Committee Members

Mengjiao Yao is a PhD student in Agricultural Engineering at Jiangsu Univisity in China. Sheismainly engaged in the design and development of automatic transplanter, especially in theresearchof control system for agricultural robots. She has published more than 10 papers in reputedjournals.

Dr. Martin Krebs, born on March 12, 1956, in Osnabrück, is a distinguished physicist with a career spanning over four decades in battery research and development. After completing his studies in Physics at TU Clausthal in 1983, he worked as an assistant to Prof. Heusler at the Institute for Corrosion and Corrosion Protection, where he also prepared his PhD thesis. In 1989, Dr. Krebs joined VARTA Microbattery GmbH, where he led the Research Department until 2022. During his tenure, he also headed the Patent Department from 2001 and took on responsibility for numerous EU- and government-funded research projects starting in 2003. His pioneering work in printed batteries began in 2005 in collaboration with the University of Applied Sciences for Media in Stuttgart and later with ELMERIC, bringing these technologies to mass production in 2014. Since retiring from VARTA in 2022, Dr. Krebs has continued to share his expertise as an independent consultant for various scientific and technical groups, and in June 2023, he joined the FlexPower team. Married with three children, Dr. Krebs resides in Rosenberg, where he remains committed to advancing innovative energy storage solutions.

Fred retired from WITS University (South Africa) in 2021, where he is still Visiting Professor Emeritus, in addition to being Visiting Professor and Part-Time Director of the Sibanye-Stillwater Centre for Sustainable Mining at the University of Johannesburg. Fred also held recent visiting scholarly appointments in China and Japan on the theme of mine modernisation. As Director of Minserv, Fred is Coordinating the MMP RTIMS Artificial Intelligence Framework for the South African Mining Industry project as research and solutions partner of the SAMERDI Programme, while also doing consulting with a technology focus on mining life cycle analysis at a strategy level.

Tarek is a corporate researcher and pharmaceutical industry leader with over 16 years in market leadership and transformation across the Middle East and emerging markets, particularly at AstraZeneca. In his role as CVRM Franchise Director, he led brand strategy in 29 countries, focusing on innovation and omni-channel strategies. Academically, he holds an MBA from IE Business School, a Master’s in Management Research from ESCP Business School, and will complete his PhD defense in February 2025. His research includes publications on Big Data analytics in healthcare digital transformation and AI adoption among UAE physicians, with a focus on policy shaping for ethical AI in healthcare.

Raphael Saraiva, graduated from Veterinary Medicine School in Brazil (2017) and holds a Master’s degree in Animal Physiology from Kansas State University (USA; 2021). He has worked on critical research in heat stress, reproduction, and prepartum nutrition, and dairy profitability in large herds. Current DCRC’s (Dairy Cattle Reproduction Council) Education Committee Chair, he leads initiatives in research, webinars, and industry education. Raphael is a Strategic Account Manager for STgenetics USA Dairy Technical Services Team. He helps clients achieve higher profitability and performance through data-driven decisions, the use of accelerometers, heifer inventory management, optimizing processes, and on-farm training.

George comes from a textile business background in Greece and studied in the UK. He completed his postgraduate studies in Leeds and then went onto his MSc and PhD, which were funded by M&S and their suppliers. George completed his PhD in 1986 and became a lecturer in clothing at Bradford, and he became a fellow of the Science and Technology Agency in Japan in 1991 before returning to Bradford in 1992. He obtained his personal chair in industrial engineering systems at Bradford in 1994 whilst continuing research in textile objective measurement applied at the textile and clothing interface. In 1999 George joined the School of Textiles and Design as Professor of Textiles and is currently Director of TechniTex and the Faraday Partnership in Technical Textiles. He has always been interested in the interface between textiles and clothing from a number of aspects and has centred the majority of his research around this area, bringing in sensors, control engineering and machine design.

