Advancing Cybersecurity at the Intersection of Parallel Computing and Blockchain

Valentina Emilia Balas is currently Full Professor in the Department of Automatics and Applied Software at the Faculty of Engineering, “Aurel Vlaicu” University of Arad, Romania. She holds a Ph.D. Cum Laude, in Applied Electronics and Telecommunications from Polytechnic University of Timisoara. Dr. Balas is the author of more than 400 research papers. She is the Editor-in Chief to International Journal of Advanced Intelligence Paradigms (IJAIP) and to International Journal of Computational Systems Engineering (IJCSysE), member in Editorial Board of international journals and is evaluator for international projects and PhD Thesis. Dr. Balas is the Head of Intelligent Systems Research Centre in Aurel Vlaicu University of Arad. She served as General Chair of the International Workshop Soft Computing and Applications (SOFA) in the interval 2005-2022.Dr. Balas is a member of the specialized committee “Computers, Information Technology, and Systems Engineering” of the National Council for Attestation of University Titles, Diplomas, and Certificates for the 2024-2028 term. Dr. Balas participated in many international conferences as Honorary Chair and Keynote Speaker. Recently she was working on a project with EU funding support: BioCell-NanoART = Novel Bio-inspired Cellular Nano-Architectures - For Digital Integrated Circuits, 3M Euro. She is a member of European Society for Fuzzy Logic and Technology (EUSFLAT), member of SPIE and an IEEE Senior Member, During the interval 2021-2022 she was a member of IEEE European Public Policy Committee Working Group on ICT. From May 2023 Dr. Balas is an associate member of Romanian Academy of Scientists. She is recipient of the “Tudor Tanasescu” Prize from the Romanian Academy for contributions in the field of soft computing methods (2019), “Stefan Odobleja” Prize from Romanian Academy of Scientists (2023 and 2024) and Diploma – Section Information Technology from The General Association of the Engineers in Romania 2023.

Qin Xin graduated with his Ph.D (1st Oct. 2002 – 30th Sep. 2004) in Department of Computer Science at University of Liverpool, UK in December 2004. Currently, he is working as a FULL professor of Computer Science in the Faculty of Science and Technology at the University of the Faroe Islands (UoFI), Faroe Islands. Prior to joining UoFI, he had held variant research positions in world leading universities and research laboratory including Senior Research Fellowship at Universite Catholique de Louvain, Belgium, Research Scientist/Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Simula Research Laboratory, Norway and Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at University of Bergen, Norway. His main research focus is on design and analysis of sequential, parallel and distributed algorithms for various communication and optimization problems in wireless communication networks, as well as cryptography and digital currencies including quantum money. Moreover, he also investigates the combinatorial optimization problems with applications in Bioinformatics, Data Mining and Space Research. Prof. Xin also served on Management Committee Board of Denmark for several EU ICT projects. Prof. Xin has produced more than 200 peer reviewed scientific papers. His works have been published in leading international conferences and journals, such as ICALP, ACM PODC, SWAT, IEEE MASS, ISAAC, SIROCCO, IEEE ICC, Algorithmica, Theoretical Computer Science, Distributed Computing, IEEE Transactions on Computers, Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing, IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation, IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Computing, ACM Transactions on Internet Technology, IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering, ACM Transactions on Asian and Low-Resource Language Information Processing, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, MDPI Symmetry, and Advances in Space Research. He has been very actively involved in the services for the community in terms of acting (or acted) on various positions (e.g., Session Chair, Member of Technical Program Committee, Symposium Organizer and Local Organization Co-chair) for numerous international leading conferences in the fields of distributed computing, wireless communications and ubiquitous intelligence and computing, including IEEE MASS, IEEE LCN, ACM SAC, IEEE ICC, IEEE Globecom, IEEE WCNC, IEEE VTC, IFIP NPC, IEEE Sarnoff and so on. He was the Organizing Committee Chair for the 17th and 18th Scandinavian Symposium and Workshops on Algorithm Theory (SWAT 2020 and SWAT 2022, Torshavn, Faroe Islands). Currently, he also serves on the editorial board for more than ten international journals.

Ambeth Kumar V D received his Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from Sathyabama University, India, in 2013. He pursued his M.E. in Computer Science and Engineering at Annamalai University, Chidambaram, and his B.E. in Computer Science and Engineering at Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India, in 2006 and 2004, respectively. He has nearly a decade of rich experience in the field of Computer Science and is currently working as an Associate Professor and Head at Mizoram University (A Central University), Aizawl, Mizoram, India. He has contributed to various technology initiatives and has published books on Theory of Computation, Design and Analysis of Algorithms, Python Programming, and Advanced Computer Architectures. His research contributions include over 100 international journal articles, 6 national journal publications, and presentations at more than 80 national and international conferences. He is a recognized Ph.D. supervisor at Mizoram University and has successfully guided five Ph.D. scholars. He has successfully completed four funded research projects supported by prestigious national agencies such as the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the University Grants Commission (UGC), focusing on advanced domains in Artificial Intelligence, Image Processing, and Data-Driven Computing. He received the Best Teacher Award from PEC in 2011 and has been recognized among the World's Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University in 2022, 2024, and 2025. He also holds 15 copyrights and 5 patents. His research areas span Image Processing, Pattern Recognition, Neural Networks, and Computer Networks, with broader interests in Computational Models, Compiler Design, Data Structures, and Microprocessors. He serves as a reviewer and editor for many reputed international journals and is a Senior IEEE Member, Life Member of ISTE, IAENG, and ACEEE.