Governtment of Dubai - Organizer | Dubai World Congress For Self-Driving Transaport | Autonomous Vehicle Technology Exhibition
Under The Patronage Of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince Of Dubai And Chairman Of The Executive Council
Roads & Transport Authority - Organizer | Dubai Congress For Self-Driving Transaport | Self-Driving Car Conference & Exhibition
Under The Patronage Of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince Of Dubai And Chairman Of The Executive Council
Agenda2019-08-08T05:41:44+00:00

2019 Agenda

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Tuesday
October 15
08:00

Registration & Networking

09:00
Parallel Sessions

Track One – Multimodal Autonomous Technology

Room 01
Sessions

Application Pathways to Connected and Automated Driving

Aravind Kailas
PhD, Research & Innovation Manager,
Volvo Group North America

Accelerating the AV Evolution from Pilots to Scalable Deployment

Corey Clothier
Autonomous Vehicle and Program Developer,
Comet Mobility

Mass Transport to Automated Taxis: The Path for Better Urban Mobility

Dr. Michel R. Parent
President,
AutoKAB
Parallel Sessions

Track Two - Enabling Automation: Policy & Applicability

Room 02
Sessions

The State of the AV in the US and the Technical Challenges Still Facing the Industry Globally

Christopher Mentzer
Assistant Director,
Southwest Research Institute (SwRI)

Addressing the Policy Issues Associated with Automated Driving Systems (ADS)

Dr. Steven Shladover
California PATH,
UC Berkeley

Integrating and Validating Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication for Safety Applications

Syed Mahmud
Senior Systems Engineer,
Hyundai-Kia America
10:30

Morning Networking Refreshment Break

11:00

Welcome Address & Self Driving Challenge Awards

Main Plenary
Speaker
H.E. Mattar Al Tayer
Director General, Chairman of the board of Executive Directors,
Roads & Transport Authority (RTA)
12:15

Networking Lunch

13:15

Global Keynote Address

Main Plenary
Speaker
Sterling Anderson
Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer,
Aurora Innovation
14:00
Panel Discussion

Journey of Success: Catalyzing Innovation in Self-Driving Technology

Main Plenary

Industry leaders have been tackling the transport challenge faced by global cities. This first of its kind panel will be truly global in its outlook and will showcase the technologies that are needed to address the major needs of: transporting people, transporting good and transporting innovation. The panellists will represent award finalists from the Dubai World Challenge for Self-Driving Transport Competition.

Moderator
Ralf Baron
Senior Partner and Global Head,
Arthur D. Little
Speakers
Christophe Gaussin
CEO,
Gaussin
Gilbert Gagnaire
CEO and Founder,
EasyMile
Carel van Helsdingen
Founder, CEO,
2getthere
Julian Turner
CEO,
Westfield Sportscars
Jérôme Rigaud
Deputy CEO,
NAVYA
14:45

Networking Break

15:15

Afternoon Keynote Address: Connecting People and Technology in Smart Cities

Main Plenary
Speaker
Daan Roosegaarde
Founder,
Studio Roosegaarde
16:00
Panel Discussion

Future Trends In Mobility: The 2071 Vision

Main Plenary
Moderator
Lukas Neckermann
Managing Director,
Neckermann Strategic Advisors
Speakers
Thomas Hengstermann
Head of Autonomous Services,
Daimler Mobility Services
Bassel Al Nahlaoui
Managing Director,
Careem
Professor Michael Milford, PhD
Expert | Speaker | Consultant
Sarwant Singh
Managing Partner & Mobility Expert,
Frost & Sullivan
Fritz Busch
Chair, Traffic Engineering & Control,
Technical University of Munich
16:45

Closing Keynote Address

Main Plenary
Speaker
Noah Zych
Chief of Staff,
Uber Advanced Technologies Group
17:15

Closing Remarks – End Of Conference Day One

Wednesday
October 16
08:00

Registration & Networking

09:00
Parallel Sessions

Track Three – Adoption & User Experience (UX)

Room 01
Sessions

Toward Shared Autonomous Mobility: Social Acceptance Comes First

Lukas Neckermann
Managing Director,
Neckermann Strategic Advisors

How In-Vehicle Digital Assistants Hold the Keys To the Future of Mobility

Shyamala Prayaga
User Experience Evangelist,
Ford Motor Company

Creating New Autonomous In-Car Experiences

Rich Radka
Founding Partner,
Claro Partners
Parallel Sessions

Track Four – International Autonomous Technology Insights

Main Plenary
Sessions

From Planning to Operations: Integrating CAV Technology in North America

Rod Schebesch
Senior Vice President,
Stantec

Automated Road Transport Systems in Urban Settings

Adriano Alessandrini
Professor,
University of Florence

 

Scott Drennan
Vice President, Innovation
Bell
Parallel Sessions

Track Five – Cybersecurity & Connectivity

Room 02
Sessions

The Effectiveness of Vehicle to Infrastructure Connectivity on Transportation Network Performance

Hesham Rakha
Samuel Reynolds Pritchard Professor of Engineering, Virginia Tech and Director, Center for Sustainable Mobility, VTTI

The Pandora of Autonomous Driving Security: Challenges and Opportunities

Dr. Hoda A. Alkhzaimi
Research Assistant Professor,
New York University

Traffic in Co-Simulation as a Standard Toolchain for Automotive Development

Dr Dario Menichetti
Regional Director / Project Management & Services, Middle East
PTV Group
10:30

Morning Networking Coffee

11:00

Autonomous Mobility In The Middle East

Main Plenary
Speaker
Eng. Muammar Al Katheeri
Executive Vice President,
Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority
11:30

Global Keynote: Bringing Autonomous Vehicles And Robots To Real Existence

Main Plenary
Speaker
Professor Henrik Schärfe
CEO,
Foundation Autonomous
12:15

lunch

13:15
Parallel Sessions

Ideation Session 1: Presenting Dubai’s Autonomous Strategy For Public Transportation And Key Implementation Enablers

Room 01

The ideation session will be a combination of both plenary and breakout sessions and will capture inputs for consideration into Dubai’s Autonomous Strategy for public transport, and officially launch implementation.

Facilitated by
Joseph Salem
Senior Principal at Arthur D. Little and Global Head of Operations of the Consultancy's Travel & Transportation Practice,
Arthur D. Little
Parallel Sessions

Ideation Session 2: Dubai Code Of Practice Vision: From AV Trials To Implementation

Room 02

This ideation session will focus on Dubai’s code of practice – featuring a presentation followed by interactive group discussion and a facilitated question and answer session.

