Prof. James Tin Yau KWOK
Fellow IEEE
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, China
Biography:
James Kwok is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He is an IEEE Fellow.Prof Kwok received his B.Sc. degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Hong Kong and his Ph.D. degree in computer science from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He then joined the Department of Computer Science, Hong Kong Baptist University as an Assistant Professor. He returned to the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and is now a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. He is serving as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems, Neural Networks, Neurocomputing, Artificial Intelligence Journal, International Journal of Data Science and Analytics, and on the Editorial Board of Machine Learning. He is also serving / served as Senior Area Chairs of major machine learning / AI conferences including NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, IJCAI, and as Area Chairs of conferences including AAAI and ECML. He is on the IJCAI Board of Trustees. He is recognized as the Most Influential Scholar Award Honorable Mention for "outstanding and vibrant contributions to the field of AAAI/IJCAI between 2009 and 2019". Prof Kwok will be the IJCAI-2025 Program Chair.
Prof. Benjamin W. Wah
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Fellow of IEEE; Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery
Biography:
Wah was born in Hong Kong and graduated from Queen Elizabeth School, Hong Kong. He received his BS and MS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Columbia University, USA, then furthered his studies at the University of California, Berkeley, obtaining an MS in Computer Science and a PhD in Databases.[1] Wah began his teaching career in Purdue University in 1979. He later joined the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in 1985, which he served until his retirement at the end of 2011. In 1985-2011, he was the Franklin W. Woeltge Endowed Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA. In 2008-2009, he also served as Director of the Advanced Digital Sciences Center in Singapore, a US$50 million research center established by the University of Illinois in Singapore in collaboration with the Singapore government's Agency for Science, Technology and Research. In 1998–1999, Wah was Chair Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), and in that year received an Exemplary Teaching Award. From 1999 to 2003, he served as Adjunct Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at CUHK. Between 2009-2019, he served as Provost of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Wah is an expert on non-linear programming, multimedia signal processing and artificial intelligence. He has published numerous research articles in top professional journals, such as Artificial Intelligence, IEEE Trans. in Computers, IEEE Trans. on Knowledge and Data Engineering, IEEE Trans. on Multimedia, IEEE Trans. on Parallel and Distributed Technology, IEEE Trans. on Software Engineering, Journal of Global Optimization, Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research. He is also the author of two books, and Editor-in-Chief of Wiley's Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Engineering (published in 2008), and has contributed to many edited books and book chapters. He has served on many journal editorial boards. He also holds many Endowed Professorships and Honorary Professorships in leading universities in the United States of America and in Asia. Professor Wah was elected President of IEEE Computer Society in 2001. He was a member of the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong between 2005 and 2009 and Chairman of its Engineering Panel between 2006 and 2009. He has been a member of the HK Research Grants Council since 2011. Professor Wah has received numerous honors and awards for his distinguished academic and professional achievements, including the Tsutomu Kanai Award, the W. Wallace McDowell Award, and the Richard E. Merwin Distinguished Service Award, all from the IEEE Computer Society, the Pan Wen Yuan Foundation Outstanding Research Award, and the IEEE Third Millennium Medal. In 2011, he received the Distinguished Alumni Award in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley. He has been elected: Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Fellow of IEEE, Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery.
Prof. Zhigeng Pan
Dean of the School of Artificial Intelligence
Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, China
Biography:
Zhigeng Pan, a native of Huai'an, Jiangsu, is a Second-Level Professor and Chief Scientist of a National Key R&D Program. He currently serves as the Dean of the School of Artificial Intelligence at Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology (NUIST).
After earning his Ph.D. in Engineering from Zhejiang University in 1993, he joined the State Key Laboratory of CAD&CG at the same university. Due to his outstanding academic achievements, he was promoted exceptionally to Associate Researcher in 1994 and Researcher in 1996, and became a Ph.D. supervisor in 1998. In 2000, he was recognized as one of the Top 100 Outstanding Young Teachers in Chinese Universities (a part of the New Century Talent Program) and was honored as a National Outstanding Individual for the Olympics in 2008. In 2021, he joined NUIST, establishing the VR and Intelligent Systems Research Team.
Professor Pan holds over ten major academic positions, including Executive Vice Chairman of the China Metaverse Technology and Application Innovation Platform, Chair of the Digital Cultural Heritage Committee of the China Society of Image and Graphics (CSIG), and President of the China Cultural Metaverse Joint Research Institute. He also founded the international journal Metaverse and serves on the editorial boards of authoritative journals such as Virtual Reality. From 2011 to 2020, he served consecutive terms as Vice President of CSIG.
With 30 years of dedication to Virtual Reality (VR) research, his primary research interests include the educational metaverse, military metaverse, intelligent human-computer interaction, and digital cultural heritage preservation. He has led two National Natural Science Foundation (NSFC) key projects and one National Key R&D Program, and has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Second Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award (2008), the Second Prize of the National Natural Science Award (2020), and five provincial and ministerial-level awards.
He has published over 200 research papers, including 70+ SCI-indexed papers. His TVCG highly cited paper ranks in the top 1% globally, and his C&G paper was recognized among China’s Top 50 Most Influential Computer Science Papers by ScienceDirect. He also holds over 30 invention patents, including innovations such as AI-based Guandan (a Chinese card game) and the Sleep Metaverse. His academic achievements have been recognized in Stanford University’s Global Top 2% Scientists List
Prof. Hongbo Jiang
Fellow of IET/BCS/AAIA/AIIA
Hunan University, China
Biography:
Hongbo Jiang is currently a Distinguished Professor and Vice Dean of the College of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering (CSEE), Hunan University. He is also the director for the trusted systems and networking key laboratory of Hunan Province, the director of Hunan international technical cooperation base of high performance computing and applications. Prior to Hunan University, he was a tenured professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science working with Prof. Shudong Jin, Case Western Reserve University. He ever interned at IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, as well as AT&T Labs Research. He was a Hong Kong Scholar Research Fellow at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, working with Prof. John C. S. Lui. Hongbo has been serving in the editorial board of IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks, IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, IEEE Internet of Things Journal, IEEE Communications Magazine, ACM/Springer Wireless Networks, Wiley Security and Communication Networks, International Journal of Ad Hoc and Sensor Wireless Networks. He has also been guest editors for IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, Springer Mobile Networks and Applications. He is an elected Member of Academia Europaea (MAE), Fellow of IET (The Institution of Engineering and Technology), Fellow of BCS (The British Computer Society), Fellow of AAIA (The Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association), Fellow of AIIA (The International Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance), Senior Member of ACM, Senior Member of IEEE, Distinguished Member of CCF, and Full Member of IFIP TC6 WG6.2. Now his research focuses on computer networking, especially, wireless networks, and mobile computing.
Prof. Chun-Yi Su
Guangdong University of Technology, China
Biography:
Dr. Chun-Yi Su received his Ph.D. degrees in control engineering from South China University of Technology in 1990. After a seven-year stint at the University of Victoria, he joined the Concordia University in 1998, where he is currently a Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering and holds the Concordia Research Chair in Control. His research covers control theory and its applications to various mechanical systems, with a focus on control of systems involving hysteresis nonlinearities. He is the author or co-author of over 500 publications, which have appeared in journals, as book chapters and in conference proceedings. He has been identified as 2019, 2020 and 2021 Highly Cited Researchers from Clarivate.
Dr. Su has served as Associate Editor for several journals, including IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics, and several other journals. He is a Distinguished Lecturer of IEEE RA Society. He served for many conferences as an Organizing Committee Member, including the General Chairs and Program Chairs.