Governtment of Dubai - Organizer | Dubai World Congress For Self-Driving Transaport | Autonomous Vehicle Technology Exhibition
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
Under The Patronage Of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince Of Dubai And Chairman Of The Executive Council
Seminar2023-09-01T14:13:07+00:00

Seminar agenda

Intelligent Systems

Seminar Area A
12:45 - 13:30

The Role of Telematics in Self-Driving Transport

Bianca Barbu
CMO,
CANGO Technologies
14:30 - 15:15

Classification of Autonomous Trains

Dr. Amine Arezki
Head of Autonomy,
Thales
15:45 - 16:30

Passenger Centric Experience in Smart Mobility

Eng. Samar AbdelFattah
Founder & CEO,
Disruptive Mobility Technologies (DMTech)
Nadia Mohamed Abdelsalam
UI/UX Designer,
Sypron Solutions
Omnya Amro Elfeki
Digital Media Engineer,
Sypron Solutions

Safety & Security

Seminar Area B
10:15 - 11:00

Conduct Independent Safety Assessment for Autonomous Driving Car

Bentley Lin
Managing Director,
Exida Safety Services
12:45 - 13:30

A Cybersecurity Protection Framework to Support Dubai's Self-Driving Transport Strategy

Dr. Juan Pimentel
International Consultant
Omnex
14:30 - 15:15

3D Visualisation and Mixed Reality Models

Sonal Ahuja
Executive Director
Sunovatech Group
15:45 - 16:30

Identifying the Key Safety Benefits of Autonomous Taxis by Analysing the Human Factors That Increase the Likelihood of Traffic Collisions For The Taxi Industry

Eng. Mohamed Mahboob Hassan
Al Ruwayya Depot Manager, Public Transport Busses Department and Regional Planning
Roads & Transport Authority (RTA)
Professor Bassam Abu-Hijleh
Dean of Engineering & IT,
The British University in Dubai

International Practice

Seminar Area C
12:45 - 13:30

FUTURES - How to Plan for An Uncertain Future

Edward Forrester
Future Mobility Leader,
Mott MacDonald
14:30 - 15:15

Partnering with Cities: Bird's Approach to Providing Accessible, Equitable and Responsible Transportation

Haya Douidri
Senior Manager, Government Partnerships,
Bird
15:45 - 16:30

Intelligent Systems Lab Automated Electric Vehicle

Dr.-Ing. Ahmed Hussein
Senior Development Engineer,
IAV Gmbh
Dr. Eng. Abdulla Al-Kaff
Assistant Professor & Senior Researcher,
Intelligent Systems Lab

Future Insights

Seminar Area D
10:15 - 11:00

Policy Governance and Infrastructure Investment in The Era of Multimodal Self-Driving Transport

Eugene Chao
Research Associate,
Wharton Business School Alternative Investments Initiative
12:45 - 13:30

Purchasing Intentions of Electric Vehicles Across The GCC

Jorge Bialade
General Manager,
YallaMotors
14:30 - 15:15

Testing and Validating Autonomous Vehicles using PTV Vissim Traffic Simulator with a Case Study on Dubai’s Road Network

Hussein Falih
Transport Modeller, Project Management & Services,
PTV Group
Dr. Jochen Lohmiller
Manager Microscopic Simulation,
PTV Group
15:45 - 16:30

Live Demo – Showcasing the LIDAR applications and live data handling possibilities for autonomous cars based on a Velodyne Ultra Puck and DGWorld´s 3D SLAM Software

Dieter Gabriel
Marketing Manager EMEA,
Velodyne Lidar

Smart Infrastructure & Connectivity

Seminar Area E
10:15 - 11:00

Connected Services and User Experience in Premium Vehicles

Hrishikesh Mandyam
Chief Engineer,
Skyships Automotive
12:45 - 13:30

Introducing the 1st Robo-taxi Service in California: Lessons for Dubai and the MENA

Dr. Jianxiong Xiao
CEO,
AutoX
14:30 - 15:15

Connected and Autonomous Vehicles – Current State, Future Possibilities and Policy Challenges for Dubai

Jonathan Spear
Director,
Atkins Acuity
15:45 - 16:30

Integrating Autonomous Vehicles with Public Transit

Gary Patterson
COO,
Bestmile

Intelligent Systems

Seminar Area A
10:15 - 11:00

Measuring Vehicle Intelligence in Human Transport: What Is Your Car's IQ?

Daniel Baxter
ITS Roads & Vehicles Practice Lead,
Stantec Consulting
Samaneh Khazraeian
ITS Analyst,
Stantec Consulting
11:30 - 12:15

Sensor+AI is the way for the next generation techonology

Bill Nie
Chairman,
Fatri
12:45 - 13:30

Enabling Technology for Self-Driving Transport: Opportunities and Challenges

Dr. Mamoun F. Abdel-Hafez
Professor and Department Head, Mechanical Engineering Department.,
American University of Sharjah
14:30 - 15:15

The Presentation on Verification & Validation Approaches for Testing Highly Automated Driving (HAD) Covers A Solution-Oriented Approach to Define and Deploy A Product with SAE Level 3 Features and Above

Plato Pathrose
Head of Validation, ADAS & Autonomous Driving,
Visteon Electronics Germany GmbH
15:45 - 16:30

Autonomous Driving Traffic Control

Johan Holmqvist
Vice President Business Development,
Carmenta Automotive

International Practice

Seminar Area C
10:15 - 11:00

Urban Air Mobility – From Concepts to Reality

Mike Rioux
COO
JDA Aviation Technology Solutions
Mike Borfitz
Senior Certification Specialist,
JDA Aviation Solutions
11:30 - 12:15

AV City: When The Parking Garage Grows Up

Hugh Hynes
Principal
PROTOinc
12:45 - 13:30

UK Autodrive - Lessons and Impact from An Urban Collaborative Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Trial

