Katja Hose is a Full Professor of Data Management at TU Wien's DBAI research unit, heading the Data Management and Knowledge-Driven AI Lab. She previously held a Poul Due Jensen Foundation Professorship at Aalborg University. Her research focuses on data and knowledge engineering, including graph databases, knowledge graphs, querying, analytics, and machine learning, with interdisciplinary applications in bioscience, healthcare, and environmental assessment. Education: PhD in Computer Science (Ilmenau University of Technology, 2009), Postdoc at Max Planck Institute for Informatics (2009–2012). Academic roles include Program Co-Chair for ISWC 2024 and EDBT 2023, and editorial board membership at VLDBJ and TGDK. She leads projects like TARGET (health virtual twins) and ARMADA (data management). Research Interests: Knowledge Graphs, Semantic Web, Big Data, Machine Learning, Data Integration, and Provenance Systems. Key contributions include SHACL shape extraction, conversational data analytics, and environmental knowledge graphs. Awards include the 2025 Distinguished Meta-Reviewer Award and 2024 Manfred Paul Award. Advising and Grants: Supervised students including E. Pürmayr (Diploma Thesis 2025). Active in EU projects (TARGET, ARMADA) and grant coordination. Labs/Teams: DMKI Lab at TU Wien, collaborating with interdisciplinary teams in healthcare and environmental science.
Dr. Nanpeng Yu is a Full Professor at the University of California, Riverside , serving as Vice Chair and Graduate Advisor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering . He maintains cooperative faculty affiliations with the Department of Computer Science and Department of Statistics , and directs the Energy, Economics, and Environment Research Center at UCR. Education : B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Tsinghua University (2006), M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Economics, and Ph.D. from Iowa State University (2010) Prior Industry Experience : Senior Power System Planner and Project Manager at Southern California Edison (2011-2014) Dr. Yu’s research bridges smart grid technologies , data-driven optimization , and machine learning for energy systems. Key areas include voltage control , renewable energy integration , transportation electrification , and grid resilience . His recent work focuses on physics-informed graph learning for unit commitment problems and adversarial purification in power system classifiers. The AI-Energy Nexus Laboratory under Dr. Yu has produced impactful publications in Applied Energy , IEEE Transactions on Power Systems , and Transportation Research series, covering topics like heavy-duty EV charging infrastructure and dynamic distribution network reconfiguration . Lab members have won the American-Made Digitizing Utilities Grand Prize ($300,000) from the U.S. DOE. Leadership Roles : Chair, IEEE Power and Energy Society Distribution System Operation and Planning Subcommittee Chair, IEEE Power and Energy Society Working Group on Data-Driven Modeling for Power Distribution Networks Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid and IEEE Power Engineering Letters Scientific Awards : Regents Faculty Fellowship Regents Faculty Development Award Multiple IEEE Best Paper Awards
Danai Koutra is an Associate Professor in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and an Amazon Scholar. Her research focuses on large-scale graph mining, graph neural networks, and interpretable machine learning methods for understanding complex networks. Key roles include leading the GEMS Lab and contributing to projects like DeltaCon (graph similarity) and VoG (graph summarization). She holds a PhD from Carnegie Mellon University and has authored over 80 publications in top venues like KDD, SDM, and NeurIPS. Educations: PhD in Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University (2015) MS in Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University (2015) Diploma in Electrical & Computer Engineering, National Technical University of Athens (2010) Research Interests: Her work spans graph mining, anomaly detection, knowledge graph completion, and applications in neuroscience, healthcare, and social networks. Recent projects include MAGNET (multi-agent graph networks) and GT2VEC (multimodal graph-text encoders). Grants & Awards: Recipient of the 2025 PECASE award, NSF CAREER Award (2019), and the 2016 ACM SIGKDD Dissertation Award. Active in organizing conferences like KDD and ECML/PKDD. Labs & Teams: Directs the GEMS Lab, collaborating on projects like FIDDLE (clinical data preprocessing) and SpecGreedy (dense subgraph detection). Engages in interdisciplinary efforts, including M-DICE (urban mobility analysis with Detroit).
