1- Prof. Salah Obayya,
UNESCO Chair, Fellow IEEE, OSA, SPIE, AAS, ACES, HEA, IEE, IOP Honorary Chair Professor of
Photonics, Director of Center for Photonics and Smart Materials (CPSM), Zewail City of Science and
Technology, Egypt.
Keynote Speech I
Disrupting the Photonics Domain through Paradigm-Shifting Computational Models
ABSTRACT
Computational modeling in nano-photonics provides an essential comprehension of the underlying physics
behind the mechanisms of photonic devices. However, computational modeling still faces challenges as some
existing modeling techniques fail to reflect the correct behavior of nano-photonic devices. On that note, this
keynote presentation will provide a general overview of the existing computational modeling tools for analyzing
generic photonic devices while covering their principal features and shortcomings. It is established that
“plasmonics” is crucial in localizing optical fields beyond the diffraction limit. Therefore, the presentation will
focus on plasmonics modeling issues and the failure of classical electromagnetic solvers in the characterization
of the nano-plasmonic devices accurately. Therefore, a novel accurate, and stable beam propagation method will
be introduced for the analysis of plasmonics in the classical regime. The approach is relying on the finite element
method (FEM) and the twice faster Blocked Schur algorithm. Moreover, in designing quantum plasmonic
devices, it becomes critical to introduce the “Quantum Corrected Model (QCM)” in order to accurately model
these devices, and the basics of QCM will also be discussed.
BIO
Professor Salah Obayya is currently a full professor of photonics at the University of Science and Technology
and the director of the Center for Photonics and Smart Materials, Zewail City. Obayya’s has BSC, MC, and PhD
in 1991, 1994, and 1999 respectively from Mansoura University in Egypt. Obayya then obtained his Doctor of
Philosophy degree under a joint supervision scheme between City University London and Mansoura University
in 1999.
Obayya worked at City University London’s School of Engineering as a senior research fellow. From 2003 to
2006, he served as a senior lecturer at the School of Engineering and Design in Brunel University, West London.
He was also appointed to a readership position at the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University
of Leeds (U.K.). In 2008, he held a full professorial chair of photonics and led the establishment of the
Nanophotonics Research Centre at the University of Glamorgan, U.K.
Obayya’s research efforts are related to the area of green nanophotonics. His focus is on intelligent computational
modeling of modern nanophotonic devices to enable technologies for the efficient generation, distribution and
utilization of sustainable energy for a low-carbon green society. Obayya’s continuous scientific contributions
have greatly served the international photonics community. In addition to publishing 110 papers, mostly in
journals belonging to the IEEE, IET, and IEE, Obayya has published 130 conference papers and had 20 keynote
lectures and invited talks at major conferences. He is also the author of “Computational Photonics” published
by Wiley, New York. Obayya has been selected to be an associate editor-in-chief of the IEEE Photonics
Technology Letters, and a guest editor-in-chief of the Journal of Optical and Quantum Electronics. He also
served on the technical committee of many photonics conferences. Obayya was granted, by the Egyptian
government, the Incentive State Award for Engineering Sciences and the State Award of Excellence for
Engineering Science. He is also the recipient of the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation Award for Arab
Researchers in engineering sciences in 2013.
He is a member of several leading scientific institutions such as the Institute of Engineering and Technology,
the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Optical Society of America and the International Society
for Optical Engineering. In addition to being elected as a fellow of the highest two scientific institutes in the
United Kingdom: the Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEE) and the Institute of Physics (IoP), Obayya is also a
Fellow member of the institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
2- PROF. DR. ALI SELAMAT,
Dean, Malaysia Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT),
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.
Keynote Speech II
Recent Research on Detection of Vulnerable Plaque in Virtual Histology Intravascular Ultrasound Images
ABSTRACT
Virtual Histology Intravascular Ultrasound (VH-IVUS) image has been developed as a clinically available tools
to diagnosis the thin cap fibroatheroma plaque that is responsible for coronary artery disease. Segmentation is
considered as the essential step for plaque characterization; however, this step is time-consuming procedure and
depends on the observer's capability. VH-IVUS image, especially at the edges of each plaque component, may
not involves the unique intensities. Therefore, segmentation of the overlapped tissue can be difficult. In this
study, hybrid models have been proposed to accurately segment the VH-IVUS image. Therefore, semisupervised models of hybrid Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) with k-nearest neighbor (kNN), minimum Euclidian
distance, and Support Vector Machine (SVM) are adapted to improve the segmentation results. Proposed
approaches is applied for 589 in-vivo images of 10 patients. The accurate classification result of the semisupervised models is obtained using the silhouette validity index.
