AIGE-2026

Professor (Dr.) Maria Virvou
Dean, School of Informatics and Communication Technologies
University of Piraeus, Greece

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Professor Dr. Maria Virvou is the Dean of the School of Informatics and Communication Technologies at the University of Piraeus, Greece. She is the Director and Founding Member of the Postgraduate Program in “Informatics” and serves as the Director of the Software Technology Research Laboratory. In addition, she is the Co-Founder and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Springer book series Learning and Analytics in Intelligent Systems and Artificial Intelligence-Enhanced Software and Systems Engineering. She is also the Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the IEEE Intelligent Information Systems and Applications (IISA) International Conference series, which is held annually. She previously served as Editor-in-Chief of the open-access journal SpringerPlus and currently serves as an Associate Editor of Knowledge-Based Systems (Elsevier). In 2024, she was the General Co-Chair of the 14th IEEE IISA Conference and the 14th AI-Enhanced Software Engineering Conference. Professor Virvou received her Ph.D. from the University of Sussex, U.K., funded by a prestigious scholarship in Artificial Intelligence from the Greek State Scholarships Foundation following competitive national examinations. She also holds an M.Sc. in Computer Science from University College London (UCL), University of London, and a Degree in Mathematics from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Her scholarly output comprises over 400 publications, including 44 editorials and 7 monographs, all indexed in Scopus. She has successfully supervised 15 Ph.D. candidates and 10 post-doctoral researchers. She has delivered numerous keynote speeches at prestigious international conferences, including the IEEE Int. Conf. on Tools with AI (ICTAI 2024) in Washington D.C., USA, and the IEEE Int. Conf. on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T 2023) in Tokyo, Japan. Professor Virvou has received numerous honours, including an award from UNESCO for her outstanding contributions to computer science. In recognition of her impact, Springer published the edited volume Advances in Intelligent Healthcare Delivery and Management: Research Papers in Honour of Professor Maria Virvou for Invaluable Contributions (Springer, Germany). She holds top positions in international research rankings. According to Scopus and Microsoft Academic Search, she ranks 1st in User Modelling (among 150,900 publications), and 1st in both Intelligent Software (out of 60,779 publications) and Educational Software (out of 40,585 publications) on Scopus. She is also ranked among the top 0.02% of AI researchers worldwide, based on analysis of over 670,000 scholarly documents by Scopus. She is also recognized among the leading researchers in User Interface, Multimedia, and Human-Computer Interaction, according to Microsoft Academic Search (2022). Furthermore, she is consistently ranked among the top 2% of researchers worldwide with the highest scientific impact, according to the global academic ranking by Stanford University, particularly in the field of Artificial Intelligence.

Prof. (Dr.) Sonali Das
Professor, Department of Business Management
University of Pretoria

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Das is an Associate Professor in the Department of Business Management, University of Pretoria (UP). Born in India, she obtained her PhD in Statistics from the University of Connecticut. She moved to South Africa in 2006 and worked at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria for over 12 years where she gained extensive experience in quantitative research within a trans- disciplinary environment. She has published widely and continues to supervise post- graduate students. Das holds a C-rating (Established researcher) with the South African National Research Foundation. In 2018 Das chaired the 2nd International Women in Science without Borders conference in Johannesburg. In 2019, she was the recipient of the prestigious 6th edition of Science by Women program for visiting senior research fellowships in Spanish centres of excellence. She is an elected member of the International Statistical Institute (ISI), and currently a South African Statistical Association (SASA) Executing Committee member.

Prof. (Dr.) Francesco Bartolucci
University of Perugia, Italy

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Prof. Francesco Bartolucci is a Full Professor of Statistics in the Department of Economics of the University of Perugia (IT), where he also coordinated the Doctorate program in “Mathematical and Statistical Methods for Economic and Social Sciences”. Among his research interests, hidden Markov models and discrete latent variable models in general have a special role. On these topics he published papers appeared in prestigious journals of Statistics and Econometrics and he coauthored two books with an international publisher. He collaborated with many young researchers even within graduate programs and acted as Reviewer and Associate Editor for important field journals. He also acted as a reviewer within evaluation programs of the Italian University system. He participated in several research programs, even with the role of coordinator. He was the Principal Investigator of the research project “Mixture and latent variable models for causal inference and analysis of socio-economic data”, which was funded by the Italian Government. He is an Editor of Statistical Modelling: An International Journal.

