Prof. Mohammad S. Obaidat
University of Jordan, Jordan

Professor Mohammad S. Obaidat ( Life Fellow of IEEE) is recognized around the World for his pioneering and lasting contributions to several areas in ICT. He is an internationally known academic/researcher/ scientist/scholar. He received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Engineering with a minor in Computer Science from The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA. He has received extensive research funding and published, to date, over One Thousand (1,200) refereed technical articles —about half of which are journal articles, over 110 books, and 70 Book Chapters. He is the Editor-in-Chief of three scholarly journals and an editor of numerous other international journals. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Wiley International Journal of Communication Systems and Founding Editor-in-Chief of the Wiley Security and Privacy Journal. He is also the founding Advisory Editor of the Cybersecurity and Applications Journal, KeAi.

Moreover, he is founder or co-founder of 5 IEEE International Conferences.

Among his previous positions are Advisor to the President of Philadelphia University for Research, Development and Information Technology, President and Chair of Board of Directors of the Society for Molding and Simulation International(SCS), Senior Vice President of SCS, SCS VP for Membership and SCS VP for Conferences, Dean of the College of Engineering at Prince Sultan University, Founding Dean of the College of Computing and Informatics at The University of Sharjah, Chair and tenured Professor at the Department of Computer and Information Science and Director of the MS Graduate Program in Data Analytics at Fordham university, Chair and tenured Professor of the Department of Computer Science and Director of the Graduate Program at Monmouth University, Chair and Professor of Computer Science Department at University of Texas-Permian Basin, Distinguished Professor at IIT-Dhanbad, Tenured Full Professor at King Abdullah II School of Information Technology (KASIT), University of Jordan, The PR of China Ministry of Education Distinguished Overseas Professor at the University of Science and Technology Beijing, China and an Honorary Distinguished Professor at the Amity University- A Global University. He is now a Distinguished Professor at KASIT, University of Jordan. He is also a Distinguished Professor at SRM University, the University of Science and Technology Beijing, and Amity University.

He has chaired numerous (Over 185) international conferences and has given numerous (Over 185) keynote speeches worldwide. He has served as an ABET/CSAB evaluator and on the IEEE CS Fellow Evaluation Committee. He has served as an IEEE CS Distinguished Speaker/Lecturer and an ACM Distinguished Lecturer. Since 2004, he has been serving as an SCS Distinguished Lecturer. He received many best paper awards for his papers, including ones from IEEE ICC, IEEE Globecom, AICSA, CITS, SPECTS, DCNET, IEEE ICCCA, and international conferences. He also received Best Paper awards from the IEEE Systems Journal in 2018 and in 2019 (2 Best Paper Awards). In 2020, he received 4 best paper awards from IEEE Systems Journal, and in 2021 received the best paper award from IEEE Systems Journal.

During his tenure as Founding Dean of the College of Computing and Informatics at the University of Sharjah, the Computer Sciences program has been ranked by Times for Higher Education (THE) as NUMBER 1 in the UAE and for the first time in the history of the University.

He also received many other worldwide awards for his technical contributions including: The 2018 IEEE ComSoc-Technical Committee on Communications Software 2018 Technical Achievement Award for contribution to Cybersecurity, Wireless Networks Computer Networks and Modeling and Simulation, SCS prestigious McLeod Founder's Award, Presidential Service Award, SCS Hall of Fame –Lifetime Achievement Award for his technical contribution to modeling and simulation and for his outstanding visionary leadership and dedication to increasing the effectiveness and broadening the applications of modeling and simulation worldwide. He also received the SCS Outstanding Service Award. He was awarded the IEEE CITS Hall of Fame Distinguished and Eminent Award.

He also received the Nokia Distinguished Fellowship Award and Fulbright Distinguished Scholar Award, among others.

He has been listed on the World's Top Career-long 2% Scientists as per Elsevier/Stanford University’s list since its inception.

