Keynote Speakers
Tuesday, March 8
10:00 am – 10:20 am, Tuesday, March 8, Welcome Address
10:20 am – 11:00 am, March 8, Opening Keynote I:
Prof. Dr. Şener Oktik
Board Member of Şişecam A.Ş.
Professor, Kadir Has University
Prof. Dr. Şener Oktik graduated from Ankara University with a degree in Physics in 1976 and received his M.Eng. in Applied Physics in 1977 from the same university. He went on to obtain a Ph.D. from Durham University (UK), Department of Applied Physics and Electronics in 1982. Prof. Oktik became Associate Professor (Interuniversity Council) in 1986 and full Professor (Muğla University) in 1995. During his career, he has worked as lecturer, research scientist, senior researcher and administrator, senior administrator at Durham University (UK), Lecce University (Italy), Stuttgart University (Germany), Selçuk University and Muğla University (Turkey). Prof. Oktik was the third and fourth term of President/Rector of Muğla University between 2002 and 2010. He has also worked as senior research scientist, technologist, senior executive in England at BP Solar, Sunbury, Imperial Chemical Industries PLC (ICI), Paints Division Slough Research Labs, and Industrial Research Labs of Durham University (UK) and in Turkey at Anel Group and Arıkanlı Holding. Prof. Oktik was the Chief Research & Technological Development Officer (CTO) of Şişecam between 1st January 1, 2012 and 23rd March 2020 and he was elected as a member of Şişecam Board of Directors in 27th March 2020. He is a member of the Advisory Committee of International Commission on Glass, “ICG” and serving at the International Advisory Boards of International Conference on Coatings on Glass and Plastics, Society of Vacuum Coaters and The Centre for Functional and Surface Functionalized Glass (Slovakia) and he is also in the Scientific Committee of “European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference EU-PVSEC” the Honorary Chairman Turkish Solar Energy Industry Association.
Prof. Oktik is author/co-author of over 100 scientific and technical publications and inventor/co-inventor of two world patents and joined to the academic team of Kadir Has University in 27th April 2020.
11:00 am – 11:40 am, Tuesday, March 8, Keynote II:
Cevdet Alemdar
Industry SBU President
Sabanci Holding
İstanbul, Turkey
Between 1993-2002, he worked as Product Leader and then Wire Products Director in Beksa, Sabancı Holding-Bekaert Joint Venture. From 1998 onwards, he additionally took over the role of Bekaert’s Sales Manager for Construction Materials in Middle East. From 2002 to 2005, he worked as Commercial Director in Sakosa.
In 2005, he joined Kordsa Global as General Manager of Kordsa Brazil and as Sales and Marketing Director of South America. From 2007 to 2009, based in Bangkok Thailand, he worked as Managing Director for Thai Indo Kordsa and Kordsa Qingdao Nylon Ent., as well as Sales and Marketing Director for Asia Pacific. In 2009 and 2010, he worked in Shanghai as Global Business Development Director, while maintaining his roles in Kordsa Qingdao Nylon Enterprises and Asia Sales and Marketing. From 2010 to 2013 he took role as Kordsa Global’s Vice President in charge of Technology and Market Development.
Between 2013-2017, he was appointed as General Manager of Temsa Construction Equipment.
May 2017 onwards, he has been CEO of Brisa, Bridgestone Sabancı JV Tire Company which is the leading tire and mobility solutions company in Turkey serving to 80 countries.
Alemdar was appointed as Industry Group President effective as of 1st of April, 2020.
Cevdet Alemdar graduated from Industrial Engineering Faculty of Bogazici University in 1992. He also was granted with an MBA degree in Sabancı University.