Facilitated by
Dan Baxter
Chief Systems Engineer and Practice Director, Global Intelligent Transportation Systems Road and Vehicles Practice,
Stantec
14:45

Afternoon Coffee And Networking Break

15:00
Panel Discussion

Journey Of Success

Main Plenary

Start-Ups and Academia play an integral role in tackling the transport challenge faced by global cities. This Journey of Success Panel will follow on from yesterday's panel and will showcase the role start-ups and academia play in the transportation innovation mix. Panellists will represent finalists from the Dubai World Challenge for Self-Driving Transport Competition.

Moderator
Dr. Ismail Zohdy
Expert,
RTA
Panellists
Harri Santamala
CEO and Co-Founder,
Sensible4
Georges Aoude
CEO and Co-Founder,
Derq
Dr. Kang Li
Founder,
iAuto Technology
15:45

Closing Keynote Address

Main Plenary
Speaker
JoeBen Bevirt
Founder & CEO,
Joby Aviation
16:30

Closing Ceremony: Announcing The 2020 Dubai World Challenge For Self-Driving Transport

Main Plenary
Speaker
Ahmed Hashem Bahrozyan
The Chief Executive Officer of Public Transport Agency,
RTA
16:45

End Of Conference

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Aravind Kailas, Ph.D.

Volvo Group North America
Research and Innovation Manager

Dr. Aravind Kailas manages innovation and R&D initiatives to create and commercialize sustainable transport solutions for the Volvo Group. By promoting the company’s creative assets and key technology positions in various fora, he has been instrumental in establishing the Volvo Group as a trusted thought leader in California. Dr. Kailas has led Volvo’s engagement with the public and private sectors, and other outreach efforts in the connected and autonomous vehicles spaces. Dr. Kailas created a unique regional partnership to assess air quality improvements along freight corridors near the ports, and also spearheaded local partner development for the Volvo electric truck roll-out in the US. He has initiated many activities with startups and customers to address critically needed technologies and explore new business opportunities for the Volvo Group.

Dr. Kailas is also a part-time Instructor at California State University Long Beach, and has previously held positions at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, QUALCOMM, Inc., DOCOMO Innovations, Inc., and General Electric. Author of over 100 publications and quoted in many media outlets, Dr. Kailas has delivered more than 50 invited talks globally, and served on numerous international jury panels on research and technology, advisory boards of non-governmental organizations and academic institutions. His scholarly work has been recognized by numerous accolades, including the Patricia F. Waller and Deborah Freund Awards from the Transportation Research Board. He has earned degrees in Applied Mathematics and Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Georgia Institute of Technology.

Corey Clothier

Comet Mobility
Autonomous Vehicle and Program Developer

Corey Clothier, a leading global strategic consultant focused on safe automated vehicle deployment and market development.

For 10-years, Mr. Clothier served in the U.S. Marines. Mr. Clothier was among the first Marine computer technicians on F/A-18 fighter jets, then was selected for promotion and trained as a fighter jet pilot. Mr. Clothier holds a bachelor’s degree in aircraft engineering from Northrop University and an MBA from Baker College.

Mr. Clothier draws on his experience in the corporate and defense sectors working on high level projects for Cosworth, GM test labs, Lear, Ford and DARPA. In addition, Mr. Clothier spent over six years focusing on strategic development consulting for the U.S. Army Robotics Research and Development Center, where he initiated collaborative autonomous vehicle projects with other federal agencies and the commercial sector.

Mr. Clothier was honored to present the ARIBO program at the White House. Mr. Clothier co-developed the US Army program, ARIBO (Autonomous Robotics for Installation and Base Operations), which was a featured and White House supported project. Largely due to Mr. Clothier’s leadership, ARIBO has become an internationally significant collaborative strategy with U.S. Departments of Defense, Energy and Transportation working together to accelerate the self-driving market development.

Mr. Clothier, is among the most active developers of automated mobility systems. Mr. Clothier leads projects with smart cities, campus owners, airports, planning companies, insurance companies and AV developers. He led many of the 1st level-4 public/private AV demos and pilots in the US and UK, for example: the 1st AV at Detroit Auto Show (2015) and the 1st AV demo at CES (2014). Mr. Clothier also initiated and led the planning of the 1st AV pilot in the US at Fort Bragg, NC. Mr. Clothier is currently an automated vehicle strategist and advisor for Honolulu, Chicago, Jacksonville, FL, and Las Vegas and is working on AV pilots for multiple cities and communities.

Mr. Clothier also develops strategy for vehicle manufacturers and AV developers. He led the development of Local Motors Olli and is currently supporting the development of multiple new automated vehicles with global technology partners, as well as operational safety tools curated for automated mobility systems.

Mr. Clothier’s passion is also his mission: to accelerate the development and deployment of low to mid-speed automated mobility systems globally.

Dr. Michel R. Parent

AutoKAB
President

Michel Parent is currently the president of AutoKAB, a new company specialized in the automation of vehicle fleets. This company is a spin-off from the vehicle automation research team from INRIA that he created in 1991. This team focuses on research and development of information and communication technologies for road transport and in particular on fully automated vehicles (the cybercars). He is considered as the “father” of the cybercar concept (in 1991!) and he was the coordinator of the European Project CyberCars between 2001 and 2004 and several follow-up project.

Before his positions at INRIA, Michel Parent has spent half of his time in research and academia at such places as Stanford University and MIT in the USA and INRIA in France, and the other half in the robotics industry. He was the president of the French Robotics Association between 1974 and 1979. He is the author of several books on robotics, vision and intelligent vehicles, and numerous publications and patents.

Michel Parent has an engineering degree from the French Aeronautics School (ENSAE), a Masters degree in Operation Research and a Ph.D. in Computer Science, both from Case Western Reserve University, USA.

Christopher Mentzer

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI)
Assistant Director of the Applied Sensing Department, Acting Manager for the Unmanned Systems Section

Chris Mentzer, PMP has a BS and MS degree in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University and has been working with automated vehicles for over 13 years. He is the Assistant Director of the Applied Sensing Department as well as Acting Manager for the Unmanned Systems Section at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI). Chris was extensively involved in SwRI’s Mobile Autonomous Robotics Technology Initiative (MARTI) program. This program created an autonomous vehicle out of a 2006 Ford Explorer with which SwRI was able to demonstrate key technologies improving upon the state-of-the-art in-ground vehicle autonomy. This system has been demonstrated alongside other industry leaders in the field at the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) World Congress in 2008 and the Army’s Robotics Rodeo in 2009, 2010, and 2012.

