ICT as a Tool for Inclusive Development for Emerging Economies

Eusebio Scornavacca is Parsons Professor of Digital Innovation at the University of Baltimore (UB) and director of the Center for Digital Communication Commerce and Culture. He also holds the J&M Thompson Chair in Management Information Systems at the Merrick School of Business. A sought-after speaker, he is frequently delivering keynotes and lectures around the world. Prior to joining UB, Professor Scornavacca was director of research at the School of Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. He has held visiting positions in Japan, China, Italy, France, Finland, Egypt, Brazil, Morocco and New Zealand. He is globally engaged in a number of research initiatives investigating the impact of emerging digital technologies at the individual, organizational and societal levels. His research interests include disruptive digital innovation, digital ecosystems, ICT for development, algorithm delegation and digital entrepreneurship. During the past 20 years he has conducted research in a wide range of industries, including research sponsored by the private sector. Dr Scornavacca research has appeared in leading journals and he serves on several editorial boards and conference committees.

Katina Michael is a professor at Arizona State University, holding a joint appointment in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and School of Computing, Informatics and Decisions Systems Engineering. She is also the director of the Society Policy Engineering Collective (SPEC) and the Founding Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society. Katina is a senior member of the IEEE and a Public Interest Technology advocate who studies the social implications of technology. She has held 14 annual workshops in the social implications of national security space and chaired 3 international symposia on technology and society (ISTAS) in Wollongong, Toronto and Phoenix. She is the Senior Editor of the socio-economic impact section in IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine and was the editor in chief of the award-winning IEEE Technology and Society Magazine. In 2019 she took on the role of working group chair for the IEEE P2089 standard. In 2020 she received the ICTO Golden Medal for lifetime achievement award for exceptional contributions to research in information systems, and the IEEE Phoenix section’s Outstanding Member Contributing to Global Humanitarian Projects Award for her contributions to a better understanding of the impact of emerging technologies on humanity. In 2017, she also received the Brian M. O'Connell Society on the Social Implications of Technology (SSIT) Distinguished Service Award.

In the 17+ years Eldon Marks has spent in the technology field as an academic, practitioner and social entrepreneur, he has mentored thousands, founded companies, started movements and created empowering opportunities for the next generation of tech innovators in Guyana...
Eldon Marks is a social techpreneur (technology-focused social entrepreneur), whose past experiences have led him to take up a personal mission to create enabling environments for innovation and tech ecosystem growth in Guyana. He has spent thirteen years as a lecturer and mentor to students of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Guyana, during which time he founded a social-impact led tech community which, to date, has evolved into a for-profit conversational AI tech company (V75 Inc.) with a non-profit counterpart (NeXus Hub Inc.) focused on youth development and tech ecosystem growth in Guyana.”