Seth Lewis Gilbert is a Professor and Head of the Department of Computer Science at the National University of Singapore (NUS), within the School of Computing . He holds the Dean's Chair Associate Professor title and focuses on algorithms for large-scale distributed systems , emphasizing scalability and fault-tolerance . His work spans wireless networks , contention resolution , dynamic networks , and blockchain protocols . Ph.D. in Computer Science, MIT (2007) M.S. in Computer Science, MIT (2003) B.S. in Electrical Engineering & Mathematics, Yale University (1999) His research explores trusted coordination in systems with untrusted and unreliable participants, addressing challenges like Byzantine agreement , load balancing , and contention resolution . He has pioneered formal frameworks for accountability in distributed protocols and developed novel algorithms for asynchronous task allocation . Recent publications include work on consensus protocols , leader election , and contention resolution , reflecting his focus on dynamic network environments . His research has earned recognition at venues like DISC, ICDCS, and CCS. Scientific Awards & Honors : Young Researcher Award (NUS, 2014) Faculty Teaching Excellence Award (2013/14, 2014/15, 2015/16) School of Computing Teaching Excellence Honour Roll (2016-2021) Best Paper Awards at DISC (2023, 2022), ICDCS (2022), IPDPS (2022) Best Student Paper Award at DISC (2022) He serves on the Steering Committee for DISC as Treasurer and has chaired program committees for DISC, OPODIS, and SPAA. His work bridges foundational algorithmic theory with practical applications in blockchains and dynamic networked systems .
Zhiyong Huang is an Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS) School of Computing. He holds multiple leadership roles, including Deputy Director of the NUS Business Analytics Centre, Director of the Computing Translational Research & Development (C-TReND) Centre, and Assistant Dean (Industry Relations). He is also a Senior Principal Investigator at the NUS Chongqing Research Institute. Education: PhD in Computer Science from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), MEng and BEng in Computer Engineering from Tsinghua University. Leadership: Senior Member of ACM and IEEE, Pioneer Member of ACM SIGGRAPH, and Chair of the Singapore ACM SIGGRAPH Chapter. Research Interests: His work spans Data Analytics, Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Human-Robot Interaction, and Computer Graphics. Key projects include the NUS Digital Twin initiative and secure data analytics pipelines. Article Trends: Recent publications focus on time series generation, cryptocurrency benchmarks, medical image registration, and phishing detection. These works integrate machine learning, computer vision, and multimodal systems. Scientific Awards: Finalist, World Technology Summit & Awards (Entertainment, 2010) Bronze, National Science and Technology Progress Award (1992) Tsinghua 12.9 Distinguished Young Teacher Award (1989) Grants & Service: Extensive involvement in Singapore's IT Standards Committee, review panels for EDB SIIRD projects, and editorial roles. He has served as PC co-chair, local chair, and reviewer for numerous conferences and journals.
Huamin Qu is a Chair Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). He serves as the Founding Dean of the Academy of Interdisciplinary Studies (AIS), Founding Head of the Division of Emerging Interdisciplinary Areas (EMIA), and was the Founding Acting Head of Computational Media and Arts (CMA) at HKUST(GZ). Qu directs the VisLab and coordinates the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) group. He obtained his BS in Mathematics from Xi'an Jiaotong University and MS/PhD in Computer Science from Stony Brook University. Qu's research integrates Data Visualization , Human-Computer Interaction , and Human-Centered AI , with applications in urban informatics, social networks, and explainable AI. His work focuses on developing interactive systems for big data analytics, visual storytelling, and AI-driven decision support. Research extends to multimodal communication, fintech, and augmented reality applications. His publications emphasize visual analytics for complex datasets (mobility, social media, financial), interaction techniques for immersive environments, and AI-enhanced visualization tools. Recent works explore explainable AI interfaces and large-scale data communication frameworks. IEEE Visualization Academy (2020) IEEE VGTC Technical Achievement Award AI 2000 Most Influential Scholar (2019, 2023, 2024) 21 Best Paper/Honorable Mention awards IBM Faculty Award (2009) APICTA Merit Award (2015) Yelp Dataset Grand Prize (2018) Qu has advised 48 PhD graduates (21 now faculty at institutions like UC Davis, University of Minnesota, Texas A&M) and 30 MPhil students. He secured major grants including RGC theme-based projects (digital citizenship, air pollution), UGC AoE (slope safety), and China's 973 Program. As VisLab director, he leads 20+ researchers in visualization/HCI projects adopted by Microsoft, IBM, Huawei, and Tencent.
