Dr. Kannan Govindan
Professor, University of Adelaide
Bio: Prof. Kannan Govindan leads a University of Adelaide (UoA) Strategic Research Centre for Sustainable Operations and Resilient Supply Chains, focusing on the interface between sustainability, resilience, logistics, and supply chain management. His research is primarily in sustainable operations, digital supply chain, industry 4.0 on supply chain, sustainable development goals, reverse logistics, closed-loop supply chain, digitalized sustainable circular economy, green supply chain management, and sustainable supply chain management. For more than twenty years, he has worked with the construction of global logistics and supply chain networks. His research is based on developing decision-making models and toolkits for sustainable and intelligent manufacturing. A concrete contribution can typically be an interactive decision support system for use in the design of sustainable supply chains. Due to his contribution to the sustainability and supply chain field, Kannan Govindan has become one of the world's leading researchers in global supply chains and sustainable production. His scientific output is of high international quality and has placed him as one of the most cited researchers in his field of research. Professor Kannan Govindan has been recognised as a Highly Cited Researcher in ‘Engineering’ for seven years in a row (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024) by Thomson-Reuters/Clarivate Analytics. He has published more than 475 international journal articles (with 72880+ citations and an h-index of 141) in leading journals such as Nature, European Journal of Operational Research, Omega, Decision Sciences, Journal of the Operational Research Society, Journal of Environmental Management, Journal of Cleaner Production, Computers & Industrial Engineering, Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, European Management Journal, International Journal of Production Economics and International Journal of Production Research. Many of his papers were selected as ESI top 1% highly cited papers or 0.1% hot papers and highlighted as key scientific articles contributing to excellence in Engineering and Environmental research. He is an Editor in Chief of Cleaner Logistics and Supply Chain, Executive editor of the Journal of Cleaner Production, Associate Editor of Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review & International Journal of Production Research, Senior Editor of Industrial Management and Data Systems, Editor of Annals of Operations Research, an area Editor of INFOR: Information Systems and Operational Research, and was a Guest Editor in journals such as Decision Sciences, European Journal of Operations Research, Computers and OR, Annals of OR, Journal of Cleaner Production, International Journal of Production Economics. Finally, he is an Editorial Board Member of several international journals.
Dr. Oussama Khatib
Professor, Stanford University
Bio: Prof. Oussama Khatib received his PhD from Sup’Aero, Toulouse, France, in 1980. He is Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University and Director of the Stanford Robotics Center (SRC). He is a recipient of an honorary doctorate from the University of Montpellier. His research focuses on methodologies and technologies in human-centered robotics, haptic interactions, artificial intelligence, and human motion synthesis. Professor Khatib is President of the International Foundation of Robotics Research (IFRR) and an IEEE Fellow. He is Editor of the Springer STAR and SPAR series, Springer Handbook of Robotics, and Springer Encyclopedia of Robotics. He is a recipient of the IEEE Robotics and Automation, Pioneering Award, the George Saridis Leadership Award, and the Distinguished Service Award. Professor Khatib is recipient of the Japan Robot Association (JARA) Award, the Rudolf Kalman Award, and the IEEE Technical Field Award. He is Knight of the French National Order of Merit and a member of the United States National Academy of Engineering. Professor Khatib is recipient of the 2024 Great Arab Minds Award.
Dr. Hesham Rakha
Professor, Virginia Tech
Bio: Prof. Hesham Ahmed Rakha is the Samuel Reynolds Pritchard Professor of Engineering in the Charles E. Via, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a courtesy professor in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech. He directs the Center for Sustainable Mobility at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. He conducts research in the area of multi-modal large-scale transportation system and vehicle optimization, agent-based modeling, and assessment. He is a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and was elected to the Virginia Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine and the National Academy of Artificial Intelligence. He is a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He is the recipient of the 2021 IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Outstanding Research Award for contributions to large-scale transportation system optimization, modeling and assessment.
Dr. Aboelmagd Noureldin
Professor, Royal Military College of Canada
Bio: Dr. Aboelmagd Noureldin is a Professor, IEEE Fellow, and Tier I Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Resilient High-Precision Positioning and Navigation at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Royal Military College of Canada (RMC). He also holds cross appointments with the School of Computing and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Queen’s University. He is the founding director of the Navigation and Instrumentation (NavINST) Research Laboratory at RMC, widely recognized for its contributions to advanced positioning, navigation, and guidance technologies. Dr. Noureldin is a leading authority in integrating wireless terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks, global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), inertial navigation, remote sensing, and multimodal sensor fusion for high-precision navigation in autonomous vehicles, mobile robotics, intelligent transportation, and next-generation smart mobility applications.
Dr. Noureldin holds a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering (2002) from the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Additionally, he holds a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering (1993) and an M.Sc. degree in Engineering Physics (1997), both from Cairo University, Egypt. He has developed several foundational algorithms in multisensory positioning and navigation, and several software libraries have been licensed to industry, resulting in new products that contribute to multiple navigation technologies. He has published two books, four book chapters, 13 patents, and several impactful journal and conference papers, all widely cited by academics and used by industry.
