Keynote Speakers          

Prof. Vijay Chandru [Chief Guest]

CrisprBits Private Limited

He is a distinguished academic-entrepreneur and who has pioneered deep technology entrepreneurship in India for the last 25 years. His academic journey anchored in the decision sciences (now loosely referred to as AI), anchored by a Ph.D. in Operations Research from MIT, spans the computational mathematics of optimization, geometry, logic, and biology. As an infotech entrepreneur, Vijay co-founded PicoPeta Simputers (handheld computing) in 2001 and Yantri Labs Inc. (in algorithmic trading) in 2018. In life sciences, he co-founded Strand Life Sciences in 2000 as a pioneering genomics-based, precision medicine solutions company, and CRISPRBITS, a CRISPR platform company for driving novel synthetic biology solutions in India.
He is on the faculty of NCBS and CBR (IISc) in Bangalore and the HSPH (Harvard) in Boston. A tenured technology professor at Purdue University and the Indian Institute of Science, the American Association for the Advancement of Science on its 150th anniversary in 2024, named Chandru as the 15th Indian scientist elected as a fellow for his global impact in theoretical computer science, computational biology and technology for social good. Vijay was named a Technology Pioneer of the World Economic Forum in 2006. He personally drives the social impact mission "No Disease Orphan by 2030." As a commissioner of the recent Lancet commission on citizen-centred health systems for India (2020-2025), Vijay co-chaired the technology workstream. Vijay is driven by the vision that the 21st century is about convergence of human-engineered intelligence and reengineered biology and that our mission is to rewrite biology, redefine health and reimagine the planet with India taking its rightful place. with sovereign technology, in the comity of nations.

Prof. Shiva Raj Pokhrel

Deakin University, Australia

Dr. Shiva is a distinguished Marie Curie Fellow, Senior IEEE Member, and Senior Lecturer at Deakin University, Australia. With a PhD in ICT Engineering, Dr. Pokhrel brings a wealth of expertise in experimental distributed quantum computing, communication, and large-scale quantum experiments. His career spans roles as a Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne and a seven-year tenure as a System Engineer, solidifying his foundation in both theoretical and applied research. Dr. Shiva Pokhrel is a Leader in Mobile Computing, Quantum Technologies, and Distributed Quantum and Quantum Machine Learning Systems. Dr. Pokhrel specialises in mobile and quantum computing, with a focus on Machine Learning/Deep Learning architectures, distributed training, and hyper-parameter optimization across diverse environments, including public clouds and HPC centres. His work leverages cutting-edge technologies, such as IBM and Amazon quantum solutions, to address impending quantum challenges. His research spans semantic communication, federated learning, quantum machine learning, 6G networks, cloud and quantum computing, IoT, and cyber-physical systems, with practical quantum applications in intelligent manufacturing, satellite networks, autonomous vehicles, and smart cities. Dr. Pokhrel has led numerous projects in Machine Learning, Quantum Computing, and Quantum Machine Learning while supervising multiple MSc and PhD theses in these fields. Dr. Pokhrel’s contributions have earned him prestigious accolades, including the Marie Curie Fellowship, recognizing his pioneering work in mobile computing and distributed quantum systems. He serves on the editorial boards of leading journals and has organized major IEEE/ACM conferences, such as IEEE INFOCOM, IEEE GLOBECOM, IEEE ICC, and ACM MobiCom, where he has held roles as Workshop Chair and Publicity Co-Chair. Beyond academia, Dr. Pokhrel is an active member of seven working groups within the Internet Society and was recently named an APNIC Fellow for 2024. As an Australian Government IETF Ambassador, he plays a key role in advancing global internet standards and practices, further solidifying his commitment to quantum innovation and collaboration. Dr. Pokhrel’s multidisciplinary expertise, leadership, and dedication to advancing cutting-edge technologies make him a pivotal figure in the fields of mobile computing, quantum technologies and distributed quantum systems. His work continues to drive transformative advancements with real impact.

