Pei Wang – Professor of Computer and Information Sciences, Temple University, Philadelphia (USA)
Pei Wang is a Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at Temple University, Philadelphia (USA), and one of the leading international figures in Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and Cognitive Science.
He earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science from Peking University and a Ph.D. in Computer and Cognitive Science from Indiana University, Bloomington.
In May 2025, Pei Wang served as a Visiting Scholar at the Centre of Advanced Studies (ASCent), University of Palermo, bringing to the academic community an exceptional interdisciplinary vision that integrates logic, psychology, linguistics, philosophy, and computer science.
For over four decades, Professor Wang has been developing a formal model of general intelligence known as NARS (Non-Axiomatic Reasoning System)—a project that has evolved into the open-source platform OpenNARS, widely recognized as one of the most influential contributions in the field of Artificial General Intelligence.
His research explores categorical reasoning and learning, multi-criteria decision-making, real-time problem-solving, and dynamic resource management, always with the goal of understanding the foundational principles of intelligence and cognition.
Beyond his research, Pei Wang is the founding Chief Executive Editor of the Journal of Artificial General Intelligence and Vice Chair of the Artificial General Intelligence Society, both key institutions in the global AI community.
His visit to the University of Palermo marked an important opportunity for intellectual exchange and international collaboration, reinforcing the bridge between scientific inquiry and humanistic reflection on the nature of intelligence.
Magdalena Perkowska – Associate Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology, University of Bialystok, Poland
Magdalena Perkowska is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Bialystok (Poland), within the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology. She also served as a Visiting Fellow at the University of Palermo (Italy) in April 2024, strengthening academic collaboration between the two institutions.
Her academic expertise lies in criminology, criminal law, and the intersection between migration and criminal policy. She is an active member of several renowned academic organizations, including the Polish Society of Criminology (named after Professor Stanisław Batawia), the European Society of Criminology, the Working Group “Criminology of Mobility”, the Centre for Research on Migration Law of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and the Research Group “Helvetic Initiative.”
Over the years, Dr. Perkowska has held several key positions at the University of Bialystok, such as Erasmus Programme Coordinator, Dean’s Plenipotentiary for International Programmes, and Editorial Secretary of the academic journal Białostockie Studia Prawnicze.
Her scholarly output includes over 90 publications in criminology and penal sciences, and she has presented her work at numerous international conferences. She has contributed to several major research projects, including “SIC – Modular Multi-Task System for the Identification of Foreigners with a Risk Analysis Module for Victims of Human Trafficking” and “Monitoring, Identification and Counteracting Threats to Citizens’ Security.” Currently, she is part of the project “Risk as a Subjective Phenomenon: Integrating Cognitive Science into the Concept of Risk in European Data Protection Law”, funded by the National Science Centre (Poland) under the OPUS-24 (LAP) programme in cooperation with Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
Dr. Perkowska has enhanced her academic and research experience through international fellowships at the University of Bern (Switzerland, 2009) and the University of Palermo (Italy, 2024), as well as several teaching and training visits under the Erasmus programme. She was also a recipient of the Polish Minister of Science and Higher Education Scholarship for Outstanding Young Scientists (2014–2017).
Her research provides valuable insights into migration-related criminality, the criminalisation of migration, and European migration policy, contributing to reports commissioned by the European Commission. Among them are “Facilitators Package Implementation Study,” “Targeted Study on the Seasonal Workers Directive,” and “SR 21 – Fundamental Rights Compliance at the EU’s External Borders.
Kevin W. Li – Professor of Management Science, University of Windsor, Canada
Kevin W. Li is a Professor of Management Science at the Odette School of Business, University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. He earned his B.Sc. in Control Sciences and M.A.Sc. in Systems Engineering from Xiamen University, China, and his Ph.D. in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo, Canada in 1991, 1994, and 2003, respectively. Following a postdoctoral fellowship in Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo, Dr. Li joined the University of Windsor in September 2004.
Dr. Li has held several prestigious fellowships, including a Visiting Fellowship at the Centre of Advanced Studies, University of Palermo in July 2025 within the Department of Engineering. He was also awarded two Invitation Fellowships by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2011 and 2015.
His research covers logistics, supply chain management, conflict resolution, decision analysis, and modeling. Dr. Li has been supported by three individual Discovery Grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). He has published 75 articles in leading international journals, including Production and Operations Management, European Journal of Operational Research, Computers & Operations Research, International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Production Research, and Transportation Research Part E. His work has received over 3,200 citations (Web of Science, h-index 31), with five papers recognized as Highly Cited by the Essential Science Indicators Database. Google Scholar reports 5,063 citations and an h-index of 38.
