Speakers

Jassim Alseddiqi

CEO of Abu Dhabi Financial Group
(ADFG), Chairman of SHUAA Capital, Eshraq Properties and GFH

Jassim is the Chief Executive Officer of Abu Dhabi Financial Group (ADFG). He is the Chairman of SHUAA Capital, Eshraq Properties and GFH, as well as board member of the following companies: First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), the Tourism & Development Investment Company (TDIC), Abu Dhabi Capital Group, and ADNOC Distribution.

Previously, Jassim served as the CEO of Abu Dhabi Capital Group. He was also a noted lecturer at the Abu Dhabi-based Petroleum Institute. Jassim holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an MSc in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University.

Malak Abedalthagafi

Georgetown, UCSF and Harvard trained physician-scientist, Johns Hopkins University MBA graduate, and first Arab to receive the American Board and Fellowship in Molecular Genetic Pathology

Dr. Malak Abedalthagafi is a Georgetown, UCSF and Harvard trained physician-scientist. She received Makkah Award of Excellence in Science and Technology in 2016 and the MIT-ASO Award of Achievement for Young Scientists in 2015. Currently, she is a chair of Genomics research at king fahad medical city, a research assistant professor and investigator in the Saudi Human Genome project at King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), and a part time faculty at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Malak published over 85 scientific papers in the field of pathology, oncology and genomic and her  hope is to improve the application of personalized medicine and targeted therapy in cancer patients.

Mishaal Ashemimry

Aerospace Engineer and Founder of MISHAAL Aerospace

Mishaal Ashemimry is a Saudi-American Aerospace Engineer, who was born in the US and spent a few years of her early life in Saudi, where her fascination with space started. 

In 2010, while based in Miami, Ashemimry founded MISHAAL Aerospace at age 26, to pursue her ultimate dream of building rockets. Ashemimry previously worked for Raytheon Missile Systems’ Aerodynamics Department and contributed to twenty-two different rocket programs.

Bashir Dabbousi

Director of Technology Strategy & Planning at Saudi Aramco

Bashir Dabbousi is the Director of Technology Strategy & Planning at Saudi Aramco. He was the Interim Vice President of Research at the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC) from 2008-2012. He has occupied several administrative and technical positions in Saudi Aramco including Assistant to the Chief Technology Officer; Senior Consultant, Strategic Transformation Office; and Coordinator of the R&D Division in the Research & Development Center where he spent most of his professional career. Bashir is co-recipient of 19 U.S. patents (10 patents are licensed to two U.S. and one leading South Korean electronics company). Bashir is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Award honoring inventors and the gifted (King Award), and is a member of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Future Council on Advanced Materials and the Board of Directors of the Research Products Development Company (RPDC Innovations).

Genevieve Barrons

Project lead - MIT MediaLab Refugee Learning Accelerator

Genevieve Barrons runs the Refugee Learning Accelerator project at the MIT Media Lab. The Refugee Learning Accelerator supports engineers and computer scientists from the Middle East to create technologies for refugee learners. It provides access to learning, mentorship, and funding. The Accelerator is a project of the Media Lab Learning Initiative. The Media Lab is an antidisciplinary research lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that designs technologies for people to create a better future.

Aziz Alghunaim

Co-founder of Tarjimly, a tech nonprofit that allows bilinguals to volunteer as translators for refugees

Aziz is the Co-founder of Tarjimly, a tech non-profit that allows bilinguals to volunteer as translators for refugees. He got his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Computer Science from MIT in 2015. After which he joined Palantir as a Software Engineer working on data-driven decision making in finance, aircraft manufacturing, and oil and gas.

In 2018, he left to focus on Tarjimly, a YCombinator backed tech nonprofit that aims to close the communication gap faced by millions of refugees around the world.

Anas Alfaris

VP for Research Institutes at King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST)

Alfaris is currently the VP for Research Institutes at the Saudi National Labs and National Science Agency KACST. At KACST, he founded the Joint Centers of Excellence Program (JCEP) with leading world Universities. He is also the founder of the Center for Complex Engineering Systems (CCES) at KACST and MIT, as well as the Decision Support Center (DSC) of KACST and Boeing.
Alfaris has also been responsible for the formulation of the National Research and Development strategies in Saudi Arabia. In addition, Alfaris is an Associate Professor at KACST and visiting Associate Professor at MIT. At MIT Alfaris is currently affiliated with the Institute for Data, Systems and Society (IDSS).

