Schedule of events

Shortbio: Dr Yaqub is an associate professor at Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), Abu Dhabi, UAE. He leads the BioMedIA group at MBZUAI. He completed his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Oxford. His domain knowledge is Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, and biomedical health & image analysis.

He has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles, has 6 patents, co-edited 2 books, and secured many national and international grant funding. He is also an honorary research fellow at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences (NDCN), University of Oxford. He founded Labib AI, MBZUAI's first start-up based in Abu Dhabi. Finally, he is the general chair for MICCAI 2026, the world's top AI in medical imaging conference that will be held in Abu Dhabi.

Shortbio: João Varajão is a Professor of Information Systems (IS) and Project Management (PM) at the University of Minho (associate professor with Habilitation). He is also a researcher at the ALGORITMI/LASI research center. Born and raised in Portugal, he attended the University of Minho, earning his Graduate (1995), Masters (1997), and Doctorate (2003) degrees in Technologies and Information Systems. In 2012, he received his Habilitation from the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro. His main research interests are IS PM, IS Development, and IS Management (addressing PM success and the success of projects). Before joining academia, he worked as an Information Technology (IT)/IS consultant, project manager, IS analyst, and software developer, for private companies and public institutions. He is the former director of several 1st, 2nd, and 3rd cycle degrees (e.g., Doctoral Program on Information Systems and Technology). He has taught/coordinated over 150 courses.
He has supervised over 125 MSc and 15 PhD theses. Currently co/supervises MSc and PhD students at the University of Minho, ISCTE, University of Oviedo, and NOVA University of Lisbon. He participated in more than 230 evaluation panels, including MSc (e.g., at the University of Lisbon), PhD evaluation (e.g., Charles III University of Madrid), and promotion (e.g., National University of Ireland). He has published more than 300 works, including refereed publications in top journals (e.g., International Journal of Project Management, Information Systems Management, Communications of ACM), authored books, edited books, as well as book chapters and communications at international conferences (e.g., ICIS, ECIS, AMCIS). He is the co/editor of around 20 books and proceedings (e.g., IGI Global). He serves as editor-in-chief (e.g., IJISPM), associate editor (e.g., IJHCIT, BSR), and editorial board member for international journals (e.g., IJITPM). He has served on numerous committees (more than 150) for international conferences (e.g., CENTERIS, PROJMAN, ECIS). He organized over 40 conferences, workshops, and other events. He is co/founder of CENTERIS – Conference on Enterprise Information Systems and ProjMAN - International Conference on Project MANagement. He participated in the organization of these two conferences for almost ten years as general, program, or organization chair.
He performed more than 180 reviews for journals (e.g., MISQ, Information & Management, European Journal of Information Systems, Project Management Journal), conferences (e.g., ICIS, HICCS, ECIS, AMCIS), and books. He is the former coordinator of the research group ISTTOS (Information Systems and Technologies for Transformation of Organizations and Society). He coordinates the workgroup “Information Systems Project Management” of the Portuguese Association of Information Systems. He is the executive coordinator of the interest group ISPMSig (Information Systems and Project Management Interest Group) (https://ispmsig.dsi.uminho.pt). He participated in several research and development projects as co/PI and team member (e.g., PAFSE - Partnerships for Science Education/Horizon 2020 project, iFactory, VSC - Visual Spaces of Change, Parques de Portugal, IDGRU, VITA - Virtual Learning for the management of successful SMEs, PLAYER - Entrepreneurial culture of young people, and entrepreneurship education, Portal Douro, etc.). He participated in evaluation panels of research and pedagogical projects for several organizations (e.g., ANI – National Innovation Agency, FCT – Public agency supporting science, technology, and innovation research, and A3ES – Agency for Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education). He participated in several invited talks (e.g., keynote speaker at ENTRENOVA-Croatia) and short courses on IT/IS/PM, including in developing countries (e.g., Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Principe, East Timor, Mozambique). He is a national (IPQ/ISO CT175 National PM expert) and international project management expert (ISO TC258 International PM expert). Currently coordinates the NP ISO 21503/4 projects. He is an active/former member of several scientific and professional organizations (e.g., Portuguese Association for Information Systems, Association for Information Systems, AIS SIG ITProjMgmt – IT Project Management, ACM - Association for Computer Machinery, ISO - International Organization for Standardization, IPQ - Portuguese Institute for Quality Services). He coordinates the development of the UMinho/DSI Museums of Informatics (https://mi.dsi.uminho.pt) and Smartphone (https://sm.dsi.uminho.pt). He has been awarded several academic (e.g., UM School Merit 1993, 1994), pedagogical (EEUM Pedagogical Merit 2021, 2022, 2024), scientific (e.g., EEUM Scientific Publication Merit 2022, 2023, 2025; AIS SIG ITProjMgmt Leadership Excellence Award 2022, Scopus "Top 2% world influential researcher” 2023, 2024, 2025), and other (e.g., AIS Distinguished Member 2023) distinctions.