Tim Armitage
Future Transport Systems Lead,
Arup
14:30 - 15:15

Adrià Ramirez
Chief Mobility Officer,
SHOTL
15:45 - 16:30

Autonomous Robot Guide Based on The Loomo Mini Personal Transporter

Dr. Michel Pasquier
Dept. Of Computer Science & Engineering
American University of Sharjah

Future Insights

Seminar Area D
10:15 - 11:00

Automated Vehicles: Challenges and Opportunities for Road Operators & Road Authorities for the Work of PIARC Task Force

Martin Thibault
Vice President, Transportation
Stantec Consulting
11:30 - 12:15

Re-Imagining Dubai's Downtown Architecture in The Autonomous Vehicles Era

Dr. Dalia Hafiz
Assistant Professor,
Al-Ghurair University
12:45 - 13:30

The Future of Transportation, A Modular Collaborative Ecosystem

Tommaso Gecchelin
CTO, Inventor and Founder,
NEXT Future Transportation inc.
14:30 - 15:15

Future Insights of the Automotive Industry with Particular Emphasis on the Role of the Dealers/Importers and the Adaptation of the Consumers in the Middle East Region of the New Technology and Transport Ecosystem

Alan Whaley
Founder & Chairman,
AMENA
15:45 - 16:30

Urban Air Mobility – Taking Public Transportation into the 3rd Dimension

Alexander Nase
Managing Director,
FEV Consulting GmbH

Smart Infrastructure & Connectivity

Seminar Area E
10:15 - 11:00

Self-Driving Technology Is Ready Now, But How Do People and Communities Prepare?

Mark Wilson
Professor of Urban and Regional Planning
Michigan State University
11:30 - 12:15

AWS Paving The Way For The Future of Autonomous Driving

Massimo Cavazzini
Head of Automotive EMEA
Amazon Web Services
12:45 - 13:30

Micro-mobility: An Efficient Complement in a Transport Ecosystem and Accelerant for Viable AV Deployments

Jaideep Dhanoa
Co-Founder & CEO, MENAT,
Circ
14:30 - 15:15

Planning for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles

Andrew Bevan
Smart Mobility Director,
Parsons
15:45 - 16:30

Preparing Dubai And the UAE's Road Infrastructure for Autonomous & Self-Driving Transport

Scott Fennelly
Director of ITS and Transportation
Surface Mobility

Connect with us

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#SDC2024

Bianca Barbu

CMO
CANGO

Bianca Barbu is Chief Marketing Officer for CANGO. She joined the company in 2011 and brought her expertise in negotiation, marketing, business development and customer value that she gained at past companies from automotive and insurance industry.

Telematics niche offered the challenges that she was looking to have and to do something different every day. “CANGO is the company that I dreamed to work in since I started my career. I wanted to be part of the progress and work in an environment where any idea is welcomed and can become a project. Being awarded by Frost and Sullivan for Customer Value Leadership is a true validation of our work and proves that when you stay true to the brand promises you will succeed!”

Starting with 2019 CANGO is in a process of changes and developed a new concept on the market: Telematics as a Service gives the users the possibility to beneficiate of the same quality and useful features and functionalities using they present system without adding any new hardware. We can consider this as a first step for the self-driving transport industry.

Dr. Amine Arezki

Head of Autonomy
Thales

Having lived and worked in 3 different continent over the globe (Africa, Europe and America), Amine is a highly creative and open-minded PhD in Robotics and Smart Systems who naturally likes combining art design and technology, connected to real purposes. Dr. Amine AREZKI has started his international career by designing competitive autonomous mobile robots as a student and participating in several European competitions. Inspired by this experience, he continued applying the playful use of robotics for a greater good when working at Rutgers University New Jersey, USA and combining robotics with video games for rehabilitation of people who suffered from a Stroke. After his time abroad, Dr. Amine AREZKI joined Thales Group France in 2008 where is had different responsibilities; Project manager and industrialization for transportation projects in China and North Africa. In 2011 he joined the German organization as a Product trainer (designing & delivering customer training programs). In 2013 he joined the international organization by accepting a challenging position as a Design Authority Product Line, where he has launched the newest generation of Hardware Platform for the global ground transportation activities. In 2015 he has joined the Strategy and Product Policy as a Product Line Manager for axle counter / Point machines, launching Lite4ce™ the new generation fiber optical axle counter product based on fiber optics and ThEye™ (Thales Eye), the remote support solution using augmented reality glasses. Since 2017, Dr. Amine Arezki took the lead of the worldwide activities for autonomy within Thales Group, shaping the future of transportation and mobility.

Eng. Samar AbdelFattah

Founder & CEO
Disruptive Mobility Technologies (DMTech)

Samar AbdelFattah comes from an Aerospace Engineering background and has been involved in mobility based projects for 5 years. She has been working on different vehicle engineering subsystems including Vehicle Structure, Ergonomics, Suspension, and even Engine performance and Vehicle Optimization. After her team received innovation award during the first SpaceX Hyperloop Competition in January, 2016, the team was scaled-up to have a team of 18 Engineers, Architects, and Civil Engineers to work not only on vehicle design but also stations and tubes. After publishing their first paper on Hyperloop Capsule Design using Linear Induction Motors in May, 2016 in Berlin, the team won the Judges Award in Dubai Build Earth Live Challenge for a connection between Dubai, Fujairah, and Al-Maktoum Airport.

Later that year, she partnered with Sypron Solution, Ministry of Military Production, and Cairo University to build the first single- passenger Hyperloop Capsule in the MENA to participate in SpaceX competition in 2017.

In cooperation with Sypron Solutions, the team launched the Passenger- Centred Experience Design Project for Smart Mobility and the first Hyperloop Summer School that was launched in Dubai Future Foundation during the AI summer camp.

Inspired by Smart City vision and tech role in future sustainability, in 2019, they launched Disruptive Mobility Technologies (DM Tech) to focus on levitating and magnetic transportation solutions, smart mobility services along with educational programs in transportation.

