Panel Sessions

COMPSAC 2025 Panel Sessions

Plenary Panel: Harnessing the Power of Intelligent Systems with Public Safety Technologies to Shape the Future

Wednesday July 9 | 1:30 pm | Auditorium

Public Safety is a key imperative that affects all of us, notable this year from the wildfires in California and Colorado, recent airplane disasters, and active shooters.

Public Safety per se is not considered a technology; it comprises all the various technologies that can and do contribute to public safety needs. These range from, but are not limited to communications and networking, edge and cloud computing, digital twins, IoT, blockchain, AI and machine learning, intelligent data, and augmented and virtual reality. All aspects can be attributed to technology megatrends and their predictions.

This panel’s emphasis will be upon presenting practical applications and their implementation. panelist speakers will comment on current and past implementations – all towards development for a better future.

IEEE Future Directions launched this initiative on public safety technology.

Panelists

Dr. Ming Hou is a Principal Scientist at Defence Research and Development Canada. He is responsible for delivering cutting-edge technological solutions, science-based advice, and evidence-based policy recommendations on AI and Autonomy science, technology, and innovation strategies to senior decision makers within the Department of National Defence (DND), Canada and the Canadian Armed Forces as well as their national and international partner organizations. His influential book: “Intelligent Adaptive Systems: An Interaction-Centered Design Perspective” has guided the development of a number of international defence capabilities, industry AI-enabled disruptive technologies, international standards for Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems, and the United Nations White Paper on “Human-Machine Interfaces in Autonomous Weapon Systems: Consideration for Human Control”. Dr. Hou is the recipient of the most prestigious DND Science and Technology Excellence Award in 2020 and the President’s Achievement Award of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada in 2021. He is an IEEE Fellow, Distinguished Lecture, the General Chair of the 2024 IEEE International Conference on Human-Machine Systems and the International Defence Excellence and Security Symposium, and the recipient of Outstanding Contribution Award in 2024. Dr. Hou is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto and University of Calgary. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ming-hou-7b12158/

Dejan Milojicic is an HPE Fellow and VP at Hewlett Packard Labs, Milpitas, CA [1998-present]. Previously, he worked at the OSF Research Institute, Cambridge, MA [1994-1998] and Institute “Mihajlo Pupin”, Belgrade, Serbia [1983-1991]. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Kaiserslautern, Germany (1993); and his MSc/BSc from Belgrade University, Serbia (1983/86). His research interests include systems software, distributed computing, systems management, and HPC. Dejan has over 250 papers, 2 books, and 92 granted and 63 pending patents. Dejan is an IEEE Fellow (2010), ACM Distinguished Engineer (2008), and HKN and USENIX member. Dejan was on 9 Ph.D. thesis committees, and he mentored over 80 interns. Dejan was president of the IEEE Computer Society (2014), an IEEE presidential candidate in 2019, editor-in-chief of IEEE Computing Now and Distributed Systems Online and he has served on many editorial boards and TPCs. Dejan led large industry-government-university collaborations, such as Open Cirrus (2007-2011) and New Operating System (2014-2017). https://www.linkedin.com/in/dejanm/

May Dongmei Wang is a Wallace H. Coulter Distinguished Faculty Fellow and full professor of Biomedical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computational Science and Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology (GT) and Emory University (EU). She is Director of Biomedical Big Data Initiative, Georgia Distinguished Cancer Scholar, Petit Institute Faculty Fellow, Kavli Fellow, AIMBE Fellow, IAMBE Fellow, IEEE Fellow, and Board of Directors of American Board of AI in Medicine. Her research is in Biomedical Big Data with AI-Driven Intelligent Reality (IR) for predictive, personalized, and precision health (pHealth). She has 20+ years academic professorship and ~4 years industrial research experience, published 290+ articles in referred journals and conference proceedings with 15,000+ Google Scholar citations, and delivered 280+ invited and keynote lectures. Dr. Wang received BEng from Tsinghua University China, and MS with PhD degrees from GT. She is a recipient of GT Outstanding Faculty Mentor for Undergrad Research Award, and EU MilliPub Award (for a high-impact paper that is cited over 1,000 times). At Georgia Tech, Dr. Wang is in 2022 President Leading Women Program and 2021 Provost Emerging Leaders Program. Before 2016, Dr. Wang was Director of Bioinformatics and Biocomputing Core in NIH/NCI-sponsored U54 Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence, and Co-Director of GT Center of Bio-Imaging Mass Spectrometry for over 10 years. Dr. Wang is the Senior Editor for IEEE Journal of Biomedical & Health Informatics (J-BHI, Impact Factor 7.02), an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions for BME and IEEE Reviews for BME, a panelist for NIH CDMA (Clinical Data Management and Analysis) Study Section, NSF Smart and Connect Health, Brain Canada every year. She organized IEEE-JBHI Special Issue on AI-driven Informatics, Sensing, Imaging and Big Data Analytics for Fighting the COVID-19 Pandemic. Dr. Wang has chaired IEEE Biomedical and Health Informatics (BHI) community and ACM Special Interest Group in Bioinformatics. Currently, Dr. Wang serves in both IEEE Future Directions Committee and International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE) Executive Committee and is IEEE-Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (IEEE-EMBS) Vice President. Dr. Wang’s research has been supported by NIH, NSF, CDC, VA, Georgia Research Alliance, Georgia Cancer Coalition, Shriners’ Hospitals for Children, Children’s Health Care of Atlanta, Enduring Heart Foundation, Coulter Foundation, Imlay Foundation, Microsoft Research, HP, UCB, and Amazon. https://www.linkedin.com/in/may-dongmei-wang-8491379/

