Position: John Gamble Kirkwood Professor of Chemistry Yale University, Department of Chemistry Yale Quantum Institute, Yale Energy Sciences Institute & Yale Wu Tsai Institute ACS Associate Editor, JCTC

Email: victor.batista@yale.edu

Talk: Quantum Machine Learning Methods for Molecular Design

Victor S. Batista is the John Gamble Kirkwood Professor of Chemistry at Yale University, where he has been a faculty member since 2001. He earned his B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Buenos Aires in 1989 and his Ph.D. in Theoretical Chemistry from Boston University in 1996.

After postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Toronto, he joined Yale’s Department of Chemistry. Professor Batista’s research focuses on theoretical and computational chemistry, with an emphasis on developing semiclassical and quantum dynamics methods to investigate photoinduced reactions, energy conversion, and catalytic processes. His group has published contributions to advancing the understanding of photosynthetic systems and the quantum control of chemical dynamics.

As Director of the NSF Center for Quantum Dynamics on Modular Quantum Devices, Batista led a national effort to design quantum simulations of complex molecular systems using programmable Kerr-cat platforms. His recent work includes quantum machine learning for drug discovery and quantum algorithms for simulating non-Markovian chemical dynamics. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and an elected member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering

Position: Vice President of Artificial Intelligence, Nasdaq Stock Market

Email: Douglas.Hamilton@nasdaq.com

Talk: Learning to Coordinate via Quantum Entanglement

Douglas Hamilton is the Vice President and Head of AI Research and Engineering. He heads AI research and engineering at Nasdaq. Doug’s notable achievements at Nasdaq include establishing the first AI-powered strike listing system and launching the first AI-powered order type approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

He has an M.S. in systems engineering from MIT and a B.A. in mathematics from the University of Illinois, Springfield.

Position: Associate Professor of Computer Science, University of Illinois Springfield

Email: esahe2@uis.edu

Talk: Application of AI in Engineering TIMPs, Natural Proteins That Block Disease-Causing Enzymes

Ellie Buxton is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Illinois Springfield (UIS), where she has been a faculty member since 2013. She earned her Ph.D. in Computer Science from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 2012. Her research interests include computational intelligence, soft computing, sequence models, and applied artificial intelligence, with a focus on the application of deep learning to protein engineering, health, and education.

She has published over 40 articles in refereed journals and conference proceedings. At UIS, she developed the Master's program and graduate certificate in Data Analytics and currently teaches several graduate-level AI courses. She is also a Faculty Affiliate of the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois System.

Position: Chief Technology Officer at RAS Fusion, Member, National Academy of Engineering; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Fellow

Email: jessica.j.bian@ieee.org

Talk: Challenges & Opportunities in Sustainable Energy

Jessica Bian is a visionary leader and architect. She has spearheaded the electric power industry's reliability metrics and grid risk assessment. She is currently CTO at RAS Fusion. Before that, she was with Grid-X Partners, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Washington, DC.

Previously, she was the Director of Performance Analysis at North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) in Atlanta, Georgia. Under her leadership, a total of 18 industry-wide reliability indicators were established to determine grid reliability, adequacy, and associated risks.

She is widely recognized as a pioneer and trusted world leader in the field. She is a Fellow of IEEE, and a member of US National Academy of Engineering. She served as the 2024-2025 Chair of IEEE Industry Engagement Committee. She was the 2022-2023 President of the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES).

Position: Regional Dean of Engineering and Sciences, Tecnológico de Monterrey

Email: rswain@tec.mx

Talk: From AI Consumers to AI Shapers: The Latin American Opportunity

Ricardo Swain-Oropeza is Regional Dean of the School of Engineering and Sciences at Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Monterrey. He has more than 25 years of experience in higher education, academic leadership, engineering education, research, and innovation.

He holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Computing from the Institute Polytechnique de Toulouse, France, and has conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

His work has focused on robotics, engineering education, competency-based learning, industry–academia collaboration, and the development of educational models that prepare students to address complex global challenges.

Position: Associate Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Illinois Chicago

Email: ctejadal@uic.edu

Talk: Using AI tools to Assess Perceived Bicycling Safety in Chicago

Carla Tejada is an Assistant Professor at the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department at the University of Illinois Chicago. She received her doctorate in Civil Engineering from the City College of New York in June 2023. Her research interests are in topics related to urban freight transportation and city logistics. Several issues she has researched include modeling e-commerce demand for specific products and their impacts on local policy development, exploring middle-mile operations in upstream logistics supporting urban freight transportation, analyzing facility location and proximity logistics, and examining the social implications of warehouse development in urban areas.

Her research interests include urban freight transportation modeling, e-commerce modeling, and the impact of urban freight flows on existing infrastructure. She also focuses her work on network optimization, multimodal interaction in urban scenarios, and implementing socially and environmentally oriented solutions for urban freight challenges. Carla collaborated with the New York City Department of Transportation Pedestrian Unit, where she developed a model to measure Pedestrian Demand at the zip code level for New York City.

She also participated in the Charles B. Rangel Infrastructure Workforce Initiative for professionalizing studies. In the center, Carla served as a curriculum development assistant and an instructor for the transportation module. Carla worked in several areas of Supply Chain Management, including last-mile delivery and transportation at DHL Express and the procurements department at Sony Corporation of America. She also holds a master’s degree in Supply Chain Management, granted by the University of Maryland, College Park, and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador.

Position: Professor of Digital Media and Marketing Thrust Leader, Human Experience Thrust, IMMERSE Center for Immersive Computing University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Co-Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication

Email: mzyao@illinois.edu

Talk: When Machines Learn Our Language: AI, Human Experience, and the Future of Connection

Mike Yao is Professor of Digital Media in the Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising and Professor of Business Administration (Marketing) in the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He also leads the Human Experience Thrust at the IMMERSE Center for Immersive Computing in the Grainger College of Engineering.

His research examines human communication and social behavior in technology-mediated environments, with a focus on human–AI interaction, immersive media, social presence, and the human experience of emerging technologies. He currently serves as a Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication.