Jurors of 1st UN Citiverse Challenge

Nevena Alexandrova-Stefanova

Innovation Officer, FAO Office of Innovation

Dr. Nevena Alexandrova-Stefanova is a highly qualified FAO technical officer with a strong background in agricultural biotechnologies, biosafety, knowledge-sharing and risk-benefit analysis of frontier technologies. She holds a PhD in marker-assisted plant biotechnologies and has over 12 years of experience in research, project management, and science communication.

For 10 years, Dr. Alexandrova-Stefanova worked at FAO’s Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia, focusing on policy advice and knowledge sharing for sustainable and inclusive agrifood system transformation with a focus on digitalization and innovation systems. Since 2018, she has been with FAO Headquarters, supporting countries in transforming their national agrifood systems pathways through innovation, and promoting access to knowledge and services for smallholder farmers and supporting national agricultural innovation systems, including research and advisory services.

Dr. Alexandrova-Stefanova is a leading expert on foresight methodologies and their application in the agrifood systems, in particular in emerging agrifood technologies and innovations and innovation ecosystems. She serves as the FAO alternate focal point of the UN Future Labs community of practice and is leading global foresight studies on emerging technologies and innovations for agri-food systems.

In her current role, Dr. Alexandrova-Stefanova assists countries in developing evidence-based and future-oriented policies in and building capacities for agricultural innovation.

Konstantin Andreev

Technology Consultant, Immersive Technology, The World Bank

Konstantin Andreev holds a Master of Business Administration from Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. A serial entrepreneur with 15 years of experience in software and product development, building and growing startups, Konstantin currently serves as a Technology Consultant at The World Bank Group. He drives immersive and VR/AR initiatives with a “VR for Good” approach, enhancing communication, supporting field operations, and improving decision-making across the organization. Awarded World Bank Group’s Annual Information Management Team Award for his contributions. Previously, he was the founder of Roundme, a leading platform for digital twins and virtual tours, with over half a million global users, recognized as one of the leaders in the VR industry.

Matt Beveridge

Head of Innovation and Partnerships (Estates), University of Birmingham

With over a decade in Higher Education and six years’ experience as a non-executive director, Matt Beveridge is recognised for his strategic vision, forward-thinking ideas, successful collaborations and impactful initiatives.
As Head of Innovation and Partnerships (Estates) at the University of Birmingham, he identifies innovation opportunities through research and analysis to support the University’s aspirations. Matt also assists senior leadership in forming partnerships aligned with strategic priorities and is passionate about universities’ role in advancing knowledge to enhance our world.

Cristina Bueti

Counsellor, ITU

Cristina Bueti is the ITU Focal Point on Smart Sustainable Cities. She is also the Counsellor of ITU-T Study Group 20 “Internet of Things, digital twins and smart sustainable cities and communities” and the Counsellor of the Focus Group on metaverse at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). She also serves as TSB/ITU focal point for Latin America. Cristina Bueti graduated from the Faculty of Political Science, Law and International Cooperation and Development of the University of Florence, where she completed postgraduate studies in International Cooperation and Telecommunications Law in Europe. She also holds a specialization in Environmental Law with a special focus on Telecommunications. In 2003, Ms. Bueti built on her academic credentials by completing a specialized course in peace keeping and international cooperation with special focus on telecommunications at the Faculty of Laws, University of Malta, before joining the International Telecommunication Union in Geneva in January 2004. As part of the International Women’s Day 2016, she was named as one of the twenty Geneva-based inspirational women working to protect the environment. She has authored over 40 reports on telecommunication issues. A native Italian speaker, Cristina is also fluent in English, French and Spanish.

Volker Coors

Professor, HFT Stuttgart

Volker Coors studied computer science at The TU Darmstadt and received his doctorate in computer graphics. Since 2002 he has been Professor of Computer Science and Geo-Informatics at HFT Stuttgart. His research focuses on Urban Digital Twins, 3D geospatial data infrastructures and the visualization of spatial data. From 2006-2017 he was Dean of Studies of the Information Logistics course, from 2019 to 2023 scientific director of the Institute for Applied Research. Since March 2023, he has been Vice-President Research and Digitalization at HFT Stuttgart.

As a member of the Open Geospatial Consortium, Prof. Coors contributes his research results to standardisation, for example in the CityGML Standard Working Group (SWG). He is a founding member of the joint commission “3D City Modelling” of the German Society for Cartography e.V. and the German Society for Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Geoinformation e.V. and Vice-president of the Urban Data Management Society.

Louis Nisiotis

Assistant Professor in Computing, University of Central Lancashire, Cyprus

Dr Nisiotis is an Assistant Professor at UCLan Cyprus, leading the delivery of the video games development and advanced computer graphics modules. He is specialising in eXtended Reality (XR) technologies and their application in educational, industrial, entertainment, and societal domains. He is specifically interested in the development and implementation of XR and Metaverse systems and applications to disrupt the way (we) humans interact with real and virtual worlds, with our surroundings, and with each other. His research interests include XR, Digital Twins, Cyber-Physical-Social Metaverse systems, Serious and Entertainment Videogames, and Human Computer Interaction. He is involved in research and innovation projects that are successfully funded by local and international funding sources, and he is the director of the Rays and Vectors student-led game studio and research group. He is a Steering Committee Member of the IEEE Metaverse community, and is a review editor and editorial member of prestigious scientific journals and conferences. He contributes to the scientific community through multiple volunteering roles and is a frequently invited speaker in panels and public forum discussions organized by scientific groups and societies (such as the IEEE Future Directions). Dr Nisiotis is a member of IEEE and the IEEE Computer Society.

Pilar Orero

Professor, Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona

Professor Pilar Orero, PhD (UMIST, UK), works at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain) in the TransMedia Catalonia Lab. She has written and edited many books, near 100 academic papers and almost the same number of book chapters –all on Media Accessibility. Leader and participant of numerous EU funded research projects focusing on media accessibility. She works in standardisation and participates in the UN ITU IRG-AVA – Intersector Rapporteur Group Audiovisual Media Accessibility. She has been working on Immersive Accessibility for the past 6 years first in a project called ImAc, which results are now further developed in TRACTION, MEDIAVERSE, MILE, and GREENSCENT. She led until December 2022 the EU network LEADME on Media Accessibility. She was the Co-Chair of Study Group on Accessibility and Inclusion in the ITU Metaverse Focus Group, and she is leading the Digital Inclusion and Accessibility track of the ITU Virtual Worlds. She is now working on AI and accessibility in the three funded projects MOSAIC, ALFIE, and SPICE.

Sylvia Poll Ahrens

Senior Gender and Youth Advisor, ITU

Since February 2025, Sylvia Poll is the Senior Gender and Youth Advisor to the ITU Secretary General and the Head of the Gender and Youth Office in the General Secretariat of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

From 2020 to 2024, Sylvia Poll was the Head of the Digital Society Division in the Telecommunication Development Bureau of the ITU. This Division focused on digital inclusion, and digital innovation ecosystems. Before that, she was for five years the Head of the ITU Project Support Division.

Sylvia Poll was the Deputy Permanent Representative of the Permanent Mission of Costa Rica to the United Nations Office in Geneva and other International Organizations in Switzerland from 2010 to 2014, where she was the main focal point for Costa Rica, on sport for development and peace, as well as ITU, WIPO, WHO and IOM. Prior to this position, she was the Latin America Regional Manager of Executive Programs at the INCAE Business School and a manager at a Costa Rican communications company.

Ms. Poll was also an accomplished elite swimmer. She represented Costa Rica in two Olympic Games, Seoul, Korea 1988 and Barcelona, Spain, 1992. She won a silver medal, the first Olympic medal ever at that time, for Costa Rica and Central America, in addition to winning over 600 medals at national, regional and world swimming competitions. She was chosen the Best Athlete in Latin America two years in a row, in 1988 and 1989.

Since 2010 she is a Member of the international organization “Peace and Sport”, as one of their “Champions of Peace”, a special Sport Ambassador, to help build sustainable peace through sport. She has also written on sport in different media outlets and worked as an expert swimming commentator during the broadcasting of the recent Rio Olympic Games 2016. Ms. Poll holds a Master in Business Administration (MBA) and an Executive Master in International Negotiations and Policy Making.

