Keynote Speakers
Welcome Address: Tuesday, March 10, 2020, 9:30 – 9:40 am
Opening Keynote I: Tuesday, March 10 2020, 9:40 – 10:20 am
Mr. Osman Sultan
CEO
Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company, (du)
UAE
Title of Keynote address: The Enablers of the Perfect Storm: The 4th Industrial Revolution
As the founding CEO of Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (du) since 2005 in the UAE, and the founding CEO of Egyptian Company for Mobile Services (Mobinil) in Egypt from 1998 to 2005, Osman Sultan set during the course of his career several strategies translating the profound transformations that the telecom and information sectors have been creating in our lives.
As an influential figure and a mentor in the telecommunications sector, he is proud to have groomed close to 20 talented individuals who became CEOs of various operations across all continents.
Osman Sultan is a visionary leader and a notable public speaker in the field. His distinguished achievements ranked him as one of the most powerful executives in the telecoms industry in the world twice on «GTBPower100 List» in both 2010 and 2011.
Osman Sultan brings 35 years of leadership, rich with achievements in the telecom business. His vast knowledge and expertise in the field as early as the pre-internet period, placed him as one of the pioneers in France, Europe, the USA, Japan and the entire MENA region.
Opening Keynote II: Tuesday, March 10, 2020, 10:20 – 11:00 am
Dr. Oliver Elbracht
Vice President Siemens / Managing Partner Siemens Consulting Middle East
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
As the Managing Partner for Siemens Consulting Middle East, Dr. Oliver Elbracht has a strong background in management consulting, digital and business transformation. During the course of his career, he gained deep consulting experience in business strategy & development, AI, Predictive Analytics, BDAA, digital transformation (tech & business), innovation, IT system design, e-commerce, sales & distribution, cybersecurity, greenfield operations. Through his research in computational physics, he has mastered a broad set of computer science knowledge & techniques including machine learning & algorithms, statistical models, and coding languages. Further, he has developed broad experience along the value chain in Telecommunication & Technology, IT, Infrastructure & Transportation, Government/Public Services, Automotive and Financial Services. He has been working in 15+ countries through international engagements in Europe (e.g. Germany, Austria, Sweden, Turkey), Middle East (e.g. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar) and Asia (e.g. Taiwan, Indonesia, Myanmar, Hongkong, Kazakhstan).
11:00 – 11:30 Networking Break
Tuesday Keynote III: Tuesday, March 10, 2020, 11:30 – 12:10 am
Dr. Rubén Elvira Herranz
Services Program Manager
Airbus Defence and Space
Military Aircraft
Madrid, Spain
Dr. Rubén Elvira Herranz is teaching in various universities in Spain (Carlos III University in Madrid, Instituto de Estudios Bursátiles, Technical University of Madrid) and Business School (Institute for Advance Management – CEU) in the areas of Project Management, Operations Management, Finance and Geoconomy. As well he has published some of his works in top ranked journals.
In his professional life Dr. Elvira is Program Manager for Middle East in Airbus Defence & Space.
Dr. Elvira is holding a PhD in Business Administration, various MSc (Industrial Management, Business Administration, Machines and Transportation) and a Bachelor in Aerospace Engineering, all from various universities. Also is certified as PMP ®.
Keynote Title: Digital Transformation
Tuesday Keynote IV: Tuesday, March 10, 2020, 12:10 – 12:50 pm
Professor Ammar Kaka
Provost, Heriot-Watt University Dubai
Vice-Principal (Dubai), Heriot-Watt University
Dubai, UAE
Transforming Construction through Smart Technologies
Professor Ammar Kaka is the Provost of Heriot Watt University Dubai Campus. Within Heriot Watt University, he holds the position of Vice Principal and the Professor of Construction Economics and Management. In 2008 he was also allocated the title the William Watson Chair of Building Engineering. Professor Kaka’s contribution to the transnational education in general and to the Dubai’s education hub in particular has been immense. With a student population of 4000 and a growing research culture, the Dubai campus is currently recognised as one of UK’s leading provider of transnational education.
Professor Kaka has an international reputation for research on the assessment, planning and control of construction projects. Author of more than a hundred research papers, he has held numerous funded research grants with impact demonstrated by the extent of citation and direct industrial application. He is a fellow of the RICS and member of the editorial boards of a number of international academic journals. He has supervised more than 25 PhD students to completion, many of which have developed into senior roles in governments, industry and academia.
