Invited Speakers
Prof. Ala Khalifeh
German Jordanian university
Jordan
Prof. Ala Khalifeh
German Jordanian universityJordan
Biography
Ala Khalifeh received the Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of California at Irvine, as a Fulbright Scholar.,He is currently an esteemed academic in the field of wireless sensor networks, IoT, and networking. He is also the Vice-Dean of the Deanship of Innovation, Technology Transfer, and Entrepreneurship (DI-TECH) and an Associate Professor with German Jordanian University (GJU). Throughout his career, he has held pivotal roles in both academia and industry, including an Assistant Professor with German University in Cairo and leadership positions within IEEE, such as the Chair of the IEEE Jordan Section. His research contributions include over 115 Scopus-indexed publications. He has been awarded numerous prestigious accolades, such as the Leader of Innovation Fellowship (LIF) from the Royal Academy of Engineering (U.K.) and the Young AFCEA 40 under 40 International Award. Beyond academia, he has been instrumental in fostering collaboration between research institutions and industry, securing multiple research grants from NATO, European Commission, and other international funding bodies. His entrepreneurial achievements include first place in the Queen Rania National Entrepreneurship Competition (QRNEC) and leadership in technology-driven startups. His expertise in bridging innovation, academia, and enterprise continues to drive impactful research and development initiatives.
Speech Title
We will update soon
Dr. Dalbir Singh
National University of Malaysia
Malaysia
Dr. Dalbir Singh
National University of MalaysiaMalaysia
Biography
Dalbir Singh received his degree in Computer Science from Universiti Sains Malaysia in 2002. He received his PhD degree in Computer Science from University Malaya in 2009. He is an Associate Professor and a Strategic Informatics Research Group member at the Center for Software Technology and Management (SOFTAM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (The National University of Malaysia). His current research interests include Human Computer Interaction, E-Learning Technology, Internet of Things (IoT), Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality (AR/VR) and Strategic Planning. He has led several funded research projects and published numerous academic publications. Besides that, he is also keen on quality assurance for academic programmes.
Speech Title
Leveraging Internet of Things (IoT) Technologies to Enhance Food Security
Dr. Vimal Rau Aparow
Taylors University
Malaysia
Dr. Vimal Rau Aparow
Taylors UniversityMalaysia
Biography
Associate Professor Ir. Ts. Dr. Vimal Rau Aparow received his BEng and MSc from the
Department of Automotive, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia
Melaka (UTeM). He has completed his PhD in Mechanical Engineering (Automotive)
Department in Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM). Then, he joined in Energy
Research Institute @ Nanyang Technological University, (NTU) Singapore as Postdoctoral
Research for one of the NTU projects known as CETRAN. In CETRAN, his research focuses
mainly on development of autonomous vehicle simulation and testing the behavior of the
autonomous vehicle in various testing conditions. Next, he was appointed as Assistant Professor
at University of Nottingham Malaysia where he has established new research group called as
Automated Vehicle Engineering System (AVES) to focus on safety assessment of automated
vehicle by adopting digital twin technology where has completed several research projects and
postgraduate supervision. He also took a few leaderships role in this university such as Director
of Mechatronics Engineering, Co-Director of Sub Research Cluster in Autonomous and IoT
Integration and Director of Research in Renewable Energy. Currently, he has been appointed as
Associate Professor in School of Engineering, Faculty of Innovation and Technology at Taylors
University, Malaysia.
He is a certified Professional Engineer (PEng) and ASEAN Chartered Professional Engineer
(ACPEng) under Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM), Chartered Engineer approved by UK
Engineering Council under Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) board and certified
Professional Technologist under Malaysian Board of Technologist (MBOT). He is recognized as
one of the members of Young Scientists Network under Academy of Science Malaysia (YSN
ASM) for his research contributions and awarded "National Outstanding Young Researcher" by
Private Education Cooperative Malaysia under the Private Education Excellence Awards in
2022. He also has been awarded with SG Academies South-East Asia Fellowship Programme by
Singapore National Academy of Science (SNAS) for research project focusing on validation of
virtual safety testing of autonomous vehicle at CETRAN, Energy Research Institute @ Nanyang
Technological University, (NTU), Singapore. He has also been appointed as Technical Advisory
Panels for MRANTI Autonomous Living Lab from 2022 to 2023 and as Head of Technical
Advisory Panel from 2023 to 2024 to support for virtual and physical safety assessment of
autonomous vehicles using MRANTI road and environment. Then, he has been offered an
advisory role as "Autonomous Vehicle Advisor" for RAK Transport Authority (RAKTA) to
support for development of regulation and testing framework for Autonomous Vehicle at Ras Al
Khaimah, UAE. He is also recognized as certified trainer under HRD Corp, Malaysia and IPG
Automotive, Germany.
