Speaker Profiles

 

  Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hans-Joachim Bargstädt
President of 4ING e.V., the German Council of University Faculties in Engineering and Informatics

 

Professor Bargstädt (born 1955) is Professor for Construction Engineering and Management at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. His research fields are in construction technologies, construction operations and construction logistics. Special focus is given to the development of software applications like building information modeling for project management and construction site operations as well as simulation of construction operations. Other areas of activity are in construction management, for example in claim management and arbitration.

After studying civil engineering at Technical University Braunschweig, at Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, and at Institut Supérieur du Béton Armé , Marseille, Prof. Bargstädt was a structural engineer in a large construction company. From 1986 to 1989 he worked for his PH. D. in structural engineering at the Technical University Braunschweig. Then a career in the construction industry followed from working as site engineer to being director of a regional division of a large construction company.

Since 1999 he is appointed as university professor. In 2012/2013 he was guest professor at the National Taiwan University, Taipeh. Since 2011 he is also regularly teaching as guest lecturer at Stellenbosch University.

Bargstädt served many years as students’ dean and as dean of the faculty. He is spokesman of the German association of Professors in construction engineering and construction management. He serves as Chairman of the German association of civil engineering faculties. Since the beginning of 2017 he is also president of 4ING e.V., the German Council of University Faculties in Engineering and Informatics.

 

  Ralph Bruder
Vice President Academic and Student Affairs, TU Darmstadt

 

Professor Bruder (born 1963) studied Electrical Engineering (specialization Control Systems) at former TH Darmstadt and received his PhD at the Institute of Ergonomics of TU Darmstadt (IAD) (supervisor: Professor Rohmert) with a dissertation on applications of artificial intelligence in ergonomics in 1992.

Between 1996 and 2005 he was Professor for Ergonomics in Design at the University of Essen and founder of the Institute for Ergonomics and Design Research. From 1998 until 2002 he was Dean of the Faculty for Design and Arts at the same university

He has been President and Managing Director of the Zollverein School of Management and Design from 2002 until 2006.

Since January 2006 he is Professor at the TU Darmstadt in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Institute of Ergonomics at the TU Darmstadt. Between 2011 and 2015 he was President of the German Society of Human Factors and Ergonomics (Gesellschaft für Arbeitswissenschaft GfA) and has been a member of the Executive Committee of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA).

Since 2014 he is Vice-President of TU Darmstadt. He is responsible for academic affairs and young researchers (doctoral candidates and post-docs) at TU Darmstadt.

He is a member of advisory boards for several national and international institutions. He is Scientific Editor of Applied Ergonomics and on the Editorial Board of several International Journals and on the Scientific Boards of numerous International Conferences.

He is author of more than 300 scientific publications.

 

Fields of expertise:

User-centered design processes

Design, Ergonomics and Usability

Analysis and design of products in several fields of application (e.g. office, health care, automotive, consumer products.

 

  Natacha DePaola, Ph.D.
Carol and Ed Kaplan Armour Dean of Engineering, Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Pritzker Institute of Biomedical Science and Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology

 

Natacha DePaola is the Carol and Ed Kaplan Armour Dean of Engineering and Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, Illinois, USA (2009-present). Dr. DePaola holds a Ph.D. degree in Medical Engineering/Medical Physics from the Division of Health Science and Technology at Harvard Medical School – Massachusetts Instituteof Technology (MIT). She completed postdoctoral training at Columbia University and held faculty positions at Northwestern University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), where she also served as department head of Biomedical Engineering. Dr. De Paola’s research interests are in the broad area of biofluid dynamics, cell mechanics, cell and tissue engineering, cell bioreactor design, and bioelectromagnetism at the cell and molecular level. In her role as Engineering Dean, Dr. DePaola is committed to excellence in technology-focused education with a renewed emphasis on entrepreneurial and ethical practice of engineering. She is leading distinctive education initiatives emphasized by the opportunity to apply ongoing learning and technical knowledge to the solution of current problems of global impact. Dr. DePaola is the 2016 chair-elect of the Global Engineering Deans Council (GDEC), to assume the role as GDEC chair in October 2017-2019.

 

  João Falcão e Cunha
Dean, University of Porto                                                    

 

João Falcão e Cunha is the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Porto (2014-present), and Professor of Information Systems. He holds a PhD in Computing Science from Imperial College London, a MSc in Operational Research from Cranfield University, and a Lic. in Electrical and Computers Engineering from University of Porto.