Active Projects:

  • Hyperloop Lab- Facility “US Patent Pending Technology
  • Passenger- Centred Experience Design
  • Advanced Studies and Development for Smart Mobility Solutions
  • ECO- Platform: The smart education platform

Nadia Mohamed Abdelsalam

UI/UX Designer,
Sypron Solutions

Nadia Abdelsalam is a product designer and researcher with a BA in Graphic Design from the American University in Cairo (AUC). She has worked in various fields of design including exhibition design and curation, graphic design, UI/UX and product design for companies and institutions such as Art Dubai, Intellect and Sypron Solutions to name a few. Her achievement in Sypron Solutions was the Passenger-Centric Experience Design Project for Smart Mobility which will be presented in this congress.

She currently works as a product manager for an electric component data company.

Omnya Amro Elfeki

Digital Media Engineer,
Sypron Solutions

Omnya Elfeki holds a Bachelor's degree of Science in Digital Media Engineering from the German University in Cairo and kicked off her career as a Front-end Engineer in Sypron Solutions where she delivered elements that users can see and interact with within software applications. She then moved on to working in the Hyperloop division where she conducted research on various technologies and their effect on the user within the context of Smart Mobility and her most recent achievement with a very talented team is the Passenger-centred Experience Design Project for Smart Mobility which will be presented during this congress.

Omnya is currently the co-founder and product manager of a company that is building a deep learning system capable of detecting objects in a picture and matching it with the most relevant item in their database.

Bentley Lin

Managing Director
Exida Safety Services

Mr. Lin has over 10 years of experience and extensive knowledge in the vehicle E/E architecture, automotive electronics and safety application. He is an active functional safety expert who has experiences in doing projects with Japanese, Korean, European, US and Chinese manufacturers.

He is a system architecture and safety expert who can take care of both of new function development and functional safety subjects at the same time. Having special interests in development and implementation of details in autonomous driving (highly automated driving) and innovative mobility solutions.

Application and safety experiences across following automotive systems:

  1. Passive Entry Passive Start & Electronic Steering Lock (ASIL D)
  2. Electrical Parking Brake (ASIL D)
  3. Electrical Power Steering (ASIL D)
  4. Body Control Module (ASIL B)
  5. Advance Driving Assistance System & Highly Automated Driving (ASIL B to ASIL D)
  6. EV-Electrical Energy Storage (ASIL C)
  7. Hybrid (Vehicle) Control Unit (ASIL C)
  8. EV-Motor Control Unit/ Inverter (ASIL C)
  9. Transmission Control Unit (ASIL C)
  10. Vehicle E/E architecture topologies (QM to ASIL D)
Now he is Managing Director for exida Safety Systems (Shanghai) CO., Ltd.

Dr. Juan Pimentel

Principal Consultant, Omnex Inc.

Dr. Juan R. Pimentel is an expert international consultant in the areas of safety of automated vehicles, automotive cybersecurity, safety and cybersecurity of industrial control systems (ICS), and intelligent transportation systems. He is a sought after expert speaker at well known professional venues around the world on the topics of automated vehicle safety, automotive cybersecurity, ICS safety and cybersecurity, and international standards such as ISA/IEC 62443, ISO 26262, ISO/PAS 21448, and ISO/SAE 21434. Prior to his consulting endeavors he was a Professor of Computer Engineering at Kettering University in Flint, Michigan, USA. He is a recognized international expert in the area of industrial communications, real-time and dependable systems, and autonomous vehicle and industrial functional safety and cybersecurity. He has written 8 books on industrial networking, multimedia systems, safety-critical automotive systems, and the Safety of Automated Vehicles. He has performed extensive research, consulting and conducted professional training in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. He has performed research at well known institutions around the world such as the Franuhofer Institute in Karlsruhe, Germany, INRIA in Nancy, France, University of Padova, Italy, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain, Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia, and UTEC, Lima, Peru. In 2007 he received the “Distinguished Researcher Award” from Kettering University for contributions in the area of industrial communication systems and automotive systems. He has written over 90 peer reviewed papers at international conferences and Journals, primarily the IEEE and SAE.

With a Ph.D. and Masters degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Virginia, his accomplishments include the co-development of the application layer for the industrial network Profibus (with Siemens), and the development of FlexCAN, a CAN-based safety-critical architecture. In the last few years he has been involved with various projects dealing with self-driving vehicles including design, simulation, testing, functional safety, cybersecurity, and developing professional training materials.

Sonal Ahuja

Executive Director,
Sunovatech Group

Sonal has over 25 years’ experience in managing, operating and delivering transport infrastructure projects and teams globally. He has led and delivered several complex projects and multidisciplinary teams delivering quality projects covering ITS, Public Transit, Bus, Light Rail and Highway projects. He is a specialist in Urban Transit, Traffic Signalling Systems, Enforcement Systems, Ticketing systems, passenger information, Mobility as a Service, Rail, Highway Infrastructure. He has delivered many projects in the fields of Road Safety, Software development, Autonomous and Connected Vehicles, Parking Systems, Traffic Management, Airport Management Systems, Pedestrian Safety and Security, Crowd Control, Emergency Management and Bus fleet optimisation. He is a specialist in Virtual and Augmented Reality and Transport Economics, Infrastructure Funding, Traffic Management, and Software Development and in reshaping business and starting new successful ventures in developing economies.

He has led several R&D projects for clients globally focussing on model based simulation for transport Infrastcrure . His strategic, and project management responsibilities include client development, team management, business development, project control, research and development including practical application of transport modelling planning techniques. Sonal is involved in delivering Virtual and Augmented Reality solutions powered by Artificial Intelligence algorithms for the CAV industry.

Currently he is the Executive Director of Sunovatech Group, a company specialising in AR, AR and AI Digital Twin applications of infrastructure. He is responsible for innovation and research and development within the company.

