Adrian FLOREA obtained his MSE (1998) at Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu and his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the ’Politehnica’ University of Bucharest, Romania (2005). At present he is Professor in Computer Science and Engineering at the ’Lucian Blaga’ University of Sibiu, Romania. Adrian is an active researcher in the fields of High Performance Processor Design and Simulation, Dynamic Branch and Value Prediction. He has worked over 20 years in interdisciplinary national and international research projects dealing with issues such as optimization problems in different engineering domains (microprocessors systems, suspension design and reliability, energy efficiency in buildings, smart electricity), embedded systems with applicability in Smart City (smart parking, urban mobility, smart traffic), creating digital tools for supporting communities of practice, mobile computing. He has published over 7 (didactic and scientific) books and 89 scientific papers in some prestigious journals (ISI Web of Science) and international top conferences in Romania, USA, UK, Italy, Germany, China, Slovenia, Korea, Latvia, Spain, India, Poland etc. He received ‘Tudor Tanasescu’ Romanian Academy Award 2005, for the book entitled ‘Microarchitectures simulation and optimization’ (in Romanian) and ‘Ad Augusta Per Angusta’ Award for young researcher, received from ‘Lucian Blaga’ University of Sibiu in June 2007, for special results obtained in scientific research. Since 2012 he is HiPEAC affiliate member and, since 2013 he is ACM Professional member. He is researcher in the European Union’s Horizon 2020 innovation programme under grant agreement No 731724, “Infrastructure and integrated tools for personalized learning of reading skill – iRead” and is the technical coordinator of the Erasmus+ KA2 strategic project “The FoF-Designer: Digital Design Skills for Factories of the Future”. Since 2019 professor Florea is leading the HPI Knowledge Transfer Centre at ULBS.

Manager with more than 20 years’ experience in the telecom industry, with expertise in a broad range of technologies, product development and innovation management. At the moment he is the Development and Innovation team manager in the Engineering department, coordinating multiple research projects in various fields such as: 5G & networks of the future, cyber security, smart cities, APIs exposure and monetizing, cloud technologies & IoT/M2M..

Entrepreneur with interest in the software engineering focused on European nearshore business model, exploiting innovative technologies and agile software methodologies, blended with strong ethics.With over 18 years’ experience in management and implementation of commercial and research projects rooted in fundamental research in artificial intelligence and information technology.Successfully made key-note speeches in several Business IT and Computer Science conferences in the Europe and United States.Serial entrepreneur and technology angel investor I’m interested working with creative teams delivering beautiful highly performing products and services.

A mathematician and computer scientist by education, with a PhD in Engineering and Management, Gabriela has taken over the responsibility of managing the Research & Innovation Department of ROPARDO, mainly coordinating the activities related to research projects. With more than 10 years of experience as a Computer Science teacher, she is leading initiatives regarding ROPARDO talents.Gabriela strongly believes that innovation is an investment in human capital, thus she has contributed massively to what is now an employee-oriented company culture resulting in valuable human resources, continuous improvement, key employee retention and development, friendly environment and high performance..

Senior executive in business consulting. Experienced in digital maturity audit, digital transformation preparation & training, project management, process improvement, and GRC.

Marius George Linguraru, DPhil MA MSc loves working with multidisciplinary teams of clinicians, scientists, and engineers to create AI solutions that help children and patients with rare diseases stay healthy anywhere they are. He is the Connor Family Professor and Endowed Chair in Research and Innovation at Children's National Hospital in Washington, DC, where he leads the hospital AI initiatives and serves as Principal Investigator in the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation. Dr. Linguraru is also Professor of Radiology and Pediatrics at The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. He co-founded PediaMetrix Inc. and advises MGeneRx Inc., two companies focused on child well-being through AI solutions. He joined Children’s National from the National Institutes of Health, completed his doctorate at the University of Oxford, and held fellowships at the French National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (INRIA) and at Harvard University. He has served on Boards and Committees of the Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention Society, the Latin American Society of Medical Information Processing and Analysis, the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, and the IEEE Signal Processing Society.

