Artem Barger is a researcher specializing in blockchain technology, distributed systems, and database optimization. With affiliations primarily in blockchain development and academic research, he has contributed extensively to Hyperledger Fabric enhancements and decentralized information systems. Research Interests Optimizing state databases for blockchain platforms Byzantine Fault Tolerance in distributed networks Permissioned blockchain architectures Tokenization of real-world assets AI applications in soft skills evaluation Recent Publications Barger's work focuses on improving blockchain scalability and security through techniques like certification blocks, Patricia Merkle tries, and verifiable randomness. He has also explored tokenization applications in charity and energy sectors.
Ali José Mashtizadeh is an Associate Professor at the Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo. His research focuses on operating systems, distributed systems, and storage, with expertise in system reliability, network optimization, and concurrent programming. Education: Ph.D., Computer Science, Stanford University (2017) M.S., Computer Science, Stanford University (2017) M.Eng., Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT (2007) B.S., Electrical Engineering, MIT (2006) His research centers on designing scalable and reliable systems, with recent publications exploring TCP network frameworks, in-memory data persistence, and microsecond-scale scheduling. Key themes include optimizing tail latency, neutralization-based memory reclamation, and fault-tolerant distributed services. His articles consistently demonstrate innovations in low-latency networking, operating system architecture, and cloud infrastructure, with recent emphasis on serverless benchmarks and processor customization. No scientific awards or advising relationships are detailed in the provided materials.
Luis Antunes Veiga is an Associate Professor and Senior Researcher at INESC-ID Lisbon, affiliated with the Distributed Systems Group and the Computing Systems and Communication Networks Laboratory. His research focuses on Cloud Computing, Edge Computing, Distributed Systems, and Big Data processing. He teaches courses such as 'Cloud Computing and Virtualization' and 'Operating Systems, Virtualization and Cloud Computing.' His work emphasizes scalable systems, network-aware workflows, and resource-efficient data processing. Research Interests: His primary areas include distributed systems architectures, edge computing frameworks, graph processing algorithms, and software-defined systems. He explores topics like latency-aware network design, resource auction mechanisms for edge environments, and interoperable service workflows. His contributions span theoretical frameworks and practical implementations, such as the RATEE system for edge resource trading and the VeilGraph incremental graph processing framework. Publications: His recent work addresses challenges in distributed systems, such as elastic scaling of stream processing, efficient graph processing in Spark, and latency optimization in internet-scale workflows. These publications reflect a trend toward integrating software-defined approaches with edge and cloud infrastructures. Notable Awards: Best Young Researcher INESC-ID, Excellence in Teaching (IST 2012), and a Best-Paper Award at ACM/IFIP/Usenix Middleware 2007. Labs & Teams: Active in the Computing Systems and Communication Networks Laboratory, leading projects on edge computing and distributed systems.
Anne-Marie Kermarrec is a Senior Researcher at INRIA (France), with prior roles at Microsoft Research (UK) and the University of Rennes 1 (France). Her work focuses on decentralized systems, including gossip protocols, peer-to-peer networks, social networks, and collaborative filtering. PhD in Computer Science (Rennes, 1996) Her research spans epidemic algorithms, content-based search in large-scale networks, and scalable group communication. She pioneered gossip-based peer sampling and multicast infrastructures like Scribe and SplitStream. Her publications highlight applications in decentralized news recommendation (AllYours), network coding, and privacy-preserving social platforms (Gossple). Key article trends include gossip protocols , P2P systems , social network analysis , decentralized storage , and collaborative filtering . She received the Michel Monpetit Award (2011), ERC Starting Grant (GOSSPLE, 2008-2013), and an ICDCS Best Paper Award (2010). Michel Monpetit Award (2011) ERC PoC AllYours (2013) ERC Starting Grant GOSSPLE (2008-2013) ICDCS Best Paper Award (2010) Kermarrec led program committees for major conferences (e.g., EuroSys, Middleware) and chaired the ACM Software System Award. Her software contributions include AllYours (news recommender), GossipLib (gossip library), and GossipPeer (P2P platform maintenance).