Eng. Mohamed Mahboob Hassan

Al Ruwayya Depot Manager, Public Transport Busses Department and Regional Planning
Roads & Transport Authority (RTA)

Eng. Mohamed Mahboob Hassan Saleh is a depot manager in the Road and Transport Authority (RTA) as well as a PhD student in the Sustainable Built Environment Program at the British University in Dubai (BUiD). He holds a Master Degree in the Engineering Systems Management from Khalifa University and a bachelor Degree in Civil Engineering from the Higher Colleges of Technology. He has 10 years of professional experience in the public transport and the construction industry. His current research interests focuses on Public transport, autonomous driving safety simulation and building and energy.

Professor Bassam Abu-Hijleh

Dean of Engineering & IT
The British University in Dubai

Prof. Bassam Abu-Hijleh is currently the Dean of Faculty of Engineering & IT as well as the Atkins Chair of the MSc and PhD Sustainable programmes at the British University in Dubai (BUiD). He holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the Ohio State University-USA. With close to 30 years post-PhD experience in energy related academia and research Prof. Abu-Hijleh has a strong technical background in Energy related topics with special focus on Renewable Energy and Energy Management & Conservation. His current research interests focuses on Experimental and simulation study of solar energy, Renewable/alternative energy sources, advanced energy production practices and Energy conservation & management. He published more than 120 papers in international journals and conferences. He holds LEED AP, CEM, CEA, CMVP and PCF professional certification. He is also a member of ASHRAE, AEE and CIBSE.

Edward Forrester

Future Mobility Leader
Mott MacDonald

Edward is the Future Mobility Lead Planner and Global Coordinator for the Middle East region with Mott MacDonald. Edward has led or advised on a number of recent projects for the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority and Dubai Airport. These include the Dubai Electric Vehicle Infrastructure study and developing the strategy for a Self-Driving Transport Challenge in the Emirate. Such experience has given him the platform to understand the potential impacts that CAVs will have on urban development.

He is currently working with the University of West England to roll-out FUTURES, a new approach to transport planning using scenario planning to help plan for uncertainty as the motor age continues to be surpassed by the digital age. Edward is developing a reputation in the future mobility industry and has spoken on the Dubai Business Breakfast radio show and at recent conferences including Cityscape and the International Road Federation.

Haya Douidri

Senior Manager, Government Partnerships,
Bird

Haya Douidri is an urbanist, mobility, & sustainability expert and thought leader in tech & innovation policies.

She currently manages Bird Government Partnership team in Benelux, Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa.

She has Masters Degree in Sustainable Policy from Columbia University in the city of New York. Frequent international keynote speaker on shared mobility, transport innovation and micro mobility policies. She has experience working in more than 20 countries across Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa.

Eng. Ahmed Hussein

Senior Development Engineer,
IAV Gmbh

Eng. Ahmed Hussein has received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechatronics Engineering from the German University in Cairo (GUC), Egypt, in June 2012; followed by his in Mechatronics Engineering from the German University in Cairo (GUC), Berlin campus, Germany, working on optimization of multiple robot systems cooperation in May 2013. In September 2018, he received his PhD Degree in Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Automation from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), Spain. During the doctoral degree period, he was working with the Intelligent Systems Lab (LSI) research group, where he was one of the team leaders of the Intelligent Campus Automobile (iCab) project, working on the development and implementation of localization, mapping, planning, control, communication and cooperative driving techniques for multiple self-driving vehicles. Currently he is a Senior Development Engineer in the Department of Perception and Camera Functions at IAV GmbH in Berlin, Germany.

His research interests are focused on intelligent transportation systems fields, mainly on sensors data fusion, autonomous systems control, optimization techniques, computational intelligence and cooperative vehicles systems. Recently, his research interests also include computer vision, deep learning and development of perception systems based on camera and lidar data for object detection, recognition and classification.

Ahmed is a member of IEEE, a member of the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society (ITSS) since 2015, and a member of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) since 2012. He is the Treasurer and Registration Co-Chair for the IEEE ITSC2019, the Publicity Chair for the IEEE ICVES2019, and the Workshops Co-Chair for the IEEE IV2020. Additionally, he was the Student Activities Chair for the IEEE ITSS Spanish Chapter for the period from 2017 to 2019, the General Co-Chair and Financial Chair of the IEEE ICVES2018, and was a member of the Organizing Committee of IEEE ICET 2012, IEEE RST2016, IEEE ICVES2017, IEEE ITSC2018, IEEE IROS2018, and IEEE IV2019, among other international events. He also chaired and co-chaired several workshops, in addition to serving as a reviewer and/or an associate editor in numerous international conferences. Furthermore, he has been invited to give speeches, lectures, and seminars at different institutes.

Abdulla Al-Kaff

Intelligent Systems Lab
Assistant Professor & Senior Researcher

Abdulla Al-Kaff is an Assistant Professor and Senior Researcher at the Intelligent Systems Laboratory (LSI), Department of Systems Engineering and Automation, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, with a solid theoretical and mathematical background in the fields of Artificial Vision, Artificial Intelligence, and localization algorithms for Intelligent Systems and Automotive ground and aerial vehicles.

He graduated from Aden University in Computer Science and Engineering in 2007 with a grade (Very good) and ranked as the third in his class, and obtained his master degree in Robotics and Automation with grade (Excellent) in 2012 from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, where he obtained his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering, Electronics, and Automation in 2017 with a grade (Excellent with Cum Laude), with a thesis titled "Vision-based navigation system for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)", which proposed a robust navigation system; in order to allow the UAVs to perform complex tasks autonomously and in real-time. The proposed algorithms deal with solving the navigation problem for outdoor as well as indoor environments, mainly based on visual information that is captured by monocular cameras. In addition, this dissertation presents the advantages of using the visual sensors as the main source of data or complementing other sensors in providing useful information; in order to improve the accuracy and the robustness of the sensing purposes.

