BRAINS 2025 Keynotes

Keynote #1

Title: New Perspectives toward a Grand Unified Theory for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Blockchain

Abstract: Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain are touted as distinct transformative technological trajectories—AI as a generator of knowledge and predictions, and Blockchain as a provider of decentralized trust. In this talk, we argue that both systems can be understood through a unified perspective: they are energy-driven entropy-reducing machines that convert energy into verifiable information. Specifically, both AI generation and blockchain mining are energy-to-token transformations subject to information-theoretic, thermodynamic, and economic constraints. Just as physics aspires to a Grand Unified Theory, it follows that a unified theory will characterize the fundamental limits and trade-offs of token utility, verifiability, and energy cost, and will provide the algebra of composition and incentives that yields sustainable, robust systems.

To substantiate this idea, we first introduce Landauer’s principle as the fundamental governing law for both AI and blockchain system, followed by our proposed mathematical framework that determine the outcomes of AI inference and crypto-mining process. From this perspective, we further identify two critical frontiers: 1) AI for Blockchain, where Proof-of-Useful-Work (PoUW) and Proof-of-Inference(PoI) transform consensus into productive computation, and 2) Blockchain for AI, where verifiable inference (e.g., zk-LLM) makes AI outputs cryptographically attestable and economically meaningful. This unified view not only provides a shared language across disciplines, but also motivates new research at the intersection of computing, physics, and socio-technical systems.

Bio: Yonggang Wen is a Professor and President’s Chair in Computer Science and Engineering at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. He serves as the Associate Provost (Graduate Education) and Dean of Graduate College at NTU Singapore. Previously he has served as the Associate Vice President (Capability Building) at President’s Office (2023),the Associate Dean (Research) at College of Engineering(2018-2023), the acting Director for Nanyang Technopreneurship Center (NTC) (2017-2019) and the Assistant Chair (Innovation) at the School of Computer Science and Engineering (2016-2018), all at NTU Singapore. He received his PhD degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (minor in Western Literature) from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA, in 2008.

Dr. Wen has published over 300 papers in top journals and prestigious conferences. His systems research has gained global recognitions. His work in Multi-Screen Cloud Social TV has been featured by global media (more than 1600 news articles from over 29 countries) and received ASEAN ICT Award 2013 (Gold Medal). His work on Cognitive Digital Twin for Data Centre, has won the 2015 Data Centre Dynamics Awards – APAC (the ‘Oscar’ award of data centre industry), 2016 ASEAN ICT Awards (Gold Medal), 2020 IEEE TCCPS Industrial Technical Excellence Award, 2021 W.Media APAC Cloud and Datacenter Technology Leader Award, and 2022 Singapore Computer Society Digital Achiever Tech Leader Award. He was the winner of 2019 Nanyang Research Award and the sole winner of 2016 Nanyang Awards for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, both of which are the highest recognition at NTU.

He is a co-recipient of multiple Best Paper Awards from top journals, including 2019 IEEE TCSVT and 2015 IEEE Multimedia, and at international conferences, including 2023 ASPLOS, 2016 IEEE Globecom, 2016 IEEE Infocom MuSIC Workshop, 2015 EAI Chinacom, 2014 IEEE WCSP, 2013 IEEE Globecom and 2012 IEEE EUC. He is the Editor in Chief of IEEE Transactions on Multimedia (TMM), serves or has served on editorial boards for multiple IEEE and ACM transactions, and was the elected Chair for IEEE ComSoc Multimedia Communication Technical Committee (2014-2016).

His research interests include cloud computing, green data center, big data analytics, multimedia network and mobile computing. He is a Fellow of IEEE and Singapore Academy of Engineering, and an ACM Distinguished Member.

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Keynote #2

Title: TBA

Abstract: TBA

Bio: Burkhard is the director of the Communication Systems Group CSG and Full Professor of Computer Science, in particular on Communication Systems, in the Department of Informatics IfI at the University of Zurich UZH. Burkhard is a member of the UZH Blockchain Center (BCC), a member of the the Center for Information Technology, Society, and Law (ITSL), a member of the Luxembourg Science Foundation’s (FNR) Scientific Council, the Chair of IFIP’s Technical Committee TC6 on Communication Systems, an Editorial Board member of the IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management (TNSM), the Springer Economic Research and Electronic Networking Series as well as the Journal of Network and Systems Management, Wiley’s International Journal of Network Management, and past Editor-in-Chief of Elsevier’s Computer Networks Journal as well as past chair of the IEEE Computer Society’s Technical Committee on Communication Systems (TCCC).

Burkhard’s research interests include systems with fully decentralized control (blockchains, clouds, peer-to-peer, eVoting), network and service management (economic and security management), Internet-of-Things (security of constrained devices, LoRa), and telecommunication economics (charging and accounting).