Irene Taurino is an Assistant Professor (tenure track) in the Faculty of Engineering Science at KU Leuven, affiliated with the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT). She leads the Laboratory of Electrochemical Materials and Bio Interfaces (eMATI), focusing on nano- and microtechnologies for biomedical applications. Her work emphasizes developing advanced electrochemical systems for therapeutic and sensing purposes, including biodegradable platforms and stretchable substrates. Research Interests: Electrochemistry, Nanotechnology, (Bio)sensing, Drug delivery, Bimetals/Metal Oxides, and Smart materials. Projects include HumiPlast (plant transpiration sensors), QuantPAH (firefighter health monitoring), and TALENT (thin-film deposition technologies). She holds leadership roles in Leuven One Health, LIMNI, and the Plant Institute. Advising & Grants: Promotes/Co-promotes 10+ projects on biosensors, CO2 electroreduction, and smart farming. Key roles in funding initiatives like EU Horizon and industry partnerships. Labs/Teams: Heads eMATI, fostering interdisciplinary research in bioelectronics and soft materials. Emphasizes creativity and translational research from fundamental science to practical applications.
Elena Maria Baralis is a Full Professor at the Department of Control and Computer Science (DAUIN) at the Polytechnic University of Turin. She serves as Pro-Rector, member of the Board of Directors (without voting rights), member of the Academic Senate (without voting rights), and coordinator of the University's Permanent Observatory for Monitoring the Academic Sector. She chairs the Control and Computer Engineering Department and previously chaired the Computer Engineering School from October 2012 to October 2018. Her research interests focus on database systems and data mining, specifically explainable AI, bias detection in data analytics, and machine learning algorithms for big data. Her work spans various application domains including predictive maintenance, Industry 4.0, and healthcare. Recent publications demonstrate her expertise in speech processing, bias mitigation, and innovative neural network architectures like Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks. Her research output shows a clear trend toward addressing fairness and explainability in AI systems while exploring novel approaches to speech and language understanding. Professor Baralis has received significant recognition including becoming a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences of Turin in 2017. She has served as Editor-in-Chief for IEEE Internet of Things Journal (2016-2019) and Knowledge and Information Systems (2014-present). She actively mentors doctoral students including Claudio Savelli (researching Machine Unlearning), Eleonora Poeta, Giuseppe Gallipoli, Alkis Koudounas, and others. Her research is supported by numerous projects including AI4CTI (Artificial Intelligence for Cyber Threat Intelligence, 2025-2028), Smart manufacturing driven by Machine Learning in Industry 4.0 (2019-2020), and I-REACT (2016-2019).
Dr. Edyta Chlebowska is an Assistant Professor at the Cyprian Norwid Research Center, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin. Specializing in the visual art and literary legacy of Cyprian Norwid, she explores intersections between Polish Romanticism, art history, and cultural studies. Her work extends to album art analysis and interdisciplinary connections with music (e.g., Pink Floyd, Czesław Niemen). Her research focuses on Norwid's self-portraits, eschatological themes in his drawings, and comparative studies with 19th-century Warsaw painting. She reconstructs lost artworks, documents private collections (e.g., Konstancja Górska, Victor Gomulicki), and examines Norwid's reception in Florence and Odessa. Key projects include translating Studia Norwidiana and critical editing of Norwid's complete works. As editor-in-chief of multiple On Cyprian Norwid. Studies and Essays volumes and organizer of conferences like Niemen Non Stop and Colloquia Norwidiana , she bridges academic rigor with public engagement. Her publications span peer-reviewed books, journal articles, and popular science pieces, emphasizing Norwid's unpublished works and symbolic programs.