11:40 am – 12:20 pm, Tuesday, March 8, Keynote III:
Prof. Dr. Ilker Birbil
Professor of AI & Optimization Techniques for Business & Society
Faculty of Economics and Business
Section Business Analytics
University of Amsterdam (UvA)
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Ilker Birbil is a professor of AI & Optimization Techniques for Business & Society in University of Amsterdam, where he is the head of the Business Analytics section of the Amsterdam Business School. In the past, he had served for three years as a professor of Data Science and Optimization at the Department of Econometrics of Erasmus University, and before that he had been a professor of optimization at the Industrial Engineering Department of Sabancı University for more than a decade. His research interests center around optimization methods in data science and decision making. Lately, he is working on interpretable machine learning, and data privacy in operations research.
12:20 pm – 1:00 pm, Tuesday, March 8, Keynote IV:
Ahmet Gürsoy
Chief Supply Chain Officer
Modanisa
Istanbul, Turkey
Born in 1972, Ahmet Gürsoy received his undergraduate degree in 1992 from the Industrial Engineering Department of Boğaziçi University and graduate degrees in 1993 from the Integrated Management Systems Department of the University of Birmingham and in 2000 from the Philosophy Department of San Francisco State University. Gürsoy received his doctorate in the Management and Organization Department of Kocaeli University in 2011.
Gürsoy started his career in 1994 as Process Kaizen Engineer at Türk Pirelli Tires. In the following years, he assumed several management positions in companies like Pirelli USA, Pepsi Bottling Turkey, Cadbury Kent, Eczacıbaşı Girişim, Eczacıbaşı Baxter, Doğtaş Kelebek, Trendyol, and LcWaikiki. He currently works in Modanisa as Chief Supply Chain Officer.
He is married and has two children.
4:00 pm – 4:40 pm, Tuesday, March 8, Keynote V:
Dr. Lewis Ntaimo
Professor, Industrial & Systems Engineering
Department Head, Industrial & Systems Engineering
Sugar and Mike Barnes Department Head Chair
Wm Michael Barnes ‘64 Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas, USA
Lewis Ntaimo is a Professor, Department Head, and the Sugar and Mike Barnes Department Head Chair of the Wm Michael Barnes ‘64 Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Texas A&M University and has been with the university since 2004. He obtained his PhD in Systems and Industrial Engineering in 2004, MS in Mining and Geological Engineering in 2000, and BS in Mining Engineering in 1998, all from the University of Arizona. Dr. Ntaimo’s primary research interest is in deriving models and solution methods for decision-making problems involving uncertainty and risk, systems modeling and process optimization, and computer simulation. Recent applications include patient and resource management in healthcare, wildfire management, air traffic flow management, aircraft assembly line production optimization, energy reduction in data centers, and wind farm operations and maintenance. His research over the years has been funded by the National Science Foundation, Department of Homeland Security, and industry. Dr. Ntaimo is a member of INFORMS and IISE, and he is the Past-President of the INFORMS Minority Issues Forum. He currently serves as associate editor for INFORMS Journal on Computing, IISE Transactions, IISE Transactions on Healthcare Systems Engineering, SN Operations Research Forum, and is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Global Optimization and Computational Optimization and Applications Journal.
4:40 pm – 5:20 pm, Tuesday, March 8, Keynote VI:
Paul Perkins
President
Amatrol, Inc.
Jeffersonville, Indiana
USA
Paul Perkins is president and co-founder of Amatrol, Inc., a Jeffersonville, Indiana based manufacturer of technical learning systems and online interactive multimedia software for colleges, industry and high schools. Perkins holds a B.S. Degree in Mechanical Engineering Summa Cum Laude from Georgia Institute of Technology, is the author of over 20 books on industrial controls and automation, and has designed numerous training systems for teaching engineering and technical skills. His community service activities include serving as Chair of the Indiana State Workforce Innovation Council, past Chair of the National Governors Association State Workforce Board Chairs Association, and board member of many other national, state and local organization.