Ramona Samson is currently working for the Chief Economist Unit at the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, European Commission. Previously, she worked as Deputy Head of Unit for 'SMEs, Financial Instruments and State Aid', providing advice as regards the design of ways to increasing private finance and closing market gaps in research and innovation investments. Until 2012, she held various positions at the Directorate-General for Trade. She holds a PhD from Copenhagen Business School

Technology enthusiast with a focus on continuous learning and development. As an entrepreneur, I enjoy solving complex business problems with high-end technology. I support employees and colleagues in their creative ideas to develop their own potential. Lifelong learning and permanent development are my core values. The ability to take risks and at the same time remain solution-oriented is a key strength of mine.

Christoph Meinel (Univ.-Prof., Dr.rer.nat., Dr.sc.nat., 1954) was CEO and scientific director of Hasso-Plattner Institut für Digital Engineering gGmbH (HPI) at the University of Potsdam from 2004 to 2023. He is professor emeritus (C4) of computer science at the joint Digital Engineering Faculty of HPI and the University of Potsdam, where he holds the chair for "Internet Technologies and Systems.

Meinel is author or co-author of 25 books and monographs and editor of several conference proceedings and anthologies. He has published more than 750 (peer-reviewed) scientific papers in prestigious scientific journals and at international conferences.

Meinel studied mathematics and computer science at the Humboldt University in Berlin from 1974 to 1979, earning his Dr.rer.nat. degree there in 1981. In 1988 he habilitated as Dr.sc.nat. at the Institute of Mathematics of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin. In 1992 he was appointed full professor (C4) of computer science at the University of Trier. In the years 1998 to 2002, in addition to his professorship, he was also director and managing director of the Institut für Telematik e.V. From 1996 to 2007, Christoph Meinel was a member of the scientific board of directors of IBFI Schloss Dagstuhl. From 1992 to 2007, he was the spokesman for the "Complexity" specialist group of the German Informatics Society (GI). He has received numerous calls in Germany and abroad, is involved in a number of international program committees, has organized various international symposia and conferences, and was and is a member of a number of supervisory boards, e.g. the Security Advisory Board of SAP.

More than 16 years in HR field, mainly involved in learning, training and organizational development activities. With a psychology background, I’m passionate about human behavior and how can we change our future by using a very special tool – the learning tool

41 years old, In Continental Sibiu since 2005
2005 - 2021: Testing solutions tool developer.
2014 - present: Team Lead VNI CE SYS Sib EQP2
2018 - present: Software tool architect for testing solutions (expert at company level)
2021 : Head of Equipment Platform in BA AN CE SYS (world wide organization)

Security Manager - Visma Group Security, Compliance & Legal. Experienced in project management, delivery management, process management and strategy.

George Bontas obtained his Computer Science diploma from “Lucian Blaga” din Sibiu.
For more than 10 years George was focusing in supporting Banks in Europe in their Digital Transformation process to automate the Regulatory Reporting requirements towards local and International supervisory authorities.
Since end of 2018, George returned to Sibiu and focused on leading the Romanian team in building products and offering services in the Regulatory Technologies space.
George believes in an agile mind set, where continuous improvement is part of the daily activity and empowered people that under the appropriate predesigned rule book will be energized to take decisions at hand and learn from them.

AIOps and DevOps: Shaping the future of society through technology

This presentation provides insights on the process of creating a Digital Campus in the context of an European Alliance which involves several partners across Europe

Lasse Berntzen is a Professor in the School of Business, University of South-Eastern Norway. Since 2003, his research has focused on the Information Society and ICT in public sector, with emphasis on e-government and e-democracy. During the last years his research has focused on smart cities and smart communities. He has been involved in several research projects on national and international level, author and co-author of several conference papers and articles, and program committee member and reviewer for some of the most important conferences within his field of research.

His current research interests include automatic assessment of e-government services, different aspects of e-participation, and the use of geographic information systems to improve public decision-making and democratic participation, and the development of smart city concepts and technology.

