Prof. CAO Jiannong
Vice President (Education) & Chair Professor
Member of Academia Europaea
Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering
IEEE Fellow, CCF Fellow
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Topic: Blockchain for Trustworthy Web3 AI Infrastructure

Bio: 
Prof. Cao is currently the Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Professor in Data Science and the Chair Professor of Distributed and Mobile Computing in the Department of Computing at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), Hong Kong. He is also the Vice President (Education) of PolyU and the Director of the Internet and Mobile Computing Lab (IMCL). He was the founding Director and is now the Director of the University Research Facility in Big Data Analytics (UBDA) at PolyU. He served as Head of Department from 2011 to 2017. Prof. Cao is a Member of Academia Europaea, a Fellow of the IEEE, and an ACM Distinguished Member. He is also a Fellow of the China Computer Federation (CCF). 

Prof. Cao’s research interests include distributed systems and blockchain, wireless sensing and networking, big data and machine learning, and mobile cloud and edge computing. He has published 5 co-authored and 9 co-edited books, and over 500 papers in major international journals and conference proceedings. He has also obtained 16 patents. Prof. Cao has received many awards for his outstanding research achievements, including the PolyU President’s Award for Excellent Performance/Achievement in Research and Scholarly Activities, Ministry of Education Higher Education Outstanding Scientific Research Output Awards – Natural Science (Second Class), China Computer Federation (CCF) Overseas Outstanding Contribution Award, IEEE TCCLD Research Innovation Award, the Hong Kong ICT Awards: Best Innovation & Research - Certificate of Merit and Special Mention, Bronze Medal Award of Brussels Innova, CVIC SE Software Talent Award, Ministry of Education Nominated State Science and Technology Award (First Class), National Science and Technology Progress Award (Second Class), and Best Paper Awards from IEEE Trans. Industrial Informatics 2018, IEEE DSAA 2017, IEEE SMARTCOMP 2016, IEEE/IFIP EUC 2016, IEEE ISPA 2013, IEEE WCNC 2011, etc. Prof. Cao has delivered over 50 keynote speeches and invited talks. 

Prof. ZHU Liehuang
Distinguished Professor
Beijing Institute of Technology

Topic: Blockchain-Enabled Trustworthy and Secure Agent Networks

Bio: 
Prof. Zhu Liehuang is a distinguished Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the School of Cyberspace Security, Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT). He was selected as a national leading talent in science and technology. His research focuses on cryptographic algorithms and security protocols, blockchain technology, cloud computing security, and big data privacy protection.  

As a principal investigator, he has led over 30 national and provincial-level research projects, including the National Key R&D Programme of China and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Key Project. He has published more than 200 SCI/EI-indexed papers in prestigious journals such as IEEE TIFS and IEEE TDSC, and at conferences like NeurIPS, authored 3 foreign language monographs, and has been granted over 20 national invention patents. He has received awards including the Second Prize of Beijing Science and Technology Progress Award (First Rank) and the Chinese Electronics Society Science and Technology Progress Award (First Class). 

Prof. ZHANG Yan
Professor
Member of Academia Europaea​
IEEE/IET Fellow
University of Electronic Science and Technology of China

Topic: Integrating Blockchain and Federated Learning: State-of-the-Art and Future Development

Bio: 
Prof. Zhang Yan is currently a Full Professor at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC). Previously, he worked as a Full Professor at the University of Oslo, Norway, and as a Chief Scientist at the Simula Research Laboratory, Norway. His research interests include next-generation wireless networks leading to 6G, and green and secure cyber-physical systems (e.g., smart grids and transport systems). He is currently serving as Co-Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics (IEEE TII), Area Editor for IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking (IEEE TGCN), and an Editor of multiple IEEE Transactions/Magazines. His research work has been cited over 58,000 times with an H-index of 122. Since 2018, Prof. Zhang has been listed as a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics (i.e., Web of Science) in both the “Engineering” and “Computer Science” fields. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, a Fellow of the IET, and an elected member of Academia Europaea (MAE), the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters (DKNVS), and the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences (NTVA). 

Prof. JIN Qun
Professor
Foreign Fellow of the Engineering Academy of Japan
Waseda University, Japan

Topic: Facilitating the Secure Cross-Border Use of Health Data for the Benefit of Humanity

Bio: 
Prof. JIN Qun is a Professor in the Department of Human Informatics and Cognitive Sciences, Faculty of Human Sciences, Waseda University, Japan. He has been extensively engaged in research in the fields of computer science, information systems, and human informatics, with a focus on understanding and supporting humans through convergent research. His recent research interests cover behaviour and cognitive informatics, big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, LLMs and generative AI, AI agents, blockchain, the metaverse, cyber-physical-social systems, and applications in healthcare and learning support. He has authored or co-authored several monographs and more than 450 refereed papers published in academic journals and international conference proceedings. He is a Foreign Fellow of the Engineering Academy of Japan (EAJ) and a Fellow of the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA). 

