Jagath Samarabandu is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Western University. He holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from SUNY Buffalo, and a B.Sc. in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. His academic career spans since joining Western University in 2000, with prior post-doctoral experience at SUNY Buffalo and industry work at Life Imaging Systems Inc. Education: Ph.D. Electrical Engineering, SUNY Buffalo M.S. Electrical Engineering, SUNY Buffalo B.Sc (Eng) Electronics and Telecommunication, University of Moratuwa His research focuses on Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Image Analysis, and Cyber Security , with applications in biomedical imaging, network intrusion detection, and civil infrastructure monitoring. He has supervised numerous graduate students working on topics ranging from chromosome analysis to smart grid security. Recent publications highlight his work in medical AI applications (auditory processing disorder diagnosis), industrial time-series analysis (using contrastive predictive coding), and network security frameworks (INSecS system development). He has contributed to 3D ultrasound segmentation, prostate motion compensation algorithms, and synthetic aperture radar systems. Key projects include NSERC-funded intelligent home monitoring systems for elderly care and low-cost synthetic aperture radar development for search-and-rescue applications.
Ioannis Iglezakis is an Associate Professor at the School of Law, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), specializing in the intersection of law and technology. His academic career spans over three decades with continuous contributions to informatics law, cyber law, data protection, and privacy law. At AUTH, he teaches courses including Law of Informatics, Computers and Law I (Cyberlaw I), Computers and Law II (Privacy and Security in the Information Society), Legal Aspects of Cybercrime, Internet-Law, and Law and Information Technology. Dr. Iglezakis earned his undergraduate degree in Law from AUTH in 1987, followed by a Magister Legum Europae from Hannover University in 1993. He completed his postgraduate studies in History, Philosophy and Sociology of Law at AUTH in 1990 and earned his PhD in Law from AUTH in 1999. His educational background combines Greek legal training with European legal perspectives. His research interests focus on the legal challenges posed by digital technologies, with particular emphasis on data protection, privacy law, cybercrime regulation, digital rights, and the application of GDPR in various contexts. He has published extensively on topics including the right to be forgotten, digital identity management, workplace surveillance in the digital age, hate speech online, and the legal implications of emerging technologies like blockchain and artificial intelligence. His work bridges theoretical legal analysis with practical applications in the rapidly evolving digital landscape. The trends in his publications reveal a consistent focus on the evolving relationship between law and technology, with increasing attention to GDPR implementation, health data protection, and the challenges of algorithmic decision-making. His work spans multiple disciplines including legal theory, privacy studies, cyber security, and digital governance, reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of modern informatics law. Dr. Iglezakis has supervised over 50 master's theses at AUTH, mentoring the next generation of legal scholars in areas including cloud computing contracts, personal data protection, social media law, intellectual property in digital environments, and cybercrime. His administrative roles have included membership on the European Educational Programs Committee (2011-2012) and the Legal Committee of AUTH (2013-2014). His research projects include the 2018-2019 study on 'Legal Issues of Mobile Applications Development, Distribution and Use,' the 2014 '6th International Conference on Informatics Law,' and the 2013-2015 Center of Excellence for Cybercrime for Education, Research and Training in Greece. These projects highlight his commitment to addressing practical legal challenges in the digital domain while contributing to academic discourse.
Dr. Almut Sophia Koepke is a junior research group leader and TUM Junior Fellow at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and University of Tübingen. She leads the multi-modal learning research group focusing on video understanding through sound, vision, and text integration. University: Technical University of Munich School: TUM School of Computation, Information and Technology Department: Informatics 9 Academic Rank: Researcher Her research spans multi-modal learning, audio-visual foundation models, and cross-modal attention mechanisms. Key themes include: Advancing zero-shot learning through language-guided audio-visual models Developing explainable AI systems via attention pattern translation in VQA Exploring temporal understanding in video-adverb retrieval Building robust multi-modal representations for self-driving applications Recent publications analyze foundation model capabilities in audio-visual tasks (ICCV 2025), temporal reasoning (ACMMM 2024), and cross-modal attention frameworks (ECCV 2022). She co-organizes CVPR workshops on foundation model evaluations and serves as area chair/reviewer for major conferences.
