Keynote Speakers

Prof. Soteris A. Kalogirou

Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus

Professor Soteris Kalogirou is at the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Sciences and Engineering of the Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus. In addition to his Ph.D., he holds the title of D.Sc. He is a Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences, Founding Member of the Cyprus Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts, Member of Academia Europaea, Fellow of International Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance and Member of National Academy of Artificial Intelligence.

For more than 35 years, he is actively involved in research in the area of solar energy and particularly in flat plate and concentrating collectors, solar water heating, solar steam generating systems, desalination, photovoltaics, geothermal energy and absorption cooling.

He has a large number of publications in books, book chapters, international scientific journals and refereed conference proceedings. He is Editor-in-Chief of Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of Renewable Energy and Honorary Editor of Energy, and Editorial Board Member of another twenty-six journals. He is the editor of the book Artificial Intelligence in Energy and Renewable Energy Systems, published by Nova Science Inc., co-editor of the book Soft Computing in Green and Renewable Energy Systems, published by Springer, editor of the book McEvoy’s Handbook of Photovoltaics, published by Academic Press of Elsevier and author of the books Solar Energy Engineering: Processes and Systems, and Thermal Solar Desalination: Methods and Systems, published by Academic Press of Elsevier.

This work qualified Professor Kalogirou to appear for consecutive years in the Stanford University World Top 2% Scientist. For the career-long list he is in the prestigious 0.62% top scientists’ position. He is also ranked as a Global Top 0.05% Scholar, by ScholarGPS and is honoured to be in the Finalist list of the prestigious Global Energy Prize award in 2024.

Prof. Andrew W. H. Ip

University of Saskatchewan, Canada

Prof. Andrew W. H. Ip received his PhD from Loughborough University (U.K.), MBA from Brunel University (U.K.), MSc in Industrial Engineering from Cranfield University (U.K.), and LLB (Hons) from the University of Wolverhampton (U.K.). Dr Ip was awarded in 2015 "Gold Medal with the Congratulations of Jury" and “Thailand Award for Best International Invention” in the 43rd International Exhibition of Geneva, and he was awarded the "Natural Science Award" in 2013 Ministry of Education Higher Education Outstanding Scientific Research Output Awards by the Ministry of Education of Mainland China. Dr. Ip is distinguished and visiting professor of various China mainland universities, and Honorary Industrial Fellow of the University of Warwick, Warwick Manufacturing Group. He is Professor Emeritus and adjunct professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of Saskatchewan and senior research fellow of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He is a chartered engineer, senior member of IEEE and member of Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, and members of various professional bodies in mechanical and electrical engineering. He is Editor in Chief of the journal of Enterprise Information System (SCI index), Taylor & Francis; Founder & Editor in Chief of International Journal of Engineering Business Management (ESCI & SCOPUS index), SAGE; International journal of Software Science and Computational Intelligence, IGI Global.

Donglan Zha

Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China

Donglan Zha is a Professor and Vice Dean at the College of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. She has been selected for national-level leading and young talent programs and serves as the Chief Expert of Major Programs funded by the National Social Science Fund of China. Her research focuses on energy and environmental systems analysis and modeling. She has led five national research projects, published over 100 papers as first or corresponding author, and authored four monographs. She has received numerous provincial and ministerial-level awards, including the Second Prize of the Outstanding Scientific Research Achievements Award of Higher Education Institutions by the Ministry of Education, the First Prize of the Provincial Philosophy and Social Sciences Award, and two Second Prizes of the same award. She has also been included in Elsevier’s list of the world’s top 2% scientists.

Hossein Nassaji

University of Victoria, Canada

Hossein Nassaji is Professor of Applied Linguistics in the School of Languages, Linguistics, and Cultures. He specializes in second language acquisition, with a focus on corrective feedback, form-focused instruction, task-based teaching, classroom discourse, and the application of sociocultural theories to language pedagogy. He also maintains active research interests in L2 reading processes, lexical inferencing, and the acquisition of L2 vocabulary. His current research focuses on the role of interactional feedback and instructed second language acquisition, involving both experimental/quantitative and descriptive/qualitative research.

He has an extensive record of scholarly contributions, including numerous articles in top-tier journals, several books and edited volumes, and many keynote and invited talks at national and international conferences. He currently serves as Co-Editor of Language Teaching Research (SAGE) and Editor-in-Chief of The TESOL Encyclopedia of English Language Teaching (Wiley). His recent books include Corrective Feedback in Second Language Teaching and Learning (with E. Kartchava, Routledge, 2017), The Cambridge Handbook of Corrective Feedback in Language Learning and Teaching (with E. Kartchava, Cambridge University Press, 2021), and Applied Linguistics Research: A Comprehensive Guide to Methodology, Design, Analysis, and Evaluation (Cambridge University Press, 2025).

