Honorary Chair

Prof. Lakhmi C. Jain

PhD | ME | BE(Hons)| Fellow (Engineers Aust),
Founder, KES International

Professor Lakhmi C. Jain, PhD, Dr H.C., ME, BE(Hons), Fellow (Engineers Australia), is with the Liverpool Hope University and the University of Arad. He was formerly with the University of Technology Sydney, the University of Canberra and Bournemouth University. Professor Jain founded the KES International for providing a professional community the opportunities for publications, knowledge exchange, cooperation and teaming. Involving around 5,000 researchers drawn from universities and companies world-wide, KES facilitates international cooperation and generate synergy in teaching and research. KES regularly provides networking opportunities for professional community through one of the largest conferences of its kind in the area of KES.

General Chair

Prof. Dr. Fred Paas

Erasmus University Rotterdam,Netherlands

Fred Paas is professor and chair of the research group Educational and Developmental Psychology at the Department of Psychology, Education and Child Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands. He is also a professorial fellow at the School of Education/Early Start of the University of Wollongong in Australia. He holds a master's degree (1988) in human movement sciences and a Ph.D. degree (1993) in instructional technology. His research focuses on the design of effective and efficient learning environments by applying contemporary, multidisciplinary scientific knowledge about the human cognitive system. He has published more than 300 articles and book chapters and he was recognized as the world's most productive author in the five best journals in the field of educational psychology. Since 2015 he has been the editor-in-chief of the journal Educational Psychology Review, which is the number one journal in the field of educational psychology. He is also on the editorial board of several other renowned journals, such as the Journal of Educational Psychology, Educational Technology Research and Development, and the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

General Co-Chair

Prof. Florin Popenţiu Vlădicescu

University “Politehnica” in Bucharest, Romanian

Professor Florin Popentiue Vlădicescu, was born on 17 September 1950, graduated in Electronicsand Telecommunications from University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest in 1974, holds a PhD in Reliability since 1981. He has been appointed Director of the “UNESCO Chair in Information Technologies Department” at University of Oradea. Also, he is Professor to University “Politehnica” of Bucharest, Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Science. Professor Florin Popentiue Vlădicescu is the founder of the first “UNESCO Chair of Information Engineering” , in UK, established at City University London, in 1998. He published over 150 papers in international journals and conference proceedings. Also he is author of one book co-author of 4 books. He has worked for many years on problems associated with software reliability and has been Co-Director of two NATO Research Projects. Also he is on the advisory board of several international journals, including “Reliability and Risk Analysis: Theory & Applications” and is a reviewer to “ACM Computing Reviews. He is currently Associated Editorto the International Journal of Information and Communication Technology (IJICT) – Inderscience Publishers. He is an independent expert to the European Commission - H2020 programme, for Net Services – Software and Services, Cloud.
Professor Florin Popentiue Vlădicescu is currently Visiting Professor to:

• Telecom Paris, ENST
• Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines Paris, ENSMP
• Ecole Nationale Superieure de Techniques Avancees, ENSTA
• ETH - Zurich
• Université Pierre et Marie Curie Paris, UPMC
• Delft University of Technology
• University of Twente Enschede
• Technical University of Denmark Lyngby
• Sultan Qaboos University
• University of Calcutta
• He was elected Fellow of the Academy of Romanian Scientists in 2008

Programme Chair

Prof. (Dr.) Srikanta Patnaik

I.I.M.T., Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India

Prof. Srikanta Patnaik is Director of I.I.M.T., Bhubaneswar, India. He has received his Ph. D. (Engineering) on Computational Intelligence from Jadavpur University, India in 1999. He has supervised more than 30 Ph. D. Theses and 100 Master theses in the area of Computational Intelligence, Machine Learning, Soft Computing Applications and Re-Engineering. Dr. Patnaik has published around 100 research papers in international journals and conference proceedings. He is author of 2 text books and 55 edited volumes and few invited book chapters, published by leading international publisher like IEEE, Elsevier, Springer-Verlag, Kluwer Academic, etc.. Dr. SrikantaPatnaik is the Editors-in-Chief of International Journal of Information and Communication Technology and International Journal of Computational Vision and Robotics published from Inderscience Publishing House, England and, Editor of Journal of Information and Communication Convegence Engineering and Associate Editor of Journal of Intelligent and Fuzzy Systems (JIFS), which are all Scopus Index journals. He is also Editors-in-Chief of Book Series on “Modeling and Optimization in Science and Technology” published from Springer, Germany and Advances in Computer and Electrical Engineering (ACEE) and Advances in Medical Technologies and Clinical Practice (AMTCP), published by IGI Global, USA. He is a member of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE) and Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). He is also Fellow of IETE, Life Member of ISTE, and CSI. Dr. Patnaik has visited more than 20 countries across the globe and visiting professors to some of the universities.