He has been involved with theoretical and experimental work in software engineering and information systems, mainly applied to intelligent transportation systems, for the past 25 years. His research interests include decision support systems, graphical user interfaces, object-oriented modeling, and service engineering and management.

He is the Portuguese national delegate to the European Union Horizon 2020 Committee on Smart, Green and Integrated Transport (2013-present).

He was the coordinator at University of Porto of cooperation in Engineering with Brazil, Director of the Industrial Engineering and Management Master, Director of the Service Engineering and Management Master, and Academic Director of the IBM Center for Advanced Studies in Portugal.

 

  David Fitzpatrick
Dean of Engineering and Principal, UCD College of Engineering & Architecture                                               

 

Prof. FitzPatrick received his BAI degree from the University of Dublin, Trinity College, in 1985. He subsequently received his D.Phil degree from the University of Oxford in 1990 for doctoral work entitled ‘Mechanics of the Knee Joint’. After receiving his doctorate, he worked within the orthopaedic industry, initially as a Development Bioengineer with Howmedica International Ltd. in Limerick, Ireland, followed by a career path within DePuy International Ltd. in Leeds, UK, including managing product development and basic research programmes for knee, upper limb, trauma and spinal product lines. As Senior Development Manager, he was directly responsible for the development of a worldwide knee product development strategy and for the close liaison with clinicians involved in the design and development of knee, spine and upper limb devices.

In 1998, he returned to Ireland to take up a position as College Lecturer within the Department of Mechancial Engineering at University College Dublin. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2005, to Associate Professor in 2010 and Full Professor in 2012. He was Head of the School of Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering from September 2005 to August 2011, followed by a period as Vice Principal for Internationalisation & Development in the College of Engineering and Architecture. In September 2012, he was appointed as Provost of the Beijing-Dublin International College, a joint venture between UCD and Beijing University of Technology. In September 2014, he took on the additional roles of Dean of Engineering and Principal, UCD College of Engineering & Architecture.

From 1999 to 2012, he was responsible for the Design and Bioengineering curricula at undergraduate and postgraduate level, and led the establishment of the undergraduate ME Programme in Biomedical Engineering, the first such programme in Ireland. He is a contributing researcher within the Bioengineering Research Group within the College and is a principal research contributor within the Trinity Centre for BioEngineering, University of Dublin.

Prof. FitzPatrick retains collaborative links with leading researcher centres around the world. His primary research interests are in the fields of musculoskeletal modeling and anthropometrics, medical device design and design process methodologies. He has received funding for his research from the HEA, HRB, Enterprise Ireland and industrial sponsors.

 

  Prof. Dr.-Ing. Francesc Gine
University of Lleida, Dean of the Polytechnic School

 

Francesc Giné (1968) conducts research into high performance computing field. Specifically, his research interest includes scheduling-mapping for multi-cluster and peer-to-peer computing environments. Recently, he is working on modelling the performance and usability of the Liquid Galaxy Cluster display wall developed by Google. Likewise, he is leading a project of Big-Data Processing oriented to SME (Small and Medium-sized Enterprise) integrated in the Industrial Doctorate framework from the Catalan Government.

Francesc Gine received the B.S. in telecommunication engineering from the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), Spain, in 1993 and the M.S. and Ph.D degrees in computer science from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Spain, in 1999 and 2004, respectively. He is currently an Associate Professor of Computer Architecture at University of Lleida (UdL), Spain. Throughout his academic career, he has led numerous teaching innovation projects in the university environment. In 2010, he received the Jaume Vicens Vives Award to the teaching quality from the Catalan Government. From the 2007 to 2011, he was the vice-dean of the Polytechnic School of the University of Lleida. Since 2011, he is the Dean of the Polytechnic School.

 

  Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jan Gulliksen
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Dean of the school of Computer Science and Communication

 

Professor Gulliksen (b. 1965) conducts research on usability and accessibility of digital systems, digital work environments, user-centred systems design and digitalisation of the society. His research is action oriented transdisciplinary research with the purpose of improving the society as well as the situation for the end user of digital technologies by improving everything from systems development methods to politics and policy making.

