Vishwanath Baba

B.Eng. (University of Madras), MBA (Western Illinois University), Ph.D. (University of British Columbia)

Dr. Baba is a mechanical engineer by training and received his PhD in organizational behavior from the University of British Columbia. Currently, he is Professor of Management and was the former Dean of the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University. He has published extensively in major journals in the field of management and sits on the boards of influential management journals. Prior to coming to McMaster, Dr. Baba has been the Chairman of the Management Department as well as the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies at Concordia University in Montreal. Dr. Baba has taught various aspects of management at ESSEC in France, The People's University in China, National Economic University in Vietnam, Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, India, Al Ahram Canadian University & University of Alexandria in Egypt, and the University of the West Indies in Trinidad. He has also provided management training in the Caribbean, China, Egypt, India, Kenya, and Vietnam under the auspices of Canadian and Swedish International Development Agencies and the Canadian International Development Research Centre. Dr. Baba's research focuses on various aspect of organizational behaviour and has been supported by funds from provincial and federal grants.

Samir Chidiac

Director of SEP, B.Eng., M.Eng., Ph.D. (McMaster), P.Eng

Samir Chidiac, professor of civil engineering, is the director of the Walter G. Booth School of Engineering Practice at McMaster University.

Prof. Chidiac earned his B.Eng., M.Eng. and Ph.D. at McMaster. His research areas include rheology of fresh concrete, durability of concrete, use of post-consumer wastes in concrete and concrete products, energy efficiency of buildings, masonry, numerical methods and building science. He co-created the McMaster University Centre for Effective Design of Structures. He began his career working at the University of British Columbia and the National Research Council of Canada.

Brian Baetz

B.A.Sc., M.A.Sc. (Toronto), Ph.D. (Duke), P. Eng., FCSCE

Dr. Brian Baetz is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Civil Engineering and Director of the Engineering and Society Programme at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He was formerly the Chair of Civil Engineering at Tulane University. Dr. Baetz completed his bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Toronto in 1983 under Prof. Byer's supervision before going to Duke University where he completed his Ph.D. degree.

Robert Fleisig

B.A.Sc. (Waterloo), M.Eng., Ph.D. (McMaster)

My research interests are centred on pushing the engineering profession into the creative age. I believe that the conventional classing of creative thinkers into finders (i.e., researchers) and makers (i.e., engineers, architects, artists) is misleading. The engineer of tomorrow must be able to both design a solution and discover the context and interplay between stakeholders, business, and technology that will deliver the highest value, most creative, and innovative solutions. Engineers must be solving the key problems such as sustainability and poverty rather than concentrating on refining and reinventing existing technological paradigms.

Hossam Gabbar

Ph.D. (Okayama)

Dr. Hossam A.Gabbar is the director of Energy Safety & Control Lab, Faculty of Energy Systems and Nuclear Science & Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science (Cross Appointed), at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT). He obtained his Ph.D. degree (Process Systems Engineering) from Okayama University (Japan) and worked in several industrial projects for green energy such as risk-based clean oil & gas production systems, risk-based control design for green hybrid energy supply, biomass production chains, plastic supply chain with recycling, green natural LNG production systems, safety system design and verification, risk-based distributed control systems for cogeneration systems, risk-based control recipe synthesis and operation design for batch plants, and green manufacturing and production systems. He worked in reputable research centers such as Tokyo Institute of Technology and Japan Chemical Innovative Institute (JCII), where he participated in national and international projects related to green energy production and supply chains. He developed new methods for risk-based control design and safety verification, and quantitative and qualitative fault simulation and diagnosis. He established framework for green hybrid energy production chains and developed advanced tools for process modeling and simulation to support the practical implementation to ensure optimum regional and national levels energy supply chains. He is a Senior Member, the founder of SMC Chapter - Hiroshima Section, the founder and chair of the technical committee on Intelligent Green Production Systems (IGPS), and member of the technical committee on System of Systems and Soft Computing (IEEE SMCS). He is invited speaker in several Universities and international events, and PC/ chair / co-chair of several international conferences. He is the author of more than 90 publications, including books, book chapters, patent, conference proceedings, and papers in the area of intelligent green energy supply chains. His work was awarded best paper in several events, e.g. IEEE.

Tim Hanlon

Timothy Hanlon is a Manager of Applied Innovation at RBC Royal Bank.

Tim is responsible for a number of specific innovation initiatives as a member of the team responsible for thought leadership, future proofing and delivering net new capabilities to the bank. Tim has been a social media and process pioneer for RBC, including introducing the fist blog and twitter efforts for a Canadian FI as part of an open innovation program called The Next Great Innovator Challenge.

Mikhail Hanna

BSc., Ph.D. (Calgary)

Dr. Mikhail Hanna is a highly educated, PMP® certified professional; specializing in project planning and controls. His experience includes planning, cost control, estimating, project management and process simulation/optimization. Mr. Hanna has worked on FEED development, EPC lump sum and cost reimbursable for both international and domestic mega projects in the Oil & Gas industry. His ability to analyze and reason, combined with his willingness to increase his technical knowledge with additional courses, has enabled him to develop a comprehensive expertise in Project Controls. In particular he has been directly involved in the development of integrated project management tools for the facilitation of planning, scheduling and simulation activities. He possesses persuasive verbal and written communication skills that come to the fore front in analyzing and reporting project status/progress. Mr. Hanna is fluent in both English and Arabic.

Harry Mahler

M.A. Industrial Design (Birmingham)

A practicing designer and professor in Industrial Design, Faculty of Design, Harry Mahler has worked at the Ontario College of Art & Design since 1991. He combines his interest in design education with his work as a consultant industrial designer. He became a partner with the Axis Group International Incorporated in Toronto, a full service design consultancy in 1989. Harry has extensive design and teaching experience, having worked as both staff/consultant designer and design educator in Canada and Europe.

Yahya Nazer

Dr. Nazer is a Senior Global Improvement Leader and Associate Consultant in Process Automation at The Dow Chemical Company Engineering Solution Technology Center in Freeport, Texas, USA. He is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt with primary interests in process simulation for process automation design and the implementation of state-based control.

Mikhail Sorin

M.A.Sc., Ph.D. (Moscow)

Mikhail Sorin has extensive industrial, research and teaching experience in Russia, France and Canada. He has been recognized by Cambridge University as one of the leading scientists in the field of Applied Thermodynamics and Process Analysis and his name is included in “2000 Outstanding Scientists of the XX Century” edited by the Cambridge International Bibliographical Centre, UK.