I-MMÁS - Artificial Intelligence: Opportunities, Challenges, and Multidisciplinary Collaboration - U of I System

Position: Professor, Department of Research and Knowledge for Design, Division of Sciences and Arts for Design, Metropolitan Autonomous University, México

Email: [email to be provided]

Dr. Ferruzca Navarro is a Professor at Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM), México. He has obtained the degrees of Industrial Designer (UAM), Specialty and Master in Design in the Hypermedia Line (UAM), he holds a Ph.D. from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (School of Industrial Engineers of Barcelona), a Postgraduate Diploma in Virtual Reality (Polytechnic Foundation of Catalonia) and Postgraduate Diploma in "Business and Technology" (Telefónica Learning Services and Polytechnic University of Catalonia).

He has published individually and collectively several books, chapters and articles. He has also lectured at specialized events. He has supervised two doctoral theses and currently advises others. He has been invited as a member of research project tribunals at the doctoral and specialty level. Evaluator of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to grant postgraduate scholarships abroad. Referee of several national and international publications.

At UAM México, he has served as Head of the Department of "Research and Knowledge of Design", Coordinator of Divisional Liaison CyAD, Director of the Division of Sciences and Arts for Design and has participated as an evaluator in competitive examinations, academic commissions, and editorial committees.

He is a Member of the National System of Researchers (SNII).

Position: Researcher Professor, Level 3F, Department of Computer Science, Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute, Mexico

Email: ccoello@cs.cinvestav.mx

Talk: Towards Evolutionary Multi-Objective Machine Learning: Challenges and Promises

Dr. Coello Coello received a PhD in Computer Science from Tulane University (USA). His research has mainly focused on the design of new multi-objective optimization algorithms based on bio-inspired metaheuristics (e.g., evolutionary algorithms), which is an area in which he has made pioneering contributions.

He has received several awards, including the National Research Award from the Mexican Academy of Science and the National Medal of Science in Physics, Mathematics and Natural Sciences from Mexico's presidency, the IEEE Kiyo Tomiyasu Award, the World Academy of Sciences Award in "Engineering Sciences", and the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society Evolutionary Computation Pioneer Award. He is an IEEE Fellow. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation. He is a Full Professor with distinction (Investigador Cinvestav 3F) at the Computer Science Department of CINVESTAV-IPN in Mexico City, Mexico.

Position: Associate Professor of Management Information Systems, College of Business and Management, University of Illinois Springfield

Email: nsing2@uis.edu

Talk: Responsible and Ethical Use of AI

Dr. Neetu Singh is an Associate Professor of Management Information Systems at the University of Illinois Springfield (UIS). She earned her Ph.D. in Computer Information Systems from Georgia State University. She is the academic advisor for the Graduate Certificate in Business Analytics at UIS. She is the board member for Beta Gamma Sigma, an international business honor society.

Dr. Singh is the co-founder of the UIS AI Campus Learning Community, which emphasizes promoting AI literacy on campus and beyond. She has been the invited speaker for several Central Illinois community panel discussions emphasizing on ethical and responsible use of AI in education and business. Her research interest is in tactical decisions using actionable intelligence and advanced analytics. She performs integrative studies in healthcare informatics, information systems, and business analytics. Her scholarly work is published in several top-tiered information systems and healthcare informatics peer-reviewed journals. Additionally, she presented her research at peer-reviewed national and international conferences. She has received three best paper awards for her research on decision-making. She is the recipient of the College of Business and Management (CBM) Scholar of the Year Award in 2022 and the CBM Service of the Year Award in 2024.

Position: Director of the Center for Artificial Intelligence Innovation, National Center for Supercomputing Applications; Research Associate Professor, Siebel School of Computing and Data Science, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign

Email: kindrtnk@illinois.edu

Talk: From Chatbots to Scientific Discovery with Large Language Models

Dr. Kindratenko is the Director for the Center for Artificial Intelligence Innovation at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign.

He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a Research Associate Professor in the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science.

His research interests lie at the intersection of AI systems and applications, with a focus on generative AI solutions for science and education. His team is developing the chat.illinois.edu chatbot platform, which facilitates rapid knowledge distillation.

Position: Bridge to Faculty Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Illinois Chicago

Email: ctejadal@uic.edu

Talk: Using AI tools to Assess Perceived Bicycling Safety in Chicago

Dr. Tejada López is an Assistant Professor at the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department at the University of Illinois Chicago. She received her doctorate in Civil Engineering from the City College of New York in June 2023. Her research interests are in topics related to urban freight transportation and city logistics.

Several issues she has researched include modeling e-commerce demand for specific products and their impacts on local policy development, exploring middle-mile operations in upstream logistics supporting urban freight transportation, analyzing facility location and proximity logistics, and examining the social implications of warehouse development in urban areas.

Her research interests include urban freight transportation modeling, e-commerce modeling, and the impact of urban freight flows on existing infrastructure. She also focuses her work on network optimization, multimodal interaction in urban scenarios, and implementing socially and environmentally oriented solutions for urban freight challenges.

Position: Tenured Researcher, Level B, Institute of Engineering, National Autonomous University of Mexico

Email: GSierraM@iingen.unam.mx

Talk: Role of Language Engineering in Social Media

Dr. Sierra Martínez is an engineer, researcher at the Institute of Engineering of National Autonomous University of Mexico, (UNAM), and a Mexican academic specializing in linguistic engineering.

He holds a master's degree in Hispanic Linguistics from UNAM and pursued doctoral studies in Computational Linguistics at the University of Manchester. Focused on advancing linguistic engineering in Mexico, he founded the Group of Linguistic Engineering at UNAM's Institute of Engineering.