Mr. Mentzer performed system integration for the Small Unit Mobility Enhancement Technologies (SUMET) program for the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and is currently the program manager for the Dismounted Soldier Autonomy Tools (DSAT) program and successor programs related to the Robotics Technology Kernel (RTK) effort for the Tank Automotive Research, Development, and Engineering Center (TARDEC). Additionally, Chris was the project manager for the Active Vision and Drive-By-Wire Evaluation projects for Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) Pacific. As Acting Manager for the Unmanned Systems Section, Chris is also responsible for overseeing the unmanned ground vehicle programs at SwRI.

Dr. Steven Shladover

California PATH, UC Berkeley

Role

  • Research Engineer and Pioneer in Autonomous Transportation

Consulting focus

  • Advanced Transportation Systems
  • Advanced Vehicle Control and Safety Systems
  • Intelligent Transport Systems

Professional background

  • 45+ years of expertise in transportation systems planning and analysis, vehicle dynamics and control, large-scale systems, and economics

Education

  • S.B., S.M., Sc.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Massachussetts Institute of Technology
  • Won Charles Stark Draper Innovative Practice Award and Control Engineering Practice Award for contribution to intelligent vehicle and highway systems

Relevant Project Experience

  • As principal investigator in Connected and Automated Vehicle Research, led research to identify energy saving potential of connected and automated vehicle (CAV) systems
  • As principal investigator in Connected and Automated Vehicle Research Roadmap for AASHTO, defined a wide range of research topics to decide future funding projects
  • Providing technical advices to the California DMV for the regulations that govern the testing and public operation of automated road vehicles that do not require continuous monitoring by the driver
  • Developed modeling and simulation tools to assess realistic traffic impacts of adaptive cruise control (ACC) and cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC)
  • Developed user requirements and concept of operations for a cooperative adaptive cruise control system for heavy trucks
  • Led project to develop and evaluate three mobility enhancing applications of connected vehicle technology

Syed Mahmud

Hyundai-Kia America
Senior Systems Engineer

Syed Mahmud is a Sr. Systems Engineer at Hyundai-Kia America Technical Center (HATCI). He joined the Electronic Systems Development team at HATCI in early 2016 and has been working on V2X & Connected Automated Vehicle research since then. He has been working as HATCI’s Technical Lead for the Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications Research Project and the Vehicle-to-Vehicle Systems Engineering and Vehicle Integration Research for Deployment (V2V-SE) Project at CAMP (Crash Avoidance Metric Partners (CAMP) which is USDOT Funded OEM Consortium for V2X Research. He is also very active in industry effort for V2X standards.

Roads & Transport Authority (RTA)

Foundation Autonomous
Director General, Chairman of the board of Executive Directors

His Excellency Mattar Al Tayer, Director General, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) holds a Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Wisconsin, USA, 1983. Prior to taking up RTA's leadership role, Al Tayer worked in Dubai Municipality since 1983. He worked in several professional and supervisory roles ranging from the Director of the Roads Department up to the Deputy Director General of Dubai Municipality.

He took leadership of RTA in November 2005 where he oversaw the establishment phase including the recruitment of competent and experienced professionals. Under his leadership, RTA has made remarkable achievements in a variety of fields including radical development of the mass transit system through mega projects, like Dubai Metro (Red and Green Lines) and Dubai Tram. It has made a major shift in the bus and marine transit services as well as the developments in the road network including multiple crossings on Dubai Creek such as the Business Bay Crossing, Al Garhoud Bridge and the Floating Bridge. RTA has also developed key roads and interchanges on the Sheikh Zayed Road, Al Khail Road, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road, and Emirates Road. Additionally, RTA has also delivered an array of superb projects such as the Dubai Water Canal, Jumeirah Corniche, Etihad Museum, and the Enterprise Command and Control Center (EC3). Overall, Al Tayer has overseen projects worth about AEDlOO billion undertaken by RTA.

Such achievements and projects have ranked the RTA amongst the leading and reputed global entities in the roads and transportation industry. Matching its outstanding record of achievements, the RTA has won several local, regional and international awards, amounting to more than 270 awards.

Throughout his professional career, Al Tayer has received multiple accolades in recognition of his successful leadership of the RTA, such as: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Sash, September 2011Honorary Fellowship from the British Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE), UK, 2010ABLF Best Business Citizen Award 2017Man of the Year (CEO Middle East Award) 2009 Middle East Forum for Special Needs Award, 2009 Al Tayer is actively engaged in several local and federal councils, boards and committees, including:Member of the Executive Council of Dubai Government.Member of the Strategic Affairs Council of Dubai GovernmentDeputy Chairman, Dubai Sports Council.Chairperson of the Board of Trustees, "Mohammed Bin Rashid AI-Maktoum Creative Sports Award".Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Hamdan bin Mohammed Award for Innovation in Project Management.Chairman of Etihad Rail DBDeputy Chairman of the Board - Etihad RailMember, Preparatory Committee of World Expo 2020.Member, Board of Trustees of "Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum GlobalInitiatives".Member, Board of Trustees of Dubai Future Foundation.Board Member, Federal Transport Authority-Land and Maritime.Board Member, Union National Bank.Al Tayer also assumed several key posts in Councils, Boards and Committees in Dubai and the UAE highlighted by:Deputy Chairman of the infrastructure and environment committee - Dubai Executive Council (2005-2017)Chairman of the Emirates Society of Engineers (2004-2010)

Sterling Anderson

Aurora Innovation
Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer

Sterling has been developing self-driving technology for the better part of the last decade, starting with the creation of MIT's Intelligent Co-Pilot in 2007. Sterling advised several large technology companies as a management consultant with McKinsey and Company before joining Tesla, where he led the development, and launch of the award-winning Tesla Model X, then led the team that delivered Tesla Autopilot. He has a PhD in Robotics from MIT.

Ralf Baron

Arthur D. Little
Senior Partner and Global Head of ADL's Travel & Transportation Practice

Consulting focus

  • Extensive consulting experience with Arthur D. Little working in the fields of Mobility – Private and Public Sector, Strategy and Organisation with focus on transformation and change and innovation management

Professional background

  • More than 25 years ADL experience in strategy and innovation consulting in the travel and transportation sector
  • 5 years experience United Nations Headquarters, New York, Centre for Science and Technology for Development – Technology assessment and innovation

Education

  • Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich
  • M.A. Political Science, International Economics

Examples of relevant projects

  • For a GCC transport player, developed the micro mobility strategy and operating model
  • Developed Mobility as a Service Strategy and Business Planning for a major City in Central Europe
  • Developed an integrated mobility Platform for a major City in Southern Germany
  • For a GCC transport player, developed the 2030 and 2071 strategy and vision
  • For a GCC transport player, developed the integrated mobility strategy
  • Set-up Arthur D. Little Global Mobility Lab, co-developed an index and the ADL approach on Future of Urban Mobility
  • Developed an Mobility Ecosystem approach and strategy for a major European Airline
  • Serves as Government Advisor for Future of Mobility Strategies for a GCC country
  • Developed the approach for integrated mobility including top management / government alignment for a major GCC country
  • Developed the business plan and investment strategy of a leading player in the Swiss travel and transportation industry
  • Extensive experience on technology assessment for travel and transportation technologies

Christophe Gaussin

CEO
Gaussin

Gilbert Gagnaire

EasyMile
CEO and Founder

Gilbert Gagnaire started his career in Fin-Tech in 1985 after graduating from the engineering school Ecole des Mines.

