Prof. Marios M. Polycarpou
(IEEE Fellow, IFAC Fellow )
University of Cyprus, Cyprus

Biography: Marios Polycarpou is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Director of the KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence at the University of Cyprus. He is also a Member of the Cyprus Academy of Sciences, Letters, and Arts, and an Honorary Professor of Imperial College London. He received the B.A degree in Computer Science and the B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, both from Rice University, USA in 1987, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California, in 1989 and 1992 respectively. His teaching and research interests are in intelligent systems and networks, adaptive and learning control systems, fault diagnosis, machine learning, and critical infrastructure systems. Dr. Polycarpou has published more than 400 articles in refereed journals, edited books and refereed conference proceedings, and co-authored 7 books. He is also the holder of 6 patents. Prof. Polycarpou received the 2016 IEEE Neural Networks Pioneer Award. He is a Fellow of IEEE and IFAC and the recipient of the 2014 Best Paper Award for the journal Building and Environment (Elsevier). He served as the President of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (2012-2013), as the President of the European Control Association (2017-2019), and as the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems (2004-2010). Prof. Polycarpou currently serves on the Editorial Boards of the Proceedings of the IEEE, the Annual Reviews in Control, and the Foundations and Trends in Systems and Control. His research work has been funded by several agencies and industry in Europe and the United States, including the prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant, the ERC Synergy Grant and the EU Teaming program.

Prof. Alice E. Smith
(IEEE Fellow )
Auburn University, USA

Biography: ALICE E. SMITH is the Joe W. Forehand/Accenture Distinguished Professor of the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department at Auburn University, where she served as Department Chair from 1999-2011. She also has a joint appointment with the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering. Previously, she was on the faculty of the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh from 1991-99, which she joined after industrial experience with Southwestern Bell Corporation. Dr. Smith has degrees from Rice University, Saint Louis University, and Missouri University of Science and Technology.
Dr. Smith’s research focus is analysis, modeling, and optimization of complex systems with emphasis on computation inspired by natural systems. She holds one U.S. patent and several international patents and has authored more than 200 publications which have garnered over 14,500 citations and an H Index of 47 (Google Scholar). She is the editor of the recent book Women in Industrial and Systems Engineering: Key Advances and Perspectives on Emerging Topics (https://www.springer.com/us/book/9783030118655#aboutBook). Several of her papers are among the most highly cited in their respective journals including the most cited paper of Reliability Engineering & System Safety and the 3rd most cited paper of IEEE Transactions on Reliability. She won the E. L. Grant Best Paper Awards in 1999 and in 2006, and the William A. J. Golomski Best Paper Award in 2002. Dr. Smith is the Editor in Chief of INFORMS Journal on Computing and an Area Editor of Computers & Operations Research.

Prof. Xin-She Yang
Middlesex University, UK

Biography: Xin-She Yang is Reader in modelling and optimization at Middlesex University and an elected Bye-Fellow of Downing College at Cambridge University. Yang received his DPhil in applied mathematics from the University of Oxford. With more than 200 publications and more than 15 books, his research interests include nature-inspired computation, swarm intelligence, modelling and optimization. He is the chair of the Task Force on Business Intelligence and Knowledge Management of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society. He is listed as a highly cited researcher by Thomson Reuters/Clarivate Analytics in both 2016 and 2017.

Prof. Ljiljana Trajkovic
(IEEE Fellow)
Simon Fraser University, Canada

Biography: Ljiljana Trajkovic received the Dipl. Ing. degree from University of Pristina, Yugoslavia, the M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering and computer engineering from Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from University of California at Los Angeles. She is currently a professor in the School of Engineering Science, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. Her research interests include communication networks and dynamical systems. She served as IEEE Division X Delegate/Director and President of the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society and the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society. Dr. Trajkovic serves as Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems and Associate Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Open Journal of Systems Engineering. She is a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Circuits and System Society, a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society, and a Fellow of the IEEE.