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.

The keynote speaker will highlight the following: With the German University of Digital Science we want to establish a university the that offers all its study programs completely digital. German UDS opens its doors on one side to students who have families, are employed and want or need to continue their education in the digital field for their professional development. On the other side, it provides a chance for students from the countries of the global south who lack the financial means to study in Germany but still want to obtain a German university degree. Digitalization provides the means to democratize academic education and the knowledge needed to master the digital transformation. Teaching formats of the digital university are based on MOOCs (massive open online courses) and make use of a variety of innovative digital formats, that we have used an developed for the online learning platform openHPI.de from Hasso Plattner Institute.

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.

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

Julia von Thienen studied at the Free University of Berlin, majoring in psychology with a focus on neuroscience, research methodology, and philosophy, while minoring in computer science. Her PhD research on causation also integrated these fields. Julia has taught at the Free University of Berlin, the University of Chicago, and the University of Potsdam. In 2008, she joined the Design Thinking Research Program at the Hasso-Plattner-Institut (HPI). In her work, she explores design thinking as an approach to creativity, collaboration, and innovation. The research methods range from investigating individual physiological processes to examining global policy perspectives. In 2018, Stanford University and Potsdam launched a joint program in Neurodesign. Since then, Julia has been leading the neurodesign group at HPI, investigating the biological foundations of creativity, collaboration, and innovation, while also utilizing these insights for pioneering technology redesigns. A major recent focus of her work is Sustainable Design, pursued in collaboration with the Tangible Media Lab from MIT, involving co-creative teams supported by AI.

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.

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.

Teodor Vintilă coordinates applied biotechnology disciplines in the Faculty of Bioengineering and Animal Sciences from Timisoara; is conducting research projects (managed 12 projects up to date) in the field of industrial microbiology and biotechnology, biofuels, biorefinery and bioeconomy.