Programme Co-Chair

Prof. (Dr.) E. Ertugrul Karsak

Galatasaray University, Turkey

E. Ertugrul Karsak is a Professor of Industrial Engineering, and Rector at Galatasaray University, Turkey. He is also the co-chairholder of the UNESCO Chair in Computer-Integrated Manufacturing established at Galatasaray University. He holds B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Industrial Engineering from Istanbul Technical University, and an M.S. degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Southern California. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). His areas of interest include decision analysis, performance assessment, product development, supplier selection, and technology evaluation and selection. Dr. Karsak is the author of numerous technical papers, which have appeared in leading academic journals including International Journal of Production Research, International Journal of Production Economics, Production Planning & Control, Expert Systems with Applications, Applied Mathematical Modelling, Journal of Systems and Software, Computers & Industrial Engineering, International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, Applied Soft Computing, International Journal of Systems Science, Software Quality Journal, and Resources, Conservation and Recycling among others. He has contributed to a number of international conferences as a keynote speaker, presenter, track chair, workshop organizer, and member of the scientific committee. He also served as the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Technology from April 2008 to April 2014, and Vice Rector for Academic Affairs from January 2008 to February 2015 at Galatasaray University.

Publication Chair

Prof. Maria Virvou

Professor of Software Engineering
Head of Department of Informatics
Editor-in-Chief of the SpringerPlusJournal for Computer Science

Prof. Maria Virvou was born in Athens, Greece. She received a B.Sc. Degree in Mathematics from the University of Athens, Greece, a M.Sc. Degree in Computer Science from the University of London (University College London), U.K. and a Ph.D. Degree in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence from the University of Sussex, U.K. She is a FULL PROFESSOR, HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT and DIRECTOR OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES in the Department of Informatics, University of Piraeus, Greece. She is also EDITOR-IN-CHIEF of the SpringerPlus Journal (Springer) for the whole area of Computer Science. Additionally, she is an ASSOCIATE EDITOR of the Knowledge and Information Systems (KAIS) Journal (Springer) and MEMBER OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD of the International Journal on Computational Intelligence Studies (Inderscience). She has been CO-FOUNDER and GENERAL CO-CHAIR of the yearly conference series of KES-Intelligent Interactive Systems and Services, which aims at promoting research in the area of interactive multimedia and major applications such as e-learning and m-learning. She has been the GENERAL CHAIR / PROGRAM CHAIR of over twenty (20) International Conferences. For the year 2013, she is GENERAL CHAIR / PROGRAM CHAIR of five (5) INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES. She has been the PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR or CO-INVESTIGATOR of over 15 national / international research projects. She is the Director of a research lab. She has supervised 12 Ph.D. theses which have been completed successfully and she is currently supervising 6 Ph.D. students and 10 post-doctoral researchers. Moreover, she has supervised more than 100 M.Sc. theses in the area of Computer Science and 100 final year undergraduate dissertations. Her research interests are in the area of Computers and Education, Artificial Intelligence in Education, user and student modeling, e-Learning and m-Learning, Knowledge-Based Software Engineering and Human-Computer Interaction. Professor Virvou is the sole author of five (5) books in Computer Science and AUTHOR/CO-AUTHOR of over 300 research papers published in international journals, books and conference proceedings. According to Microsoft Academic Search by Microsoft (http://academic.research.microsoft.com/ ), she is ranked in the top 100 authors in the broad area of Computer Education and the area of "User Interface" out of 58000 authors worldwide. According to the same academic search, she is ranked as the top first author in the area of "student model" and "authoring tools". Additionally, she is ranked in the top ten authors in the area of "Intelligent Tutoring Systems" and "GUI (Graphical User Interface)" out of 28075 authors worldwide and she is ranked in the top 100 in the recent area of emotion recognition. Her article "Combining software games with education: Evaluation of its educational effectiveness" EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY, Journal of International Forum of Educational Technology & Society and IEEE Learning Technology Task Force, 8 (2): 54-65 APR 2005 is included in the top ten full-length articles of the whole Journal. She was a co-recipient of the Best Applications paper award of the 29th Annual International Conference of the British Computer Society Specialist Group on Artificial Intelligence, Cambridge, UK, December 15-17, 2009.

