Prof. Keith Ross

Biography: Keith Ross is a Professor of Computer Science at NYU Abu Dhabi since September 2023. Previously he was the Dean of Computer Science, Data Science, and Engineering at NYU Shanghai (10 years) and the Leonard J. Shustek Professor at NYU Tandon (10 years). Before that he was a professor at University of Pennsylvania (13 years) and a professor at Eurecom Institute (5 years). He received a Ph.D. in Computer and Control Engineering from The University of Michigan. He is an ACM Fellow and an IEEE Fellow. He is also the recipient of several prestigious best paper awards. His current research interests are in AI, specifically reinforcement learning, deep learning, and reasoning in large language models. He has also worked in Internet privacy, peer-to-peer networking, Internet measurement, stochastic modeling of computer networks, queuing theory, and Markov decision processes. For the past several years he has been teaching courses on Machine Learning and on Reinforcement Learning. He is co-author (with James F. Kurose) of the popular textbook, Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet, published by Pearson (first edition in 2000, ninth edition 2025). It is the most popular textbook on computer networking, both nationally and internationally, and has been translated into fourteen languages. Professor Ross is also the author of the research monograph, Multiservice Loss Models for Broadband Communication Networks, published by Springer in 1995.In 1999, he co-founded and led Wimba, which develops voice and video applications for online learning. He was the Wimba CEO and CTO from 1999 to 2001. Wimba was acquired by Blackboard in 2010.

Prof. Pietro Manzoni

Biography: Pietro Manzoni is a computer engineering professor at the "Universitat Politècnica de València," Spain. He received a master’s degree in computer science from the "Università degli Studi" of Milan, Italy, in 1989, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the "Politecnico di Milano," Italy, in 1995. From November 1992 to February 1993, he interned at Bellcore Labs, Red Bank, New Jersey, USA. From February 1994 to November 1994, he was a visiting researcher at the ICSI (International Computer Science Institute), Berkeley, California, USA, and from May 2021 to July 2021, he was a visiting professor at the University of Bologna, Italy. His research focuses on the Internet of Things by designing intelligent sensing and data-driven systems that utilize TinyML-enabled sensors for local inference and autonomous decision-making. He focuses on how IoT devices collect, process, and distribute data efficiently across large-scale deployments, particularly for environmental intelligence. A key part of his work involves developing robust connectivity solutions using LPWAN technologies and Pub/Sub architectures to support reliable data dissemination in resource-constrained settings. He also investigates complementary communication models to create resilient, integrated connectivity across the edge–cloud continuum. He is the coordinator of the Computer Networks Research Group (GRC), a senior member of the IEEE, a Technical Board member of the IEEE Technical Committee on Hyper-Intelligence, a Founding member of the IEEE SIG on Metaverse, and a member of the ACM SIGCAS - Computers and Society.

Dr. Norbert Tihanyi

Biography: Norbert Tihanyi received his B.Sc. degree in Security Engineering, his M.Sc. degree in Safety Engineering, his second M.Sc. degree (Hons.) in IT Engineering, and his Ph.D. degree in Information Science and Technology from Eötvös Loránd University in 2020. He is currently a Public Body Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and serves as a Lead Researcher at the Technology Innovation Institute TII), Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. His research interests include cryptanalysis, embedded device security, and prime number theory related to cryptography.