Professor Gulliksen has an MSc in Engineering Physics, a PhD in Systems Analysis and is professor in Human Computer Interaction from Uppsala university. Since 2009 he has been working at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden and is currently the Dean of the School of Computer Science and Communication Between 2012-2016 he was the chairman of the Digital Commission of the Swedish Government and he is the Digital Champion of Sweden serving the European Commission. He also serves as one of the members of Commissioner Moedas high level group evaluating the Impact of the EU research and innovation agenda Horizon 2020 and formulating the input to FP9.

 

    Prof. Dr.-Ing. Manfred J. Hampe                                            
TU Darmstadt

 

Manfred J. Hampe graduated from Technische Universität Clausthal, Germany, in 1976 and received his doctorate in engineering from Technische Universität München, Bavaria, in 1980. He worked as a process engineer in the central research division of Bayer AG in Leverkusen, Germany, before he became full professor of Thermal Process Engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany, in 1995.

His research interests are in the fields of transport phenomena at fluid interfaces, fuel cells and adsorption. He is adjunct professor at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA. He has been the chairman of the Working Party on Education in Chemical and Process Engineering of the VDI-Society for Chemical and Process Engineering and member of the European Working Party on Education in Chemical Engineering for many years. He was the chairman of the council of the faculties of mechanical and process engineering in Germany in 2011 and 2012 and chairman of 4ING, the German Council of University Faculties in Engineering and Informatics in 2013 and 2014. Between 2004 and 2013 he was one of the 19 German Bologna experts. In 2015 he was elected to the board of directors of the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI). He received the Arnold Eucken award 1992 of the VDI Society for Chemical and Process Engineering and the ars legendi award 2013 of the Stifterverband and the German Rectors Conference.

 

    Prof. Mike Hounslow                                                              
University of Sheffield,
Pro-Vice Chancellor for Engineering                                           

 

As Pro-Vice Chancellor for Engineering at the University of Sheffield, Mike is responsible for the operation of all seven departments and three interdisciplinary programme areas, covering all the engineering disciplines. With a research income of £77.4M per annum, second in the UK, and over 5,000 students, the Faculty is one of the biggest providers of engineering research and education in the UK. 

Mike is a Chemical Engineer by background and worked for ICI in Australia before pursuing an academic career in the UK, The Netherlands and Australia.  His research and teaching are concerned with the manufacturing of ‘chemicals’ in solid form, most prominently in the home and personal car, food and pharmaceutical sectors.

He is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

 

  Prof. Peter Kilpatrick
University of Notre Dame, Matthew McCloskey Dean of Engineering and Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

 

Professor Kilpatrick conducts research into colloidal engineering and molecular self assembly, in particular the self assembly of porphryins and asphaltenes, as well as the creation of new materials. He has published more than 90 refereed journal articles and has 13 patents.

Kilpatrick received his PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1983. He was Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor at North Carolina State University, serving as Department Head from 1999 to 2007. He also was the Founding Director in 2004 of the North Carolina Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center. In 2008, he joined the University of Notre Dame as the Matthew McCloskey Dean of the College of Engineering. He currently serves as the Chairperson of the Global Engineering Deans Council.

 

  János Levendovszky, Deputy Dean (Scientific and International Affairs), BME

 

Professor Janos Levendovszky is Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) Deputy Dean of Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, in charge of International Affairs, and Chair of the BME Research Council. He is also the Head of Doctoral School on Computer Science and IT. He notably holds a PhD in Electrical engineering and was granted as Doctor of Science by the Hungarian Academy of Science. He spent years as researcher, project leader and professor in UK, Belgium, South Korea, Japan, USA, Lithuania, and other South Asian countries. His teaching areas are Algebraic coding theory, Adaptive signal processing, Neural network theory, Info-communication technologies, Coding theory, and his research fields are Approximation and learning capabilities of neural networks, Signal detection theory, Adaptive signal processing and control, Statistical resource management and CAC for ATM networks, Graph optimization for communication protocols, Traffic modelling and management in packet switched networks, Errol control codes and Financial mathematics and algorithmic trading. He published several books and scientific articles and since the 90s, lead many international projects and worked as consultant in Telecommunications.

 

  Professor Karel Ch.A.M. Luyben
Rector Magnificus of the Delft University of Technology
(TU Delft) in The Netherlands

 

In 1983 Karel Luyben was appointed Professor in Biochemical Engineering at the Delft University of Technology. Karel Luyben was Dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences in Delft between 1998 and 2009.