In 2007 and 2008, he worked on regulatory aspects of e-democracy as an expert for the Council of Europe’s Ad-hoc Committee on e-democracy. He has also been a reviewer for the European Commission. Lasse Berntzen received his Cand. Scient. degree in Computer Science from the University of Oslo. His thesis work focused on object-oriented modeling of workflow processes. Since then, he has worked both as an academic and as a computer professional. During his professional career, he has written textbooks on computer networks, systems development, and web technology. In 2009, he was appointed fellow of the International Academy, Research and Industry Association (IARIA). He has been on the steering committee of ICDS since 2007, Cyberlaws since 2010, and COLLA since 2011, CENTRIC since 2013, and SMART since 2015. He is currently a member of IFIP WG 8.5: Information Systems in Public Administration. He is also a member of AIS, ACM, and IEEE.

Unrooted study background from dev, network and security, through semiotics and communication, up to a PhD pathway in political sciences / conflict studies. Currently Digital Advisor for the University of Burgundy, and active IT member of the FORTHEM Alliance European University. Deep interest for everything digital, especially in relation to politics and society; as well as for sound design.

Florin Leon received a Ph.D. degree in computer science from the “Gheorghe Asachi” University of Iași, Romania in 2005, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship completed in 2007. In 2015, he defended his habilitation thesis. He has been a faculty member at the Department of Computers of the same university since 2005. In 2015, he became a Full Professor at the same department. He authored and co-authored more than 200 journal articles, book chapters and conference papers, and 14 books. He participated in 30 national and international research projects, three of which as principal investigator. His research interests include: artificial intelligence, machine learning, multiagent systems and software design. He currently supervises 7 PhD students, and one PhD student has graduated. Prof. Leon is currently a member of IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society: Computational Collective Intelligence Technical Community and the Romanian Association for Artificial Intelligence.

Raksmey Phan is currently a researcher in Computer Science at École des Mines de Saint-Étienne, a prestigious French graduate engineering school. He specializes in algorithm design and has developed skills in databases, web services, and IoT. He has also published three books on SQL databases, NoSQL databases, and smartphone and smartwatch application development. Since January 2022, he has been in charge of the Living Lab in Health and Autonomy of Mines Saint-Étienne..

Florina Ciorba is an Associate Professor of High Performance Computing at the University of Basel, Switzerland. Between 2010-2015, she was a (tenured 2014-2015) senior scientist at the Center for Information Services and High Performance Computing at Technische Universität Dresden, Germany.From 2008 to 2010 she was a postdoctoral research associate at CAVS at Mississippi State University, USA. She received her doctoral degree in Computer Engineering in 2008 from NTUA, Greece. She is a member of OpenMP ARB, MPI Forum, Energy Efficiency HPC WG, HiPEAC, and SPEC HPG (with contributions to the SPEChpc 2021 Suite). Florina and co-authors won best paper awards at the Cluster 2019, IPDPSW ParLearning 2014, ICPDC 2014, and ISPDC 2011, and ranked as top-paper at ISPDC 2019. She is ACM Senior and Life Member, IEEE and IEEE Computer Society member, as well as SIAM and SIAG SC member. She is a founding member of the IDEAS4HPC Association - a Swiss chapter of WHPC. Her research interests include sustainable, scalable, and robust performance optimization of HPC and HPDA applications, system & application operational data analytics, and security in HPC.

More information at http://hpc.dmi.unibas.ch/

Alex Frame is full professor in Communication Science at the Languages and Communication Faculty of the University of Burgundy (uB, Dijon, France), where he runs the MA course in Intercultural Management. Born in Britain, he graduated from the University of Oxford in 1998, before settling in France and completing his PhD in Communication Science at uB, in 2008. He is a member of the TIL (“Texte, Image, Langage”) research group (EA 4182), where he specialises in intercultural communication, organisational communication, and digital forms of political communication. He has published over 60 academic articles and books on these questions, notably adopting a critical stance on interculturality applied to contemporary society and its organisations, striving to move beyond essentialising perspectives (https://u-bourgogne.academia.edu/AlexFrame). He is also the institutional coordinator of the FORTHEM Alliance at uB. alexander.frame@u-bourgogne.fr.

Remus Brad received an Engineer Diploma degree in Computer Science from the “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu (ULBS), Romania, in 1993, a M.S. degree from Université “Pierre et Marie Curie” Paris, France, in Artificial Intelligence in 1995 and a PhD. from Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, in 2003. Since 1994 he has joined the Department of Computer Science and Automation at the “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, Romania, where he is actually a Professor. His current research interests include Image Processing, Motion Estimation and Biomedical Imaging. As Head of the Data Communication and Marketing Department of ULBS since year 2000, he has managed and maintained the university core network and server infrastructure, developing in-house software and web-based applications. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE.