During his Ph.D., Abdulla got a European patent in designing a UAV with an advanced visual system for the inspection for the defects in buildings and infrastructures.

In addition, Abdulla was awarded as a best Ph.D. thesis in Spain in Intelligent Transportation systems. His current research interests focused on computer vision, deep learning, trajectories planning, control engineering, intelligent systems, autonomous vehicles, and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), and he has a lot of the publications in these fields.

Eugene Chao

Research Associate
Wharton Business School Alternative Investments Initiative

Eugene Chao is the Research Associate at the Wharton Business School Alternative Investments Initiative under the Finance Dept. In the fall of 2018, he co-launched the first Private Equity Infrastructure Investment course to the Wharton MBAs. At the Transportation Engineering Dept, he is the project manager for Emeritus Prof. Vukan R. Vuchic. He is assisting Dr. Vuchic to produce his outstanding online course: Urban Transit for Livable Cities and one of the transportation committees for the U.S. Green Building Council. In the summer of 2014, he joined the U.S. General Services Administration fellowship program at the Administrator Office. His professional and research interests include private equity infrastructure investment, operating efficiency, urban/regional transit, and transportation policies and incentives.

Jorge Bialade

General Manager
YallaMotors

Born and raised in Uruguay, Jorge Bialade commenced his automotive career more than 10 years ago in South America covering all aspect related to this industry. He moved to the GCC back in 2015 to lead YallaMotor. Now, the largest automotive site in the region with more than 12 million unique car buyers, more than 24 million purely automotive sessions and 120 million page views a year. Jorge's vision is to empower every driver and passenger in the Middle East to make informed decisions across the entire car buying, selling, maintenance, and transportation process.

Hussein Falih

Transport Modeller, Project Management & Services
PTV Group

Hussein started his professional career at the age of 21 as a Traffic Engineer after completing his bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering. He was part of a team working on various traffic engineering projects and traffic impact studies. Fortunately, he got the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of traffic engineering and transport planning with the use of software packages like Vissim, Synchro, Sidra, HSC and GIS.

After 3 years, he moved to Germany to work as Product Manager for PTV Visum at PTV headquarters in Karlsruhe, Germany. His main tasks were:

  • Research comparison between various software tool in the field of Activity/Agent based Modelling (ABM)
  • Updating software examples
  • Software Marketing
  • Software Training
  • Interface between software development, test centres, sales and marketing departments

Currently, he is a Transport Modeller with PTV Group IMEA and part for the PTV Global Project Management & Services (PM&S) team responsible for setting up modelling solutions with the use of PTV software on all levels starting from detailed microscopic models up to nation-wide strategic macroscopic models including all aspects related to New Mobility, Real-Time, MaaS and Autonomous Vehicles.

In parallel, he is studying Master of Engineering Management (Engineering MBA) at University of Wollongong, and his thesis is in the area of Microsimulation for Connected Autonomous Vehicles.

Dr. Jochen Lohmiller

Manager M icroscopic Simulation
PTV Group

As Manager Microscopic Simulation at PTV Group, Dr. Jochen Lohmiller is responsible for the development of the traffic flow simulation PTV Vissim and the pedestrian simulation software PTV Viswalk. With his active participation in research projects, the methodical development is one focus area. Dr. Jochen Lohmiller works since 2014 at PTV Group. Before he studies mechanical engineering at the University Stuttgart and received later his Dr. in the area of traffic engineering.

Dieter Gabriel

Marketing Manager EMEA,
Velodyne Lidar

Dieter is a graduated geo-scientist with broad experience in the Mapping, Remote Sensing and LiDAR & Navigation industries. Over the last 25 years he has held customer-oriented managerial positions at various international blue-chip conglomerates like Daimler Group or EADS. He moved to the position of European Marketing Manager for Velodyne in 2015.

Hrishikesh Mandyam

Chief Engineer
Skyships Automotive

Hrishikesh Mandyam is currently Chief Engineer at Skyships Automotive Limited. Skyships is an automotive technology company, based in the UK, which designs, manufactures and integrates automotive cockpit control systems, digital reconfigurable instrument clusters, infotainment systems and connectivity solutions. We supply/have supplied technology platforms, display solutions and controllers to OEMs such as Aston Martin Lagonda, Lotus Cars, Karma Automotive, Pagani Automobili, Jaguar Land Rover and so on.

He oversees all mechanical design at Skyships including ergonomics, package validation of HMI systems, detailed design of complex mechanical/thermal solutions for cockpit control systems, and high-performance lightweight component design.

Hrishikesh is also Principal Architect of Skyships’ Connected Services platform that provides connected car platforms encompassing vehicle/fleet monitoring, data analytics, machine learning, and end-user facing mobile phone app platforms.

Hrishikesh has a master’s degree in Automotive Engineering from Coventry University in the UK and achieved a First Class with Distinction. He worked at Alstom Power Corporation as a Design Engineer for two years and has been with Skyships for the last 10 years.

He is a committee member of the Automobile Division Essex at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE). He also helps organise ‘Ace Parade’ which is a provocative event for car enthusiasts all over the world who are passionate about driving on the finest roads.

Hrishikesh’s passions and hobbies include motorcycles, high-altitude trekking, and cooking.

Dr. Jianxiong Xiao

CEO,
AutoX

Jianxiong Xiao (a.k.a., Professor X) is the Founder and CEO of AutoX, Inc. He received a BEng. and MPhil. in Computer Science from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2009. He received his Ph.D. from the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2013 and served as an assistant professor at Princeton University and the founding director of the Princeton Computer Vision and Robotics Labs from 2013 - 2016. Some of his notable awards include the Best Student Paper Award at the European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV, 2012), the Google Research Best Papers Award and the Google U.S./Canada Fellowship in Computer Vision (2012), as well as two Google Faculty Awards in 2014 and 2015. He was named one of the “35 Innovators Under 35” by MIT Technology Review in 2017, and one of the 12 “Promising Entrepreneurs to Keep an Eye on in 2018” by Next Visionaries. More information at: www.jianxiongxiao.com.

