Category: 2017 Delegate

Daniel Neagu was appointed Professor of Computing in 2011: he joined the Department of Computer Science as Lecturer in 2002, and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2005. He has previously served as Associate Professor at the Department of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Galati, Romania (1993-2001).

Daniel received his PhD Cum Laude in Computer Science (2000) at the University of Galati after he obtained a 5-year MEng degree (1990) in Automation and Computer Engineering from Technical University of Iasi and a BSc (Hons) degree (1995) in Information Technology from University of Galati. He spent a research period (1999) at University of Patras, Greece, with Human Computer Interaction Group led by Professor Nikolaos Avouris. After successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis entitled “Using Artificial Neural Networks in Fuzzy Reasoning”, Daniel was appointed Research Fellow at Dipartimento di Elettronica e Informazione, Politecnico di Milano, Italy (2001-2002), where he joined the FP5 European Research Network IMAGETOX (Intelligent Modelling Algorithms for General Evaluation of TOXicities) working with Professor Giuseppina Gini.

His research focuses on Artificial Intelligence techniques applied in Toxicology, Software Engineering, Online Social Networks, Data Quality, Big Data, Healthcare. Daniel’s research has been motivated by his desire to advance the AI field by studying systems from rigorous computational perspectives. The main theme throughout his academic work is to develop models of multidisciplinary information systems by the fusion of experts knowledge and digital information. He strongly believes Computer Science is now a media for knowledge representation, exchange and retrieval to serve multidisciplinary objectives and purposes. Mining information to identify key attributes and making unknown, hidden, distributed information accessible to people plays a vital role in the progress of science and technology, thus Daniel’s work addresses applications as diverse as health, security and entertainment.

Daniel leads the Artificial Intelligence Research Group (AIRe). He is member of IEEE Computer Society and Computational Intelligence Society, ACM Association for Computing Machinery, British Computer Society (BCS The Chartered Institute for IT), and committee member of the BCS SGAI (Specialist Group on Artificial Intelligence) 2011-2013. Daniel Neagu served as the General Chair of UKCI2014 the 14th Annual Workshop on Computational Intelligence, Deputy Technical Programme Chair for BCS SGAI AI Conference in 2011, 2012 and 2013 (Cambridge, UK), and invited editor for the Expert Systems journal special issues in 2011 and 2012, Springer Neural Computing and Applications journal special issue on Predictive Analytics Using Machine Learning in 2014/15, and Springer Soft Computing journal special issue on Computational Intelligence in 2015. He served as external examiner for PhDs, MPhil and MRes for Universities of Aberystwyth, Coventry, Huddersfield, Hull, Liverpool, Ulster, Sunderland, Sheffield, Liverpool John Moores and East Anglia.

Daniel has been accepted on the Higher Education Academy register of practitioners in 2006 and is Fellow of Higher Education Academy since 2007. He contributed to the UKCGE (UK Council for Graduate Education) Postgraduate Funding and Resourcing Working Group (2014-2015).

Daniel teaches Data Mining, Data Structures and Algorithms, and leads the Computer Science undergraduate (BSc Hons) and postgraduate (MSc) programmes. He has coordinated Software Development (at UG and PGT level), Group Project, Data Fusion, Artificial Intelligence with Applications, and Computer Architecture and Systems academic modules. He has also delivered modules, presentations and invited training sessions to BBC Academy, NATO training courses, EC FPs consortia schools, and coordinated data hackathons and research seminars series.

