EDBT/ICDT 2027 Keynotes

We are very pleased to announce the EDBT/ICDT 2027 invited speakers.

"Graph Querying: Theory, Standards, and Practice"

by Liat Peterfreund

School of Computer Science and Engineering, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Abstract: Graph query languages have undergone a significant evolution in recent years, culminating in the development of GQL, the first ISO standard graph query language. This evolution has brought together ideas from database theory, systems, and industrial practice, creating new opportunities and challenges for graph data management. In this talk, I will share my perspective on recent developments in graph querying, drawing on experiences from research, standardization, and industry. I will discuss how theoretical ideas have informed the design and analysis of modern graph query languages, how the standardization process has helped clarify their semantics and expressive power, and how practical considerations have motivated new theoretical questions. Finally, I will highlight several challenges and opportunities for future research in graph querying.

Liat Peterfreund is an Assistant Professor at the School of Computer Science and Engineering at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research focuses on the foundations of data management, with an emphasis on query languages, their formal semantics, expressive power, and complexity. She is actively involved in the development and standardization of graph query languages, including GQL and SQL/PGQ, and works on bridging theoretical foundations with practical systems. Her work has been recognized by several awards, including a SIGMOD Research Highlights Award and the L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award.

"Title: To be announced"

by Divesh Srivastava

AT&T Labs Research, Bedminster, NJ, USA

Abstract: Coming soon

Divesh Srivastava is the Head of Database Research at AT&T. He earned his B.Tech. degree in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Bombay in 1987 and his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA, in 1993. Srivastava is the head of Database Research at AT&T, where he has 25+ years of experience conducting and leading industrial research on data management that has been deployed at scale. His professional contributions include serving as Vice-President (2018-21) and as President (2022-current) of the Very Large Data Bases (VLDB) Endowment; as a member of the Computing Research Association (CRA) Board of Directors (2019-25), and co-chair of the ACM Publications Board (2021-25).

"Title: To be announced"

by Guy Van den Broeck

University of California, Los Angeles

Abstract: Coming soon

Guy Van den Broeck directs the Statistical and Relational Artificial Intelligence (StarAI) lab at UCLA. His research bridges machine learning and knowledge representation, spanning tractable deep generative models, probabilistic circuits, statistical relational learning, probabilistic programming, and probabilistic databases. His work has been recognized with the IJCAI Computers and Thought Award, an NSF CAREER Award, a Sloan Research Fellowship, and the Intel Outstanding Researcher Award, along with best-paper honors at venues including AAAI, OOPSLA, UAI, and KR. He is a frequent invited and keynote speaker, having recently addressed audiences at TACAS, AAAI, and various industry and university forums on the theme of symbolic reasoning in the age of large language models.

"Title: To be announced"

by Ihab Ilyas

University of Waterloo

Abstract: Coming soon

Ihab Ilyas is currently a Professor Emeritus of computer science in the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo and he is the co-founder and CEO of hiddenweights, a startup for building efficient custom AI. He has also led the Knowledge Platform team at Apple Inc. Ihab was the holder of the Thomson Reuters-NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Data Cleaning at the University of Waterloo. Ilyas co-founded Tamr, a start-up focusing on large-scale data integration and cleaning, with Andy Palmer and Michael Stonebraker, a Turing Award winner. Ilyas co-founded and was the CEO of Inductiv, an artificial intelligence start-up that uses machine learning to automate the task of identifying and correcting errors in data, which he co-founded with Theodoros Rekatsinas at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Christopher Ré at Stanford University. Inductiv was acquired by Apple Inc. in May 2020.