Cyber Security Professional with 15 years’ experience in corporate cyber security, security audits, compliance and best practices. Part of the Development and Innovation Team at Orange, where I define, develop, test and pilot new technologies and services for Orange’s Cyber Security Services Offerings. Active developer and participant to Research and Innovation actions in cyber security and networks and technologies for the future – 5G, 6G, IoT, A.I.

Dr. Elvira Popescu is a Full Professor at the Computers and Information Technology Department, University of Craiova, Romania. She is also the Head of the Research Laboratory in Computers and Information Technology (Interdisciplinary Research Center in Computing, Automation, and Robotics, University of Craiova). Her research interests include technology-enhanced learning, adaptive educational systems, learner modeling, computer-supported collaborative learning, learning analytics, and intelligent and distributed computing. She authored and co-authored over 100 publications, including two books, journal articles, book chapters, and conference papers. In addition, she co-edited six journal special issues, as well as 20 international conference proceedings. She participated in over 15 national and international research projects, three of which as a principal investigator.

Prof. Popescu also serves as the Vice Chair for the IEEE Women in Engineering Romania Section Affinity Group and is a board member for the IEEE Technical Committee on Learning Technology and the International Association of Smart Learning Environments. She is also a Distinguished Speaker in IEEE Computer Society Distinguished Visitors Program (2020-2023), and she gave several invited talks at international conferences. She received several scholarships and awards, including five best paper distinctions. She is actively involved in the research community by serving as associate editor for three journals (IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, Smart Learning Environments, Frontiers in Computer Science), member of five other journal editorial boards, organizing a series of international workshops (SPeL 2008–2020), serving as a conference chair, program committee chair and track chair for over 20 conferences.

Meticulous and diligent professional with combined expertise in directing multiple initiatives simultaneously to manage end-to-end cybersecurity operations in line with information security standards.

Rui S. Moreira holds a PhD in Computer Science and Reflective Distributed Systems, from the University of Lancaster (UK) in 2003, registered at University of Porto (PT) in 2004. He completed his BSc and MSc in Electrical and Computer Engineering, respectively in the areas of Computer Science and Systems in 1992 and Telecommunications in 1995. Currently Associate Professor at Faculty of Sciences and Technology (FCT) / Fernando Pessoa University (UFP), founder and researcher of the ISUS Group (Intelligent Sensing and Ubiquitous Systems) @ FCT / UFP. Also researcher at INESC-TEC and LIACC, both at FEUP/University of Porto. He participates regularly as an arguer in MSc and PhD juries, in particular at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) and at the University of Trás os Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD). He has been involved in European and National funded projects, focusing on the combination of Ubicomp, IoT and ML systems. Since 2018, he has promoted and led several scientific patronage protocols for the funding of R&D and technology transfer projects between ISUS/FCT/UFP and several Portuguese companies with services and products in the various areas of computer science. He has participated in Erasmus exchanges with Lodz University (Poland) and Mykolas Romeris University (Lithuania). Regular reviewer of several scientific journals/journals (CLUS - Cluster Computing @ Springer, LNCS @ Springer, Sensors @ MDPI, COMSI @ IEEE, Software Systems Modelling Journal) and international conferences (Models@Runtime/MODELS, JISEM, SACC, DSOnline, SIEC, WoCCES/ISCC, WORLDCIST, CISTI), all focused on computer science research areas. In his professional and research activities he has interacted with more than 70 co-authored scientific papers, published in several international congresses and scientific journals/journals, as well as 1 book and several book chapters, with the stamp of reputed publishing services, namely IEEE, Springer, Elsevier and Wiley. He has supervised and co-guided several MSc dissertations and PhD theses.

Speaker biography or presentation information : As a full professor in computer science, my research is centered on large language models and knowledge graphs. I am interested in utilizing and representing knowledge graphs in these models to address issues like hallucination, with the ultimate goal of applying these findings to emotional conversational agents. Additionally, I am interested in exploring the intersection between knowledge modeling and other research domains, such as multi-agent simulation, machine learning, and data mining. My work has practical implications for the development of industrial solutions.