In 1996 he co-founded FERMAT, a company specialising in accounting management systems. A new banking standard - Basel II - propelled FERMAT into a new dimension in 2003 and in April 2005, Gilbert Gagnaire decided to set up FERMAT's Asian subsidiary in Singapore in order to find new drivers of growth. At the end of 2008, FERMAT was bought by Moody's Analytics.

Mr Gagnaire then travelled the world for four years. During a trip to Bali and captivated by the magic of the island with its volcanoes and lakes, he decided to found a Resort there: namely the Savak Retreat Bali, fully integrated in the local village’s economy.

In 2014, Gilbert Gagnaire heard about the concept of driverless shuttles. Conscious of the disappearance of transport services in rural areas, he saw strong potential in offering a new mobility solution where traditional transportation methods are no longer economically viable. With the help of four robotic engineering experts, he launched EasyMile. From day one, Mr Gagnaire established the company both in France and in Singapore to fully benefit from the dynamism of the Asia-Pacific region.

Within four years, Gilbert Gagnaire and his team have deployed over 230 autonomous vehicle projects, driven 400,000 km and carried 380,000 passengers. The company's customers include the largest transport operators, municipalities, airports, private companies, business parks and universities.

Today, the company has offices on four continents, with headquarters in Toulouse (France) and regional offices in Singapore, Denver (U.S.A), Berlin (Germany) and Adelaide (Australia). Gilbert Gagnaire has secured financial and technological support from Alstom, Continental and Bpifrance.

EasyMile’s state-of-the-art solutions revolutionise passenger and goods transportation with completely new mobility options.

Carel van Helsdingen

2getthere
Founder, CEO

Carel van Helsdingen, MSc (1950) is founder of Frog Navigation Systems and its spin-out company 2getthere, acting as its Chief Executive Officer. After graduating from the University of Technology in Delft in manufacturing engineering, Carel worked at Fluor Daniel, IBM and Burginvest Project Development before founding Frog Navigation Systems in 1984.

Carel has been in the automated transportation industry since 1984, realizing the world’s first free ranging Automated Guided Vehicles for industrial applications. Based on the on the company’s state-of-the-art technology, his vision lead to new markets for automated vehicles: ports, entertainment parks and people mover systems.

As CEO he was responsible for the growth of the company and successful applications at multinational companies such as GM, VW, Sony, HP, Apple and Disney. Recognizing the potential of autonomous vehicles, he lead the spin-out of 2getthere in 2007 and the realization of the world’s first PRT application open to the public in 2010.

In addition to CEO of 2getthere, Carel is an member of YPO and coaches young entrepreneurs in the Netherlands.

Julian Turner

Westfield Sportscars
CEO

Julian Turner is the CEO of Westfield Sportscars. Westfield has sold over 15,000 cars world-wide since 1983, and currently produce over 400 cars a year for driving enthusiasts the world over. Julian is a qualified PRINCE2 project manager and chartered engineer. He was appointed Managing Director in 2006 with a strong vision: To be the first choice sportscar provider and one of the world’s most admired niche vehicle manufacturers. In June 2009 Westfield became the first Niche Vehicle Manufacturer to be awarded European Small Series Production Status with the new land mark Sport Turbo. Utilising the VXR 1.6 GM Engine and new lightweight design chassis production of the vehicle started with immediate unprecedented orders from Europe. The launch of the IRacer at Geneva Motor Show 2010 saw Westfield move into the Electric vehicle market utilising some advanced materials for components of the vehicle.

Jérôme Rigaud

NAVYA
Deputy CEO

Jérôme Rigaud obtained his Master’s degree diploma in law from University Paris 2, and then graduated from Sciences Po. Later, Jérôme attended HEC Paris (Higher School of Business) where he got his Executive MBA in strategic marketing and finance.

Before joining NAVYA, Jérôme was for 10 years General Manager of Kalidea, acquired by Up Group. He ran a build-up strategy to reach leading position on the market, expended the products portfolio and services range, worked on acquire software companies and developed key partnerships. Before that, he was the CEO of Topachat-Clust where he managed the company turnaround leading to a successful buyout by Orange Group. He then joined Orange as Head of business development at France Telecom E-Commerce.

Jérôme joined NAVYA in 2018 as deputy CEO. Since then, he has been working in close collaboration with the Chairman of the Management Board and CFO, Frank Maccary, to lead the company towards international success.

Daan Roosegaarde

Studio Roosegaarde
Founder

Daan Roosegaarde is a creative thinker and maker of social designs which explore the relation between people, technology and space. Roosegaarde has been driven by nature's gifts such as light emitting fireflies and jellyfishes since an early age. His fascination for nature and technology is reflected in his iconic designs such as Smart Highway (roads which charge from sunlight and glow at night), Waterlicht (a virtual flood) and Smog Free Project (the first smog vacuum cleaner in the world which makes jewellery from smog).

Roosegaarde graduated from The Berlage Institute with a master in architecture. He founded Studio Roosegaarde in 2007, where he works with his team of designers and engineers towards a better future. Together they develop ‘Landscapes of the Future’ building smart sustainable prototypes for the cities of tomorrow. Roosegaarde is a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum and named Artist of the Year 2016 in The Netherlands.

Roosegaarde has won the Design Project of the Year Dezeen Award, the Grand Award for Sustainability and the Gold Award at the Design for Asia Awards, the Media Architecture Award 2018, the London Design Innovation Medal, the INDEX Design Award, the World Technology Award, two Dutch Design Awards, the Charlotte Köhler Award, and China's Most Successful Design Award. He exhibited at the Design Museum in London, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Tate Modern, Tokyo National Museum, Le Musée des Arts Décoratifs Paris, Victoria & Albert Museum and various public spaces in Europe and Asia. Selected by Wired, Forbes and Good 100 as a creative change maker, Daan Roosegaarde shares his visionary ideas frequently at conferences across the world such as TED and NASA.

