Michael Harrison is an Engineer at IBM, where he provides technical leadership in creating software for IBM business critical systems. He has spent the past three years serving as a software technical lead, driving the integration of IBM IaaS with IBM's business support systems. His expertise includes designing and implementing software tools and platforms that enable service teams to onboard new products and offerings quickly and reliably at scale. In addition to his leadership role, Michael specializes in building large-scale data pipelines to process billing information for customers, ensuring data integrity and efficiency. His technical proficiency encompasses microservice architecture, systems design for large-scale data solutions, Kubernetes, and Golang. Michael is committed to enhancing data pipeline resiliency, reliability, and disaster recovery strategies, crucial for managing critical customer data.

Presentation: Scaling Cloud Offerings at Enterprise Scale: Reducing Time-to-Market Through Process Automation

Jimmy Yan is a Software Engineer at IBM with over three years of experience working across Cloud Infrastructure and Data & AI teams. His work focuses on building scalable data pipelines and integrating AI technologies into enterprise environments to improve operational efficiency and drive business value. Jimmy has led the development of production-grade AI solutions and has hands-on experience with ETL systems, security event processing, and deploying LLM-powered tools in real-world workflows. His current interests lie at the intersection of software engineering, AI, and economic impact—leveraging intelligent automation to optimize developer productivity and support strategic business outcomes.

Presentation: From Compliance to Cost Savings: AI-Driven Vulnerability Management at Scale

Kajanth Nithiyananthan is a product leader turned founder, specializing in transforming AI innovation into measurable business growth. With over a decade of experience leading product development at industry leaders including Shopify, SkipTheDishes, and Ford, Kajanth founded Atomic Build—a Product Studio dedicated to building the next generation of AI-powered products.

Atomic Build bridges the gap between strategy and execution, helping companies develop clear AI product roadmaps, build scalable modern software platforms, and drive growth through product-led experimentation. Kajanth and his team thrive on helping organizations move fast, stay ahead of the curve, and turn bold ideas into scalable realities.

Presentation: Customer Discovery & Strategy

Marin Litoiu is a Professor of Software Engineering at York University and a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering. He leads the Adaptive Software Research Lab, focusing on making large software systems more versatile, resilient, and self-optimizing. His research has won numerous awards including the IBM Canada CAS Research Project of the Year Award and the Canada NSERC Synergy Award for Innovation. Prior to joining York University, Dr. Litoiu was a Research Staff member with IBM Toronto Lab where he led research programs in software engineering and autonomic computing. He co-founded Bitnobi in 2016, a data sharing platform that was acquired by Myant in 2025, demonstrating successful translation of academic innovation into entrepreneurial success.

Presentation: Bitnobi: A Case Study on Success

Kostas Kontogiannis is a Professor at York University's Lassonde School of Engineering, specializing in software analytics, DevOps, and Cyber-Physical Systems. With a Ph.D. from McGill University, he has authored over a hundred influential papers and received numerous awards including two IBM patents, two most influential decade paper awards, and three IBM University Partnership Awards. As an IBM Faculty Fellow and former visiting scientist at Carnegie Mellon's SEI, Professor Kontogiannis has extensive experience commercializing research through collaborations with IBM and Ulysses Systems, with his tools now integrated into platforms like IBM Watson, Websphere, and DevOps.

Presentation: From Research to Product One Line of Code at a Time