Born 1980, Diploma in telecommunications at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. He started with the international automotive supplier Continental AG in 2004. In his current position, Mr. Gruian is the head of Manufacturing Software and Testing within Continental and has a strong test technologies background being a senior expert in this field. Automotive Operations Manufacturing (AOM), is a cross-divisional organization within Continental Automotive Technologies Group, that includes dedicated central departments. His department, AOM Digitalization & Technologies, is responsible for equipment software standardization, globalization of newly developed solutions, as well as piloting emerging technologies through specific innovation projects focused on manufacturing.

José Manuel Castro Torres. Completed the Ph.D. degree in Computer Science in 2005 by Lancaster University, received the M.Sc. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering – Telecommunications in 1997 by Universidade do Porto and graduation in Electrical and Computer Engineering – Telecommunications in 1993 by Universidade do Porto. Is Associate Professor in Universidade Fernando Pessoa and Researcher in the Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science Laboratory (LIACC, liacc.fe.up.pt). Published 7 articles in journals. Has 11 section(s) of books and 2 book(s). Organized 1 event(s). Participated in 17 event(s). Supervised 2 PhD thesis(es) and co-supervised 1. Supervised 7 MSc dissertation(s) and co-supervised 6. Supervised 6 work(s) of course completion of LSc/BSc. Has received 6 awards and/or honors. Participates and/or participated as Researcher in 13 project(s). Works in the area(s) of Exact Sciences with emphasis on Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering and Technology with emphasis on Electrotechnical Engineering, Electronics and Informatics. In their professional activities interacted with 93 collaborator(s) co-authorship of scientific papers. In his curriculum Ciência Vitae the most frequent terms in the context of scientific, technological and artistic-cultural output are: Artificial Intelligence; Machine and Deep Learning; Computer Vision; Multimedia Retrieval; GPRS; ZigBee; Ciberliterature; Mobile Computing; Redes de Computadores; Sistemas Embebidos; Mesh Networks; Text Indexing and Retrieval; Computer graphics and image processing; Engenharia de Software; Espaços Inteligentes; Streaming de Video; Codificação de Vídeo; Health at home; Redes de Sensores; Monitorização Vital e Ambiental; Gestão de Redes de Computadores; Natural Language Processing; Robotics; Wireless Sensor Networks; Seismic Risk evaluation.

Siegfried Schreiber hold the title of Senior Expert Cybersecurity at Vitesco Technologies. In his talk, he will focus on the new legal technical requirements for cybersecurity that face the automotive industry and their impact on the product development, mainly from the perspective of a big automotive supplier.

Claudiu Matei, MD, PhD is Head of the Neurosurgery Unit and Medical Director of MedLife Polisano Hospital Sibiu. His professional experience in the field of neurosurgery was gained in well-known medical university centers (e.g. Cluj-Napoca University Center (Romania), Hospital Universitari de Belvitge Barcelona (Spain), Hopitaux Civile de Colmar (France), Bad Berka Zentral Klinik (Germany). He is also an active member of Sibiu Physician Council. Doctor Matei is specialized in skull base surgery, neuro-oncology and pediatric neurosurgery, with a record of over 5,000 operations. He is certified in Endoscopic Skull Base and Pituitary Surgery by the "Center for Pituitary and Skull Base Surgery", under the supervision of Prof. Paul A. Gadner and Prof. Dr. Carl H. Synderman, Pittsburgh, USA. Currently, he is providing lectures at "Lucian Blaga" University Sibiu, Faculty of Medicine He holds a PhD medicine from the Faculty of Medicine within "Lucian Blaga" University Sibiu, with the thesis "Contributions to the treatment of orbital tumors". His scientific activity has been materialized in two books and in over 18 chapters published in books or medical treaties, as well as in over 70 articles and presentations in journals and specialized scientific events. During the years he was concern in gaining updated medical skill, by following high-standard international trainings, such as: four-year courses provided by the European Society of Neurosurgery (EANS); two-year Spinal Surgery courses organized by EANS; three-year Pediatric Neurosurgery courses provided by the European Society of Pediatric Neurosurgery (ESPN). His professional activity is recognized by prestigious world scientific institutions, being an active member of: The Romanian Society of Neurosurgery, AANS (American Association of Neurosurgery Societies), CNS (Congress of Neurological Surgeons), EANS (European Association of Neurosurgery Societies), member in the Board of ESPN (European Society of Pediatric Neurosurgery), Romanian Spina Bifida and Hydrocephaly Association, Pituitary Society (US).