Lukas Neckermann

Neckermann Strategic Advisors
Managing Director

Lukas is Managing Director at Neckermann Strategic Advisors, a consultancy with a focus on new mobility trends and their strategic impact. He has 20 years of leadership experience in automotive, and financial services. After beginning his career at a small commercial radio station in Ithaca, NY, Lukas joined BMW in Munich. Working in BMW’s Central Marketing area, he co-developed the first BMW.com website, helped launch the innovative Z8 sports car, and – as an internal consultant – recommended pricing, communication, and positioning strategies.

He joined Allianz Group in 2002, reporting to the Group’s CEO, Michael Diekmann, for whom he developed group-level strategies. He continued his Allianz career in various head-office and regional line leadership functions, last as Executive Board member and Director of Underwriting, Marketing and Sales for the UK and Ireland’s leading creditinsurance company, Euler Hermes UK plc. While at Euler Hermes, Lukas led the most significant innovation and strategic change program in over 20 years.

Lukas was a founding member of TheOScarProject – the world’s first open-source car project and is currently Advisor to four urban mobility startups: NEXT Future Transportation Inc., Flock, Splyt, and Eliport. Lukas is a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM), and an Instructor at New York University (NYU). He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Science and Technology Studies from Cornell University, and an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business. Lukas has written three books, “The Mobility Revolution” (2015) ,“Corporate Mobility Breakthrough” (2016), and “Smart Cities, Smart Mobility” (2017), which is available in four languages. He is fluent in English and German.

Thomas Hengstermann

Daimler Mobility Services
Head of Autonomous Services

Thomas Hengstermann is currently Head of Autonomous Services at Daimler Mobility Services, where he is shaping the future of autonomous mobility. Previously he has held various senior executive leadership roles in Daimler Mobility Services, car2go, and moovel. Prior to that, he was working in the financial services and fleet management business at Daimler Financial Services.

Bassel Al Nahlaoui

Careem
Managing Director

Bassel is the Managing Director for Careem in the Arabian Gulf, leading the company’s operations in the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain. One of the key things that Careem does is working in conjunction with local governments, and Bassel has led the way is creating a company strategy for the region.

Prior to this he the Vice President of Business Development and Government Relations, looking after strategic partnerships, corporates sales across the region while working closely with Governments to develop favourable regulatory frameworks to grow Careem’s business.

Having advised and worked with firms across the Middle East and the United States in the past, Bassel brings over a decade of experience in management consulting and investment management.

Bassel holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from the Purdue University, USA. In his free time, he likes to focus his attention on family and sports and enjoys playing basketball.

Professor Michael Milford, PhD

Expert | Speaker | Consultant

“Professors Milford's presentation provided a fascinating insight into the world of artificial intelligence ‐ from the inside. His message resonated with both those unfamiliar with the field as well as those of us with a technical background”

Professor Milford conducts interdisciplinary research at the boundary between robotics, neuroscience and computer vision and is a multi‐award winning educational entrepreneur. His research models the neural mechanisms in the brain underlying tasks like navigation and perception to develop new technologies in challenging application domains such as all‐weather, anytime positioning for autonomous vehicles. He is also one of Australia’s most in demand experts in technologies including self‐driving cars, robotics and artificial intelligence, and is a passionate science communicator. He currently holds the position of Professor at the Queensland University of Technology, as well as Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Microsoft Research Faculty Fellow and Chief Investigator at the Australian Centre for Robotic Vision.

Sarwant Singh

Frost & Sullivan
Managing Partner & Mobility Expert

Sarwant Singh has over 21 years of consulting and management experience and at the moment is Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) Region Leader and Global Practice leader of the Automotive & Transportation and Aerospace & Defence team at Frost & Sullivan. He is also the leader and founder of a think tank group within the organisation that works on future Mega Trends. He managed over 350 advisory projects in last 18 years with Frost & Sullivan ranging from diverse topics in M&A, New Market/Product Assessments, Business opportunity analysis, Product Portfolio Analysis, Due Diligence studies and Partnership/Acquisition analysis.

He also pioneered the “Macro to Micro” approach in analysing Mega Trends in 2008, which has since been tried and tested with Fortune 1000 companies in developing white space opportunities. He consults to clients like Ford, Philips, BMW, Fiat group, Nissan, Toyota, UNIDO, Fincantieri, SITA and many other high profile organisations leveraging his Mega Trends and Future of Mobility work. He is also author of a book titled, “New Mega Trends” launched in Oct 2012 with Palgrave Macmillan has since been sold in over 30 countries and recently been translated into Chinese for a local China market release.

Additionally to that, Sarwant is a member of the World Economic Forum Transportation group and writes for Forbes also contributed to Financial Times, Bloomberg and CNBC. He sits on advisory boards of Nissan, ATI, Leeds University Business School and a few start-ups. He is a thought leader and a charismatic futurist who combines engineering acumen with strong commercial experience.

Fritz Busch

Chair, Traffic Engineering & Control
Technical University of Munich

Noah Zych

Chief of Staff
Uber Advanced Technologies Group

Noah Zych is Chief of Staff for Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group (ATG), the business unit of the company focused on developing and commercializing self-automated driving technologies. Since joining Uber in early 2015, Noah has served key roles in establishing partnerships with automotive manufacturers and suppliers, developing the company’s operational and system safety functions, and issuing Uber ATG’s first Voluntary Safety Self Assessment. Prior to joining the leadership team at ATG, Noah worked in Advanced Products Engineering at Oshkosh Corporation on emerging technologies such as active suspension systems for off-road vehicles and autonomous cargo trucks for the U.S. Marine Corps. Noah earned a B.S. and an M. Eng. in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University and a certificate in Strategic Technology Management from the University of Illinois.

Lukas Neckermann

Neckermann Strategic Advisors
Managing Director

Lukas is Managing Director at Neckermann Strategic Advisors, a consultancy with a focus on new mobility trends and their strategic impact. He has 20 years of leadership experience in automotive, and financial services. After beginning his career at a small commercial radio station in Ithaca, NY, Lukas joined BMW in Munich. Working in BMW’s Central Marketing area, he co-developed the first BMW.com website, helped launch the innovative Z8 sports car, and – as an internal consultant – recommended pricing, communication, and positioning strategies.

He joined Allianz Group in 2002, reporting to the Group’s CEO, Michael Diekmann, for whom he developed group-level strategies. He continued his Allianz career in various head-office and regional line leadership functions, last as Executive Board member and Director of Underwriting, Marketing and Sales for the UK and Ireland’s leading creditinsurance company, Euler Hermes UK plc. While at Euler Hermes, Lukas led the most significant innovation and strategic change program in over 20 years.

