Prof. Jeng-Shyang Pan (IET Fellow)
Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, China

Jeng-Shyang Pan received the B. S. degree in Electronic Engineering from the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology in 1986, the M. S. degree in Communication Engineering from the National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan in 1988, and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Edinburgh, U.K. in 1996. He has published more than 900 papers in which around 500 papers are indexed by SCI, the H-Index is 79 and the total cited times are more than 25000. He owns more than 80 patents. He has edited or authored more than 100 books. He is the IET Fellow, UK and has been the Vice Chair of IEEE Tainan Section. He was Awarded Gold Prize in the International Micro Mechanisms Contest held in Tokyo, Japan in 2010. He was also awarded Gold Medal in the Pittsburgh Invention & New Product Exposition (INPEX) in 2010, Gold Medal in the International Exhibition of Geneva Inventions in 2011 and Gold Medal of the IENA, International “Ideas – Inventions – New products“, Nuremberg, Germany. His current research interests include computational intelligence, artificial intelligence and smart city.

Speech Title: Meta-heuristic Optimization Algorithms with Surrogate Assisted Models

Abstract: Meta-heuristic Optimization Algorithms have been shown to be successful for many engineering and commercial applications. However, the expensive computation time of the Meta-heuristic Optimization Algorithms cause the limitations for the real time applications of the many areas. There are several research issues to improve the efficiency of the Meta-heuristic Optimization Algorithms including the hardware implementation and the application of the surrogate assisted models. This talk will focus on the introduction of Meta-heuristic Optimization Algorithms for continuous, discrete, binary and categorical data optimization problems. The surrogate assisted optimization algorithms such as the surrogate assisted models selection, the combination of the Meta-heuristic Optimization Algorithm with the surrogate assisted models will be introduced. The three major branches of the surrogate assisted optimization algorithms, for example the sampling scheme, the simplified fitness function and the dimension decomposition will also be discussed.

Prof. Sergei Gorlatch
University of Muenster, Germany

Sergei Gorlatch has been Full Professor of Computer Science at the University of Muenster in Germany since 2003. Earlier he was Associate Professor at the Technical University of Berlin, Assistant Professor at the University of Passau, and Humboldt Research Fellow at the Technical University of Munich, all in Germany. His research interests include algorithms, software, and applications for high-performance parallel and distributed systems, as well as modern networking including SDN, e-Learning and online gaming.
Prof. Gorlatch has more than 200 peer-reviewed publications in refereed international books, journals, and conferences. Among his recent achievements at top international conferences are the following: the paper at the ACM ICFP was recognized as an ACM SIGPLAN Research Highlight with a publication in the Communications of the ACM; the paper presented at the ACM/IEEE CGO was prized with the Best Paper Award of the conference.
Sergei Gorlatch holds MSc degree in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from the National State University of Ukraine, PhD degree in Computer Science from the Institute of Cybernetics of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, and Habilitation degree in Computer Science from the University of Passau in Germany.

Speech Title: An Intelligent Framework for Code Generation for Modern Distributed Systems

Abstract: Modern and future applications increasingly work on distributed and networked architectures, including Clouds and Software-Defined Networks (SDN). They connect a potentially very high number of users who interact with the application and with other users in real time, i.e., a response to a user’s action happens virtually immediately. Popular examples are massively-multiplayer online games, high-performance simulations, and applications for e-learning and -training. They require very high level of user interactivity with hard Quality of Service (QoS) requirements on real-time performance and scalability.
One of the main challenges is the complex and often cumbersome development process of highly parallel, real-time software for such applications. We develop a novel, intelligent framework for desiging and running applications: our Real-Time Framework (RTF) greatly simplifies the development of scalable distributed and networked applications. The developer specifies at the high level of abstraction how the application should be distributed and parallelized, and the framework automatically generates low-level code which can be directly executed on the target distributed architecture with high performance.
We finally address the problem of ensuring high QoS of networked applications by automatically translating from application-level metrics of QoS into network-level metrics that can be implemented by the underlying network structure using the advantages of SDN.

Prof. Chattrakul Sombattheera
Mahasarakham University, Thailand

Dr. Sombattheera acheived his B.Sc. (Comp. Sc.) in 1992 and joined Control Data (Thailand) to help mainten one of the largest system (back then) in South East Asia. He pursued his education at the University of Western Australia in 1995 and achieved Grad. Dip. (Comp. Sc.) in 1996. In 1997, he went on to study at the University of Sydney (M. Inf. Tech.) He then worked as a system engineer during the .com booming age for a number of companies, including Alstom Australia. In 2001, he joined Mahasarakham University in Thailand as a lecturer. In 2003, he pursued his education at the University of Wollongong, Australia, doing a PhD on the cooperative game (theory). In 2008, he went back to Thailand and has been working at Mahasarakham University ever since. In addition to research work, Dr. Sombattheera's interest lies also in bridging the gap between advances in the research and their deployment or applications in the real world. Over the years, he has been working on various projects that fall in this category. Some of them that are worth mentioning include a sub-commisioner of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunication, an advisor to the Dairy Promotion Organization. In addition, he has been working in different domains, ranging from agriculture to defense, dealing with different groups of users, including farmers and (ex) fighter jet pilots.

Speech Title: Challenges of System Development in the New Frontier under the AI Dominated World

Abstract: While modern AI technologies have driven the world wildly on many aspects, software industry seems to have been struck heavily by its own product. As we can obviously see that there are waves after waves of big tech companies laying off employees, there are many questions arising: can AI really develop complete systems, are people still needed for developing systems, what will be a proper balance between AI (and other advances in research) and people for developing good systems. Over the years, I have been working on various projects that falling in this category. While advances in research focus primarily on ""HOW"" to solve technical problems, while utilizing them in the real world demand a lot more than that.
In this talk, I will present the systems that I have been working with through four decades. They range from an advanced system that won a world class award serving all Thai citizens, simulation systems for defense and industries, and large agriculture platforms for government and farmers. These systems are meant to serve different groups of users whose needs and natures are widely different. I will present my views on developing them from three different perspectives: as a lecturer whose job is to educate people, as a practitioner whose job is to develop systems, and as a business man whose goal is to thrive in business. From the pains and gains I have achieved, I will share my definition of ""level of successes"", including syntax, semantic, business, and usage levels. I lastly present my own software development life cycle, including capturing requirement with WYSWYG, business/work flow, front-end design, data design, backend processes, validation, inter-related processes, maintenance and evolving systems. After the conclusion, sharing ideas with the audience will be a great and valuable experience.