Publication Co-Chair

Prof. Dr. Yusuf Joseph Ugras

Seattle, United State

Prof. Dr. Yusuf Joseph Ugras has been at La Salle University in faculty and academic leadership roles since 1987. As an academic leadership, he was Associate Provost, Dean, Associate Dean and MBA Director with focus on academic programming for working professionals and international audiences. Dr. Ugras brings over 30 years of academic experience from the world of Accounting, Finance and International Business Strategy. Dean Ugras has a strong background in corporate training and academic program design and administration. He has published in Advances in Management Accounting, Accounting Enquiries, Southern Business and Economic Journal, Journal of Business Ethics, Health Care Financial Management, Journal of Management Systems, and Mid-American Journal of Business. His research paper on Business Ethics is among the top 50 cited articles in the field. He has provided consulting services to several organizations including Crown Cork & Seal, Subaru America, UNISYS, Binney and Smith, Albert Einstein Hospital, Triump, and Carpenter Tech. He has made presentations at various conferences including UPCEA, AACSB International, Mid Atlantic Association of Colleges of Business Administration (MAACBA), American Accounting Association, European Management Accounting Conference, Management Accounting Research Symposia, and Philadelphia Controllers Conference. He has also provided assistance to several universities in improving their adult, and graduate programming. He has served as President of the American Accounting Association – Mid-Atlantic Region, as well as several positions with the Institute of Management Accountants. Most recently, he has served in the leadership positions with University Professional Continuing Education Association and American International Recruitment Council.

Organising Chair

Dr. Ajit Kumar Nayak

Professor, Department of Computer Science and Information Technology

Ajit Kumar Nayak is the professor and HOD of the Department of Computer Science and Information Technology, Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Deemed to be University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha. He graduated in Electrical Engineering from the Institution of Engineers, India in the year 1994, obtained M. Tech. and Ph. D. degree in Computer Science from Utkal University in 2001 and 2010 respectively. His research interests include Computer Networking, Ad Hoc & Sensor Networks, Machine Learning, Natural Language Computing, Speech and Image Processing etc. He has published about 55 research papers in various journals and conferences. Also co-authored a book ‘Computer Network Simulation using NS2’, CRC Press. He has also participated as an organizing member of several conferences and workshops in International and National level.

Organising Co-Chair

Dr. WU Chun Ho, Jack

The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong,China

Dr Wu excels in his role with The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) as a researcher with more than a decade of professional experience. Having held numerous roles with the university previously, his expertise precedes him. Previously, he was a project fellow for the RFID Solutions Laboratory, and a visiting lecturer for the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, PolyU, and the Department of Supply Chain and Information Management, Hang Seng Management College. Over the years, Dr Wu worked closely with many industrial partners such as Towngas Telecommunications Co Ltd, Leo Paper Bags Manufacturing (1982) Ltd, Dr Kids Education Group Ltd, and Photon Int. Ltd, to support and contribute to the formulation of their business strategies, operations improvement and new product development. Dr Wu was the recipient of the Big Data Analysis Award from the China & Hong Kong Enterprise Market Development Association in 2014, and the Best Reviewer Award for a journal entitled Internet Research in 2016. In 2015, his biographical profile has been selected for inclusion in the Marquis Who's Who in the World(R) 2016. Dr Wu holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Industrial and Systems Engineering, and a PhD in Manufacturing and Industrial Engineering. He also holds a six sigma black belt certification from the Hong Kong Society of Quality and he contributes regularly to research papers in the areas of Internet of Things, Engineering Optimisation and Business Intelligence. In collaboration with several scholars at PolyU, Tianjin University, Sun Yat-sen University, The University of York, etc, his project works and research outcomes have been presented in 10+ international conferences and published in 30+ international refereed journals, such as Information Science, Internet Research, Expert Systems with Applications, Enterprise Information Systems, Industrial Management and Data Systems. He is also one of the authors of IoT: The Basic, Applications and Case Studies (in Chinese; ISBN: 978-986-925-960-6), and System Design and Technology of Biomedical Internet of Things (in Chinese; ISBN: 978-986-84784-7-3). To stay at the top of his field, Dr Wu is a member of IEEE and the British Machine Vision Association & Society for Pattern Recognition, and a senior member of the Hong Kong Society of Quality. Additionally, Dr Wu serves on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Engineering Business Management, and Enterprise Information Systems. As he looks to the future, Dr Wu intends to continue researching in the field of smart logistics and manufacturing.