BIO
Prof. Ali Selamat is currently a Dean of Malaysia Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT)
which is an education institute that is established by Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia with the
aim of enhancing Japanese Oriented Engineering Education in Malaysia and Asian with the support
from Government of Japan through Japanese International Cooperation agency (JICA) and Universiti
Teknologi Malaysia together with 29 Japanese University Consortium (JUC). Prior to that, he was a
Chief Information Officer (CIO) and a Director of Center of Communication and Information
Technology, UTM. He is currently elected as a Chair of IEEE Computer Society, Malaysia Section
under the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), USA and also a member of
Malaysia Engineering Deans Council. He was previously assuming the position of research Dean on
Knowledge Economy Research Alliance, UTM.
Prof. Ali Selamat has received a B.Sc. (Hons.) in IT from Teesside University, U.K. and M.Sc. in
Distributed Multimedia Interactive Systems from Lancaster University, U.K. in 1997 and 1998,
respectively. He has received a Dr. Eng. degree from Osaka Prefecture University, Japan in 2003 .
He was a principal consultant of Big Data Analytics, Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia 2017,
Members of Malaysia Artificial Intelligence Roadmaps (2020-2021) and a keynote speaker in many
international conferences. He was a visiting professor at Kuwait University, and few other universities
in Japan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia. Currently he is a visiting professor at HradecKralove University, Czech Republic and Kagoshima Institute of Technology, Japan.
Currently, he is serving as the Editorial Boards of International Journal of Knowledge Based Systems
Elsevier, Netherlands, International Journal of Information and Database Systems (IJIIDS) under
Inderscience Publications, Switzerland and Vietnam Journal of Computer Science under Springer
Publications. He is a Program co-chair IEA/AIE 2021: The 34th International Conference on
Industrial, Engineering and Other Applications of Applied Intelligent Systems in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia .
His research interests include data analytics, digital transformations, knowledge management in higher
educations, key performance indicators, cloud-based software engineering, software agents,
information retrievals, pattern recognitions, genetic algorithms, neural networks and soft-computing.
3- Prof. James Okwe Chibueze,
Centre for Space Research, Potchefstroom Campus
Potchefstroom- North-West University, South Africa.
Keynote Speech III
African Radio Astronomy Research in SKA Era – Advances and Prospects
ABSTRACT
Radio astronomy research landscape in the African continent has rapidly advanced with the Square
Kilometre Array (SKA) being partly hosted in the continent. MeerKAT, the precursor, to the SKA is
already making ground-breaking discoveries in Galactic and Extra-galactic science.
Some of these new findings include the discovery of the large bubble around the centre of the Milky
Way, unveiling of the impact of intra-cluster magnetic field on member galaxies of a Galaxy Cluster,
detection of persistent radio emission towards a fast radio burst and many more.
My talk will focus on some of the contributions of MeerKAT to our current understanding of the
universe. Why should radio astronomers on the continent care about the forthcoming SKA? What can
we do to grow the critical mass of African users of the MeerKAT and SKA. These will be covered in
my talk...
BIO
James Chibueze did his Bachelor of Science in Physics (First Class) and Master of Science
(Astrophysics) at Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Nigeria. He then proceeded to
Japan for his PhD (Radio Astronomy and Astrophysics) at Kagoshima University, Kagoshima, Japan
(PhD received 25 March, 2013) under the Japanese Government MEXT scholarship.
His research is mainly focused on the high-resolution study of massive star formation processes from
their earliest evolutionary stages.
James joined East-Asia ALMA Regional Centre at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
(NAOJ) as Project Research Fellow in 2013 and later in 2014 was appointed a Project Assistant
Professor. In 2015, he moved to University of Nigeria as a Lecturer and 2 years later (January, 2017)
moved to South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) formerly known as Square
Kilometre Array (SKA) South Africa as a VLBI Commissioning Scientist. In 2019, he joined NorthWest University as an Associate Professor and was promoted to a full Professor of Astrophysics from
January 1, 2022.
In recent years, James has used the MeerKAT telescope to expand his research horizon to include the
study of radio
4- Prof. Yehia Antar,
Canada Research Chair in Electromagnetic Engineering, IEEE Fellow, IEEE AP-S Distinguished Lecturer
Professor, Former President of IEEEAP, Royal Military College of Canada & Queen’s University Canada.
Keynote Speech IV
Future Trends in Modern Antenna Systems research and applications for Communications and for Sensors
ABSTRACT
Electromagnetics and its many applications in various aspects of Radio Science in areas such
dependent communications through wireless, satellites and on Sensors. has been and will continue to
be important in our modern life. This trend is exemplified by the current investment in applications
such as 5G,6G technologies, internet of things (IOT) which are enabling fundamentally new evolving
applications. A common denominator in many of these new applications is antenna systems.
The talk will address some current and new emerging directions of research in antenna systems
specially those taking place at the Royal Military College of Canada and Queen’s University. This
will include description of new fundamental approaches in antenna analysis, the intriguing structure
of near fields and new rigorous considerations for electromagnetic energy around antenna systems that
are important for modern applications. The talk will also address the importance and impact of this
research on engineering education with a global look at how to benefit from opportunities of
networking available through IEEE activities and anticipated future directions.
