Dr. Sujan Rajbhandari

Biography:

Dr. Sujan Rajbhandari is a leading expert in optical wireless communication, including free space optics, visible light communication, and LiFi. His research focuses on optical wireless communication for 6G and next-generation networks, advanced signal processing, and neural networks for communications.  

He has extensive experience in both academia and industry, having contributed to research and development in next-generation communications, grant applications, project management, and the supervision of research students and postdoctoral researchers. He has worked at renowned institutions such as Northumbria, Oxford, Coventry, Bangor, and Strathclyde universities, as well as in industry at Huawei’s R&D center in Sweden.  

Currently a senior lecturer at Strathclyde University, Dr. Rajbhandari has published over 200 scholarly articles, with more than 9,500 citations and an h-index of 40 (Google Scholar). He actively collaborates with leading universities in the UK and internationally, contributing to numerous publications. He has been a keynote speaker at the International Summit on Lasers, Optics, and Photonics in 2023 and an invited speaker at various international conferences. He also serves as an associate editor for IEEE Photonics Technology Letters and is on the editorial boards of MDPI, Hindawi, and Frontiers journals.

Dr. Zilong Liu

Biography:

Dr. Zilong Liu is an associate professor at the University of Essex, UK. His research focuses on the intersection of coding, signal processing, and communications, with particular emphasis on signal design, algebraic coding, error correction codes, iterative receiver design, and efficient multiuser communication techniques. He is particularly interested in addressing research challenges that emerge in practical communication and signal processing scenarios, aiming to bridge the gap between theoretical limits and real-world implementations.

Dr. Maria Papaioannou

Biography:

Dr. Maria Papaioannou is a postdoctoral researcher at DTU Compute, Technical University of Denmark, where she focuses on AI and cybersecurity applications for the defense sector in collaboration with the Danish Defence Intelligence Service. She holds a PhD in Engineering from the University of Greenwich, London, UK, and a five-year Diploma degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Patras, Greece, obtained in 2016.  

From December 2018 to June 2024, she was a researcher at Instituto de Telecomunicações, Aveiro, Portugal, contributing to various EU projects such as SECREDAS and Moore4Medical, as well as national initiatives like 5G-MOBILIZADOR. These experiences allowed her to develop expertise in project management, resource allocation, team collaboration, and stakeholder communication. She has worked with interdisciplinary teams to develop innovative solutions addressing complex challenges across multiple sectors.  

Her research expertise spans IoT security, risk-based user authentication, multi-factor authentication, privacy-preserving authentication for mobile applications, and threat modeling. She has extensive experience working in diverse international environments and contributing to advancements in cybersecurity and AI-driven security solutions.