Lisa Gilman is a Professor of Folklore and English at George Mason University, and the outgoing Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of American Folklore . Her research focuses on refugee arts initiatives, intangible cultural heritage, and the intersections of performance, gender, and politics in global contexts. She has conducted extensive fieldwork in Malawi, Turkey, France, and the U.S., emphasizing marginalized communities. Her academic journey includes a PhD in Folklore from Indiana University, followed by roles at the University of Oregon and Mzuzu University (Malawi). Key awards include the Fulbright Teaching/Research Award and Rippey Innovative Teaching Award. She produced the documentary Grounds for Resistance , exploring anti-war activism among U.S. veterans. Her current project, the Dzaleka Art Project , collaborates with refugees in Malawi to document cultural creativity and advocate for visibility. This work has been featured in the Wilson Center and Smithsonian publications. Gilman teaches courses on public humanities, ethnographic fieldwork, and digital storytelling, integrating community engagement with academic rigor. Her publications span topics from African expressive culture to UNESCO policy impacts, with notable books including My Music, My War and co-edited volumes like Africa Every Day . Grants include funding from the Woodrow Wilson Center and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Dr Alison Powell is an Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), serving as Programme Director for the MSc Media and Communications (Data and Society). Her research focuses on technology design, public sector technology, and digital futures. She is known for her book Undoing Optimization: Civic Action in Smart Cities (2021) and her participatory research method, data walking. From 2019–2023, she directed the JUST AI network, supported by the Ada Lovelace Institute and UKRI, advancing AI ethics research. Her work integrates critical theory, participatory methods, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Education: PhD in Communication from Concordia University (Canada), MA in Media Studies from Toronto Metropolitan University, and postdoctoral research at the Oxford Internet Institute. Prior to academia, she worked in the film and TV industry. Research interests include civic engagement in data-driven governance, ethical AI, and participatory urbanism. She has advised projects like Africa Just AI and Operationalising Ethics for AI, funded by Horizon Europe, AHRC, and the Open Society Foundations. Her articles address topics such as AI governance, urban light ecology, feminist research praxis, and the ethical implications of technology for marginalized communities. She contributes to blogs like Media@LSE and leads initiatives at Polis and the LSE’s Digital Futures for Children project. Grants and collaborations include work with Projects by IF, Open Rights Group, and the Human Data Interactions Network (EPSRC). She explores intersections of technology, justice, and sustainability, emphasizing equitable and inclusive innovation.
Dr. Yaron Meron is a Lecturer and researcher in design at the University of Sydney's School of Architecture, Design and Planning. He holds a PhD (RMIT, Melbourne) and two Master's degrees (RMIT, Central St Martins). His work bridges academic research and professional practice, focusing on graphic and communication design, socially engaged design, AI integration, and responsible design thinking. Meron’s research explores interdisciplinary challenges, design collaboration, and the societal impact of emerging technologies like AI. He coordinates the Civic & Social Design Research Group. Educations: PhD in Design (RMIT University, Melbourne) MA in Design (RMIT University, Melbourne) MA in Communication Design (Central Saint Martins, London) Research Interests: Graphic design as an interdisciplinary practice Artificial intelligence in design education and practice Media literacy and defamiliarisation techniques Socially engaged design methodologies Design briefs and stakeholder relationships Articles & Trends: Recent publications emphasize AI's role in design education, speculative urban futures, and critical design approaches to media literacy. His work frequently intersects with pedagogy, ethics, and technology’s societal implications. Labs/Teams: Coordinator of the Civic & Social Design Research Group, fostering collaborative projects on responsible design and interdisciplinary innovation.
Rafał Jończyk is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Pragmatics, Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland, where he conducts research at the intersection of psycholinguistics, affective neuroscience, and bilingualism. His work primarily investigates how emotional processing differs between native and second languages using neurophysiological methods, particularly EEG. With a Ph.D. in English Linguistics from Poznań (2015) and postdoctoral experience at Pennsylvania State University, he has established himself as a leading researcher in bilingual emotional processing. His research interests span Affective Neuroscience , Experimental Pragmatics , Psycholinguistics , Bilingualism and Emotion , and the Neurophysiology of Creativity . His methodology heavily relies on EEG to examine language processing, with particular focus on emotional language comprehension and production in bilingual contexts. His work has demonstrated how bilinguals process emotional content differently in their native versus second languages, revealing reduced sensitivity to negative content in the second language. Jończyk's research program has evolved from early work on hemispheric specialization for emotional words to sophisticated EEG studies of emotional anticipation and metaphor processing in bilinguals. His most recent work explores hyperscanning methodologies to study real-time bilingual communication and the neural correlates of creative thinking in bilingual contexts. His publications show a clear progression from foundational studies of emotional word processing to increasingly complex investigations of emotional communication in naturalistic contexts. Cognitive Neuroscience Society Post-doctoral Fellows Award (2018) START scholarship for most talented young Polish scientists (2018) Scholarship from the Minister of Science and Higher Education (2020) Travel Grant Award for International Symposium on Bilingualism (2013) As Principal Investigator, Jończyk leads two major National Science Center projects examining psychophysiological correlates of affective language processing in bilinguals (2016-2018) and neurophysiological correlates of emotional speech production in bilingualism (2021-2025). He also participates in multiple international collaborations including NSF-funded research on divergent thinking in engineering education. His editorial roles include Topic Editor for Brain Sciences and Associate Editor for Applied Psycholinguistics, reflecting his standing in the field. He teaches courses in Psycholinguistics, Emotions in Social Communication, and Creativity and Language at the university level.
