Prof Velislava Lyubenova | Process monitoring | Best Researcher Award |

Prof. Velislava Lyubenova | Process monitoring | Best Researcher Award

Bulgarian Academy of Science, Bulgaria

Professional Profiles:

SCOPUS

ORCID

GOOGLE SCHOLAR 

 👨‍🎓 Bio Summary:

Prof. Velislava Noreva Lyubenova is a distinguished researcher and professor at the Institute of Robotics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. With a strong background in mechatronic bio/technological systems, she has made significant contributions to the field through her innovative research and leadership in various scientific projects. Her dedication to advancing knowledge and technology is reflected in her numerous publications and successful collaborations.

🎓 Educational Background:

Prof. Lyubenova earned her Doctor of Sciences degree in 2016, with a dissertation focused on “Monitoring the Kinetics of Biotechnological Processes.” She previously completed her Doctorate at the Technical University of Sofia, specializing in bioengineering. Additionally, she holds an MSc in Radio Electronics from the same institution, showcasing her solid technical foundation and commitment to continuous learning.

🔍 Research Focus:

Prof. Lyubenova’s research primarily centers on mechatronic bio/technological systems, with an emphasis on developing intelligent systems for monitoring and controlling biotechnological processes. Her work integrates robotics, automation, and bioengineering, addressing the challenges in the field and contributing to advancements in biotechnology.

🏆 Honors & Awards:

Throughout her career, Prof. Lyubenova has received several accolades, including the “Marin Drinov” award from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, recognizing her substantial contributions to intelligent system development. Her achievements reflect her commitment to excellence in research and innovation.

💼 Professional Experience:

Prof. Lyubenova has held various academic positions at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences since 1992, currently serving as a Professor and head of the Department of Mechatronic Bio/Technological Systems. She has led numerous national and international projects, supervised PhD students, and coordinated Erasmus programs, demonstrating her leadership and collaborative spirit in academia.

📚 Top Noted Publications :

Indirect Adaptive Linearizing Control of a Class of Bioprocesses – Estimator Tuning Procedure
Authors: M.N. Ignatova, V.N. Lyubenova, M.R. García, C. Vilas, A.A. Alonso
Citations: 30
Index: Journal of Process Control
Year of Publication: 2008

Kinetic Characteristics of Alcohol Fermentation in Brewing: State of Art and Control of the Fermentation Process
Authors: V. Shopska, R. Denkova, V. Lyubenova, G. Kostov
Citations: 19
Index: Fermented Beverages
Year of Publication: 2019

Control of Biotechnological Processes: New Formalization of Kinetics – Theoretical Aspects and Applications
Authors: M. Ignatova, V. Lyubenova
Citations: 15
Index: Saarbrücken: LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing, GmbH & Co
Year of Publication: 2011

Adaptive Control of Fed-Batch Process for Poly-Beta-Hydroxybutyrate Production by Mixed Culture
Authors: M. Ignatova, V. Lyubenova
Citations: 14
Index: Comptes Rendus – Académie Bulgare des Sciences
Year of Publication: 2007

Adaptive Control of the Simultaneous Saccharification—Fermentation Process from Starch to Ethanol
Authors: S. Ochoa, V. Lyubenova, J.U. Repke, M. Ignatova, G. Wozny
Citations: 12
Index: Computer Aided Chemical Engineering
Year of Publication: 2008

Conclusion:

Velislava Noreva Lyubenova appears to be a highly qualified candidate for the Best Researcher Award. Her extensive research background, leadership in scientific projects, and commitment to education make her a strong contender. While there are areas for improvement, such as enhancing her language skills and diversifying her publication venues, her existing strengths significantly outweigh these factors.

