Yee Whye Teh is a Professor at the Department of Statistics, University of Oxford, and a research scientist at DeepMind. His work focuses on statistical machine learning, including probabilistic learning, Bayesian nonparametrics, deep learning, and Monte Carlo methods. He co-directs the ELLIS programme on Robust Machine Learning and has held roles such as Programme Co-chair for ICML 2017. Teh has delivered keynotes at UAI 2019, an IMS Medallion Lecture at JSM 2019, and the Breiman Lecture in 2017. His research emphasizes scalable inference algorithms, hierarchical models, and applications in genetics and natural language processing. Teh's educational background includes a PhD from the University of Toronto (2003) and a Master's from the same institution (2000). He has contributed to widely used software tools like the Sequence Memoizer and has been recognized for his work through prestigious lectureships. Research interests span Bayesian nonparametric models, MCMC methods, and their applications in genetics and data compression. His lab collaborates on projects like fragmentation-coagulation processes for genetic variation modeling and Mondrian forests for online learning. Teh advises students through Oxford's graduate programs, though he notes high demand for mentorship. His work often bridges theory and practice, addressing challenges in big data learning and small data problems.
Professor Hutan Ashrafian is a clinician-scientist and surgeon at the University of Leeds Business School, holding dual roles as Professor of Research Impact and Senior Research Fellow at Imperial College London. His expertise spans AI in healthcare, metabolic surgery, and ancient history. He pioneered STARD-AI and QUADAS-AI guidelines for AI diagnostics, collaborated on AI-driven breast cancer screening with Google and NHS, and led global health policy initiatives. Ashrafian’s work bridges medicine, history, and philosophy, including his contributions to understanding historical figures’ medical conditions, such as King Tutankhamun’s epilepsy. He has authored over 550 publications, 12 books, and holds a PhD in computational physiology and an MBA with distinction. Awards include the Hunterian Prize and Wellcome Trust Fellowship. His research also explores AI ethics, quantum physics paradoxes, and art-based medical diagnostics. Education: PhD in Computational Physiology (Imperial College London) MBA (Warwick Business School) MD (University College London) Bachelor of Science in Immunology (University College London) Research Interests: Ashrafian’s work spans: AI in Medicine: Diagnostic algorithms, guideline development (STARD-AI/QUADAS-AI), and ethical frameworks. Metabolic Surgery: Bariatric interventions, gut microbiome, and obesity treatments. Ancient History: Medical analyses of historical figures (e.g., Tutankhamun, Julius Caesar) and art-based pathology identification. Philosophy: AI rights (AIONAI law), temporal paradoxes, and the Simulation Argument. Awards: Royal College of Surgeons Arris and Gale Lectureship Hunterian Prize Wellcome Trust Research Fellowship Advising & Innovation: Supervised >50 PhD students, co-founded Oxford Medical Products (weight loss tech), and serves as CSO at Flagship Pioneering’s Preemptive Health division. He advises on NHS digital transformation and global health policy. Labs/Teams: Leads AI initiatives at Imperial’s Institute of Global Health Innovation and collaborates with Google, NICE, and international institutions on health tech solutions.
Prof. Dr. Roland Büchi is a Professor at the School of Engineering, Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), specializing in control systems engineering and applied AI. His affiliation includes leadership roles in research projects such as the ongoing 'Digital Bridge to Computer Science' initiative. With a career spanning decades, he maintains active research output and industrial collaborations. Research Interests: Büchi focuses on control systems optimization , particularly PID controller tuning using AI methods, system identification, and applications in robotics and drone technology. His work bridges theoretical control theory with practical implementations in mechatronics. Recent efforts explore machine learning for hysteresis modeling and swarm optimization for control systems. Publication Trends: His 15 most recent works (2018-2024) emphasize AI-driven control optimization , drone technology advancements, and engineering education. Dominant themes include PID parameter tuning for time-delayed systems, drone telemetry, and adaptive learning algorithms. A notable shift toward AI/ML applications in control engineering emerged post-2020. Labs and Teams: Büchi collaborates with researchers like Lukas Gruber and has historical ties to ETH Zurich’s robotics projects. His work involves experimental validation at ZHAW’s engineering facilities, with patents in turbocharger magnetic bearing systems.
