Keynote Speakers

 

Prof. Shahram Latifi  

IEEE Fellow, University of Nevada, USA

Short bio:  Shahram Latifi received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Louisiana State University in 1986 and 1989, respectively. He is a Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), where he also serves as Co-Director of the Center for Information Technology and Algorithms (CITA). For nearly four decades, Dr. Latifi has designed and taught a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses spanning Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Electrical Engineering. He is an internationally recognized educator and researcher who has delivered invited keynotes, plenary lectures, and seminars on Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and Information Technology across the globe. Dr. Latifi has authored more than 300 technical publications in networking, AI/ML, cybersecurity, image processing, biometrics, fault-tolerant computing, parallel processing, and data compression. His research has been supported by major federal agencies and industry leaders, including NSF, NASA, DOE, DoD, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin. He has held several prominent leadership roles, including Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Computers (1999–2006), IEEE Distinguished Speaker (1997–2000), Co-founder and Chair of the IEEE International Conference on Information Technology (2000–2004), and Founder and Chair of the International Conference on Information Technology – New Generations (2005–present). Dr. Latifi is the recipient of numerous research awards, most recently the Barrick Distinguished Research Award (2021). In 2020, he was recognized among the top 2% of researchers worldwide, according to the Stanford/Elsevier global citation database. He is a Fellow of the IEEE (elected 2002) and a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of Nevada.

 

Prof. Xiaowen Chu  

(IEEE Fellow, AAIA Fellow, Acting Head, Artificial Intelligence Thrust)
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), China
 

Short bio:  Dr. Chu received his B.Eng. degree in Computer Science from Tsinghua University, Beijing, P. R. China, in 1999, and the Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2003. He is currently a Professor at the Data Science and Analytics Thrust and Artificial Intelligence Thrust, Information Hub of HKUST(GZ), and an Affiliate Professor of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He is the Acting Head of the Artificial Intelligence Thrust, and has been the Acting Head and Head of the Data Science and Analytics Thrust during 2023-25. He has been working at the Department of Computer Science, Hong Kong Baptist University during 2003-2021. He was a vice-chairman of the Blockchain Technical Committee of China Institute of Communications. His current research interests include Machine Learning Systems, GPU Computing, Embodied AI, and AI4Science. He is a Fellow of IEEE, and Fellow of AAIA.