Prof. John Sören Pettersson, Karlstad University, Sweden
Pettersson takes great interest in developing the Information Systems curriculum. During 2025 he was the chair of the Swedish Information Systems Academy, comprising all the academic IS departments in Sweden. Pettersson’s main focus has for many years been user-centred methods, in particular usable privacy and ICT for Development. For a decade now, he has also researched IT support for crisis management exercises outside the rescue forces, especially the 'asynchronous question' of how anytime-anywhere technology can be used without losing the point of developing team cooperation, including rapid team response. From 2026, Prof. Pettersson is also on the inaugural board for GDRC - Game Development Research Centre, a national Swedish centre on production methods for digital games.
Speech Title: Educational aspects of AI’s impact outside Computer Science curricula
Abstract: The Information Systems discipline mediates between Computer Science and the organizational world, represented in academia by subjects such as Business Administration, Business Management, HR Management, Project Management, Pubic Management and Political Science. As situated in Business Schools, Information Systems should be a willing IT partner for the organizational-oriented disciplines. At my university, the Business School includes the Law School. And just like IS, Law battles with the question: Will AI take away the entry-level jobs? At the same time, there is a debate of what to teach about AI and how to teach with AI. This speech reports on course design that can be said to blend the answers to the what and how questions by emphasising the very use of GenAI as both what to learn and how to learn it. It also informs on how a computing discipline can give and gain when collaborating with a discipline and a business branch where judgment and validation are essential but always contested.
Prof. Hua-Liang Wei, University of Sheffield, UK
Dr Hua-Liang Wei received his Ph.D. degree in the Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, the University of Sheffield, UK, in 2004, where he is currently a faculty member in School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He leads three major interdisciplinary research labs and centres: the Dynamic Modelling, Data Mining and Decision-Making Lab, the Digital Medicine & Computational Neuroscience Lab, and the Solar Physics and Space Plasma Research Centre. His research pioneers and advances core data-driven methodologies in nonlinear system identification, artificial intelligence, interpretable machine learning and deep learning, applied to address high impact emerging challenges across diverse domains industrial engineering, meteorological and space weather, and biomedical neuroscience. He has secured multi-million-pound funding from bodies such as the EPSRC, NERC, STFC, EU Horizon 2020, and the Royal Society. With nearly 200 published papers addressing complex engineering and healthcare challenges, Dr. Wei was recognised in the Stanford-Elsevier World Top 2% Scientists list (2023–2025).
