Keynote Speakers
March 25, 2026
9:30 am – Conference Opening and Welcome:
Conference Chair Remarks
Professor Ruth Banomyong (PhD)
Professor
Head of the Center of Excellence in Connectivity
Thammasat Business School
Thammasat University
Bangkok, Thailand
Ruth Banomyong is a Professor in the Department of International Business, Logistics and Transport Management. He is Head of the Center of Excellence in Connectivity. Ruth was Dean at the Faculty of Commerce & Accountancy (a.k.a. Thammasat Business School), Thammasat University in Thailand. Ruth Banomyong is on the board of WICE Logistics (Public) Co. Ltd. and 2 other companies. He was a board member of the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand. Prof Banomyong received a graduate degree and an undergraduate degree from Université Paris 1, an undergraduate degree from Lycee Michelet and a doctorate from Cardiff Business School. His primary research interests are in the fields of multimodal transport, international logistics, logistics policy development and supply chain performance measurements. He also has a diploma to teach muay thai (thai boxing).
IEOM Society Welcome
Dr. Ahad Ali
Associate Professor
Director, Director of Doctor of Engineering in Advanced Manufacturing
Director of Industrial Engineering Programs (BSIE and MSIE)
A. Leon Linton Department of Mechanical, Robotics and Industrial Engineering
Lawrence Technological University, Southfield, Michigan, USA
Chief Executive Officer (CEO), IEOM Society International
Dr. Ahad Ali is an associate professor and director of industrial engineering programs (BSIE & MSIE) and director of a graduate certificate in Lean Six Sigma at A. Leon Linton Department of Mechanical, Robotics, and Industrial Engineering of the Lawrence Technological University (LTU), Southfield, Michigan, USA. He established the Siemens Electro-Matic Industrial Engineering Lab at LTU. Dr. Ali was the primary author of the ABET self-study report of the BSIE Program at LTU in 2022. He earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Khulna University of Engineering and Technology (KUET), Bangladesh, a Master’s in Systems and Engineering Management from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA. Dr. Ali was an Assistant Professor in Industrial Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico – Mayaguez, a Visiting Assistant Professor in Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Toledo, and a Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at the Bangladesh Institute of Technology, Khulna. He received an Outstanding Professor Award from the Industrial Engineering Department, University of Puerto Rico -Mayaguez. Dr. Ali has been recognized with a Fulbright Award. He has published 75 journal papers and 150 conference papers. Dr Ali conducted research projects with Chrysler, Ford, DTE Energy, New Center Stamping, Whelan Co., Delphi Automotive System, GE Medical Systems, International Truck and Engine Corporation (ITEC), and Rockwell Automation. His research interests include manufacturing systems, quality, lean, six-sigma, simulation, artificial intelligence, supply chain, and optimization. He supervised 11 doctoral students in Doctor of Engineering in Manufacturing Systems (DEMS). He is a Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of IEOM Society International. Dr. Ali is a Co-Chair of the International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management. Dr. Ali organized IEOM conferences around the globe on six continents including Dhaka, Kuala Lumpur, Istanbul, Bali, Dubai, Orlando, Detroit, Rabat, Bristol, Bogota, Paris, Washington, DC, Lima, Johannesburg, Bangkok, Pilsen, Toronto, Costa Rica, Monterrey, Sao Paulo, Riyadh, Manila, Melbourne, New Delhi, Sydney, Augsburg, Tokyo, and Muscat. He is an associate editor of the IJIEOM. Dr. Ali is a member of IEOM, INFORMS, SME, and IEEE.
Host Welcome Address
10:00 am – Keynote I:
10:30 am – Keynote II:
11:00 am – Keynote III:
Dr. Somphop Rodamporn
Dean (Acting)
Faculty of Engineering
Srinakharinwirot University
Bangkok, Thailand
11:30 am – Keynote IV:
Dr. Robert de Souza
The Executive Director
The Logistics Institute – Asia Pacific (TLI – Asia Pacific)
Senior Fellow, National University of Singapore
Dr. Robert de Souza is the Executive Director of the The Logistics Institute – Asia Pacific (TLI – Asia Pacific). Robert is a Chartered Engineer and a distinguished writer, speaker, consultant and advisor in the area of supply chain management. Prior to this appointment, effective May 1st 2004, Dr Robert de Souza served as Deputy Executive Director (Industry) and IT Director at TLI – Asia Pacific. Previously, Dr de Souza was Executive Vice President (Asia Pacific) for V3 Systems. His extensive tenure in the industry also includes serving as the Corporate Senior Vice President and Global Chief Knowledge Officer at Viewlocity Inc. and co-founder, Vice Chairman and CEO of SC21 Pte, Ltd., a Singapore-based supply chain software firm. As an educator, Dr de Souza is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and also a Senior Fellow in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the National University of Singapore and has previously served as a professor and in several senior positions in the School of Mechanical and Production Engineering at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Dr. de Souza is a member of the Editorial Boards of the International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing and the International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications. Dr de Souza also serves on the Advisory Panel of The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, Singapore (CILTS), as a Council Member of the Singapore eSupply Chain Management (eSCM) Council and on the Boards of Directors/Advisors of several IT- based corporations.