Lukas was a founding member of TheOScarProject – the world’s first open-source car project and is currently Advisor to four urban mobility startups: NEXT Future Transportation Inc., Flock, Splyt, and Eliport. Lukas is a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM), and an Instructor at New York University (NYU). He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Science and Technology Studies from Cornell University, and an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business. Lukas has written three books, “The Mobility Revolution” (2015) ,“Corporate Mobility Breakthrough” (2016), and “Smart Cities, Smart Mobility” (2017), which is available in four languages. He is fluent in English and German.

Shyamala Prayaga

Ford Motor Company
User Experience Evangelist

Shyamala Prayaga is a user experience evangelist having experience designing mobile, web, desktop and voice-based interactions. Presently working at Ford motor company, she is helping shape the future of digital and physical spaces within Ford and Lincoln vehicles through voice and multimodal speech interface.

Rich Radka

Claro Partners
Founding Partner

Rich is the founding partner of Claro. His core skill is envisioning the big picture and making sense of how it connects to people’s lives, from insight generation and designing future scenarios to leading teams to create them. Rich leads designers, social scientists and business strategists to develop innovative products and experiences across consumer electronics (including several innovation projects for Samsung), technology, mobility, financial services, healthcare,, travel, retail, and global development. With 20 years of professional experience in innovation, Rich is a recognized leader in the field and frequent speaker at events (FEI, EPIC, TechXLR8). He previously was director of user experience at Studio Archetype and Sapient.

Rod Schebesch

Senior Vice President and Transportation Sector Lead
Stantec

Rod Schebesch has spent his 27-year career enhancing mobility. He leads Stantec’s Smart Mobility Program specializing in the implementation of new transportation technology and in understanding how that technology will transform transportation networks worldwide. With a focus on building smarter cities, Rod is always striving to find greater infrastructure efficiencies that positively impact the built environment. His policy interests focus on the transformative potential connected and autonomous systems hold for improving safety, shrinking environmental impacts, and using existing infrastructure more efficiently. He has led projects involving connected vehicles, transit-rideshare technology, driverless shuttles, and smart city planning. For the past 6 years he has been serving as Stantec’s program manager for ACTIVE-AURORA, Canada’s largest connected-automated-vehicles test bed, leveraging the experience he’s gained to design and construct tomorrow’s intelligent transportation systems today. Rod is Stantec’s Transportation Sector Lead and a Senior Vice President based in their main Calgary office.

Adriano Alessandrini

Professor
University of Florence

Mechanical engineer with PhD in energy technologies Adriano Alessandrini is currently associate professor of transportation (ICAR-05) at the University of Florence. Since 1998 he has participated in more than 30 research projects, including the founding project of the Centre for Transport and Logistics of the university of Rome La Sapienza (CTL) recognized as an Italian excellence centre in 2003 by the Ministry.

His main research interests are the environmental impact of vehicles (and drivers) and automated transport systems. CityMobil2, the largest European initiative on fully automated road transport systems which he coordinates, made him one of the most visible scientists in the automated road vehicle sector generating speaking requests and participation to high level round-tables and committees.

He was asked to hold lectures in Princeton at the Technical University of Delft and at the DG MOVE of the European Commission. He was invited several times as plenary speaker at the Annual TRB meeting at the TRB summer meeting on Raod Vehicle Automation and at technical sessions of ITS world congresses. In 2015 he was selected to be one of the 25 scientists representing Europe at the EU-US Automation symposium in Washington in April 2015. European Commission, US DoT and Japanese MLIT have established a Trilateral working group on ART (Automated Road Transport) the group has several thematic sub-groups, and he co-chairs (with Mohammed Yousuf of US FHWA and Masayuki Kawamoto of Toyota Japan) the sub-working group on accessibility and is an active member of the one on Evaluation of Benefits.

Scott Drennan

Vice President, Innovation
Bell

Scott Drennan serves as vice president of Bell’s Innovation team. Scott joined Bell in 1993 after receiving a BS in Aerospace Engineering from University of MaryLand and working as a co-op student at GE Aircraft Engines. He also holds a Masters of Liberal Arts from Southern Methodist University. Scott's career focus on advanced VTOL technologies and configurations has included work on the V-22, and more recently as chief engineer of the Bell 609 program and director of air vehicle integration. He is currently a member of the NASA Advisory Council Aeronautics Committee.

Scott is proud to carry on Bell’s rich tradition of innovation as a leader in Bell’s engineering community. The Innovation team’s mission is to radically innovate technologies and aircraft configurations in order to create novel and coveted vehicle lift experiences. The team leverages Bell's core competencies and fearlessly embraces disruption to illuminate and secure Bell's future as an extraordinary technology company.

Hesham Rakha

Director, Center for Sustainable Mobility, VTTII

In addition to serving as the Samuel Reynolds Pritchard Professor of Engineering in the Charles E. Via, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a Courtesy Professor in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Dr. Rakha directs the Center for Sustainable Mobility at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. His research focuses on large-scale transportation system optimization, modeling and assessment. He works on optimizing transportation system operations, including vehicle routing, developing various network and traffic signal control algorithms, developing freeway control strategies (speed harmonization and ramp metering), and optimizing vehicle motion (lateral and longitudinal) to reduce their energy consumption while ensuring their safety. A key component of these control algorithms are the tools needed to predict the system evolution while capturing the inherent stochasticity. In this area, Dr. Rakha and his team develop and apply modeling, artificial intelligence, and statistical techniques to predict the spatiotemporal evolution of the system. Additionally, Dr. Rakha and his researchers apply machine-learning techniques, as needed, in the development of the control systems that can adapt to the dynamic changes in the surrounding environment. In the area of large-scale transportation system modeling, Dr. Rakha and his researchers have expanded the domain of knowledge (in traveler and driver behavior modeling) and developed a suite of multi-modal agent-based transportation modeling tools, including the INTEGRATION microscopic traffic simulation software. This software was used to evaluate the first dynamic route guidance system, TravTek in Orlando, Florida; to model the Greater Salt Lake City area in preparation for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games; to model Beijing in preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games; to optimize and evaluate the performance of alternative traveler incentive strategies to reduce network-wide energy consumption in the Greater Los Angeles area; and to develop and test an Eco-Cooperative Automated Control (Eco-CAC) system. In the area of transportation system assessment, Dr. Rakha and his researchers continue to develop the theory and models needed to quantify the efficiency, safety, energy, and environmental impacts of these systems. In this domain, one of Dr. Rakha’s distinctive technical contributions is in the area of transportation energy modeling and optimization. Specifically, he has developed various vehicle energy and fuel consumption models that are used world-wide to assess the energy and environmental impacts of Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) applications and emerging Connected Automated Vehicle (CAV) systems. The models include the VT-Micro, VT-Meso, the Virginia Tech Comprehensive Fuel consumption Model (VT-CPFM), the VT-CPEM, and the VT-CPHEM models.