Dr. Li serves as Associate Editor for Group Decision and Negotiation and Information Sciences, and he has guest-edited special issues for International Journal of Production Economics, Information Sciences, Group Decision and Negotiation, and Industrial Management & Data Systems.
His extensive contributions demonstrate his leadership in advancing management science, decision analysis, and operational research on a global scale.
Nina Merz – Research Associate in Social and Service Robotics, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
Nina Merz is a research associate at the Institute for Factory Automation and Production Systems (FAPS) at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, where she has been contributing since 2018. She holds a B.Sc in Business Informatics (2011–2014) and a M.Sc in International Information Systems (2015–2018) from FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, including a study period at Lakehead University.
Under the supervision of Prof. Freimut Bodendorf and Prof. Jörg Franke, Nina focuses her research on social, service, and humanoid robots, particularly studying acceptance and expectations of social robots across different occupational fields. She has played a key role in the FORSocialRobots project, an interdisciplinary initiative involving six research institutes and 15 companies, with a total budget of €4 million, including €2 million funded by the Bavarian Research Foundation.
Nina’s international experience includes a Visiting Research Fellowship at the University of Palermo, hosted by the A.S.CENT. - Centre of Advanced Studies, further enhancing her collaborative research network.
In addition to her research, she has coordinated the communication and outreach efforts at FAPS, including the creation of the institute’s LinkedIn page, now followed by over 2,000 professionals.
Selected Publications
Nina Merz has contributed to numerous high-impact publications in the field of robotics and human-robot interaction, including:
1. Let Me Entertain You – A Quantitative Study on the Acceptance of Consumer Entertainment Robots (ISR Europe 2022)
2. Are we prepared for the Rise of Service Robots? - A Review on Acceptance Measurement (The Human Side of Service Engineering, 2022)
3. Science-Fiction Movies as an Indicator for User Acceptance of Robots in a Non-Industrial Environment (Computers and People Research Conference, 2020)
4. A Modular Interface for Controlling Interactive Behaviors of a Humanoid Robot for Socio-Emotional Skills Training (IEEE RO-MAN 2022, Naples, Italy)
5. Towards Useful Social Capabilities for Robots in Healthcare (ISMT 2024)
6. A Concept of Emotion-Driven Human-Robot Interaction for Nursing Care Scenarios (ISMT 2024)
7. Making Social Robots Adaptable and Partially Educable via a Marketplace for Interaction Characters (Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 2025)
Through her work, Nina Merz has advanced understanding of social and service robots, particularly their role in healthcare, human-computer interaction, and occupational environments, contributing both to theoretical research and applied technology development.
Shin-Ru Cheng – Assistant Professor of Law, Kyoto University, Japan
Dr. Shin-Ru Cheng has served as an Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Law and the Hakubi Center at Kyoto University since April 1, 2023. He holds a JSD (Doctor of Juridical Science) from Washington University in St. Louis.
His research focuses on competition law, with a particular emphasis on issues arising from the digital economy and online market regulation.
Dr. Cheng has published extensively in this field, including the following notable works:
• Market Power and Switching Costs: An Empirical Study of Online Networking Market
• Entry Barriers: The Role of Big Data in the Online Networking Market
• Approaches to Assess Market Power in the Online Networking Market
Through his research, he investigates market power in digital platforms, the impact of big data on market entry barriers, and innovative methods for assessing competition in online environments.
Currently, Dr. Cheng is leading the research project “Harmonization of Competition Laws for Cross-Border Digital Trade in Asia”, supported by the Hakubi Center, Kyoto University.
His work seeks to advance regulatory harmonization in Asian digital markets, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue among law, economics, and technology to promote fair and sustainable digital trade across borders.
Christian Sorace – Associate Professor of Global China, University of Cambridge, UK
Christian Sorace is an Associate Professor of Global China at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow at Corpus Christi College. From 2017 to late 2022, he served as an Assistant Professor at Colorado College. His research explores political concepts and practices in China and Mongolia, spanning ideology, discourse, urban planning, air pollution, and aesthetics. Sorace is also deeply interested in the histories and legacies of communism in Asia.
His first book, Shaken Authority: China’s Communist Party and the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake (Cornell University Press, 2017), examines how the Chinese Communist Party’s legitimation strategies hinge on its conceptualization of ideology, language, and aesthetics. The book reveals how the Party’s visions for the future and its political-economic models became templates for post-earthquake reconstruction, including the transfer of resources from coastal regions, the urbanization of the peasantry, and the construction of an “ecological civilization.”
Sorace approaches the Chinese Communist Party, and the dynamics at its margins, as sites for the generation of political concepts and practices that deserve to be studied on their own terms. In this spirit, he has organized and participated in numerous collaborative, transnational projects, including co-editing Afterlives of Chinese Communism: Political Concepts from Mao to Xi (ANU Press and Verso Books, 2019) and Proletarian China: A Century of Chinese Labour (Verso Books, 2022), as well as the special issue Political Enchantments: Aesthetic Practices and the Chinese State, published by Critical Inquiry in Spring 2020. He also serves on the editorial board of the Made in China Journal.