Wagner Ourique De Morais is a Lecturer at the Academy of Information Technology , Halmstad University, with a focus on Smart Home Systems and Healthcare Technology for elderly populations. Doctoral Thesis : Architecting Smart Home Environments for Healthcare: A Database-Centric Approach (2015) Key Research Areas : Ambient Assisted Living (AAL), Graph Neural Networks for Clinical Prediction, IoT-Edge-Cloud Offloading, and Wearable Health Monitors His work spans 15+ years , including publications on Zero-Day Attack Detection in Vehicular Networks (2025), Graph Neural Networks for Clinical Risk Prediction (2024), and Smart Medication Organizers (2017). Research trends emphasize sensor integration , context-aware computing , and security in smart environments . He contributes to projects like the "Safe at Night" initiative and has developed middleware for heterogeneous sensor networks (2008). Current teaching and research at Halmstad University prioritize technology-enabled elderly care and cyber-physical system design .
Prof. Vana Kalogeraki is a Faculty Member at the Department of Informatics , Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB) , and serves as the Dean of the School of Information Sciences and Technology and Director of the Computer Systems and Communications Laboratory . She has held academic positions at the University of California, Riverside and was a Research Scientist at Hewlett-Packard Labs . PhD: University of California, Santa Barbara M.S. & B.S.: University of Crete, Greece Her research focuses on Distributed and Real-Time Systems , Big Data Systems , Cloud Computing , Human-Centered Systems , and Crowdsourcing . She has published over 200 papers at top journals (IEEE TPDS, ACM TOS, etc.) and conferences (RTSS, DSN, ICDCS, VLDB, MDM), including co-authoring the OMG CORBA Dynamic Scheduling Standard . Her 2023-2025 publications address AI pipelines in serverless environments, edge computing for trauma detection via eye-tracking, and fairness in resource scheduling. She has received prestigious awards including an ERC Starting Grant , Best Paper Awards (DEBS 2017, IPDPS 2009), a Best Poster Award (EuroSys 2024), and multiple UC Research Awards . Her research is funded by the European Union (ARISTEIA, THALIS), NSF, and industry partners like SUN and Nokia. Advising Legacy : Supervised 10 PhD graduates (now at Google, Amazon, IBM, Apple) and over 60 MS/PhD committees Labs & Teams : Leads the Computer Systems and Communications Laboratory at AUEB, focusing on mobile human-centered systems and urban data analytics
Thomas Kudraß serves as Professor for Database Systems at the Faculty of Computer Science, Mathematics and Natural Sciences (IMN) at Leipzig University of Applied Sciences (HTWK Leipzig). With over 25 years of academic and industry experience, he teaches courses including Database Basics, Database Application Programming, Data Warehousing, and Big Data Technologies. His leadership roles include Internship Coordinator for Computer Science since 2001, Member of the Academic Senate since 2011, and Contact person for the IMN faculty alumni association since 2005. Dr. Kudraß earned his Dipl.-Ing. in Computer Science from Technical University of Dresden (1985-1990) and completed his doctorate at Darmstadt University of Technology (1992-1997), where his dissertation received the prestigious Jos Schepens Memorial Award. Prior to academia, he worked as an Information Systems Architect at UBS AG Zurich and Database Specialist at Swiss Bank Corporation Basel. His research spans database technologies with focus on heterogeneous database integration, data quality, data privacy, and modern database concepts. Recent work explores cloud-native billing applications for 5G, NoSQL databases, and privacy-preserving record linkage techniques. His publication record shows continuous evolution from traditional database systems to contemporary challenges in big data and distributed systems. Jos Schepens Memorial Award for doctoral dissertation (1997) Active participation in German Informatics Society (GI) specialist groups Organizer of multiple database-related workshops and conferences Professor Kudraß has significantly contributed to academic governance as E-Learning Officer (2000-02), Faculty Council member (2009-12), and liaison lecturer for the German Society for Computer Science (2001-14). He has coordinated numerous student projects and served on program committees for major conferences including INFORMATIK 2017 and BTW series.
