Dr. Ruvan Weerasinghe
Dean - School of Computing of the Informatics Institute of Technology, Sri Lanka
A former Director of the University of Colombo School of Computing, Sri Lanka.

Prof. Ruvan Weerasinghe is a distinguished academic and researcher with expertise in Computational Linguistics, Artificial Intelligence, and Bioinformatics. He is a former Director of the University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC) and currently serves as Dean/Academic at the School of Computing of the Informatics Institute of Technology (IIT), Sri Lanka. He has held prominent roles as a Visiting Professor at Malaysia’s Management & Science University, Visiting Faculty at Sweden’s Umea University, and Dean of the Informatics Institute of Technology, Sri Lanka.
Prof. Weerasinghe is an ERCIM Fellow at France’s INRIA Labs and a Fulbright Senior Scholar at Carnegie-Mellon University’s Language Technology Institute in the USA. He has contributed extensively to national and international governance, serving on committees and boards at the University Grants Commission, Ministries of Education and Higher Education, the National Science Foundation, the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka, LEARN, Lanka Software Foundation, Lanka Domain Registry, and Sri Lanka CERT.
Leading a research group at UCSC’s Language Technology Research Lab from 2004 to 2018, he pioneered advancements in Machine Translation and data-driven language technologies. His work bridges Computational Linguistics, Artificial Intelligence, and Bioinformatics, emphasizing large dataset applications.
A Fulbright Senior Scholar and ERCIM Fellow, Prof. Weerasinghe has collaborated globally, combining academic leadership with industry-aligned research. He remains an active member of UCSC’s research lab and advises national ICT policy frameworks.

Prof. Weerasinghe’s career reflects a journey from academic leadership to pioneering research, positioning him as a visionary who transitions seamlessly between “architecting institutions” and “architecting intelligent systems.”

Professor Mohamed Abdel Maguid
Pro Vice-Chancellor
Canterbury Christ Church University

With 30 years of experience spanning higher education and industry, Professor Mohamed Abdel-Maguid is a transformational leader in global education and business-university partnerships. As Pro Vice-Chancellor at Canterbury Christ Church University, he has led international growth, fostered transdisciplinary collaboration, and strengthened industry-linked education, doubling university size in just four years. A champion of public-private partnerships and digital innovation, he is committed to advancing global access and graduate mobility through AI-driven learning and collaborations. Recognised for his work in Smart Systems by Times Higher Education and Innovate UK, he remains dedicated to leveraging technology and partnerships to shape the future of education.