Dr. Rakha is a Professional Engineer in Ontario and a member of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), and the Transportation Research Board (TRB). In addition, he is on the Editorial Board of the Transportation Letters: The International Journal of Transportation Research, the IET Intelligent Transport Systems Journal, and the International Journal of Transportation Science and Technology. In addition, he is an Editor for Sensors (the Intelligent Sensors Section), an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions of Intelligent Transportation Systems, the Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems: Technology, Planning and Operations and an Academic Editor for the Journal of Advanced Transportation.

Dr. Hoda A. Alkhzaimi

Director of Center of Cyber Security, NYU Abu Dhabi
Research Assistant Professor, New York University

Hoda A.Alkhzaimi is currently a research assistant professor in New York University and the Director of Center of Cyber Security in NewYork University AD. She served in different posts for research and development in Cyber Security and Cryptology for the past years. She headed the Department of Research and Development for Cyber Security and Cryptology in different national initiatives in the United Arab Emirates along with her associations to different security initiatives nationally and internationally.

Alkhzaimi has a specific expertise in cryptology; cryptanalysis, constructing and validating security hardware and software components, constructing trusted security architectures for different environments in different products for the respective industries. Hoda.Alkhzaimi obtained her PhD in Cryptanalysis from Denmark Technical University. Her current research interests include Space, Aerospace, and UAV security, constructing and analyzing cryptographic primitives, validating and investigating links between different cryptanalytic approaches and utilizing cryptographic primitives in different cybersecurity architectures as in Internet of Things and big data analysis among others.

Dr Dario Menichetti

Regional Director / Project Management & Services, Middle East
PTV GROUP

With a Ph.D. and a Master in Civil Engineering both majoring Transport Modelling, a PMP Certification, and nearly 15 years of global experience, Dr Dario Menichetti works at PTV based in the Group’s regional Hub of Dubai since April 2016.

From Australia to Singapore, via Taiwan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom, the 38 years-old Italian Chartered Engineer has proven himself as a global specialist in smart mobility and technology for transportation planning & optimization, working for some of the leading Companies in the industry.

Prior to joining PTV Group, he was the Transport Studies Manager at Etihad Rail, the Government‐owned developer and operator of the UAE national railway. He has also worked with Mott MacDonald as a Senior Transport Modeller, handling major projects such as Masdar City. He was also Transport Consultant at Scott Wilson (now part of AECOM) in the UK, before relocating to the UAE in 2008.

As Regional Director of PTV Group for the Middle East, Africa and India, he is responsible for project management & delivery of PTV solutions. His field of action additionally includes business relations and customer care on-site with Authorities, Consultancies, Operators, OEMs, System Integrators and PTV Partners, as well as fostering business development of PTV New Mobility solutions in an exciting era of transportation revolutions, digitalization and steep international industry growth.

Reporting directly to the Regional Managing Director, Dario directs the Project Management and Services (PM&S) department with a team based in the local regional offices in close vicinity to PTV Customers while having full access to the global PTV team and to the 40-years-old Company’s expertise. The PM&S team offer a range of customer-centric services focused on PTV software with solution setup, training and customer support as well as they guide and assist our clients at all stages of deployment of PTV

Eng. Muammar Al Katheeri

Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority
Executive Vice President

Eng. Muammar joined Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority (DSOA) in April 2006 as the Director of Planning and Construction Management Department; enriching DSOA with his wide knowledge and experience in Construction and Project Management. In two years time, Eng. Muammar proved to be an important asset for DSOA, where he was appointed as the Chief Planning and Construction Officer.

In 2010, DSOA saw the need to merge Planning & Constructions Department along with Operations & facilities under one leadership. Based on this decision, Eng. Muammar was appointed as Executive VP of Engineering Management. In 2014 Eng. Muammar was appointed as the Chairman of the Smart City project committee in Dubai Silicon Oasis.

Prior to joining DSOA, Eng. Muammar served with major real estate companies in the UAE, amongst Emirates Real Estate Corp. as the Projects and Maintenance Director, where he worked on major projects including: Ministries complex project AUH, Ministry of Education DXB, Ministry of Public works DXB, Ministry of Labor DXB, UAE Embassy in Germany, UAE Consulate in Munich, UAE Embassy in Australia, and many other prestigious projects. Eng. Muammar also served as a Design Engineer at the Ministry of Public Works in Dubai, and as a project Design Manager at ETISALAT and a partner at a local design Consultancy office.

Eng. Muammar holds a Master of Science in Innovation & Change Management from Hamdan Bin Mohammed e-University in Dubai and holds a Bachelor degree in Architectural Engineering from Al Ain University; United Arab Emirates.

Professor Henrik Schärfe

Foundation Autonomous
CEO

Henrik Schärfe is a Researcher, Strategist, Global thinker, keynote speaker and is currently CEO of Foundation Autonomous. The Foundation is the natural result of extensive work on developing strategies for disruptive technologies.

In May 2011, Henrik revealed a robotic version of himself, called a Geminoid-DK. The Geminoid-DK is a tele-operated Android in the geminoid series. Its actions are controlled remotely by a person operating a computer, but it is programmed with Henrik’s own unique body movements, such as shrugs and glances. He is also the principle investigator of the Geminoid-DK research project. The android regularly receives guests at his office at the university, and also takes part in events and experiments in many different locations, trying to shed light on human robot relations. The Geminoid is an amazing thinking tool that replenishes power to some very deep questions, including the role that technology plays in our present and future lives.

Prof. Henrik Schärfe talks about blended presence where he can be present, or absent, in two places at the same time. Giving an object a face or a voice and we can project our humanity upon it. He shares with his audiences how machines are not rivals or friends; they are tools. Contemplating them helps us learn more about ourselves and how best to shape our future.

Prof. Schärfe sees the world with a different set of eyes and he is very practical in putting new ideas into practice. His tailored presentations will be unlike anything you have ever seen before and are guaranteed to amaze and amuse audiences at prestigious events around the world.

Joseph Salem

Arthur D. Little
Senior Principal at Arthur D. Little and Global Head of Operations of the Consultancy's Travel & Transportation Practice

Joseph is a renowned guest speaker in major international conferences, focusing on transformation of the mobility ecosystem in future cities. He led major strategic assignments for global mobility players and supported national transport authorities in reshaping their mobility ecosystems – across Europe, Middle East and Asia. He published several thought pieces on the future of mobility and topics related to mobility-as-a-service.