Jan Herbst is a Professor of Music at the University of Huddersfield and Director of the Centre for Research in Music and its Technologies. His academic journey includes multiple doctorates (PhD, Dr. habil.) from Leuphana University Lüneburg and research expertise in popular music studies, music production, and systematic musicology. He leads AHRC-funded projects such as 'Heaviness in Metal Music Production' and 'Songwriting Camps in the 21st Century.' His work bridges practical music production and theoretical research, with over 80 publications including books like The Cambridge Companion to Metal Music and Heaviness in Metal Music Production . Herbst’s research focuses on metal music aesthetics, record production techniques, and the cultural dimensions of music technology. He has held roles at German and Swiss universities, including teaching guitar performance and music production. His editorial roles include the Cambridge Companions series and journals like Metal Music Studies . Current projects explore blockchain in music, gear acquisition syndrome, and extreme metal vocal techniques. His academic affiliations include the IASPM UK & I executive committee and editorial boards for major musicology publications. Herbst actively engages with industry through collaborations with producers and performers, maintaining a balance between academic rigor and practical music creation.
Tae-Ho Lee is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Virginia Tech, with affiliated appointments in the School of Neuroscience and Translational Biology, Medicine, and Health. His research focuses on affective and cognitive neural development across the lifespan, neurodegeneration, and family-based neural dynamics. PhD in Brain and Cognitive Science, University of Southern California M.A. in Clinical Psychology, Korea University B.A. in Psychology, Korea University Dr. Lee’s work explores brain connectome dynamics, dyadic neural concordance in families, and age-related attentional control. He employs neuroimaging techniques to study how familial and environmental factors shape emotional and cognitive outcomes in adolescents and older adults. Recent publications highlight trends in longitudinal studies , parent-child neural similarity , and functional connectivity in emotion regulation . Key areas include autism spectrum disorder, substance misuse risk, and the role of socioeconomic factors in brain development. Rising Star , Association for Psychological Science (2020) Dr. Lee is not currently accepting students and leads the Affective Neurodynamics and Development (AND) Lab at Virginia Tech.
Andrew M. Stuart is a Professor at the California Institute of Technology's Division of Engineering and Applied Science. His research bridges computational mathematics, machine learning, and physical modeling, focusing on inverse problems, partial differential equations, and multiscale systems. He has pioneered methodologies integrating Gaussian processes, Kalman inversion, and neural operators for scientific computing. His recent publications highlight innovations in competitive protein dimerization networks, nonlinear Bayesian inference, and operator learning. Articles span applications in materials science, geophysics, and biochemical signal processing, emphasizing data-driven discovery of differential equations and scalable algorithms for high-dimensional problems. Stuart's work addresses challenges in structural error modeling, uncertainty quantification, and graph-based learning, with implications for climate modeling and dynamical systems. Despite extensive contributions, the scraped data does not specify students, awards, or contact details.