Professor Ernest Foo is a distinguished academic at Griffith University's School of Information and Communication Technology, specializing in cybersecurity with a focus on industrial control systems and cryptographic protocols. With over 15 years of experience in computer networking, he has established himself as a leading expert in SCADA security and smart grid cybersecurity. His research has significant practical applications in critical infrastructure protection, and he has developed hands-on security training programs that have trained professionals from major Australian utilities and government agencies. Professor Foo's educational background includes: Bachelor of Engineering with Honours in Electronic and Computer Engineering from University of Queensland Doctor of Philosophy from Queensland University of Technology Professor Foo's research interests center around secure cryptographic protocols with specific applications in industrial control system security and cyber physical systems. His work spans SCADA security, smart grid protection, wireless sensor network security, and post-quantum cryptography. He has made significant contributions to understanding vulnerabilities in industrial protocols like Modbus and DNP3, and has pioneered the application of process mining and data mining techniques for attack detection in critical infrastructure systems. His research bridges theoretical security concepts with practical implementations in real-world industrial environments. Professor Foo's recent publications demonstrate a clear trajectory toward increasingly sophisticated security frameworks for critical infrastructure. His work shows a progression from foundational SCADA security research to advanced applications of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and formal methods in cybersecurity. A notable trend is the integration of zero trust principles with industrial control systems, alongside growing emphasis on post-quantum cryptographic solutions. His publications span high-impact journals and conferences in cybersecurity, with increasing focus on anomaly detection in cyber-physical systems and the application of graph-based machine learning techniques to network security challenges. Professor Foo's notable scientific achievements include: Best paper award at the 2nd International Cyber Resilience Conference for "Gap analysis of Intrusion Detection in Smart Grids" Professor Foo has secured significant research funding including an ARC Linkage grant with Powerlink Queensland focused on cyber security for electricity sub-stations. He currently leads multiple research projects including Westpac Micro-Credentials in Financial Crime Investigation, Digital Banking Micro-credentials with ANZ, and research on quantum-safe cryptography. As a dedicated educator, he serves as Program Director for multiple cybersecurity programs including the Master of Cyber Security, and has supervised numerous doctoral and masters students. His Cyber Security: Industrial Control System course, conducted annually from 2013-2018, featured innovative hands-on training with real-world participants from major Australian utilities. Professor Foo has been instrumental in establishing the SCADA security research laboratory with multiple vendor system miniatures running industrial PLCs. His work bridges theoretical security concepts with practical implementations, making significant contributions to the security of industrial control systems and critical infrastructure worldwide.