Fanny Yang is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at ETH Zurich . She previously held postdoctoral positions at Stanford University and a Junior Fellowship at the Institute for Theoretical Studies at ETH Zurich, advised by Nicolai Meinshausen . Her PhD was completed at the EECS Department of UC Berkeley , supervised by Martin Wainwright . Research Interests : Theoretical foundations of machine learning and statistics , particularly focusing on overparameterized models and high-dimensional data . Developing trustworthy ML models with emphasis on distributional robustness , domain generalization , and interpretability . Applications in medical diagnostics and treatment effect analysis , aiming to address reliability issues in real-world domains. Recent Work Trends : 2025 Articles : Theoretical analysis of semi-supervised multi-objective learning , test-time scaling with verifiers, and foundation models for efficient randomized experiments . 2024 Articles : Studies on robust mixture learning , privacy-preserving data synthesis via optimal transport , confounding quantification in causal inference , and semi-private learning frameworks. 2023 Articles : Investigations into active vs. passive learning in high dimensions, inductive bias in noisy interpolation , and semi-supervised novelty detection using model ensembles .
Chua Tat Seng is a Professor at the School of Computing, National University of Singapore (NUS), holding the KITHCT Chair Professorship since 2009. He serves as co-Director of the NExT++ Center, a joint research center between NUS and Tsinghua University focused on Extreme Search. His academic career spans over three decades at NUS, where he has held various leadership positions including Acting Dean of the School of Computing (1998-2000) and Acting Head of the Department of Information Systems & Computer Science (1996-1998). Professor Chua's research spans unstructured data analytics , multimedia information retrieval , recommendation and conversation systems , and emerging applications in e-commerce and fintech . He established the Lab for Media Search (LMS) at the School of Computing and has been instrumental in advancing multimodal learning and search technologies. His work bridges theoretical foundations with practical applications, particularly in developing trustable AI systems for real-world deployment. His recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on large language models for recommendation systems , multimodal learning , and generative AI applications . The research trends show increasing emphasis on LLM-based recommendation, multimodal understanding, and addressing fundamental challenges in AI reliability, fairness, and efficiency. His work spans theoretical advancements in representation learning to practical applications in e-commerce, finance, and healthcare domains. ACM SIGMM Technical Achievement Award 2015 Multiple Best Paper Awards across ACM Multimedia, IEEE Transactions, and MMM conferences (2007-2020) Professor Chua has supervised 37 PhD students since 2004, establishing himself as a dedicated mentor in the academic community. His research has been supported by substantial grants including NExT++ ($12 million), Base Metals Price Forecasting ($200,000), and Multilingual Multimodal Knowledge Graph ($500,000). He maintains active collaborations with Tsinghua University, University of Southampton, and industry partners like Four Elements Capital and Singapore Press Holdings. As co-Director of the NExT++ Center, he leads a major research initiative focused on Web Intelligence and User Empowerment. His visiting professorships at Tsinghua University (2017-present) and Zhejiang University (2021-present) reflect his international impact in the field of multimedia and AI research.
Yuri Bobbert is a Professor of Information System Science at Antwerp Management School (AMS), part of the University of Antwerp. He holds dual PhDs from Radboud University and the University of Antwerp, focusing on IT performance measurement. His career includes roles as Global Group CSO of NN Group and UWV (Government), leading cybersecurity integrations during mergers like NN Group and Delta Lloyds. As CEO of B-ABLE (IT consultancy), he developed cybersecurity frameworks. Currently, he advises on NIS2 compliance and Zero Trust strategies. His research spans cybersecurity ROI, regulatory frameworks (e.g., NIS2), and leadership in digital security. Education PhD in Information Systems (Radboud University) PhD in Cybersecurity (University of Antwerp) Research Interests Cybersecurity governance and compliance ROSI (Return on Security Investment) CISO leadership and board communication Zero Trust architecture Risk quantification in digital ecosystems Publications & Books Authored books: Strategic Approaches to Digital Platform Security Assurance , Cybersecurity in 60 Minutes , and Digital Security Leadership Over 100 peer-reviewed publications on cybersecurity performance and governance Grants & Awards Recipient of NIS2 implementation research grants Contributor to EU cybersecurity policy discussions Labs & Teams Leads AMS cybersecurity education programs and collaborates with ON2IT on global cybersecurity strategies.