Dr. Nils Håkansson has completed his PhD in astroparticle physics from the University of Potsdam,
Germany. The title of his thesis was “A Dark Matter line search using 3D-modeling of Cherenkov
showers below 10 TeV with VERITAS”. Nils continued with Dark Matter research as a post-doc at
Stockholm University using Fermi-LAT data. He then changed career track to software
development and engineering at the particle accelerator MAX IV in Lund, Sweden. Later he
returned to space-oriented work at DiGOS in Potsdam, laser ranging satellites. Ending up at
Ferdinand-Braun-Institut in Berlin, where he is Augmenting Human Capabilities for BECCAL
Module Construction.

David was born in Madrid, Spain, in 1995. He is currently an Engineering in Electric, Electronic, and Automation Ph.D. candidate at University Carlos III de Madrid. He received his B.S degree in Computer Science and Engineering in 2018, and his M.S. degree in Robotics and Automation in 2019, both at University Carlos III de Madrid. In 2018 he joined the Intelligent Systems Lab where he has collaborated in several research projects, such as CITIES Timanfaya and Interpretatic. His research focuses on developing and integrating systems to enhance advanced self-driving technologies. Beyond automated vehicle solutions, he prioritizes infrastructure empowerment. His core areas of expertise include sensor fusion, perception, advanced traffic scene understanding, autonomous decision-making, arbitration, and intelligent infrastructure design.

Dr. Petty recently retired from being a professor at the University of Michigan to work full time with Predictoma. He has worked extensively on breast cancer and understanding the mechanisms of cancer recurrences. He obtained his Ph.D. from Harvard University in Biophysics followed by post-doctoral studies as a fellow of the Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Cancer Fund at Stanford University. Howard is a serial inventor with over 200 publications and 20 patents. He developed the core technology at the University of Michigan. Howard is a leader in applied microscopy, and the first to accurately predict patient recurrences using AI-based methods.

Dr. Chen Huawei, Professor/Vice Dean of School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Beihang University. Dr. Chen’s research is focused on the bio-inspired functional surface, micro-nano robots, micro/nano fluidics, and its applications in aerospace and precision. He is the Leading Talent of Ten Thousand Plan, Outstanding Young Scientist Foundation of National Nature Science Foundation of China, a JSPE Fellow etc. Dr. Chen has authored more than 100 journal papers in Nature, Nature Materials, Advanced Materials, Advanced Science, Small, Angew. Chemie, ACS Applied Materials & Interface etc.

Ambra Vandone has completed her PhD from Politecnico of Milan, doing research activities in the
Measurements Division of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Then, she moved to Lugano
where she started working as a researcher and lecturer at the University of Applied Science of
Southern Switzerland. Her main research activities deal with artificial vision applied to
collaborative or mobile robot use cases. She has published more than 20 papers in reputed journals
and conferences.

Dr Man Qi is a Reader in Computing at Canterbury Christ Church University with over 20 years of teaching and research experience in computing.  Dr Qi is a Fellow of the British Computer Society (FBCS) and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).  Her research interests are Intelligent Computing and Applications. Dr Qi has over 80 research publications including 40 journal papers. She is an editorial board member for several international journals and has served as program committee member/chair for over 50 international conferences.

Mohamed BOUTAYEB Engineer (1988 from EHTP), Ph.D. (1992) and HDR (2000) degrees in automatic control from the University of Lorraine – France. Full Professor since 2002 at the University of Strasbourg – ICube – CNRS and University of Lorraine CRAN-CNRS. His research interests are state estimation, and control of dynamical systems. He is author and co-author of more than 200 papers in international Journals and Conferences. Several scientific stays: MIT – Boston, Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation – Duisburg, University of Columbia – New York. In delegation at CNRS (97-99) and at INRIA (2022-2024). Scientific leader/manager of several ANR-DGA projects. Stanford University Names World’s Top 2%.

