**Rashid Mehmood**

Rashid Mehmood is a Research Professor of Big Data Systems and the Director of Research, Training, and Consultancy at the High-Performance Computing Center, King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia. His qualifications and work experience stem from universities in the UK, including Cambridge and Oxford Universities. Rashid has 27 years of experience in computational modelling, simulations, and design using computational intelligence, big data, high-performance computing, and distributed systems. Broadly, his research aim is the development of multi-disciplinary science and technology to enable a better quality of life and smart economies with a focus on real-time intelligence and autonomous system management. He has published over 200 research papers including six edited books. He has organized and chaired international conferences and workshops including EuropeComm 2009, Nets4Cars 2010–2013, SCE 2017–2019, SCITA 2017, HPC Saudi 2018–2020, and DCAI 2022. He has led and contributed to academia–industry collaborative projects funded by the EPSRC, the EU, UK regional funds, and the Technology Strategy Board UK with a value of over GBP 50 million. He is a founding member of the Future Cities and Community Resilience (FCCR) Network, a member of ACM and OSA, a Senior Member of IEEE, and the former Vice Chairman of IET Wales SW Network.

### **Juan M. Corchado**

Juan M. Corchado (born 15 May 1971, Salamanca, Spain) is a Professor at the University of Salamanca. He was the Vice Rector of Research from 2013 to 2017 and is the Director of the Science Park of the University of Salamanca. Elected as the Dean of the Faculty of Science twice, he holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Salamanca and a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from the University of the West of Scotland. He currently leads the renowned BISITE (Bioinformatics, Intelligent Systems, and Educational Technology) Research Group, which was created in 2000.

He is the Director of the IoT Digital Innovation Hub, president of the AIR Institute, and project leader of the DIGIS3 consortium. J. M. Corchado has also been a Visiting Professor at the Osaka Institute of Technology since January 2015, a Visiting Professor at the Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, and a Member of the Advisory Group on Online Terrorist Propaganda of the European Counter Terrorism Centre (EUROPOL). He has recently been included in the board of trustees of the AstraZeneca Foundation, along with other health professionals and researchers recognized for bringing scientific knowledge closer to society.

J. M. Corchado has been the president of IEEE Systems and the Man and Cybernetics Society, the academic coordinator of the University Institute for Research in Art and Animation Technology at the University of Salamanca, and a researcher at the Universities of Paisley (UK), Vigo (Spain), and the Plymouth Marine Laboratory (UK).