Tuesday Networking Lunch Buffet, March 10, 2020, 1:00 – 2:30 pm
IEOM Student Chapter Presentations – KFUPM, Zagazig University, University of Johannesburg and University of Science & Technology of Fujairah (USTF), UAE
Wednesday, March 11, 2020
Wednesday Morning Keynote I: March 11, 2020, 9:40 – 10:20 am
Dr. Ibrahim Alharkan
General Director for King Salman Institute for Entrepreneurship (KSIE)
General Director of External Joint Supervision Program (EJSP)
Director of Applied Engineering Management Program (AEMP)
Associate Professor at Industrial Engineering Department, College of Engineering
King Saud University
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Ibrahim Al-Harkan, is an associate professor of industrial engineering at King Saud University, Saudi Arabia. He holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from King Saud University, M.S. and Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from The University of Oklahoma, USA. His specialized areas are production planning and control, modeling and simulation of industrial and service systems, and applied operations research. Dr. Al-Harkan, is one of the founder of the Saudi Industrial Engineering Society (SIES), one of the founders of the Industrial Engineering Council at the Saudi Council of Engineers, One of the founders of the Saudi Chapter of Institute of Industrial engineers, and established the Department of Industrial Engineering at the college of Engineering in King Saud University. Dr. Al-Harkan was the Chairman for the Mechanical Engineering Department for three years and half, also the Chairman for Industrial Engineering Department for two years, in addition he was the dean for graduate studies for five years. Dr. Al-Harkan, was the Vice Rector Assistant for Graduate studies and Scientific Research for Knowledge Exchange and Technology Transfer for one year. Dr. Al-Harkan, was the General Director of External Joint Supervision Program (EJSP) for ten years. Dr. Al-Harkan, is currently is the General Director for Entrepreneurship Institute (EI) which contains the Innovation Center (IC), Technology Advancement and Prototyping Center (TAP), Intellectual Property and Licensing Program (IPTL), Incubator and Accelerator Center (Khota), Small and Medium Enterprises Services Center (SMESC), and Funding Services Center (FSC).
Wednesday Morning Keynote II: March 11, 2020, 10:15 – 11:00 am
Dr. Ali Diabat
Global Network Professor of Civil and Urban Engineering
New York University Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi, UAE
Dr. Ali Diabat is a Global Network Professor of Engineering at New York University Abu Dhabi. His research focuses on different applications of optimization and operations research: in particular, logistics and supply chain management, healthcare management, and production planning. He has published over 100 research journal papers and over 30 conference papers in leading journals and international conference proceedings, and his research has received about 5 million dollars of grant funding from different industries and collaborative proposals with academic institutions. Dr. Diabat has received several Excellence in Teaching awards, including an Outstanding Graduate Instructor Award and an Excellence in Teaching Award from Purdue University, in 2004 and 2006, respectively. He was the recipient of the 2012 Excellence in Teaching Award from Masdar Institute, and in 2014, he also received the Best Faculty Research Award from the Department of Engineering Systems and Management at Masdar Institute. Dr. Diabat currently serves as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Manufacturing Systems, an Area Editor of the Journal of Computers and Industrial Engineering, and an Engineering Editor of the Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering.
11:00 – 11:30 Networking Break
Wednesday Keynote III: March 11, 2020, 11:30 am – 12:10 pm
Dr. Nicklas Dahlstrom
Human Factors Manager
Emirates Airlines
Dubai, UAESpecialist of HF at Emirates Airline
Well Done is Better than Well Said – Improving Safety and Efficiency with Human Factors
Dr. Nicklas Dahlstrom is Human Factors Manager at Emirates Airline and has been with the airline since 2007. In this position he has overseen CRM training in a rapidly expanding airline and also been part of efforts to integrate Human Factors in the organisation. He has also done work for other organisations, especially the UN World Food Program’s Aviation Safety unit and is currently a member of ICAO’s Human Performance Task Force. In 2018 he received Civil Aviation Training magazine’s Pioneer award for his work in the aviation industry.
Nicklas also holds the position of Assistant Professor at Lund University School of Aviation in Sweden and was previously a researcher and instructor there, working mainly on projects related to safety and Human Factors in aviation as well as in other areas, such as maritime transportation and health care.
Nicklas did his PhD with Professor Sidney Dekker as supervisor and worked with him on research projects until he joined Emirates. His research areas in aviation have been mental workload, training and simulation and he has written research articles and book chapters on Human Factors and CRM as well as delivered invited presentations, lectures and training in more than twenty different countries.