Frank Reichert is a professor at the Department of Information and Communication Technology, Faculty of Engineering & Science, UiA.
Prof. Frank Reichert has been the rector and chairman of the board of the University of Agder, Norway, from Jan. 1, 2016 to July 31st, 2019. He has been the Dean of the Faculty of a Engineering & Science from 2007 to 2015. He started as a professor in mobile systems at the University of Agder in 2005.
Frank Reichert has been working for over 30 years on technology and strategies for fixed and wireless communication systems both on national and international level.
In 2015 he was the Center Director for the SFI Offshore Mechatronics, a national center of excellence for research driven innovation (budget over 200 MNOK). He was one of the driving forces behind UiA's Mechatronics Innovation Lab, a national lab for innovation, piloting and technology qualification.
From 1995 he was with Ericsson Sweden, guiding investigations on, e.g., Future Service Layer Architectures, Wireless Internet technologies, and 3G applications and terminals. Assignments included creating and managing European Research projects (e.g. EUREKA Subproject PRO-COM, ACTS OnTheMove).
Frank established Ericsson Cyberlab Singapore in 1999, focusing on user centric, ethnographic application and terminal design, as well as rapid prototyping of new HW/SW products exhibited at fairs like CeBIT 2001 and COMDEX (e.g. Ericsson Cordless WebScreen, Delphipad, Nanorouter).
He has been working as an expert, evaluator and auditor for the European Commission in industrial R&D frameworks such as RACE, ACTS, 5FP, 6FP, and Celtic Calls 1-3.
Dr. Reichert holds a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Aachen University of Technology, Germany.

Industrial informatics graduate and passionate about design engineering, Radu has over ten years of experience in the Automotive industry. He worked in several areas of design engineering, from BIW (Body-in-white) to EBS (electronic braking systems) devices.
Using creativity, teamwork and leadership he currently coordinates global projects to solve complex market requirements for various EBS and ESC devices for Continental’s emerging motorcycles division.

Liisa Kallio works at the University of Jyväskylä Digital Services as an IT specialist and has over 20 years of work experience in e-learning and education technology.
She is a team leader in a pedagogical team responsible for supporting the use of ICT in teaching and learning. She is also involved in the University of Jyväskylä
lifelong learning project as well as the national Digivisio2030 programme..

Merja Laamanen works at the University of Jyväskylä's Digital Services as a Digital Transformation Lead. She specializes in developing new digital tools and services and for Higher Education and coordinates the development using SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework). She is currently a PhD Candidate in education technology, and her research interests encompass digital transformation, accessibility, and new learning technologies in Higher Education.

Educational mathematician and computer scientist, born in 1986, Laura Boarescu started her career in Continental Automotive Systems Sibiu 15 years ago as a production software engineer. For the past 10 years, she has led various production teams, especially in the software area. Laura specializes in helping different business areas to develop their people and products, from zero to success, from employee to leader, and that's why she is passionate about it. In her current position, Laura supports the definition and implementation of the business strategy in terms of new product launches, in strong alignment with the division's strategy. Its purpose in this process is to ensure constant inter-functional communication and cooperation in all reference stages of the project, from equipment specifications to delivery to series production. Laura strongly believes that there are always two important pillars: people and business and, by growing together, results in a valuable company culture, in which innovation, continuous improvement, high performance and collaboration are key factors for success.