Dr. Kelsey Onderdijk is a Post-doctoral Researcher at Tilburg University in the Department of Communication and Cognition within the Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences. Her research focuses on the intersection of music cognition, virtual reality, and social connectedness, with publications spanning neuroscience, psychology, and human-computer interaction domains. Dr. Onderdijk completed her doctoral studies at Ghent University with a dissertation titled "Come together: Exploring unity in music interaction through agency and social connectedness." Her academic journey reflects a strong commitment to understanding human interaction through musical experiences, particularly examining how technological mediation affects social bonding. Her research interests include: Music cognition and embodied music interaction Virtual reality applications in musical contexts Social connectedness in digital music environments Effects of technological constraints on musical collaboration Physiological measures of emotional engagement in music Impact of external constraints on creative expression Dr. Onderdijk's publication record demonstrates a clear trajectory examining how people connect through music in both physical and virtual spaces. Her work bridges psychology, musicology, and human-computer interaction, with particular attention to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on musical collaboration. Recent publications have focused on concert experiences in virtual reality environments and the physiological correlates of emotional engagement during musical performance. Her research has garnered significant attention, with multiple publications receiving citations and mentions in news outlets, policy sources, and social media platforms. The "Impact of Lockdown Measures on Joint Music Making" paper has been particularly influential, accumulating 39 citation indexes and 50 Mendeley readers. Dr. Onderdijk actively collaborates with researchers across institutions, particularly with scholars from Ghent University including Marc Leman and Pieter-Jan Maes, indicating a strong network within the music cognition research community. Her work contributes to UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly those related to well-being and innovation.
Christopher L. Tucci is a Professor of Digital Strategy & Innovation at Imperial College London's Business School and currently serves as Interim Vice Dean of Education. He is also the Founding Dean of NEOM's College of Business & Innovation in Saudi Arabia. Previously, he held the Chair in Corporate Strategy & Innovation at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), where he served as Dean of the College of Management from 2013 to 2018. His academic qualifications include a PhD in Management from MIT and multiple degrees from Stanford University: an AB in Music, BS in Mathematical Sciences, and MS in Computer Science and Computer Science. His research focuses on digital strategy, innovation management, open innovation, and business model innovation, with particular emphasis on how firms transition to new technologies and organizational forms. He has pioneered work on crowdsourcing, inter-networking, and AI-driven innovation. His award-winning article 'Crowdsourcing as a Solution to Distant Search' (co-authored with Allan Afuah) has received multiple accolades, including the AMR Decade Award in 2022. Professor Tucci teaches courses such as AI Ventures, Co-Creation in AI & Robotics, and Design Thinking. He actively contributes to academic leadership roles, including serving on the Academy of Management's Board of Governors and leading initiatives like Imperial's I-X (Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation hub). His work integrates technology, strategy, and organizational dynamics to address modern business challenges. Educations: PhD in Management, MIT (1992–1997) SM in Technology & Policy/EECS, MIT (1989–1991) BS in Mathematical Sciences, Stanford (1978–1982) AB in Music, Stanford (1979–1983) MS in Computer Science, Stanford (1982–1984) Labs/Teams: Co-Director of Imperial's I-X initiative, focusing on AI, data science, and digital innovation.
Vicente Ordóñez-Román is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Rice University, part of the George R. Brown School of Engineering. His research focuses on the intersection of computer vision, natural language processing, and machine learning, with an emphasis on fair, transparent, and interpretable AI. He leads the Vision, Language, and Learning Lab and contributes to the Ken Kennedy Institute's Closed-loop Computer Vision research cluster. Education: PhD in Computer Science (UNC Chapel Hill, 2015), MS in Computer Science (Stony Brook University), and Engineering (Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral, Ecuador). Prior roles include Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia (2016-2021) and visiting positions at Adobe Research, the Allen Institute for AI, and Amazon. Research Interests : Developing multimodal AI systems that integrate visual and textual data, mitigating biases in AI, and advancing generative models. His work emphasizes ethical AI and societal impact, as seen in his contributions to the whitepaper advocating for federal regulation of facial recognition technologies. Awards & Recognition : NSF CAREER Award (2021), Marr Prize (ICCV 2013), Best Paper at EMNLP 2017, and multiple industry grants from Google, Amazon, and Facebook. His research has been featured in media outlets like WIRED, The New York Times, and Bloomberg News. Advising & Grants : Supervises a diverse research group spanning PhD, MS, and undergraduate students. Secured over $1.8 million in external funding, including NSF grants, Amazon FAI awards, and Google Cloud credits. Leads initiatives on bias mitigation, AI ethics, and multimodal learning. Labs & Collaborations : Directs the Vision, Language, and Learning Lab (vislang.ai), collaborating with industry partners like Adobe, Amazon, and SAP. Engages in interdisciplinary projects at the Ken Kennedy Institute, focusing on closed-loop computer vision systems.