Sara Ng is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics at Western Washington University. She holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Washington (2024) and an MS in Computational Linguistics (2023), alongside a B.A. in Linguistics and B.S. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Utah (2017). Her research focuses on computational models of prosody, speech perception, and their integration with speech technologies like automatic speech recognition (ASR). She investigates how prosody conveys pragmatic meaning, influences conversational dynamics, and impacts listeners with hearing impairments. Her work bridges computational methods and linguistic theory, addressing challenges in clinical and technological applications. Education PhD in Linguistics, University of Washington, 2024 MS in Computational Linguistics, University of Washington, 2023 B.A. in Linguistics (Honors), B.S. in Applied Mathematics, University of Utah, 2017 Research Interests Ng’s research explores computational linguistics, prosody modeling, speech technology, and hearing impairment studies. She develops methods to leverage prosodic cues for tasks like punctuation prediction and investigates the impact of hearing loss on speech perception. Grants & Awards 2024: Nominated for UW Excellence in Teaching Award 2023: Excellence in Linguistic Research Graduate Fellowship 2017: University of Utah Top Scholar Award Teaching Ng teaches courses in phonetics, computational linguistics, and linguistics for honors students. She emphasizes pedagogical innovation and inclusivity, with experience as an instructor of record and teaching assistant at both Western Washington University and the University of Washington. Labs & Collaborations She collaborates with the TIAL Lab (University of Washington), Phonetics Lab, Hearing Aid Laboratory (Northwestern University), and CLILLAC-ARP (Université Paris Cité). Her work intersects with clinical and engineering domains, addressing real-world applications of speech technology.
Sewoong Oh is a Professor at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, where he has been faculty since 2019. His research focuses on the foundations of machine learning with particular emphasis on differential privacy, secure and robust machine learning, and federated learning. Prior to joining UW, he was at the Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 2012-2019. He is affiliated with multiple NSF AI Institutes including ACTION (Agent-based Cyber Threat Intelligence and Operation), AI-EDGE (Future Edge Networks and Distributed Intelligence), and IFML (Foundations of Machine Learning). Oh received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 2011 under Andrea Montanari, followed by postdoctoral work at MIT's Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems under Devavrat Shah. His educational background spans top institutions in theoretical computer science and electrical engineering. His research spans the critical intersection of machine learning security, privacy, and robustness. Oh's work addresses fundamental challenges in making AI systems reliable and trustworthy, with particular focus on defending against backdoor attacks, developing privacy-preserving algorithms, and creating efficient tokenization methods for language models. His recent SuperBPE work demonstrates how moving beyond traditional subword tokenization can significantly improve language model efficiency and performance. His research consistently bridges theoretical foundations with practical implementations, as evidenced by numerous open-source repositories containing production-ready code. Oh's publications reveal a consistent trajectory toward addressing security and privacy concerns in increasingly complex machine learning systems, with recent work focusing on language model tokenization, data-centric AI, and federated learning frameworks. His research shows strong interdisciplinary connections between theoretical computer science, statistics, and practical machine learning systems. ACM SIGMETRICS best paper award (2015) NSF CAREER award (2016) ACM SIGMETRICS rising star award (2017) GOOGLE Faculty Research Awards (2017, 2020) 2024 ICML Best Paper Award (for work by advisee Jon Hayase) Professor Oh maintains an active research group with numerous PhD students, postdocs, and undergraduate researchers. His students have secured prestigious positions at leading tech companies including Amazon, Google, and Snap, as well as academic appointments at institutions like University of Wisconsin-Madison and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He has received substantial research funding through his participation in multiple NSF AI Institutes and industry research awards from Google. His lab maintains several active GitHub repositories implementing cutting-edge research in backdoor defense, robust statistics, and privacy-preserving machine learning.
Hao Su is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at University of California, San Diego . He serves as Chairman & CTO of Hillbot Inc , and leads the SU Lab which focuses on building autonomous systems that learn actively in physical environments. His affiliations include the Institute for Learning-enabled Optimization at Scale , Artificial Intelligence Group , Contextual Robotics Institute , Halicioğlu Data Science Institute , and Center for Visual Computing . As a researcher in Computer Vision, Robotics, and Neural Geometry , he has made significant contributions to 3D foundation models, reward-free world models, diffusion policy frameworks, and GPU-accelerated simulation environments. His 2024-2025 publications include advancements in hand-eye calibration, dynamic mesh reconstruction, and multi-stage robotic manipulation. His scientific awards include: Frontiers of Science Award (2025) TPAMI Young Research Award (2025) NSF CAREER Award (2023) ACM SIGGRAPH Best Doctorate Thesis Honorable Mention (2019) He has served as Program Chair for CVPR 2025 and Area Chair for ICLR 2022 and NeurIPS 2023 , while previously serving as Publication Chair for 3DV 2016 and Program Committee for SIGGRAPH Asia Workshops .