Xiaoming Liu is the Anil K. and Nandita Jain Endowed Professor of Engineering and MSU Foundation Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Michigan State University . Holding a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University (2004), he leads cutting-edge research in computer vision and machine learning. Research Interests : Computer Vision Pattern Recognition Image and Video Processing Machine Learning Medical Image Analysis Multimedia Retrieval Recent Research Trends : Focus on 3D object detection and depth estimation Development of robust biometric recognition systems Integration of radar-camera fusion for autonomous systems Advancements in self-supervised and multimodal learning Exploration of adversarial AI security Creation of interpretable forgery detection frameworks Teaching : Spring 2013: CSE891-006 Computer Vision Seminar Fall 2012-2015: CSE803 Computer Vision Spring 2014-2017: CSE 471 Media Processing and Multimedia Contact Information : Email: liuxm@cse.msu.edu Office: EB 3137, Michigan State University Phone: +1 (517) 355-2359
Paolo Gardoni is the Alfredo H. Ang Family Professor and an Excellence Faculty Scholar in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, with additional professorial appointments in Industrial & Enterprise Systems Engineering and Biomedical & Translational Sciences. He also serves as Director of the MAE Center and Editor-in-Chief of Reliability Engineering & System Safety. Education Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, University of California, Berkeley (2002) M.A. in Statistics, University of California, Berkeley (2001) M.Eng. in Structural Engineering, University of Tokyo (1997) Laurea (BS+MS equivalent) in Structural Engineering, Politecnico di Milano (1997) Research Interests Gardoni’s scholarship integrates probabilistic methods with large-scale infrastructure systems to advance reliability, risk, and life-cycle analysis. His work quantifies the performance of deteriorating systems under natural and anthropogenic hazards, models societal impacts of disasters, and develops decision frameworks for sustainable and resilient infrastructure. He also examines ethical, social, and legal dimensions of risk, and investigates optimal strategies for hazard mitigation, disaster recovery, and climate adaptation. Across more than 250 refereed journal papers, he has advanced sub-fields ranging from probabilistic mechanics and earthquake engineering to catastrophe bond pricing and engineering ethics, leveraging tools such as stochastic differential equations, Bayesian networks, and physics-informed machine learning. Awards & Honors Alfredo Ang Award on Risk Analysis and Management of Civil Infrastructure (ASCE, 2021) Best Paper Awards in ASCE Journal of Sustainable Water in the Built Environment (2019) and Geotechnical Research (2018 Telford Premium Prize) Fellowships and named professorships: Alfredo H. Ang Family Professor, Excellence Faculty Scholar, and courtesy or honorary professorships at Tsinghua, IIT Guwahati, Tongji, Jianghan, and Loughborough universities. Research Leadership & Funding Gardoni has secured over $58 million in research funding from NSF, DHS, NIST, USAID, Qatar National Research Fund, and other agencies. He directs the MAE Center—formerly an NSF Engineering Research Center—focused on multi-hazard engineering approaches, and is Editor-in-Chief of Reliability Engineering & System Safety (Elsevier, IF 9.4). He founded and formerly led the journal Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure (Taylor & Francis) and serves on editorial boards of nine additional journals. Advising & Mentorship He has graduated 27 PhD and 35 Master’s students, many of whom now hold faculty positions worldwide. His group maintains an active pipeline of doctoral and post-doctoral researchers working on resilience analytics, infrastructure monitoring, and risk-informed decision-making. Laboratories & Collaborations He leads the MAE Center and is affiliated with the Critical Infrastructure Resilience Institute (CIRI) and the Biomedical and Translational Sciences group. International collaborations span the UK (Loughborough), India (IIT Guwahati), and China (Tsinghua, Tongji, Jianghan), fostering cross-disciplinary research in reliability and resilience engineering.
