Keynote Speaker
Prof. Lei CHEN
IEEE Fellow and ACM Distinguished Scientist
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), China
Biography: Lei Chen, is a chair professor in the data science and analytic thrust at HKUST (GZ), Fellow of the IEEE, and a Distinguished Member of the ACM. Currently, Prof. Chen serves as the dean of information hub, the director of Big Data Institute at HKUST, MOE/MSRA Information Technology Key Laboratory. Prof. Chen's research interests include Data-driven AI, knowledge graphs, blockchains, data privacy, crowdsourcing, spatial and temporal databases and query optimization on large graphs and probabilistic databases. He received his BS degree in computer science and engineering from Tianjin University, Tianjin, China, MA degree from Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand, and PhD in computer science from the University of Waterloo, Canada. Prof. Chen received the SIGMOD Test-of-Time Award in 2015, Best research paper award in VLDB 2022. The system developed by Prof. Chen's team won the excellent demonstration award in VLDB 2014. Prof. Chen had served as VLDB 2019 PC Co-chair. Currently, Prof. Chen serves as Editor-in-chief of IEEE Transaction on Data and Knowledge Engineering and an executive member of the VLDB endowment.
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. Hamed Taherdoost
University Canada West, Canada & GUS Institute | Global University Systems, UK
Biography: Prof. Hamed Taherdoost holds PhD of Computer Science and Master of Information Security. He has over 20 years of experience in both industry and academic sectors. He has worked at international companies from Cyprus, the UK, Malta, Iran, Malaysia, and Canada and has been highly involved in development of several projects in different industries including oil and gas, healthcare, transportation, and information technology, holding positions as varied as Project Manager, R&D Manager, Tech Lead, and CTO. He has spent the last nine years helping start-ups to grow by implementing new projects and business lines.