Building Resilient Digital Ecosystems: Security, Governance, and Transformation

Professor Akhtar Kalam is the Academic Director of Texila College Australia, Melbourne. Concurrently, he is an Emeritus Professor at Victoria University (VU), Melbourne. He has been associated with Victoria University since 1984. He is a former deputy dean of the Faculty of Health, Engineering, and Science, head of engineering, and head of external engagement of the College of Engineering and Science. He is also the current Texila College Australia, Melbourne, Australia Academic Board Chair. In addition, he is the Editor in Chief of the Australian Journal of Electrical & Electronics Engineering. Further, he has Distinguished Professorship positions at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; MRS Punjab Technical University – Bhatinda, India; Crescent University – Chennai, India; VIT – Vellore and Chennai, India; 1 Omani institution and 5 Malaysian universities. He has vast experience in educational institutions and industry across four continents. He received his B.Sc. and B.Sc. Engineering from Calcutta University and Aligarh Muslim University, India. He completed his MS and Ph.D. at the University of Oklahoma, USA, and the University of Bath, UK. He has worked with Ingersoll Rand and other electrical manufacturers. He has held teaching appointments at the University of Technology, Baghdad, Iraq, and Capricornia Institute of Advanced Education, Rockhampton, Queensland. He has had international and national recognition for his research. He is the first to have received the John Madsen Medal from Engineers Australia in consecutive years 2016, 2019, and 2020. The John Madsen Medal is awarded for the best paper in Australia written by a current member of Engineers Australia and published in The Australian Journal of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Most recently, the prestigious ‘ACPE-CIGRE Outstanding Academic Award (2021) has highlighted his outstanding impact. The award recognizes an exceptional Australasian academic for outstanding career-long contributions to industry, teaching, and research in electric power engineering. On invitation, he regularly delivers lectures, works on industrial projects, and examines external theses (national and international). His major research interests are power system analysis, communication, control, protection, renewable energy, smart grid, cogeneration systems, and IEC61850 implementation. He has been actively teaching Energy Systems to undergraduates and postgraduates and providing professional courses to the industry in Australia and overseas. He regularly offers Continuing Professional Development and Master Class courses on Power System Protection, Renewable Energy, IEC61850, Cogeneration & Gas Turbine Operation, and PBL in engineering education to practicing engineers, the Energy Supply Association of Australia (ESAA), IDC Technologies, and Australian Power Institute (API). He also runs a postgraduate distance education program on Power System Protection for the ESAA. He has conducted research, provided industrial consultancy, published over six hundred publications in his area of expertise, and written over 29 books. More than 49 higher-degree research students have graduated under his supervision. He provides consultancy for major electrical utilities, manufacturers, and other industry bodies in his expertise. Professor Kalam is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Victoria (PEV), a Fellow of EA, IET, AIE, a Life Senior Member of IEEE, NER, APEC Engineer, IntPE (Aus), and a member of CIGRE AP B5 Study Committee.

Dr. Shikha Khullar is an accomplished academic and researcher with more than 14 years of experience in computer science and emerging technologies. Her expertise lies in artificial intelligence, computational intelligence, and their applications in areas such as fraud detection, intelligent agriculture, cloud security, federated learning, and blockchain. She has authored and contributed to several international publications and book chapters with reputed publishers including IGI Global and Wiley–Scrivener. Alongside her research, Dr. Khullar is deeply committed to teaching and mentoring, guiding students to apply technology for real-world problem-solving. Her vision emphasizes innovation, sustainability, and bridging the gap between academia and industry.

Dr. Udit Mamodiya is an Associate Professor and Associate Dean (Research) at Poornima University in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. With a robust academic and professional background, he has significantly contributed to the fields of renewable energy sources, reliability analysis, expert systems, and decision support systems. Dr. Mamodiya has authored over 60 research papers indexed in prestigious databases such as SCI, Scopus, and UGC Care, showcasing his commitment to advancing knowledge in his areas of expertise. Additionally, he has authored ten books published by national publishers, further enriching the academic community with valuable resources. An innovator at heart, Dr. Mamodiya holds an impressive portfolio of intellectual property, including 50 utility patents (both national and international) along with 20 design patents and copyrights. His entrepreneurial spirit is exemplified by securing ₹1 Crore in funding from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to establish the IDEA Lab at Poornima University, aimed at fostering innovation and research among students and faculty.

Dr. Manju Lata Joshi , Professor, Poornima University, India holds an M.Tech. and a Doctorate in Computer Science from Banasthali Vidyapith. Her current research interests encompass Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing, Information Retrieval, and Text Mining. With over 17 years of experience in teaching and research, she has published research papers in prestigious journals indexed in the Science Citation Index (SCI) and Scopus, both nationally and internationally. Furthermore, she serve on the review and advisory committees of several refereed journals and conferences. She has contributed to multiple institutions, mentored students, and led research in AI-based document clustering, sentiment analysis, and information retrieval. She is also actively involved in academic advisory boards, technical committees, and conferences.

Surbhi B. Khan is working in the School of Science, Engineering and Environmentat the University of Salford, United Kingdom. She is Project Management Professional Certified from PMP, USA. She is ranked among the top 2% of scientists globally for the second year in a row (2023 and 2024). She is supervising/co-supervising a number of PhDs and research associates. She has published over 250 articles and books in high indexed outlets with her students and colleagues and also has been granted patents from USA. She is also serving as Deputy EIC in TCE letters, Associate editor in IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, HCIS and EAAI journals and Guest editor in many other reputed journals. She is working in KTP Projects Innovate UK and has submitted grants as a CO-PI inHORIZON-EIC-2025-PATHFINDEROPEN. She is also working in external funding from India,andMiddleEastern Institutes.She is a senior member of IEEE and has been serving as session chairs in many IEEE conferences, been invited as a resource person at International Conferences and FDP's and has holds honorary positions, providing guidance to universities in pursuit of research and teaching excellence. She is also a member in the Women in Data Science Ambassador. Her research interests are Machine Learning/Deep learning, Data Science in Healthcare and IoT, Text analytics and detection, and Sentiment Analysis.