Keynote Speaker 1

Beyond the Scanner: Intelligent X-Ray Security Screening from Computer Vision to Multimodal AI

  • Tuesday, 10 November, 2026
  • 11:30 - 12:00 PM
  • Palace Downtown, Dubai, UAE

X-ray baggage screening is critical for keeping airports, borders, and public facilities safe. However, rising passenger volumes, clever concealment tactics, and the unique quirks of X-ray images, where objects overlap in a textureless, 2D view, make human inspection increasingly challenging. Automated AI systems promise to speed up security without missing hidden dangers, but building them requires overcoming steep hurdles: rare threat types, severe data imbalance, and scanner variations.

In this talk, we explore the evolution of computer vision in security screening, tracing its journey from early shape-recognition algorithms to cutting-edge Vision-Language Models. We will highlight how combining visual scans with natural language enables AI to move beyond simple detection toward true scene comprehension, threat localization, and interactive visual question answering.  Featuring insights from state-of-the-art frameworks,  we will reveal how multimodal AI is paving the way for smarter, safer, and faster screening workflows. Finally, we will shed light on the key open problems in X-ray security screening that continue to challenge both security operators and the broader research community.

Prof. Naoufel Wergh

Naoufel Werghi received his Research Habilitation and PhD in Computer Vision from the University of Strasbourg. He is a Full Professor of Computer Science at Khalifa University, where he leads the Computer Vision and Intelligent Perception research theme. His research focuses on 2D/3D image understanding, driving key advances in medical imaging, biometrics, surveillance, robotics, intelligent inspection, and AI-powered X-ray analysis for security screening. Through his leadership, he has spearheaded high-impact research initiatives and delivered innovative solutions addressing real-world challenges across healthcare, public safety, and industrial domains. 

Dr. Werghi serves as an Associate Editor for premier journals, including IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, and Scientific Data. In 2024, he co-founded IBSAR Technologies, a spinoff dedicated to translating cutting-edge AI and computer vision research into commercial solutions for security screening. He was awarded the Faculty Excellence Award for Research and Innovation at Khalifa University in 2025 and is consistently recognized among the top 2% of world scientists by Stanford University and Elsevier.