Florian Leiser is a Professor at the Chair of Information Infrastructures (led by Prof. Dr. Ali Sunyaev) at Technical University of Munich's Heilbronn campus. His research focuses on human-AI collaboration, privacy-preserving algorithms, and explainability in machine learning systems. Current research areas include Hybrid Intelligence, Human-centered Generative AI (LLMs), Federated Learning, and Health Information Systems Recent publications demonstrate expertise in Explainable AI for medical imaging LLM hallucination detection Federated learning architectures Human-in-the-loop systems Healthcare data applications He contributes to teaching through Human-Centered Artifact Design courses Collaborative teaching roles in machine learning Supervising student projects
Bogdan Iancu is a University Lecturer in the Department of Information Technology at the Faculty of Science and Engineering, Åbo Akademi University. He holds a PhD and Docent qualification in Computer Science, with extensive expertise in artificial intelligence and computer vision applications, particularly in the maritime domain. His academic career spans numerous research projects and publications that bridge theoretical AI concepts with practical industry applications. Dr. Iancu's research focuses on AI applications in maritime technology, with special emphasis on object detection systems, security challenges in AI models, and sustainable technological solutions. He has developed benchmark datasets like ABOships and ABOships-PLUS that have become valuable resources for researchers in maritime computer vision. His work addresses critical challenges including adversarial attacks on object detection systems, as evidenced by his 2025 publication on TOG Adversarial Attacks in YOLO Models. The analysis of his recent publications reveals a clear progression from foundational dataset creation to advanced security analysis and neurosymbolic approaches that combine neural networks with symbolic reasoning. His research shows increasing sophistication in addressing real-world challenges in maritime AI systems, with particular attention to robustness, security, and practical implementation. Dr. Iancu actively participates in numerous research projects including EDISS (Engineering of Data-intensive Intelligent Software Systems), SMARTER (Sea4Value Smart Terminals), and DECATRIP (Decarbonizing Transport Corridors). These projects involve collaboration with industry partners across Finland and Europe, focusing on applying AI to solve real-world challenges in maritime transport, digitalization, and sustainability. He has contributed to the academic community through teaching courses in Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, and Graph Algorithms, and through active participation in the Finnish Artificial Intelligence Society. His work aligns with UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly those related to industry innovation, infrastructure, and climate action through projects like DECATRIP that focus on decarbonizing transport corridors.
David Brown is a Professor in Interactive Systems for Social Inclusion at Nottingham Trent University's School of Science & Technology, Department of Computer Science. He serves as Director of the Computing and Informatics Research Centre (CIRC) and Research Group Leader for the Interactive Systems Research Group (ISRG). Director, Computing and Informatics Research Centre Research Group Leader, Interactive Systems Research Group Governor, Oak Field School for students with severe learning disabilities Conference Chair, International Conference on Disability, Virtual Reality and Associated Technology (ICDVRAT21) Associate Editor, Frontiers: Virtual Reality in Medicine Professor Brown's research focuses on developing inclusive technologies for people with disabilities. His work spans accessibility for students with learning, physical and sensory impairments; virtual reality applications for rehabilitation; multimodal affect recognition systems; social robotics for education; accessible visual programming toolkits; and serious games for developing physical and cognitive skills. His research is characterized by strong interdisciplinary collaboration and practical application in educational and healthcare settings. His recent publications demonstrate a consistent focus on applying emerging technologies like virtual reality, machine learning, and social robotics to address real-world challenges in accessibility and inclusion. The research shows a clear trajectory toward increasingly sophisticated multimodal systems that can detect user states and adapt accordingly, with applications ranging from autism support to mental health interventions. Extensive EU-funded research projects including Horizon 2020, Erasmus+, and EPSRC grants Notable projects: DIVERSIA, MaTHiSiS, Pathway, AI-TOP, EDUROB, No One Left Behind, Real Life, RISE Professor Brown has supervised numerous PhD students and collaborates extensively with international partners across Europe and Asia. His work bridges computer science, psychology, education, and healthcare to create technologies that promote social inclusion and improve quality of life for people with disabilities.
