Dr. Sharifah Muhairah Shahabudin is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political Science, Public Administration and Development Studies at the Faculty of Business & Economics, University of Malaya. She earned her PhD from the same university’s Faculty of Economics and Administration in 2014, following a Master of Science in Administration from Universiti Teknologi MARA (UITM) and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Canterbury University, New Zealand. Her research focuses on socioeconomics, social stratification, gender, youth development, and entrepreneurship, with numerous publications in both local and international journals, as well as media contributions in these areas. She is also an active member of the Gender Budget Group, an initiative led by Engender Consultancy and Women’s Aid Organisation to advance gender-responsive budgeting in national policy. Before joining academia, Dr. Sharifah spent a decade in various professional roles, including as a Research Assistant with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Malaysia, where her work on the *Empowering Women Through Entrepreneurship* project sparked her interest in research, ultimately leading to her doctoral studies. Her commitment to development issues continues to drive her research and publications today.

Biographical note: Dr. Chew Shin Yi is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia. She graduated with a B.Ed TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) degree from the University of Auckland, New Zealand and obtained her Ph.D. from Universiti Malaya under a fast-track programme. She has taught students from pre-school up to university level. Her interests include language learning & development, 21st-century learning, computer-mediated communication and computer-assisted language learning.  She is now working on projects related to the education of Indigenous community and Sustainable Development Goals. Her upcoming project, expected to begin next year, is titled "Enhancing Educational Equity and Engagement through AI-Driven Metaverse Environments (EduSphere)."

Finding patterns of variation in biology fascinating, I chose to study genetics and molecular biology in Universiti Malaya, graduating in 2002 with first class honours. Subsequently, I turned to the roots of the study of patterns of variation - statistics, receiving my MSc in statistics from Universiti Malaya in 2005. I completed my PhD in statistics at the National University of Singapore in 2009. Since 2010, I have been with Universiti Malaya. Currently, I am an associate professor at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, and a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, UK. My research interest broadly covers the area of data science, machine learning, bioinformatics, ecology, and medical statistics. Since 2010, I have worked in over 20 projects as the principal consultant statistician, and conducted numerous workshops on statistics, bioinformatics, and R programming. Presently, I head the UM Centre for Data Analytics, which focuses on establishing collaborative research and engagement between the industry and the academia in Malaysia. I enjoy reading, travelling, nature walks, and more recently, engaging fellow scientists in Twitter space.