Minh-Son Dao | Deep Learning | Best Researcher Award

Dr. Minh-Son Dao | Deep Learning | Best Researcher Award

Researcher at The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Japan.

Dr. Minh-Son DAO is a distinguished Senior Researcher and Research Manager at the Big Data Integration Research Center, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Japan. With over two decades of research and leadership experience across academia and government, he leads cutting-edge initiatives in artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and smart IoT systems. He has played a pivotal role in Japan’s Society 5.0 vision through projects like MMCRAI and collaborative smart-city platforms. Dr. DAO is also a committed educator, serving as a thesis supervisor and adjunct lecturer across multiple international universities. His work has earned him numerous accolades, including multiple Best Challenge Awards, national recognitions, and research excellence honors. With over 100 peer-reviewed publications and international partnerships spanning Europe and Asia, he continues to bridge academic rigor with real-world impact. His current focus lies in multimodal AI frameworks and data-driven societal innovation.

Professional Profile

Suitability For Best Researcher Award – Dr. Minh-Son Dao

Dr. Minh-Son DAO exemplifies the qualities of an outstanding researcher through his sustained, interdisciplinary contributions to artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and smart IoT systems. With over 20 years of research leadership, a strong publication record (100+ peer-reviewed papers), and international collaboration across Europe and Asia, he has significantly influenced both theoretical advancements and real-world applications. His active role in Japan’s Society 5.0 vision and the development of the MMCRAI framework further underscore his commitment to data-driven societal innovation. Dr. DAO also demonstrates excellence in mentoring, editorial roles, and academic service, enriching the broader research ecosystem.

Education

Dr. Minh-Son DAO holds a Ph.D. in Information and Communications Technology from Trento University, Italy, where his research focused on similarity measures and shape matching using genetic algorithms. His doctoral dissertation introduced the Edge Potential Function (EPF), a novel contribution to shape-based image retrieval. Prior to that, he earned a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Vietnam National University, specializing in handwritten character recognition using Convolutional Neural Networks—an early demonstration of his interest in deep learning. His Bachelor’s degree, also in Computer Science from the University of HCM City, Vietnam, emphasized image processing and hypertext applications. These academic milestones laid a strong foundation in AI, machine learning, and multimedia processing, enabling him to merge theoretical knowledge with practical innovation throughout his career. His educational journey reflects a continuous pursuit of excellence across diverse computational and applied domains.

Experience

Dr. Minh-Son DAO brings over 20 years of extensive research and leadership experience across Asia and Europe. Currently, he serves as Research Manager and Senior Researcher at NICT Japan, spearheading national AI and Smart IoT initiatives. His prior roles include Deputy Director and Senior Assistant Professor at Universiti Teknologi Brunei, where he also founded the ELEDIA@UTB lab focused on smart farming and wireless technologies. He has held prestigious research roles at Trento University, Osaka University (as a JSPS Fellow), and GraphiTech Italy. He has supervised more than 40 postgraduate students, co-authored over 100 publications, and led multi-institutional projects in smart cities, multimedia analytics, and health informatics. His teaching portfolio spans creative multimedia, data science, and database systems. Known for building strong global research networks, Dr. DAO has established successful collaborations with institutions in Norway, Ireland, Vietnam, and Switzerland, playing a vital role in cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural scientific advancements.

Professional Development

Dr. Minh-Son DAO has consistently invested in professional development to enhance his academic and leadership capabilities. He completed the UTB Faculty Development Program and the Foundations of University Learning and Teaching at Universiti Teknologi Brunei, gaining proficiency in teaching pedagogy, assessment strategies, and flipped classroom techniques. He also holds Oracle certifications in SQL, PL/SQL, and web application development. His involvement as a guest editor for high-impact journals such as IEEE ACCESS, ACM TOMM, and Frontiers in Big Data, along with his participation as program committee member for numerous international conferences, highlights his role as a thought leader in multimedia, AI, and big data. Dr. DAO frequently chairs and organizes conferences and workshops, including ICMLSC, ICCRD, and MediaEval. His holistic development in research, teaching, industry consulting, and international collaboration exemplifies a well-rounded professional commitment to lifelong learning and knowledge dissemination in cutting-edge computing technologies.