University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignUnited States
Yikun Ban is a tenure-track Associate Professor in the School of Computer Science and Engineering at Beihang University, where he is a member of the State Key Laboratory of Software Development Environment. He earned his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2023), MS in Computer Science from Peking University (2019), and BS in Software Engineering from Wuhan University (2016). PhD: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2023) MS: Peking University (2019) BS: Wuhan University (2016) His research focuses on principled algorithms for reinforcement learning with human feedback, neural contextual bandits, and exploration-exploitation problems. He develops frameworks combining deep learning with bandit theory for applications in recommendation systems, disinformation detection, and dynamic graph learning. Recent publications address: Robust neural contextual bandits (NeurIPS 2024) Graph neural bandits (KDD 2023) Meta-learning for bandit scheduling (NeurIPS 2023) Clustering in contextual bandits (WWW 2021, AAAI 2021) Honors include the NeurIPS Scholar Award and recognition as ICML Outstanding Reviewer . His open-source LOCB repository provides Python implementations for contextual multi-armed bandit algorithms with local clustering, supporting applications in recommendation systems and online learning.
Eric P. Xing is a Professor at the Language Technologies Institute of Carnegie Mellon University , and currently serves as President of the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence . His work bridges machine learning methodology with computational biology and large-scale AI systems . Research Focus: Developing machine learning theory for high-dimensional, dynamic data Building foundation models for biology (AIDO, scLong, ProteinAligner) Designing scalable AI architectures (Pollux, LLM360, PAN) Advancing interpretable and controllable NLP systems Scientific Leadership: Founded the SAILING Lab at CMU Co-chaired ICML 2014 and ICML 2019 Recipient of the Jay Lepreau Best Paper Award (OSDI 2021) Education & Mentorship: Advises PhD students across machine learning and computational biology Alumni include faculty at ETH Zurich, University of Chicago, and UC San Diego
Anna Jon-And is a Researcher and Director of the Center for Cultural Evolution at Stockholm University , affiliated with the Department of Psychology . Her interdisciplinary work bridges linguistics , cognitive science , and cultural evolution , focusing on how sequence representation , language contact , and computational models explain the emergence of human language and its unique properties. Research Interests include: Language evolution through sequence learning and cognitive constraints Contact-induced language change in Portuguese varieties (Angola, Mozambique, Afro-Brazilian communities) Computational modeling of grammatical structure emergence Comparative analysis of pidgins, creoles, and non-contact languages Neurocognitive prerequisites for language and cultural complexity Publications highlight trends in language evolution models , compositional systems , and cross-linguistic complexity cycles . Her work demonstrates how demographic factors and learnability pressures drive linguistic innovation in multilingual settings. The Center for Cultural Evolution at Stockholm University serves as the primary platform for her interdisciplinary research initiatives.
Julian Fierrez is a Full Professor at the School of Engineering, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. With an h-index of 74 and over 20,000 citations, his work spans biometrics, signal/image processing, artificial intelligence, and human-computer interaction. Key research areas include: Biometric anti-spoofing and DeepFakes detection Mobile and behavioral biometrics Bias/fairness in AI systems Biometric applications in e-health and education Security in multimodal biometric systems His recent publications show strong focus on deep learning applications for biometric security, with specific subfields including fake detection, keystroke authentication, facial analysis for Parkinson detection, and privacy-preserving AI. He serves as Associate Editor for multiple IEEE and Elsevier journals. Scientific distinctions include: IAPR Young Biometrics Investigator Award (2017) Miguel Catalan Award to Best Researcher under 40 (2017) EURASIP Best PhD Award (2012) EBF European Biometric Industry Award (2006) Prof. Fierrez leads the BiDA Lab and supervises students like Ruben Tolosana and Aythami Morales. Current projects include BBforTAI (Biometrics and Behavior for Unbiased & Trustworthy AI) and PRIMA (Privacy Matters). He also contributes to standardization efforts in biometric evaluation.
