Expected Speakers for BICA 2026
The following speakers are expected to shape the flow of BICA 2026 presentations.
Igor Pivovarov
Artificial intelligence researcher, analyst & community organizer
Igor Pivovarov is an artificial intelligence researcher and serial entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience in technology commercialization. Trained as a physicist, he has 7 years of scientific research experience in biophysics, mathematical modeling, machine learning, and neural networks, along with 9 years in R&D as a software engineer, electronic designer, product designer, and head of R&D. He also brings 20 years of business experience—including 6 years in Europe—as CEO and marketing leader, has raised approximately $25 million in investments and non-dilutive funding, and has founded or co-founded 10 technology startups.
Currently, he serves as Chief Analyst at the MIPT Center of Artificial Intelligence, Strategic AI Advisor at Huawei, CEO of IP Laboratories, and Director of OpenTalks.AI. His most recent projects include leading OpenTalks.AI, one of the major AI conferences in Russia, and publishing the Almanac Artificial Intelligence, a regular public report on the AI industry in Russia and worldwide.
Hava Siegelmann
Professor of Computer Science, and Brain Sciences
Hava Siegelmann is a computer scientist and leading researcher in neural computation and biologically inspired artificial intelligence. She earned her Ph.D. in Computer Science from Rutgers University and is widely recognized for her foundational work on analog neural networks and computation beyond the Turing limit. Her research spans lifelong learning, continual learning in neural networks, computational complexity of dynamical systems, and brain-inspired AI models.
She previously served as Director of AI Programs at DARPA, where she led major initiatives including Lifelong Learning Machines, AI robustness against deception, and Cooperative Secure Learning. She received DARPA’s Meritorious Public Service Medal for her scientific leadership. Currently, she leads the BINDS Lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, advancing research in neuroscience-inspired AI and ethical artificial intelligence, and continues to play an active role in policy, ethics, and international AI governance discussions.
Jan Treur (To be confirmed)
Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Science, Computer Science
Jan Treur is a Full Professor of Artificial Intelligence at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and an internationally recognized expert in multidisciplinary human-like AI modeling. Since 1990, he has published more than 700 widely cited papers on cognitive, affective, and social modeling, supervised over 40 Ph.D. students, and authored and edited several books on adaptive and network-oriented AI modeling and its cross-disciplinary applications.
In recent years, his work has focused on modeling higher-order adaptive processes using self-modeling network models, particularly internal mental models, simulation-based reasoning, and organizational learning. Notable recent projects include a Springer Nature book on computational modeling of multilevel organizational learning (2022/2023) and ongoing research (2023–present) on shared mental models to promote just safety cultures in hospitals, as well as studies on intrapersonal synchrony and adaptive bonding emerging from human interaction.