Farid (PhD) is a senior director and head of Advanced Technology Integration business area for Quanta Technology. He has more than 17 years of professional experience in the areas of distributed and renewable energy resources, microgrids, and applications of power electronics in power systems for non-wire alternatives. In the recent years, Farid has been the technical leads for design, development and integration of several key grid modernization projects for utilities in North America involving renewable technologies, energy storage, advanced distribution automation, and community microgrids. Farid has received his PhD from University of Toronto. He is a Senior Member of IEEE, Steering committee member of the international microgrid symposium, and active participant in several technical working groups and standards development taskforces within IEEE, IEC and CIGRE.

Contact: FKatiraei@Quanta-Technology.com

I-Cheng Chen currently works as a Platform Architect at Advanced Micro Devices, and does research in Systems and Electronic Engineering.

Contact: icheng.chen@amd.com

Dr. Ismael El-Samahy is a seasoned professional with a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, specializing in power system operations and economics from the University of Waterloo, Canada. With sixteen years of extensive experience in the Canadian Electricity Sector, Ismael has honed expertise and demonstrated leadership in various critical areas, including the development of Energy and Capacity Markets, Transmission Planning and Operation, Innovation, and Energy Transition.

In addition to his technical and leadership roles, Ismael serves as a board member on the Advisory Board of the Canadian University of Dubai, UAE, reflecting his commitment to advancing the field of power system engineering through collaboration and academic contributions.

A recognized leader, Ismael excels in building and leading highly motivated teams, effectively managing and coaching staff, and steering complex projects to successful completion.

This blend of deep technical knowledge and exemplary leadership skills underscores Ismael’s significant contributions to the energy sector and ongoing dedication to fostering innovation and excellence.

Contact: ismael.el-samahy@ieso.ca

Amanda is currently Senior R&D Manager at Synopsys.

Contact: amanda.chung-tan-wing@synopsys.com

With more than 25 years experience he is currently working as the technical lead controls engineer in digitization engineering team in Husky Technologies, responsible to design and develop factory automation system to automate the production line and enhance the productivity of machines and robots. In his previous role he was involved in designing, developing and maintaining the injection molding machine constrols software. He also was participating in other projects for industrial vision and quality inspection systems.

Contact: smojahed@husky.ca

Joe is a Senior Technical Staff Member in the IBM Infrastructure organization. For the past several years, his work has focused on hardware product development using open technologies, container management, process automation, and virtual systems management across hardware platforms. Joe has always had an interest in the connections between industry and academia. He was previously Head of the IBM Centre for Advanced Studies in Canada, has served on the boards of the CITO and CLLRNET research networks, and continues to mentor joint research projects and serve on academic advisory boards and conference program committees. He is a published author, an award-winning teacher, and a member of the IBM Open Innovation Community.

Contact: wiggles@ca.ibm.com

Contact: roumani@ca.ibm.com

Alison Evans Adnani is the senior program lead for the Dev Degree team at Shopify. Dev Degree is a work-integrated learning program that combines Shopify developer skills with a university degree. She has had a rich career in software development, education and learning. Alison started her technology career as an intern and is a passionate advocate for experiential learning opportunities.

Contact: alison.evansadnani@shopify.com

Ron is the CEO and founder of iNAGO, a Toronto/Tokyo-based company creating next-generation intelligent assistants.
Graduating from Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Waterloo, Ron moved to Japan and created the cult software AQUAZONE – a virtual aquarium with artificial life. Wanting more, Ron focused on making computers more human-like.
In 1998, he founded iNAGO and created netpeople, a software platform enabling humans to interact naturally with computers. In Japan, Toyota, NEC and others have used netpeople in next-generation solutions from smartphones to robots. In 2015, Ron launched netpeople in North America to power automotive and all smart devices.

Contact: rond@inago.com

A successful entrepreneur in the Canadian technology industry providing vision, leadership, and experience to organizations ranging from start-ups to the Fortune 500. Presently a startup mentor and community volunteer sitting on the board of directors/advisors for several companies and organizations including AltoSante, Calgary Co-op, Creative Destruction Labs, and Mount Rundle Fund. With more than thirty years of experience in the creation and management of successful businesses, has a proven track record in growing and mentoring successful professionals. Has worked with and consulted to many leading Canadian, American, and European companies; guiding them in the best practices for technology-enabled business cutting across numerous industries, including digital health, telecommunications, high technology, entertainment, and consumer products.

Contact: evan@altosante.com

Contact: steves@crosswing.com

Dr. Walid Rjaibi is a Distinguished Engineer and CTO for Data Security at IBM. He drives the research for data security as well as the technical architecture and vision for products and services. Prior to his current role, Walid held several technical and management roles within IBM including Research Staff Member at the IBM Zurich Research Lab, Security Architect for DB2, and Chief Security Architect for Data & AI at the IBM Toronto Lab. His Data Security work resulted in 28 granted patents, publications in leading scientific and academic journals/conferences, and industry-proven commercial capabilities that are relied upon by thousands of organizations from around the world to protect critical data and meet security and compliance mandates. Walid is also an Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at Toronto Metropolitan University, and serves on the professional advisory board for the department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science at York University, the department of Computer & Information Systems at the University of Michigan and the Cybersecurity Center at the University of Missouri.

Contact: wrjaibi@ca.ibm.com

Dina Kamal is the field CTO and General Manager for Canada at DataBahn.ai. Dine has more than 20 years of experience consulting, implementing and driving large scale technology transformations, with focus on artificial intelligence and cyber security at fortune 500 organizations and large public sector organizations across the world. Before joining DataBahn, Dina was a senior partner at Deloitte Canada, where she led the AI product and data science teams, in addition to leading Deloitte’s global threat management team and many large-scale Cyber Security, AI and broader tech transformations.

Contact: dkamal@deloitte.ca

Qingjiu is currently a Senior Technical Systems Analyst at Royal Bank of Canada. He holds the Certified Information Systems Security Professional designation.

Contact: jiaqj@yahoo.com