Narendra Kumar received his doctorate degree in electrical engineering from RWTH Technical University Aachen, Aachen, Germany. He was with  Motorola Solutions since early 1999 and holding position of Principal Staff Engineer (product development and testing). He has been appointed as Visiting Professor to Istanbul University since January 2011. Since August 2013, he is with Department of Electrical Engineering of University Malaya and serving as Associate Professor. He holds 3 US Patents and 4 Defensive Patents in the area of microwave power amplifiers, all assigned to Motorola Solutions. He has authored more than 80 papers in technical journals and conferences and 3 technical books published in USA. Since early 2011, he is actively involved to give technical courses to many organizations in Asia and Europe, including Spain, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Thailand, etc. His name was included in the 2009 Who’s Who in Science and Engineering. He was recipient of the paper award in 2009 IEEE Microwave Propagations and System for his paper on broadband high power distributed amplifier. His two papers on wideband matching circuits and nonlinear microwave stability were an invited paper for IEEE Mediterranean Microwave Symposium 2010 (North Cyprus) and IEEE Wireless and Microwave Technology Conference 2012 (Florida, US), respectively. He has chaired few IEEE and PIERS technical conferences in Europe and Asia since 2009. He has conducted few IEEE seminars related to RF and Microwave Power Amplifier in Europe and Asia since 2007. He also serves as Keynote Speaker to several IEEE conferences since 2010 (Cyprus, Florida US, Beirut, Bangkok, etc).Since June 2009, he is serving as Reviewer of IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory Techniques, IET Circuit, Devices and Systems, etc. He is Senior Member of Institute of Electrical Electronics Engineers (USA) and Fellow of Institution of Engineering Technology (UK). He has been appointed as IEEE Industry Relations Team of Asia Pacific since Jan. 2015 to support industrial linkage activities. He has been appointed as Invited Professor of Microwave Electronics and Optics – EMIMEO for EMIMEP - Europe, Universit of Limoges, France in 2022. In 2023, he has been selected as Coordinator of Malaysia for German-ASEAN Industry Oriented Innovation Network. As industrial collaboration, he is leading NXP-UM and Keysight 5G/6G-UM lab setup in Faculty of Engineering.          

VGR Chandran is Professor of Industrial Development at the Department of Development Studies, Faculty of Business and Economics at University of Malaya. He has also worked as Principal Analyst of Economic and Policy Studies with Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT), Prime Minister’s Department, Malaysia. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics and his research interests are mainly on innovation, technology development, trade and globalization that relate to industrial development. His field research covers sectors such as electrical and electronics, automotive, food, chemical, oil palm, machinery, iron and steel, ICT, and the newly emerging sector - renewable energy. He had extensive fieldwork covering the Asian region that includes countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, India, China, Thailand, and Malaysia. In recent years, his research interest expanded into investigating newly emerging enterprises within the context of social innovation and social enterprises, as well as open innovation. His interest has also expanded in studying the issues of NTMs, mainly regulatory and procedural requirements that serve as a barrier for firms to integrate into the Global Value Chain. He has also worked as a consultant for international organizations such as UNCTAD, UNIDO, UNESCO, UNEP, ERIA, OECD as well as governmental organizations in Malaysia. He has published articles in international journals - Economics of New Technology and Innovation, Policy Modelling, as well as book chapters and books on industrial development and innovation. He is the recipient of various national and international grants – to name a few - European Union Horizon 2020 and IDR, Canada, among others. His work is widely quoted in government policy documents contributing to numerous policy changes. He has contributed to the Malaysian regulatory reform efforts, STI and Industrial policy development at national as well as state level. His work via Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Economic Planning Unit, Academic of Sciences, Ministry of International Trade and Industry, MIGHT, Prime Minister’s Department, Malaysian Productivity Corporation and Institute Darul Ridzuan (state level) was instrumental in making the policy changes. His engagement with the industry are mainly in the form of undertaking studies and providing expert opinions. He has received various awards, e.g., excellence in teaching award and outstanding paper award from Emerald and Elsevier. Details of his current projects as follows: (1) Catching-up along the GVC: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/214786/factsheet/en (2) Regional Economic Corridors: http://www.crisea.eu/researchers/chandran-vgr

Dr. Mohammed H. Alaqad is an Assistant Professor of Translation & Interpreting Studies at the Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, Universiti Malaya. He has more than 15 years of academic and research experience. His main areas of research interest include translation studies and conference interpreting, forensic linguistics, artificial intelligence (AI), and socio-ideological aspects of the Arabic language. He is also the founder and CEO of the Asian Federation of Translators and Interpreters, Malaysia, where he contributes to advancing professional standards and fostering regional collaboration in the language services industry. Previously, he served as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Hashim Sani Centre for Palestine Studies, University of Malaya. From February 2019 to January 2024, Dr. Alaqad was an Assistant Professor at Management & Science University (MSU), where he led both the diploma and bachelor programs in translation and interpreting. During his tenure, he made significant contributions to establishing and shaping the university’s translation programs. He also served as an Associate Professor of translation and interpreting in the English Language Department at the Faculty of Humanities, Israa University, Gaza, Palestine, from 20 September 2023 to 31 December 2023. Dr. Alaqad has held several academic appointments at the University of Malaya, including: Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Hashim Sani Centre for Palestine Studies (July 2024 - August 2025) Universiti Malaya Elite Fellow, Faculty of Languages and Linguistics (December 2024 – December 2025) Visiting Lecturer, Faculty of Languages and Linguistics (February 2023 – February 2024) Lecturer (English & Arabic subjects), Center for Continuing Education (July 2017 – July 2018) Research Assistant, Asia-Europe Institute / The Centre for ASEAN Regionalism Universiti Malaya (CARUM)/ Humanities Research Cluster, IPPP (February 2013 – July 2017) He has been invited as a keynote/guest speaker at more than 40 international conferences and academic events, contributing to global discussions on language, translation, education, and artificial intelligence (AI). He is also a seasoned conference interpreter, having participated in over 150 conferences and events; this experience informs his academic work and deepens his understanding of the practical challenges and complex scenarios in interpretation and communication. His scholarly contributions include numerous peer-reviewed research articles, books, and book chapters. In addition to his research, Dr. Alaqad is the managing editor of The International Journal of Palestine Studies, UM. He also serves on the editorial boards of Cambridge Scholars of Language & Linguistics (UK), the International Journal of Applied Linguistics and Translation (IJALT) (USA), and the Journal of Intercultural Communication Research (a Scopus-indexed Routledge journal) from 2022 to 2025. He is also an editorial board member of The Southeastern Philippines Journal of Research and Development (a Scopus-indexed Q2 journal) in the Philippines from 2022 to 2027.