Keynote Speakers

Laila Abdullah Khasib Al Hadhrami,

Smart Cities Development Manager
  • NEC Oman
  • Laila.Alhadhrami@nec-oman.com
    •

    Laila is currently Smart Cities Development Manager in NEC in Oman with experience more than 17 years in leading National projects in Digital Transformation and Government Innovation. She is one of the leading experts in Smart Cities in the Middle East and she is a Smart Cities associate in RMA advisory. She has worked with different UN’s organizations and worked as a Research fellowship in UNU eGov. She is also the founder of the Smart Cities Ambassadors program. She is a global winning award and considered as one of the inspiring and influencing women leaders in Middle East and recently awarded as top 50 inspiring Women in Oman and in Middle East and within the most 20 inspiring personalities in Oman 2021. She is also a global keynote speaker and has participated in more than 100 conferences; author and traveler.

    Keynote Topic: Act Smart and Sustainable in smart cities

    This talk will highlight the importance of adopting the new technologies and best practices in Innovation to empower people to be Smart and sustainable in their cities.



    Dr. Amjed Al Thuhli

    Consultant |National Space Program | MTCIT,
  • Oman
  • amjed.althuhli@mtcit.gov.om

    • Al. Thuhli has a wide range of experience with 21 years in the Information Technology field. He is a consultant at the “National Space & AI Center” and a member of the Global Future Council -World Economic Forum, National E-Commerce Committee, and “Joint e-Services and eCommerce Working Group” in the GCC council. His research areas are project management, Social Business processes, Social Data Mining, and Service Oriented Architecture. Al. Thuhli has published journal papers and international conference presentations.

    Keynote Topic: Space Inspiration in 4IR era

    The impact of new innovations of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the Space and Aerospace sectors makes space more accessible. These innovations reshape the manufacturing of Space and bring new players onboard. In addition, the paradigmatic changes brought by New Space and 4IR are leading to the inception of a new period that will be marked by democratized access to space solutions. A new ecosystem of government and private sector players will renew government ambitions to support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Society gains huge benefits from this Space paradigm shift. The advancement of downstream application and space science supported by 4IR technologies contribute to several economic sectors including but not limited to satellite navigation communications, satellite internet constellation, natural resource management, meteorological forecasting, early warning systems for disasters, and environmental monitoring. Ultimately, they support the advancement of human life and digital economy.



    Dr. Halima Saleh Qasim Al Badwawi

    Assistant Deputy Vice Chancellor for Postgraduate Studies, Scientific Research and Innovation,
  • Oman
  • halima.albadwawi@utas.edu.om
    •
    Keynote Topic: 4IR: Me, Myself and AI

    The 4IR has brought transformative, disruptive changes at an unprecedented pace in every aspect of today's society. In this presentation, I aim to highlight how 4IR is affecting the individual's life both positively and negatively. Although, Industry 4.0 has resulted in great opportunities for human beings and improved productivity, efficiency of work, communication and services; it also has undeniable challenges at every level that need to be addressed and mitigated. Of a particular concern to me is addressing the question: how can we, as educational institutions, best prepare our students to work and live in a future world that is continuously being shaped and reshaped by ever evolving technologies?



    Dr. Joy Alatta

    Southern New Hampshire University,
  • USA
  • j.alatta@snhu.edu

    • Dr. Joya Alatta completed her masters and doctorate from Walden University USA. She worked as Business Analyst, Digital Analyst, e-commerce Reporting Analyst, Assistant Professor and adjunct faculty in various universities from USA. She is an experienced result-oriented consultant with expert proficiency in software engineering, including business system analysis, data analysis, business intelligence implementation, security analytics, internet of things strategy and security defense, cyber security defense strategies and implementation projects.


    Industrial Revolution 4.0 - Internet of things smart sensor data interoperability

    The interconnectedness of devices and advances in computing innovations are causing excitement around the globe. Both the industry and everyday people applaud these innovations. The Internet of Things (IoT) interconnects interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals, and people. A thing on the internet of things ecosystem can be a person, or any object embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies to connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the internet. The ability to connect everyday objects such as kitchen appliances, cars, thermostats, baby monitors and enablement of seamless communication between people, processes, and things is driving the industrial internet of things (IIoT), also called industry 4.0. Industry 4.0 brings with it a new era of intelligent enterprises. Over the last couple of years, many organizations in various industries have relied on IoT for improved business process efficiency, a better understanding of customers’ needs to deliver enhanced customer service, and improved decision-making. The future of enterprises will depend heavily on deep data analysis, data-driven insights, and pathways to operational improvement. The starting point to getting data-driven insights in the industry 4.0 era is ensuring data interoperability.



    Prof. Ebrahim Abdulla Husain Mattar

    University of Bahrain,
  • Bahrain
  • ebmattar@uob.edu.bh

    • Dr. Ebrahim A. Mattar is the faculty of Robotics and Cybernetics, College of Engineering, University of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bahrain. He worked as an academic staff member, instructor, teaching assistant in various organizations. He published more than 500 research papers in the area of cybernetics, AI and Robotics, currently working on Brain Electro encephalography (EEG) decoding for Enhancing Robotics Cognition, University of Virginia, USA. He organized plenty of international conferences, workshops and supervised several graduation projects. He got the best project awards by University of Bahrain. He always has the passion to contribute to the community with many professional activities.