Mrs Hajar HAMMOUCH | Artificial Intelligence | Women Researcher Award |

Mrs. Hajar HAMMOUCH | Artificial Intelligence | Women Researcher Award

Telecom SudParis / ENSIAS, France

Professional Profiles:

SCOPUS

 👨‍🎓 Bio Summary:

Mrs. Hajar Hammouch is an emerging researcher specializing in the application of advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) in smart agriculture and healthcare technologies. With a diverse educational background spanning industrial engineering, management, and AI, she is dedicated to using technology to address global challenges. Hajar has international experience, having pursued studies and professional work in Morocco and France, contributing to the fields of quality management, AI-driven solutions, and sustainable agriculture.

🎓 Educational Background:

Hajar holds an Engineering degree in Industrial Engineering from the National School of Applied Science, Fes, Morocco (2010-2015). She later earned a double Master’s degree in Management from the ISCAE Group & Lille University, France (2015-2017), where she developed expertise in international management, focusing on strategy, marketing, and logistics. Currently, she is pursuing a Ph.D. at Télécom SudParis – Institute Polytechnique of Paris (2020-2023, expected), working on the application of Artificial Intelligence models for optimizing irrigation using sensor data and satellite images.

🔍 Research Focus:

Hajar’s research is centered on the use of AI and machine learning to improve precision agriculture, particularly in the management of irrigation systems. Her work aims to enhance sustainability in farming through data-driven methods, utilizing sensor and satellite technologies. Additionally, she has contributed to healthcare by applying handwriting analysis to assist individuals with pathologies, showcasing her versatility in using AI to solve real-world problems across industries.

🏆 Honors & Awards:

Though early in her academic career, Hajar has already made significant strides in research, contributing to AI-driven innovations in agriculture and healthcare. She has also been a member of the HACCP team, working on quality certification processes for the food industry, further demonstrating her dedication to excellence in both scientific research and practical applications.

💼 Professional Experience:

Hajar has served as a Quality Manager at SIMAPA in Fes, Morocco (2017-2020), where she was responsible for ensuring the sanitary safety of products such as olive oil and capers. She played a key role in responding to customer needs and contributed to the HACCP quality certification team. During her time at Télécom SudParis, she also worked on a project focused on automatic handwriting analysis, applying AI techniques to assist people with health challenges, reflecting her diverse experience in both the private and academic sectors.

📚 Top Noted Publications :

Title: GT&I GAN: A Generative Adversarial Network for Data Augmentation in Regression and Segmentation Tasks
Authors: H. Hammouch, S. Mohapatra, M. El-Yacoubi, H. Qin, H. Berbia
Citation: International Conference on Human System Interaction (HSI), 2024
Index: Article in Press
Year: 2024

Title: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Intelligent Irrigation Systems
Authors: H. Hammouch, M. El-Yacoubi, H. Qin, H. Berbia
Citation: IEEE Access
Index: Open Access Article
Year: 2024

Title: GANSet – Generating Annotated Datasets using Generative Adversarial Networks
Authors: H. Hammouch, S. Mohapatra, M. El-Yacoubi, P. Mader, M. Chikhaoui
Citation: Proceedings of the International Conference on Cyber-Physical Social Intelligence (ICCSI), 2022, pp. 615–620
Index: Conference Paper
Year: 2022

Title: Controlling the Quality of GAN-Based Generated Images for Prediction Tasks
Authors: H. Hammouch, M. El-Yacoubi, H. Qin, H. Berbia, M. Chikhaoui
Citation: Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS), Volume 13363, pp. 121–133
Index: Conference Paper
Year: 2022

Title: A Two-Stage Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Network-Based Data Augmentation Scheme for Agriculture Image Regression Tasks
Authors: H. Hammouch, M. El-Yacoubi, H. Qin, H. Berbia, M. Chikhaoui
Citation: 2021 International Conference on Cyber-Physical Social Intelligence (ICCSI)
Index: Conference Paper
Year: 2021

Conclusion:

Hajar Hammouch has significant strengths that make her a strong candidate for the Research for Women Researcher Award, particularly her interdisciplinary research in AI-driven smart agriculture, her international background, and her work in healthcare applications of AI. However, to fully align with the expectations of a prestigious research award, she would benefit from increasing her academic output (e.g., publications) and expanding the scope of her research to demonstrate a broader impact on global challenges. Overall, she shows great promise as an emerging researcher with a unique combination of skills and experiences.