Ekaterina Shutova is an Associate Professor at the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) within the Faculty of Science at the University of Amsterdam. She concurrently holds a Visiting Associate Professor position in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University. She leads the Amsterdam Natural Language Understanding Lab and heads the NLP & Digital Humanities research unit at ILLC. An ELLIS Scholar, she earned her PhD from the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory and Pembroke College. Her research has been funded by ERC, Innovate UK, British Academy, Leverhulme Trust, Google, Meta, and Deloitte. Her research spans natural language processing and machine learning, with core interests in: Few-shot learning for NLP Multilingual and cross-lingual systems Joint modeling of language and vision Cognitive processing and semantic representation Figurative language interpretation Computational social science applications Her recent publications (2024-2025) predominantly focus on multimodal learning, cultural alignment in AI, metaphor processing, and evaluation methodologies for language models. These works reflect a trend toward integrating cognitive science with multilingual systems and ethical considerations. Awards & Fellowships: ERC Consolidator Grant (2025) ELLIS Scholar Outstanding Paper Award at ACL 2023 Finalist for Outstanding Certification by TMLR Runner-up Best Paper Award at NAACL-HLT 2016 Research Leadership: She directs the Amsterdam Natural Language Understanding Lab, supervising 8 PhD students, 1 MSc student, and 34 alumni. Her projects include an ERC-funded initiative on globally accessible language technology and an AI Democratization grant for hate speech detection.
Professor Winston Hsu is a distinguished faculty member in the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering at National Taiwan University, where he has served as a full professor since 2015. He is the co-director of the Communications and Multimedia Laboratory (CMLab) and founder of the MiRA (Multimedia indexing, Retrieval, and Analysis) research group. Additionally, he serves as the Founding Director for NVIDIA AI Lab at NTU, the first such lab in Asia. Professor Hsu received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University in 2007 under the supervision of Professor Shih-Fu Chang. Prior to his academic career, he was a founding engineer and research manager at CyberLink Corp., now a public image/video software company. National Taiwan University (2007-Present): Professor (2015-Present), Assistant/Associate Professor (2007-2015) MobileDrive (2021-2024): CTO and Vice President (Joint Venture between Foxconn and Stellantis) IBM TJ Watson Research Center (2016-2017): Visiting Scientist Microsoft Research Redmond (2014): Visiting Researcher Columbia University (2007): Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering Professor Hsu's research focuses on machine learning, computer vision, large-scale image and video search and recognition, and embedded AI. His work spans from fundamental research in visual recognition to practical applications in automotive systems, medical imaging, and e-commerce. He has pioneered work in disguised face recognition, low-resolution face hallucination, 3D model search, and virtual try-on systems. His current research emphasizes Embodied AI, integrating perception, action, and learning technologies for applications in automotive and robotics domains. His research group has produced numerous influential publications, particularly in top computer vision and multimedia conferences like CVPR, where they won first place in the Disguised Face Recognition competition in 2018. Their work spans diverse application areas including security, medical diagnostics, automotive systems, and e-commerce solutions, demonstrating strong translation from academic research to real-world impact. IBM Research Pat Goldberg Memorial Best Paper Award (2018) First Place, IARPA Disguised Faces in the Wild Competition (CVPR 2018) Best Brave New Idea Paper Award, ACM Multimedia 2017 NVIDIA AI LAB Award (First in Asia, 2016) First Place, MSR-Bing Image Retrieval Challenge (2013) World's Top 2% Scientists (2023) Professor Hsu actively mentors students and researchers, with his group consistently recruiting PhD students, postdocs, and research assistants. He has successfully bridged academia and industry through multiple collaborations, including his role as CTO at MobileDrive (a joint venture between Foxconn and Stellantis) from 2021-2024. His research has been supported by significant industry partnerships with Microsoft, IBM, and NVIDIA, as well as government grants from Taiwan's Ministry of Science and Technology. His laboratory, the Communications and Multimedia Laboratory (CMLab), maintains strong industry connections and focuses on cutting-edge research in visual AI. The lab has produced numerous award-winning projects and maintains active collaborations with global technology companies, particularly in the automotive and consumer electronics sectors.
