Theme Co-Chairs

IR Science and Foundations Co-Chairs

  • Co-Chair – Lyuba Alboul, Sheffield Hallam University, England
  • Co-Chair – Manfred Lau, City University of Hong Kong, China

IR Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies Co-Chairs

IR Applications, Management, and Services Co-Chairs

Security, Ethics, Privacy and Trust in IR Co-Chairs

Reviewers for Journal Papers

  • Asesh Aishwarya, Adobe, US
  • Gerd Bruder, University of Central Florida, US
  • Gloria Cerasela, University of Bacau, Romania
  • Janki Dodiya, IUBH Internationale Hochshule, Germany
  • Heather Dodds, Heather Dodds PhD Consulting, US
  • Ralf Döerner, RheinMain University of Applied Sciences, Germany
  • Gary B. Glesener, Virginia Technology, US
  • Taehee Jeong, San Jose University, US
  • Kostas Karpouzis, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Greece
  • Yinghie Lao, Clemson University, US
  • Liang Liang, University of Miami, US
  • Andria Procopiou, University of Central Lancashire, Cyprus
  • Lyudmila Zinchenko, BMSTU (Bauman Moscow State Technical University, Russia

Theme Co-Chairs

IR Science and Foundations Co-Chairs

Lyuba Alboul, Sheffield Hallam University, England

Bio-sketch: Dr. Lyuba Alboul is a Senior Research Fellow at the Industry and Innovation Research Institute, and a lecturer at the Department of Engineering and Mathematics, Sheffield Hallam University, England. Lyuba has been conducting research on the interface of various scientific domains.
She has been awarded over 15 research grants (both personal and as a member of consortia) from local and international funding bodies in various countries, including Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Bulgaria, and the UK. Among those are EPSRC, EU, MoD, STW/ NWO (Analogue of EPSRC in the Netherlands), and CNR (Analogue of EPSRC in Italy) on subjects in Mathematics, Computing, 3D modelling, Robotics and AI.

Her current research interests involve the interplay of discrete and continuous representation of reality, perception, and interaction with real and virtual worlds, by both humans and machines. Dr Alboul was the initiator of a research direction that fused VR, AR, XR with robotics technologies and (together with Dr Nisiotis) is currently developing a new type of eco-systems that encompasses both physical and virtual environments, including real and artificial agents and elements, capable of interacting dynamically with, reflecting, and influencing each other and with the interactions engendered by human behaviour.
Manfred Lau, City University of Hong Kong, China

Bio-sketch: Dr. Manfred Lau, Assistant Professor, City University of Hong Kong, China Manfred Lau is an Assistant Professor in the School of Creative Media at the City University of Hong Kong, China. He was previously a faculty member at Lancaster University in the UK, a visiting faculty at Yale University, and a post-doctoral researcher in Japan working with Prof. Takeo Igarashi. He received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University and his B.Sc. degree from Yale University. Manfred’s research interests cover various areas including computer graphics, human-computer interaction, sketch-based interfaces and design, and 3D modeling and fabrication.

IR Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies Co-Chairs

Hai-Ning Liang, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China

Bio-sketch: Hai-Ning Liang is a Professor with the Department of Computing at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU), Suzhou, China. He is the Founding Head of the Department. He is also the Founding Deputy Director of the Suzhou Key Lab for Virtual Reality Technologies and the Virtual Engineering Center at XJTLU. He completed his PhD in computer science from Western University, Canada. He had also worked at the University of Queensland in Australia and University of Manitoba in Canada. His main research interests fall in the broad area of human-computer interaction, focusing on virtual/augmented reality and gaming technologies. He has published widely in top-rated journals and conferences in these areas, such as ACM ToG, ACM ToCHI, ACM IMWUT, IEEE TVCG, ACM PACMCGIT, ACM UIST, ACM CHI, IEEE VR, and IEEE ISMAR. He is actively involved in editing special issues and in the organization of conferences.
Fotis Liarokapis, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus

Bio-sketch: Dr. Fotis Liarokapis (IEEE member) is currently an MRG Leader at CYENS – Centre of Excellence, Nicosia, Cyprus and a Senior Researcher B (Associate Professor level) with the Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus. He is also a visiting Professor at Birmingham City University, UK. He has contributed to more than 140 refereed publications in the broad areas of virtual and augmented reality, serious games, computer graphics and brain computer interfaces. He has organised multiple conferences and workshops and he is the co-founder of the International Conference on Virtual Worlds and Games for Serious Applications (VS-Games). He was the program-chair of IEEE CoG 2020 and IEEE CoG 2021 and he is the general chair of IMET 2022.

