Mirsad’s professional career started in Bosnia and Herzegovina where he was a software developer and IT administrator in companies ranging from defense to medical electronics. Dr. Hadzikadic joined the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (USA) in 1987 after receiving his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Southern Methodist University (USA) where he was a Fulbright Scholar. Mirsad also holds MS degrees in Computer Science from the University of Banjaluka (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Harvard University (USA) in Public Administration. Mirsad has published three edited books and over 45 scientific papers published in journals and conference proceedings. His research activities have been primarily focused on machine learning, artificial intelligence, data science, cognitive science, health informatics, and complex adaptive systems. From 1991 to 1997, Mirsad served as the Director of the Department of Medical Informatics and the Department of Orthopedic Informatics at the Carolinas HealthCare System (Charlotte, NC, USA). In 1998, he joined Deloitte and Touche Consulting Group as Manager in the Health Systems Integration Service Line. Dr. Hadzikadic returned full time to the University in January 1999 to assume Chairmanship of the Department of Computer Science and serve as the Associate Director of the School of Information Technology. Mirsad helped to shepherd the transition from a school in the College of Engineering into an independent College of Computing and Informatics, and served as its Founding Dean. Until 2018 Mirsad served as the Founding Executive Director of the Data Science Initiative at UNC Charlotte. Mirsad is currently a professor with a joint appointment in the Software and Information Systems Department and the School of Data Science, as well as the Founding Director of the Complex Systems Institute at UNC Charlotte.
Namik Hrle is a Vice President of Development in IBM’s Software division and the Director of its development lab in Germany. He holds a title of IBM Fellow, the ultimate distinction of IBM technical career given to a small number of individuals who demonstrated the highest level of technical leadership, innovation, business impact, social eminence and talent building. He is a holder of 76 patents, numerous outstanding technical achievements, author recognition and corporate awards, Namik has a world-wide reputation as the ultimate expert in using data and AI for digital transformation and reinvention of enterprise applications. He is an international member of Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Eddie is a qualified engineer with a Ph.D. in electronic engineering. He is a business owner, entrepreneur, thought leader, mentor, philanthropist and global citizen. As a global ambassador for Bosnia & Herzegovina, he’s deeply committed to innovation and positive change, using engineering and entrepreneurship to empower individuals and boost local economies. He was an academic for over 15 years at La Trobe University, Australia and directed some of the most successful programs relating to student employability, including the Work Integrated Learning program that ranked engineering no.1 in the state for employability.
Currently, he is the director of Scientific Instruments Australia, an innovative company involved in the design of instrumentation & software for plant science, biotechnology and agriculture.
Together with his brother Resad, he founded Bosnia & Herzegovina Futures Foundation in 2015.
In 2022, he received the prestigious IEEE Theodore W. Hissey Outstanding Young Professional Award for his global leadership in technology development.
Elma Dervic is a Postdoc at the Complexity Science Hub. She completed her PhD at CSH and the Medical University of Vienna in January 2023. Elma holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Montenegro, which she earned in 2015 and 2017, respectively. Before joining CSH, Elma was a junior researcher at the First Center of Excellence (BIO-ICT) at the University of Montenegro. Additionally, she is a co-founder of BeeAnd.me, a venture-funded IoT startup that uses technology to help beekeepers and bees through data science. Elma is known as a 3-time “share positive impact” TEDx speaker. Elma’s research interests include machine learning, network science, and everything impactful related to data science. Currently, she is working with medical data on unraveling disease trajectories. Furthermore, she is working on trading data to analyze systemic risk in supply chains.