2023 Keynote Speakers

Prof. Frank Wang
University of Kent, UK

Chairman, IEEE Computer Society, UKaI Chapter


Speech Title: Future Computing & Minds

Frank Z. Wang is the Professor in Future Computing and Head of School of Computing (2010-2016), University of Kent, the UK. The School of Computing was formally opened by Her Majesty the Queen. His led school achieved an amazing result in the 2014 UK government REF (Research Excellence Framework): the research intensity was ranked 12th out of over 150 computing departments in the UK. Professor Wang’s research interests include brain-like computer, memristor theory and applications, deep learning, cloud computing, big data, and green computing, etc. He has been invited to deliver keynote speeches and invited talks to report his research worldwide, for example at Princeton University, Carnegie Mellon University, CERN, Hong Kong University of Sci. & Tech., Tsinghua University (Taiwan), Jawaharlal Nehru University, Sydney University of Technology, and University of Johannesburg. In 2004, he was appointed as Chair & Professor, Director of Centre for Grid Computing at CCHPCF (Cambridge-Cranfield High Performance Computing Facility). CCHPCF is a collaborative research facility in the Universities of Cambridge and Cranfield (with an investment size of £40 million). Prof Wang and his team have won an ACM/IEEE Super Computing finalist award. He is a panel member for the UK government EPSRC “e-Science” programme and “Hardware for Efficient Computing” programmes. Prof Wang is Chairman (UK & Republic of Ireland Chapter) of the IEEE Computer Society and Fellow of British Computer Society.


Prof. Vladan Devedzic
University of Belgrade, Serbia


Speech Title: People Say AI – What Do They Really Mean by That?

Vladan Devedzic is a Professor of Computer Science and Software Engineering at the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Organizational Sciences, Belgrade, Serbia. He also used to teach several Computer Science courses at the School of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade, as well as at other universities. His long-term professional objective is to bring close together ideas from the broad fields of Artificial Intelligence / Intelligent Systems and Software Engineering. He is the founder and the chair of the GOOD OLD AI research network, an internationally recognized network of award-winning researchers, engineers, and students working in the fields of applied artificial intelligence and software engineering, with headquarters at the University of Belgrade. His current professional and research interests include programming education, software engineering, intelligent software systems and educational technologies. He has authored/co-authored 380 research papers, published in international and national journals or presented at international and national conferences, as well as six books on intelligent systems and software engineering. Some of his papers have been selected by foreign editors and published in books on artificial intelligence systems. He has also given about 20 keynote/invited talks and about 20 tutorials at international conferences. Since 2021, he is a Corresponding Member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SASA).


2023 Invited Speakers

Prof. Paolo Terenziani
University of Eastern Piedmont, Italy


Speech Title: Advanced AI Supports to Medical Education: the GLARE-Edu Approach

Since 2000, Paolo Terenziani is Full Professor at the Institute of Computer Science of DISIT, University of Eastern Piedmont, Alessandria, Italy. The research activity of Paolo Terenziani has begun in 1987 and concerns mainly the fields of Artificial Intelligence (knowledge representation, temporal reasoning, conformance analysis, process mining), Temporal Databases (query and data semantics, temporal indeterminacy, periodic data) and of Medical Informatics (clinical guidelines, decision support systems). Regarding these topics Paolo Terenziani has published more than 150 papers in peer-reviewed international journals, books, conference proceedings and workshops (in particular, he has achieved 15 publications on the IEEE Transactions of Knowledge and Data Engineering and 2 publications on Artificial Intelligence). As early as in 1998, for his research activity, he won the “Artificial Intelligence Prize” from Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence. He has won “distinguished\best” paper awards in several international conferences, including the prestigious American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Conference, 2012, Chicago, USA, November 2012 (more than 1000 submissions).

Prof. Yu-wang Chen
The University of Manchester, UK


Speech Title: Data, Knowledge and Decision Analytics

Dr. Yu-Wang Chen is Professor in Decision Sciences and Business Analytics at Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS), The University of Manchester, and Turing Fellow at Alan Turing Institute. Prior to joining AMBS, he worked briefly as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Computer Science, Hong Kong Baptist University. He received the PhD degree in Control and System Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His research focuses primarily on decision sciences and data analytics, including their applications to risk analysis, supply chain management, healthcare decision support, consumer preference prediction, etc. He has published widely in leading journals, such as European Journal of Operational Research, Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, Information Sciences, Computers & Operation Research and IEEE Transactions on Systems. He serves as Associate Editor of the Decision Analytics Journal (Elsevier) and Editorial Board Member of Complexity, Web Intelligence: An International Journal and International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management (Emerald). He has been awarded as PI/Joint PI/Co-I a number of research or industry projects by Innovate UK, ERDF, EPSRC, etc.