    Keynote Topic: Electroencephalography for Enhancing Robotics Learning: Convolutional Neural Network Techniques

    In this talk, we shall present content related to how Artificial Intelligence is being used for many of our daily uses and applications, this includes robotics. Given this fact, we shall talk about Artificial Intelligence in a more general context, and robotics learning. Given this fact, one of the many approaches of learning is relying on human Electroencephalography (EEG). Electroencephalography is playing a major role in today’s robotics applications. EEG brainwaves are also being used to learn how humans perform daily complex tasks, while mirroring human behaviors to robotics devices and systems, as further introduced earlier. For EEG based robotics control, this is also becoming an active area of research now. There are tremendous efforts directions to use the EEG Brain waves signals and their associated patterns for robotic applications. However, due to the complexity of the brain patterns, making use of such complex patterns for practical learning robotics is not a trivial task. The talk is focusing on introduction to decoding and use of learned patterns of EEG brainwaves to achieve tasks. Finally, the talk will present how CNN classification algorithms have been used to classify different human behaviors, hence, how to sum up these behaviors for building a learning system for robots.



    Dr. Maaruf Ali

    University of West of Scotland,
  • UK
  • Maaruf.Ali@uws.ac.uk

    • Professor Maaruf Ali is the Vice-Dean of Research and working as a faculty in the Department of Computing, University of the West of Scotland (UWS), London Campus, Import Building, 2 Clove Crescent, London E14 2BE, United Kingdom. He published 160 Journal papers and 11 conference papers. He was the conference co-chair in IEEE 4th International Conference on Computing, Electronics and Communications Engineering (iCCECE ’21)2021, 4th International Conference on Emerging Technologies in Computing 2021 (iCETiC’21) and 2nd IEEE International Conference on Computing, Networking, Telecommunications and Engineering Sciences Applications 2021 (CoNTESA ’21). He worked as a technical trainer, consultant trainer, lecturer, and research associate. He did his graduation BEng (Hons) from Queen Mary, University of London, U.K., post graduate diploma in telecommunication and information systems, University of Essex, UK and PhD in Electronic Engineering from King’s College London, U.K. He is also an associate editor in Annals of Emerging Technologies in Computing (AETiC)

    Keynote Topic:Keynote Topic: What is Industry 4.0 and 5.0?


    Prof. Dr. Robertas Damaševičius

    Kaunas University of Technology,
  • Lithuania
  • robertas.damasevicius@ktu.edu
    •

    Robertas Damaševičius received his Ph.D. in Informatics Engineering from Kaunas University of Technology (Lithuania) in 2005. His research interests include sustainable software engineering, human–computer interfaces, assisted living, data mining and machine learning. He is the author of over 300 papers as well as a monograph published by Springer. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Information Technology and Control journal and has been the Guest Editor of several invited issues of International Journals (Biomed Research International, Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience, Journal of Healthcare Engineering, IEEE Access, and Electronics).

    Keynote Topic: Artificial Intelligence-Based Solutions for Smart Circular Economy Applications


    Yahya Yaqoob Obaid Al Balushi

    Student Activity Chair SAC,
  • IEEE Oman
  • yahyalbelushi@gmail.com
    •

    Mr. Yahya Yaqoob Obaid Al Balushi is an Executive Board member of IEEE Oman. He was an Assistant Head of Electronics and Communication Engineering Department, Middle East College, Sultanate of Oman. He has completed his Master in Electronics Engineering from Middle East College, Muscat and currently he is doing his research in Information and Communication Technology from University Tenaga, Malaysia. He is currently working at Military Technological College as a Senior Lecturer and has been appointed as criterion leader in preparing institutional accreditation.

    Keynote Topic: IEEE Oman Development and Activities


    Dr. Ali Al Hashmi

    General Manager, Networks,
  • Omantel, Oman
    •

    Dr. Ali Al Hashmi currently holds a position of General Manager Networks at Omantel managing the activities of Network Division to ensure that Omantel’s network solutions are designed to meet business requirements, comply with legislative rules and regulations, deployment of fixed and mobile network, and associated networks are done in a fast and efficient manner. Dr. Ali Al Hashmi is managing the 5G program in Omantel and a member of the Oman 5G national group. He played an active role in plan and design of the first 5G network in Oman which deployment of more than 1500 5G sites so far. In addition, his responsibilities covered the design and deployment of the first NFV in Oman to support 5G core (NSA/ SA) and upcoming 5G use cases (IoT, network slicing, uLLR). Dr. Ali Al Hashmi holds PhD in operation and strategy management, Strathclyde University, Glasgow, UK; Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA), Strathclyde University, Glasgow, UK; Project Management Masters Certificate Program, Gorge Washington University and Degree in Telecommunication Engineering (BEng.) Coventry University, UK.

    Keynote Topic: 5G and Use Cases