Keynote Speakers

Professor Mihaela Ulieru (Canada Research Chair)

• Title: Emergent Engineering: Breakthrough in Managing Large Scale eNetworked Techno-Social Systems
• Abstract: How to craft the nervous system of our eNetworked world to enable seamless evolution through challenging times and adaptation not only to meet the unexpected and survive it, but thrive on it?
  
  

  This talk will shed light on the disruptive advances brought by the ubiquity of computing and communication environments that link systems and people in unprecedented ways via eNetworks - seamlessly enabling the (uncontrolled) emergence from the 'bottom-up' of (distributed) techno-social systems and critical infrastructures with a magnitude and complexity exceeding what the traditional engineering school of thought can handle. While signaling that time is ripe to re-think systems and software engineering to find appropriate methods for managing the magnitude of scale and complexity of these new kind of large scale systems and infrastructures - we tackle the radical shift of paradigm in (systems and software) engineering and introduce a methodological framework for deploying CPE using the latest knowledge of complexity science. We unravel an 'eNetwork DNA' and put it to work similarly to how DNA molds the fundamental cells in natural systems such that they can evolve to accommodate gradual or abrupt change in the environment or internal operating conditions. Various applications will be presented among which: disaster response through deployment of holistic security ecosystems, green electricity generation and distribution, pandemic mitigation, networked transportation and manufacturing, environmental monitoring and sustainability assessment.

• Paper: PDF
• The Speaker: Professor Mihaela Ulieru holds the NSERC (Natural Science and Engineering Research Council – funded) Canada Research Chair in Adaptive Information Infrastructures for the eSociety in the Faculty of Computer Science at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton since 2005 when she also established (with Canada Foundation for Innovation funding) and leads the Adaptive Risk Management Laboratory (ARM Lab) researching Complex Networks as Control Paradigm for Complex Systems to develop Holistic Security Ecosystems. Her current research is focused on the Cyberengineering of resilient eNetworks (Cyber-Physical Ecosystems) and their applications to security (critical infrastructure protection, emergency response management), e-Health (pandemic mitigation) and networked manufacturing. One highlight of her most recent endeavors is a collaborative project on 'Emulating the Mind'.
  
  

  Professor Ulieru is an expert in distributed intelligent systems, topic on which she is a frequent Keynote and Tutorial speaker as well as distinguished visiting professor internationally (Technical University of Vienna, Austria; Institut des Systèmes Complexes de Paris, France; Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Stevens Institute of Technology, NYC, USA; University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany; Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Melbourne University, RMIT and University of New South Wales, Australia), McGill University. She has appointments on several national and international advisory boards and review panels among which the Singapore A*STAR Advisory Board, the Scientific Council of the EU NCE I*PROMS, expert on the EU Framework Programme , the NSERC International Strategy Advisory Panel and Strategic Projects Review Panels on Safety and Security and ICT as well as NSF Cyber-Systems Review Panel.

  Professor Ulieru is member of the Government of Canada Science Technology and Innovation Council.

Roberto Saracco

• Title: Business Ecosystems: a natural environment for autonomics systems
• The Speaker: Roberto Saracco is Director of the Future Centre in Venice and responsible for long-term research and scientific communications reporting directly to the Chief Technology Officer of Telecom Italia.
  

  In 2001 he became director of the Future Centre, a research centre focusing on the economic impact of innovations in the telecommunications area. During 1999 and 2000, Roberto proposed and delivered a World Bank project in the InfoDev framework to speed entrepreneurship in Latin American countries, and prior, 1999 and 2000, he proposed and carried out a World Bank project in the InfoDev framework to foster entrepreneurship in Latin America countries.

  Roberto chaired the Visionary Group (1996-1997) on Super Intelligent Networks to steer the cooperative research at the European Union (EU) level beyond the year 2000. He is currently part of the Visionary Book Project of the EU. In 1994 he launched the Marketing & Communications area in CSELT, ensuring dissemination of innovation.

  In the eighties, Roberto led research in Telecommunications Management in CSELT, and actively participated in standardization activities at CCITT, in the area of formal description techniques. Prior this role, he was involved in software design for the first Italian SPC systems.

  In addition to CCITT, Roberto has directly, and indirectly, participated in a number of international standardization organizations including OSI, ETSI and T1M1. His leadership includes chairing an EU-level group for planning, leading European research activities in the area of software technologies, and the EURESCOM group in designing the framework for European co-operation on TMN. He has led the EURESCOM group in information modeling for Pan European Services and Network Management. He is a senior member of IEEE where he has held several leading roles. Currently he is the Director of the Sister and Related Societies of COMSOC, a member of the Strategic Board of IEEE, and VP of the Italian Telecommunication Association (AICT).

  On the FISTERA project focused on steering research funding at the EU level, Roberto has the responsibility of forecasting technology trajectories for the next fifteen years in the area of information and communications technologies. He is also a leader of the Council of Advisors, and has published over 100 papers in journals and magazines, six books – including "The Disappearance of Telecommunications", which was published in the USA, and several articles in the scientific section of daily newspapers. He has also delivered speeches and keynotes at many international conferences.

  At several stages in his career, Roberto has taught at Universities in Italy and around the world on the subject of Telecommunications, and most recently, on the New Economy. He currently lectures at the Turin Polytechnic on the aspects of multimedia and telecommunications.