Jonathan Spear

Director
Atkins Acuity

Jonathan Spear is a Director with Atkins Acuity with 25 years in transport policy, strategic studies, regulation and governance. Following an early professional career in the UK, he has worked across the World, including postings in Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai.

In the GCC, Jonathan has led or advised on a wide range of studies, including development of the National Transport Plan for the UAE, a Public Transport Master Plan for Kuwait, a Walking and Cycling Strategy for Abu Dhabi, an Electric Vehicles Strategy and Action Plan for Dubai and numerous planning and design applications for Dubai Airports. Latterly, he has developed policy for the liberalisation of the intercity bus market and the reform of public transport fares setting in Saudi Arabia, as well supporting the introduction of a new public bus tendering system in Bahrain.

Jonathan has become increasingly focused on the policy and regulatory implications of technology development and disruptive trends in the transport sector, including Connected and Autonomous Vehicles and their potential interaction with shared mobility concepts. He led Atkins’ Intelligent Mobility in Asia Pacific and in 2019 has brought this experience back to Dubai. Recent studies include specific CAV trials and applications in Singapore, Dubai, China and UK, as well as tracking international trends and factors driving early adoption in this rapidly developing area.

Jonathan has been a member of the Council of the Association of European Transport, is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Highways and Transportation and is involved in technical activities for the World Road Association covering institutional integrity, organisational capacity building and change management. He is a member of the Atkins Fellowship which is collectively responsible for ensuring technical excellence and leadership across the firm.

Gary Patterson

COO
Bestmile

As COO, Gary drives Bestmile’s operational excellence and efficiency and oversees the company’s partnerships, customer support, product deployment and customer success organizations. Prior to joining Bestmile, Gary served as VP of Technology for cloud management infrastructure and software provider Virtustream, a Dell Technologies Business. He has also served as an advisor to startups developing cloud-based big data, analytics, data science, IoT, machine learning, and artificial intelligence solutions. Gary has more than 20 years of experience in B2B enterprise information technology, focused on the delivery of transformative change enabled by innovative, data-driven solutions.

Daniel Baxter

ITS Roads & Vehicles Practice Lead
Stantec Consulting

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.

Samaneh Khazraeian

ITS Analyst
Stantec Consulting

Sama is an ITS Analyst for Stantec’s global Intelligent Transportation Systems Roads and Vehicles practice (ITS R&V). She received her Ph.D. in Transportation Engineering with a focus on Connected Autonomous Vehicle (CAV) technology from Florida International University (FIU) in 2017. She then joined Stantec and started working on the Dubai World Challenge on Self-Driving Transport and Tennessee TDOT Traffic Management Center (TMC) Software Upgrade projects. She has worked on several ITS projects including an NCHRP project on CV technology applications for traffic bottleneck management.

She has been the recipient of several prestigious awards including the 2018 Transportation Research Board (TRB) Best Paper Award, 2017 Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) International Leadership Legacy Award and 2017 Nation’s Top 20 Graduate Students in Transportation. She has published more than ten research papers on ITS related topics in the Transportation Research Record (TRR), Journal of the Transportation Research Board and TRB Annual Meeting proceedings. She authored a book chapter entitled as “Intelligent Transportation Systems in Future Smart Cities” in 2019 with Springer. Sama is a reviewer of the TRB Standing Committee on ITS and an active member of WTS.

Bill Nie

Chairman,
Fatri

A competent and experienced professional with more than 16 years working experiences and a comprehensive knowledge of designing, developing and maintaining sensors, was responsible for developing engine and flight control sensors for Trent900 and Trent 1000 engines of Boeing 787 and Airbus A380. A forward thinking entrepreneur, successfully founded a senor developing company with a registered capital of RMB 75 million, has designed numerous engine sensors for medical sensor. Excelling in designing various kinds of sensors, including vibration, impact acceleration, velocity, pressure, GMR、TMR quantum theory chip , F-P sensor、speed, temperature sensor, as well as flame detector. Having 10 PCT and 42 Chinese patents, has published papers of ‘Method Research or Determination of PM2.5 Concentration with a New Developed Vibration Sensor’ and ‘Temperature Characteristic Study on Bismuth Layered and Bi-Ti Composite Piezoelectric Sensors’ on EI journals. The doctoral dissertation ‘Online and Non-contact Measurement Research of Gas Turbine Blades and Engine Spindle Mode that Based on Micro Waves Technology’ was categorized as the 1st class.

Dr. Mamoun F. Abdel-Hafez

Professor and Department Head, Mechanical Engineering Department.
American University of Sharjah

Mamoun F. Abdel-Hafez is a professor and head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the American University of Sharjah (AUS). He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Jordan University of Science and Technology in 1997, his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee in 1999, and his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2003. Dr. Abdel-Hafez served as a Post Doctoral Research Associate in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UCLA in 2013, where he was involved in a research project on fault-tolerant autonomous multiple aircraft landing. He served as the director of the Mechatronics Graduate Program at the American University of Sharjah from 2014-2015. Since September 2015, he is serving as the Head of the Mechanical Engineering Department at AUS. Dr. Abdel-Hafez research interests are in stochastic estimation, control systems, sensor fusion and fault detection. Dr. Abdel-Hafez is the recipient of many awards. Among which: he was the leader of a team that won the 2017 UAE AI/Robotics for Good Award, he was awarded the 2011 AUS provost challenge, and the 2002 NASA PEAR award.

Johan Holmqvist

Vice President Business Development,
Carmenta Automotive

Mike Rioux

COO
JDA Aviation Technology Solutions

Mike Rioux is Chief Operating Officer at JDA Aviation Technology Solutions, where he has full P&L responsibility and day-to-day decision-making authority for JDA's aviation technical services and consulting business. Mr. Rioux led the JDA team that created the firm's System Safety Management and Virtual Safety Office programs.

