Author: Alfred ZIMMERMANN

Yen-Wei Chen was born in Hangzhou, China in 1962. He received his B.E. degree in 1985 from Kobe University, Kobe, Japan. He received his M.E. degree in 1987, and his D.E. degree in 1990, both from Osaka University, Osaka, Japan. He was a research fellow at the Institute of Laser Technology, Osaka, from 1991 to 1994. From October 1994 to March 2004, he was an Associate Professor and a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa, Japan. He is currently a Professor at the College of Information Science and Engineering, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan. He is also a Visiting Professor at the College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. He was a visiting scholar at Oxford University, Oxford, UK in 2003 and at Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania, USA in 2010. His research interests include medical image analysis and pattern recognition. He has published more than 300 research papers. He has received many distinguished awards including Best Scientific Paper Award of ICPR2013 and Outstanding Chinese Oversea Scholar Fund of Chinese Academy of Science. He is the Principal Investigator of several projects in biomedical engineering and image analysis, funded by the Japanese Government.   Alfred Zimmermann is a Professor at Reutlingen University, Germany. He is Director of Research and Speaker of the Doctoral Program for Services Computing at the Herman Hollerith Center, Boeblingen, Germany. His research is focused on digital transformation and digital enterprise architecture with decision analytics in close relationship with digital strategy and governance, software architecture and engineering, artificial intelligence, data analytics, Internet of Things, services computing, and cloud computing. He graduated in Medical Informatics at the University of Heidelberg, Germany and obtained his Ph.D. in Informatics from the University of Stuttgart, Germany.Besides his academic experience he has a strong practical background as a technology manager and leading consultant at Daimler AG, Germany. Professor Zimmermann keeps academic relations of his home university to the German Computer Science Society (GI), the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the IEEE, where he is part of specific research groups, programs, and initiatives. He serves in different editorial boards and program committees, and publishes results from his research at conferences, workshops, as well as in books and journals. Additionally, he supports industrial cooperation research projects and public research programs.   Robert Howlett is the Executive Chair of KES International, a non-profit organization that facilitates knowledge transfer and the dissemination of research results in areas including Intelligent Systems, Sustainability, and Knowledge Transfer. He is a Visiting Professor at Bournemouth University in the UK. His technical expertiseis in the use of intelligent systems to solve industrial problems. He has been successful in applying artificial intelligence, machine learning and related technologies to sustainability and renewable energy systems; condition monitoring, diagnostic tools and systems; and automotive electronics and engine management systems. His current research work is focussed on the use of smart microgrids to achieve reduced energy costs and lower carbon emissions in areas such as housing and protected horticulture.   Dr. Lakhmi C. Jain, Ph.D., M.E., B.E.(Hons), Fellow (Engineers Australia) is with the University of Technology Sydney, Australia, and Liverpool Hope University, UK. Professor Jain founded the KES International for providing a professional community the opportunities for publications, knowledge exchange, cooperation and teaming. Involving around 5, 000 researchers drawn from universities and companies worldwide, KES facilitates international cooperation andgenerates synergy in teaching and research. KES regularly provides networking opportunities for professional community through one of the largest conferences of its kind in the area of KES. His interests focus on the artificial intelligence paradigms and their applications in complex systems, security, e-education, e-healthcare, unmanned air vehicles and intelligent agents.