Shaopeng Cheng received his B.S. degree in Electrical and Automation Engineering from Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture (China) in 1983, his M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering and Ph.D. degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 1990 and 1995 respectively. He is currently an associate professor at Central Michigan University, where he teaches various courses and serves as the coordinator of Robotics and Automation Laboratory in the School of Engineering and Technology. His research activities and interests include industrial robotics and simulation, automation, instrumentation, and control systems. In these areas he has published his research findings in journal articles, conference proceedings, and book chapters. He is an IEEE member and the editorial board member of three journals.

Industrial robotics and simulation, automation, instrumentation, and control systems

Jim has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Virginia. He has been actively involved in researching machine based cognition for 20 years, and has focused on field robotics since the late 1990's. His areas of expertise include intelligent systems, robotics, embedded real-time systems, and planning in uncertain domains. He has numerous US and European patents , and is the author of over 20 technical publications. In addition, he has been the session organizer for several conferences and symposia, and is the co-author of the 2009 technical book "Robots, Reasoning, and Reification" on machine cognition and robotics.

His areas of expertise include intelligent systems, robotics, embedded real-time systems, and planning in uncertain domains

Bin Zhang, Ph.D., Professor. Dr. Zhang is deputy head of Department of Logistics Engineering and Management, Sun Yat-sen University, China. He received his two Bachelor degrees and Ph.D. from University of Science & Technology of China. His research interest focuses on logistics and supply chain management, operations management. He has published over 30 papers on European Journal of Operational Research, Journal of the Operational Research Society, International Journal of Production Research, International Journal of Production Economics, Computers & Industrial Engineering, Computers & Operations Research, Applied Mathematical Modelling, Applied Mathematics and Computation, Expert Systems with Applications, etc.

Research interest focuses on logistics and supply chain management, operations management.

Dr. Hamouda joined Qatar University as Professor and Chairman of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department in 2006. Prior to this appointment, Dr. Hamouda was holding joint appointments in University Putra Malaysia, at the Faculty of Engineering as well as the Institute of Advanced Technology where he was the founding program manager in computational Science and Engineering. He was also a research manager at the Road Safety Research Centre (RSRC), University Putra Malaysia. Dr. Hamouda is corresponding member for the American Academy of Mechanics (AAM), member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME), and member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). He is also a senior member of Institute of Industrial Engineering (IIE), USA, Member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), UK; and Member of the Institute of Highway Transportation, UK. He has supervised/supervising more than 15 Ph.D. and more than 50 Master degree students (By Research Thesis). Furthermore, he has published over 300 papers of which 120 Journal Publications. He has often been invited as keynote and invited speaker for various conferences, seminars and workshops. He has several US and Malaysian patents, and has edited several conference proceedings.

His research are characterization of advanced materials, developing new design concepts, multifunctional and smart structures, design evaluation, crashworthiness, robotics, Lean management as well as Artificial intelligence and adaptive control.

He graduated with honors in Mechanical Engineering in 1999 at the University 'of Salerno, with a thesis theoretical and experimental investigations carried out at the center ELASIS Scpa; winner of the ATA (Technical Association). From 1999 to 2001, he worked with the Area of Design and Methods for Engineering of the University 'of Salerno. In 2000 he won a scholarship to the annual research theme 'Optimization in mechanical design and industrial logic with non-standard'. From 2001 to 2002 he worked at the research center Elasis Scpa the supplying of product development methodologies.

His research activity is focused on virtual prototyping and Industrial Engineering Methods Development for application on industrial design and optimization. Research activities are focused on anche instruments Representation, Modeling and Simulation techniques for product / process innovation; Those instruments / techniques applied sono stati on Biomechanics, Ergonomic, HMI application.

HADJ BOURDOUCEN obtained his PhD degree from Ecole Centrale de Lyon, France, in 1987. Worked at the University of Science and Technology Houari Boumedienne (USTHB), Algeria, 1987-90, then at the National Institute of Electricity and Electronics (INELEC), Boumerdes, 1990-97. He joined Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) in 1998 where he served as Head of Department of Information Engineering, then as Head of Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering until 2007. He is presently a Professor at ECE Dept., and Director of Communication and Information Research Center (CIRC), SQU. His research activities and interests include Instrumentation, communication & networking, modelling, simulation & performance evaluation, integrated electronics and hardware design. In these areas he published over 120 research publications and edited several books and conference proceedings. Prof. Bourdoucen is an IEEE Senior member.