Brendan O'Connor is an Associate Professor in the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences (CICS) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His research focuses on computational social science and natural language processing (NLP), particularly exploring how social factors influence language technologies and using text analysis to understand societal trends. His work includes studies on racial bias in NLP, political event analysis, and social media linguistics. He holds a PhD in Machine Learning from Carnegie Mellon University (2014) and dual MS/BS in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University (2006). Education: PhD in Machine Learning, Carnegie Mellon University (2014) MS in Symbolic Systems, Stanford University (2006) BS in Symbolic Systems, Stanford University (2006) Research interests span AI ethics, social media analysis, and computational methods for studying language and society. Notably, he investigates racial disparities in NLP systems, linguistic variation in African American English, and event detection in news and social media. His work has been recognized with NSF CAREER and Google Faculty awards, and his research has been cited thousands of times. His lab, the Statistical Social Language Analysis Lab, develops tools for analyzing large-scale text data. He is affiliated with the Center for Data Science, Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval, and Computational Social Science Institute. Recent projects include analyzing global news coverage of critical events and developing frameworks for zero-shot argument explication. Awards and Honors: NSF CAREER Award Google Faculty Research Award Best Paper Award Advising and Grants: O'Connor has advised projects on social media polling representativeness and demographic analysis. His grants include collaborative research on sociopolitical event extraction and bias mitigation in AI systems. He has also contributed to platforms like Rookie for news archive exploration and ezCoref for coreference resolution. Labs/Teams: Leads the Statistical Social Language Analysis Lab and collaborates with the UMass NLP Group and Harvard Institute for Quantitative Social Science. His work bridges NLP with social science methodologies, emphasizing transparency in algorithms and causal inference using text data.
Kathryn Roeder is the UPMC University Professor of Statistics and Life Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), affiliated with the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Departments of Statistics & Data Science and Computational Biology. Her research focuses on developing statistical methods for genetic and genomic data, particularly in identifying autism risk genes and analyzing single-cell multi-omic data. She earned her Ph.D. in Statistics from Penn State University and has been at CMU since 1994, previously serving as Vice Provost for Faculty (2015–2019). Education: Ph.D. in Statistics, Penn State University (1988) B.S. in Wildlife Resources, University of Idaho (1982) Research Interests: Her work integrates modern statistical techniques (high-dimensional statistics, machine learning, networks) to study complex diseases like autism and schizophrenia. Recent efforts include tools for analyzing single-cell RNA-seq and proteomic data, such as UNICORN, DAWN, and SCEPTRE. Key Awards: COPSS Distinguished Achievement Award (2020) National Academy of Sciences Member (2019) COPSS Presidents’ Award (1997) AAAS Fellow (2020) Advising & Grants: She has advised over 20 Ph.D. students, many contributing to landmark studies in autism genetics. Her grants include NIH funding for projects like the Autism Sequencing Consortium. Current research teams focus on computational biology and statistical genetics. Labs & Collaborations: Her lab develops software tools (e.g., TADA, MIND) and collaborates with the Autism Sequencing Consortium and iPSYCH-BROAD Consortium on large-scale genomic studies.
Noorbakhsh Amiri Golilarz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at The University of Alabama, College of Engineering. He has established himself as a prominent researcher in artificial intelligence, particularly in computer vision, deep learning, and image processing. His educational background includes: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Computer Science, Boston College (2023) Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering, Southern Illinois University Carbondale (2023) D. Eng., Computer Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (2021) M.S., Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Eastern Mediterranean University (2017) B.S., Electrical Engineering, University of Guilan (2012) Dr. Golilarz's research spans multiple domains of artificial intelligence with a particular focus on computer vision, deep learning, and image processing applications. His work addresses challenges in medical imaging, satellite imagery, and cognitive neuroscience. He has made significant contributions to image denoising techniques, control chart pattern recognition, and AI applications in healthcare. His recent work has expanded into generative AI, large language models, and secure machine learning operations. His publication portfolio demonstrates consistent productivity with over 2500 citations and an h-index of 25. His most impactful work includes applications of blockchain and federated learning for COVID-19 detection, optimized support vector machines for medical diagnosis, and innovative image denoising techniques using metaheuristic optimization algorithms. Among his professional achievements: Co-founded AI Letters journal in 2024, serving as Associate Editor-in-Chief Served as Lead Guest Editor and Topic Editor for several SCI-indexed journals Held the role of Conference Program Chair Dr. Golilarz has supervised numerous graduate students and research projects, with his work spanning theoretical advancements in AI algorithms to practical applications in healthcare, energy systems, and cybersecurity. His research group has established collaborations with institutions including Boston College and Mississippi State University.
