Guest speakers
Main Forum
Prof. Alexander Ping-kong Wai
Prof. Alexander Ping-kong Wai
President and Vice-Chancellor, Hong Kong Baptist University
Fellow of IEEE and Optical Society of America
Speaker Insight
An expert in optical fiber communications with impactful patented research. He is committed to pioneering innovation and making contributions to the development of Hong Kong and the world.
Prof. Christopher Chao
Prof. Christopher Chao
Vice President (Research and Innovation), PolyU
Director of PolyU Policy Research Centre for Innovation and Technology
Speaker Insight
An accomplished scholar in thermal and environmental engineering. He manages research, knowledge transfer, and entrepreneurship activities at PolyU and serves on multiple government advisory boards.
Prof. George F. Smoot
Nobel Laureate in Physics (2006)
Professor Emeritus in Physics, HKUST
Speaker Insight
Awarded the Nobel Prize for discovering the black body form and anisotropy of cosmic microwave background radiation, helping further the Big Bang theory. He is an author of over 500 science papers and a keen advocate of popular science.
Prof. Jian Lu
Prof. Jian Lu
Dean of College of Engineering, CityUHK
Academician of the National Academy of Technologies of France
Speaker Insight
Primary research interests include advanced nanomaterials for energy and biomedical systems. He has published over 500 SCI journal papers and received the French Knight of the National Order of Légion d’Honneur.
Prof. Nick Rawlins
Prof. Nick Rawlins
Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Student Experience), CUHK
Master of Morningside College
Speaker Insight
Research lies at the intersection of behaviour and brain function, studying learning and memory bases. He has held senior roles at Oxford University and the Toulouse School of Economics.
Prof. Peng Gong
Prof. Peng Gong
Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Academic Development), HKU
Chair Professor of Global Sustainability
Speaker Insight
Research focuses on mapping and monitoring global environmental change and modelling infectious diseases. He is an author of over 600 articles and has chaired numerous reports on climate change and health.
Prof. Pierre-Louis Lions
Fields Medalist (1994)
Professor at Collège de France
Speaker Insight
A prominent expert in nonlinear partial differential equations. He has made profound contributions to the Boltzman equation, image processing, and mean field games. He is a member of numerous global academies including the French Academy of Sciences.
Prof. S. Joe Qin
President of Lingnan University
Speaker Insight
Professor Joe Qin is the Wai Kee Kau Chair Professor of Data and President of Lingnan University in Hong Kong. He obtained his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Automatic Control from Tsinghua University in Beijing and his Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Maryland at College Park. Qin’s research interests include data science and analytics, statistical and machine learning, industrial AI, process monitoring, model predictive control, system identification, smart manufacturing, smart cities, and smart energy management.
Prof. Qin is a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts and Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering, the U.S. National Academy of Inventors, IFAC, AIChE, and IEEE. He is the recipient of the 2022 AIChE CAST Computing Award, 2022 IEEE CSS Transition to Practice Award, the U.S. NSF CAREER Award. His hindices for Web of Science, SCOPUS, and Google Scholar are 71, 76, and 89, respectively.
Prof. Xiang Zhang
President and Vice-Chancellor of The University of Hong Kong
Speaker Insight
A world leader in nanophotonics and material physics, Professor Zhang developed the first optical superlens — breaking the diffraction limit and transforming understanding of imaging technology. He also pioneered the field of plasmonic lithography with important implications for microelectronics and data storage. Notably, he invented the world’s first optical “invisibility cloak”, achieving a historic leap from imagination to reality. This earned him a place on TIME’s “Top 10 Scientific Discoveries” of 2008 alongside NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander and China’s first spacewalk.
Prof. Yike Guo
Provost, HKUST
Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering
Speaker Insight
A world-renowned computer scientist leading large-scale AI and data science projects. He won the 2022 Wu Wenjun Artificial Intelligence Award for Outstanding Contribution, the highest honor in the field in China.
AI for Health
Dr. Lili Qiu
Assistant Managing Director, Microsoft Research Asia
IEEE and ACM Fellow
Speaker Insight
Expert in wireless communication, sensing, and machine learning. She oversees research and industrial collaboration at Microsoft Research Asia and previously served as a tenured professor at UT Austin.
Prof. Alison Noble
Prof. Alison Noble
Technikos Professor of Biomedical Engineering, University of Oxford
Vice President of the Royal Society
Speaker Insight
Internationally recognized for work on ultrasound AI. She leads programs on human-AI collaboration in healthcare imaging and has commercialized research through a successful spinout.
Prof. Christopher Longhurs
Prof. Christopher Longhurs
Chief Clinical and Innovation Officer, UC San Diego Health
Executive Director, Jacobs Center for Health Innovation
Speaker Insight
Responsible for the AI portfolio across the health system at UC San Diego. He pursues scholarship in care quality, patient safety, and healthcare AI while maintaining a clinical practice.
Prof. Nicholas Ayache
Research Director, INRIA (France)
Member of the French Academy of Sciences
Speaker Insight
Leads research on the “digital patient” and AI algorithms for medical diagnosis. He has published over 400 articles, co-founded seven high-tech companies, and received the Royal Society Microsoft Grand Prize.