Throughout his career, he has received multiple prestigious awards, including the Kenneth W. Mildenberger Prize from the Modern Language Association of America, the Faculty of Humanities Award for Research Excellence at the University of Victoria, and the 50 at 50 BC TEAL award. Most recently, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the highest academic honor for distinguished scholars in the country.

Fuqing Li

Xiangtan University, China

Fuqing Li is a professor, doctoral supervisor, and Vice Dean of the School of Marxism at Xiangtan University. She has successively led 5 projects funded by the National Social Science Fund of China and 11 provincial- and ministerial-level projects. She has published 5 monographs with People’s Publishing House and other presses, and has published more than 60 Chinese and English papers in journals including Marxism Studies, Philosophical Researches, Information Sciences, and the Journal of Organizational and End User Computing. She has served as a guest editor for the EI-indexed International Journal of Sustainable Development. She is a Furong Scholar of Hunan Province, a recipient of honors including Hunan Province’s Most Beautiful Ideological and Political Theory Course Teacher, Hunan Province Hundred-Post Star, and Hunan Province 121 Innovative Talent. She has led initiatives including the Hunan Provincial Master Teacher Studio for Ideological and Political Work in Universities and the Hunan Provincial Golden Course in Basic Principles of Marxism. She is also responsible for the National Red Culture Promotion Base, one of the first national “Great Ideological and Political Theory Course” practical teaching bases, and one of the first key laboratories for philosophy and social sciences in Hunan Province. Her team was recognized as a National Women’s Civilization Post. She won first prize and second prize in the third and second National Teaching Demonstrations of Ideological and Political Theory Courses in Higher Education, first prize in the first National Ideological and Political Work Golden Micro-Course Competition, and special prize and first prize in the fourth and third Hunan Provincial Teaching Demonstrations of Ideological and Political Theory Courses in Higher Education, among 9 teaching awards in total. She has also received more than 10 first- and second-prize national awards in ideological and political work, as well as first prize and second prize in the 13th and 12th Hunan Provincial Philosophy and Social Sciences Achievement Awards.

Hao Huang

Harbin Institute of Technology, China

Executive Member of the Working Committee of the Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence, 100 Innovative Doctoral Postdoctoral Figures in Guangdong Province, Huawei RDPM, and recipient of the National Scholarship for Doctoral Students. In June 2014, he was awarded the Doctor of Communication and Information System Engineering of Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. Former Senior Research Engineer and System Architect (Special PhD) at Hisilicon 2012 Laboratory, and Dean of Zhuhai Research Institute at Hubei University. Currently working in Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), with a main research focus on artificial intelligence and interdisciplinary fields.

Dr. Muhammad Ibrar

ILMA University, Pakistan

Dr. Muhammad Ibrar is an Assistant Professor at ILMA University, Karachi, Pakistan,who delves into the exciting fields of Public Administration, Sociology, Education,Community Development, Knowledge and Management, Public Policy Management, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Sustainable Development and Policy-making. He brings a wealth of experience from his previous faculty positions at the Government Postgraduate College Dargai Malakand, University of Swabi, Pakistan & Shenyang Normal University, China. He has published more than 30 articles in Scientific Journals and Conference Proceedings. Currently, he is also making significant contributions as a Visiting Professor at Hunan International Economics University, China, where he is passionately pursuing his teaching responsibilities.

Dr. Aureliu Sindila

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China

Dr. Aureliu Sindila is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Management and Marketing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He holds a PhD in Management from the same institution, with a concentration in Strategic Management and Sustainability, and was a Visiting PhD Fellow at the Copenhagen Business School’s Department of Strategy and Innovation under the supervision of Professor Nicolai J. Foss. His research explores challenging and unconventional topics at the intersection of markets, organizations, and society, including repugnant transactions, institutional entrepreneurship, organizational resilience, crisis management, and the role of temporality in shaping management decisions and practices. His work has been published in outlets such as AIB Insights and is under review at leading journals including the Journal of Business Venturing and the Journal of Management. Prior to his academic career, Dr. Sindila held leadership positions in both the public and private sectors across the United Kingdom, Easter Europe, and Central Asia, bringing a distinctive blend of practitioner insight and scholarly rigor to his research and teaching.