AAAI 2025 Summer Symposium Series

Sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence 

The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence is pleased to present the 2025 Summer Symposium Series, to be held Tuesday, May 20-Thursday, May 22, 2025 at the Heriot-Watt University Dubai Campus. The Summer Symposium Series is an annual set of meetings run in parallel at a common site. It is designed to bring colleagues together in an intimate forum while at the same time providing a significant gathering point for the AI community. The two and one-half day format of the series allows participants to devote considerably more time to feedback and discussion than typical one-day workshops. It is an ideal venue for bringing together new communities in emerging fields.

Symposia generally range from 30-50 participants each. Participation was open to active participants as well as other interested individuals on a first-come, first-served basis. Each participant was expected to attend a single symposium. 

The program includes the following symposia: 

• AI in Business: Intelligent Transformation and Management
• Context-Awareness in Cyber-Physical Systems
• Human-AI Collaboration: Exploring diversity of human cognitive abilities and varied AI models for hybrid intelligent systems

AAAI Code of Conduct for Events and Conferences 

All persons, organizations and entities that attend AAAI conferences and events are subject to the standards of conduct set forth on the AAAI Code of Conduct for Events and Conferences. 

Registration and General Information 

Important Registration Dates 

• By January 17th:  AAAI opens registration for Summer Symposium Series 
• April 14th: Deadline for Registration Refund Requests – Last day before Late Registration Rate begins (See Fee Schedule Below)
• May 16th: Registration Closes per event location requirements – onsite registration is not available for this event.

Registration Fees

The conference registration fee includes admission to one symposium, access to the electronic proceedings, coffee breaks, and the opening reception.

Refund Requests

The deadline for refund requests is April 14, 2025. All refund requests must be made in writing to summersymposiumseries@aaai.org. A $50.00 processing fee will be assessed for all refunds.

Registration Deadline

Registration will close on May 16th per the location requirements. Registrations after this date will not be accepted.

Registration Fee Schedule

AAAI Silver Registration

(Includes AAAI membership, plus the conference)

Onsite Registration Schedule 

General Event Schedule 

Each Symposium’s Schedule May Differ

Additional Information: 

General inquiries regarding the symposium series should be directed to AAAI at summersymposiumseries@aaai.org.

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AI in Business: Intelligent Transformation and Management

The Symposium/Stream aims to explore the strategic deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across various business domains to drive competitive advantage, enhance operations, and foster sustainable growth. The event will equip participants with actionable insights into the latest trends, challenges, and applications of AI in business transformation and management. The event aims to provide a platform for academics, practitioners, and policymakers to exchange actionable insights, explore the latest advancements, and address the challenges of integrating AI into business transformation and management.

Topics:

We invite contributions that align with the symposium’s theme, including but not limited to: AI-Driven Decision Making; Sales and Demand Forecasting; Predictive and Prescriptive Analytics; Automation and Robotics; AI in Supply Chain and Operations Management; AI in Finance and Economics; AI in Marketing; AI in Human Resources and Behavioral Analytics; Internet of Things (IoT) and AI Integration; Other related topics in AI and business applications.

Symposium Format:

The symposium will offer a dynamic blend of interactive and presentation-focused segments designed to foster engagement and knowledge exchange. Renowned experts will deliver thought-provoking opening and concluding keynote addresses, setting the stage for insightful discussions. Authors of selected papers will present their research in dedicated sessions, each followed by a Q&A segment, with each presentation allocated 15 minutes. Additionally, panel discussions featuring industry leaders and academics will explore current trends and challenges in the field. To further enhance collaboration and connection, the symposium will include dedicated time for interactive networking, allowing participants to engage with speakers, panelists, and peers.

Participation Guidelines:

Attendance is open to academics, practitioners, and policymakers working in the fields of AI, machine learning, and data science, as well as graduate students and researchers specializing in AI applications for business or related disciplines.
Participants are encouraged to submit their work for consideration. Submissions must include an abstract, and all participants are required to use the official AAAI EasyChair submission platform.

Submission Site Information:

Submissions must be made through the AAAI Official EasyChair platform(https://easychair.org/conferences2/submissions?a=33907301). Participants are required to submit an abstract, adhering to specific word limits (300 words), by February 10. Authors will receive notifications on February 24.