Dr. Shweta Singh serves as an Assistant Professor of Information Systems and Management at Warwick Business School, University of Warwick. She concurrently holds prestigious appointments as a Fellow at the Warwick Institute for Global Sustainability Development (IGSD) and a Behavioral Data Science researcher at The Alan Turing Institute in London. Her academic journey includes a Ph.D. in Information and Decision Sciences from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, complemented by dual Master's degrees in Computer Science and Applied Economics from the same institution. Ph.D. in Information and Decision Sciences, University of Minnesota Master's in Computer Science, University of Minnesota Master's in Applied Economics, University of Minnesota Dr. Singh's research centers on developing ethical and responsible artificial intelligence systems that address societal challenges. Her work specifically targets mitigating AI bias, creating explainable AI frameworks, and leveraging technology to combat societal injustice. She investigates how digital platforms, sharing economy models, and IT outsourcing create business value while ensuring these technologies promote sustainability and reduce inequalities. Her innovative approach combines technical AI expertise with deep social awareness, particularly focusing on gender equality and child protection in digital spaces. Her publication record demonstrates consistent high-impact contributions to Information Systems Research, International Conference on Information Systems, and related venues. The trajectory of her work shows increasing focus on practical applications of responsible AI, with recent projects addressing online child safety and human trafficking prevention. Her research increasingly intersects with policy development, as evidenced by her contributions to UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology briefs. Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, University of Minnesota McNamara Fellowship, University of Minnesota Social Impact Project of the Year shortlist (2023) Asian Women of Achievement Award finalist (2023) British Indian Awards finalist (2019) Top 5 Women in Tech for Good Award shortlist (2022) Inspiring 50 UK recognition (2025) Dr. Singh actively mentors students and has been recognized with the Staff Social Inclusion Award (2024) for her teaching excellence. Her advisory roles extend beyond academia to include the UN Women UK delegation for the Commission on the Status of Women and the Advisory Board of AI retail company 'Love the Sales'. She serves as an external collaborator for Boston Consulting Group's Henderson Institute, bridging academic research with industry applications. Through her leadership in the ISM-Analytics (ISMA) Group at Warwick, Dr. Singh fosters interdisciplinary collaboration focused on creating socially responsible technological solutions. Her work with the IGSD specifically targets UN sustainability goals related to reducing inequalities and promoting inclusive societies through responsible AI implementation.
Georgios Arvanitidis is an Associate Professor at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, specifically within the Section for Cognitive Systems (CogSys). He has established himself as a leading researcher in geometric machine learning, focusing on the application of differential geometry principles to enhance machine learning models. His work bridges theoretical mathematics with practical applications in artificial intelligence, with particular emphasis on understanding the geometric structure of data manifolds and latent spaces. Dr. Arvanitidis completed his educational journey with a Bachelor's degree from the Department of Informatics at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, followed by a Master's degree in Computer Science from Saarland University supported by the Max Planck Institute for Informatics. He earned his PhD at DTU's Cognitive Systems section under the supervision of Søren Hauberg, with additional research experience at Philipp Hennig's Probabilistic Numerics group. Prior to his current position as associate professor, he was a PostDoc at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems working with Bernhard Schölkopf. Dr. Arvanitidis's research primarily focuses on differential geometry in machine learning , where he explores how geometric structures can