Prof. (Dr.) Vasilios N. Katsikis
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece

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Vasilios N. Katsikis is an Associate Professor of Mathematics and Informatics at the Department of Economics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. He received his Diploma of Mathematics from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, his MSc in Applied Mathematics as well as his PhD in Mathematics from the National Technical University of Athens. He has also worked as a post-doctoral researcher in Applied and Computational Mathematics under the financial support of the State Scholarship Foundation (IKY). His research interests lie in the fields of Applied Mathematics, Computational Finance, Artificial Intelligence, Matrix Analysis and Applied Linear Algebra. He has published more than 80 journal papers in high-quality journals, 4 research books and 7 book chapters on the above-mentioned fields, and has a variety of other research activities. He also serves as a reviewer for several journals and congresses.

Prof. (Dr.) Rutuparna Panda
Dean Research, IIMT, Bhubaneswar, Odisha

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Rutuparna Panda (Member IEEE) was born in 1963. He received B.Sc Engg. (Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering) and M. Sc. Engg. (Communication Systems Engineering) Degrees from UCE Burla in 1985 and 1988, respectively. He obtained Ph.D. (Engg) degree from IIT, KGP in 1998. He is a former Professor in the Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, VSS University of Technology, Burla. He was the former HOD ECE Dept., HOD CSE Dept., DEAN, Academic Affairs, DEAN, SRIC, and DEAN Continuing Education Programme. He has guided 38 M.Tech. Theses and 10 Ph.D. Theses. He has over 200 papers in International/National Journals and conferences. Dr. Panda has more than 4000 academic citations with h-index of 35 and i10-index of 70 as per google scholar. He is the co-author of two books titled “AI Techniques for Biomedical Engineering Applications” and “Region based Approaches for Image Fusion”. He is the co-author of 8 Book Chapters. Currently, Dr. Panda is serving as an associate editor of Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence (EAAI). He is a member of IEEE and a Fellow of IETE(India). He is the reviewer of many reputed international Journals like IEEE Transactions and Elsevier Journals. He received ‘Highly Cited Research Award’ in Dec. 2016 from Swarm and Evolutionary Computation Journal, Elsevier. He received ‘Certificate of Appreciation Award’ for quality research Journal Publications for the year 2020 from VSS University of Technology, Burla. His one article is found in top ten popular articles of IEEE Reviews in Biomedical Engineering. His area of research interests includes – Digital signal/image processing, Bioinformatics, Biomedical Engineering, VLSI Signal Processing, Soft Computing, Machine intelligence and AI.

Prof. Dr. Kazumi Nakamatsu
University of Hyogo, Kobe, Japan

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Prof. (Dr.) Kazumi Nakamatsu received the Ms. Eng. and Dr. Sci. from Shizuoka University and Kyushu University, Japan, respectively. He is a full Professor at School of Human Science and Environment, University of Hyogo, Japan. His research interests encompass intelligent systems and their applications. He has developed some paraconsistent annotated logic programs called ALPSN (Annotated Logic Program with Strong Negation), VALPSN (Vector ALPSN), EVALPSN (Extended VALPSN) and bf-EVALPSN (before-after EVALPSN) recently, and applied them to various intelligent systems such as a safety verification-based railway interlocking control system and process order control. He is an author of over 150 papers and 20 book chapters, and 10 edited books published by prominent publishers. Kazumi Nakamatsu has chaired various international conferences, workshops and invited sessions, and he has been a member of numerous international program committees of workshops and conferences. He serves as Founding Editor of the International Journal of Reasoning-based Intelligent Systems and editorial board member of many international journals. He has contributed numerous invited lectures at international workshops, conferences, and academic organizations. He also is a recipient of many conference paper awards.