He is currently a Full Researcher B at the Institute of Engineering, a Level II member of the National System of Researchers, and the founder of the Mexican Association for Natural Language Processing. He has also served in various academic and curriculum review roles at UNAM.

Position: Associate Professor, Oral Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, College of Dentistry, University of Illinois Chicago

Email: gadami@uic.edu

Talk: Brush biopsy, miRNA and classic machine learning to differentiate oral cancer from benign lesions

Dr. Adami is a molecular biologist and oral health researcher whose work bridges genomics, microbiology, and cancer biology. At the University of Illinois Chicago, he serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of Oral Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences. His research focuses on understanding how gene expression and microbial communities in the oral cavity influence aging and disease, particularly oral cancers.

Dr. Adami employs advanced techniques such as cellular and microbial RNA analysis and next-generation sequencing to investigate oral health. His studies have explored the effects of green tea polyphenols on oral microbiota and host gene expression. His work has successfully used classic machine learning algorithms in order to develop noninvasive diagnostic tools for conditions like oral squamous cell carcinoma.

Earlier in his career, Dr. Adami made foundational contributions to the understanding of cellular senescence, demonstrating its link to DNA damage and aging. His work has been widely cited and continues to inform research on cancer prevention and the biology of aging.

Position: Research Professor Titular "C", Department of Information and Knowledge-Based Innovation, University of Guadalajara, México

Email: alma.alanis@academicos.udg.mx

Talk: Fault-Tolerant Neural Control for Discrete-Time Nonlinear Systems

Dr. Alanis García received the Master of Science and the Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute Guadalajara Campus, Mexico. She is currently the Dean of the Technologies for Cyber-Human Interaction Division at the University of Guadalajara.

Dr. Alanis García is also a member of the Mexican National Research System (SNI-III) and a member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences.

She is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and Subject Editor of the Journal of Franklin Institute, Section Editor at Open Franklin, Technical editor at American Society of Mechanical Engineers/IEEE Transactions on Mechatronics and Associate Editor at IEEE transaction on Cybernetics, Intelligent Automation & Soft Computing and Computer Sciences PeerJ, moreover she is currently serving on a number of IEEE and International Federation of Accountants Conference Organizing Committees.

Position: Professor-Researcher, Coordinator of the Master's Program in Artificial Intelligence, Faculty of Engineering, Autonomous University of Querétaro, México

Email: saul.tovar@uaq.mx

Talk: Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare

Dr. Tovar Arriaga received his PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, his Master of Science in Mechatronics from the University of Siegen, Germany, and is an Electronics Engineer from the Queretaro Institute of Technology.

He is a full-time professor at the Faculty of Engineering of the Autonomous University of Querétaro and currently serves as the coordinator of the Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence program. His research interests include automatic illness diagnosis, surgical robotics, and machine learning applications.

He is a member of the National System of Researchers and a regular member of the Mexican Academy of Computing. He has served as president of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Queretaro Section and the IEEE Computational Intelligence chapter.

Position: Associate Professor, Mathematical Sciences and Philosophy, Department Chairperson, University of Illinois Springfield

Email: hchan1@uis.edu

Talk: AI Learning Collective: Exploring Innovation and Impact

Dr. Hei-Chi Chan, Associate Professor of Mathematics, is teaming up with Dr. Neetu Singh to continue their work with the Artificial Intelligence campus learning community they successfully launched in 2023.

His goal is to continue to engage, educate, and equip stakeholders (faculty, staff, & students) on the application and implications of AI tools and techniques. He also hopes to build on this foundation by expanding their programs and continuing to foster a vibrant learning community on AI and related issues, committed to shared goals and values.

Position: Research Professor, SNI-III, Member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences, IEEE Senior Member, Member of the International Association for Pattern Recognition, Department of Computer Science, Division of Electronics and Computing, University Center of Exact Sciences and Engineering, University of Guadalajara, México

Email: nancy.arana@academicos.udg.mx

Talk: Enhancing Smart Agriculture with Deep Learning

Dr. Arana-Daniel received her Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees in electric engineering with the special field in computer science for the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute, México. She is currently a research fellow at the University of Guadalajara, in the Department of Computer Science México, where she is working at the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems and the Research Center for Control Systems and Artificial Intelligence.

She is Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Senior member, also is member of National System of Researchers-México (SNI-III), member of International Association of Pattern Recognition and member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences.

She is Associated Editor of the Journal of Franklin Institute, Franklin Open (Elsevier) and IEEE Latin America Transactions. Her research interests focus on Machine Learning, Geometric Algebra to Geometric computing, bio-inspired optimization, pattern recognition, robot navigation and smart agriculture.

Position: Executive Director, Center for Digital Agriculture; Research Professor, Siebel School of Computing and Data Science, Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign

Email: j-reid1@illinois.edu

Talk: The Digitalization of Production Agriculture

Dr. Reid is a Research Professor in Computer Science and Agricultural and Biological Engineering, and he is the Executive Director in the Center for Digital Agriculture.

Dr. Reid has more than 35 years of highly accomplished technology leadership experience in industry and academia. He served on the faculty at the University of Illinois where his research focused on sensing, automation, and control of food and agricultural systems.

He then spent 19 years with John Deere Company where initiated the development of enterprise field robotics capabilities. He has experience in innovation management having served as Director, Enterprise Product Innovation and Technology for 14 years. In 2017 he was recognized as John Deere Technical Fellow for his contributions in Technology Innovation. He was Vice President of Enterprise Technologies for Brunswick Corporation.