In 2010 he was appointed Rector Magnificus. The TU Delft has eight faculties, a student body of some 20,000 national and international students and some 4,500 employees. Together with his fellow Executive Board members, he is committed to making TU Delft a truly international university, and a centre for top-class research and education that will continue to attract talented students and scientists.

In 2012 Karel Luyben was appointed as President-Elect of CESAER, the Conference of European Schools for Advanced Engineering Education and Research and he is the President of CESAER since January 2014. He was re-elected as President for the period of 2016-2018.

Karel Luyben recently joined the high-level European advisory group Open Science Policy Platform (OSPP) which advises on how to further develop and practically implement open science policy to radically improve the quality and impact of European science.

 

  John Mitchell
Vice-Dean (Education), UCL, London                                           

 

Professor John Mitchell is Vice-Dean for Education in the Faculty of Engineering Sciences at UCL and Co-director of the Centre for Engineering Education (CEE). He recently led a major undergraduate curriculum development programme across the UCL Faculty of Engineering Sciences. The revised programmes, which launched in September 2014, introduce a connected curriculum emphasising practical, research-based activities in all programmes with an integrated development of key skills. The programme has introduced a common framework across all departments and developed a set of core modules which are being delivered to over 650 first year students. He has published on curriculum development within engineering education. Professor Mitchell is a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the IET, a Senior Member of the IEEE and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

 

  Prof. Andreas Mortensen
Vice President for Research, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland

 

Andreas Mortensen earned his engineering diploma in 1980 from the Ecole des Mines de Paris and his PhD from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1986. He is currently Professor and director of the Laboratory for Mechanical Metallurgy and, since Jan. 2017, Vice-president for Research of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). At EPFL he has also served as dean for doctoral studies, director of the Institute of Materials, dean for research and vice-provost for research. Prior to joining EPFL he was, from 1986 to 1996, a member of the faculty in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT, holding successively the titles of ALCOA Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor. He was also a postdoctoral researcher at Nippon Steel in 1986, and was an invited professor at the Ecole des Mines in Paris.

His research focusses on the processing, microstructural development and mechanical behavior of advanced metallic materials such as metal matrix composites and microcellular metals. He has contributed to our understanding of infiltration and other liquid metal processes, to composite micromechanics and the probing of in-situ mechanical properties as well as to our knowledge of size effects and other problems of fracture or plasticity. He is co-author of two monographs, over 200 scientific publications and 14 patents. He has served industry and government on committees or as a consultant and has edited several journals and books. His most recent awards are an ERC Advanced Grant in 2012 and the 2016 Grande Médaille of the Société Française de Métallurgie.

 

  Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gerhard Müller
Technical University of Munich, Senior Vice President Academic and Student Affairs

 

Professor Müller (b. 1960) conducts research into structural dynamics and vibroacoustics, in particular dynamic soil structure interaction, structural dynamics, sound radiation and sound fields generated by vibrations in buildings and vehicles. For this research he applies hybrid deterministic and statistical approaches.

After studying civil engineering at TUM, Professor Müller completed his PhD at the same university (1989). His postdoctoral teaching qualification (habilitation) is in engineering mechanics (1993). Between 1992 and 2004 he worked for a large engineering firm focussing on all aspects of sound, vibration and air pollution control. For nine years he was managing director of this firm. He has been a professor at TUM since 2004. He is executive president of the European Association for Structural Dynamics (EASD). In 2009/10 he was chairman of the umbrella association of the Faculty Associations for Engineering and Computer Science (4ING e.V.). Professor Müller is chairman of the Education Committee of the Bavarian Chamber of Engineers (Civil Engineers). Since 2014 he has been Senior Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs.

 

  Professor Mike Murphy
Director of Digital Campus & Learning Transformation
Dublin Institute of Technology

 

Mike is currently responsible for two strategic initiatives within Dublin Institute of Technology – developing a vibrant digitalcampus and enabling a transformation in learning for all DIT students. Mike joined Dublin Institute of Technology in 2002 as DIT Director and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering. In 2009 Mike accepted responsibility for the newly formed College of Engineering & Built Environment at Dublin Institute of Technology, which he led as Dean until January 2014. In 2014 Mike took on the role of coordinating the merger planning and integration of Dublin Institute of Technology with the Institute of Technology Tallaght and the Institute of Technology Blanchardstown with the goal of creating the first technological university in Ireland. In July 2016 he was tasked with helping DIT to develop and implement a Digital Campus, and to effect a learning transformation within DIT.