Professor Obaidat has been ranked recently by ScholarGPS as the top Lifetime scholar in the World in Telecommunications Systems Management and the top scholar in Telecommunications in the World in the prior 5 Years.

For the past several years, including 2025, he has been ranked by research.com agency as the number ONE Computer Scientist and number ONE Scholar in Electronics and Electrical Engineering in Jordan.

In recognition of his significant scientific contribution, Springer published recently a book honoring his contributions in Computing, Informatics, Networking, and Cybersecurity. It is entitled: Advances in Computing, Informatics, Networking and Cybersecurity - A Book Honoring Professor Mohammad S. Obaidat’s Significant Scientific Contributions. Prof. Obaidat is a Life Fellow of IEEE, a Fellow of AAIA, a Fellow of FTRA, a Fellow of AIIA, and a Fellow of SCS.

Title:On the Trends in Artificial Intelligence and Samples of Our Recent Works 

Abstract:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its subfields, especially Machine Learning, have revolutionized ICT, industry, and the worldwide economy. What was a dream in the past is now a reality. Nations worldwide are now competing and moving to establish AI research centers, new related programs, colleges, and even universities that are dedicated to these fascinating areas.
In this talk, we will investigate the key challenges and trends in Artificial Intelligence. Further, we will shed some light on samples of our recent research works on AI and Machine Learning (ML) and related domains.  
These including devising new algorithms, and schemes and applying these to areas like cybersecurity, intrusion detection, biometrics-based cybersecurity systems, transportation systems, traffic optimization, tourism and hospitality sector, IoT and Machine Learning (ML) system to control the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, new Reinforcement Learning ( RL)-based network traffic prediction mechanisms with low computational complexity as well as a Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence-based Monte Carlo Q-learning algorithm, heuristic algorithms for controller placement in SDN systems leveraging a learning automaton (LA) approach, reinforcement learning-based methods to select the subset of interfaces to deploy NetFlow, iteration algorithms based on Q-learning to compute the accumulative reward, an optimized traffic measurement method based on reinforcement learning, effective prediction mechanism using deep learning architectures constructed by MTL (Multitask Leaning)  and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), network traffic prediction mechanisms in IoT, resource allocation framework for 5G/ B5G networks, ML-based framework for malicious attacks detection and mitigation, intelligent system for complex violence pattern analysis and detection, Learning Automata (LA)-based Secure Smart Parking System, Long Short-term Memory (LSTM) model-based Detection for Timing Attacks in Named Data Network, anomaly detection in VANETs based on the convolutional neural network (CNN), SVM scheme for attack chain construction based on log correlation, deep learning-based recommender system for smart healthcare ecosystem, LA for power management in smart grids, hybrid classification model for anomaly detection in cloud environment using SVM, deep learning-based content centric data dissemination for Internet of Vehicles, among others.

Prof. Rui Gao

Rui Gao is a Professor and Head of the Department of Engineering Management in the School of Civil Engineering at Wuhan University, and serves as the Inaugural Director of the MEM Program Center at Wuhan University. His research focuses on engineering management and process optimization, smart construction and digitalization, geotechnical engineering, and discrete element modelling, with an emphasis on data-driven approaches for whole-life project management. He has led multiple national and provincial research projects and over a dozen industry collaborations, and founded the Hubei Joint Innovation Center for Data-Driven Smart Construction. Dr Gao has published more than 70 papers in leading international journals, holds 6 invention patents and 3 software copyrights, and has received several provincial and military science and technology awards. He serves on national professional committees in engineering management and digital construction, and is an editorial board member and reviewer for several international journals.

