Keynote Speakers

Biography

Helen Karatza (senior member of IEEE, ACM, SCS) is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Informatics at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. Dr. Karatza’s research interests include cloud, fog and mist computing, energy efficiency, fault tolerance, resource allocation, scheduling algorithms and real-time distributed systems. Dr. Karatza has authored or co-authored over 280 technical papers and book chapters. She has received the ACM SIGSIM Distinguished Contributions Award 2025 and the DS-RT Lifetime Achievement Award 2026 for Outstanding Lifetime Achievement and Contribution to Modeling, Simulation, and Performance Evaluation of Distributed Systems. She is included in the list of the world’s top 2% of scientists (Stanford University rankings), and also in the 12th edition of the Research.com best computer science scientists ranking list, 2026. She served as an elected member of the Board of Directors at Large of the Society for Modeling and Simulation International. She also served as chair and keynote speaker at international conferences. Dr. Karatza is Senior Associate Editor of the Elsevier journal “Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory”, an Editor of “Future Generation Computer Systems” of Elsevier, and the Topical Editor for Edge Computing of IEEE Transactions on Services Computing. She was Editor-in-Chief of the Elsevier journal “Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory”, Editor-in-Chief of “Simulation Transactions of The Society for Modeling and Simulation International”, Associate Editor of “ACM Transactions on Modeling and Computer Simulation” and Senior Associate Editor of the “Journal of Systems and Software” of Elsevier. She served as Guest Editor of multiple Special Issues in international journals. More info about her activities and publications can be found at: https://karatza.webpages.auth.gr/

Abstract

The rapid proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT), cyber-physical systems, and AI-enabled edge applications is transforming the computing landscape, challenging the limitations of traditional cloud-centric architectures. The growing volume of distributed data, coupled with increasingly stringent requirements for low latency, reliability, privacy, and energy efficiency, has accelerated the transition toward the cloud–fog–mist computing continuum. This paradigm enables the coordinated orchestration of heterogeneous computing resources across cloud infrastructures and distributed edge devices, bringing computation closer to data sources and end users.

This keynote examines the key challenges and emerging approaches to resource allocation and application scheduling across the cloud–fog–mist continuum. It explores contemporary scheduling and orchestration strategies designed to optimize resource utilization, minimize latency and energy consumption, and maintain quality of service (QoS) under dynamic workloads and heterogeneous resource constraints. Particular emphasis is placed on the need for adaptive and efficient resource management mechanisms capable of meeting the diverse requirements of real-time and latency-sensitive applications.

Biography

Guido Orzes is a Full Professor of Management Engineering at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy, where he also coordinates the Management Engineering research group. He earned his Ph.D. in Industrial Sciences and Information Technologies from the University of Udine in 2015, and has been a Visiting Scholar at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (USA) and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter Business School (UK). He holds the Italian National Scientific Habilitation as Full Professor in Management Engineering.

His research focuses on Industry 4.0 and smart technologies, global operations management—particularly offshoring and reshoring strategies—and sustainability and the circular economy. He has published over 100 scientific works in leading operations management and international business journals, including the International Journal of Operations & Production Management, International Journal of Production Economics, International Business Review, and Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management. He serves as Associate Editor of the Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management and is a board member of the European Division of the Decision Sciences Institute.

Prof. Orzes has been involved in numerous EU-funded research projects, including SME 4.0 (Marie Skłodowska-Curie RISE), the European Monitor on Reshoring (Eurofound), and various Interreg initiatives, and has co-chaired international conferences such as ISIEA/EPIEM 2025 in Bolzano.

Abstract

TBA