Prof. Giancarlo FORTINO
Professor
IEEE Fellow
University of Calabria, Italy

Topic: Trust in Edge-based Internet of Things Architectures: State of the Art and Research Challenges

Bio: 
Prof. Giancarlo Fortino (IEEE Fellow 2022) is a Full Professor of Computer Engineering at the Department of Informatics, Modelling, Electronics, and Systems of the University of Calabria (Unical), Italy. He received his PhD in Computer Engineering from Unical in 2000. He is also a Distinguished Professor at Wuhan University of Technology and Huazhong Agricultural University (China), a High-end Expert at HUST (China), a Senior Research Fellow at the Italian ICAR-CNR Institute, a CAS PIFI visiting scientist at SIAT – Shenzhen, a High-end Expert of the Henan Province, and a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Sensors Council (2021-2023).

Dr. Maria KYROPOULOU
Senior Lecturer
Faculty Director of Partnerships 
University of Essex, United Kingdom

Topic: Strategic Behaviour in Blockchain Systems: Implications for Cross-Border Data Security

Bio: 
Dr. Maria Kyropoulou is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering at the University of Essex. Prior to joining the University of Essex, Maria was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford, and a stipendiary lecturer for Computer Science at Hertford College, University of Oxford. She received her PhD in Computer Science from the University of Patras. Maria’s research focuses on theoretical aspects of computer science (EconCS) and artificial intelligence, and primarily includes applications of the algorithmic game theory framework to several settings, e.g. blockchain. Her research has been  published in highly respected international peer-reviewed conferences and journals (e.g., the Journal of Economic Theory, and the ACM Conference on Economics and computation). Maria’s work is funded by UKRI, the UK national funding agency: She is the recipient of the EPSRC funded New Investigator Award for the project “Blockchain incentives: consensus and fairness” and she is working closely with industry through Knowledge Transfer Partnership projects. Maria has (co-)organised and (co-)chaired the PC of SAGT 2022 (15th International Symposium on Algorithmic Game Theory) and she is the PC (co-)chair of AFT 2026 (8th International Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies).

Prof. LIANG Jinwen 
Professor
Beijing Institute of Technology

Topic: Security Foundations for Blockchain-Based Data Services

Bio: 
Prof. Liang Jinwen is a professor at the School of Cyberspace Science and Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology. He received his PhD degree and BSc degree from Hunan University, China, in 2021 and 2015, respectively. From 2018 to 2020, he was a visiting PhD student at the BBCR Lab, University of Waterloo, Canada. From 2022 to 2026, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Computing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research interests include applied cryptography, AI security, blockchain, and database security. He served as the Technical Programme Committee Chair of the international workshop on Future Mobile Computing and Networking for Internet of Things (IEEE FMobile 2022, 2023), Publicity Chair of the 6th International Workshop on Cyberspace Security (IWCSS 2022), and TPC Member of IEEE VTC 2019-Fall.

Dr. WANG Qin 
Senior Research Scientist
CSIRO, Australia

Topic: Security Analysis of PoA Consensus Protocols

Bio: 
Dr. Qin Wang is a Senior Research Scientist at CSIRO Data61 in Australia and an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at UNSW Sydney. He has extensive experience in blockchain and Web3 technologies, with expertise spanning emerging areas such as NFTs, DAOs, and DeFi, as well as fundamental topics in consensus protocols, including scalability, security, and privacy. He has played a leading role in academic research, industry engagement, and international standardisation. He has led several community standards, including EIP-5521, EIP-7634, and EIP-8034, and actively contributes to broader blockchain communities such as ETHGlobal. He has also received community and research grants from organisations including Cardano and DFCRC, and has been involved in the Reserve Bank of Australia CBDC initiative, Project Acacia. He has served on the technical programme committees of leading venues such as CCS, NDSS, WWW, FC, AsiaCCS, and ICBC. He also contributes to the research community through editorial and reviewer roles for journals including Blockchain: Research and Applications, IET Blockchain, and Frontiers in Blockchain. 

Dr. ZHANG Mingjin 
Research Assistant Professor
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Topic: Efficient Geo-distributed LLM Inference in Collaborative Edge Computing

Bio: 
Dr. Mingjin Zhang is currently a Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Computing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Before that, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department. Dr. Zhang obtained his BEng degree in communication engineering from the Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China, in 2019 and his PhD degree in computer science from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, in 2024. He was a Visiting PhD Student with the Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Cambridge, UK., in 2023. His research interests include edge computing, collaborative edge AI, IoT, and distributed machine learning.

Dr. CONG Ruichen 
Assistant Professor
Waseda University, Japan

Topic: Toward Trustworthy Decentralised Health Data Integration and Sharing

Bio: 
Dr. Ruichen Cong is an assistant professor in the Department of Human Informatics and Cognitive Sciences, Advanced Research Center for Human Sciences, Faculty of Human Sciences, Waseda University, Japan. She received her bachelor's, master's, and PhD degrees from Waseda University, Japan in 2020, 2022, and 2025, respectively. Her doctoral programme was supported by the Japan Science and Technology Agency Support for Pioneering Research Initiated by the Next Generation (SPRING) for three years. Her research focuses on applying human-computer interaction (HCI), artificial intelligence (AI) methods, and virtual reality (VR) techniques to model human behaviour in the context of health analytics and educational applications aimed at enhancing human well-being.