Prof. Irwin King, Fellow of ACM, Fellow of IEEE, Fellow of INNS, Fellow of AAIA, Fellow of HKIE

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

Professor Irwin King, a distinguished professor at the Department of Computer Science & Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research interests span machine learning, social computing, artificial intelligence, and data mining. Professor King’s extensive research has been recognized through numerous publications and awards in top-tier venues. He holds prestigious fellowships in the IEEE, INNS, AAIA, and HKIE, and is an ACM Distinguished Member. He serves as the Director of the ELearning Innovation and Technology (ELITE) Centre and the Machine Intelligence and Social Computing (MISC) Lab. Professor King obtained his Bachelor of Science degree from California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and his Master’s and Doctorate degrees in Computer Science from the University of Southern California (USC).

Prof. Kam Cheong Li
Dean of the School of Open Learning at Hong Kong Metropolitan University (HKMU);
The Director of HKMU’s Institute for Research in Open and Innovative Education.

Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Hong Kong

Prof. Kam Cheong Li is the Dean of the School of Open Learning at Hong Kong Metropolitan University (HKMU) and the Director of HKMU’s Institute for Research in Open and Innovative Education. He leads the university’s research in distance education and the development of big-data analytics.
In 2023, Prof. Li received two of the highest accolades in the field of distance education: the International Council for Open and Distance Education "Prize of Excellence" and the Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU) "Meritorious Service Award." Each of these prestigious awards is conferred to only one distinguished individual in a year.
Prof. Li served as Secretary-General of AAOU for three years and is currently an Executive Committee Member and an International Accreditation Board Member of the association. He has also been a Visiting Professor at Middlesex University in the United Kingdom for over a decade, advising the university’s Doctorate of Professional Studies programme. Additionally, he has been appointed Visiting Professor at several institutions in China, including Hebei Academy of Social Sciences and Hebei University of Economics and Business.
A prolific researcher, Prof. Li is the Editor-in-Chief of the Asian Association of Open Universities Journal and serves as an Editor for the "Innovation and Technology in Education" section of SN Computer Science.

Assoc. Prof. Hengtao Tang

University of South Carolina, China

Dr. Hengtao Tang is an Associate Professor and Program Director of Learning Design and Technologies at the University of South Carolina. His research lies at the intersection of self-regulated learning, multimodal learning analytics, and artificial intelligence in education. He examines how learners regulate their cognitive and metacognitive processes in intelligent online environments and how AI-driven adaptive supports can enhance their collaborative problem solving. Dr. Tang has published over 90 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers, with his research supported by organizations such as the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education. His work has been recognized with several awards, including the USC Educational Foundation Research Award, Breakthrough Star Award, Garnet Apple Award, AECT Presidential Award, and the AERA Early Career Researcher Award.