As Senior Vice President of Operations & Safety at the Air Transport Association, Mr. Rioux directed the safety and operations staff-including air traffic control experts, flight and cabin operations, flight safety, engineering, maintenance, and material logistics support for major passenger air carriers. He served as a member of the FAA Aging Aircraft & Systems Safety Task Force and FAA Research & Development Advisory Committee. He was also ATA's primary operations and technical representative before the DOT, NTSB, FAA and legislative branch of the U.S. government.

Mr. Rioux helped establish the joint industry-government Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST) and was awarded an Aviation Week and Space Technology Laurel in Operations in 1998. CAST was cited by the White House as the best method to reduce the commercial airline accident rates.

He served as principal analyst for responding to FAA-proposed airworthiness directives and dispatch policies. By demonstrating the non-viability of one proposed rule, he saved the airline industry over $5.5 million. Following his joint industry team leadership investigation of a TWA accident, his recommendations led to the immediate adoption of procedures and a subsequent $10 million savings in potential operational disruptions.

Mr. Rioux has also served as President of IDEA, Inc., a B2B data content and communications Service Company with offices in Arlington, Ontario and Boston. During a high-profile career in the United States Navy, he flew 4,000 hours with 975 carrier landings on five different aircraft carriers without incident.

Mr. Rioux holds a Masters in Systems Engineering Management and a BS in Business Management from the University of Southern California and University of Maryland, respectively.

Mike Borfitz

Senior Certification Specialist,
JDA Aviation Technology Solutions

Mike has been working in the safety and regulatory field since 1980, he has held a variety of positions in Boeing and the FAA, and is deeply experienced in all facets of type/production certification, regulations and safety.

Hugh Hynes

Principal
PROTOinc

Hugh Hynes is a cofounder of PROTOinc, an architecture and planning practice based in San Francisco. Since its inception in 2006, the firm has completed a broad variety of commercial, industrial and institutional projects worldwide, with a focus on the automotive sector. Recent work includes facilities for Audi, Porsche, Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes, Mazda and Volvo, as well as a number of automotive start-ups in the San Francisco Bay Area. With a deep interest in the cause and effect relationships between technologies of mobility and the built environment, the firm’s research and development arm is exploring shifts in building and urban planning practices precipitated by automotive innovation. Supplemented by expertise in both economic modeling and logistical, systems-based planning at the large scale, and in materials research, prototyping and innovation at the small scale, their work pushes the ambitions of otherwise generic facilities design and “architectural hardware.”

Hugh received his Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University, and Master of Architecture from Columbia University. He is a Senior Adjunct Professor at the California College of Arts & Crafts in San Francisco, where his ongoing research and teaching focuses on the evolving relationship between industrialization and architecture. Recent coursework topics include emerging tactics for architectural entrepreneurship, histories of mass-scale production, and global proliferation of late-industrial landscapes. In the graduate program he has led the Volatility Research Group, which has pursued research into adaptive architectural prototypes, scenario planning, and catastrophe/ contingency tactics for the built environment under circumstances of extreme change.

Tim Armitage

Future Transport Systems Lead
Arup

Tim Armitage is an Associate Director with considerable experience of leading and contributing to multi-stakeholder projects within a range of mostly transport domains. Tim coordinates the future mobility activity on behalf of Arup’s Advanced Digital Engineering practice and was the Project Director for the recently completed UK Autodrive connected and autonomous vehicle research and demonstration project.

During UK Autodrive, Tim led the development and testing of a new autonomous vehicle system, taking the vehicle concept from its initial stages through to public operation. In delivering this project, Tim worked closely for the local authority, providing a technical and safety case review for the innovative vehicle and vehicle autonomous systems. Tim also was responsible for coordinating the activities of the consortium and for ensuring that the organisations involved delivered on time and to plan.

In addition to that four-year collaborative research project, Tim has also managed several commercial projects related to automated and electric vehicle systems. These include projects where Tim has acted as a technical specialist for projects in the United Kingdom, in Dubai and in China. Tim regularly presents on the topic of future intelligent mobility systems and their impact on the economies of cities and the experience of residents and visitors.

Adrià Ramirez

Chief Mobility Officer,
Shotl

Adrià ensures that Shotl implementations fit with city policies and delivers maximum benefits to urban citizens and the environment. He understands the public officials’ needs and concerns and helps them design pilot scenarios, supervising pilots and deployments and developing social research and user-feedback tools and workshops.

Martin Thibault

Vice President, Transportation
Stantec Consulting

Martin Thibault brings 25 years’ transportation experience, both in Canada and abroad.

As Vice-President, Transportation for Stantec Consulting Ltd. At the Montreal office, he leads a team of 350 professionals specializing in roadways, airport infrastructures, public transit, bridges and civil engineering structures, sustainable mobility, transportation and traffic planning, railways, ports and marine transportation and intelligent transportation systems.

For Martin, the near future of transportation must play an increasingly important role in the development of public transit networks, electrical transportation and, of course, connected and automated vehicles.

Martin plays an active role in the Transportation industry. In addition to being an active member of the PIARC task force on connected / automated vehicles, he is a member of the Transportation Committee of the Quebec Association of Consulting Engineering Companies and sits on the board of the Quebec Transportation Association.

Dr. Dalia Hafiz

Assistant Professor
Al-Ghurair University

Dr. Dalia Hafiz is an architect, academic, researcher, and phenomenologist who has a passion for environmental design, she received her PhD from the school of Architecture and Design (A+D), Virginia Tech. She received her master’s degree in Architecture in 2011 from the same school. She graduated her bachelor of science in architecture engineering from the Faculty of Engineering Architecture Department, Alexandria University, Egypt in 2007. She was recognized as the best design research student by the School Of Architecture and Design in Virginia Tech twice. Also she was awarded the Richard Kelly Grant for lighting research excellence in 2015.