Alfaris’ research experience spans several fields including Big data analytics and Multi-Disciplinary Analysis and Optimization. Alfaris received his training in several disciplines including civil architecture, engineering and computer science. He received a Master of Building Technology followed by a Master of Science in design studies with a focus on computational design systems, both from the University of Pennsylvania. He subsequently received from MIT a Master of Science from the Center of Computational Engineering at while completing his Ph.D. in Design Computation.

fadel adib

Assistant professor at MIT and the founding director of the Signal Kinetics Lab

Fadel Adib is an Assistant Professor at MIT. He leads the Signal Kinetics research group at the MIT Media Lab. His group explores and develops new technologies that can extend human and computer abilities in communication, sensing, and actuation.
Fadel's research has been identified as one of the 50 ways MIT has transformed Computer Science over the past 50 years. His work has also been featured in major media outlets including CNN, BBC, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Guardian. Fadel was named to the Forbes’ list of 30 under 30 and MIT Technology Review’s list of the world's top 35 innovators under 35.

Before joining MIT as a faculty member, Fadel received his PhD from MIT, and his bachelor's degree from the American University of Beirut.

Mohamed Aburawi

MD, consultant and postdoc research fellow at Harvard Medical School
Founder of Speetar

Mohamed Aburawi is a medical doctor, consultant and postdoc research fellow at Harvard Medical School Department of Surgery. He is the founder of the Harvard awarded and MIT Sandbox supported telemedicine platform, Speetar, which links under-served patients in post-conflict countries to culturally and language-matched specialists. Dr. Aburawi is also responsible for developing the strategy and vision for a novel discarded human kidney reconditioning system (the first in USA) the work he is leading at Massachusetts General Hospital is paving the way for a ground-breaking multi-center clinical trial supported by the New England Organ Bank. He has first-authored 3 scientific papers, co-authored 5 manuscripts, and received national and international recognition for his clinical research work.

At the age of 23, Dr. Aburawi founded a leading medical organization in Libya, which created an innovative electronic blood donation system amid conflict, saving lives and leading to multiple awards including the Ministry of Municipal Affairs Award for Community Service. Mohamed is passionate about disrupting traditional healthcare industries and unlocking the potential of digital technology at a global scale.

Sarah S. AlSaleh

Product and Strategy - WASPHI

Sarah is a Saudi based in Dubai, UAE who works at the intersection of Policy, Technology, and Data. She currently leads Product and Strategy at Wasphi, a Saudi intelligence technology start-up that enables clients to solve their most pressing problems using proprietary data and advanced technologies. Prior to joining Wasphi, Sarah worked in New York at Dataminr, and has served as an Analyst at Google and McKinsey&Co. She has several research experiences with multiple institutes including the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and the Freeman Spogli Institute, and across geographies including Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Sarah has a Master's degree in International Policy from Stanford University and a Bachelor's in Business Administration.  

Robert C. Armstrong

Director, MIT Energy Initiative
Chevron Professor of Chemical Engineering

Robert Armstrong directs the MIT Energy Initiative, an Institute-wide initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology linking science, technology, and policy to transform the worlds energy systems. A member of the MIT faculty since 1973,

Armstrong served as head of the Department of Chemical Engineering from 1996 to 2007. His research interests include energy, the rheology of complex materials, and polymer fluid mechanics. In 2008, Armstrong was elected into the National Academy of Engineering for conducting outstanding research on non-Newtonian fluid mechanics, co- authoring landmark textbooks, and providing leadership in chemical engineering education.

Armstrong received the Warren K. Lewis Award and the Professional Progress Award in 1992, both from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and the 2006 Bingham Medal from the Society of Rheology, which is devoted to the study of the science of deformation and flow of matter. Armstrong was a member of MIT’s Future of Natural Gas and Future of Solar Energy study groups and co-edited Game Changers: Energy on the Move with former Secretary of State George P. Shultz.

Hazem Zureiqat 

Partner and board member at Engicon

Hazem Zureiqat is a transportation professional based in Amman. He is a partner and board member at Engicon, a regional multidisciplinary engineering consulting firm headquartered in Jordan. He is also the co-founder of Maan Nasel, a public transport advocacy campaign. He has co-authored policy studies on the country's transport sector and writes regular columns in local media on matters related to public transportation.

Hazem holds a Master of Science degree in Transportation from MIT, His areas of expertise lie in transportation planning, modeling, and economics. He has previously worked at the Greater Amman Municipality as the Head of the Transportation Economics and Modeling Division.

In addition to his work on transport, Hazem is a Board Advisor and former President of the MIT Arab Alumni Association and the co-founder of Sowt, an Arabic-language podcasting platform.
 