BIO
He received the B.Sc. degree (Hons.) in electrical engineering from Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt,
in 1966, and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg,
MB, Canada, in 1971 and 1975, respectively. In May 1979, he joined the Division of Electrical Engineering,
National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada. In November 1987, he joined the Department of
Electrical and Computer Engineering, Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, ON, where he has been a
professor, since 1990. He has authored or coauthored over 200 journal articles, several books, and chapters in
books, over 450 refereed conference papers, holds several patents, has chaired several national and international
conferences, and has given plenary talks at many conferences. He was appointed as a member of the Canadian
Defense Advisory Board (DAB) of the Canadian Department of National Defense, in January 2011. He is a
fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada (FEIC) and the Electromagnetic Academy. He is also an
International Union of Radio Science (URSI) Fellow. In 1977, he held a Government of Canada Visiting
Fellowship at the Communications Research Center, Ottawa. In 2003, he was awarded the Royal Military
College of Canada “Excellence in Research” Prize and the RMCC Class of 1965 Teaching Excellence Award in
2012. In October 2012, he received the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal from the Governor-General of Canada
in recognition of his contribution to Canada. He was a recipient of the 2014 IEEE Canada RA Fessenden Silver
Medal for Ground Breaking Contributions to Electromagnetics and Communications and the 2015 IEEE Canada
J. M. Ham Outstanding Engineering Education Award. In May 2015, he received the Royal Military College of
Canada Cowan Prize for excellence in research. He was also a recipient of the IEEEAP- S of the Chen-To-Tai
Distinguished Educator Award in 2017. He has supervised and co-supervised over 90 Ph.D. and M.Sc. theses at
the Royal Military College and at Queen's University, several of which have received the Governor- General of
Canada Gold Medal Award, the Outstanding Ph.D. Thesis of the Division of Applied Science, as well as many
best paper awards in major international symposia. He served as the Chair for Canadian National Commission
(CNC), URSI, from 1999 to 2008, Commission B, from 1993 to 1999, and has a cross-appointment at Queen's
University, Kingston. In May 2002, he was awarded the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in electromagnetic
engineering which has been renewed in 2016. He was elected by the URSI to the Board as the Vice President,
in August 2008 and 2014, and to the IEEE Antennas and Propagation (AP-S) AdCom. In 2019, he was elected
as the 2020 President-Elect for IEEE AP-S, and will serve as its President, in 2021. He has served as an
Associate Editor for many IEEE and IET journals and an IEEE-APS Distinguished Lecturer.
5- Prof. Diaa Khalil,
Faculty of Engineering Ain Shams University
CEO of the Innovator Support Fund ISF, MOHESR, Egypt.
Keynote Speech V
Innovation Echo System in Egypt
ABSTRACT
In this talk we analyze the situation of the innovation Ecological system in Egypt / Africa and based
on this analysis we demonstrate the need for a special support for the innovators in early stages of their
innovation. The need analysis demonstrates also the crucial role of the university and higher education
institutes in transforming the scientific creativity into successful products in the market. This
represents the base of the strategic vision of the Innovators support fund and its activities that will be
presented briefly in the talk.
BIO
Prof. Diaa Khalil has over 35 years of experience in micro photonics systems, including integrated
optoelectronics and optical MEMS technology. He obtained his PhD from INPG France in 1993.
Diaa Khalil is a Professor of photonics in the Faculty of Eng., Ain Shams University since 2004, and
he was the Dean up to 2022 and Vice dean of post graduate and research affairs until 2020. He
introduced the courses of Integrated Optics, Optical MEMS, and Applied Optical Engineering for the
post-graduate engineering students. He is also leading a group of scientists working in the fields of
Photonic microsystems. He supervised more than 50 MSc and PhD thesis in the fields of: Optics,
Optoelectronics, Applied Spectroscopy, Optical MEMS and integrated Optics.
Diaa Khalil was also the CTO of the Optical MEMS Division in Si-Ware Systems from 2007 - 2020,
leading a group of talented engineers developing an innovative FTIR MEMS spectrometer, a unique
product that gained the Prism award in the Photonics West conference 2014 in SF USA. Prior to
joining SWS, he worked with MEMScAP company as the head of the optical MEMS design group
where he led the design and characterization of a 2×2 switch, and introduced a novel VOA (variable
Optical Attenuator) achieving the world record of minimum PDL reported for wide dynamic range.
Prof. Diaa Khalil is a holder of the Egyptian state incentive prize in engineering sciences in 1998. He
is a senior member in the OSA and the IEEE Photonic Society and a member in the SPIE and URSI
societies. He is currently the head of commission D in the National URSI committee, in Egypt.
He is also a member in the editorial board of the journal, “Light: Science and Applications” produced
by the Nature Publishing Group NPG. He is inventor of about 16 granted international patents and
more than 10 other patent applications. He is author and co-author of more than 320 publications, in
international journals and conferences, in addition to 3 book chapters and 1 ebook published by SPIE.
In 2023, he becomes the CEO of the Innovator Support Fund ISF, MOHESR, Egypt.