Below are the ECIAIR Biographies of the Conference and Programme Chairs, Key Note Speakers and Mini-Track Chairs.
Conference and Programme Chairs
Dr Paul Griffiths BSc, MEng, DBA, A.Dip.C is Professor of Banking, Finance and Fintech and Academic Director of the MSc in Banking and Fintech at the Ecole de Management de Normandie and is based at the UK Campus in Oxford. Prior to becoming a full-time academic Paul spent many years in leadership positions at global management consulting firms, serving Boards of blue-chip companies, particularly in the financial services sector. He specialises in the management of intangible assets such as intellectual capital and artificial intelligence. He helps organisations and industry sectors set up knowledge networks on technological platforms such as cognitive computing, augmented reality and blockchain. Having lived in nine and worked in 15 countries he defines himself as multicultural.
Dr Caroline Stockman is an experienced Senior Lecturer with a demonstrated history of working in higher education and the commercial e-learning industry. She is currently a Senior Lecturer at the University of Winchester, UK, and a Research Fellow at the Institute of Cultural Studies at the University of Leuven, Belgium. As a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a JISC Digital Leader, she is a recognised expert on effective human-technology relationships. She has presented her work at MIT and BCS - the Chartered Institute of IT, and published her most recent monograph on technology acceptance with Routledge.
Keynote Speakers
Dr Andy Edmonds started his career as an electronic engineer, moving by way of computer architecture design into software in the 80s. He started the UK’s and Europe’s first AI company, Neural Computer Sciences, in the late 80s, and moved into AI based financial prediction and trading system design founding Science in Finance in the 90s. This was acquired by a large futures trading organisation. He turned one of his projects into a PhD thesis in 1995. A US publicly traded company, Scientio, inc. followed. Andy’s interests moved from neural systems to alternate AI algorithms that offered explainability, such as fuzzy logic and graph-based systems. and has spent the time since developing software and providing consultancy in such non-neural areas. His most recent company, ThinkBase, LLC, provides a Knowledge Graph creation and evaluation system as Software as a Service, which can be found at https://darl.ai.
Dr Velislava Hillman is a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science and founder of EDDS, where she leads an independent team of international experts providing comprehensive audit and evaluation of education technologies. As a researcher and academic Dr Hillman’s work lies in education focused on the integration and legitimisation of AI systems into educational institutions and the role and participation of children and young people in increasingly digitalised learning environments. Through EDDS, Dr Hillman maintains two objectives: to develop minimum standards and benchmarking of the edtech sector, and to offer a unique enhanced reporting mechanism that gives students, parents and educators peace of mind when choosing and using education technologies.
I have the best job in the world: research topics that interest me and teach interested people. I enjoy working in interdisciplinary teams and creating synergy between humans and technology by understanding, shaping and using fundamentals of intelligence and interaction. I am inspired by social intelligence theories, natural forms of intelligence and use concepts such as social practice to improve the interactive intelligence of agents.
Delft University of Technology has been my work base since 2006. It is a great university that breaths technology and provides me with fantastic colleagues. I love working at TUDelft and especially with the group Interactive Intelligence.
Universiteit Leiden has employed me as a part-time professor since 2017 at the Leiden Institute for Advanced Computer Science LIACS. It is a great university that is fond of technology but is also famous for its other scientific disciplines.
Prof. Dr. Lode Lauwaert is philosopher of technology at KU Leuven (Belgium). He published “Wij, robots” (in Dutch) [translation: “Us, robots”], in which he presents a philosophical look at technology and AI – it will be published in English in 2023. His current research is on social media and polarization.
Mini Track Chairs
Prof Ali Hessami is Director of R&D and Innovation at Vega Systems-UK. He represents UK on CENELEC & IEC safety & security systems, hardware & software standards and chairs the IEEE Humanitarian Technologies and the Systems Council Chapters in the UK and Ireland Section. Ali is Technical Editor and Chair of IEEE 7000 standard on technology ethics and the VC and Process Architect of the IEEE ‘s global Ethics Certification Programme for Autonomous and Intelligent Systems. Ali is Visiting Professor at London City University and Beijing Jiaotong University. He is a Fellow of Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), Fellow of the UK Institution of Engineering & Technology (IET) and a Senior Member of IEEE.
Prof. Agnis Stibe is 4x TEDx speaker, MIT alum, YouTube creator. Artificial Intelligence Program Director and Professor of Transformation at EM Normandie Business School. Globally recognized corporate consultant and scientific advisor at AgnisStibe.com. Provides an authentic science-driven STIBE method and practical tools for hyper-performance. At the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he established research on persuasive cities for sustainable wellbeing. His change method is helping millions to gain confidence and build resilience against everyday circumstances. Within this vision, business acceleration and societal wellbeing can be achieved through purposefully designed innovations that successfully blend technological advancements with human nature.