She taught and helped teaching various courses in both architecture and interior design fields in several universities in US, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates.

One of Dalia’s research explores ways to enhancing the relationship between the education and practice of architecture. In addition to this she has other research that examines the daylighting dynamism which can create uncomfortable situations causing visual discomfort. She focuses on the time and space dynamics of the daylight condition, the representation and re-imagining of these dynamics especially in the early stages of the design process.

This research area has numerous applications in a diverse of fields: Behavioral decisions in transit stations, wayfinding in interior spaces and outdoors, design aid for visually impaired/elderly and energy saving technologies.

Dalia published articles related to this research in several conferences, newsletters, and publications including Transportation Research Board (TRB-2016), Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) research symposium III- 2016. BESS (Building Environmental Systems Symposium), ARCC (Future of Architecture Research 2015) and NIBS (National Institute of Building Sciences) conference and expo 2014. Her research has been selected for publication in multiple journals including NIBS Journal, Enquiry: The Journal for Architectural Research, and a book chapter "Design Innovations for Contemporary Interiors and Civic Art".

She is looking in her future research to collaborate with professionals and other academia to explore potentials to bridge architecture education and practice. She is looking to extend her previous research to examine visual discomfort conditions for elderly, in addition to possibilities to expand the research to adapt dynamic eye movement and test different visual discomfort relationships with noise, acoustics and thermal discomfort.

Tommaso Gecchelin

CTO, Inventor and Founder,
NEXT Future Transportation inc.

I’m Tommaso Gecchelin, a Physicist and Industrial Designer from Padua, Italy. As a “mixer” of art and science I’ve worked for many companies and clients in the world to bring innovation to their products. Now, I'm the founder, inventor and CTO of NEXT, an innovative mobility company making modular electric buses.

Alan Whaley

Founder & Chairman,
AMENA

Alan is an automotive industry expert with over 32 years of experience in high output sales and performance management.

A true industry veteran with international experience, Alan has first-hand knowledge and experience on many levels of the industry, from the trenches doing sales to C suite decisions at OEMs, Importers, and Consultancies.

Today, Alan is dedicated to raising industry standards through thought leadership and knowledge sharing through keynotes, public forums, and as Chairman of AMENA Automotive Association.

Alexander Nase

Managing Director
FEV Consulting GmbH

Alexander Nase is Managing Director of FEV Consulting, the management consulting arm of the FEV Group. He established the consulting business within the FEV Group in 2011. In March 2017 he was named Group Vice President for “Consulting and Cost Engineering”.

Mr. Nase has 20 years of consulting experience working with many OEMs and Suppliers in Europe, Asia and the US.

Prior to joining FEV, Mr. Nase was working as an Interim Manager for Airbus and for Liebherr Aerospace. He started his professional career at Daimler in Research & Development.

His field of expertise is techno-strategic advisory, in particular

  • Technology Roadmapping
  • New product opportunity mapping and concept development
  • Innovation management and growth strategies

He is advising many customers in the field of CASE mega trends, i.e. Connected, Autonomous, Shared and Electrified vehicles which also includes Urban Air Mobility Concepts.

He holds a dual Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering and Business Administration from the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany and is an Alumni of the Harvard Business School, Boston/USA.

Mark Wilson

Professor of Urban and Regional Planning
Michigan State University

Mark Wilson is Professor of Urban and Regional Planning in the School of Planning, Design and Construction at Michigan State University. Research and teaching interests address urban planning, disruptive technologies, mega-events, and economic development. Current projects include the urban implications of autonomous technologies; planning for industrial parks in Africa and the Middle East; mega-event planning for world’s fairs and Olympics; and the role of innovation, knowledge and information technology in urban development.

Massimo Cavazzini

Head of Automotive EMEA
Amazon Web Services

After his Master of Science in Industrial Engineering and Management at Politecnico di Torino, Massimo co-founded a company in the biometric business, and then helped two old-media companies in the digital transition acting as Chief Digital Officer. In 2005 he joined 3 Italia, a Hutchison Whampoa Company, where he had different digital marketing, communication and sales roles, before moving to FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles) in 2011 as head of FCA's Connected Car in EMEA. Massimo worked at Oracle as Industry Innovation Director EMEA before joining in early 2018 AWS, where he’s leading Automotive Business Development in EMEA, supporting customers to invent and innovate at scale.

Jaideep Dhanoa

Co-Founder & CEO, MENAT,
Circ

Andrew Bevan

Smart Mobility Director,
Parsons

Andrew is responsible for leading Parsons’ smart infrastructure solutions development in the Middle East & Africa region.

Andrew has a bachelor’s degree in electronic and electrical engineering (with honors) from the University of Bath, UK. He is a Chartered Engineer, holds Fellowships with two international engineering organizations and has nearly 20 years of experience, specializing in intelligent solutions and systems integration. He has worked on some of the most prestigious rail projects throughout the Middle East and has spent many years working for the federal government in Abu Dhabi developing the systems portfolio and the introduction for the national rail infrastructure. Before joining Parsons, Andrew was a subject matter expert with Ericsson in its Global Centre of Excellence and provided consultancy services across the world for clients such as the Istanbul Municipality on Integrated Mobility and Smart Cities and Network Rail in the UK on the adoption of disruptive technologies and IoT to improve efficiencies in operations and maintenance.

Scott Fennelly

Director of ITS and Transportation
Surface Mobility

Scott is a Co-Founder and Director of ITS and Transportation with Surface Mobility, he manages SMC’s ITS and Smart Mobility portfolio for the MENA region where some of the cutting edge Smart Mobility, AV, data science, and visualizations are assisting in designs, operations and management of the mobility network. He is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Logistics and Transport. He has led projects in the areas of Smart Highways, Big Data, Smart Mobility, Micro-mobility, Public Transport and Intelligent Transport System design both in urban areas and outer urban highways.