Keynote Speakers

Prof. Fakhri Karray
IEEE Fellow
University of Waterloo, Canada & The Mohamed ben Zayed University of AI, UAE

Fakhri Karray is the inaugural co-director of the University of Waterloo Artificial Intelligence Institute and served as the Loblaws Research Chair in Artificial Intelligence in the department of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Waterloo, Canada. He is also Professor of Machine Learning and held the position of Provost at the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), in the UAE. Fakhri's research focuses on operational and generative AI, cognitive machines, natural human-machine interaction, and autonomous and intelligent systems, with applications to virtual care systems, cognitive and self-aware devices, and predictive analytics in supply chain management and intelligent transportation systems. He aholds editorial roles in major publications related to intelligent systems and information fusion. Fakhri's latest textbook, "Elements of Dimensionality Reduction and Manifold Learning," was published by Springer Nature in early 2023. In 2021, he was honored by the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society (VTS) with the IEEE VTS Best Land Transportation Paper Award for his pioneering research on enhancing traffic flow prediction using deep learning and AI. Furthermore, his research on federated learning in communication systems earned him and his co-authors the 2022 IEEE Communication Society's MeditCom Conference Best Paper Award. Fakhri is also the co-founder and Chief Scientist of Yourika.ai, a provider of AI-based online learning systems. He holds fellowship status in the IEEE, the Canadian Academy of Engineering, and the Engineering Institute of Canada. Additionally, he has served as a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE and is a Fellow of the Kavli Frontiers of Science. Fakhri earned his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA.

Prof. Hong Zhu
Oxford Brookes University, UK

Dr. Hong Zhu is a professor of computer science at the Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK, where he chairs the Cloud Computing and Cybersecurity Research Group. He obtained his BSc, MSc and PhD degrees in Computer Science from Nanjing University, China, in 1982, 1984 and 1987, respectively. He was a faculty member of Nanjing University from 1987 to 1998. He joined Oxford Brookes University in November 1998 as a senior lecturer in computing and became a professor in Oct. 2004. His research interests are in the area of software development methodologies, including software engineering of cloud-native applications, software engineering of AI and machine learning applications, formal methods, software design, software testing, programming languages, software modelling, and automated software engineering tools and environments, etc. He has published 2 books and more than 200 research papers in journals and international conferences. He is a senior member of IEEE, a member of British Computer Society and ACM.