Nicole Pallares Ferrer

Associate Programme Officer, ITCILO

Nicole Pallares Ferrer has a master’s degree in digital media design for Learning with a concentration in games for learning. She has over 10 years of experience designing and developing digital media platforms and applications for adult learning. In the past 7 years, she has specialised in the pedagogical application of immersive technologies (XR) and games for learning, running workshops and related trainings all over the world. She has worked in the development of a variety of learning applications (VR/AR) for the purpose of capacity development and training.

Currently, she is an Associate Programme Officer at the ITCILO’s Learning Innovation Programme as part of the Technology-Enhanced-Learning Cluster, in charge of assisting and supporting the design and implementation of new technologies for ILO headquarters and field offices, ILO constituents, UN agencies and training institutes around the globe.

Dalila Hamou

Director, External Relations Division, WIPO

Ms. Hamou is Director of the External Relations Division at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

She has over 30 years of extensive experience in multilateral diplomacy, technical cooperation, and project design. Since 1995, she has served at WIPO in various capacities, including as Director of the Regional Bureau for Arab Countries and Deputy Director of the Regional Bureau for Africa. She also served at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Algeria.

Ms. Hamou studied International Law at the Faculty of Law of Algiers and holds a diploma from the National School of Administration (ENA).

Gert Hilgers

Local Digital Twin Strategist, Open & Agile Smart Cities and Communities (OASC)

Dr Gert Hilgers is an economist and political scientist working at the intersection of technology, governance, and urban innovation. At Open & Agile Smart Cities and Communities (OASC), he supports the development and international uptake of Local Digital Twins and the Minimal Interoperability Mechanisms (MIMs), key technologies and specifications for the emerging digital public CitiVerse infrastructure.
With a background in interdisciplinary research and technical implementation across Europe and the Asia-Pacific, Gert contributes actively to international standardisation efforts within ITU’s Study Group 20. His broader expertise covers the governance of emerging technologies and their practical application. He previously served as Assistant Professor (Research) at the University of Warwick’s Department of Computer Science, focusing on the application of GenAI for public decision-making, and will join the Danish Technical University’s Compute department as a guest researcher in 2025/26.
Gert holds a PhD and MA in International Studies from the University of Warwick (UK), an MSc in International Political Economy from RSIS, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), and a BSc Economics from SOAS, University of London (UK). Currently based in Berlin, Germany, he also collaborates independently with international partners across sectors.

Hideo Imanaka

Managing Expert, Standardization Promotion Office, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT)

​He received a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Mie University in 2001. He joined Telecommunication Network Laboratories, NTT, in 1987. In 2004, he started international standardization activities in ITU-T and the APT standardization program (ASTAP) in NTT Service Integration Laboratories. He was in charge of standardization strategy planning of the entire NTT Group in NTT Research and Development Planning Department from 2010 to 2015. Since joining NTT Advanced Technology Corporation (NTT-AT) in 2015, he has been engaged in standardization consulting. He was the rapporteur of Question 1 of SG13 from 2006 to 2010 for the Next-Generation Network and Internet Protocol television standardization work in ITU-T, the chairman of the Internet of Things (IoT) working group in ASTAP from 2012 to 2016 for IoT and smart grid standardization work, and the vice-chairman of Focus Group on IMT-2020 in 2015 for pre-standardization of 5G (fifth-generation mobile communication) networks. He is currently the rapporteur of Question 8 of SG21 in ITU-T for standardization of Immersive Live Experience and the vice-rapporteur of Question 3 of SG1 in ITU-D for international deployment of emergency telecommunications and disaster relief solutions. He is also the vice-chair of ITU-D SG2, the co-chair of Working Party 4 of SG21, the former vice-chair of ITU Focus Group on metaverse, the former chair of WG5 of FG-MV.

