Professor Kamal Youcef-Toumi
Mechatronics Research Laboratory (MRL)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA

KEYNOTE TITLE : RESEARCH THAT MOVES THE NATION

Professor Kamal Youcef-Toumi is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, where he joined the faculty in 1986. He earned his M.S. in 1981 and Sc.D. in 1985 in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, and his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 1979.

Academic Roles and Leadership

He currently serves as Director of the Mechatronics Research Laboratory at MIT, a position he has held since 1986. He is also Director of the Ibn Khaldun Fellowship for Saudi Arabian Women (since 2011) and Co-Director of the Center for Complex Engineering Systems (since 2017). As of November 2024, he became Director of the Global MIT At-Risk Fellows Palestine programme.

Research Focus

His research and teaching interests focus on design, modelling, simulation, instrumentation, and automatic control systems. Applications include manufacturing, robotics, automation, metrology, and nano/biotechnology. He notably developed an atomic force microscope that enables scientists to watch nanoscale chemical processes in near-real time.

Professor Shaligram Pokharel

Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering,College of Engineering, Qatar University, Qatar

KEYNOTE TITLE : ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING OF SPARES AND LOGISTICS
 

Prof. Shaligram Pokharel is a Professor in the Industrial and Systems Engineering program at Qatar University, with over 20 years of international experience in systems engineering, engineering management, and energy planning, holding a PhD and master’s in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo. He has published over 100 papers and is recognized among the Top 2% World Researchers in a Stanford University report.

Academic roles and leadership
He serves as Professor at Qatar University and Director of the Global Accreditation Center at the Project Management Institute, while also acting as a Registered Reviewer for Qatar’s National Committee for Qualification and Academic Accreditation and a Visiting Professor at Kathmandu University, Nepal. His leadership portfolio includes foundational and senior volunteer roles in the PMI Singapore Chapter and global PMI bodies such as the Chapter Member Advisory Group and Academic Insight Team.

Research focus
His research centers on systems engineering and engineering management, particularly energy planning, humanitarian logistics, reverse logistics, and supply chain resilience. He develops models and decision-support tools that help design and manage robust, sustainable industrial and supply chain systems under uncertainty and disruption.

Professor Benny E. Tjahjono

 Centre for E-Mobility and Clean Growth, Coventry University, UK

Prof. Benny Tjahjono is a Professor of Sustainability and Supply Chain Management at Coventry University, specialising in sustainable operations and the Circular Economy.

Academic Roles and Leadership

Prof. Tjahjono leads the Clean Growth research theme at the Centre for E‑Mobility and Clean Growth, Coventry University. He previously held progressive academic posts at Cranfield University, including Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Reader at Cranfield School of Management.

He serves as Director of Research Engagement (Indonesia), building strategic collaborations with Indonesian ministries and more than 30 universities, and was Leader of the Sustainable Production & Consumption Cluster at Coventry University. Earlier, he directed the Manufacturing Masters Programme and key MSc programmes in manufacturing systems at Cranfield and sat on the Senior Management Team of its Manufacturing and Materials Department. His leadership has been recognised through awards such as the Research Excellence Award (Coventry University) and Research Award (Cranfield School of Management), as well as appointments as World Class Professor (Indonesia) and International Fellow of JSPS.

Research Focus

His research centres on sustainable operations and supply chain management, with a strong focus on the transition to a Circular Economy in industrial and supply chain contexts. He has secured approximately £12 million in research and contract funding from bodies including EPSRC, ESRC, InnovateUK, the European Commission, UKRI and Indonesian agencies.

Key topics in his portfolio include electric vehicle component recovery and battery supply chains, second‑life batteries, bioplastic and coffee supply chains, reverse logistics, and science diplomacy for tackling plastic pollution. He has over 140 publications and an h‑index of 28 on Scopus, and has supervised 19 PhD and more than 120 master’s students, often linking research with industrial collaborations involving companies such as Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes‑Benz, Unipart and Coca‑Cola Enterprises.