Maija Hirvonen is scholar in linguistics and translation studies with a vast background in multi- and cross-disciplinary research into human and machine practices in multimodal and intermodal language use and accessibility. She gained her PhD in 2014 at University of Helsinki and is full professor of German language, culture and translation at Tampere University, Finland. She has won several Horizon Europe RIAs (MeMAD, 2018-2021; NewWorkTech 2024-2027) in collaboration between SSH, engineering sciences, NGOs, and public and private businesses. Hirvonen coordinates the project NewWorkTech (From the margins to the masses: Standard practices and innovative uses of technology in augmenting different abilities of people in the world of work) involving 10 partners in 5 different countries. She participates in various research communities: At Tampere University, she (co-)leads MULTI research group and Tampere Accessibility Unit. Nationally, she serves as director of the Finnish network of doctoral programs in language studies, Langnet. Internationally, she is founding member of the Network on Inclusion and Inclusive Communication in Tertiary Education and a member of the international scientific council of the Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache.

Yannis Ioannidis (Ph.D., Computer Sciences, UC Berkeley; MSc, Applied Mathematics, Harvard University; Diploma, Electrical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens) is the President of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM). He is a Professor at the Department of Informatics and Telecom of the University of Athens as well as an Associated Faculty at the “Athena” Research and Innovation Center, where he also served as the President and General Director for 10 years. His research interests include Database and Information Systems, Data Science, Data Infrastructures and Digital Repositories, Recommender Systems and Personalization, and Interactive Digital Storytelling, topics on which he has published over 180 articles in leading journals and conferences and holds four patents. His work is often inspired by and applied to data management and analysis problems that arise in industrial environments or in the context of other scientific fields (Social Sciences and Humanities, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences) and the Arts. He is an ACM and IEEE Fellow, a member of Academia Europaea, and a recipient of several research, teaching, and service awards. He is a co-founder of OpenAIRE, the international data infrastructure for Open Science in Europe, as well as of several AI/data-driven start-ups. He is also a co-chair of the Global Climate Hub of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

Kaisa Väänänen is a full professor of human-technology interaction in Tampere University, Computing Sciences, since 2005. In 1995-2004, she worked at Nokia Inc, in leading positions of user needs research and strategic consumer insights. Kaisa’s research interests cover user experience and participatory technology design, with emphasis on digital services advancing sustainability, and smart cities, and human-centered AI. Kaisa is an author of over 200 peer-reviewed academic publications. She has lead several study programmes and supervised 25 doctoral students to graduation. In 2013-2018, Kaisa served full six years as a member of Academy of Finland’s research council for Natural Sciences and Engineering. She frequently organises conferences related to user experience and human-computer interaction, such as the flagship conference of Human-Computer Interaction, ACM CHI’23, and Intelligent User Interfaces IUI’25. In 2022, Kaisa was inducted as an ACM Distinguished Member for her long-standing contribution to the field of computing.