Assoc. Prof. Linwei Ma

Linwei Ma, PhD, is the Deputy Secretary of the Communist Party of China Committee and Tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Energy and Power Engineering at Tsinghua University, where he also serves as a PhD supervisor. He is the Director of Tsinghua-Rio Tinto Resources, Energy and Sustainable Development Research Center. Dr. Ma is a member of New Energy Specialized Committee of the Chinese Society for Electrical Engineering and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council, among other professional roles. Dr. Ma specializes in energy system analysis and energy strategy research, with a long-standing commitment to education, research, and advisory work on the sustainable development of energy and resources. He has contributed to more than ten major national research and consulting projects led by the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the National Energy Administration, and other institutions. Over the past two decades, he has conducted extensive international collaborative research with multinational corporations such as BP and Rio Tinto. He actively promotes interdisciplinary cooperation and university-industry partnerships.Dr. Ma has published over ten monographs in Chinese and English and more than one hundred academic papers. His research achievements have been recognized with three provincial or ministerial awards.

Prof. Zhifeng Zhang

Zhifeng Zhang holds a PhD in Engineering and is currently a Professor and Master’s Supervisor at Guilin University of Aerospace Technology. He is recognized as a Provincial Leading Talent in Key Disciplines. His primary research interests include production logistics and manufacturing complexity.Professor Zhang has led more than ten research projects, including those funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and key projects supported by the Guangxi Natural Science Foundation. As the first author, he has published over 30 papers in top international journals such as ESWA, as well as in prominent Chinese journals including Science China, Acta Automatica Sinica, and Journal of Mechanical Engineering. He has authored three academic monographs and awarded a second prize in the Provincial Award for Outstanding Achievements (ranked first).He currently serves as an evaluation expert for the Degree Center of the Ministry of Education of China, a peer-review expert for the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Nanchang Hangkong University.

Prof. Dr. Zheng Yan

Dr. Zheng Yan is currently a Huashan distinguished professor at the Xidian University, China. She is a Foreign Member of Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, a Fellow of IEEE, IET, AAIA, and AIIA. She received the B. Eng in electrical engineering and M. Eng in computer science and engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University in 1994 and 1997. She received a second M. Eng in information security from National University of Singapore in 2000. She earned the Licentiate of Science and the Doctor of Science in Technology in electrical engineering from Helsinki University of Technology in 2005 and 2007. She joined the Nokia Research Center, Helsinki in 2000, working as a senior researcher until 2011. She worked as a visiting professor and a Finnish Academy Fellow at the Aalto University, Finland for over seven years.

Her research interests are in cyber trust, security, privacy, and data analytics. She has led 30+ projects, sponsored by EU, Academy of Finland, NSFC, MOST, telecom industry, etc. At the helm of a research team with 60+ members, she has supervised 180+ post-doctoral researchers and graduates. She has authored 430+ publications, with 280+ first and corresponding authorships, featured prominently in top-tier venues. Fifteen of them are top 0.1% or 1% highly-cited ESI papers. She is the sole author of two books on trust management, utilized in teaching for a decade. 150+ patents (including 82 independent  international inventions) invented by her have been adopted by industry, a few of them have been incorporated into international standards and widely used in practice with billions of users. She has delivered 40+ invited keynote speeches and talks at international conferences and world-leading companies. Her Google Scholar citation is about 19,000 with an H-index of 68.

Zheng served and is serving as an EiC/area/associate/guest editor for 60+ reputable journals, e.g., co-EiC of Information Sciences, associate editor of ACM Computing Surveys, area editor of Information Fusion. She is a steering committee member of several conferences, a general/program chair for 50+ international conferences. She is a founding steering committee co-chair of IEEE International Conference on Blockchain, which becomes a leading venue in the field. She is currently serving as a Member of IEEE Fellow Committee.

Dr. Yan is recognized as a Stanford World Top 2% Scientist since 2019, an Elsevier Highly Cited Chinese Researcher since 2020, and a ScholarGPS World Top 0.05% Highly Ranked Scholar - Prior Five Years (2024). She has earned many accolades, including Distinguished Inventor of Nokia for significant technology contributions, N²Women Star in Computer Networking and Communications, IEEE TCSC Award for Excellence in Scalable Computing, IEEE TEMS Distinguished Leadership Award, ELEC Impact Award for patent contributions to Finnish society, the Best Journal Paper Award issued by IEEE ComSoc and several other Best Paper awards, 18 times other IEEE Distinguished/Outstanding Leadership/Service awards, three EU awards, Excellent PhD Dissertation Supervisor Award of Chinese Society of Electronic Education, Shaanxi Nature Science Prize, etc. Her students have been rewarded more than 50 national or international awards. Her excellence has been covered by the media on numerous occasions.