ICIEI Previous Speakers

Prof. Francisco José García-Peñalvo
Universidad de Salamanca, Spain


Francisco José García-Peñalvo did his undergraduate studies in Computing at the University of Salamanca and University of Valladolid and his Ph.D. at the University of Salamanca. Dr. García-Peñalvo is the head of the research group GRIAL (Research Group Interaction and eLearning). His main research interests focus on eLearning, Computers & Education, Adaptive Systems, Web Engineering, Semantic Web and Software Reuse. He has led and participated in over 50 research and innovation projects. He was Vice Chancellor for Innovation at the University of Salamanca between March 2007 and December 2009. He has published more than 300 articles in international journals and conferences. He has been guest editor of several special issues of international journals (Online Information Review, Computers in Human Behaviour, Interactive Learning Environments...). He is also a member of the program committee of several international conferences and reviewer for several international journals. Now, he is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Information Technology Research and the Education in the Knowledge Society Journal. Besides he is the coordinator of the multidisciplinary PhD Programme on Education in the Knowledge Society.

Prof. Lyudmila Mihaylova
University of Sheffield, UK


Prof. Lyudmila Mihaylova and her team are working to develop novel methods for autonomous intelligent systems: for sensing, tracking and decision making, machine learning and their engineering applications. Prof. Mihaylova undertook pioneering work on traffic flow estimation with particle filtering for intelligent transportation systems which was followed later with developments for large scale systems, including large scale transportation and video processing systems. She has experience with a range of image modalities, including optical, thermal, LIDAR, SAR and hyperspectral image processing. Previously she had academic positions with Lancaster University (2006-2013), University of Bristol (2004-2006), and research visiting positions with the University of Ghent, Belgium, the Katholic University of Leuven, Belgium and the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria.

Her interests are in the area of nonlinear filtering, sequential Monte Carlo Methods, statistical signal processing and sensor data fusion. Her work involves the development of novel techniques, e.g. for high dimensional problems (including vehicular traffic flow estimation and image processing) and localisation and positioning in sensor networks. Prof. Mihaylova is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems and an Associate Editor of Elsevier Signal Processing Journal. Prof. Mihaylova is a senior member of the IEEE, Signal Processing Society, the President of the International Society of Information Fusion (ISIF) and an ISIF board member.

Prof. Mihaylova has also been serving the scientific community as a member of the Programme/ Organising Committee of international conferences and symposia, including the International Conferences on Information Fusion, the American Control Conferences, EUSIPCO, conferences on Intelligent Transportation Systems and the German workshops on Multiple Sensor Data Fusion. She has given a number of invited talks, e.g. the keynote speech for the 5th IET International Conference on Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks (2013), Beijing, China, and tutorials including for the EU Marie Curie ITN (2010, Sweden, 2012, Germany) and COST-NEARCTIS workshop (2010, Switzerland). Her research is funded by sponsors such as EPSRC, EU, MOD and industry.

Prof. Abd-El-Kader Sahraoui
University of Toulouse, France


Professor since 1994, Graduated respectively from Manchester University (UK) and Toulouse University (F). Industrial experience and Academic position at UC Berkeley, UC Irvine (USA) , HPI Berlin. Organised Training in software systems engineering for industry mainly on standards Systems. Published about 150 documents papers contract and supervised about 20 PHD and 50 masters thesis. Consultant on sofware systems engineering and associated standards to many big companies in defense , industrial and aeronautic companies.