Assist Prof Dr Pelin Canbay | Artificial Intelligence | Best Researcher Award |

Assist Prof Dr. Pelin Canbay | Artificial Intelligence | Best Researcher Award

Kahramanmaras Sutcu Imam University, Turkey

Professional Profiles:

SCOPUS

ORCID

 👨‍🎓 Bio Summary:

Assist. Prof. Dr. Pelin Canbay is a dedicated researcher and educator in computer engineering, currently serving at Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam University. She holds a Ph.D. in computer science, with her research focusing on artificial intelligence, machine learning, and privacy-preserving technologies. Dr. Canbay has contributed significantly to fields such as authorship verification, privacy-sensitive AI systems, and healthcare applications. With numerous publications in prestigious international journals, she is recognized for her interdisciplinary approach to solving complex problems. In addition to her research, she actively mentors graduate students and plays a key role in university administration, contributing to both academic governance and quality assurance.

🎓 Educational Background:

Assist. Prof. Dr. Pelin Canbay earned her Ph.D. in 2020 with a thesis focused on author-independent authorship verification systems, building on her master’s thesis (2015) in the area of anonymity and data-sharing models for healthcare services. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in 2011 and has since developed a strong foundation in computer science, particularly in theoretical frameworks of computer engineering.

🔍 Research Focus:

Dr. Canbay’s research spans multiple areas, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, privacy-preserving technologies, and authorship verification. She has contributed significantly to applying AI in healthcare, privacy systems, and language processing, particularly in low-resource environments. Her work bridges the gap between technical innovation and practical applications, as seen in projects like privacy-sensitive AI for COVID-19 detection and big data architectures for author verification.

🏆 Honors & Awards:

Throughout her academic journey, Dr. Canbay has received recognition for her research efforts and contributions. She has led and participated in national research projects funded by higher education institutions, demonstrating her leadership and commitment to advancing knowledge in AI and data privacy.

💼 Professional Experience:

Dr. Canbay currently serves as an Assistant Professor at Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam University, where she also held a research assistant position from 2020 to 2022. Before that, she was a research assistant at Hacettepe University from 2012 to 2020. Her administrative roles include membership in the Quality Council and various commissions within the university’s Engineering Faculty, showcasing her active involvement in academic governance and quality assurance.

📚 Top Noted Publications :

Privacy Concerns and Measures in the Metaverse: A Review
Authors: Y. Canbay, A. Utku, P. Canbay
Citation: 2022 15th International Conference on Information Security and Cryptography
Index: 32
Year of Publication: 2022

The Effect of Clustering on Data Privacy
Authors: P. Canbay, H. Sever
Citation: 2015 IEEE 14th International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications
Index: 18
Year of Publication: 2015

Endüstri 5.0’a Doğru: Zeki Otonom Sistemlerde Etik ve Ahlaki Sorumluluklar
Authors: P. Canbay, Z. Demircioglu
Citation: AJIT-e: Bilişim Teknolojileri Online Dergisi, 12(45), 106-123
Index: 13
Year of Publication: 2021

Hate Speech and Offensive Content Identification with Graph Convolutional Networks
Authors: N. Bölücü, P. Canbay
Citation: FIRE (Working Notes), 44-51
Index: 11
Year of Publication: 2021

Deep Combination of Stylometry Features in Forensic Authorship Analysis
Authors: P. Canbay, E. Akcapinar Sezer, H. Sever
Citation: International Journal of Information Security Science, 9(3), 154-163
Index: 6
Year of Publication: 2020

Conclusion:

Pelin Canbay demonstrates strong qualifications for consideration in the Best Researcher Award. Her prolific publications, leadership in research projects, and interdisciplinary approach highlight her potential to make significant contributions to computer science and engineering. However, there is room for growth in international visibility, high-impact collaborations, and expanding the global reach of her research. If she continues to build on her current trajectory while addressing these areas for improvement, Canbay would be a strong candidate for future recognition as a leading researcher.