Raed m. shubair 

Professor of Electrical Engineering, Visiting Scientist in MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) 

Senior Advisor and Higher Education Expert, UAE Ministry of Education

Prof. Shubair is a Senior Advisor and Higher Education Expert in the Leadership team of the Minister of State and Undersecretary for Higher Education in UAE.  Prof. Shubair has consistently been recognized as a distinguished educator as he has supervised and mentored his students to receive prestigious international distinctions, distinguished conference paper awards, and outstanding full-scholarship postgraduate admissions and research internships in the world’s top-ranked universities. Prof. Shubair was a nominee for the IEEE Distinguished Educator Award in 2017.  His research interests include Terahertz and Nano Communications, Antennas and Bio Electromagnetics, Wireless Nanosensor Networks, and Signal Processing for Wireless and Medical Applications.  At MIT, Prof. Shubair is Co-Founder of the MIT Scholars of the Emirates established in 2015. Prior to joining the UAE Higher Education Leadership team, Prof. Shubair has been a Full Professor of Electrical Engineering at Khalifa University which he joined in 1993. He received several times since 1993 both the Teaching Excellence Award and Distinguished Service Award. Prof. Shubair holds a BSc degree from Kuwait University in 1989 and a PhD from the University of Waterloo in 1993. His PhD thesis received the University of waterloo Distinguished Doctorate Dissertation Award in 1993.

Georges Aoude 

CEO and co-founder of Derq

Dr. Georges Aoude is the CEO and co-founder of Derq, an MIT spin-off with a mission to eliminate road accidents for both conventional and autonomous vehicles using patented artificial intelligence and connected vehicle technology.

Derq has been hailed in the media, including CNN, BBC, and TechCrunch as the leading advanced technology start-up in Dubai. In 2017, Derq was only Middle East start up to be selected to join the prestigious Techstars Mobility program in Detroit, and opened an office in Michigan to expand operations and business to the US market. See recent BBC and CNN coverage of Derq.

Dr. Aoude holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from MIT, where he worked closely with NASA, US Navy, and Ford. Dr. Aoude is also an inventor and his patented work in connected and autonomous technologies has been featured in the press, including New York Times, Wired, and MIT News. His satellite research has also been tested and validated in the International Space Station in collaboration with NASA. Dr. Aoude has consulted governments and global companies in North America and the GCC for more than 10 years. His points of view are regularly published in key outlets including Harvard Business Review, Forbes and Brink. He is a board member of the Transportation Research Board and the MIT Arab Alumni Organization.
 

Aboudi Al-Qattan 

Investment analyst at DASH Ventures Ltd.

Aboudi Al-Qattan is a recent graduate of Babson College now working in Venture Capital at DASH Ventures in Amman, Jordan. He was born in Texas, raised in London, and is originally Palestinian. Though he is now living in the Middle East for the first time, he has previously interned in Dubai at TVM Capital, and founded a social venture aimed at facilitating entrepreneurial education for refugees in Jordan and Syria. The venture, Al-Tareeq, is now pivoting to offer entrepreneurship & business skill courses to private schools in the region, and will use the profits to enhance the existing refugee programs. Aboudi's grandfather and father both devoted large parts of their lives giving back to disenfranchised Palestinians; setting the stage for Aboudi to follow in their footsteps. 

Edmond Awad

Postdoctoral Associate at the Scalable Cooperation group at MIT Media
Lab.

Born and raised in Syria, Edmond received his bachelor degree (2007) from Tishreen University (Syria) in Informatics Engineering. In 2009, he moved to UAE where at Masdar Institute, he completed a master’s degree (2011) in Computing and Information Science with a research topic in Multi-agent Systems, before completing a PhD (2015) in Argumentation and Multi-agent systems. In 2015, Edmond joined the Scalable Cooperation group at MIT Media Lab as a graduate student and a research assistant. During his second master’s degree, Edmond co-developed Moral Machine, a website that gather human decisions on moral dilemmas faced by driverless cars. The website has been visited by over 3 million users, who contributed their judgements on 40 million dilemmas. Edmond’s work has been covered in major media outlets like The Times, LA Times, Der Spiegel (DE), and El Pais (ES). Edmond’s research interest are in the areas of AI, Ethics, Computational Social Science and Multi-agent Systems.

wasif syed

Founder and CEO of Ivy Strategy Advisor, an educational and leadership strategy consulting firm in Washington, D.C., specializing in innovative human capital development

Wasif, an avid proponent of youth empowerment, leadership, entrepreneurship, and innovation, conducts professional development programs on a range of areas worldwide. He mentors students and young professionals to help unlock their potential, develop their leadership skills and help them achieve their educational and career goals. He works extensively with youth in the Middle East and has extensive experience navigating the Middle East landscape. He was named one of “5 People Inspiring Peace” globally for his education and leadership work in Huffington Post.

Ahmed Omran

PhD at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and is currently post-doctoral fellow at the Harvard Physics Department

Ahmed is a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University. He studied Engineering Physics in Germany at the Technical University of Munich from 2006 until 2011. He then did his PhD at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching on the construction of a microscope to image single atoms arranged in artificial crystals of light. After graduating in 2016, he moved on to become a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard, where he uses chains of cold atoms trapped in laser beams to efficiently study quantum physical models.