Mike holds PhD and MEng degrees in electrical engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology in the United States. Prior to that he graduated with an Honours Diploma in Electrical Engineering from Dublin Institute of Technology, and BSc (Eng) Honours Degree from Trinity College Dublin. He is a Fellow of Engineers Ireland and a Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He is Vice President and President Elect of the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI) and is the Chair of the European Engineering Deans Council. Mike commenced his industry career with AT&T Bell Labs in New Jersey, and later with Bell Communications Research before returning to the academy. 

 

  Prof. Dr.Techn. Mads Nygård, NTNU                    

 

Mads Nygård received his Dr.Techn.-degree at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and (NTNU) in Trondheim in 1990, and in 1997 he joined NTNU as a Full Professor. In the period 2009-2013, he was also Dean of Engineering Education for all NTNU - and in the period 2013-2017, he has also been Head of External Relations & Cooperation for its Department of Computer Science. He is currently Head of the National Council for ICT in the Norwegian Association of Higher Education Institutions. In the period 2010-2014, he was Vice President of CESAER - the European association of Technical universities, and he is still CESAER’s Task Force Chair for both its Benchmarking and Deans Convention activities. His main research interests are distributed systems, database systems and operating systems, and he has more than 100 international research publications. He was Organization Committee Chair for the Very Large Data Base 2005 Conference, has been and is General Co-Chair for the High Performance Computing & Simulation Conferences since 2007, and has been and is Technical Program Committee Co-Chair for the Collaborative Technologies and Systems Conferences since 2009. He has also been Co-Editor for the Proceedings of the Collaborative Technologies and Systems Conferences in 2014 & 2015. He was Co-Editor of the Special Issue on Advances in High Performance Computing and Simulation in the Concurrency and Computation Practice and Experience 2012 Journal, and is Co-Editor of the Special Issue on Trends and Advances in Collaboration Technologies and Systems in the Concurrency and Computation Practice and Experience 2017 Journal.

 

  Prof. Bernard Remaud
Executive president of ENAEE (European Network for Accreditation of Engineering Education)

 

Bernard Remaud is professor emeritus at University of Nantes and executive president of ENAEE since 2014.

Bernard Remaud is a nuclear physicist who published 85 articles in international journals (1970-1995); he held several visiting research positions (LBL Berkeley and ORNL Oak Ridge). From 2000 to 2012, he was member or chair of Scientific Committees of nuclear laboratories (e.g. GANIL, Grand Accelerateur d’Ions Lourds, Caen). He was awarded the Silver Medal of CNRS (National Center for Scientific research) in 1990.

In 1972, he was appointed assistant professor at the University of Nantes (France) and then full professor from 1985. From 1992 to 1995, he was appointed vice-director of IN2P3-CNRS, in charge of the national Nuclear Science programmes and of the international relations.

From 1995 to 2005, he served as elected Dean of Faculties of Engineering Science (respectively, IRESTE and Polytech’Nantes); he created Polytech’Nantes (Ecole Polytechnique de l’Université de Nantes) and the Polytech network which includes 13 French engineering colleges (2014). He was elected at the Board of CDEFI (National conference of the French colleges of engineering) (2000-2002) and vice-president (2002-2004).

From 1995, his main activities were oriented towards the management of higher education institutions, the quality assurance and the assessment of engineering education: member of the selection committee of the European ERASMUS project, 2004-2008; chair of CTI (National Committee for Engineering Programmes Accreditation), 2006-2012; executive president of ENAEE 2014-…).

 

  Prof. Dr. Luis Manuel Sánchez Ruiz
Universtat Politècnica de Valencia (UPV, Technical University of Valencia), Director Research & Innovation Programs Area

 

Professor Sánchez Ruiz (b. 1958) conducts research in Functional Analysis, Pure and Applied, and in Engineering Education. His supervised dissertations comprise “Study of some barrelledness conditions in locally convex spaces”, “Analysis, proposal and development of some objective measure in 123/-mIBG scientigraphies for neuroblastoma patients” and “Computational assessing model based on performance and dynamic assignment of curriculum contents”. Last ongoing one is on “STEM subjects face the haptic generation”.

