Prof. Yunhao Liu

Professor & Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

Tsinghua University

Keynote Title

[Title to be announced]

Abstract

[Abstract to be announced]

Prof. Chiranjib Bhattacharyya

Professor & Fellow of Indian Academy of Engineering

Indian Institute of Science (IISc)

Keynote Title

[Title to be announced]

Abstract

[Abstract to be announced]

Biography

Prof. Chiranjib Bhattacharyya is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Automation at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). He completed his postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley, and is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering. His research focuses on the foundations of machine learning, convex optimization, and autonomous systems, with an emphasis on applications to industrial problems. His work has been recognized with several best paper honours, including the SDM 2011 Best Paper Award and the PAKDD 2009 Runner-Up Award.

Prof. Weiru Liu

Professor & Chair of Artificial Intelligence

University of Bristol

Keynote Title

Agents before and after LLM Revolution: Comparing and synergizing symbolic and neural approaches

Abstract

The study of agents and multi-agent systems (MAS) has been a cornerstone of AI research for over four decades.  Recently, this foundational field has experienced a renewed interest driven by the rapid advances in large language models (LLMs), leading to a surge in research and application of LLM-based agents. In this talk, I will compare symbolic/logic-based agent systems with the emerging paradigm of LLM-based agents, focusing on their approaches to planning and belief/knowledge management. By contrasting the two paradigms, we aim to identify synergies that can advance the development of more robust and scalable agent systems. I will also briefly highlight challenges in developing LLM-based agent systems and touch upon advanced research addressing some of these challenges.

Biography

Professor Weiru Liu holds the Chair of Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the University of Bristol. Currently, she is a Co-Director of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Autonomous and Robotic Systems: Towards Ubiquity (FARSCOPE-TU, 2019-2028). She is also a Co-Investigator on the ESRC-funded Centre for Sociodigital Futures (2023-2028), where she leads research into the social implications of AI and the importance of social science in designing future AI technologies. Prior to joining the University of Bristol in 2017, she held the Chair of AI at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB).

Nationally, she was a member of the UK EPSRC ICT Strategic Advisory Team (ICT SAT, 2017-2023); a member of the UK Higher Education Research Excellence Framework (REF2021) Institutional Environment Pilot Panel, and a Turing Fellow at the UK Alan Turing Institute (2021- 2023). Internationally, she was a reviewer of the Research Ireland Investigators Programme 2025, a member of Academy of Finland AI and Data Science Review Panel (2020-2021), and a member of the international committee for Independent Research Fund Denmark (DFF) - Digital Technologies (2019).

Her research has been centered on developing intelligent autonomous systems (e.g., agent-based systems). With this overarching goal, her research topics include but are not limited to: symbolic and LLM agents; explainability; online planning; machine learning; multi-source, multi-model event modelling, reasoning and correlation in uncertain environments. Supported by external funding bodies with accumulated funding exceeding £58 million, her work has been applied across a wide range of fields, including cyber-physical system security, healthcare, robotics, and fraud detection. Her publications can be viewed from DBLP link https://dblp.org/pid/l/WeiruLiu.html