5:20 pm – 6:00 pm, Tuesday, March 8, Keynote VII:
Rosemary R. Seva, PhD
Professor of Industrial Engineering
Assistant Dean for Quality Assurance
Gokongwei College of Engineering
De La Salle University
Manila, Philippines
The Hidden Power of Affective Products and Environments
Brief Bio
Rosemary Seva is a Professor of Industrial Engineering and Assistant Dean for Quality Assurance at the Gokongwei College of Engineering – De La Salle University, Philippines where she also served as Dean from 2012-2015. She is the past president of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society of the Philippines (HFESP) and from 2018-2020 also served as the President of the Asian Council on Ergonomics and Design (ACED) and the Southeast Asian Network of Ergonomics Societies (SEANES). She heads the IEA Technical Committee on Affective Design and one of the early researchers in this field. She obtained her doctorate degree at the Nanyang Technological University (Singapore). She is an ASEAN Engineer and a Professional Industrial Engineer.
Keynote Abstract
The use of emotion in design is a powerful way of influencing people. It works in the absence of people’s consciousness as the response is sometimes automatic. Early studies in this field considered the role of product characteristics in eliciting specific emotions to drive consumption. Designing the relevant emotion to the product by manipulating its form or function promotes customer satisfaction and sustained use of the product. The method is especially useful in designing high-involvement products that display users’ distinct personalities. Affective products are attractive because they cater to consumers’ hedonic needs. They induce consumers to engage in irrational behavior such as impulse buying. The use of this hedonistic approach to promote difficult environmental behaviors such as energy conservation, waste disposal, and recycling was explored. The process for identifying the target emotion was done by analyzing online texts related to each context. An affective design framework for influencing specific environmental behavior related to waste disposal and energy conservation was considered. Case studies showed that judicious choice of emotion and resultant design features are essential success factors.
Wednesday, March 9
10:00 am – 10:20 am, Wednesday, March 9, Welcome Address
10:20 am – 11:00 am, Wednesday, March 9, Keynote VIII:
Prof. Nesli Alp
Dean and Professor
College of Technology
Indiana State University
Terre Haute, Indiana, USA
Nesli Alp is the Dean of the College of Technology at Indiana State University. She joined ISU in August 2018 from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where she has worked for 19 years, starting as an Assistant Professor to the Associate Dean and Interim Dean positions in the College of Engineering and Computer Science.
Nesli has an undergraduate and master’s degrees in Industrial Engineering from Istanbul Technical University and Ph.D. in Engineering Management from the University of Missouri-Rolla (Missouri University of Science and Technology). Her specialization is in the areas of Project Management, Quality Control, and Operations Research. She has more than 100 publications and received more than $10 million in grants and gifts. She has been selected as the Distinguished Department Head and has received Teaching, Research, and Service awards multiple times. Nesli is a Professional Engineer and speaks French and Turkish in addition to English.
As the Dean of the College of Technology at ISU, Nesli’s goal is to grow the new engineering program in the College and bring more visibility to other unique programs, like packaging, safety, unmanned systems, etc. Her first and utmost priority is always students and prepare them for real world. She believes that it’s a perfect time to grow STEM related fields since there is a talent shortage in that area. Her goals are to grow the College by bringing more students who are interested in engineering and technology, and gain more visibility and recognition for the College of Technology in the state, in the nation, and beyond. Nesli is originally from Istanbul, Turkey and moved to the U.S. with her husband in 1994 to pursue her Ph.D. Nesli’s husband is also an engineer, mechanical engineer, with MBA and Ph.D. in Engineering Management, and he’s here today. They have two sons, one is at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, as a sophomore, and the other one is at the University of Miami in Miami, Florida, as a freshman. They are both majoring in science with pre-med track. The Alp family loves to travel and discover new places in the world.