Instrumentation, communication & networking, modelling, simulation & performance evaluation, integrated electronics and hardware design

Miroslaw Swiercz received his MSc and PhD (1984) degrees in control engineering from Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland, in 1977 and 1984, respectively. He also received DSc (habilitation) degree in biocybernetics and biomedical engineering in 2001 from the Institute of Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering of Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland. From 1981 he is with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of Bialystok Technical University (BTU), Bialystok, Poland. In 1987-1988 he worked as a Senior Developer in Tessel AB (Free Form Desing AB) – the software development company in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1992-1993 he worked as a Research Fellow in Water Software Systems, Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. He is currently a Professor in the Chair of Automatic Control and Electronics and Head of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of Bialystok Technical University. He is an author and co-author of over 70 publications – book chapters, journal articles and conference papers. Professor M. Swiercz is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). In 2006-2007 he served as a President of the Polish Chapter of the IEEE Signal Processing Society. He is also a member-founder of the Polish Society of Artificial Neural Networks, a member of the Association of Polish Electrical Engineers (SEP), the Polish Society of Theoretical and Applied Electrotechnics (PTETiS) and the Polish Society for Measurement, Automatic Control and Robotics (POLSPAR). He is also a member of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) Technical Committee on Biosystems and Bioprocesses in the term of office 2008-2011. He also the vice-Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at Bialystok University of Technology from 1999 to 2005 and the Dean of the Faculty from 2005 to 2012. He also serve in the IFAC Technical Committee on Biosystems and Bioprocesses in the next term of office, i.e. from 2012 to 2014.

Artificial intelligence–based techniques for modeling and monitoring of biomedical processes, fault diagnosis with the use of signal processing and artificial intelligence techniques, detection of structure and parameter changes in dynamic processes, medical data classification and application of artificial intelligence and signal processing in medical decision support systems

Dr. Petter Falkman received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering in 2005 from Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden. Dr. Falkman is currently Associate Professor at the Department of Signals and Systems, Chalmers University of Technology. He received his Master of Science in Automation and Mechatronics at Chalmers in 1999. Dr. Falkman is program director for the Automation and Mechatronics program at Chalmers. He is also part of the Wingquist Laboratory, a research center for virtual product and production development at Chalmers. Dr. Falkman is a member of the editorial board of the journal Advances in Automobile Engineering.

Information integration, virtual preparation, restart, verification, and optimization of production systems.

T. J. Tarn is a professor in the Dept. of Electrical and Systems Engineering and the director of the Center for Robotics and Automation.

His current research interests lie in Quantum Control,Robotics and Automation,Nanotechnology, Mathematical Systems Theory

Fan Yang received the B.Eng. degree in Automation in 2002 and the Ph.D. degree in Control Science and Engineering in 2008, both from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. After he worked as a PDF at Tsinghua University and the University of Alberta, he joined the Department of Automation, Tsinghua University in 2011 and is currently an Associate Professor and the Vice Chair of Executive Board. He obtained the Young Research Paper Award from the IEEE Control Systems Society Beijing Chapter in 2006, an Outstanding Graduate Award from Tsinghua University in 2008, and a Teaching Achievement Award from Tsinghua University in 2012.

Topology modeling of large-scale processes, abnormal events monitoring, process hazard analysis, and smart alarm management. He currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Frontiers in Big Data and Advances in Robotics & Automation. He has coauthored a Springer brief titled “Capturing Connectivity and Causality in Complex Industrial Processes”.

Professor Tarek M. Sobh received the B.Sc. in Engineering degree with honors in Computer Science and Automatic Control from the Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University, Egypt in 1988, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer and Information Science from the School of Engineering, University of Pennsylvania in 1989 and 1991, respectively. He is currently the Senior Vice President for Graduate Studies and Research, Dean of the School of Engineering and Distinguished Professor of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Bridgeport (UB), Connecticut; the Founding Director of the Interdisciplinary Robotics, Intelligent Sensing, and Control (RISC) laboratory; the Founder of the High-Tech Business Incubator at UB (CTech IncUBator), and a Professor of Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. He was Vice President from 2008-2014, Vice Provost from 2006-2008, Interim Dean of the School of Business, Director of External Engineering Programs, Interim Chairman of Computer Science and Computer Engineering, and Chairman of the Department of Technology Management at the University of Bridgeport. He was an Associate Professor of Computer Science and Computer Engineering at the University of Bridgeport from 1995-1999, a Research Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the Department of Computer Science, University of Utah from 1992-1995, and a Research Fellow at the General Robotics and Active Sensory Perception (GRASP) Laboratory of the University of Pennsylvania from 1989-1991. He was the Founding Chairman of the Discrete Event and Hybrid Systems Technical Committee of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society from 1992-1999, and the Founding Chairman of the Prototyping Technical Committee of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society from 1999-2001. His background is in the fields of computer science and engineering, control theory, robotics, automation, manufacturing, AI, computer vision and signal processing.