Ugo Fiore, Ph.D., is an associate professor with the Department of Computer Science at University of Salerno. Prior to joining University of Salerno, he was an assistant professor at Parthenope University. At the beginning of his career, he spent ten years in the telecommunications industry, holding positions at various seniority levels. He obtained his "Laurea" Degree in Physics from Federico II University and his Ph.D. in Computer Science from University of Salerno. His research interests are interdisciplinary and include deep learning, anomaly detection, optimisation, energy-aware systems, nonlinear analysis, and covert communications. He has authored or co-authored more than 60 journal papers, with an H-index greater than 25 on Scopus. He serves as Associate Editor with Applied Soft Computing (Elsevier), Soft Computing (Springer), Journal of High Speed Networks (IOS Press), and Journal of Banking and Financial Technology (Springer). He is a member of the editorial board for four other journals. He acted as Guest editor for numerous special issues. He held research fellowships with Fukuoka Institute of Technology, Japan, Harbin Engineering University, China, and Tunghai University, Taiwan. He has been invited as a keynote speaker in three international conferences. He has held various roles in the organizing committees of several international conferences, and has participated in the technical program committee in a large number of international conferences. He serves as a reviewer for many journals and he also reviewed research projects proposals for Italian and foreign institutions. He activated two inter-institutional agreements. He has been appointed as co-advisor for a PhD student of Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey and he regularly sits in PhD examination committees in foreign universities.

Sergiu Stefan Nicolaescu obtained double MSE degree in Embedded Systems (2011) and Industrial Business Management (2013), Ph.D. in Engineering and Management (2019) at Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu. At present he is Head of SW Engineering segment within Continental R&D Center, Business Area Autonomous mobility. He has in-depth knowledge of project management; organizational leadership; software development; autonomous mobility with more than 12 years of experience in the automotive industry. He has published in some prestigious journals (ISI Web of Science) and international top conferences over 15 scientific papers in the fields of Quality, Automotive Industry and Data Science. He was manager or senior researcher in more than 10 R&D projects, in both private and public sector.

Employee of Continental Sibiu since 2008 member of the "Manufacturing Innovation" department

Eugen Craciun is an accomplished professional with nearly a decade of experience at Continental Sibiu. With a strong educational foundation, including a Master's degree in Programming and a Bachelor's degree in Electronics, Eugen Craciun has established themselves as a technical expert, becoming the Team Leader of the ECU Project Manager Team. Responsible for development of the Electronic Brakes Systems, including direct collaboration with esteemed customers such as Daimler, Stellantis, and Renault Nissan Alliance. Eugen Craciun consistently delivers exceptional results, driving innovation and ensuring client satisfaction.

Lucian Rusu, born in 1985, is the head of the Digital Factory at Continental Automotive Systems Sibiu, driving transformative changes in hardware and software development. With over a decade of experience in IT, Lucian is a passionate programmer deeply connected to the world of IoT. He has dedicated his recent years to shaping the future of manufacturing as a key contributor to the "factory of the future" concept in Sibiu. Lucian's enthusiasm lies in robotics, IoT, and AI, and he is excited to share his insights on digitalization.

Pierre-Alexandre Favier is an engineer and has obtained a Ph.D. in computer sciences from the European Center for Virtual Reality (CERV, Brest, France) in 2004. He joined the National School of Cognitive Engineers (ENSC, Bordeaux, France) at the very beginning of its creation, in 2005, as a senior lecturer. This school is dedicated to the study of Human Factors and the development of design methodologies taking into account the end-user. His subjects of interest, both for teaching and for research, are mainly: multi-agent systems, virtual reality and artificial intelligence. He directs the ENSC FabLab at and is responsible for an engineering speciality dedicated to hybrid cognitive systems. .

Senior Radiologist, Medical Manager of Clinical Pediatric Hospital Sibiu. "Designer" of the Laboratory of Radiology and Medical Imaging endowed with some of the most advanced devices: high end ultrasound, X-ray machines, spiral CT 128 slices and of the Neuroradiology Laboratory of the Research Department (3T MRI, angiograph, x-ray machines ) all connected to RIS/HIS and PACS

18+ years in Embedded SW development, 10+ years in automotive business, managing several teams, ~1.5 years leading NXP Romania Operations. .

Alexandru Taran is an Embedded AI/ML Software Engineer at NXP Semiconductors. He holds a bachelor's and master's degree in computer science from the Military Technical Academy. For nearly five years, he has been involved in developing NXP's solutions for AI/ML workload deployment on automotive platforms. Alexandru is passionate about embedded systems, parallel programming, and AI/ML. .