Tilmann Rabl is a Professor at the Digital Engineering Faculty of the University of Potsdam and holds the chair for Data Engineering Systems at the Hasso Plattner Institute. He is a cofounder and scientific director of the startup bankmark. Rabl earned his PhD at the University of Passau in 2011 and spent four years as a postdoc at the University of Toronto's Middleware Systems Research Group (MSRG). From 2015 to 2019, he served as senior researcher and visiting professor at Technische Universität Berlin's Database Systems and Information Management (DIMA) group and as Vice Director of the Intelligent Analytics for Massive Data (IAM) Group at DFKI. Rabls research interests center on stream processing, big data management, end-to-end machine learning pipelines, and benchmarking data processing systems. His recent work explores hardware-conscious database design, GPU memory optimization, and CPU cache prefetching strategies. EDBT Best Experiments and Analysis Paper Award (2025) ICDE Outstanding Meta-Reviewer (2024) SIGMOD Distinguished Reviewer (2024) EDBT Best Paper Award (2019, 2022) ACM SIGMOD Research Highlight (2022) VLDB Distinguished Reviewer (2022) ICDE Best Paper Award (2021) SIGMOD Best Paper Award (2020) DEBS Grand Challenge & Audience Awards (2020) SIGMOD Distinguished Reviewer (2020, 2024) EDBT Best Demonstration Award (2017) Rabls advising includes Clemens Schielicke, Finn Schöllkopf, and Tobias Jordan, who are working on master's theses in areas like memory bandwidth expansion, SIMD-accelerated sort-merge joins, and probabilistic filters for intermediate data processing. His group also includes PhD students and postdocs across ongoing projects.
Prof. Bruno Defude is a Professor at Telecom SudParis, part of the University of Paris-Saclay. He has been affiliated with the institution since 1992, holding roles such as lecturer-researcher, department director, and currently serves as Deputy Director of Research and Doctoral Training. He leads the ACMES studies initiative and focuses on interdisciplinary research in distributed systems, cloud computing, and educational technologies. Education: Doctorate in Computer Science (1986), Grenoble INP Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches (HDR) (2005), UPMC Research Interests: Prof. Defude's work spans cloud computing architectures, data integration challenges, process mining, sensor networks, and adaptive learning systems. His contributions emphasize scalable solutions for distributed environments and privacy-aware service composition. Recent Trends: Recent publications highlight advancements in natural language querying of process data, multi-objective task scheduling in fog computing, and spatio-temporal data aggregation in vehicular networks. His work bridges theoretical foundations with practical implementations in distributed systems. Labs/Teams: Director of ACMES studies, involved in interdisciplinary research collaborations across computer science and telecommunications domains.
Dr. Sotirios Kontogiannis is a Researcher and Director of the Distributed MicroComputer Systems Laboratory (MCSL) at the Department of Mathematics, University of Ioannina. He holds a PhD in Software Engineering from Democritus University of Thrace (2012), with a focus on load balancing algorithms for distributed systems. His career spans academic and private sector roles, including software development, research in FP7 projects, and technical leadership at TEKMON Geomatics. He currently teaches courses on Database Systems, Parallel Algorithms, and Educational Technologies at the University of Ioannina. Education: 5-year Engineering Diploma (DUTH, 2003), MSc in Microelectronics and Information Systems (DUTH, 2006), PhD in Load Balancing Algorithms (DUTH, 2012). Research Focus: Distributed systems, IoT protocols, sensor networks, big data, and smart agriculture technologies (e.g., beekeeping monitoring systems, wine fermentation frameworks). His work integrates IoT, AI, and edge computing to address challenges in agriculture, accessibility, and environmental monitoring. Notable inventions include patented smart beehive systems and tactile navigation tools for visually impaired individuals.