Christopher D ‘Ambrosia earned his PhD in Computer Science and Engineering from Columbia University, where he conducted research in Professor Henrik Christensen’s Cognitive Robotics Laboratory. His work primarily focuses on developing advanced machine learning algorithms designed to enhance surgical intelligence and improve clinical care outcomes. D’ Ambrosia’s innovative contributions aim to bridge the gap between cutting-edge robotics and practical medical applications, ensuring that technology can assist healthcare professionals in delivering better patient care. His expertise lies at the intersection of artificial intelligence, robotics, and healthcare, making significant strides in these interdisciplinary fields. D’ Ambrosia’s research holds promise for transforming the landscape of medical technology and patient treatment strategies

Dr. Chih-Hsiu Cheng is the Chair and Professor of the School of Physical Therapy and Graduate Institute of Rehabilitation Science at the Chang Gung University, and an Adjunct Researcher of the Bone and Joint Research Center at the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital. He is currently the president of the Taiwan Society of Biomechanics . He devotes himself to cultivating professional researchers who are interested in the development of therapeutic techniques and assistive devices. His areas of research include spine biomechanics, gait analysis, and sports science with a specific interest in the potential applications of new strategies targeting movement disorders. The main research focus is to apply various motion analysis techniques to acquire the movement characteristics of different target groups so as to develop innovative auxiliary technology equipment that can facilitate functional movements and promote health.

Jiegang Peng has completed his PhD at the age of 32 years from Zhejing University University and
postdoctoral studies from Department of Precision Instruments and Mechanology of Tsinghua
University. He is the is a full Professor of University of Electronic Science and Technology of
China since 2005. He is IAAM Fellow from 2022. He has published more than 40 papers in reputed
journals.

Dafang Chen Address： Xueyuanlu  38., Haidian district, Beijing, China . Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, Peking University. Senior Visiting Scholar at Harvard University in the United States. Main research directions are Data Mining and Molecular Epidemiology of Chronic Diseases. Main social part-time jobs: Chairman of the Health Management Professional Committee of the China Medical Education Association, Vice Chairman of the Medical Patient Experience Management and Evaluation Professional Committee of the China Research Hospital Association. Published over 300 scientific research papers, including over 200 SCI papers. Representative works: Medical Big Data Mining Methods and Applications (2020, Beijing), Precision Health Management (2020, Beijing).

CHAO WEN received the M.S. and Ph.D. degree from Xidian University, China, in 2013 and 2017. He is currently associate professor with the Institute of Big Data Science and Industry, Shanxi University, China. He now is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China. His research interests include intelligent signal processing, object detection and machine learning.

Dr. Hongqi Li is now an associate professor (tenured) with the School of Transportation Science and Engineering at BeiHang University, China. He is also a standing director of the China Society of Logistics. He received his PhD in planning and management of traffic and transportation from Beijing Jiaotong University, China in 2006. Hongqi Li’s main research areas are on operational research and mathematical programming, drone routing, and low carbon logistics. He has published many papers on the integer programming and algorithms for emerging vehicle (e.g., drone, robot) routing problems. Additionally, he holds several patents in truck-drone route optimization areas.

Nikhil Jayaraj, winner of Business News ‘40 Under 40 Awards WA 2020’, is the Managing Director of Regen Power Pty. Ltd. He is a seasoned manager who has bootstrapped his business in the renewable and energy market in WA. He has over 13+ years of experience in grid and offgrid solar sales management with specialisation in residential, commercial, off-grid and solar farm projects.

Dr Roohollah Shirani Faradonbeh is a lecturer at WA School of Mines: Minerals, Energy and Chemical Engineering at Curtin University, Australia, and has over ten years of teaching and research experience in Mining Engineering. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Adelaide in 2021. Roohollah’s current major research area of focus is Mine Automation and the application of novel technologies (e.g., UAVs, Mixed Reality, LiDAR, etc.) to improve mining efficiency and sustainability.