With experience in a wide range of work areas, from IT Management to Electrical Engineering Power Plant Technologies and even Research and Development in Automotive Industry, I have constantly focused on developing innovative and sustainable partnerships. Identifying efficient ways and methods of training and working with others I have aimed to build knowledge networks between stakeholders from both private and institutional areas.
Only driven by great ideas one can obtain sustainable development.

Hening Kinga is a Tech Transfer Officer (TTO) and researcher also, who has been working for 20 years in the research area of radon exposure - which is a health issue for our society and given the mandatory legal requirements at EU level, needs to be addressed in each Member State through a legal framework and appropriate policies. Given the market value of her and her research teams results, it has laid the foundations for our university's first innovative spin-off, RadonControl. She is directly involved in this spin-off, as well as the scope of its previous research, requires continuous engagement with various local and regional stakeholders, including local public administrations as well as central administrations (e.g. Department for Sustainable Development of the Romanian Government, Romanian Commission for Nuclear Activity Control). She is a valuable member of UBB Technology Transfer Office (UBB TechTransfer), supporting the university's engagement with external stakeholders as well as in the collaboration with the Regional Development Agency of the North-West Development Region related to the implementation of the regional smart specialization strategy. Kinga has management experience on the innovative-entrepreneurial component, with valorization of research results with applicability in the socio-economic environment. She has acquired great skills as a project manager by winning business plan competitions like Individual Qualitative Assessment and Business Plan Validation and "From Research to Start-up". .

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Journalist and entrepreneur, Andrei Nistor is the owner of a company that publish a regional online newspaper, Stirile Transilvaniei and also DIGITALIO platform, a website dedicated to digitalisation, new technologies, crypto and cybersecurity.
His company is a Cluj IT Cluster member, one of the largest and best known IT business association in Romania, with more than 70 member companies and 14 Romanian universities and research institutions, focused on promoting technology based innovation across the society and the economy.
DIGITALIO is part of a winning european financing Horizon 2020 consortium, that utilizes blockchain and AI to fight disinformation.
Andrei Nistor is also a Certified Knowledge Manager, Trainer, and Coach

Entrepreneur with interest in software and hardware engineering focused on personall identification and security systems based on RFID(radiofrequnecy identification) and biometrics. Over 20 years of experience and partnership with European and Asian leaders in the mentioned activity areas. Severall participation to Romanian and European industry events as company exhibitor or visitor. Security systems integrator for CCTV, burglary, acces control and time&attendance systems with expertise in BMS (Building Management Systems) and Smart Home solutions.Local Councilior member of the Sibiu Local City Council.

Nicolae Ștefănuță MEP (Greens/Europe Free Alliance) is a full member of the Committee on Budgets and a substitute member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, and the Committee on Transport and Tourism. Furthermore, he is a member of the Delegation to the EU-Moldova Parliamentary Association Committee, the Delegation for relations with the United States of America (D-US) and the Delegation for relations with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Among his areas of interest as a MEP are climate change, foreign policy, security, public health, European budget, and European rights. He is a graduate of the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy, where he obtained a Master of policy management degree. He has a bachelor's degree in economics, obtained in Timișoara, Romania and a master's in advanced international studies at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, Austria and in European studies from the University of Vienna. He began his professional career working for the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Once Romania joined the European Union in 2007, Nicolae started his European career working for the European Parliament in various public policy areas, including budget and agriculture policy, as well as in the area of Transatlantic relations for the European Parliament's Delegation for relations with the United States. .

Alexandra Luca studied Engineering and Project Management at Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu and became an Agile certified IT professional with technical background and over 10 years of experience in international software development projects and IT delivery. Continuously learning through challenges and embracing a problem-solving forward-thinking mindset, she empowers IT teams towards building outstanding results by applying a value-driven customer-centric approach.. .

Daniel Homorodean is vice president of Cluj IT Cluster and CEO of Arxia, a Romanian IT company specializing in software development, consultancy, and training, with activity in many markets and subsidiaries in Africa and Latin America.
Daniel is coordinating the Internationalization working group of Cluj IT Cluster and is actively engaging in exploring new markets, support the development of partnerships and of access to opportunities in different parts of the world. He is engaged in promoting globally the Romanian digital innovation ecosystem and believes that the internationalization of the digital expertise should be a top priority of our country.