Uwe Kippnich is a member of the Bavarian Red Cross for more than 40 years and member of the German Rescue Robotics Centre (DRZ) and Public Safety Communication Europe (PSCE) Board. He is holding different leadership positions. Since 2010 he is coordinating national and international security research projects for the German and the Bavarian Red Cross. He is the leader of the research department of the Bavarian Red Cross HQ in Munich. Currently he is leading the Operational Procedure Team for EU Project EUCCS and is involved in various national and international research projects.
He has been working with drones for many years with a focus on use case scenarios in the field and research projects. He is head of operations, leader of the medical task force 47 and high-level trained coordinator for the EU civil protection mechanism. Uwe Kippnich is also author and co-author of many publications on PPDR, emergency rescue services, telemedicine and operational tactics.
Dipl.-Ing. Hendrik Frese, Chief of the Hanau Fire Department After completing his intermediate fire service training at the Frankfurt Fire Department, Hendrik Frese studied electrical engineering with a focus on automation technology and robotics at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences and the Technical University of Darmstadt before transferring to the Hamburg Fire Department and completing his advanced fire service training.
After various assignments and numerous projects (including digital radio and preparation for the G20 summit in Hamburg), he was promoted to the senior fire service in 2019 and headed Hamburg’s largest fire station. Since October 2021, he has headed the Office of Fire and Civil Protection in Hanau and is chairman of the working group of the heads of professional fire departments in Hesse.
PhD. DAMIEN SALLÉ was awarded Ph.D. in Robotics (2004) from University Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris) for his research on minimally invasive surgical robotics. From 2005 to 2010, he created and managed the R&D department of the French robotics SME Robosoft. He has contributed to the development of more than 10 robotic products and more than 70 applications: from companion robots for elderly people to autonomous transportation shuttles and off-road rugged mobile robots for defence and security. In 2010 he integrates the Spanish technological research center Tecnalia as project manager and creates the Agile and Flexible Robotics group. He defines the scientific and business strategy of the group, manages R&D projects and ensures funding from collaborative and industrial projects.
He is also since 2018 the coordinator of the Flexible Robotics node of the Basque Digital Innovation Hub (BDIH) in collaboration with the Basque government and agencies, promoting the deployment of robotics in the SMEs. Since 2020 he is transversal coordinator of the technological strategy for Robotics and Automation within all the groups in Tecnalia (82 researchers), promoting transversality and joint technological solutions to provide impact in society and companies.
He is Senior project manager and in particular promotes and develops a new activity in Robotics for Environmental sustainability and Circular Economy. In 2022, he receives an award for “Research Career Excellence” issued by the Basque government and the Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), regrouping 17 research centers and more than 4000 researchers.
Prof. Tomáš Svoboda is currently a Full Professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czechia. He directs the Ph.D. program in Cybernetics and Robotics. He led the successful CTU-CRAS-NORLAB Team within the DARPA SubTerranean Challenge. He has authored or coauthored articles on multi-camera systems, omnidirectional cameras, image-based retrieval, learnable detection methods, and USAR robotics.
His research interests include multi-modal perception for autonomous systems, machine learning for better simulation and robot control, and related applications in the automotive industry and robotics.
Prof. dr. Catholijn Jonker is professor in Artificial Intelligence at TU Delft and Leiden University. She is a principal investigator of the Amsterdam Institute of Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS), board member of IFAAMAS, and coordinator of the Hybrid Intelligence Centre. She is a member of the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities, a Fellow of EurAI, and member of the Academia Europaea.
She is a co-founding member of the Netherlands Academy of Engineers. She is a knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion, and she was recognized with the ACM/SIGAI Autonomous Agents Research Award 2024.
Tony Belpaeme is a Professor at Ghent University, Senior Researcher at imec and Visiting Professor at the University of Plymouth. He received his PhD in Computer Science from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). At Ghent University he leads a team studying cognitive robotics and human-robot interaction. Starting from the premise that intelligence is rooted in social interaction, Belpaeme and his research team try to further the science and technology behind artificial intelligence and social human-robot interaction. This results in a spectrum of results, from theoretical insights to practical applications.
Prof. Dr. ELPINIKI I. PAPAGEORGIOU, is a Professor in Artificial Intelligence, at Energy Systems Department, University of Thessaly, Larissa, Greece. She holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Patras (Sept. 2004) and an MSc in Medical Physics from the same University (2000). She specializes in developing and applying artificial intelligent models and algorithms to decision support systems (DSS) for modeling, prediction, strategic decisions, scenario analysis and data mining, solving important emerging problems arising in engineering, energy, business, medicine, agriculture and environment. She is ranked first author worldwide in the field of “Fuzzy Cognitive Maps”, regarding her published work in this field. Also, for the sixth consecutive year, 2020-2025, Prof. Papageorgiou is included in the World Top 2% of Scientists List at Stanford University ranking, in the field of “Artificial Intelligence”, which is among her main scientific fields of expertise.
Dr. Papageorgiou is actively involved in various European and Greek projects, for over 20 years, working as project manager, technical manager and/or senior researcher (participation in 18 EU and 12 national projects, ie. OPTIMAI, NAIADES, KYKLOS4.0, Ζ-Fact0r, USEFIL, DEBUGIT). Also, her strong relationship with external funding bodies and especially EU and national funding environments, gave her experience in managing research teams in different application domain projects. She is Director of ACTA Lab in Dept of Energy Systems, Larissa. She has more than 320 publications in journals, conference papers and book chapters and has more than 14000 citations from independent researchers.
Virginia Dignum is Professor of Responsible AI at Umeå University, Sweden, where she leads the AI Policy Lab. A Wallenberg Scholar and senior policy advisor, she chairs the ACM Technology Policy Council and co-chairs the IEEE Global Initiative on AI Ethics. She is a Fellow of EURAI, ELLIS, and IVA, and advises organizations including UNESCO, OECD, the UN, and the EU. Her upcoming book, The AI Paradox, will be released end 2025.
Zoltán Hozbor is currently working for the National Command and Control Duty Centre of the Integrated Disaster Management System and is a national delegate to the Federation of EUropean Fire Officers (FEU) since 2012. He comes from Hungary and is an experienced senior Fire Officer with 19 years of activity. For 3 years he was also the Deputy Commander of the Airport Fire and Rescue Service at Budapest Airport where he was also responsible for local and international trainings and exercises of the personnel.
Mr. Hozbor holds a degree in Disaster Managment and Defense Administration. He has also attended a couple of national and EU Civil Protection Mechanism courses (CMI, OPM, AMC, SMC) and has worked for and was actively involved in various EU funded projects since 2009 and in exercises in Europe as evaluator.