Research Interests:
– Smart mining using Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques
– Mining automation, remote exploitation and big data analysis
– Mine waste and tailings monitoring and management

Mingyang Zhao is currently a research assistant professor at the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR) Hong Kong Institute of Science & Innovation Chinese Academy of Sciences. He received the PhD degree from the Key Laboratory of Mathematics Mechanization, Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, CAS, in 2021. He now focuses his research and development on robust estimation, geometric problems, and shape analysis. He was awarded the grand PhD scholarship of Saudi Arabian and the excellent student prize of president fellowships, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2020 and 2021, respectively. He also received the Outstanding PhD Thesis Award of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2022..

Ambroise Gino Jiokou Kouabon received the Ph.D. degree in robotics from the University of Yaoundé 1, Yaoundé, Cameroon, in 2024. I am currently working as a senior scientist and assistant in the robotics laboratory at the high tech centre in the Department of Electrical and Telecommunications Engineering, Ecole Nationale Supérieure Polytechnique, University of Yaoundé I. My research interests include modeling and control of robots, machine learning, big data and artificial intelligence

Shaibu Osman, (BSc., MSc., Dip. Ed., PhD). Shaibu Osman is an applied mathematician with a specialization in the mathematical modeling of infectious diseases with optimal control and cost-effectiveness analysis. He is currently a senior lecturer with the School of Basic and Biomedical Sciences, University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ho, Volta region, Ghana. He had his undergraduate education from the University for Development Studies (UDS), Navrongo campus, Ghana (Now C.K. Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences). He obtained his Master’s degree from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana, and PhD Mathematics (computational option) from the Pan African University, Institute for Basic Sciences Technology and Innovations (PAUISTI), Nairobi, Kenya. Dr. Osman currently teaches and mentors students at both graduate and undergraduate levels with international teaching and research experience. He worked with the Catholic University of Eastern Africa in the Department of Mathematics and Actuarial Science, Nairobi, Kenya. Dr. Osman’s main research interests are the application of mathematics to problems in biology, public health, behavioral science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning

Dr. Changting Lin, associate professor, Binjiang Institute of Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, Research Interests: AI security and AI agent security. Email: linchangting@zju.edu.cn

“Carlos Cunha is currently an Associate Professor at the Polytechnic University of Viseu, Portugal. He received his Ph.D. in Informatics from the University of Coimbra in Dependable Systems and a Master of Science in Informatics from the University of Minho in software engineering. His interests are in healthcare systems, distributed systems, and software engineering.”

Dr. Jorge Oliva (40 years old) works on flexible electronics, and he develops low-cost batteries using recycled plastics and biodegradable materials. He also develops materials for the elimination of contaminants from the water (herbicides, pharmaceuticals, and dyes). His research group works on novel materials activated by sunlight for the desalination of seawater. The research team of Dr. Oliva also develops luminescent materials for lamps and displays as well as materials for hydrogen generation. Dr. Oliva currently works at CFATA-UNAM Mexico (located in the city of Queretaro). He has published more than 170 articles and 5 patents. Dr. Oliva is also interested in the development of flexible/biodegradable sensors for the detection of NOx and CO₂.

Xiaolong Zheng received the B.S. degree in automation from Yangtze University College of Technology and Engineering, Jingzhou, China, in 2013, the M.S. degree in control theory and control engineering from Bohai University, Jinzhou, China, in 2016, and the Ph.D. degree in control science and engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China, in 2020. He is currently an Assistant Professor with the Research Institute of Intelligent Control Systems, School of Aeronautics, Harbin Institute of Technology. His research interests include adaptive control, neural networks, reinforcement learning and their applications. He has published over 30 International journal papers (including 13 IEEE Transactions series papers). According to Google Scholar, his published papers have received over 2271 citations with H-index 20. He has 11 authorized invention patents. These research results have attracted great attention from the domestic and international scholars.