Previous to his career in academia and civil aviation Nicklas was an officer and meteorologist in the Swedish Air Force, where he also underwent flight training on the SAAB 105 twin engine trainer jet aircraft. He worked in the Swedish Air Force at the Air Base F10 in as well as at the Swedish Fighter Pilot School F5, where he was also an instructor for both pilots and meteorologists.
Wednesday Keynote IV: March 11, 2020, 12:10 – 12:50 pm
Dr. Mohammad T. Khasawneh, Ph.D.
Professor & Chair, Systems Science and Industrial Engineering
Associate Director, Watson Institute for Systems Excellence
Director, Healthcare Systems Engineering Center
Graduate Program Director, Executive Master of Science in Health Systems
Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science
State University of New York at Binghamton
Binghamton, New York 13902, U.S.A.
Dr. Mohammad Khasawneh is a Professor and Chair 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, operations management, and data science. Dr. Khasawneh currently serves as Associate Director for the Watson Institute for Systems Excellence (WISE), an institute for advanced studies that generates 2.5-3 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 areas of healthcare systems engineering, operational excellence, and data science. His health systems engineering center generates over one million US$ annually in sponsored research from various healthcare and hospital systems. Building on a successful research program 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 has also been instrumental in developing a new M.S. degree program in Healthcare Systems Engineering.
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 50+ refereed journal articles, 100+ conference articles, one patent, and two new invention disclosures. In addition, his sponsored research efforts thus far have resulted in over ten (10) million US$ in external funding and over 39 million US$ in software/equipment grants.
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, and the University Award for Excellence in International Education in 2016. He is a member of the Alpha Pi Mu and Alpha Epsilon Lambda honor societies. Dr. Khasawneh was also recently honored with 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. Dr. Khasawneh also holds an honorary visiting professor position with the Industrial Engineering Department at Hebei University of Technology in Tianjin, China.
Wednesday Networking Buffet Lunch: March 11, 2020, 1:00 – 2:30 pm
Wednesday Lunch Keynote: March 11, 2020, 1:30 – 2:00 pm
Harry Kasuma (Kiwi) Aliwarga
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Owner
UMG Myanmar
Karet Kuningan Jakarta, Indonesia
Harry Kasuma (Kiwi) Aliwargais chief executive officer and co-owner of UMG Myanmar, one of the country’s leading business conglomerates. Born in Jakarta, Indonesia, Mr. Aliwarga graduated from the Institute of Technology of Indonesia (ITI) in 1992 with a degree in industrial engineering and later received a master’s degree in civil engineering at the Asia Institute of Technology in Thailand. Kiwi Aliwarga began his professional career in the business development division at Astra International, one of Indonesia’s largest traded companies, where he worked from 1992 to 1995. He went on to become business development manager at United Tractors–Indonesia (UT) before founding UMG Myanmar in 1998 with his partner MarLar Win. Mr. Aliwarga has set the ambitious goal of making UMG a billion-dollar company by 2020, by relying on three essential pillars: people, leadership, and the relentless pursuit of excellence.
Thursday, March 14, 2020
Thursday Morning Keynote I: March 12, 2020, 9:40 – 10:20 amH
Dr. Yousef Al-Assaf
President
Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) – Dubai
Dubai Silicon Oasis, Dubai
United Arab Emirates
Dr. Al-Assaf had his PhD from Oxford University and leadership training from Cornell University. He is a widely published and academic and senior education management professional with extensive international experience.
He is currently President of Rochester Institute of Technology- Dubai, a leading not for profit international branch of RIT Rochester, New York. RIT Dubai University is established in conjunction with the Dubai Government in Dubai Silicon Oasis. Prior to this he was Dean of the College of Engineering at the American University of Sharjah where he was one of the founding members of the electrical engineering and computer engineering programs.
During his tenure at RIT Dubai, he has ensured that the university plays a major role in the ecosystem of Dubai Silicon Oasis and supporting the strategic plans of UAE and Dubai. Introduced a number of new programs, certifications and initiatives to meet the needs of public and technology partners including: Smart City Sciences, Data Analytics, Emerging Technologies, Corporate and Customer Happiness, Future Foresight and Strategic Planning, Computing Security and Sustainability among others.
Dr. Al-Assaf’s research focuses on using soft computing to model and control various industrial, business and medical systems. Applications include materials modeling and classification, prostheses control, industrial quality control and optimization. His industrial experience is in the areas of adaptive and predictive control, soft computing and industrial instrumentation and control.
