Global Leaders Examine Foundations, Trust, and the Future of Intelligence at ICCI 2025

At the Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology in Surat, the Sixth International Conference on Computational Intelligence ICCI 2025, held on December 27–28, 2025, brought together academics and industry professionals along with many researchers to develop advancements in intelligent systems, data-driven computing, and secure digital infrastructure. The proceedings of the conference will be published in the SCOPUS Indexed Springer book series "Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems" with indexing in SCOPUS, DBLP, INSPEC, Norwegian Register for Scientific Journals and Series, SCImago, WTI Frankfurt eG, and zbMATH. The International Conference on Intelligent Systems (ICCI) created a global platform for scholarly exchange as well as peer-reviewed academic quality, and a focus on the practical applications of all aspects of engineering, artificial intelligence, and emerging computational disciplines. The two invited keynote speakers, Mr. Arun Kumar Elengovan and Mr. Gajendra Babu Thokala, presented complementary perspectives to help stimulate conversations about trust, accountability, and long-term viability in the use of intelligent technology. While Elengovan addressed how to create trust for digital systems in the face of post-quantum threats, Thokala identified the fundamental data platforms and system architecture needed to allow intelligence to function at a large scale and reliably. Together, they demonstrated that the conference had a common theme of connecting theory and practice while dealing with the issues of security, resiliency, and social impacts of rapidly evolving computational capability.

In the keynote address on the topic of Post-Quantum Cryptography and the Future of Digital Security, Arun Kumar Elengovan examined the widening gap between quantum computing progress and the readiness of existing cryptographic defenses. Elengovan described an invisible countdown, noting that cryptographically relevant quantum systems may arrive within a decade, while enterprise migration to post-quantum standards often requires many years of coordinated effort. He explained that this imbalance creates immediate risk, particularly for data with long confidentiality lifespans that is vulnerable to harvest now and decrypt later strategies. During the presentation, Elengovan detailed how Shor's algorithm threatens widely deployed public key infrastructure, including TLS certificates, digital signatures, key exchange mechanisms, and blockchain systems.

Elengovan emphasized that post-quantum cryptography is not a patch but a foundational shift requiring architectural redesign across applications, networks, and trust systems. Elengovan presented the Elixir Model, which framed digital trust renewal around confidentiality, integrity, authenticity, and future resilience as quantum threats continue to evolve. He connected this framework to global standards momentum, referencing finalized NIST post-quantum standards and national security timelines that are accelerating organizational accountability. Moving from theory to execution, he outlined a practical enterprise action plan covering cryptographic inventory risk prioritization, cryptographic agility hybrid deployment governance, and controlled pilot programs.

Elengovan also addressed engineering considerations, including performance impact, increased key sizes, certificate lifecycle changes, protocol compatibility, and supply chain readiness. Throughout the keynote, he translated technical risk into leadership language, urging executive awareness, sustained investment, and early action to secure long-term digital trust. Observers noted that he delivered a session that successfully bridged advanced cryptographic research with operational realities faced by modern enterprises. The keynote concluded with Elengovan emphasizing preparedness as the true foundation for resilience, competitiveness, and sustained confidence in intelligent systems.

As intelligent systems continue to advance at an accelerating pace, the keynote presented by Arun Kumar Elengovan, an award-winning security leader, reinforced the urgency for organizations to take proactive measures before emerging threats translate into irreversible vulnerabilities. Through his contribution at ICCI 2025, Elengovan, who is also a recipient of the Cyber Sentinel of the Year award in Malaysia and the IT Visionary Leadership award in Indonesia, strengthened the conference's role as a forum where academic research directly informs practical technology design. The discussion reflected a consensus among experts that forward-thinking security architecture and timely adoption of post-quantum cryptographic standards will be critical in defining trust and resilience in the next generation of digital systems. This perspective positioned Mr. Arun Kumar Elengovan as a prominent voice in the global conversation on securing emerging computational technologies.

Mr. Gajendra Babu Thokala, BCS Fellow and an Industry Engineering Leader, delivered a complementary keynote where he concentrated on the Foundations of Intelligent Systems, which are so often ignored when assessing whether intelligent systems will be successful in practice. While Thokala has delivered numerous addresses about intelligent systems focusing on the algorithm and model performance, this particular address looked at how data platforms, system architecture, and operational design ultimately impact the reliability, trustworthiness, and effectiveness of intelligent applications. Based on over eighteen years of delivering large-scale data platforms for companies, he said that Intelligence is limited not by ambition, but by the quality, timeliness, and continuity of the data feeding the intelligence.

Thokala explained how many current systems still use periodic, snapshot-based pipelines designed for delayed decision making. In addition, He explained that as intelligent systems make more frequent, real-time decisions in dynamic, changing environments, the traditional approaches leave blind spots, outdated context, and underlying vulnerabilities. As such, Thokala's keynote addressed how event-driven and continuous data architectures enable systems to evolve as conditions change, treating context, order, and state as first-class considerations, rather than second-class.

A central theme of the presentation was the concept of trust at scale. Thokala indicated that there is more to trust in intelligent systems than Accuracy alone; Explainability, Data Lineage, and Operational Resilience all contribute to trust in intelligent systems. He further indicated that Metadata, Governance, and System Observability were critical components of creating trusted intelligent systems. By enabling organizations to track source data, monitor changes, and continually assess the fit of data over time, organizations can reduce undesirable behavior in their intelligent systems and increase confidence in their Automated Decisions.

From Theory to Practice, Thokala provided attendees with examples from the real world of designing platforms that maintain reliability in the face of Growth, Complexity, and Change. He stressed that Sustainable Intelligence requires Architectural Discipline, Investment in Foundational Systems, and Alignment of Leadership Priorities with those of the Engineering Teams. Attendees reported that the keynote resonated strongly with both Researchers and Practitioners, as it translated the complex challenges associated with Distributed Systems into actionable guidance.

Through his presentation at ICCI 2025, Gajendra Babu Thokala illustrated the increasing need to strengthen the foundations upon which intelligent systems rely to provide reliable intelligence in the real world. Thokala emphasized that long-term trust in intelligent technologies is influenced not only by models but by the data platforms, system architecture, and operational disciplines that support them. In an era where AI failures make headlines, Gajendra Babu Thokala offered a path forward: treat data infrastructure as a first-class engineering discipline for AI and intelligent systems, not an afterthought.

The keynote by Mr. Arun Kumar Elengovan, emphasizing Post-Quantum Cryptographic Security, combined with the keynote by Mr.Gajendra Babu Thokala, emphasizing Data Platform Architecture, Operational Resiliency, and Trust at Scale, together reinforced ICCI 2025's focus on responsibility, resiliency, and long-term trust in intelligent technologies. Together, the dual perspectives came to one common conclusion: as computational capabilities continue to grow, durable Intelligence is as much dependent on strong foundations and good governance as it is on Innovation.

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