Prof.(Dr.) Jayadev Kar, Ph.D
Director, I.I.M.T, Bhubaneswar

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Dr. Jayadev Kar is a distinguished academician and administrator with a robust background in human resource development, management, and multidisciplinary education. With an MBA in Personnel and Marketing from Utkal University and a Ph.D. in Human Resource Development with specialization in MIS & HR, Dr. Kar has over three decades of influential experience in academia, leadership, and institutional development. His extensive contributions span across student-centric curriculum design, research, and administrative innovation. Formerly a Professor and Dean at the Regional College of Management, Bhubaneswar, and Technical Head at Pathani Samanta Planetarium, he has guided numerous Ph.D. theses and authored multiple books in vocational education. Currently serving as Director at Interscience Institute of Management & Technology, Bhubaneswar, Dr. Kar continues to drive academic excellence and institutional progress through outreach, scholarship, and strategic academic leadership.

Prof.(Dr) Debashish Jena
IIIT, Bhubaneswar, India.

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Prof. Jena has more than 15 years of Industry experience. He was consulting to Health Department, Govt. of Orissa for a period of 2 years. He is the author or co-author of over 50 publications and book chapters. His research interests are Information Security, Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks, and Network Security. He teaches Networking, Network and Information Security. His professional memberships include IEEE, ACM, ISTE, IACSIT, MIE (I), CSI, and OITS.

Prof. (Dr.) Pramod Kumar Prusty
Dean Academics, I.I.M.T, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.

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Prof. Pramod Kumar Prusty is the Dean Academics of IIMT, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. He has received his Ph.D degree from Utkal University, Vani Vihar on Accounting and Finance based topic. He has supervised five Ph.D Scholars. He is the Author of 35 Research Articles and 3 Test Books i.e., Management Accounting, Cost Accounting and also Advanced Cost and Management Accounting which are useful for CA , CMA and MBA Students. He has supervised more than 300 Projects in different Disciplines. Prof. Prusty has Chaired as Key Note Speaker in many Conferences within the Country. During his Professional Career Prof. Prusty has performed his job as a successful Academician and Administrator around 40 years in different Govt., Govt Autonomous Colleges including Ravenshaw and also in different reputed Educational Institutions as Prof. and Dean of Commerce.

Mrs. Soma Mitra
B. Tech (E&TC), CCNA, MBA (HR & F) Utkal University, M.A. (English), Ph.D. (Behavioral Science) Continuing.

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Mrs. Soma Mitra is a Registrar cum Assistant Professor in Human Resource and Communication at IIMT, Bhubaneswar, with a rich background in HR and finance, holding an MBA and an M.A. in English from Utkal University, Odisha. Her career spans significant contributions in Communicative English, Soft Skills, and Life Skills. As the Associate Dean of Corporate Relations at IIMT's SRIC Cell, she plays a crucial role in outreach research publications, especially in STEM fields. Mrs. Mitra has made notable contributions to Behavioral Science and topics such as IoT in recruitment, RWA management, urban rail infrastructure, and HR analytics. Her dedication to research and continuous professional development highlights her commitment to excellence and leadership in both academic and professional spheres.

Mr. Alok Arun
MBA, NCMP Level 5, NCIAP, Ph.D. (Financial Economics) Continuing, Assistant Professor, I.I.M.T. Bhubaneswar

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Mr. Alok Arun has completed Integrated MBA from Ravenshaw University, Cuttack Odisha in 2019 with specialization in Finance & Financial Markets. He has achieved Level 5 certification from National Stock Exchange (NSE) as “NSE Academy Certified Market Professional (NCMP)” and “NSE Academy Certified Investment Analyst Pro Certification”. He has also several certifications from National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) such as “NISM-Series- VII: Securities operations and Risk Management” and “NISM-Series- X-B: Investment Advisor Module”. He has done certificate course in ‘Use of Python in Finance” and “Tally”. Currently he is pursuing Ph.D. in Financial Economics.