Title of the Keynote Speech: “How industry 4.0 is transforming Industrial Engineering?”
Industry 4.0’s emerging technologies and tools such as Artificial Intelligence, Data analytics, 3D printing, VR & AR, Smart Systems are already, and will continue to, affect all fields of engineering. Industrial engineering is not an exception with all its areas including production planning, systems modelling, operation research, efficiency and quality control and others as all these will be reshaped and transformed. This presentation discusses the following questions: Would the exponential growth of AI replace industrial engineers or complement their roles? How AI is transforming the IE fields? What is the role of the university in preparing industrial engineers for the future innovative workplace? Finally, we will discuss the initiatives taken by Rochester Institute of Technology in Dubai in creating an innovative, smart and connected ecosystem that allows its students and strategic partners to design the future and contribute to a diverse sustainable human-centered economy.
Thursday Morning Keynote II: March 12, 2020, 10:20 – 11:00 am
Prof. Dr. Bhaskar Bhandarkar
Director General, Institution for Innovation, Industrial Engineering & Entrepreneurship
Principal Investigator IUSSTF India
Former Chairman of IIIE – Indian Institute of Industrial Engineers
Governing Council Member Engineering Council India
Dr. Bhaskar Bhandarkar is Director General of Institution for Innovation & Industrial Engineering and Entrepreneurship. He received is BSc from Nagpur University, BTech from JNU New Delhi, MTech from Pune University, MBA (Operation & Marketing) and PhD: BIT, Mesra ,Gold Medalist from NCDC, GOI, Ministry of Home affairs. Dr. Bhandarkar has 37 years’ experience in Operations/Refits/Quality Assurance/Manufacturing and Training; Consultant to NITIE Govt. of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development; Chairman, Indian Institution of Industrial Engineering for record eight years; Director General Indian Institution of industrial Engineering Mumbai, Managing Editor of Industrial Engineering Journal; Member of the Technical Committee Indian Register of Shipping. He served in many international committees including Board Member of Asia Pacific IE and Management Systems Society (APIEMS) , and Program Head: Indo US Science & Technology Forum (workshop). His research interests are servant leadership, safety management, quality management, futuristic SCM and logistic and lean six sigma. He is a Fellow of Institution of Engineers (India)(FIE), Institution of Marine Engineers (FMarE), and Indian Institution of Industrial Engineering (FIIE). Dr. Bhandarkar received various awards including Lilian-Gilbert Award, Ramaswami Award, Coal-India Productivity Award, Shiksha-Bharati Award, Best-Educationalist Award, Distinguished Engineer Awards, Distinguished IIIE Service Award. International recognitions include Production and Operation Management Society (POMS): Recognition on 08th May 2016 at Orlando USA Conference, IEOM at Rabata, Morocco Conference, Advisor IEM, MOST Govt of Taiwan. He served as an Associate Editor of International Journal of Production Research (IJPR) Taylor and Francis. Award Constituted in the Honor of Dr Bhandarkar include Dr. Bhandarkar Award for First Merit Student, VJTI, Mumbai University and Nagpur University and Cdr Bhandarkar Visionary Leadership Award ( For CEOs with outstanding leadership and Visionary Institution Building.
11:30 am – 12:00 pm (Thursday)
Dr. Sayyad Zahid Qamar
Associate Professor
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department
College of Engineering
Sultan Qaboos University
Al-Khoudh, Sultanate of OMAN
Dr. Sayyad Zahid Qamar is currently associated with the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department, Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), Muscat, Oman. He has over 25 years of academic and research experience in different international universities. He has also worked as a professional mechanical engineer in the field for over 6 years in the heavy engineering and fabrication industry (Manager Research and Development; Deputy Manager Design; Production Engineer; Quality Control Engineer). He has also been actively involved in research and accreditation work related to engineering education. His research areas are Applied materials and manufacturing; Applied mechanics and design; Reliability engineering; and Engineering education. As part of the Applied Mechanics and Advanced Materials Research group (AM2R) at SQU, he has been involved in different applied research funded projects in excess of 4 million dollars. He has over 200 research/technical publications to his credit (2 research monographs/books, 2 edited book volumes, 6 book chapters, 160 publications in refereed international journals and conferences, and 36 technical reports). He is currently editing one volume (Renewability of Synthetic Materials) for the Elsevier Encyclopedia of Renewable and Sustainable Materials. He has served as Associate editor, Guest editor, and Member editorial board for different research journals (including Materials and Manufacturing Processes, Journal of Elastomers and Plastics, the Journal of Engineering Research, etc.) He has received PhD from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, MS from Institute for Innovation and Design in Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas; and Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, USA and BE from NED University of Engineering & Technology, Karachi, Pakistan.