Ms Naailah Mahamoodally | Smart Buildings | Women Researcher Award |

Ms. Naailah Mahamoodally | Smart Buildings | Women Researcher Award

Concordia University, Canada

Professional Profiles:

ORCID

 👨‍🎓 Bio Summary:

Naailah Mahamoodally is a dedicated researcher currently pursuing her MASc in Quality Systems Engineering at Concordia University, where her work focuses on transfer learning for occupancy estimation in smart buildings with imbalanced data. She graduated with First Class Honors in Computer Science from the University of Mauritius, where she developed IoT solutions for traditional appliances. Her research interests lie in machine learning, smart technologies, and IoT applications, and she has published in respected journals like the Journal of Building Engineering. In addition to her academic achievements.

🎓 Educational Background:

Naailah Mahamoodally is currently pursuing her MASc in Quality Systems Engineering at Concordia University, Canada (2023-2025), where she maintains an exceptional CGPA of 4.08. Her thesis focuses on Transfer Learning for Occupancy Estimation in Smart Buildings for Imbalanced Data, under the supervision of Dr. Manar Amayri. She also holds a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science from the University of Mauritius (2019-2022), where she graduated with First Class Honors, achieving a GPA of 3.62. Her undergraduate dissertation, titled IoTising IR-Based Traditional Appliances for Individual Smart Homes, showcases her strong foundation in IoT technologies.

🔍 Research Focus:

Naailah’s research primarily revolves around machine learning, smart buildings, and the Internet of Things (IoT). She has a keen interest in applying transfer learning techniques to improve occupancy estimation systems, particularly in environments where data is imbalanced. Her focus is on developing innovative, scalable solutions for smart homes and buildings, leveraging her deep expertise in machine learning frameworks such as Tensorflow and PyTorch.

🏆 Honors & Awards:

Naailah has been recognized for her academic excellence with a prestigious Entrance Award of $5000 at Concordia University. Her exceptional academic performance is further reflected by her consistent high grades throughout her academic journey.

💼 Professional Experience:

Professionally, Naailah has diversified her experience by working as an Oracle Consultant at Spoon Consulting (October 2022 – June 2023), where she specialized in both technical and functional aspects of Oracle Human Capital Management (HCM) and Financials Cloud Management (FCM). She also gained valuable client-facing experience, handling data analysis and creating interactive dashboards. Currently, she is employed as a clerk at Econofitness Gym, showcasing her adaptability and work ethic.

📚 Top Noted Publications :

Title: Explainable Domain Adaptation for Imbalanced Occupancy Estimation

Authors: Naailah Mahamoodally, Jawher Dridi, Manar Amayri

Index: Crossref

Year of Publication: 2024

DOI: 10.1016/j.jobe.2024.110613

Journal: Journal of Building Engineering

Conclusion:

Naailah Mahamoodally is a highly capable candidate with a strong technical and research foundation in machine learning, smart technologies, and computer science. Her academic excellence, leadership roles, and publication make her a competitive candidate. However, to maximize her chances for the Research for Women Researcher Award, she could focus on publishing more research, gaining involvement in women-centric STEM initiatives, and enhancing the real-world impact of her work.

Mr Antonio Azambuja | Indústria 4.0 | Best Researcher Award |

Mr. Antonio Azambuja | Indústria 4.0 | Best Researcher Award.