Prof. Raffaele De Amicis

Oregon State University, USA

Raffaele De Amicis is an Associate Professor at the School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science at Oregon State University. He has authored three books, contributed to 23 scientific journal papers, and either authored or co-authored over 177 scientific peer-reviewed conference papers. Dr. De Amicis has served as Principle Investigator of several multidisciplinary research projects funded by the European Commission, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, governmental agencies, and industry with an overall budget of >52 million dollars. Since relocating to the USA, his research has been funded through programs sponsored by National Science Foundation, U.S. Economic Development Administration, National Security Agency, Booz Allen Hamilton, Oregon Manufacturing Innovation Center, and Oregon State University. Dr. De Amicis received his Ph.D. in Design and Methods of Industrial Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Bologna, Italy. From 1999 until December 2002, he was a research fellow at the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics in Darmstadt, Germany and senior researcher at the Technical University of Darmstadt. Before arriving at OSU, he was the founding Director of GraphiTech, Center for Advanced Computer Graphics Technologies in Trento, Italy, where he was known for his leadership in science, technology, and innovation. Between 2003-16, acting as consulting professor, he has educated and mentored diverse groups of learners, from different nationalities and cultural backgrounds, principally in the undergraduate and graduate courses at the Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science and at the ICT International Doctoral School, University of Trento. From 2010 to 2016, he has been the Vice-President of the Board of Directors at GraphicsMedia.net - International Network for the Cooperation in Applied Research in Computer Graphics, Multimodal and Multimedia Technologies, and Visual Interactive Digital Media Technologies, where he has developed strong competencies in how to build and manage successful multinational organizations.

Mr. Vadiraja Bhatt

Cloudera Inc.

Vadiraja Bhatt is a Principal Engineer at Cloudera Inc., with over 30 years of experience in enterprise system software, distributed systems, and high-performance data platforms. He has played a pivotal role in architecting scalable database engines, cloud-native analytics platforms, and GenAI solutions using vector databases. Previously, he led Cisco’s UCS Datacenter Solutions and Benchmarking team in APJC, delivering innovative architectures for edge analytics, video intelligence, and large-scale enterprise applications. At Sybase, he contributed to the core Adaptive Server Enterprise and Sybase IQ engines, driving performance for OLTP and analytics workloads. Vadiraja holds six US patents in the areas of data management and distributed systems, covering innovations in memory management, XML query processing, transaction logging, and buffer caching. An IIT Mumbai alumnus, he has published industry benchmarks, represented Cisco in global forums, and actively collaborates with academia. He also leads social and cultural initiatives, and has been recognized with multiple awards for both technical and community impact. He is the founder of non profit OSAAT ( One school At A Time) with a mission to rebuild rural government schools across India.

Mr. Jayanth Lakkavalli

Schneider Electric, India

Jayanth is the Global Leader for AI Solutions and is responsible for development, delivery and maintenance of AI solutions across the Schneider electric group which includes solutions for Internal process efficiency as well as customer offers. He completed Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering, University of Mysore, India, MS in Computer Science and Engineering, University of Texas, Arlington, USA. He has Broad technical and global management experience for over 25 years (15 years in the US and 10+ in India) in the area of AI / ML, software product development and testing, quality engineering and customer support primarily in Healthcare, telecommunication Industrial and Energy management domains. In his prior role at Schneider, he was the Director of Global R&D for the Industrial IOT line of business. Jayanth also spent more than 13 years with GE Healthcare in various leadership roles primarily in healthcare software platforms including the role as a Software platform leader for the 'Predix for healthcare' IOT platform. He is a people leader with the ability to build, sustain and engage diverse teams. Jayanth has led multiple Industry academia collaborations during his professional career: Set up Digital Pathology labs at UPMC, Pittsburgh PA and GE Healthcare. DICOM standards for Medical Imaging collaboration with Duke University Multiple Schneider labs and collaborations with MIT and SJCE Mysuru.