V. N. Venkatakrishnan is a Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies at the College of Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago. His research focuses on Computer Systems Security with applications in web security, exploit detection, and security automation. Education: Ph.D in Computer Science (2004), Stony Brook University Research Interests: Spanning Computer Systems Security , Venkatakrishnan's work integrates compilers , operating systems , and formal methods to develop defenses against cyber attacks. His recent publications emphasize automated attack detection, exploit generation, and security frameworks for web applications. Scientific Awards: Distinguished Paper Award at USENIX Security 2018 Best Paper Award at IEEE QRS 2016 2009 ATT Award for Best Applied Security Research Best Paper Award at ACSAC 2003 Advising and Collaborations: He has mentored numerous Ph.D. and M.S. students including Sadegh Momemi and Maliheh Monshizadeh. Former advisees include Birhanu Mekuria (now at University of Michigan) and Rigel Gjomemo (now Research Assistant Professor at UIC).
Prof. Dr. Yaşar Güneri ŞAHİN serves as the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Sciences at Izmir University of Economics, where he also holds a professorship in the Department of Software Engineering. With over two decades of experience in both academia and industry, he has established himself as a prominent figure in software engineering, real-time systems, and educational technologies. His academic journey began with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering from Middle East Technical University in 1994, followed by a Master's in Computer Education from Gazi University in 1999, and culminated with a Ph.D. in Industrial Technology from Gazi University in 2005. Prior to joining Izmir University of Economics in 2008, he served as a faculty member at Yaşar University starting in 2005, and before that, he gained nearly a decade of industry experience in high-level management roles overseeing numerous software projects for both public and private sectors. Prof. ŞAHİN's research spans several interconnected domains with a strong emphasis on practical applications. His work in software engineering focuses on project management methodologies, team building models for educational contexts, and database systems. In real-time systems, he has made significant contributions to forest fire detection technologies using innovative approaches like animal-based biological sensors and radio-acoustic sounding systems. His educational technology research addresses challenges in nursing education, special education for individuals with autism, and internet resource utilization by university students. Notably, his interdisciplinary approach bridges computer science with healthcare applications, particularly in medical informatics where he has developed public health information systems and tools for medical data entry. His scholarly output demonstrates a consistent trajectory of innovation across multiple domains, with particular concentration in the period from 2007-2013. While his early work focused on foundational software engineering concepts and database systems, his research evolved to address pressing societal challenges including forest fire detection, healthcare information systems, and educational technologies. This evolution reflects his ability to identify emerging technological needs and apply software engineering principles to diverse real-world problems. His contributions have been recognized through multiple prestigious awards: TÜBİTAK Scientific Publication Awards (2008-2012) İzmir University of Economics Scientific Publication Awards (2008-2011) As an academic advisor, Prof. ŞAHİN has supervised doctoral and master's theses on diverse topics including heart failure management, triage algorithms for multiple injuries, and software project selection metrics for small and medium enterprises. His administrative leadership extends beyond his deanship to include serving on juries for national art, design, and architecture competitions, as well as evaluating research projects for TEYDEB and TÜBİTAK. His grant activities include serving as a project reviewer and monitor for various technology development initiatives including "Bulut," "ARAGES," "SADE," and "SWH-ATLANTIS." Prof. ŞAHİN maintains an active research laboratory environment focused on real-time systems and software engineering applications. His work often involves interdisciplinary collaboration, particularly with medical professionals on health informatics projects and with education specialists on technology-enhanced learning initiatives. Current research directions appear to focus on the intersection of software engineering principles with healthcare applications and environmental monitoring systems.