Dr. Guillermo Amador is an Assistant Professor in the Experimental Zoology department at Wageningen University & Research. His research focuses on understanding how animals interact with complex environments through locomotion, adhesion, and fluid dynamics. He investigates biological systems like insects, plants, and marine organisms to inspire bio-engineered solutions for robotics, microfluidics, and material science. Amador received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology (USA), followed by postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (Germany) and a Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellowship at TU Delft (Netherlands). His expertise spans biophysics, biomaterials, and biomechanics, with a focus on self-cleaning mechanisms and bioadhesion. He collaborates with the 4TU consortium on Dutch Soft Robotics to develop bio-inspired designs. His work bridges fundamental biology with engineering applications, emphasizing interdisciplinary approaches to solve challenges in robotics and environmental science. Amador teaches courses including Biomimetics and Functional Zoology , integrating his research into education. His research highlights include studies on cuttlefish suction cups, stick insect adhesion, and pollen transport mechanisms in pollinators.
Robert JOLIET is an Associate Professor of Finance at IÉSEG School of Management in France. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics and Management from HEC-ULg Management School (Belgium) and has held various academic leadership roles, including Director of Academic Development and Academic Director of the PGE (MSc in Management). His research focuses on finance, portfolio management, SRI (Socially Responsible Investing), and corporate finance, with a particular emphasis on international expansion, capital structure, and sustainable investment strategies. Education: 2008: Ph.D. in Economics and Management, HEC-ULg Management School, Belgium 2004: Master of Advanced Studies (DEA), Management Sciences (Finance), University of Liège, Belgium 2002: Master of Science in Business Engineering (Finance), University of Liège, Belgium Research interests span SRI fund dynamics, corporate social responsibility valuation, international debt policies, and market liquidity. Notable contributions include analyzing the impact of SRI mutual funds on corporate governance and environmental practices, and exploring the stability of sovereign debt structures in the Eurozone. Awards include the 2005 FORTIS Award (Third Prize) and the 2003 E.G. de Barsy Doctoral Fellowship. He has published extensively in journals like Economics Letters and Journal of Banking & Finance . Academic leadership roles include directing programs and departments at IÉSEG, alongside coordinating the Finance Track and managing academic development initiatives. His teaching focuses on financial data analysis, active portfolio management, and investment strategies in capital markets. He is a member of the LEM (Laboratoire d'Économie Moderne) research group and contributes to interdisciplinary research in finance and economics.
Adrian Weller is a prominent researcher and academic at the University of Cambridge, serving as a Director of Research in Machine Learning within the Department of Engineering. He holds multiple significant leadership roles including Programme Director for Trust and Society at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (CFI), and previously served as Programme Director for AI at The Alan Turing Institute, the UK national institute for data science and AI. His work bridges theoretical machine learning research with practical applications and societal implications of artificial intelligence. Weller's research interests span a broad spectrum of AI and machine learning topics with a particular focus on ensuring beneficial societal outcomes. His work encompasses explainability, fairness, robustness, scalability, privacy, safety, and ethics in AI systems. He has made significant contributions to trustworthy machine learning, including developing frameworks for AI governance, certification, and human-AI collaboration. His research group actively investigates neuro-symbolic approaches, privacy-preserving techniques, and methods for improving the reliability and interpretability of AI systems. His recent publications demonstrate a strong trend toward addressing the practical challenges of deploying AI systems in real-world contexts, particularly focusing on certification frameworks, governance mechanisms, and human-centered approaches. His work spans theoretical advances in machine learning architectures while maintaining a strong connection to societal impact, with publications appearing in top venues across AI, machine learning, and interdisciplinary applications. Scientific Awards: MBE for services to digital innovation (2022 Queen's Birthday Honours) Turing AI Fellowship for Trustworthy Machine Learning Weller actively supervises a large group of PhD students and postdocs, with current students including Juyeon Heo, Yanzhi Chen, Katie Collins, Isaac Reid, Yichao Liang, Herbie Bradley, and Shoaib Siddiqui. His former students have gone on to positions at leading institutions including Google DeepMind, ETH Zurich, NYU, and MPI-IS Tübingen. He has served on numerous advisory boards including the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation, UNESCO's expert group on AI ethics, and the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on AI. His research has been supported through his Turing AI Fellowship and various collaborative projects focused on safe and ethical AI development. Weller leads a vibrant research group focused on trustworthy machine learning, which actively organizes workshops and conferences including ICML 2024 (where he served as Program Chair), multiple workshops on responsible AI, and events through the ELLIS network. His group collaborates extensively across disciplines, working with researchers in computer science, social sciences, law, and policy to address the multifaceted challenges of developing beneficial AI systems.