Prof. John MacIntyre
University of Sunderland, UK


I have worked at the University of Sunderland since 1992, having graduated from the University with a First Class Honours Degree in Combined Science (Computer Science and Physiology). I then went on to complete a PhD in applied artificial intelligence, focussing on the use of neural networks in predictive maintenance, which was awarded in 1996. During the 1990s I established a research centre – the Centre for Adaptive Systems – at the University, which became recognised by the UK government as a Centre of Excellence for applied research in adaptive computing and artificial intelligence. The Centre undertook many projects working with and for external organisations in industry, science and academia, and for three years ran the Smart Software for Decision Makers programme on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry. I have successfully supervised in PhDs in fields ranging from neural networks, hybrid systems, and bioinformatics through to lean manufacturing, predictive maintenance, and business and maintenance strategies. I went on to become Associate Dean, and then Dean, of the School of Computing and Technology, covering Computer Science and Engineering; in 2008 I became the Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science, and in 2010 Pro Vice Chancellor of the University. I am, and have, been a member of many regional, national and international organisations linked to my own research or professional areas, or on behalf of the University. Since 1996 I have been the Editor-in-Chief of Neural Computing & Applications, an international scientific peer reviewed journal published by Springer Verlag. Prior to entering academia I worked in industry including several years working overseas on major civil and structural engineering projects, developing and implementing new computerised planning systems.

Previous Speakers

Prof. Alexandra I. Cristea
Durham University, UK


Alexandra I. Cristea is Professor, Head of the Innovative Computing research group at the Computer Science Department, Durham University. Her research includes user modelling and personalisation, web science, learning analytics, semantic web, social web, authoring, with over 250 papers on these subjects (over 3600 citations on Google Scholar, h-index 32). Especially, her work on frameworks for adaptive systems has influenced many researchers and is highly cited (with the top paper with over 230 citations and growing). Similarly influential is her pioneering work on adaptation languages, Prof. Cristea being one of the first to propose them (with the top paper with over 180 citations and growing). Since then, work in these new research areas has spread. She is within the top 50 researchers in the world in the area of educational computer-based research according to Microsoft Research. Prof. Cristea has been highly active and has an influential role in international research projects. She is experienced in running research projects and has led various projects - Newton funded workshop on Higher Education for All ('14-'18), Santander funded Education for disadvantaged pupils ('14-18'), Warwick-funded project APLIC ('11-;12), EU Minerva projects ALS (06-09) and EU Minerva ADAPT (’02-’05); as well as participated as university PI in several EU FP7 projects - BLOGFOREVER (’11-’13), GRAPPLE (’08- ’11), PROLEARN (’07) and as co-PI in the Warwick-funded Engaging Young People with Assistance Technologies (’13-’15) also featured by the BBC. She has been organizer of workshops, co-organizer, panelist and program committee member of various conferences in her research field (including, for example, UMAP, ED-MEDIA, Hypertext, Adaptive Hypermedia, ICCE, ICAI). She member of the editorial board of the IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, executive peer reviewer of the IEEE LTTF Education Technology and Society Journal and she was co-editor of the Advanced Technologies and Learning Journal. She has given keynote and invited talks in various countries, e.g., Brazil, UK, Netherlands, Spain, Japan, Finland, Romania, etc. She acted as UNESCO expert for adaptive web-based education at a high-level (Ministry of Education and Educational institutes) meeting of East European countries, educational invited expert for the Romanian prime minister, as well as EU expert for H2020, FP7, FP6, eContentPlus. She is a BCS fellow, a HEA fellow, IEEE Senior Member and IEEE CS member, EATEL (European Association of Technology Enhanced Learning) founding member, ACM member.

Prof. Xin-She Yang
Middlesex University, UK


Xin-She Yang obtained his DPhil in Applied Mathematics from the University of Oxford. He then worked at Cambridge University and National Physical Laboratory (UK) as a Senior Research Scientist. Now he is Reader in Modelling and Optimization at Middlesex University, an elected Bye-Fellow at Cambridge University and Adjunct Professor at Reykjavik University (Iceland). He is the Chair of the IEEE CIS Task Force on Business Intelligence and Knowledge Management. He has given many keynote talks at over 20 international conferences such as IEEE Mendel'12 (Czech Republic), BIOMA'12 (Slovenia), EU/ME'14 (Turkey), ICCS'15 (Iceland), SIBGRAPI'15 (Brazil), OIPE'16 (Italy), ISCBI'16 (Switzerland), BDIOT'17 (UK) and HS'17 (Spain). He has published more than 250 articles in peer-reviewed journals and 20 books with over 32000 citations. He has been on the prestigious list of Clarivate Analytics/Web of Science Highly Cited Researchers in 2016, 2017 and 2018.