Research Focus

Dr. Minh-Son DAO’s research primarily focuses on multidisciplinary applications of Artificial Intelligence, Big Data Analytics, and Smart IoT systems, aligning closely with the vision of a data-driven, intelligent society (Society 5.0). His most notable initiative, the Multimodal and Cross-modal AI Framework (MMCRAI), demonstrates his commitment to converting raw multimodal data into actionable insights across domains like environmental monitoring, health informatics, multimedia forensics, and smart cities. He has applied his research to real-world challenges such as air pollution prediction, disaster management, and cheapfake detection. His work spans from foundational AI techniques to practical societal applications, including the integration of sensor networks, robotics, and citizen-driven data platforms. Through collaborative international projects, he explores the intersections between cyber-physical-social systems, smart urban planning, and sustainable development. This focus enables him to address complex problems with scalable, intelligent solutions that impact public health, education, urban resilience, and digital media integrity.

Research Skills

Dr. Minh-Son DAO possesses a comprehensive suite of research skills that bridge theoretical and applied domains. He is proficient in machine learning, deep learning, multimedia retrieval, and big data analytics, often applying these in cross-modal and multimodal AI frameworks. His technical abilities include programming in C++, R, SQL, HTML/JavaScript, and Python, and working with AI tools such as TensorFlow and Keras. Dr. DAO’s expertise spans data fusion, smart sensor integration, pattern recognition, event detection, and AI-based forecasting models, enabling him to tackle large-scale and heterogeneous data sources. Additionally, he has extensive experience in research project management, proposal writing, international collaboration, and supervising graduate students. His editorial and peer-review roles in IEEE, Springer, and Elsevier journals further reflect his analytical and evaluative skill set. These capabilities have allowed him to lead multi-disciplinary teams and create impactful AI-driven solutions for urban management, environmental monitoring, and personalized health analytics.

Awards and Honors

Dr. Minh-Son DAO has received numerous national and international awards recognizing his research excellence and innovation. Notably, he won the Best Challenge Awards at ICMR 2023 and ACM MM 2022 for his groundbreaking work in cheap fake detection. He was honored with the Excellent Performance Award by Japan’s NICT in 2022, reflecting his leadership in national projects. Earlier, he earned first-place awards at prestigious competitions such as image CLEF 2018 and Media Eval 2017 for his contributions to multimedia understanding and disaster response. He received the Research Excellence Mid-Career Academic Award from University Technology Brunei in 2017. His early career was marked by competitive international fellowships, including the JSPS International Fellowship (Japan) and ERCIM Fellowship (Europe), and he was awarded Vietnam’s highest youth scientific honor, the Creative Youth Medal. These accolades affirm his sustained contributions to AI, data science, and societal innovation across multiple countries and disciplines.

Conclusion

Dr. Minh-Son DAO’s profile aligns exceptionally well with the criteria for a Best Researcher Award. His work bridges high-impact research, global collaboration, and societal benefit. His innovations in AI and multimodal systems, combined with his leadership in international research initiatives and dedication to mentorship, make him a deserving candidate. His recognition through prestigious awards and fellowships across continents further validates his global research excellence.

Publication Top Notes

1. Deep learning for mobile multimedia: A survey
  • Authors: K Ota, MS Dao, V Mezaris, FGBD Natale

  • Journal: ACM Transactions on Multimedia Computing, Communications, and Applications

  • Cited by: 188

  • Year: 2017

Summary:
This comprehensive survey explores how deep learning techniques have been adapted and optimized for mobile multimedia applications. It covers both theoretical advancements and practical implementation challenges. The paper also discusses energy efficiency and processing limitations of mobile devices. It has become a foundational reference in mobile multimedia research.