Symposium Committee:

• Nahid Jafari, Associate Professor of Supply Chain and AI Management, State University of New York- Farmingdale, NY, USA;  jnahid@hotmail.com, jafarin@farmingdale.edu;
• Helper Zhou, helperzhou@gmail.com, zhouh@ukzn.ac.za
• Gordon H. Dash, Professor of Computational Finance and Decision Sciences, College of Business, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island, USA;
• Jephias Gwamuri, Professor of Physics- Materials Science & Engineering, Technology Transfer & IP Management, Applied Physics, National University of Science & Technology, Zimbabwe;
• Zbigniew Bentyn, Ph.D., Poznan University of Business and Economics, Poland, Zbigniew.bentyn@ue.poznan.pl;
• Farid Tarrahi, Ph.D., European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), Germany;
• Fatima-Ezzahra Achamrah, Assistant Professor in Operations and Supply Chain Management, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom;
• Homero Malagón, ⁠Ph.D. Candidate on Complex Adaptive Innovations Systems, ⁠⁠Mexico’s National Autonomous University (UNAM);
• Serestina Viriri, Professor of Computer Science, & Dean and Head of the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science, University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa;
• Betul Kalayci, Senior Specialist, Takasbank, Turkey;
• Lilian Gumbo, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Department of Management Sciences, University of South Africa;
• Amos Mpofu, Senior Lecturer (Information Systems), National University of Science & Technology, Zimbabwe;
• Molifi Sehaole, VP Information Management, Business Services for Sasol Energy Business, South Africa;

Symposium External URL:

More Information to Come

Context-Awareness in Cyber-Physical Systems

Context-Awareness in Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) is a developing research field that focuses on the ability of CPS to detect, interpret, and adapt to real-time environmental conditions or user requirements. CPS are being incorporated into a variety of critical domains, including smart cities, healthcare, transportation, and industrial automation, due to the accelerated advancement of technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML). Context-awareness enables these systems to operate autonomously and intelligently by understanding the evolving states of the environment, devices, and users. Contextual cues enable systems to develop situational awarenes allowing CPS to understand not just what is happening, but why it is happening, providing a foundation for intelligent responses.
The symposium aims to bring together researchers, practitioners, and industry experts to advance the state of the art in modeling, designing, and implementing context-aware cyber-physical systems. As these systems integrate physical processes with computational systems, understanding and leveraging context is crucial for optimizing performance, enhancing user experience, and enabling adaptive, intelligent behavior. The symposium will focus on exploring innovative methods, models, and technologies for context modeling, recognition, reasoning, and application in cyber-physical systems, related to topics including machine learning approaches for enhancing intelligent systems, computer vision, sensor data fusion, trustworthy AI, privacy and security, human-centric applications, and autonomy in cyber-physical and IoT systems.

Attendance:

Talks by prominent researchers and industry experts in the field, providing an overview of current trends and challenges.

Topics:

1. Context Modeling and Representation

• Scalable representation of diverse contextual data.
• Modeling dependencies and temporal behaviors.
• Improving accuracy, robustness, and scalability.

2. Machine Learning for Context Recognition and Interpretation

• Adapting machine learning models
• Multi-modal data fusion (sensor, video, audio).
• Addressing data scarcity with semi-supervised or unsupervised learning.
• Applying continual or transfer learning for evolving contexts.

3. Context Reasoning Techniques

• Hybrid reasoning (symbolic and machine learning).
• Probabilistic and logic-based approaches for uncertainty.
• Hybrid models for safety-critical applications.

4. Security and Privacy in Context-Aware CPS

• Privacy frameworks for user-centric CPS.
• Mitigating security risks and vulnerabilities.
• Federated learning and data anonymization for privacy.

5. Human-Centric Context Awareness

• Enhancing human-computer interaction in CPS.
• Personalization and adaptation based on user preferences.

6. Applications of Context-Aware CPS

• Real-world use cases: smart cities, healthcare, IoT, autonomous vehicles.

Format of Symposium:

The symposium will be a 2.5-day event featuring a combination of keynote presentations, technical paper sessions, poster sessions, panel discussions, and interactive technical demonstrations.