Jia Deng is a Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University and directs the Princeton Vision & Learning Lab. His research focuses on computer vision, machine learning, and robotics, with an emphasis on advancing 3D vision and synthetic data generation. Ph.D., Princeton University, 2012 B.Eng., Tsinghua University, Computer Science His work spans optical flow, depth estimation, and visual reasoning, leveraging procedural scene generation and robust neural architectures. Recent publications highlight advancements in multi-layer depth estimation, stereo matching, and simulation environments for embodied AI. Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, 2018 NSF CAREER Award, 2020 ONR Young Investigator Award, 2020 Multiple Best Paper Awards (ECCV, ICCV, 3DV) Deng leads the Princeton Vision & Learning Lab, which develops foundational tools for computer vision and machine learning. His mentorship extends to advising students and collaborating on interdisciplinary projects.
Cicek Cavdar is an Associate Professor at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) at KTH Royal Institute of Technology , Sweden. She leads the Intelligent Network Systems research group and specializes in Telecommunication Networks , with a focus on Beyond 5G/6G Mobile Networks , Energy Efficiency , and AI-Assisted Network Management . PhD in Computer Science (2009) from University of California, Davis and Istanbul Technical University Her research spans Cell-Free Massive MIMO , Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) , UAV Communication Systems , and Green Network Technologies . She actively contributes to 6G Network Architecture and Non-Terrestrial Networks , including satellite and aerial systems. Recent publications highlight AI-driven network optimization for handover management, energy-aware resource allocation , and multi-agent reinforcement learning in complex communication environments. She teaches advanced courses in Communication Systems , Machine Learning , and Software Engineering at KTH.
Michael Kaess is an Associate Professor at the Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), within the School of Computer Science. He leads the Robot Perception Lab (RPL) and contributes to the Field Robotics Center (FRC) and Computer Vision Group (CV). His research focuses on efficient perception algorithms for mobile robots, particularly in 3D mapping, SLAM, and sensor fusion using vision, LiDAR, inertial, and sonar data. Kaess holds a PhD in Computer Science from Georgia Tech and was a postdoc at MIT's Marine Robotics Lab. Education: Georgia Institute of Technology, PhD in Computer Science (2008) MIT, Postdoctoral Associate (2008–2010) Research Interests: Kaess develops algorithms for robust and efficient inference in robotics, emphasizing factor graphs and linear algebra. His work spans underwater robotics, aerial systems, tactile SLAM, and multi-sensor integration. Key areas include SLAM with planes/lines, imaging sonar reconstruction, and neural field methods for LiDAR-visual fusion. Publications: Over 145 papers, including work on EDPLVO (visual odometry), HoloOcean (underwater simulation), and neural radiance fields with LiDAR. Recent trends focus on robust incremental smoothing, acoustic-optical fusion, and real-time volumetric mapping. Awards: Recognized with the RSS Test of Time Award (2020), Outstanding Associate Editor (2022), and paper awards at ICRA/ICRA. Active in conference organization (IROS/ICRA program committees). Advising & Grants: Supervises 10+ current PhD/MSc students, with past advisees contributing to CoRL/ICRA work. Manages grants in perception, autonomy, and marine robotics. Teaches courses like Robot Localization and Mapping (16-833). Labs/Teams: Directs RPL, collaborates with FRC on field robotics. Develops open-source tools like GTSAM (GNU Toolkit for Smoothing and Mapping).