D. (Dimka) Karastoyanova is a Professor of Information Systems at the University of Groningen , Faculty of Science and Engineering, Computer Science Department. She leads the Information Systems Group and serves as vice-chair of the Bernoulli Institute Board since 2024. Previously, she was Head of the Computer Science Department (2020-2024) and a member of the Informatics Europe Board since 2023. Dimka's research focuses on data-driven, service-based process automation for cross-organizational collaboration, emphasizing runtime adaptability, security, and sustainability . Her work spans applications in manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, and eScience , integrating Scientific Workflows, Cloud Computing, and Middleware Systems to enhance process flexibility. Her scientific contributions include 15+ publications on topics like Choreography Lifecycle Management, BPEL Adaptation, and Cloud Migration Frameworks , reflecting her expertise in Service-Oriented Computing, Workflow Technologies, and Distributed Systems . She received the Rosalind Franklin Fellowship and has served on program committees for IEEE, ICWS, and BPM conferences . Dimka holds a PhD in Computer Science (TU Darmstadt, 2006), an MSc in Computational Engineering (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg), and MSc/BSc in Industrial Engineering (Technical University of Sofia). She previously held roles as Associate Professor of Data Science at KLU Hamburg and Senior Researcher at Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam.
Laura Haas serves as the Donna M and Robert J Manning Dean at the University of Massachusetts Amherst's College of Information and Computer Sciences. Prior to this, she spent 36 years at IBM, where she rose to the level of IBM Fellow and held leadership roles such as Director of the Accelerated Discovery Lab and Director of Computer Science at IBM's Almaden Research Center. Her research focuses on data integration, database systems, and accelerating discovery through data-driven approaches. She pioneered systems like Starburst, Garlic, and Clio, and founded IBM's Accelerated Discovery Lab to enhance data analysis tools for domain experts. Haas holds a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin (1981) and an AB from Harvard University (1978). She has held sabbaticals at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and ETH Zurich. Her contributions earned her awards like the ACM SIGMOD Codd Innovation Award and Anita Borg Institute Technical Leadership Award. She is a Fellow of the ACM and member of the National Academy of Engineering. Her research spans federated data systems, schema mapping, and big data challenges. She advocates for data science education reforms and chairs key initiatives like the National Academies Computer Science and Telecommunications Board. The DREAM Lab under her leadership explores data systems for exploration and analytics. Education: PhD, University of Texas at Austin, 1981 AB, Harvard University, 1978 Awards: ACM SIGMOD Codd Innovation Award Anita Borg Institute Technical Leadership Award IBM Fellow Member, National Academy of Engineering Labs/Teams: DREAM Lab (Data systems Research for Exploration, Analytics, and Modeling) Her work bridges theoretical foundations and practical systems, emphasizing tools that empower domain experts over technical complexities. Current initiatives focus on democratizing data science through education and tooling advancements.
Fernando Pedone is a Full Professor at the Faculty of Informatics, Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), leading the Computer Systems Institute (SYS). He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from EPFL (1999). His research focuses on dependable distributed systems, distributed algorithms, and fault-tolerant data management. Pedone has authored over 70 papers and co-edited 'Replication: Theory and Practice.' Roles: Full Professor, SYS Director Affiliations: USI, Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), Interchain Foundation Teaching: Distributed Algorithms, Distributed Systems, Operating Systems Research interests span atomic multicast protocols, state machine replication, blockchain synchronization, and consensus algorithms. His work bridges theoretical foundations with practical implementations, emphasizing scalability and fault tolerance. Pedone's projects are sponsored by entities like SNSF, CTI, and Microsoft Research. Notable contributions include 'Heron' (shared-memory state replication), 'PrimCast' (atomic multicast), and studies on blockchain state synchronization. His lab oversees over 20 PhD students, with alumni holding roles in academia and industry. Grants and collaborations include partnerships with the Hasler Foundation, European Commission, and Western Digital Research. Pedone actively participates in conferences like Middleware, DSN, and EuroSys.