Hyoung Jun Kim

Chair, ITU-T Study Group 20 on Internet of Things, digital twins and smart sustainable cities and communities

Dr. Hyoung Jun Kim began his career in 1988 at the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), where he currently serves as a Research Fellow. He previously held the position of Senior Vice President and led the Intelligent Convergence Research Laboratory at ETRI.
Dr. Kim is currently the Chairman of both ITU-T Study Group 20 and the APT Standardization Program (ASTAP) under the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity.
Throughout his career, he has served in various leadership roles within ITU-T, including Vice-Chair of Study Groups 13 and 20, Chair of Working Parties in both groups, and as Rapporteur for numerous Questions

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Antonio Lopez De Avila

Director of Innovation, Education and Investments, UN Tourism

Mr. Lopez de Avila is the Director of Innovation, Education and Investment of UN Tourism. Previously, he was appointed as Global Manager of the Tourism for Rural Development Programme of UN Tourism (www.unwto.org), which was designed with the vision of making tourism a driver of rural development and wellbeing.
From 2019 to 2022, Antonio was co-founder and CEO of Tourism Data-Driven Solutions (www.tourismdds.com) an international Strategic Consultancy firm on Smart Tourism Destinations headquartered in Madrid (Spain) with delegations in Mexico City (Mexico), Bogotá (Colombia), and Shanghai (China). Member of the Smart Tourism Destinations Network of Spain.
Special Advisor to the Secretary General of the UNWTO on Innovation and Technology in 2017, he led the Smart Tourism Destination Initiative in Spain as President-CEO of SEGITTUR (www.segittur.es) from 2012 to 2017. A leading and very innovative initiative worldwide that is changing the Tourism strategy in the XXI century, based on Sustainability, Innovation, Technology, Accessibility, and Governance. He has led the implementation of over 20 projects in Spain, México, and Argentina. This initiative has received the two most important recognitions at a global level: UNWTO Ulysses Award 2018 for Innovation in Research and Technology and WTTC Global Champion Award 2019.
As a scholar, he is also a Professor of Innovation Management, and he was Director of the Travel&Tourism Innovation Initiative at IE University (www.ie.edu) from 2008 to 2011 and from 2017 to 2019. He has participated in many seminars since 2004 as a professor of Innovation Management and later as an international expert on Smart Tourism Destinations. He focuses on various research areas in Tourism like Innovation, Digital Transformation, Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics, Smart Tourism/Smart Destinations, Rural Tourism, and Green Tech, in both the private and public sectors.
International speaker since 2008, he has participated in conferences organised by European Union, UNWTO, WTTC, Interamerican Development Bank (IDB), and World Bank, among others.
He was president of Turisfera, Tourism Innovation Cluster of the Canary Islands (Spain) from 2019 to 2022.
Coordinator and co-author of the book “Smart Tourism Destination: Building the Future”, edited by the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism of Spain in 2015, which became a worldwide reference for academics, companies, and destinations. He is also the author of many press articles and academic reviews.
He earned an Executive MBA from IE Business School (www.ie.edu) and a bachelor’s degree in Law from ULPGC (Spain).

Patrick Planing

Professor, HFT Stuttgart

Patrick Planing is Professor of Business Psychology at HFT Stuttgart and head of the university’s entrepreneurship center. Additionally, he is managing director of GROUNDBREAKERS, a state-funded accelerator program for start-ups in the construction and real estate industry. He studied business administration and earned his doctorate at Leeds Beckett University in the field of innovation management. His research focuses on innovation adoption, consumer behavior, and the psychological aspects of digital transformation. He has published extensively on topics such as technology acceptance, mobility behaviour, and user-centered innovation. He is currently leading research projects on the psychological factors influencing sustainable mobility and the acceptance of AI-based technologies. Prior to his academic career, he held various roles in the automotive and consulting industries, specializing in market research and strategic innovation management.

Ziqin Sang

CICT, China

Mr. Ziqin SANG joined Wuhan Research Institute of Posts and Telecommunications after obtaining his PhD in pattern recognition and intelligent system in 1998. Since 2010, he has led a division of Smart City Innovative Research in the State Key Laboratory of Optical Communication Technologies and Networks. He is active in domestic and international standardization development organizations. He is currently a vice chair of ITU-T SG20 and a vice chair of CCSA TC10. He led and contributed to a dozen of ITU-T Recommendations. As a WG9 co-chair of ITU Focus Group on Metaverse, he works on “Metaverse Standardization Roadmap” which will be beneficial to metaverse standardization in ITU-T study groups, other SDOs, consortium and fora. He is among the editorial board of IET Smart Cities, MDPI Smart Cities, and MDPI Standards.