Instituto Tecnologico de Aeronautica,Brazil

Professional Profiles:

SCOPUS

👨‍🎓 Bio Summary:

Antonio João Gonçalves de Azambuja is an accomplished researcher and academic currently pursuing a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Informatics at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil. His research focuses on social engineering in network and system security, particularly automated bots and artificial intelligence actions. Additionally, Antonio is a visiting researcher at Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany, where he delves into cybersecurity and AI within Industry 4.0. His extensive academic journey includes two doctoral degrees, multiple specializations, and significant contributions to cybersecurity and information management.

🎓 Education:

Antonio is currently pursuing a second Ph.D. in Space Technologies Management at the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA), focusing on a cybersecurity maturity model for Industry 4.0, under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Vilson Rosa de Almeida. He holds a Ph.D. in Science Education from UFRGS, where his dissertation developed an information architecture maturity model to mitigate social impacts related to privacy, security, and information loss in Big Data. Antonio earned his Master’s in Knowledge Management and Information Technology from the Universidade Católica de Brasília, specializing in cybersecurity maturity models for federal public administration. He also completed various post-graduate programs in strategic IT management, software engineering, and information security.

🔍 Research Focus:

Antonio’s research primarily revolves around cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and their applications in Industry 4.0. His interests include developing maturity models for cybersecurity, investigating social engineering attacks using automated bots, and enhancing cyber defense mechanisms. He is also actively involved in exploring the intersection of cybersecurity with Big Data and digital twins in industrial contexts.

🏆 Honors & Awards:

Throughout his academic career, Antonio has been recognized for his contributions to cybersecurity and information management. He has received multiple accolades for his innovative research and has been invited to present his work at numerous national and international conferences. His dedication to advancing cybersecurity practices within the public and industrial sectors has earned him respect and acknowledgment in the academic community.

Professional Experience: 💼

Antonio is currently a postdoctoral researcher at UFRGS, working under the mentorship of Prof. Dr. Lisandro Zambenedetti Granville and Prof. Dr. Jéferson Campos Nobre. He also serves as a visiting researcher at Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany, under Prof. Dr. Reiner Anderl and Prof. Dr. Benjamin Schleich. Antonio is a researcher at the Naval War College’s Scenario Simulation Laboratory, focusing on cybersecurity and cyber defense, led by Prof. Dr. Max Campos. His professional journey includes roles in academia and collaborative research projects across Brazil and Germany.

 📚 Top Noted Publications :

Digital Twins in Industry 4.0 – Opportunities and Challenges Related to Cyber Security

Authors: de Azambuja, A.J.G., Giese, T., Schützer, K., Schleich, B., Rosa Almeida, V.

Journal: Procedia CIRP

Year: 2024

Pages: 25–30

Citations: 1

 

Artificial Intelligence-Based Cyber Security in the Context of Industry 4.0—A Survey

Authors: de Azambuja, A.J.G., Plesker, C., Schützer, K., Schleich, B., Almeida, V.R.

Journal: Electronics (Switzerland)

Year: 2023

Volume and Issue: 12(8)

Article Number: 1920

Citations: 29

 

Analysis of Cyber Security Features in Industry 4.0 Maturity Models

Authors: de Azambuja, A.J.G., Kern, A., Anderl, R.

Journal: Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)

Year: 2022

Volume: 13106 LNCS

Pages: 91–106

Citations: 0

Author Metrics 📊 : 

Antonio’s contributions to the field of cybersecurity are well-documented in various high-impact publications. His work is frequently cited, reflecting the significance and influence of his research. He has co-authored multiple articles with prominent researchers, contributing valuable insights into cybersecurity and information management.

📅 Research Timeline:

Antonio’s research timeline demonstrates a progressive and focused approach to cybersecurity and information management. Beginning with his Master’s research on cybersecurity maturity models, he advanced to developing comprehensive frameworks for Big Data security during his first Ph.D. His current postdoctoral work and second Ph.D. continue to build on these foundations, exploring advanced cybersecurity solutions for Industry 4.0.