Keynote Speakers
Prof. Michael Kwok-Po Ng
SIAM Fellow, AAIA Fellow
Chair Professor
Department of Computer Science, Department of Mathematics
Hong Kong Baptist University, China
Michael K. Ng received the B.Sc. and M.Phil. degrees from The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, in 1990 and 1992, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, in 1995.,He was a Research Fellow of computer sciences laboratory at Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia, from 1995 to 1997, and an Assistant/an Associate Professor at The University of Hong Kong, from 1997 to 2005. He was a Professor/the Chair Professor at the Department of Mathematics, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, from 2006 to 2019. He was the Chair Professor at the Research Division of Mathematical and Statistical Science, The University of Hong Kong, from 2019 to 2023. He is currently the Chair Professor in mathematics and the Chair Professor of data science with Hong Kong Baptist University. His research interests include bioinformatics, image processing, scientific computing, and data mining.,Dr. Ng serves on the editorial board members of several international journals. He is selected for the 2017 Class of Fellows of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. He obtained the Feng Kang Prize for his significant contributions in scientific computing.
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Gerhard P. Hancke (M’88, SM’00, F’16, LF’19) received the B.Sc., B.Eng. and M.Eng. from the University of Stellenbosch, and the D.Eng. from the University of Pretoria (UP), both in South Africa. He is a Professor with the Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering at UP, and the Colleges for Automation at the Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China.
He is recognized internationally as a pioneer and leading scholar in Industrial Wireless Sensor Network (IWSN) research and was elevated to IEEE Fellow “for contributions to wireless sensor networks”. He co-edited a textbook, Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks: Applications, Protocols and Standards (2013), the first on the topic. He initiated and co-edited the first Special Issues on Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks in the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics (TIE) in 2009 and the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics (TII) in 2013. He received the TII Best Paper Award (on IWSN) for 2012.
He has acted as AE and GE for TII, TIE and IEEE Access, Co-EiC for TII (2019-22), and Senior Editor for IEEE Access (2019-22). In 2023 he became the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, and was recently re-appointed for another 3-year term from 2026.
He has been and is very active in the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, amongst others, as Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of the Technical Committee on Building Automation, Control and Management, Representative on the Steering Committee of the Transactions on Mobile Computing (2004–07), IES Secretary (2006–11) and AdCom Member (Regular, Senior and Life since 2000). He has served on many IES Standing Committees.
Over the years he served as General Chair of three IES Flagship Conferences (such as INDIN2007, ISIE1998 and ICIT2013) and in various capacities in others. In IEEE Region 8 he is well-known for chairing the IEEE Region 8 Conference for Africa at venues across Africa in 2002, 2004, 2009, 2011 and 2017. He received the IEEE Larry K. Wilson Award (2007) “For inspiring membership development and services as a member of several regional and technical conferences worldwide".
He served on the IEEE Board of Directors (BoD) Level, amongst others, as Vice-Chair: Member Development, Member and Geographic Activities (MGA) Board (2008–09), Chair: BoD Ethics & Member Conduct Committee (2010–11), Chair: Admission & Advancement Committee (2010–11), Chair: MGA Member Engagement and Life Cycle Committee (2009) and Member of the Conduct Review Committee (2022–23).
Prof. Gerhard P. Hancke
IEEE Life Fellow
Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China
University of Pretoria, South Africa
Prof. Tao Zhang
Loughborough University, United Kingdom
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Tao Zhang received the Ph.D. degree in Management from Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, UK. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham, UK. He served as an Assistant Professor at the University of Birmingham from August 2012 to August 2018, before joining Loughborough University as an Associate Professor (September 2018 to July 2022) and later being promoted to Full Professor (August 2022 to present). He also holds an Honorary Senior Research Fellow position in the Department of Electronic, Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Birmingham. As a doctoral supervisor, his research focuses on the applications of intelligent agents, technological innovation in enterprises, corporate environmental behavior, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability. His work has been published in numerous top-tier international academic journals, including: Journal of Supply Chain Management, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Annals of Tourism Research, Information Systems Journal, Production Planning and Control, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Business Strategy and the Environment, Journal of Business Research, International Business Review, Journal of Environmental Management, Fuzzy Optimization and Decision Making, Energy Economics, Energy Policy, Energy and Buildings, Applied Energy, Structural Change and the Economic Dynamics, among others.
Shivakumara Palaiahnakote
University of Salford, United Kingdom
Shivakumara Palaiahnakote is a lecturer in computer science at the University of Salford, UK, renowned for his contributions in AI, image, and document analysis. Between 2013 and 2023, he was Associate Professor at the University of Malaya, Malaysia, and previously served as Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore, focusing on video text extraction and recognition. He also worked as a Research Consultant at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
He earned his B.Sc., M.Sc. (by research), and PhD in computer science from the University of Mysore, India. Over the course of his career, he has published more than 300 papers in high-impact journals and conferences. As Editor-in-Chief of Artificial Intelligence and Applications (AIA, ISSN: 2811-0854), he has shaped the research landscape in AI and document analysis. His editorial excellence has been recognized with the Editor of Distinction Award and Top Reviewer awards from IEEE TMM and PRL.
Dr. Palaiahnakote’s research spans image and document processing, handwritten and video text recognition, fraud document detection, AI-driven pattern recognition, and person behavior identification. He has been honored with the “Dynamic Indian of the Millennium” award and holds Senior Membership in IEEE and IAPR, reflecting his international leadership and impact in computing and artificial intelligence.