11:00 am – 11:40 am, Wednesday, March 9, Keynote IX:
Dr. Jean-Damien Muller
Advanced Development Technical Leader
Battery Cooling Systems Expert
Valeo Thermal Systems
France
Automotive Battery Cooling Systems for Electrical Vehicles
Jean-Damien Muller, Ph.D., Eng. is Valeo Battery Thermal Management Expert. He is graduated in Technological Diploma of Nantes University (France) in the Physicals Measurements field in 2002. He spends the next 3 years to study the materials properties to hold the title of Material Engineer of Polytech’Nantes in 2005. In parallel of the last engineering school year, he follows a Research Master course in Materials and Matter Physics at the Nantes’ University. Passionate by the research, he prepares his Ph.D. thesis on Rotomolding Process within the INSA of Lyon (France), at the Polymer Materials Engineering (IMP). Graduated in 2008, he starts immediately in the industry at Lyon in Influtherm, an engineering company working around the thermal measurement. During 5 years, he develops its skills in the development of measurements of the thermal properties of materials and thermal studies to become a recognized expert in his field. Valeo hires him in 2014 to work on new products called Battery Coolers in La Suze sur Sarthe near Le Mans (France). Its competencies as Research and Development Engineer allow him to become quickly Advanced Development Technical Leader, then Battery Thermal Management Expert since 2020. Additionally of supporting Valeos’ engineers around the world, he is in charge of Valeo internal training on Battery Thermal Management Systems and is internal standards writer and reviewer. He also contributes to the redaction of international norms thought AFNOR and ISO groups (ISO/TC22/SC37/WG3). He has filled 39 patents, whose 23 have been granted to date.
11:40 am – 12:20 pm, Wednesday, March 9, Keynote X:
David A. Harry
Chief Executive Officer and Black Belt Trainer
Process Whisperer® Consultants LLC
Greeneville, Tennessee U.S.A.
David Harry, a.k.a. “The Process Whisperer®”, has more than 30 years’ experience as a project manager, business process improvement instructor and expert problem solver. Following a successful military career which included a tour as the U.S. Defence Attaché Colombo Sri Lanka, he taught hundreds of Lean and Six Sigma “Belt” and project management classes for various companies including KPMG Consulting, Northrop Grumman, Rolls-Royce Energy, the University of Tennessee Knoxville, and SimpliLearn (India). He was an Expert Trainer at Northrop Grumman and the Manager of Continuous Improvement at Rolls-Royce Energy. He served on leadership boards of the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and the Institute of Industrial Systems Engineers (IISE). He has also served several years on Conference Committees for the IISE Engineering Lean Six Sigma Conference and the ASQ Lean & Six Sigma Conference. He has been awarded three management Masters-level degrees including from the University of Chennai (India). His certifications and interests include PMI certified Project Management Professional (PMP®), ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt (CSSBB), Lean Bronze Certification (LBC) from the SME/Shingo/AME Alliance, Agile Certified Scrum Master (CSM®). He is also a Kata “Geek” and has attended and presented at the Post Graduate Institute of Management in Colombo.
12:20 pm – 1:00 pm, Wednesday, March 9, Keynote XI:
Dr. Yılmaz Argüden
Chairman
ARGE Consulting
Istanbul, Turkey
Dr. Yılmaz Argüden is a leading strategist, advisor, and board member of major public and private institutions and NGOs. He is the Founder and Chairman of ARGE Consulting, a globally recognized management consulting firm based in Istanbul. ARGE Consulting has served as the B20 Knowledge Partner (Governance & Sustainability), EFQM Certified Advisory Organization, and Value Reporting Foundation’s Licensed Integrated Reporting Training Partner. As the first Turkish signatory of the UN Global Compact, ARGE Consulting has been recognized at the European Parliament as one of the best three companies “Shaping the Future” with its commitment to corporate social responsibility.
He is also the Chairman of Rothschild investment bank in Türkiye and served on the boards of more than 70 companies in different jurisdictions. He is an adjunct Professor of Business Strategy at the Boğaziçi University and the Koç University, an author of numerous books, and a columnist focusing on business, strategy, and governance issues.
He is a renowned governance expert and served as the Vice-Chairman of the Governance Committee of the Business at OECD and as a member of the IFC’s Corporate Governance Advisory Board. He is also the Chairman of the Trustees of the Argüden Governance Academy.