Luis Manuel Sánchez Ruiz has been affiliated with Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (UPV), Spain, since 1980 where he became Full Professor of Mathematics in 2000. He had graduated and received his Ph.D. in 1980 and 1988, respectively, from Universitat de València and been a Visiting Professor at the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA on several occasions during 1992-99. His lecturing has been addressed mainly to Electronic, Design and Aeronautic Engineering. He has published over 120 papers in scientific journals and conference proceedings, more than 10 textbooks on Mathematics for Engineers, and is co-author of a research monograph on Metrizable Barrelled Spaces. The former Associate Dean and Head of International Relations at ETSID (UPV), Director of the UPV Programs Office with USA/Canada and Asia/Pacific, Academic Co-ordinator of Mediterranean University of Science and Technology, Member of the Board of Directors of CESAER, Member of the Board of Directors of SEFI. He has been involved in several transnational programs financed by the European Commission. Professor Sánchez Ruiz is member of the Editorial Board of Scientiae Mathematicae Japonicae andsince 2015 he has been Vice President of SEFI.

 

  Prof. Dr.-Ing. Rudolf F. Schwarz
CEO and owner of IABG mbH Ottobrunn,
Honorary Professor at the Munich University of Technology (TUM) since 1998

 

Rudolf Schwarz (born in 1949)studied civil engineering at the Munich University of Technology (TUM) from 1970 until 1974. He focussed on “konstruktiver Ingenieurbau”. After his graduation he started as scientific employee at the “Institut für Massivbau” (Prof. Dr.-Ing. H. Kupfer). In 1979 he submitted his doctoral dissertation on “Assessment of Risks for Stochastically Loaded Reinforced Structures”. In 1979 he moved to Industrieanlagen-Betriebsgesellschaft (IABG mbH) in Ottobrunn/Munich starting as a systems engineer in the department for Finite Calculation Methods. From 1981 to 1991 he held various management positions in departments dedicated tothe numerical simulation of extremely dynamic processes. In 1992 he was appointed as Managing Director of the privatized IABG under US-leadership. Since 1999 he is CEO of IABG. Based on a MBO transaction he became major shareholder of IABG in 2003 (ca. 1000 employees). Since 1998 he is appointed as “Honorarprofessor” at the Munich University of Technology (TUM) in the field “Versuchstechnik im Flugzeugbau und Leichtbau”. Associated with his business activities he is member of the following organisations and associations: BITKOM, BDLI, BDSV, Board of Trustees „Munich Aerospace, Advisory Board BavAiria, Advisory Board of Bauhaus Luftfahrt, Member of the Senate of DLR, Member of “Atlantik-Brücke”.

 

  Seweryn Spalek, Ph.D., Associate Professor,
SEFI BoD,
Head of CS&E Department, Faculty of Organisation and Management, Silesian University of Technology

 

Seweryn SPALEK,

Graduated from the Silesian University of Technology, with the title of M.Sc. Ph.D. studies - with a thesis in Project Management – graduated with the title of Ph.D. in Economics - field: Management. Post-doc (Habiliation), Associate Professor, Warsaw School of Economics, field: Management.

Since 1994 have managed several IT projects in Industrial Companies and Healthcare Organizations, in multicultural and multinational environments. Managed an Organizational Change Project – redesigning the functional organization to project oriented organization with PMO.

Established and have been running Portfolio Management of over 500 projects per year within organization.

The author and co-author of several publications in Project Management.

Author of “The Art of War in Project Management”.

Participated as a speaker in several conferences related to Project Management and Company Management.

Lecturer of post graduate studies - Company Management focusing on: “Applied Project Management”.

Carried out research related to Key Success Factors in Project Management and Project Management Maturity.

Member of AOM (Academy of Management), PMI (Project Management Institute), PMO SIG, PMI WPC, RISK SIG, IPMA (International Project Management Association).
Director at Large at SEFI (La Société Européenne pour la Formation des Ingénieurs / The European Society for Engineering Education)

 

  Alexia Spyridonidou
Transport-Spatial Planner
Board of European Students of Technology (BEST)

 

Alexia Spyridonidou (b. 1986) is a Spatial Urban Planner, specialised in Transport Planning (MSc) and Spatial Analysis-Cartography (MSc). At professional and research level she has been focusing on Sustainable Mobility. Currently, being a member of DAFNI Network mobility department (located in Athens, Greece), she assists the Greek islands in developing and adapting alternative, greener mobility strategies, while, at European level she works in the promotion of sustainable mobility in areas with seasonality.