Dan Baxter

Chief Systems Engineer & Practice Director
Stantec’s Global Intelligent Transportation Systems Roads and Vehicles practice (ITS R&V)

Dan is a Chief Systems Engineer and the Practice Director for Stantec’s global Intelligent Transportation Systems Roads and Vehicles practice (ITS R&V). Dan is a member of the National Academy of Sciences Transportation Research Board Standing Committee on Intelligent Transportation Systems. Dan’s specialty is helping municipalities leverage their existing traffic management facilities as a foundation for advanced smart mobility strategies. Dan’s experience includes nearly twenty (20) Transportation Management Center projects for Smart Mobility solutions in North American cities. Dan leads a technical team responsible for planning, design, systems engineering, testing and commissioning of Smart Mobility technology applications including Intelligent Transportation Systems, Connected Automated Vehicle (CAV), Managed Lanes Technology, Active Traffic Management and Transportation Pricing projects including All Electronic Tolling and Road Use Charging. Dan has recently provided innovation services to develop a self-driving vehicle technology code of practice in the United Arab Emirates. He has provided innovative approaches on smart mobility on projects as a project manager including the US$16B Central Artery/Tunnel project in Boston, and currently on the Tennessee Department of Transportation Statewide Traffic Management Center software upgrade. On Stantec’s two CAV test facility programs, Dan has managed testing, research and design for Connected Automated Vehicles, Dedicated Short-Range Communications for Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I), Vehicle to Pedestrian (V2P), Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle to Cloud (V2X) applications. Dan has engineered service routes for driverless micro-transit including Automated Connected Electric Shuttles.

Dr. Ismail Zohdy

RTA
Expert

Dr. Zohdy is an innovative mobility solutions expert with more than thirteen years of experience collectively between USA, Egypt and United Arab of Emirates, in Intelligent Transportation Systems, Smart Mobility modeling, Autonomous/Connected Vehicles technology and Smart City initiative. He is currently the Program Manager of Self-Driving Transport strategy at RTA (Roads and Transport Authority), Government of Dubai, United Arab of Emirates. In addition, he is the scientific/content team chair for the first congress of its-kind in the region “Dubai World Congress for Self-driving Transport”. He previously supported many federal clients, including Federal Highway Administration, US Department of Transportation and ARPA-e (Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy) US Department of Energy in Connected and Autonomous Vehicles program. Dr. Zohdy was a lecturer for many courses related to transportation engineering. These courses vary from “Introduction/basics to transportation engineering” to “New generation of Smart Mobility and Intelligent transport System in Smart City Context”. Dr. Zohdy is also an author of peer-reviewed publications and a book chapter for Connected/Autonomous vehicles. He was honored several research awards in advanced transportation systems, including the “Best Scientific”

Harri Santamala

Sensible4
CEO and Co-Founder

Harri Santamala, "Mr. Robobus", CEO and co-founder of Sensible 4 - a company pioneering with all-season autonomous driving technologies. Harri has together with his co-founder team built one of the leading full-stack AD software start-up companies in Europe, with focus on bad-weather agnostic autonomous driving software, which is to be utilized in Shared Driverless Vehicles. Prior to founding Sensible 4, he was among the first to take automated buses to open-road conditions in 2016, this happened in Finland through SOHJOA – project, as well as he built the whole Finnish road automation ecosystem, now determined to stabilize Finland’s international role in the forming of the market. Proactive and persistent, motivated by challenging current businesses and working towards the disruption in traffic. Deep know-how in high level automotive systems, integration and vehicle development. Before founding Sensible 4, Harri has been actively working towards enabling AV’s in Finland as well as developing Electric Vehicle’s and their systems. Harri has his BSc. in Automotive Engineering (2006) and his MSc. in Machine design from Aalto University (2010).

Georges Aoude

Derq
CEO and Co-Founder

Dr. Georges Aoude is the CEO and co-founder of Derq, an MIT-spinoff with a mission to eliminate road accidents and save lives by using artificial intelligence and V2X technology. Through its proprietary and award winning technology, Derq can predict and help prevent road collisions for both conventional and autonomous vehicles leveraging smart city and connected vehicle ecosystems. Derq was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Dubai and Michigan, and in 2017 was selected to join the prestigious Techstars Mobility program in Detroit.

Dr. Aoude holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from MIT, where he worked closely with NASA, US Navy, and Ford. His expertise includes autonomous & connected technologies and intelligent transportation systems. Dr. Aoude's work has been published in leading academic journals and featured in the press, including New York Times and MIT News. His space satellite research has also been tested by astronauts in the International Space Station in collaboration with NASA. Dr. Aoude's inventions have been patented, and he founded Derq to commercialize them.

After MIT, Dr. Aoude has consulted governments, multinationals, and startups in North America and the GCCs on transportation and aerospace engagements. His points of view are regularly published in key outlets including Harvard Business Review, TIME, and Forbes, and he is invited to speak at conferences on topics related to smart cities, autonomous vehicles, and artificial intelligence. He is a board member at the Transportation Research Board.

Dr. Kang Li

iAuto Technology

Dr. Kang Li is the chief technical advisor of the Taiwan iAuto consortium, which consists of the team members from L.L. iAuto Technology Ltd., National Taiwan University, Ming-Chi University of Technology, Formosa Automobile, and Industrial Technology Research Institute. He is Associate Professor and Director of the Intelligent Vehicle and Mechatronics Laboratory, National Taiwan University. He was also a member of the Science & Technology Program Executive Review Board, Executive Yuan of Taiwan, where his main duty was to provide consulting support and technical advice for Taiwanese government funded EV & AV projects. He will also serve in the newly founded National Transportation Safety Board of Taiwan as the Board Member. He got his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees both from the University of California at Berkeley, and B.S. degree from the National Taiwan University (NTU). Dr. Li has more than 15 years’ R&D experience in fields of automated vehicles, advanced driver assistance systems, and electric vehicles. He has successfully led R&D teams in collaboration with a Taiwan’s auto company and research institutions to develop and demonstrate Level-2~4 automated driving systems for passenger cars and heavy vehicles, including Taiwan’s first L2+ automated driving system for production cars. Dr. Li is currently leading a project aimed at mass production of low-cost L4 light EVs for autonomous transport service in the closed or semi-closed environment.

Joseph Salem

Arthur D. Little
Senior Principal at Arthur D. Little and Global Head of Operations of the Consultancy's Travel & Transportation Practice

Joseph is a renowned guest speaker in major international conferences, focusing on transformation of the mobility ecosystem in future cities. He led major strategic assignments for global mobility players and supported national transport authorities in reshaping their mobility ecosystems – across Europe, Middle East and Asia. He published several thought pieces on the future of mobility and topics related to mobility-as-a-service.

Ahmed Hashem Bahrozyan

RTA
The Chief Executive Officer of Public Transport Agency