Biography:

Dr. Rajkumar Buyya is a Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor and Director of the Cloud Computing and Distributed Systems (CLOUDS) Laboratory at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He is also serving as the founding CEO of Manjrasoft, a spin-off company of the University, commercializing its innovations in Cloud Computing. He has authored over 850 publications and seven textbooks including "Mastering Cloud Computing" published by McGraw Hill, China Machine Press, and Morgan Kaufmann for Indian, Chinese and international markets respectively. Dr. Buyya is one of the highly cited authors in computer science and software engineering worldwide (h-index=169 g-index=373, and 152,700+ citations). He graduated 60 PhD students who are working in world-leading research universities and hightech companies such as Microsoft, Google, and IBM. He has been recognised as IEEE Fellow, a "Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher" for seven times since 2016, the "Best of the World" twice for research fields (in Computing Systems in 2019 and Software Systems in 2021/2022/2023) as well as "Lifetime Achiever" and "Superstar of Research" in "Engineering and Computer Science" discipline twice (2019 and 2021) by the Australian Research Review.

Software technologies for Grid, Cloud, and Fog computing developed under Dr.Buyya's leadership have gained rapid acceptance and are in use at several academic institutions and commercial enterprises in 50+ countries around the world. Manjrasoft's Aneka Cloud technology developed under his leadership has received "Frost New Product Innovation Award". He served as founding Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing. He is currently serving as Editor-in-Chief of Software: Practice and Experience, a long-standing journal in the field established 54+ years ago. He has presented over 750 invited talks (keynotes, tutorials, and seminars) on his vision on IT Futures, Advanced Computing technologies, and Spiritual Science at international conferences and institutions in Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America. He has recently been recognized as a Fellow of the Academy of Europe. For further information on Dr.Buyya, please visit his cyberhome: www.buyya.com

Title of the talk: Neoteric Frontiers in Cloud and Quantum Computing

Abstract The twenty-first-century digital infrastructure and applications are driven by Cloud computing and Internet of Things (IoT) paradigms. The Cloud computing paradigm has been transforming computing into the 5th utility wherein "computing utilities" are commoditized and delivered to consumers like traditional utilities such as water, electricity, gas, and telephony. It offers infrastructure, platform, and software as services, which are made available to consumers as subscription-oriented services on a pay-as-you-go basis over the Internet. Its use is growing exponentially with the continued development of new classes of applications such as AI-powered models (e.g., ChatGPT) and the mining of crypto currencies such as Bitcoins. To make Clouds pervasive,Cloud application platforms need to offer (1) APIs and tools for rapid creation of scalable and elastic applications and (2) a runtime system for deployment of applications on geographically distributed Data Centre infrastructures (with Quantum computing nodes) in a seamless manner. The Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm enables seamless integration of cyber-and-physical worlds and opening opportunities for creating new classes of realtime applications such as smart cities, smart robotics, and smart healthcare. The emerging Fog/Edge computing models support latency sensitive/real-time IoT applications with a seamless integration of network-wide resources all the way from edge to the Cloud. This keynote presentation will cover (a) 21st century vision of computing and identifies various emerging IT paradigms that make it easy to realize the vision of computing utilities; (b) innovative architecture for creating elastic Clouds integrating edge resources and managed Clouds, (c) Aneka 6G, a 6 th generation

Cloud Application Platform, for rapid development of Big Data/AI applications and their deployment on private/public Clouds driven by user requirements, (d) a novel FogBus software framework with Blockchain-based data-integrity management for end-to-end IoT-Fog/Edge-Cloud integration for execution of realtime IoT applications, (e) experimental results on deploying Big Data/IoT applications in engineering, health care (e.g., COVID-19), deep learning/Artificial intelligence (AI), satellite image processing, and natural language processing (mining COVID-19 literature for new insights) on elastic Clouds, (f) QFaaS: A Serverless Function-as-a-Service Framework for Quantum Computing, and (g) new directions for emerging research in Cloud, Edge, and Quantum computing.

Biography:

Dr. Mohammad Ilyas is a Professor in the College of Engineering and Computer Science at Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida. He has been with the College since 1983. From 1994 to 2000, he was Chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. He served as Associate Dean for Research for the College from 2002 through 2011, and as Dean of the College from 2011 to 2017. From July 2004 to September 2005, he also served the University as Interim Associate Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies

Dr. Ilyas has earned four academic degrees from four different countries. He received his B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan, in 1976. In 1978, he was awarded a scholarship for his graduate studies, and he completed his MS degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in June 1980 at Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran. In September 1980, he joined the doctoral program at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He completed his Ph.D. degree Electrical Engineering in 1983. His doctoral research was about switching and flow control techniques in computer communication networks. In 2015, he earned his second Ph.D. in Educational Leadership – Higher Education, from Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida. His doctoral research for his second doctoral degree was about globalization and higher education.

