Prof. Giuseppe Ritella
University of Bari, Italy

Giuseppe Ritella is an Associate Professor of Developmental and Educational Psychology at the University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”. His research, grounded in dialogic and socio-cultural theories, investigates collaborative processes within technology-mediated learning. He focuses on the socio-material, emotional, and cultural dimensions of innovative educational practices and hybrid learning environments.

Prof. Samir Ouchani
CESI LINEACT, France

Samir Ouchani is a Research Director at CESI LINEACT (Aix-en-Provence, France), where he leads research activities on resilient and secure smart software systems. He received his PhD in Computer Science from Concordia University (Canada) in 2013 and his Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches (HDR) from CNAM Paris in 2022. Since March 2023, he has been qualified for the position of Professor of Universities (Section 27 – Computer Science). His research lies at the intersection of software engineering, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence, with a particular focus on engineering systems that remain safe, resilient, and trustworthy despite distribution, autonomy, and learning-based behavior. His contributions notably include resilient federated learning architectures, robust aggregation and client selection mechanisms, runtime supervision, and AI-assisted software engineering for remediation and system evolution. In parallel, he plays a leading role in academic leadership and international scientific service, serving as Program Chair or Track Chair for several international conferences and as a regular reviewer for top-tier journals and conferences in software engineering, cybersecurity, and smart systems. He is also frequently solicited as an expert evaluator for funding agencies and competitive research calls, contributing to the assessment of large-scale scientific and innovation projects. His research activity is characterized by sustained and high-impact scientific production, with more than 100 peer-reviewed journal and conference publications in leading venues. He has supervised or co-supervised seven PhD projects, mentored early-career researchers, and coordinated over fifteen research and industrial internship projects, often in close collaboration with academic and industrial partners. Through these activities, he actively contributes to the structuring of the international research community and to the advancement of Software Engineering for Resilient and Trustworthy Smart Systems, grounded in architectural rigor, AI-assisted engineering practices, and continuous runtime assurance.

Title: Designing Resilient and Secure Smart Software Systems Engineering Foundations, AI-Assisted Development, and Runtime Assurance

Prof. Merouane Debbah
Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi

Mérouane Debbah is a researcher, educator and technology entrepreneur. Over his career, he has founded several public and industrial research centers, start-ups and is now Professor at Khalifa University of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi and founding Senior Director of the Digital Future Institute. He is a frequent keynote speaker at international events in the field of telecommunication and AI. His research has been lying at the interface of fundamental mathematics, algorithms, statistics, information and communication sciences with a special focus on random matrix theory and learning algorithms. In the Communication field, he has been at the heart of the development of small cells (4G), Massive MIMO (5G) and Large Intelligent Surfaces (6G) technologies. In the AI field, he is known for his work on Large Language Models, distributed AI systems for networks and semantic communications. He received multiple prestigious distinctions, prizes and best paper awards (more than 50 IEEE best paper awards) for his contributions to both fields and according to research.com is ranked as the best scientist in France in the field of Electronics and Electrical Engineering. He is an IEEE Fellow, a WWRF Fellow, a Eurasip Fellow, an AAIA Fellow, an Institut Louis Bachelier Fellow, an AIIA Fellow and a Membre émérite SEE. He was named in 2025 as one of the "50 Leaders at the Forefront of an AI-Driven Future in the Middle East" and "Arab's Most Influential Leaders in Tech".

Title: The Network That Thinks: From Infrastructure to Intelligence

Prof. Vania Conan
Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, Paris, France

Vania Conan is professor at CNAM (Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, Paris, France) chair  ‘sovereign digital infrastructures’. He graduated from Ecole des Mines de Paris (Engineer 1990, PhD in computer science, 1996) and is HDR in networking (Sorbonne Université, 2012). At Thales until 2024, he develops a research activity on wireless communications (ad-hoc networks, 6G), software networks and secure infrastructures.

Title: Future Digital Infrastructures: What Place for Sovereignty

Prof. Stefano Secci
Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (Cnam), France

Professor and researcher specializing in communication networks, with expertise spanning routing, switching, virtualization, cloud networking, and advanced network protocols. He is currently leading and participating in multiple European and national research projects on 5G/6G, AI, edge computing, and network resilience, and has held roles as principal investigator, coordinator, and committee member on numerous initiatives. Prof. Secci teaches advanced courses at Cnam Paris and has served as the director of its Computer Science Department, contributing to several graduate programmes on computer networks and IoT systems.

Title: The Network That Thinks: From Infrastructure to Intelligence