Thursday Networking Lunch Buffet, March 12, 2020, 1:00 – 2:30 pm
IEOM Student Chapter Presentations from
MAPUA University, University of West Bohemia, Pilsen, P.D.A. College of Engineering, India, UNS, Indonesia and Shipbuilding Institute of Polytechnic Surabaya
Thursday Awards Dinner – 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm
Awards Keynote
Professor Charles Mbohwa
Pro-Vice Chancellor Strategic Partnerships and Industrialisation
University of Zimbabwe
Mt Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe
Professor Charles Mbohwa is the University of Zimbabwe Pro-Vice Chancellor responsible for Strategic Partnerships and Industrialisation since 1st July 2019. Before that he was a Professor of sustainability engineering in the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at the University of Johannesburg. Earlier on in his career, he was a mechanical engineer in the National Railways of Zimbabwe from 1986 to 1991; lecturer and senior lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe and joined the University of Johannesburg as a senior lecturer in 2007. He is an established researcher and is NRF-Rated in category C1. He was the Chairman and Head of Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Zimbabwe from 1994 to 1997 and was Vice-Dean of Postgraduate Studies Research and Innovation in the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at the University of Johannesburg from July 2014 to June 2017. He was Acting Executive Dean in the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment from November 2017 to July 2018. He has published more than 700 papers in peer-reviewed journals and conferences, 20 book chapters and 7 books. He has a Scopus h-index of 13; a web of science h-index of 11 and Google Scholar h-ndex of 18. He holds a BSc Honours in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Zimbabwe in 1986; Masters of Science in Operations Management and Manufacturing Systems from University of Nottingham; and a Doctor of Engineering from the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Technology.
He was a Fulbright Scholar for 6 months in 2006/2007 at the Supply Chain and Logistics Institute at the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology,. He was also a Japan Foundation Fellow. He is a Fellow of the Zimbabwe Academy of Science and of the Zimbabwean Institution of Engineers. He is a registered mechanical engineer with the Engineering Council of Zimbabwe. He has been a collaborator in projects of the United Nations Environment Programme. He has been involved in research exchange with collaborator in many countries including the United Kingdom, Japan, German, France, the USA, Brazil, Sweden, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mauritius, Austria, the Netherlands, Uganda, Namibia and Australia. In 2016, he was a finalist of the TW Kambule-NSTF Award for research and its outputs by an individual over a period of up to 15 years after award of a PhD and a finalist in the category Research or Engineering Capacity Development NSTF Awards for achievements over the last five to 10 years. He is a Global Council Member and Fellow of the Industrial Engineering and Operations Management Society. He is a reviewer for more than 20 international journals and is a member of the editorial boards/ committees of 5 journals. He has collaborated with the United Nations organisations and has assisted to write the Global Guidance Principles for Life Cycle Assessment Databases and has reviewed Methodological Sheets for Subcategories in Social Life Cycle Assessment. He is a founding member of the Social Life Cycle Assessment Alliance coordinated by the World Resources Forum, which will focus, among many other things, on social impacts of sustainable recycling. He has been a board member of the African Roundtable in Sustainable Consumption and Production. He was also a board member of Almin Industries and for Willowvale Motor Industries in Zimbabwe. He has successfully supervised more than 50 Master’s students, 12 doctoral students and 12 postdoctoral fellow
Past Keynotes
- IEOM 2010 – Dhaka
- IEOM 2011 – Kuala Lumpur
- IEOM 2012 – Istanbul
- IEOM 2014 – Bali
- IEOM 2015 – Dubai
- IEOM 2015 – Orlando
- IEOM 2016 – Kuala Lumpur
- IEOM 2016 – Detroit
- IEOM 2017 – Rabat, Morocco
- IEOM 2017 – Bogota
- IEOM 2018 – Bandung
- IEOM 2018 – Paris
- IEOM 2018 – Washington DC
- IEOM 2018 – Pretoria
- IEOM 2019 – Bangkok
- IEOM 2019 – Pilsen
- IEOM 2019 – Toronto
- IEOM 2019 – Riyadh