As a social entrepreneur, he has founded and led numerous NGOs and initiated the National Quality Movement. As the elected Global Chair, he represented the National Networks on the Board of the UN Global Compact, the world’s largest sustainability platform.
He has a B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from the Bogazici University, where he received both the Top Graduating Engineer Award and the President’s Prize for Student Leadership. He received his PhD in policy analysis from the RAND Graduate Institute with General Distinction. He was a member of the High School and University basketball teams that won the National Championships and later served as the Vice-Chair of Turkish Basketball Federation.
He is an Eisenhower, Fulbright, NATO, and Tübitak fellow; and a recipient of numerous leadership, distinguished citizenship, and career awards. He was selected as a Global Leader for Tomorrow, by the World Economic Forum for his commitment to improve the state of the world.
Thursday, March 10
10:00 am – 10:40 am, Thursday, March 10, Keynote XII:
Dr. Linh N K Duong
Senior Lecturer in Operations Management
Bristol Business School
University of the West of England
UK
Dr Linh N K Duong is a Senior Lecturer in Operations Management at Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, UK.
His current research interests focus on sustainable and resilient supply chain management with the link to digital transformation, innovation, and collaboration among supply chain partners. He focuses on vulnerable contexts such as the agri-food industry, tourism industry, or small and medium enterprises (SMEs). His papers relating to supply chain resiliency and sustainable innovation were published in the International Journal of Production Research, Journal of Macromaketing, and Trends in Food Science and Technology.
He has previously worked at the University of Lincoln (UK), New Zealand Forest Research Institute (Scion) and Auckland University of Technology (NZ). Prior to this, he worked in the Supply Chain Management field since 2007 for dairy and pharmaceutical companies. He also joined projects on Distribution Management Systems, Inventory Management, and Production Management.
Dr Duong has taught a range of operations management and supply chain modules and has experience in module design and student supervision. He is on the Editorial Review Board for the International Journal of Applied Logistics and reviews for several journals
10:40 am – 11:20 am,Thursday, March 10, Keynote XIII:
Professor Edward J. Williams
Educator at University of Michigan – Dearborn
Statistics/Simulation Consultant and Senior Technical Specialist at PMC
Dearborn, Michigan, USA
Benefits of Statistics in Industrial Applications – Challenges and Opportunities
Edward J. Williams holds a master’s degree in mathematics (University of Wisconsin, 1968). From 1969 to 1971, he did statistical programming and analysis of biomedical data at Walter Reed Army Hospital, Washington, D.C. He joined Ford Motor Company in 1972, where he worked until retirement in December 2001 as a computer software analyst supporting statistical and simulation software. After retirement from Ford, he joined PMC, Dearborn, Michigan, as a senior simulation analyst. Also, since 1980, he has taught classes at the University of Michigan, including both undergraduate and graduate simulation classes. He is a member of the Institute of Industrial Engineers [IIE], the Society for Computer Simulation International [SCS], and the Michigan Simulation Users Group [MSUG]. During the last several years, he has given invited plenary addresses on simulation and statistics at conferences in Monterrey, México; İstanbul, Turkey; Genova, Italy; Rīga, Latvia; and Jyväskylä, Finland. He served as a co-editor of Proceedings of the International Workshop on Harbour, Maritime and Multimodal Logistics Modelling & Simulation (2003), a conference held in Rīga, Latvia. Likewise, he served the Summer Computer Simulation Conferences of 2004, 2005, and 2006 as Proceedings co-editor. He was the Simulation Applications track coordinator for the 2011 Winter Simulation Conference. A paper he co-authored with three of his simulation students won “best paper in track” award at the Fifth International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management, held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in March 2015. The last several years he has served as co-chair of the Vendor Track at the Winter Simulation Conference.
7:00 – 10:00 pm, Thursday, March 10 – Conference Awards Dinner
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 – Bristol, UK
- IEOM 2017 – Bogota, Colombia
- 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
- IEOM 2020 – Dubai
- 2020 – Detroit
- 2020 – Harare
- 2021 – Singapore
- 2021 – Sao Paulo