Title: How to FAST-Track Research in Modern Era?

Dr. Anastassia Gharib (Member, IEEE) received the M.A.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Internet of Things (IoT) Lab, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada, in 2018 and 2023, respectively. Her M.A.Sc. work was nominated for the University Medal, and her Ph.D. work was awarded a Senate Medal for Outstanding Academic Achievement. In Fall 2023, she joined the Department of Computer Engineering/Network and Information Security at Princess Sumaya University for Technology. During M.A.Sc. and Ph.D. studies, she has been a Research Assistant with the IoT Lab and a Contract Instructor at Carleton University. She has also been a Contract Instructor at German-Jordanian University, a Quality Assurance Engineer in Systems and Electronic Development (SEDCO) FZCO, and an intern at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Middle East and Zain Jordan. Her research interests are in the fields of the IoT and sensor networks with security, privacy, and trust built-in by design, user security satisfaction, horizontal IoT standards, platforms, and their security policies and features, spectrum sensing and cognitive radio, and applications of distributed learning as well as graph-powered optimization and machine learning techniques.
Dr. Gharib is the first to receive the IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) Committee - WIEC Outstanding Volunteer of the Year Award in 2021. In 2020, she was a Chair of IEEE WIE Ottawa, which under her leadership received the global IEEE WIE Affinity Group of the Year Award, IEEE WIE Canada Group of the Year Award for Large Sections, and IEEE Ottawa Outstanding Affinity Group Award for the first time in the history. In 2019, she received the IEEE Canada WIE Prize and the Carleton University Student Association Teaching Excellence Award. She was featured in the June 2022 issue of the IEEE WIE Magazine in an article titled “Myriad Applications: Gharib Finds Her Calling [Women to Watch].” Currently, Dr. Gharib is a Technical Activities Board Representative and a Voting Member of the IEEE WIEC. She is a reviewer for multiple IEEE Journals, Magazines, and Conferences. Finally, Dr. Gharib is an Organizing Committee Member and a WIE Co-Chair for the 2024 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC).

Title: AI in Academia: Trends and Insights

Dr. Vasileios Paliktzoglou , an academic and industry professional, holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Eastern Finland. He is an active contributor to academia, serving as a guest and associate editor for prestigious journals like the Journal of Information Systems Education (JISE) and IAFOR Journal of Education. He has been a keynote speaker at several academic and industry events, sharing his insights on social computing, collaborative learning, and emerging technologies in higher education. Dr. Paliktzoglou also actively participates in international research projects, highlighting his commitment to advancing knowledge and innovation as the Book Series Editor for the "Emerging Technologies in Education" at Vernon Press and "AI and Education" at STAR Scholars Press. His expertise continues to shape the academic and research landscape at Bahrain Polytechnic.

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