KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Prof. Andrew Ball is Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Enterprise and Professor of Diagnostic Engineering at the University of Huddersfield.

Graduating from the University of Leeds in 1987, Andrew attained a first class honours in Mechanical Engineering, his degree having been sponsored by BICC Electronic Cables. Andrew went on to work for Ruston Gas Turbines and then gained a sponsorship from WM Engineering and the Royal Navy, enabling him to join the Total Technology Scheme at the University of Manchester, from which he graduated in 1991 with a PhD in Machinery Condition Monitoring.

Andrew then took the Shell sponsored lectureship in Maintenance Engineering at the University of Manchester; he was promoted to Professor of Maintenance Engineering in 1999, and was the Head of School of the Manchester School of Engineering from 2003 to 2004. In 2005 he became Dean of Graduate Education and in late-2007 he moved to the University of Huddersfield as Professor of Diagnostic Engineering and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Enterprise.

Assoc. Prof. Marcelo A. Soto received the PhD degree in Innovative Technologies of ICT Engineering, from Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Italy, in 2011. Later, he joined EPFL Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne, Switzerland, as a Postdoctoral Researcher, where he worked on high-performance distributed fibre sensing, nonlinear fibre optics, optical signal processing, and optical Nyquist pulse generation. In 2018, he joined Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Chile, where he is Associate Professor since 2022. His research focuses today on long-range distributed fibre sensing and signal processing techniques for fibre sensing. Dr. Soto is author or coauthor of about 250 publications in international journals and conferences, 3 book chapters and 9 patents in optical communications and optical fibre sensing.

Prof. Jing Rao, PhD supervisor, has been selected for the National Youth Talent Program, is a Humboldt Scholar in Germany, and was formerly an Assistant Professor at the University of New South Wales, Australia. She has long been engaged in research on non-destructive testing and structural health monitoring, undertaking projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Key R&D Program for New Materials Development and Application, the General Non-consensus Innovation Project of Beijing Natural Science Foundation, the Open Fund of the National Key Laboratory of Market Supervision (Non-destructive Testing and Evaluation), projects by Sinopec and the Aviation Industry Corporation of China, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and the University of New South Wales RIS project. She has published over 40 papers in major academic journals such as IEEE TIM and Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, edited one English monograph, and holds 13 authorized invention patents. In 2017, she won the Singapore Maritime Best Project Award, and in 2025, she received the Far East Nondestructive Testing New Technology Forum Climbing Award (1-2 recipients annually).

Prof. Zhisheng Yang, doctoral supervisor. PhD from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, postdoctoral researcher at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. Recipient of the National Overseas High-level Young Talent (Outstanding Young Overseas Scholars), Beijing Science and Technology Rising Star, and Xiaomi Young Scholar awards. Serves as a member of the Technical Committees for the International Conference on Optical Fiber Sensors (OFS) and the China Optical Fiber Sensors Conference. Has long been engaged in fundamental research, technological innovation, and industrial applications of distributed optical fiber sensors. Published more than 70 papers in international journals and conferences, including high-impact journals in the field such as Nature Communications, Optica, and flagship Post-deadline conference papers. Responsible for multiple projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the 173 Program, and university-industry collaborative projects (Huawei, State Grid, etc.).