Dr. Xiaoxiao Li is an Assistant Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of British Columbia (UBC), with joint appointments in Computer Science (Associate Member) and the School of Medicine at Yale University (Adjunct Assistant Professor). She is also a Canada CIFAR AI Chair and Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Responsible AI. Her research focuses on enhancing trustworthiness, fairness, and efficiency in AI algorithms and foundation models, particularly in healthcare applications. Education: B.S. (Honors) in Zhejiang University (2015), Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Yale University (2020), Postdoc at Princeton University (2020-2021). She leads the Trusted and Efficient AI (TEA) Lab at UBC, which develops algorithms for federated learning, medical imaging analysis, and interpretable AI systems. Research interests include federated learning, generative models, medical image analysis, AI fairness, and graph-based methods for neuroimaging. Recent projects include GMValuator (data valuation for generative models), FairMedFM (fairness benchmarking in medical AI), and FedTextGrad (textual gradient-based FL optimization). Grants: Canada Foundation for Innovation Grant (2023), UBC Green Lab Fund (2023), Vector Institute funding Teaching: Courses on machine learning, federated learning, and AI ethics at UBC Awards & Recognition: Best Paper Award at FL@FM WWW 2024, Editorial Board Member of Medical Image Analysis , multiple top-tier conference acceptances (NeurIPS, ICLR, CVPR, MICCAI). Lab & Teams: TEA Lab collaborates with industry and hospitals to translate AI research into clinical tools. Current projects address AI fairness in healthcare, federated learning for medical data, and multimodal medical analytics.
Brett Kolesnik is a Research Fellow in the Department of Statistics at the University of Warwick. His research focuses on probability theory, random structures, bootstrap percolation, and interactions with combinatorics. He has held postdoctoral fellowships at UC Berkeley, San Diego, and the University of Oxford, and was a Senior Demy at Magdalen College. His work includes organizing workshops on bootstrap percolation and collaborating with leading researchers in probability and combinatorics. Education: PhD in Mathematics from the University of British Columbia (advised by Omer Angel). Notable awards include the NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship and the Florence Nightingale Bicentennial Fellowship in Statistics. Research interests span bootstrap percolation models, random graph dynamics, and stochastic processes. Recent work includes studies on Brownian map geometry, tournament score sequences, and Coxeter group structures. Selected articles explore topics such as critical beta-splitting processes, Catalan percolation, and random walks on algebraic structures. His publications appear in top journals like Electronic Journal of Probability and Annals of Applied Probability . Awards include the Florence Nightingale Fellowship and NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship. Professional involvement includes organizing the 2024 BIRS workshop on Bootstrap Percolation and contributing to interdisciplinary collaborations in probability and combinatorics.
Dr. Euijin (Alley) Choo is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Alberta, specializing in data-driven cybersecurity and big data analytics. Her research focuses on AI-based cybersecurity solutions, anomaly detection in network traffic, and adversarial attacks on federated learning systems. She holds a Ph.D. from North Carolina State University and has held roles at Qatar Computing Research Institute, Korea University, and the University of Missouri-Rolla. Education: Ph.D., Computer Science, North Carolina State University (2015) M.S., Computer Science & Engineering, Korea University (2008) B.S. Dual Degree in Computer Science & Mathematics, Korea University (2006) Research Interests: Security and big data analysis intersections Federated learning security and privacy Anomaly detection in network logs and enterprise systems Malware/phishing detection using graph inference AI-driven threat intelligence aggregation Recent Grants: Mitacs Accelerate Program Grant: Fraud Detection in Financial Graphs ($60,000, 2025) National CyberSecurity Consortium Grant: IntruderInsight ($2M, 2025-2027) NSERC Discovery Grant: Threat Detection Framework ($180,000, 2025-2031) Awards: Best Paper Award at DBSEC 2015 NSERC Early Career Researcher Award (2025) Provost Fellowship (NC State, 2009-2010) Labs/Teams: Leads the Data-driven Network and Cyber Security (DANS) Lab, focusing on federated learning defenses, compromised entity detection, and malicious domain analysis.