Dr Louis Nisiotis is leading research in innovation and application of eXtended Reality technologies to support and foster the ongoing digital transformation of a plethora of industrial, educational, entertainment and societal domains. His research interests include eXtended Reality (XR), the Metaverse, Cyber-Physical-Social Systems, Digital Twins, Serious & Entertainment Video Games, and Human Computer Interaction. He is particularly interested in leveraging XR and the convergence of emerging disruptive technologies, to create new types of Metaverse systems and applications that seamlessly blend the real with digital worlds and disrupt the way we (humans) interact with real and virtual environments, with our surroundings, and with each other. He regularly shares academic insights, technical expertise, and innovative viewpoints at high-profile scientific panels and public forums, presenting cutting-edge research, real-world applications, and forward-looking perspectives on the use and impact of emerging technologies shaping the Metaverse. He is an Assistant Professor at the University of Central Lancashire, Cyprus (UCLan Cyprus) leading the Games Development and Computer Graphics modules.

Dr Nisiotis is serving the scientific community through multiple volunteering positions and activities. He is currently the Programme Chair of the IEEE International Symposium of Emerging Metaverse (ISEMV 2025 and previously 2024), he was the General Chair of the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Reality (ICIR 2022), and is a review editor and editorial member for prestigious scientific journals and conferences. Dr Nisiotis is a Steering Committee Member of the IEEE Metaverse scientific community, and member of IEEE and IEEE Computer Society. He is also a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy.

Kathy Grise, Senior Program Director – IEEE Future Directions, supports new and emerging initiatives, including cloud computing, big data, digital realities, AI/ML, digital twins, digital transformation, and public safety, supports IEEE Future Directions, and manages the digital presence team for Future Directions. Kathy serves as the Technical Program Chair of the IEEE COMPSAC 2025 Symposium – Data Sciences, Analytics, & Technologies (DSAT). Kathy received the 2024 IEEE Eric Herz Outstanding Staff Award, the highest recognition for a staff member. Prior to joining the IEEE staff, Kathy held numerous positions at IBM, and most recently was a Senior Engineering Manager for Process Design Kit Enablement in the IBM Semiconductor Research and Development Center. Kathy led the overall IT infrastructure implementation, and software development in support of semiconductor device modeling verification, packaging, and delivery; device measurement and characterization data collection and management, and automation for device modeling engineers. Kathy is a graduate of Washington and Jefferson College, and an IEEE Senior member. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathygrise/

Technological Drift of Artificial Intelligence

Thursday July 10 | 3:30 pm | Room 7

Europe has a more rigorous regulation of Artificial Intelligence than the United States. The European legislation in force includes the famous AI Act and the national laws born from its transposition, which impose great caution in adopting AI systems for risky applications. Wisely, European legislators have tried to maintain a certain technological neutrality, basing the restrictions on implementing AI models on the risk incurred by using them and not on the specific technology the models rely on.

Despite the European Commission’s attempt to maintain technological neutrality, the geopolitical framework is causing a drift that is causing the technical solutions used in Europe, the United States, and China to diverge. To understand the nature of the phenomenon and its consequences, it is necessary to consider that today’s LLM stacks are made up of various hardware and software components that are used in different phases of the model life cycle, from the initial training of the foundation model to the interaction with the user of the final model, through the customization of the training and the execution of the LLM model in production. The panel of experts will hold a discussion on this technological drift.

Panelists

Ernesto Damiani is Full professor at the Department of Computer Science, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy, where he leads the SESAR research lab, and President of the Consorzio Interuniversitario Nazionale per l’Informatica (CINI).He serves also as Dean of Computing and Mathematical Sciences and Director of the Center for Cyber Physical Systems (C2PS) at Khalifa University in the UAE. Ernesto’s research interests include secure service-oriented architectures (SOA), certifiable robust Artificial intelligence and Data Analytics models, and cyber-physical systems security. Dr. Damiani received a doctorate honoris causa from Institute National de Sciences Appliquees (INSA) of Lyon, France, for his contributions to Big Data analysis platforms and architectures. In 2022, Ernesto was awarded the rank of Officer of the Order of the Star of Italy for his contributions to international scientific collaboration in AI.