IR Applications, Management, and Services Co-Chairs

Franesco Ferrise, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Bio-sketch: Francesco Ferrise is an Associate Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Politecnico di Milano. He is Associate Editor of ASME Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering (JCISE) and Frontiers in Psychology and Computer Science (Human-Media Interaction). He is involved as a member of the scientific committee of the main international conferences on Virtual and Augmented Reality technologies and Human-Computer Interaction and in conferences on Design Methods and Tools.
Sylvia Xueni Pan, Goldsmiths, University of London, England

Bio-sketch: Dr. Sylvia Xueni Pan is an Associate Professor in VR at Goldsmiths, University of London. She has a BEng in Computer Science from Beihang University, an MSc in Graphics and PhD in Virtual Reality from UCL (funded by the EPSRC). She worked as a research fellow in Computer Science at UCL and at the same University’s Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience (ICN). Her research interest is the use of Virtual Reality as a medium for real-time social interaction, in particular in the application areas of training and therapy. Dr Pan has developed a unique interdisciplinary research profile, with journal and conference publications on both VR technology and social neuroscience. Her work has been featured on the BBC, in New Scientist magazine and the Wall Street Journal. Her 2017 Coursera VR specialisation attracted over 100,000 registered learners globally. She co-leads the Goldsmiths Social, Empathic, and Embodied VR lab (SeeVR Lab) and the MA/MSc in Virtual and Augmented Reality programme at Goldsmiths Computing.

Security, Ethics, Privacy and Trust in IR Co-Chairs

Josephina Antoniou, University of Central Lancashire, Cyprus

Bio-sketch: Josephina Antoniou is an Assistant Professor of Computing and the Course Leader of the MSc Computing course at UCLan Cyprus, School of Sciences. She is also the Chair of the ACM-W (Association for Computing Machinery Women) Cyprus chapter and fellow of the Higher Education Academy in the UK since 2015. She is a member of National Bioethics Committee in Cyprus since 2018, and in 2020 served as the Vice-President of the sub-committee for the Assessment of Biomedical Research. She is also a member of Interdisciplinary Science Promotion & Innovative Research Exploration Centre (InSPIRE) at UCLan Cyprus, since its inception. She has received her PhD in Computer Science from the Department of Computer Science of the University of Cyprus in 2010, her MSc in Advanced Computer Technologies also from the University of Cyprus in 2004, and her BA in Computer Science and Mathematics from Wartburg College, IA, USA in 2002. She has participated as the leader of tasks and work packages in FP6/FP7/H2020 and Erasmus+ projects SEACORN, B-BONE, C-MOBILE, C-CAST, Responsible Industry, COMPASS, SHERPA, IREEDER, GReFORM and MentorME. She has also been involved in COST IC1004: Cooperative Radio Communications for Green Smart Environments (2011-2015) and in FP7-PEOPLE Marie Curie – International Reintegration Grant: 3D UNDERWORLD (2011-2012).

She is one of the organizers of the Cyprus National Penetration Testing/Ethical Hacking competition since 2015, and the ACM/ICPC Local Director for the Cyprus national qualifying coding competition for ACM ICPC. She was the research lead for the School of Sciences at the university’s Research and Innovation Committee (2015-2018) and currently chairs the university’s Ethics subcommittee. She is the author of 3 books on Game Theoretic solutions for better Quality of Experience in communication networks, as well as the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, including recent articles on Ethics for Smart Information Systems. Her research interests span the areas of Communication Networks and Quality of Experience and more recently Ethics and Responsible Research in the emerging socially dominated communication systems.
Okyay Kaynak, Bogazici University, Turkey

Bio-sketch: Okyay Kaynak received the BSc (first-class honors) and PhD degrees in electronic and electrical engineering from the University of Birmingham, Birmingham, U. K., in 1969 and 1972, respectively.

From 1972 to 1979, he held various positions within the industry that included 3.5 years in Saudi Arabia, working as a project engineer. In 1979, he joined Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey. Currently, he is an Emeritus Professor, holding the title of UNESCO Chair on Mechatronics.

He has held long-term (near to or more than a year) Visiting Professor/Scholar positions at various institutions in Saudi Arabia, Japan, Germany, USA, Singapore, and China.

Dr. Kaynak’s current research interests are in the broad field of intelligent systems. He has authored three books, edited five, and authored or co-authored more than 450 papers that have appeared in various journals, books, and conference proceedings.

Dr. Kaynak is a fellow of IEEE. He has served on the Editorial or Advisory Boards of several scholarly journals. He was the Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Trans. on Industrial Informatics during 2005-2006, IEEE/ASME Trans. on Mechatronics during 2014-2016, and Co-Editor in Chief of IEEE Trans. on Industrial Electronics during 2009-2012. He currently serves as the Founding Editor-in-Chief of Springer journal Discover Artificial Intelligence.

Dr. Kaynak is active in international organizations, has served on many committees of IEEE, and was the president of IEEE Industrial Electronics Society during 2002-2003. He has received IEEE Third Millennium Medal, IEEE/IES Anthony J. Hornfeck Service Award, IEEE/IES Dr.-Ing. Eugene Mittelman Achievement Award, the China Friendship Award (2016), the Humboldt Research Prize (2016), Doctor Honoris Causa, Obuda University, Hungary (2020) and the International Academy Award of the Turkish Academy of Sciences (2020). He is a member of this Academy.