In 2022, Sorace was a Fulbright Fellow and Visiting Scholar at the National University of Mongolia, where he conducted research on urban crises in Ulaanbaatar, from ger district redevelopment to chronic air pollution, and their contribution to a widespread sense of democratic deficit. His work highlights how such issues, though locally grounded, are deeply intertwined with the global crisis of political forms and democratic futures.
Kai-Rong (Carol) Liang – Assistant Professor of Digital Economy, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, China
Assistant Professor of Digital Economy, School of Management Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology
Dr. Kai-Rong (Carol) Liang is an Assistant Professor of Digital Economy at the School of Management Science and Engineering at Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Jiangsu, China. She earned her M.A.Sc. in Industrial Engineering in 2017 and her Ph.D. in Administration Management in 2023, both from Fuzhou University, Fujian, China. Dr. Liang joined Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology in July 2023.
Her research focuses on platform supply chain management, the digital economy, and game theory. Dr. Liang’s work has been supported by several grants, including the Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Sciences Research Youth Foundation, the Philosophy and Social Science Fund of the Education Department of Jiangsu Province, and the Startup Grant for Introducing Talent of NUIST. She has published 24 articles in internationally refereed journals, including Computers & Operations Research, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems, Transportation Research Part E, Group Decision and Negotiation, Annals of Operations Research, and Journal of Environmental Management. Her publications have been cited over 320 times according to the Web of Science.
Dr. Liang has received several notable awards and fellowships, including the Canada-China Scholar Exchange Programme (CCSEP) by the China Scholarship Council in September 2025, a Visiting Fellowship at the Centre of Advanced Studies, University of Palermo in July 2025, and a State Scholarship Fund to pursue study in Canada as a Visiting PhD Student in July 2021.
She also serves as a Young Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Industrial and Production Engineering, reflecting her growing influence in the field.
Elizabeth Tipton – Professor of Statistics and Data Science, Northwestern University, USA
Professor of Statistics and Data Science, Northwestern University
Faculty Fellow, Institute for Policy Research
Co-Director, Statistics for Evidence-Based Policy and Practice Center
Professor Elizabeth Tipton began her academic career with a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Transylvania University in Kentucky, followed by a Master’s degree in Sociology from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in Statistics from Northwestern University in 2011. After completing her doctorate, she joined Teachers College, Columbia University, as an Assistant Professor of Applied Statistics, where she earned tenure in 2017. In 2018, she returned to Northwestern University as a faculty member.
Her research lies at the intersection of statistics, education, and the social sciences, with a focus on several key areas. These include improving generalizability in randomized trials, through more effective recruitment strategies, study designs tailored to different estimands, and methods to address undercoverage issues. She also specializes in meta-analyses of heterogeneous studies, exploring how to best synthesize findings, assess generalizability, test hypotheses, and explain sources of variation. Another major line of her work concerns communicating research evidence to diverse audiences, using principles of data visualization and human-computer interaction to make results accessible to non-experts.
Her scientific contributions have been widely recognized. In 2025, she was elected a Member of the National Academy of Education, and in 2024, she was named a Fellow of both the American Statistical Association and the American Educational Research Association, in recognition of her influential work integrating statistical methodology with applied social research.
Throughout her career, Professor Elizabeth Tipton has collaborated with researchers from a wide range of disciplines on numerous projects. Among these, she particularly values her involvement in the design and analysis of large-scale randomized controlled trials, such as the National Study of Learning Mindsets, an innovative project conducted with a random sample of U.S. high schools. This study not only evaluated the average impact of an educational intervention but also examined variation in effects across different contexts, offering new insights into how learning outcomes are shaped by environment.
At Northwestern University, Professor Elizabeth Tipton holds several academic and leadership roles. She serves as Professor of Statistics and Data Science, Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research, and Courtesy Professor in the School of Education and Social Policy. She is also Co-Director of the Statistics for Evidence-Based Policy and Practice Center, where she promotes interdisciplinary research linking statistical innovation with evidence-based policy.
At the national level, she has contributed to major collaborative efforts. In 2021, she served on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Consensus Study on the future of education research in the United States. Conducted in the post-pandemic period, this project produced a comprehensive roadmap for building evidence systems rooted in the needs of schools and communities, an achievement she considers particularly meaningful.
Professor Elizabeth Tipton remains actively involved in academic initiatives, research events, and interdisciplinary collaborations aimed at strengthening the connection between statistical science and its practical applications in public policy.