enhance representation learning and statistical modeling. His work in generative models investigates how learning the geometry of data manifolds can improve deep learning architectures. In the domain of deep learning theory , he examines why deep learning models generalize effectively on unseen data, with particular attention to the curvature properties of loss landscapes. His research in approximate Bayesian inference applies geometric principles to improve uncertainty quantification in neural networks. Through his innovative approaches, Dr. Arvanitidis has established himself as a leading researcher in geometric machine learning, contributing to both theoretical foundations and practical applications across various domains including robotics and life sciences. The publication trends of Dr. Arvanitidis reveal a consistent and evolving focus on geometric approaches to machine learning problems. His recent work (2023-2025) demonstrates increasing sophistication in applying Riemannian geometry to deep learning architectures, with particular emphasis on latent space geometry, optimization on manifolds, and geometric interpretations of neural network behavior. A notable pattern is the progression from foundational work on geometric representations to more applied research in areas like robotics and causal inference. His publications span top-tier conferences including NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, and AISTATS, reflecting the high impact of his research. The interdisciplinary nature of his work is evident in collaborations across mathematics, computer science, and robotics domains, with recent papers addressing challenges in multimodal sampling, safety guarantees for dynamical systems, and counterfactual explanations. Dr. Arvanitidis has received several notable scientific awards and recognitions: Sapere Aude starting grant from the Independent Research Fund Denmark (DFF) GADL funding i-Rase, Pathfinder, and EIC (European Innovation Council) funding Best reviewer award for NeurIPS 2019 Best reviewer award for NeurIPS 2018 Best student paper award at Robotics: Science and Systems (R:SS) 2021 Dr. Arvanitidis actively mentors PhD students and researchers, currently supervising Alejandro Valverde, Johanna Gegenfurtner, and Albert Kjøller Jacobsen. He has previously co-supervised Alison Pouplin's PhD and worked with research assistant Georgios Pantis. His group receives substantial funding through multiple prestigious grants including the Sapere Aude starting grant from the Independent Research Fund Denmark, as well as European Innovation Council funding. He has been instrumental in creating opportunities for students interested in geometric machine learning, offering BSc and MSc thesis projects focused on generative models, deep learning theory, and optimization techniques. Dr. Arvanitidis also contributes significantly to the academic community as a reviewer for top conferences including ICLR and TMLR, and as an area chair for NeurIPS, ICML, AISTATS, and UAI. He co-organized the Machine Learning Summer School 2020 in Tübingen, further demonstrating his commitment to education and community building. Dr. Arvanitidis leads a vibrant research group focused on geometric machine learning within the Cognitive Systems section at DTU. His team includes multiple PhD students working on cutting-edge research at the intersection of differential geometry and artificial intelligence. The group has developed notable software tools, including the "geometric_ml" GitHub repository with over 70 stars, which contains implementations for applying Riemannian geometry in machine learning. His research has practical applications in robotics, where geometric approaches enable more robust motion planning, as evidenced by his work on "Reactive Motion Generation on Learned Riemannian Manifolds" which received a best student paper award. Additionally, his methodologies have found applications in life sciences, as mentioned in his 2022 AISTATS paper. The collaborative nature of his work is evident through extensive partnerships with researchers at institutions including the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Cambridge, and various European universities. His recent news items indicate active engagement with the academic community through talks, conference presentations, and ongoing supervision of new PhD students joining his group.