2. Exploring convolutional neural network architectures for EEG feature extraction
  • Authors: I Rakhmatulin, MS Dao, A Nassibi, D Mandic

  • Journal: Sensors, Vol. 24(3), Article 877

  • Cited by: 62

  • Year: 2024

Summary:
This paper investigates CNN-based methods for extracting features from EEG signals, a key step in brain-computer interface development. Multiple CNN architectures are compared for performance and accuracy. The study demonstrates significant improvement in signal interpretation. It contributes to the emerging field of AI-powered neuro technology.

3. Daily human activities recognition using heterogeneous sensors from smartphones
  • Authors: MS Dao, TA Nguyen-Gia, VC Mai

  • Journal: Procedia Computer Science, Vol. 111, pp. 323–328

  • Cited by: 34

  • Year: 2017

Summary:
The paper presents a method for recognizing daily human activities using various smartphone sensors. It highlights sensor fusion techniques to improve detection accuracy. The approach is lightweight and suitable for real-time implementation. It holds potential for fitness, health, and smart environment applications.

4. A real-time complex event discovery platform for cyber-physical-social systems
  • Authors: MS Dao, S Pongpaichet, L Jalali, K Kim, R Jain, K Zettsu

  • Conference: International Conference on Multimedia Retrieval

  • Cited by: 34

  • Year: 2014

Summary:
This work proposes a real-time platform for discovering complex events from integrated cyber, physical, and social sources. It focuses on fusing multi-modal data streams for event detection. The platform is designed for smart city and situational awareness applications. It bridges the gap between social sensing and real-time analytics.

5. Edge potential functions (EPF) and genetic algorithms (GA) for edge-based matching of visual objects
  • Authors: MS Dao, FGB De Natale, A Massa

  • Journal: IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, Vol. 9(1), pp. 120–135

  • Cited by: 33

  • Year: 2006

Summary:
This paper introduces edge potential functions (EPF) combined with genetic algorithms for visual object matching. It enhances robustness in noisy or occluded conditions. The method shows improvements in object recognition performance. It contributes foundational techniques for multimedia and computer vision systems.

Prof. Kalfalla Awedat | Deep Learning | Best Researcher Award

Prof. Kalfalla Awedat | Deep Learning | Best Researcher Award

Professor at SUNY Morrisville College, United States

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Publications

Advanced fault detection in photovoltaic panels using enhanced U-Net architectures

  • Authors: Khalfalla Awedat, Gurcan Comert, Mustafa Ayad, Abdulmajid Mrebit
    Journal: Machine Learning with Applications
    Year: 2025

COVID-CLNet: COVID-19 Detection With Compressive Deep Learning Approach

  • Authors: Khalfalla Awedat, Almabrok Essa
    Journal: International Journal of Computer Vision and Image Processing (IJCVIP)
    Year: 2022

Novel Robust Augmentation Approach Based on Sensing Features for Data Classification

  • Authors: Masoud M Alajmi, Khalfalla A Awedat
    Journal: IEEE Access
    Year: 2021

COVID-CLNet: COVID-19 Detection with Compressive Deep Learning Approaches

  • Authors: Khalfalla Awedat, Almabrok Essa
    Journal: arXiv preprint arXiv:2012.02234
    Year: 2020

Efficient face recognition using regularized adaptive non-local sparse coding

  • Authors: Masoud Alajmi, Khalfalla Awedat, Almabrok Essa, Fawaz Alassery, Osama S Faragallah
    Journal: IEEE Access
    Year: 2019

Dr. Aiai Wang | Deep Learning | Best Researcher Award

Dr. Aiai Wang | Deep Learning | Best Researcher Award

Doctorate at University of Science and Technology Beijing, China

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Scopus

Publications

Quantitative Analysis of Pore Characteristics of Nanocellulose Reinforced Cementitious Tailings Fills Using 3D Reconstruction of CT Images