Prof. Qing'e Wang
Central South University, China

Qing'e Wang is a Professor and a PhD supervisor at Central South University. She is a native of Chibi, Hubei Province. She received her PhD in Management (Engineering Management) from Tongji University in 2005. From 2007 to 2009, she conducted postdoctoral research at the Business School of Central South University under the supervision of Academician Jishan He. In March 2016, she was a visiting scholar at San Francisco State University.Professor Wang serves as a member of the National Steering Committee for Professional Graduate Education in Engineering Management, an executive council member of the Hunan Engineering Management Society, and an editor or reviewer for multiple academic journals. Her research and teaching interests include engineering project management, technological innovation, and intelligent construction. In recent years, she has published 60 academic papers and authored 10 monographs. She has received six provincial or ministerial awards, led five national research projects and eight provincial or ministerial projects, and undertaken more than ten industry-funded research projects.

Prof. Dr. Giancarlo Fortino
University of Calabria, Italy

Giancarlo Fortino (IEEE Fellow 2022) is Full Professor of Computer Engineering at the Dept of Informatics, Modeling, Electronics, and Systems of the University of Calabria (Unical), Italy. He received a PhD in Computer Engineering from Unical in 2000. Since 2016, he is senior research fellow at the Italian ICAR-CNR Institute. Fortino is also distinguished professor and scientist of several chinese universities and research centers: Wuhan University of Technology (WUT), Huazhong Agricultural University (HZAU), Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Nanyang Institute of Technology (NYIST), East China Jiaotong University (ECJTU), Chengdu University of Information Technology (CUIT), and Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT). He was also visiting researcher at ICSI, Berkeley (USA), in 1997 and 1999 and visiting professor at Queensland University of technology in 2009. He is currently Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE SMC society, Sensors Council and IoT TC. At Unical, he is the Rector’s delegate to Int’l relations, the chair of the PhD School in ICT, the director of the Postgraduate Master course in INTER-IoT, and the director of the SPEME lab as well as co-chair of Joint labs on IoT established between Unical and WUT, SMU and HZAU Chinese universities, respectively. Fortino is currently the scientific responsible of the UNICAL Digital Health group of the Italian CINI National Laboratory and of IEEE at Unical initiative. He is Highly Cited Researcher 2020-2024 in Computer Science by Clarivate. He had 25+ highly cited papers in WoS, and h-index=86 with 30000+ citations in Google Scholar. His research interests include wearable computing systems, e-Health, Internet of Things, agent-based computing, and, more recently, generative AI in Education. He is author of 750+ papers in int’l journals, conferences and books. He is (founding) series editor of IEEE Press Book Series on Human-Machine Systems and EiC of Springer Internet of Things series and AE of premier int'l journals such as IEEE TASE (senior editor), IEEE TAFFC-CS, IEEE THMS, IEEE T-AI, IEEE SJ, IEEE JBHI, Information Fusion, EAAI, etc. He chaired many int’l workshops and conferences (about 150), was involved in a huge number of int’l conferences/workshops (about 1000) as IPC member, is/was guest-editor of many special issues (about 100). He is cofounder and CEO of SenSysCal S.r.l., a Unical spinoff focused on innovative IoT systems, and recently cofounder and vice-CEO of the spin-off Bigtech S.r.l, focused on big data, AI and IoT technologies. Fortino is currently Associate VP of the Cybernetics area of the IEEE SMCS and former member of the IEEE SMCS BoG and former chair of the IEEE SMCS Italian Chapter.