Speech Title
Scenario-Based Safety Testing of Autonomous Vehicle using Digital-Twin Based
Testing: Potential Application in Ras Al Khaimah
Prof. Dimah Dera
Rochester Institute of Technology
USA
Prof. Dimah Dera
Rochester Institute of TechnologyUSA
Biography
Dimah Dera is a Frederick and Anna B. Wiedman II Professor at the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science at the Rochester Institute of Technology. She received her Ph.D. and M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering and M.A. in Mathematics from Rowan University, NJ. Dimah received the National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Initiation Initiative (CRII), Award No. 2401828, in 2023 and the NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) supplement award in 2024 for her current research
focusing on robust and trustworthy machine learning. She won several research Awards at IEEE conferences and in the Engineering community, including the Best Paper Award at the 2019 IEEE International Workshop on Machine Learning for Signal Processing, the NJ Tech Council STEM Innovator to Watch Award (2019), and the IEEE Philadelphia Section Benjamin Franklin Key Award (2021). Dimah has served as a member of the IEEE Signal Processing and Computational Intelligence Societies as well as a member of the ACM SIGHPC Association for Computing Machinery. She is the NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute (DLI) University Ambassador.
Speech Title
Quantifying Policy Uncertainty for Trustworthy Autonomous Navigation
Dr. Rowan Pierce
Arcadia Institute of Technology
USA
Dr. Rowan Pierce
Arcadia Institute of TechnologyUSA
Biography
Dr. Rowan Pierce is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Applied Photonics, Arcadia Institute of Technology. His research focuses on the development of adaptive photonic lattices and ultrafast laser systems for next-generation optical communication and signal processing applications. He has authored and co-authored several papers in peer-reviewed journals covering topics such as nonlinear optics, femtosecond pulse shaping, and integrated photonic devices. Dr. Pierce is particularly interested in bridging the gap between theoretical photonics and practical laser technologies through collaborative interdisciplinary projects. At Arcadia Institute of Technology, he also leads a small research group working on reconfigurable photonic architectures and energy-efficient light manipulation systems.
Speech Title
Adaptive Photonic Lattices for Ultrafast Signal Processing
Dr. Serdar Ciftci
Harran University
Turkey
Dr. Serdar Ciftci
Harran UniversityTurkey
Biography
Serdar Ciftci received his B.Sc. in Computer Engineering from Selçuk University in 2007, followed by M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Engineering from Middle East Technical University (METU) in 2011 and 2017, respectively. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Engineering at Harran University, Turkiye.
During his doctoral studies, he was a Visiting Researcher at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, in 2015. He later returned to an international research setting as a visiting scholar at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), USA, in 2022. From 2018 to 2021, he served as Head of the Computer Engineering Department at Harran University.
His research interests lie in computer vision and deep learning, with a growing focus on the analysis of expressive visual data. He is a member of the Chamber of Computer Engineers of Turkiye and previously served as Vice President of its Executive Board from 2012 to 2014. His doctoral dissertation was honored with the Thesis of the Year Award by the Parlar Foundation in 2017.
Speech Title
Children’s Drawing Analysis Using Deep Learning
Prof. Mostafa El Habib Daho
University of Western Brittany
France
Prof. Mostafa El Habib Daho
University of Western BrittanyFrance
Biography
Dr. Mostafa El Habib Daho is a Tenure-Track “Chaire de Professeur Junior” in Digital Health at the University of Western Brittany (Université de Bretagne Occidentale, UBO) and a researcher at the LaTIM laboratory (INSERM UMR 1101, VISION team) in Brest, France. He received his PhD in Artificial Intelligence and leads research at the intersection of medical imaging and AI, with a particular focus on ophthalmology. His work centers on multimodal and longitudinal AI for eye diseases, combining imaging and clinical data to model disease severity and progression over time.
He coordinates and contributes to several large-scale projects in retinal imaging. Dr. Daho has authored numerous publications and patents in medical image analysis and AI for healthcare, and has co-organized international challenges on retinal imaging and diabetic retinopathy at the MICCAI conference. He is also actively involved in teaching and curriculum development in digital health and AI for medicine, and regularly serves as a reviewer and area chair for leading journals and conferences in the field.
Speech Title
Multimodal and Longitudinal AI for Modelling Diabetic Retinopathy Progression