Prof. Peter Hegyi
Prof. Peter Hegyi
Director of Centre for Translational Medicine, University of Pécs
Member of Academia Europaea
Speaker Insight
A leader in translational medicine and gastroenterology. He leads a network spanning 24 countries and focuses on bridging the gap between scientific discovery and real-world clinical application.
Prof. Russell Gruen
Prof. Russell Gruen
Associate Provost of Health and Medical Sciences, HKUST
Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences
Speaker Insight
An influential clinician-scientist in trauma care. He co-invented Covidence software used by 400,000 academics and has led significant medical technology partnerships globally.
Prof. Simon Warfield
Prof. Simon Warfield
Professor of Radiology, Harvard Medical School
Director of the Computational Radiology Laboratory, Boston Children’s Hospital
Speaker Insight
Develops innovative algorithms for quantitative brain assessment and disease detection. He is a leader in advanced magnetic resonance imaging techniques and their translation to clinical care.
Prof. Tien Yin Wong
Prof. Tien Yin Wong
Founding Head and Chair Professor, Tsinghua Medicine
Vice Provost, Tsinghua University
Speaker Insight
A physician-scientist with over 1,500 peer-reviewed papers. His research covers retinal diseases, ocular imaging, and AI. He is an elected member of the US National Academy of Medicine.
Prof. Wendy Chapman
Prof. Wendy Chapman
Associate Dean of Digital Health and Informatics, University of Melbourne
Director of the Centre for Digital Transformation of Health
Speaker Insight
An elected fellow of the US National Academy of Medicine. Her work focuses on leveraging data and AI/natural language processing to transform healthcare delivery and design virtual care.
Future City
Prof. Gerard Lachapelle
Prof. Gerard Lachapelle
Professor Emeritus of Engineering, University of Calgary
Fellow of IEEE and Royal Society of Canada
Speaker Insight
A pioneer in GNSS technology development since 1980. His research group developed numerous algorithms and patents licensed worldwide, and he has received the Institute of Navigation Johannes Kepler Award.
Prof. Ioannis Brilakis
Prof. Ioannis Brilakis
Laing O’Rourke Professor of Civil and Information Engineering, University of Cambridge
Director of the Construction IT Laboratory, Cambridge
Speaker Insight
Expert in digital twins and construction automation. He is the President of the International Association for Automation and Robotics in Construction and has received the ASCE J. James R. Croes Medal.
Prof. Jian-Guo Dai
Prof. Jian-Guo Dai
Chair Professor & Head, Dept. of Architecture and Civil Engineering, CityUHK
Fellow of Hong Kong Institution of Engineers
Speaker Insight
Focuses on emerging materials for sustainable concrete infrastructure. He is a top 2% most cited scientist and a startup co-founder who won a Gold Medal at the Geneva Inventions Expo.
Prof. Jonathan Corcoran
Prof. Jonathan Corcoran
Professor of School of the Environment, University of Queensland
Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, Australia
Speaker Insight
Human geographer studying how human mobility shapes urban systems and social sustainability. He uses big data and spatial analytics to inform smarter policy and understand human capital migration.
Prof. Mei-Po Kwan
Prof. Mei-Po Kwan
Choh-Ming Li Professor of Geography and Resource Management, CUHK
Fellow of the U.K. Academy of Social Sciences
Speaker Insight
Ranked No. 5 globally in geography (Stanford 2024 list). She has made ground-breaking contributions to environmental health, human mobility, and GIScience using real-time GPS tracking.
Prof. Min Xie
Chair Professor, Department of Systems Engineering, City University of Hong Kong
Speaker Insight
Professor M Xie has been a Chair Professor at City University of Hong Kong since 2011. Previously, he was a professor at the National University of Singapore. Prof Xie completed both his undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Sweden and has been active in research on reliability, quality and industrial engineering for over three decades. He has authored more than 400 journal publications and 10 books, and is listed in the world’s top 2% most cited scientists by Stanford University. Prof Xie has supervised over 70 PhD students who are now working in academia and industry across various continents. For his contributions to software and system reliability, he was elected a Fellow of the IEEE in 2006 and to the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2022. He currently serves as Vice President for Asia Region at the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers and chairs the Fellow Evaluation Committee of the IEEE Technology and Engineering Management Society.
Prof. Renzhong Guo
Prof. Renzhong Guo
Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering
Dean of the Institute of Smart City, Shenzhen University
Speaker Insight
Expert in spatial analysis, 3D cadastre, and smart cities. He serves as vice chairman of the China Land Society and has led significant research in cartography and geography.
Prof. Wenzhong Shi
Prof. Wenzhong Shi
Director of Smart Cities Research Institute, PolyU
Academician of International Eurasian Academy of Sciences
Speaker Insight
Research covers AI-based object recognition from satellite imagery and intelligent analytics for spatial big data. He won China’s State Natural Science Award and holds over 50 patents.
Prof. Yoshitsugu Hayashi
Prof. Yoshitsugu Hayashi
Executive Committee Member of The Club of Rome
Distinguished Professor, Chubu University
Speaker Insight
Focuses on urbanization and infrastructure impact on Quality of Life. He has been a game-changer for transport sustainability, influencing major projects like the Bangkok urban railway and Indian high-speed rail.