12:00 – 1:00 pm – Panel I:
March 26, 2026
10:00 am – Keynote V:
10:30 am – Keynote VI:
11:00 am – Keynote VII:
Dr. Mohammad T. Khasawneh, Ph.D.
SUNY Distinguished Professor
Director, School of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering
Director, Watson Institute for Systems Excellence
Director, Healthcare Systems Engineering Center
Graduate Program Director, Executive Master of Science in Health Systems
Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science
Binghamton University, State University of New York (SUNY)
Binghamton, New York 13902, U.S.A.
Dr. Mohammad Khasawneh is a SUNY Distinguished Professor and Director of the School of Systems Science & Industrial Engineering at Binghamton University. He received his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Clemson University, South Carolina, in August 2003, and his B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan, in 1998 and 2000, respectively. Dr. Khasawneh’s research is focused on healthcare systems engineering. Dr. Khasawneh currently serves as the Director for the Watson Institute for Systems Excellence (WISE), an institute for advanced studies that generates 3-4 million US$ in research funds annually. In addition, he currently serves as the founding director of the Healthcare Systems Engineering Center, an organized research center (ORC) at Binghamton University.
Since 2003, Dr. Khasawneh has been leading a wide spectrum of projects with U.S. hospital systems that focus on applied research in the area of healthcare systems engineering. More specifically, his research is focused on the novel application of systems engineering to transform healthcare systems into high-performance environments that produce better patient outcomes at lower costs. His work is applied in ways that lead to optimal healthcare, including more efficient use of hospital resources; better outpatient scheduling; streamlined patient flow; improved patient satisfaction; reduced hospital-acquired conditions (e.g., infections and patient falls) through predictive analytics; and improved clinical, operational and financial performance using advanced data science methods.
His health systems engineering center generates over $1.5 million annually in sponsored research from various healthcare and hospital systems. Building on a successful research program and partnerships with health systems around the country and an academic concentration/minor, at the graduate/undergraduate levels, Dr. Khasawneh developed a 12-month Executive Master of Science with a Health Systems Concentration, which has been offered in Manhattan since 2013. He also helped develop a new M.S. degree program in Healthcare Systems Engineering, which has been offered at Binghamton University since 2018.
Over the years, Dr. Khasawneh presented his research at various national and international conferences, including China, India, Mexico, Jordan, Korea, Thailand, Japan, Turkey, Indonesia, and Canada. Dr. Khasawneh’s research activities thus far have led to 85+ refereed journal articles, 175+ conference articles, one patent, and three new invention disclosures. In addition, his sponsored research efforts thus far have resulted in over $25 million in external funding and over $39 million in software/equipment grants. Since 2003, Dr. Khasawneh graduated 43 doctoral students and 120+ MS students with the thesis option.
In 2006, Dr. Khasawneh received a U.S. Air Force Summer Faculty Fellowship to evaluate the use of multi-sensory cues to improve the landing of unmanned aerial vehicles. In 2009, he received another fellowship from the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research to design ergonomic computer workstations for very large displays. Dr. Khasawneh received the State University of New York (SUNY) Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2011, the University Award for Outstanding Graduate Director in 2015, the University Award for Excellence in International Education in 2016, and the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities in 2021. He is a member of the Alpha Pi Mu and Alpha Epsilon Lambda honor societies.
Dr. Khasawneh also holds the Diplomate status with the Society for Health Systems (SHS), a professional society within the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) that supports the industrial engineering profession and individuals involved with improving quality and productivity within healthcare. More recently, Dr. Khasawneh was also recently recognized as an IISE Fellow, the highest classification of the IISE membership. Dr. Khasawneh also holds an honorary visiting professor position with the Industrial Engineering Department at Hebei University of Technology in Tianjin, China, and Vellore Institute of Technology in Vellore, India.
11:30 am – Keynote VIII:
Dr. Matteo Mario Savino
Professor of Industrial Operations and Industrial Management
University of Sannio
Benevento, Italy
Matteo Mario Savino is a Professor of Industrial Operations and Industrial Management at the University of Sannio. He received a PhD in Industrial plants in 1999 at the University Federico II of Naples, Department of Design and Industrial Engineering. Among his research interests there are Project Management, Risk Assessment, Quality aspects related to industrial production. He has managed several National and EU Funded research and educational projects. Since 2008 he has been a Delegate of the Rector for Quality Assurance and is the President of the University Quality Centre. He is the author of more than 50 Scientific Publications and participates in International Journals and International Peer Review proceedings.
Dr. Savino is also the Quality Manager for the University Quality Centre. This centre is in charge of the quality assurance for the research and didactic activities of the whole university. He is involved in several EU funded projects on quality, supply chain and higher education. His research interests are mainly focused on industrial operations, quality and supply chain management.
12:00 – 1:00 pm – Panel II
March 27, 2026
10:00 am – Keynote IX:
10:30 am – Keynote X:
11:00 am – Keynote XI:
Dr. Yi-Chi Wang
Professor
Department of Industrial Engineering and Systems Management
Feng Chia University
Taichung, Taiwan
11:30 am – Keynote XII:
12:00 pm – Panel III: