green transition policies within EU competition frameworks. Robertson holds degrees including Mag. (Austria), MJur (Oxford), and has authored books like *Competition Law’s Innovation Factor: The Relevant Market in Dynamic Contexts in the EU and the US*. Her interdisciplinary approach integrates legal analysis with technological and economic considerations, shaping modern competition law discourse globally.
Gerti Kappel is a full professor at the Institute of Information Systems Engineering at TU Wien, affiliated with the Business Informatics Group (BIG). Since 2020, she has served as Dean of the Faculty of Informatics at TU Wien, previously holding the role of Dean’s team member responsible for research, diversity, and financial affairs (2016–2019). She previously held a full professorship in computer science (database systems) and led the Department of Information Systems at Johannes Kepler University Linz (1993–2001). Her research focuses on Model Engineering, Web Engineering, and Process Engineering, particularly in cyber-physical production systems. She has co-authored influential works such as UML@Work (2005), UML@Classroom (2015), and Web Engineering (2006). Key projects include leadership roles in Vienna Informatics Living Lab (2018–2019), MPM4CPS (2014–2019), and ARTIST (2012–2015), addressing topics like model versioning, cloud architecture modeling, and inter-organizational systems. Her recent articles explore circular systems engineering, IoT-based simulation environments, and model-driven approaches for time-series analytics and cloud applications. She actively contributes to academic governance, including managing the Office of the Dean (E199-01) and overseeing faculty services. Her work emphasizes bridging theory and practice through collaborative frameworks like ERPEL and TROPIC . Grants: Projects funded by Austrian Research Promotion Agency, European Cooperation in Science and Technology, Vienna Business Agency, and others. Advising: Supervised over 15 graduate theses, including recent works on model-driven techniques for railway planning, debugging frameworks for modeling tools, and cloud-based IDEs. Labs/Teams: Leads research within the Business Informatics Group (BIG) and collaborates with the Vienna Informatics Living Lab for applied systems engineering.
F. Richard Yu is a Professor at the School of Information Technology , Carleton University , Canada, since 2016. He served as Assistant/Associate Professor at the same institution from 2006 to 2015. His academic work spans machine learning, blockchain, autonomous vehicles, and network security. Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, University of British Columbia (2003) M.A.Sc., Computer Engineering, Beijing University of Posts & Telecomm. (1998) B.A.Sc., Electrical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology (1995) His research focuses on machine learning , blockchain , autonomous vehicles , network security , and mobile wireless networks . Trends in his publications include deep reinforcement learning for computation offloading , blockchain applications in edge computing , and network optimization for IoT and 5G systems . Highly Cited Researcher (2019-2023), Clarivate Electronics and Electrical Engineering Leader in Canada (2023), Research.com Fellow of Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE) (2021), Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC) (2019), IEEE (2017), and IET (2016) Best Paper Awards: IEEE ICC (2022), IEEE GLOBECOM (2020), IEEE VTC (2017), IEEE TAOS (2012), IEEE TrustCom (2009) Research Achievement Award, Carleton University (2021, 2012) Early Researcher Award (2011), Ontario; Leadership Opportunity Fund Award (2009), Canada Foundation for Innovation His work has resulted in 800+ papers , 30 patents , and 48,000+ citations (H-index 107), with grants including the 2009 Canada Foundation for Innovation award.
Willy Zwaenepoel is a Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Sydney. He holds a B.S. from the University of Gent and M.S./Ph.D. from Stanford University. Previously, he served as Dean of the School of Computer and Communication Sciences at EPFL and was a faculty member at Rice University. His expertise spans operating systems, distributed systems, and high-performance computing. Education: B.S., University of Ghent, Belgium (1979) M.S., Stanford University (1980) Ph.D., Stanford University (1984) Research Interests: Dr. Zwaenepoel focuses on distributed systems, operating systems, and their applications in database replication, virtual machine performance, and software update mechanisms. His work includes foundational contributions to distributed shared memory (e.g., Treadmarks) and startups like iMimic Networking. Awards: ACM Fellow (2000) IEEE Fellow (1998) Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technical Sciences and Engineering (2020) Recipient of the IEEE Tsutomu Kanai Award (2007) Key Contributions: His research addresses challenges in distributed systems performance, such as latency reduction in key-value stores and efficient graph processing. Current projects explore I/O optimization in virtualized environments and causal consistency for geo-replicated systems. Students/Advising: Advises Ph.D. students and postdocs, including William in database replication. His mentorship led to the Rice University Teaching Award (2000).
Dragi Kimovski is a Habilitated Assistant Professor in Distributed Systems at Klagenfurt University, Austria, focusing on Edge Computing and AI. He previously held roles at the University of Innsbruck and the University of Information Science and Technology in Macedonia. His research spans Edge/Fog/Cloud computing, multi-objective optimization, and high-performance computing. He has coordinated major projects like 6GContinuum and KärtnerFog, and led initiatives such as DataCloud and ASPIDE. His teaching includes courses on Distributed Computing, Cloud Computing, and IoT. He is the co-creator of the Carinthian Computing Continuum and maintains a blog on Edge AI World. His work emphasizes sustainable and efficient computing solutions for emerging technologies. Education: Not explicitly listed in the provided text. Research Interests: Edge Computing, Fog Computing, Cloud Computing, Multi-objective Optimization, High-Performance Computing, AI in Distributed Systems. His work addresses challenges in resource management, latency reduction, and scalability across heterogeneous environments, with applications in healthcare, IoT, and 6G networks. Projects: 6GContinuum (Coordinator): Focuses on AI services over 6G networks. KärtnerFog (Scientific Coordinator): Develops adaptive Fog infrastructures over 5G. DataCloud (WP5 Leader): Manages Big Data pipelines on the Computing Continuum. ASPIDE (Scientific Coordinator): Advances exascale programming models for data processing. Teaching: Klagenfurt University: Courses include Distributed Computing, IoT, Cloud Computing, and Advanced Programming. University of Innsbruck: Taught Advanced Parallel and Distributed Systems. University of Information Science and Technology: Courses in High-Performance Computing and Network Architectures. Labs/Teams: Co-created the Carinthian Computing Continuum, an automated SDN testbed for Edge computing research. Active in interdisciplinary teams addressing extreme data processing and sustainable computing.