  • Authors: Wang, Aiai; Cao, Shuai; Yilmaz, Erol
    Journal: Journal of Materials Research and Technology
    Year: 2023

Prof. Haigen Hu | Deep Learning | Best Researcher Award

Prof. Haigen Hu | Deep Learning | Best Researcher Award

Professor at Zhejiang University of Technology, China

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Scopus

Google Scholar

Publications

Multipath and noise resilient direction of arrival method for low-cost mechanical arm calibration

  • Authors: Hanmo Chen, Qianwei Zhou, Haigen Hu, Baoqing Li
    Journal: Computers and Electrical Engineering
    Year: 2025

Pruning Networks only Using Few-shot Pre-training Based on Gradient Similarity Frequency

  • Authors: Haigen Hu, Huihuang Zhang, Qianwei Zhou, Tieming Chen
    Journal: IEEE Transactions on Artificial Intelligence
    Year: 2025

An anchor-free instance segmentation method for cells based on mask contour

  • Authors: Qi Chen, Huihuang Zhang, Qianwei Zhou, Qiu Guan, Haigen Hu
    Journal: Applied Intelligence
    Year: 2025

RMFDNet: Redundant and Missing Feature Decoupling Network for salient object detection

  • Authors: Qianwei Zhou, Jintao Wang, Jiaqi Li, Haigen Hu, Keli Hu
    Journal: Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence
    Year: 2025

A comprehensive survey on contrastive learning

  • Authors: Haigen Hu, Xiaoyuan Wang, Yan Zhang, Qi Chen, Qiu Guan
    Journal: Neurocomputing
    Year: 2024

Ms. Beenish Khalid | Deep Learning | Best Researcher Award

Ms. Beenish Khalid | Deep Learning | Best Researcher Award

National University of Sciences and Technology , Islamabad, Sweden

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Publications

A triple-shallow CNN with genetic algorithm channel selection method for classifying EEG complex limb movements

  • Author: Beenish Khalid, Ali Hassan, Muhammad Yasin, Muhammad Salman, Muhammad Fasih Uddin Butt, Wadood Abdul, Imran Khan Niazi
    Journal: Biomedical Signal Processing and Control
    Year: 2025

EMD and VMD in Pre-Movement EEG Signal Analysis: A Hybrid Mode Selection to Classify Upper Limb Complex Movements Using Statistical Features

  • Author: Beenish Khalid, Ali Hassan, Ehsan Ullah Munir, Imran Khan Niazi
    Journal: 2023 IEEE 20th International Conference on Smart Communities: Improving Quality of Life using AI, Robotics and IoT (HONET)
    Year: 2023

EEG Compression Using Motion Compensated Temporal Filtering and Wavelet Based Subband Coding

  • Author: Beenish Khalid, Muhammad Majid, Imran Fareed Nizami, Syed Muhammad Anwar, Majdi Alnowamii
    Journal: IEEE Access
    Year: 2020

Ms. Chetna Kwatra | Deep Learning | Women Researcher Award

Ms. Chetna Kwatra | Deep Learning | Women Researcher Award

Lovely Professional University, India

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Scopus

Orcid

Publications

Harnessing ensemble deep learning models for precise detection of gynaecological cancers

  • Authors: C.V. Kwatra, Chetna Vaid, H. Kaur, Harpreet, S.P. Potharaju, Sai Prasad, D.B. Jadhav, Devyani Bhamare, S.B. Tambe, Sagar B.
    Journal: Clinical Epidemiology and Global Health
    Year: 2025

Dr. Meng Wang | Deep Learning | Best Researcher Award

Dr. Meng Wang | Deep Learning | Best Researcher Award

Doctorate at Xi’an Polytechnic University, China

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Orcid

Publications

Place Your Next Branch with MILE-RUN: Min-dist Location Selection over User Movement

  • Author: Meng Wang
    Journal: Information Sciences
    Year: 2018

PINOCCHIO: Probabilistic Influence-Based Location Selection over Moving Objects

  • Author: Meng Wang
    Journal: IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering (TKDE)
    Year: 2016