Dr. Ilyas has conducted successful research in the field of computer communication networks. His current research interests include wireless sensor networks, Internet of Things, smart systems, healthcare technologies. performance modeling, simulation, and impact of globalization on higher education. He has over 260 publications including one book, and 26 handbooks. He has supervised 16 Ph.D. dissertations and 38 M.S. theses to completion. He is currently supervising a group of 8 doctoral students. He has been a consultant to several national and international organizations. Dr. Ilyas is an active participant in several IEEE Technical committees and activities.

Dr. Ilyas is a Life Senior Member of IEEE, Fellow of IIIS, and was listed as a Fulbright Specialist from June 2017 to June 2022.

Title of the talk: Emerging Role of Artificial Intelligence

Abstract Artificial Intelligence (AI) is considered a branch of science that deals with the process of machine learning and intelligent behavior of machines. AI is increasingly becoming involved in our existence. Many see emergence of AI as a revolution that will impact every aspect of our lives. Some see it as an evolution based on the recent advances in hardware/software technologies, powerful computational platforms, and access to massive amount of data collected through pervasive communication networks such as Internet of Things (IoT). Irrespective of these opinions, AI is expected to profoundly impact many aspects of our existence including healthcare, transportation, agriculture, energy, social life, entertainment, fighting crime, and many more.

How far AI will infiltrate in human existence is within our hands, at least, for now. We, human beings, design algorithms for AI, we restrict or relax the boundaries of their use, we benefit from the augmented intelligence that AI provides, and we deal with the consequences of decisions made by machines using AI. How far AI can go in improving our lives and how significant and deep its interference can be in our existence, remains to be seen. This talk will capture the current state of AI and discuss it potential to make human existence better.

Biography:

Haris Pervaiz received his PhD degree in Communication Systems from Lancaster University, UK in Apr. 2016. Currently, he is an Associate Professor at School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering in University of Essex, UK. From Sept. 2018 to Jan. 2023, he was an Assistant Professor at School of Computing and Communications in Lancaster University, UK. From 2016 to April 2017, he was an EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellow at School of Computing and Communications (SCC) in Wireless Communications Research Group, at Lancaster University, UK. From Apr. 2017 to Sept. 2018, he was Research Fellow at 5G Innovation Centre (5GIC) of University of Surrey, UK. Dr. Pervaiz has contributed more than 100+ leading international technical journal and peer reviewed conference papers. His research interests include 5G & Beyond, Green Communication, mmWave Communication, Energy & Backhaul Energy Efficiency and Green HetNets. He is an associate editor for IEEE Access, Wiley ETT, Wiley ITL, IET Networks and IET Communications. He also organised various workshops and special sessions as lead workshop chair in various IEEE flagship conferences.

Title of the talk: Sustainable Energy Efficient Networking in integrated Terrestrial Non-Terrestrial Networks

Abstract In communication networks, where users are highly mobile, migrating edge servers that are performing services closer to users, i.e., service migration, is essential to maintain the high quality of service (QoS). Firstly, the development of futuristic wireless infrastructure necessitates low power consumption, high reliability, and massive connectivity. One of the most promising solutions to address these requirements is the integration of aerial base station (ABS) based communication systems that employ both in the air (aerial) and on the ground (terrestrial) components. This integration enhances line of sight connections, enabling the fulfilment of escalating quality-of-service (QoS) demands. Secondly, Semantic communication holds promise for integration into future wireless networks, offering a potential enhancement in network spectrum efficiency. However, implementing semantic communication in aerial-aided edge networks (AENs) introduces unique challenges. Within AENs, semantic communication strategically substitutes part of the communication load with the computation load, aiming to boost spectrum efficiency. Finally, the low earth orbit (LEO) satellite-borne edge cloud (SEC) and machine learning (ML) based semantic communication (SemCom) are both enabling technologies for 6G systems facilitating computation offloading. Nevertheless, integrating SemCom into the SEC networks for user computation offloading introduces semantic coder updating requirements as well as additional semantic extraction costs. Offloading user computation in SEC networks via SemCom also results in new functional challenges considering, e.g., latency, energy, and privacy.

Title of the talk: Transforming Mental Health with AI: Insights from the AI Center for Precision Health

Abstract We will explore the transformative potential of AI in the field of mental health. By leveraging wearable devices and advanced AI algorithms, we aim to provide personalized and precise health interventions. Through this lens, we will highlight the innovative work being conducted at the AI Center for Precision Health, showcasing how AI and wearable technology are being integrated to improve patient outcomes and advance our understanding of mental health conditions.