As member of BEST, she has been active in the “Educational Department” for several years, increasing awareness about engineering education topics among students and presenting students’ views in academic and engineering education societies. At this end, she has been focusing on certain topics, such as the skills development during studies, alternative educational methods, accreditation, etc. Lastly, Alexia has been contact person between SEFI and BEST since 2012 enforcing a creative collaboration in topics of common interest and trying to empower interaction among students and academics.

 

  Alessandro Tarchini, EMEA EDU Market & Business Development, MathWorks

 

Since 1982 Alessandro Tarchini has worked in ICT, initially developing firmware for numeric control systems, then spending three years at the computing data center "Sergio Borgogno", developing Finance applications for the public administration.

From 1985 to 1990 Alessandro Tarchini worked in Stratos – a company providing services to Aerospace and Defense, as a consultant to aerospace companies, representing Italy in international project teams defining and developing processes for the engine management in the civil aviation business.

In 1992, after moving to Teoresi, he expanded his interests to software systems for number crunching, modelling and simulation; since 1993 Tarchini has worked in favor of advanced numerical analysis techniques facilitating the adoption of MATLAB in Italy. In 2002, when MathWorks Inc. opened its Italian operations, Tarchini was appointed as the managing director of the new company.

After managing MathWorks Italy for 10 years, Alessandro moved to the role of EMEA EDU Business and Market Development. At present, he manages the MathWorks NDE Program, in support of non degree-granting organizations that contribute to the education of scientists and engineers.

 

  Marianne Thellersen
DTU
Senior Vice President – Innovation and Entrepreneurship

 

Senior Vice President Marianne Thellersen is responsible for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at DTU. The responsibility covers curricular and extra curricular student innovation, cooperation with private sector companies, start-ups and technology transfer.

Marianne Thellersen has an MSc in Engineering chemistry and a MBA in business. She has 21 years experience form the biotech industry before she joined DTU in 2012 as SVP as part of the executive board.

 

  Professor Martin E. Vigild
Senior Vice President & Dean of Undergraduate Studies and Student Affairs
Technical University of Denmark, DTU

 

Professor Martin Vigild leads undergraduate education at DTU with more than 6000 students in 30 programmes covering all lines of engineering. He is interested in ongoing reforms of engineering education in order to constantly serve the needs of society and industry, and to give engineering students the best possible start to their professional careers in industry or academia. At DTU he carries a special responsibility for the study environment, and how it is expressed in aesthetic, mental and physical dimensions.

Martin holds a Ph.D. degree in Polymer Physics from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and a M.Sc. degree in Engineering from DTU, the Technical University of Denmark. He started his academic career as a post doctoral researcher at the University of Minnesota, USA. He has founded the Consortium in Polymers for Industrial Research at DTU and is a founding member of ESS-S, the European Spallation Source - Scandinavia. He has served as a member of the International Council for the CDIO Initiative and is now the President of SEFI (European Society for Engineering Education). He carries the Knight's Class Cross of the Order if Dannebrog.

Martin's research has spiralled around structural-property relationship of polymeric systems and he has applied techniques ranging from anionic living polymerisation, transmission and scanning electron microscopy to neutron and x-ray scattering and reflelectivity. His h-index is 17. He has developed new courses and new learning material at both undergraduate and graduate level engineering education. He has authored over 40 scientific peer-reviewed journal articles, two theses and one text book.

 

  Dave Wilson
Vice President of Product Marketing, Software, Academics, Customer Education

 

As Vice President of Product Marketing for Software, Academics and Customer Education, Dave Wilson leads the global team responsible for defining and promoting software technologies and ensuring proficiency development of NI’s platform in both education and industry.

Since joining NI in 1991, Wilson has held roles across sales and marketing, including serving as a District Sales Manager, Director of Data Acquisition Marketing, International Sales Director, and Director of International Marketing.

Wilson serves on the ECEDHA Corporate Member Council, as a member of the FIRST Executive Advisory Board, and as a member of several corporate boards. He is an avid maker, inventor and evangelist for STEM activities and holds two patents.

Wilson holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from The State University of New York.