Dr. Sobh‒s current research interests include reverse engineering and industrial inspection, CAD/CAM and active sensing under uncertainty, robots and electromechanical systems prototyping, sensor-based distributed control schemes, unifying tolerances across sensing, design, and manufacturing, hybrid and discrete event control, modeling, and applications, and mobile robotic manipulation

Alfonso Baños received the Licenciado degree and Ph.D. degree in Physics from the University of Madrid, Complutense, Spain, in 1987 and 1991, respectively. From 1988 to 1992, he was with the Instituto de Automática Industrial (CSIC), Madrid, where he pursued research in nonlinear control and robotics. In 1992, he joined the University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain, where he is currently a Professor in the area of Automatic Control. He has also held visiting appointments with the University of Strathclyde, the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis, and the University of California at Berkeley. His research activity has been focused in control engineering, mainly in robust control (QFT) and impulsive/hybrid control systems (reset control), and with applications in mechatronic systems, process control, networked control systems, etc. He has been the leader of several research projects, including industrial projects, and has published over 110 works in journals and proceedings of international conferences. He is the coauthor of the monograph Reset Control Systems (Springer, 2012, AIC Series). Since 2012, he is a Member of the Managing Committee of the Industrial Production and Design-DPI programme (National Plan of Research and Development, Spain), and since 2013 he is a Member of the Committee 6.2 for Research Evaluation at Spain.

Robust and nonlinear control and reset/hybrid control, with applications in process control and networked control systems

Yuan Liao (S’98-M’00-SM’05) is currently an Associate Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA. From 2000 to 2005, he was an R&D Consulting Engineer and then Principal R&D Consulting Engineer with the ABB Corporate Research Center, Raleigh, NC, USA.

Smart grid, protection, power quality analysis, large-scale resource scheduling optimization and Network Management System/Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System design.

Karl Hirsch is President and CEO of TinMan Systems (www.tinmansystems.com), a Seattle WA based provider of software and professional services for the development and deployment of next generation artificial intelligence (AI systems). With 27 years of experience in rapid growth, high-technology companies providing software and internet technologies, Hirsch is recognized as a pioneer in digital rights management (DRM) and electronic software distribution (ESD). In 1994, he personally programmed one of the earliest commercial software development kits (SDK) for remote software authentication, digital licensing and copy-protection technologies, which is still in use today by many companies. For the last 12 years, Hirsch has focused his attentions to pattern recognition and autonomous machine intelligence, where in 2010 he founded TinMan Systems. TinMan technology provides an innovative, user-friendly PC and web-based tools framework and deployment library to develop and integrate expert human-like decision making into commercial systems operating in dynamic environments. Hirsch also served 2 years as chairman of the SIIA (Software and Information Industry Association) Internet and Electronic Distribution Division, and as CompTIA (Computer Trade Industry Association) Board member and RosettaNet architect. As a three-time CEO, Karl is familiar with all aspects of rapid business growth in early to mid-stage companies. He founded two internet technology companies, Preview Systems (IPO Dec '99) and OneChannel.net. More recently, Karl was CEO of Protexis, where he worked with his team and investors to restructure and redirect the company into a leading global platform for distribution of digital content. This platform is used by Microsoft today to securely market and distribute its PC Windows OS and office software digitally. Hirsch successfully completed the sale of Protexis in 2009 to Bertelsmann AG, a multi-billion dollar global media company. Karl has also raised over $70m dollars in venture financing over the last 17 years.

Software and internet technologies

The man behind Star Wars R2-D2. The versatile Emmy nominated Film SFX Supervisor is the creative genius at the helm of many of the biggest SCI-FI movies to date. Among them are Superman 2; Moon Raker; Dragon Slayer and, of course, The Empire Strikes Back. “Prof. Chev. Anthony John Dyson obss” When it comes to robot technicians Tony is quite unique. As well as building one of the most famous robots ever, R2-D2, he has also designed and built robots for some of the largest electronic companies in the world, for example Sony; Philips and Toshiba. You can also find examples of his creations on permanent display in one of the most prestigious museums in the world ‘Smithsonian Institution’ and R2-D2 was one of the very first robots to be honored in the ‘Carnegie Mellon University’ Robot Hall of Fame. Tony was also Nominated for an ‘Emmy’ for the Sony television commercial.

Robotics, Avatar Technology, Virtual World Technology, Expert systems and Augmented Reality

Dr. Andrew Kusiak is a Professor and Chairman of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. He is interested in applications of computational intelligence in automation, energy, product development, innovation, and healthcare. Dr. Kusiak has published 13 books and over 200 research papers in journals sponsored by professional societies such as AAAI, ASCE, ASME, IEEE, IIE, ESOR, IFIP, IFAC, INFORMS, ISPE, and SME. He speaks frequently at international meetings, conducts professional seminars, and consults for industrial corporations. Dr. Kusiak has served on editorial boards of over 40 journals, edited book series, and he is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing.

Applications of computational intelligence in automation, energy, product development, innovation, and healthcare