Dr. Buddha Chandrasekhar is the Chief Coordinating Officer at AICTE, Ministry of Education, and CEO of the Anuvadini Foundation. He advises multiple ministries, including Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Cooperation, and Housing & Urban Affairs. As a technologist, he created the Indian Language Translation Tool (Anuvadini) and is a member of NDEAR and NETF. He also coordinates AMRUT 2.0 initiatives in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and is part of high-power committees on Indian languages.

Beyond his government roles, Dr. Chandrasekhar is a UGC Skill Council Member and Advisor to the New Delhi Management Institute. He specializes in AI, ML, Cybersecurity, Blockchain, IoT, and more, with expertise spanning education, smart cities, finance, and healthcare.

His achievements include leading the NEAT initiative, the AI Language Translation Project, and scholarship programs, impacting millions of students with ₹450 crore in free digital resources. As an Advisor to APSSDC, he drives innovation in skill development, leaving a lasting impact on education and technology in India.

Dr. Udaya Shankar Puranik has 37 years of experience in the global IT industry and is a distinguished leader in AI and cybersecurity. As Director at the US-based MGI, he oversees operations in 65 countries and has mentored eight unicorn startups in cybersecurity. Dr. Puranik holds an engineering degree from Bangalore, a Master’s in Computer Science from the USA, and Doctor of Engineering degrees from the UK, USA, and Singapore.

He serves as an expert on cybersecurity for several international organizations, including ATMSA (USA), ENISA (EU), and the Military and Aerospace Cybersecurity Group. Professionally, he has contributed to Karnataka's ITES policy development and has promoted Kannada in IT since 1998. Dr. Puranik has also developed Indian language software for applications from ATMs to mobile phones and pioneered healthcare software for ultrasound, MRI, and CT.

In academia, Dr. Puranik holds an honorary fellowship from the Karnataka Science and Technology Academy, chairs the Board of Studies in AI at Central University, Andhra Pradesh, and serves on various academic boards. He is also the Chief Editor for the Encyclopaedia of Computer Science at the University of Mysore.

Steven Fernandes began his postdoctoral research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he worked on projects funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He later conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Central Florida, contributing to projects funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and Royal Bank of Canada (RBC). His current research focuses on developing robust computer vision applications using deep learning and advancing computer-aided diagnosis through medical image processing.

Dr. Abhishek Vaish is an Associate Professor at IIIT Allahabad and a Gold Medalist in Information Security from the same institution. Before joining academia, he served as an Associate Consultant at Wipro Ltd., specializing in areas such as Vulnerability Assessment, Penetration Testing, Microsoft Security Baselining, Wireless Security Testing, and ISO 27001 implementation.

He holds certifications in 'Implementation of Basel II and SOX' and 'ISO 27001 Information Security Standards' and is an active ISACA member pursuing the CISA certification. Abhishek has conducted workshops on Information Security Management Systems and worked on projects in Computer Forensics, Electronic Evidence, and Financial Information Security.

Apart from academics, he has contributed to IIIT Allahabad’s cultural event management. His expertise spans Information Security Management Systems, Risk Assessment, Computer Forensics, and Decision Support Systems, with a focus on risk management and technical controls.