Professor Rwekaza Sympho Mukandala was born in Bukoba on 30th September 1953. He received his primary education in Bukoba and secondary education at Tabora School and Musoma Secondary School. Thereafter, he joined the University of Dar es Salaam in the year 1973 – 1976, where he obtained Bachelor of Arts (Hons.); (International Relations and Administration). In 1977 he was awarded a Master degree in Development Management at the University of Dar es Salaam. In 1988 he obtained a PhD. in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Certificate in New Institutional Economics. He was awarded Peter Odegard Prize as the Most Distinguished Candidate for the Doctorate at the same University. Upon completion of his PhD studies, he returned to the University of Dar es Salaam in 1988 as a Senior lecturer in Political Science and Public Administration. Since then, he has held various academic posts to the current status, a Professor of Political Science and Public Administration. He teaches organization theory, public administration, democracy and elections. He is Chair of many institutions including: Research and Education for Democracy in Tanzania (REDET); Tanzania Election Monitoring Committee (TEMCO); and until early this year the Economic and Social research Foundation (ESRF); East Africa Uongozi Institute (EAFUI). He has also been President of the African Association of Political Science (AAPS), Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and Head of Department political Science and Public Administration. He was Chair of the Organizing Committee for the XIX World congress of the International Political Science Association (IPSA) Durban South Africa 2003. He has also served on the administrative council of the International Institute of Administrative Sciences. He has carried out research on Politics, aid and donors, and governance in many African countries. He has also consulted widely on these and other related issues for the Government of Tanzania, International Organizations and donors. He has published fifteen books and more than sixty articles in International and Local Journals. His latest books are Politics and Tactics in Public Sector Reforms: the Dynamics of Public Service Pay in Africa (Dar es Salaam University Press, Dar es Salaam 2005) with K. Kiragu and (co-ed) Justice, Rights and Worship: Religion and Politics in Tanzania (E & D Publishers, 2006). He is been the Vice Chancellor of the University of Dar es Salaam since 2006 to date.

Dr. Seung Hyeon Moon is the President of the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), which is located in the Republic of Korea. GIST was established in 1993 by the Korean government as a graduate-level research institute and GIST

College (Korea’s very first liberal arts oriented science college) was established in 2010. In 2015, Dr. Moon became the 7th President of GIST.

Under President Moon’s tenure, GIST has continued to make remarkable strides in becoming a globally recognized educational and research institution that is focused on developing advanced science and technology as indicated by, among other factors, GIST’s position in the 2016/2017 QS World University Ranking® as No. 2 in the world for citations per faculty.

Having earned his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in chemical engineering from Seoul National University, President Moon went on to earn his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Afterwards, he worked for the Argonne National Laboratory as a postdoctoral appointee and assistant biochemical engineer in their Energy Systems Division from 1991 to 1994. He then joined the faculty of GIST in 1994 and has served in various academic and leadership positions, including Director of the International Environmental Research Center, Dean of Academic and Student Affairs, and Director of the Research Institute for Solar and Sustainable Energies.

President Moon’s professional background and numerous research accomplishments have always been focused on solving the problems confronting humanity, and he is proud to support the vision of the World Technology University Congress.

Professor Melo has been Rector of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte since May 2019. Before that, he held the positions of Vice Rector (2015-2019) and Dean of the School of Engineering and Architecture (2011-2015). Prof. Melo received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Colorado State University (2002), M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maine (1993), and B.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering (1990) and in Civil Engineering (1997) from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte. He was Visiting Scholar at the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics of Stanford University from 2008 to 2019. Prof. Melo has worked in the field of Composite Materials for over 30 years. His main research interests and contributions are in design and mechanical characterization of polymer composites. In this area, he advised many graduate students, published three books and numerous papers in peer-reviewed journals and international conference proceedings. Prof. Melo is also Associate Editor of the Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites.

Shane McHugh is Head of International Activities at the Royal Academy of Engineering, and is responsible for Responsible for developing international strategy, and developing, overseeing and delivering the Academy’s £9m annual portfolio of international grant programmes, including major individual and institutional capacity building programmes under the Newton Fund and Global Challenges Research Fund. Achievements in the role include designing and delivering the Leaders in Innovation Fellowship Programme, which has now provided entrepreneurship training to 500 innovative researchers in 14 emerging economies, and delivering the first ever Global Grand Challenges Summit in London 2013. He has been a member of the UK-South Africa Research and Innovation Council and UK-India Research and Innovation task force, and has served as a reviewer for major EPSRC and British Council international grant programmes.