Timothy Menzies is a full Professor in the Department of Computer Science at North Carolina State University's College of Engineering. He serves as the director of the Irrational Research lab (mad scientists r'us) and holds editorial positions as editor-in-chief of the Automated Software Engineering journal and associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering. With over 300 publications and more than 24,000 citations, Menzies is a globally recognized leader in software engineering research. Menzies' research focuses on developing computer systems that make optimal decisions with minimal data, specializing in artificial intelligence, intelligent agents, data sciences, analytics, and software engineering. His pioneering work in data-driven, explainable, and minimal AI for software systems has redefined defect prediction, effort estimation, and multi-objective optimization. He is particularly known for his contributions to empirical software engineering, emphasizing transparency and reproducibility. As the co-creator of the PROMISE repository, he helped establish modern empirical software engineering by demonstrating that small, interpretable AI models can outperform larger, more complex ones. Menzies' recent publications reveal several key trends in his research: a growing emphasis on ethical considerations in AI deployment, particularly in sensitive domains like legal systems; continued innovation in software analytics with a focus on hyperparameter optimization tailored specifically for software engineering tasks; exploration of causal relationships in software analytics; and development of techniques that work effectively with limited data, including landscape analysis, surrogate learning, and active learning approaches. Mining Software Repositories Foundational Contribution Award (2017) Carol Miller Graduate Lecturer Award (2016) IBM Faculty Award (2016, 2017) ACM Fellow (2025) ASE Fellow (2024) IEEE Fellow Professor Menzies has advised 24 Ph.D. students throughout his career, with recent completions including Andre Motta (April 2025) and Xueqi Yang (October 2024). His research has secured over $19 million in funding from prestigious agencies including NSF, DARPA, and NASA, as well as industry partners like Meta, Microsoft, and IBM. Current grants focus on improving machine learning model efficiency, adapting empirical software engineering methods to computational science, vulnerability detection, and software analytics at scale using transfer learning across 10,000+ GitHub projects. Menzies has developed innovative approaches to help developers navigate the challenges of AI implementation while maintaining ethical standards and practical effectiveness. As director of the Irrational Research lab, Menzies leads a team focused on creating AI tools that are not only intelligent but also fair, transparent, and trustworthy. The lab's work emphasizes practical applications of AI in software engineering while addressing the human factors involved in developer-AI collaboration. Current projects include developing methods for better fuzzing with L3harris, improving vulnerability detection through smart pruning techniques, and creating AI platforms for workforce empowerment through credential gap diagnostics.
Xin Li is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University and serves as the Associate Vice Chancellor at Duke Kunshan University. He holds a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University (2005) and has held leadership roles in research consortia like the FCRP Focus Research Center and the Center for Silicon System Implementation (CSSI). His research bridges integrated circuits , machine learning , and cyber-physical systems , with applications in autonomous driving, battery lifetime prediction, and smart buildings. Education : Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon University (2005); M.S., Fudan University (2001); B.S., Fudan University (1998) His work emphasizes robust design methodologies for analog/RF circuits, data-driven predictive modeling , and Bayesian inference for high-dimensional variation spaces. Recent publications focus on generative adversarial networks for circuit design, multi-view imputation for incomplete data, and knowledge-driven autonomous systems . He has received numerous accolades, including the NSF CAREER Award (2012) , IEEE Donald O. Pederson Best Paper Awards (2013, 2016) , and IEEE Fellow (2017) . He has served as Editor for journals like IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering and as Chair for conferences including ISVLSI and CAD/Graphics.
Adeel AHMAD is an active Associate Professor (Maître de Conférences) conducting cutting-edge research at the intersection of artificial intelligence, industrial applications, and business process management. His academic work demonstrates strong interdisciplinary connections between computer science, industrial engineering, and business informatics. Dr. AHMAD's research interests span Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI), Industrial Machine Learning, Business Process Management, Ontology-Based Reasoning, and Logistics Optimization. His work focuses on developing practical AI solutions for industrial contexts, particularly in Industry 4.0 environments where human-AI collaboration is essential. He has made significant contributions to meta-learning approaches for automated algorithm selection and configuration, with particular emphasis on making these systems transparent and interpretable for domain experts. His publication record shows a clear trajectory toward integrating explainability into industrial AI systems, with recent work focusing on conversational recommendation systems for cyber-physical environments. The research demonstrates consistent evolution from foundational work in business process analysis toward sophisticated AI applications in industrial settings. Active research leadership in Explainable AI for industrial applications Significant contributions to meta-learning frameworks for automated machine learning Interdisciplinary approach bridging computer science, industrial engineering, and business processes Strong publication record in top-tier conferences and journals Dr. AHMAD demonstrates strong collaborative research patterns, frequently working with colleagues including Mourad Bouneffa, Moncef Garouani, and other researchers in the French academic community. His work shows particular relevance to manufacturing, logistics, and cyber-physical systems where AI must work alongside human domain experts.
