Department of Computer Science and Technology (CST), Manav Rachna University has organized an International Conference on ‘Computational Intelligence in Analytics and Information Systems’ (CIAIS- 2021) from April 2-3, 2021 to commemorate the 74th Founder’s Day. The main focus of the conference is on the empirical, theoretical and application prospects of the introduction of computational intelligence in Data Science, Information retrieval and communication systems.

The Inaugural session witnessed the gracious presence of the Chief Guest, Prof K.K. Aggarwal, Chairman NBA and Founder Vice-Chancellor, GGS Indraprastha University. Dr. Mohit Gambhir, Innovation Director, Ministry of Education was the Guest of Honor. Dr. Anjana Gossain, Professor, University School of Information Communication Technology, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, New Delhi was the General Chair of the conference. H’ Vice Chancellor, Manav Rachna University, Prof. I.K. Bhat; Director-General, MREI Dr. N.C. Wadhwa, H’ Vice-Chancellor, MRIIRS, Prof. Sanjay Srivastava; PVC, MRIIRS Prof. Pradeep Kumar; Dean Academics MRU, Prof. Sangeeta Banga; and Dean Research MRU, Prof. Pradeep Varshney, graced the occasion.

Prof I.K. Bhat talked about the new teaching and research initiatives and collaborations being undertaken by Manav Rachna. Prof K.K. Aggarwal, in his opening remarks, highlighted the importance of multidisciplinary courses in our education system. He emphasized that innovation is something that is not restricted to any specific domain; it’s an art or a capability to think out-of-the-box.

Dr. Anjana Gossain stated that there is a need for such events to groom our young generation to prepare them for innovating new solutions for the betterment of humanity. She also laid down the importance of hybrid conferences in this pandemic which ensures the safety of all.

Organizing Chair, Prof. Hanu Bhardwaj, Head, CST Department gave her opening remarks and introduced the theme of the conference. Convener, Dr. Manpreet Kaur, Associate Professor, CST Department apprised the audience about the review process followed for quality paper selection in the conference. She also shared the details of the technical program.

First keynote session of Day 1 started with the welcome note by Mr. Ram Chatterjee which was followed by the keynote address of Prof. Dr. Millie Pant, Associate Professor, Department of Applied Science and Engineering, IIT, Roorkee, on the topic “Evolution of AI: Past, Present and Future”. The presentation encompassed a preamble on AI, delving into deeper details of the domain with the diversified applications of AI in real-life scenario and implementation of Machine Learning techniques in practice. The various experiments conducted in the domain of AI & ML were also an integral part of the session to support the facts in the area.

Second keynote session of Day 1 started with the welcome note by Prof. Bharti Jha which was followed by the keynote address of Dr. Abhinav Dhall, Professor, Human-Centered Computing Department, Monash University, Australia on the topic “Multimodal Deep Fakes Detection”. He talked about the Deep Fakes with a few video demonstrations. The topic was further explained with the underlying details of deep fakes, their practice, implementation and scope of research.