Ali Soltani Sharif Abadi Ali Soltani Sharif Abadi received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Urmia University, Urmia, Iran, in 2016. He graduated with a master’s degree in control from Yazd University, Yazd, Iran, in 2019. He finished his doctoral studies in 2024 at the Warsaw University of Technology (WUT), Warsaw, Poland. He is currently a faculty member and academic teacher at the WUT. He was awarded the “scientific scholarship of the Rector of WUT for academic teachers” in 2023. He was awarded the “Best Team Award” from the Faculty of Mechatronics at the WUT for their research group in the 2021-2022 academic year. He has received the “IJCAS Contribution Award 2020”. Also, he was awarded as the “young author” at the “XXI Polish Control Conference 2023”. His research interests include control systems, robotic minimally invasive surgery, nonlinear control, fuzzy logic, state and disturbance observers, sliding mode control, selftuning controllers, industrial robotics, and finite/fixed and predefined time stabilization methods

Dr. Ruihang Ji is now a Research Manager at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and Institute for Functional Intelligent Materials (I-FIM), National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore. Prior to joining NUS, he received the Ph.D. degree and B.E. degree from Control Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, China, in 2021 and 2016 respectively. Dr Ji has published over 40 international journal and conference papers; and granted 5 patents. He was the recipient of many award including AI Grand Challenge Award from AISG, First Prize twice in the International Aerial Robotics Competition (IARC), Third Prize in America Mathematical Context in Modeling, National Key Thesis Project, etc.

Dr Ji has been serving as Associate Editor for Network: Computation in Neural Systems, Journal of Automation and Intelligence, and Journal of IgMin Research–STEM. He serves as the Session Chair of Joint International Conference on Automation-Intelligence-System-Safety & International Symposium on Autonomous Systems (ISAS), 2024, the 14th Asian Control Conference (ASCC), 2024, the 6th International Symposium on Autonomous Systems (ISAS), 2023, and the 13th Asian Control Conference (ASCC), 2022. Dr. Ji is a member of IEEE, and CAA. His research interests include Adaptive Control, Constrained Control, Robotics, Cyber Security, Multi-agent Systems, etc.

Author Biography
Mujahid Ali is a Civil Engineering student, with having specialization in Transportation
Engineering. Mr. Ali is currently pursuing his Doctor of Philosophy at Politechnika Śląska, also
known as Silesian University of Technology, in Poland, where his Ph.D. research focuses on
utilizing machine learning technologies to assess travel mode choice and conduct life cycle
analysis of the greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector. He accomplished his
Master’s degree from Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Malaysia, and was a research scientist at
Universiti Malaya, Malaysia (QS # 65 in the world ranking). He has good experience in academia
and published several articles in national and international journals and conferences. Mr. Ali has
been publishing his work since 2020, and his research in the field of civil engineering has resulted
in an extensive publication record in renowned scientific journals. In total, he has published over
eighty (80) full-length, peer-reviewed papers. Mr. Ali’s published research has gone on to be
highly impactful, resulting in over 1300 citations to his work to date

Songtao Hu is an associate professor at the School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He obtained his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Tsinghua University in 2017 and conducted postdoctoral research at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London. In 2021, he joined the Institute of Electromechanical Control at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His research focuses on advanced sensing and testing technology, intelligent operation of mechanical and electrical equipment, and experimental intelligent automation. He has published 47 SCI-indexed papers in journals such as Science Advances, 33 of which are as the first author. Dr. Hu has hosted the Major Project of National Laboratory (National Key R&D Program of China), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. He has been awarded several prizes, including the Young Elite Scientist Sponsorship by the China Association for Science and Technology, the Outstanding Young Scientist by the Shanghai Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, the Second Prize by the China Association for Quality, the Third Prize in the China Medical Devices Design & Entrepreneurship Competition, the Hiwin Doctoral Dissertation by the Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society, the Journal Best Paper Award of Surface Topography: Metrology and Properties, the Journal Academic Exchange Award of Friction, and the Best Poster Award at World Tribology Congress, etc