Dr. Sageengrana S | Deep Learning | Best Researcher Award

Dr. Sageengrana S | Deep Learning | Best Researcher Award

Doctorate at SRM Institute of Science and Technology, India

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Scopus

Publications

Optimized RB-RNN: Development of hybrid deep learning for analyzing student’s behaviours in online-learning using brain waves and chatbots

  • Authors: S. Sageengrana, S. Subramanian Selvakumar, S. Selvaraj Srinivasan
    Journal: Expert Systems with Applications
    Year: 2024

Mr. Hailong Ning | Deep Learning | Best Scholar Award

Mr. Hailong Ning | Deep Learning | Best Scholar Award

XI’an University of Posts & Telecommunications, China

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Scopus

Research Gate

Publications

Orientational clustering learning for open-set hyperspectral image classification

  • Authors: Hao Xu, Wenjing Chen, Cheng Tan, Hailong Ning, Hao Sun, Wei Xie
  • Journal: IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters
  • Year: 2024

An ensemble learning-enhanced multitask learning method for continuous affect recognition from facial images

  • Authors: Ercheng Pei, Zhanxuan Hu, Lang He, Hailong Ning, Abel Díaz Berenguer
  • Journal: Expert Systems with Applications
  • Year: 2024

Hierarchical Semantic-Guided Contextual Structure-Aware Network for Spectral Satellite Image Dehazing

  • Authors: Lei Yang, Jianzhong Cao, Hua Wang, Sen Dong, Hailong Ning
  • Journal: Remote Sensing
  • Year: 2024

Remote Sensing Image Dehazing via Dual-View Knowledge Transfer

  • Authors: Lei Yang, Jianzhong Cao, He Bian, Rui Qu, Huinan Guo, Hailong Ning
  • Journal: Applied Sciences
  • Year: 2024

Ultra-Lightweight Spatial-Spectral Feature Cooperation Network for Change Detection in Remote Sensing Images

  • Authors: Tao Lei, Xinzhe Geng, Hailong Ning*, Zhiyong Lv, Maoguo Gong, Yaochu Jin, Asoke K. Nandi
  • Journal: IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
  • Year: 2023

Dr. Sitara Afzal | Deep Learning | Best Researcher Award

Dr. Sitara Afzal | Deep Learning | Best Researcher Award

Doctorate at Sejong University, South Korea

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Google Scholar

Scopus

Publications

A comprehensive survey on affective computing; challenges, trends, applications, and future directions

  • Authors: Sitara Afzal, Haseeb Ali Khan, Md Jalil Piran, Jong Weon Lee
  • Journal: IEEE access
  • Year: 2024

Construction of a uniform zeolitic imidazole framework (ZIF-8) nanocrystal through a wet chemical route towards supercapacitor application

  • Authors: Iqra Rabani, Je-Won Lee, Taeyoon Lim, Hai Bang Truong, Sobia Nisar, Sitara Afzal, Young-Soo Seo
  • Journal: RSC advances
  • Year: 2024

Leveraging Augmented Reality, Semantic-Segmentation, and VANETs for Enhanced Driver’s Safety Assistance.

  • Authors: Sitara Afzal, Imran Ullah Khan, Irfan Mehmood, Jong Weon Lee
  • Journal: Computers, Materials & Continua
  • Year: 2024

PlantView: Integrating deep learning with 3D modeling for indoor plant augmentation

  • Authors: Sitara Afzal, Haseeb Ali Khan, Jong Weon Lee
  • Journal: Ecological Informatics
  • Year: 2024

Deep-learning-assisted business intelligence model for cryptocurrency forecasting using social media sentiment

  • Authors: Muhammad Yasir, Muhammad Attique, Khalid Latif, Ghulam Mujtaba Chaudhary, Sitara Afzal, Kamran Ahmed, Farhan Shahzad
  • Journal: Journal of Enterprise Information Management
  • Year: 2023