Submission Site Information:

We would like to use the AAAI Official EasyChair Site and to be included in the AAAI Proceedings. https://easychair.org/conferences2/submissions?a=33907301

Submission requirements:

Papers submitted either as a full research paper of up to 8 pages or an extended abstract up to 2 pages,  that can include recent or ongoing research, challenges with datasets, and surveys. Authors should follow formatting guidelines in the AAAI-24 Author Kit. All submissions undergo a peer-review, must be anonymized, and should not have been published or under review elsewhere.

Organizing committee:

Dr Radu-Casian Mihailescu (r.mihailescu@hw.ac.uk) (Heriot-Watt University), Dr Md Azher Uddin (m.uddin@hw.ac.uk) (Heriot-Watt University), Dr Young-Koo Lee (yklee@khu.ac.kr) (Kyung Hee University), Dr. Paul Davidsson (Malmö University), Dr. Sascha Ossowski (King Juan Carlos University) Dr Aziz Nasridinov (aziz@chungbuk.ac.kr) (Chungbuk National University), Dr Hanan Salam (hanan.salam@nyu.edu) (New York University Abu Dhabi).  

Symposium External URL:

https://sites.google.com/view/cyber-physical-systems

Human-AI Collaboration: Exploring diversity of human cognitive abilities and varied AI models for hybrid intelligent systems

Human-AI collaboration spans several domains, requiring us to rethink design principles to accommodate user-centred AI. This demands robust theoretical foundations, innovative methodologies, and practical solutions to ensure AI can act as a reliable, transparent, and ethical partner to human users. The targets of this symposium lie at the intersection of human cognition, ethical considerations, and technological advancement. The symposium emphasizes explainable AI, human-in-the-loop approaches, and immersive environments like virtual and augmented reality to enhance interpretability and collaboration in AI systems. Applications include the fields of healthcare, education and creative industries, where AI-driven insights are increasingly impactful but must be used judiciously and responsibly.

This symposium aims to foster practical insights and skills for building ethical, effective, and user-centred AI systems. The focus is on methods for harnessing the diversity of human cognitive abilities and varied AI models to create more adaptable and effective hybrid intelligent systems. The symposium addresses the challenges of integrating diverse human inputs and perspectives while discussing ethical considerations and strategies for designing inclusive, user-centred AI solutions. Attendees will benefit from discussions, hands-on workshops and interdisciplinary exchanges, supporting the development of AI functions to enhance human expertise and decision-making across different sectors.

Topics

The symposium will cover a range of theoretical, methodological, and applied aspects of human-AI collaboration, including but not limited to:

• Ethics, Human-AI design principles, and societal implications of AI collaborative agents
• Methodological advances in Interpretability and explainability in AI systems, Human-in-the-loop approaches, User modelling, personalisation strategies, and adaptation in collaborative AI
• LLMs, NLP, VR/AR, and neuro-symbolic AI for enhanced collaboration
• Applications in healthcare, education, creative and social fields, and human augmentation
• Ethical and social considerations
• Cognitive and behavioural science perspectives

Format

The symposium will engage attendees through a variety of sessions designed to encourage both learning and dialogue. Sessions will include invited speakers, oral and poster presentations, tutorials, interactive workshops, and panel discussions.

Submission

Contributions can be of type full paper (6 to 8 pages), short paper (2-4 pages), poster (2-3 pages), or extended abstract (1-2 pages). Submission should be made through AAAI Official EasyChair Site – https://easychair.org/conferences2/submissions?a=33907031. Papers will be included in the AAAI Proceedings (Scopus indexed).

Organization Committee

Dr Hadj Batatia, h.batatia@hw.ac.uk, Heriot Watt University – UAE

Prof Mohamed Quafafou, mohamed.quafafou@univ- amu.fr, University of Marseilles – France

Prof Farid Meziane, F.Meziane@derby.ac.uk, University of Derby UK

Dr Ryad Soobhany, R.Soobhany@hw.ac.uk, Heriot Watt University – UAE

Dr Adrian Turcanu, a.turcanu@hw.ac.uk, Heriot Watt University – UAE

Kyavan Karim, k.karim@hw.ac.uk, Heriot Watt University – UAE

Symposium URL

http://www.haic2025.com/