Having received two teaching awards during his studies, Ahmed is passionate about teaching and bringing scientific literacy to a wider audience.

Sulaiman Hamarneh

President and CEO, Green BioMed LLC

Sulaiman R Hamarneh, MD was appointed as an instructor of investigation at MGH, Harvard Medical School. He has authored 15 published papers in peer review journals and also has two pending patents. Experienced in clinical research, molecular biology, diabetes & metabolic Syndrome, GI, and aging. Dr. Hamarneh is also the founder of Green BioMed LLC, a US-based company for recycling lab and medical equipment. He is also involved in private sector in developing new models for insulin supplement.

Dr. Hamarneh was also awarded in October 2013 the Excellence in Research Award by the American College of Surgeons in the 99th Annual Clinical Meeting, Forum on Fundamental Surgical Problems. He was also the December 2012 Resident Essay Competition Basic Science Paper Winner at the 59th Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts Chapter of the American College of Surgeons.

Laureen Meroueh

Phd Candidate, MIT

Laureen Ghanem-Meroueh is an energy entrepreneur and a Ph.D. candidate at MIT in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. She is a first-generation American having Lebanese parents. Driven by the spectrum of needs particular to each country and identifying engineering as the best way she can make an impact, Laureen graduated as Magna Cum Laude from the University of Florida with a dual bachelor’s degree in civil and mechanical engineering. She then went on to receive a Master’s degree in mechanical engineering at MIT.

Energy is the ability to do work, without which, a nation cannot progress. Inspired by this notion, Laureen became obsessed with electricity production and distribution. Energy storage is a key enabler to a stronger, greener framework for power production. Hence, her research has been
on energy storage since her undergraduate career.

At MIT, she has developed an energy storage solution that can be adapted internationally, for which she is now launching a start-up to drive the global impact possible by this technology. Laureen’s keys to success are energy, integrity, sustainability, and perseverance.

Mohamed Ibrahim

Phd Candidate, MIT

Mohamed I. Ibrahim received the B.Sc. (with honors) and M.Sc. degrees in electrical
engineering from Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt, in 2012 and 2016, respectively. From 2012 to 2016, he was teaching and research assistant at the same University. During this period, he was developing metamaterial inspired antennas and microwave passive structures. Since September 2016, he has been a graduate Ph.D. candidate at the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is working on CMOS integrated quantum enhanced sensing and information processing systems, and terahertz wireless systems.

His research interests include RF integrated circuit design, microwave passive planar structures, and novel electromagnetic materials and devices.

Basel abusharkh

CEO of Hyrec

Basel Abusharkh obtained his PhD in Chemical Engineering from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1996 and was a Professor of Chemical Engineering at KUPM for 14 years. In 2011, he founded InoChem, an industrial company for producing inorganic chemicals with a capital of $600 million and annual sales of $270 million. In 2013, he initiated IDEA Polysilicon, the first integrated solar manufacturing company in the Middle East for producing high purity silicon, ingots, wafers, solar cells and PV panels. In 2015, he founded IDEA Salt and Water Company (ISW), a $200 million company for producing desalinated water and concentrated brine for use as feedstock to the chemical industry. In the same year, he also founded Hyrec, a company for developing purification and concentration technologies. Additionally, he is founder and CTO of SABOil, a technology company for extracting oil from oil shale reserves in Jordan that is founded in collaboration with Darmstadt University-Germany. He has more than 100 scientific publications and patents, some of which have been licensed to the chemical industry and made numerous presentations at international forums. He also served as advisor to the Ministry of Economy and Planning and Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) in Saudi Arabia and to several international companies, including Solvay, DuPont and Rhodia on matters related to water, energy and industrialization.

Rania Ghosn

Assistant Professor of Architecture and Urbanism at MIT

Rania Ghosn is Class of 1947 Assistant Professor of architecture and urbanism at MIT and founding partner of DESIGN EARTH. Her research engages the geographies of technological systems, in particular those of energy, to engage design and the environment. Rania is winner of the Architectural League Prize for Young Architects, Boghossian Foundation Lebanon, and ACSA Faculty Design Awards. She is author of Geographies of Trash (Actar, 2015) with El Hadi Jazairy and editor of New Geographies 2: Landscapes of Energy (Harvard GSD, 2010). Her current book project, The Geographic Portrait of the Trans-Arabian Pipeline, traces the biography of a transnational crude transport infrastructure, from its planning through its decommissioning, to document territorial transformations associated with the Middle East’s incorporation into a global fossil fuel economy. Rania was a Mellon postdoctoral fellow at Boston University, where she organized the Sawyer Seminar Series on Energy Transitions. She holds a Doctor of Design from Harvard University Graduate School of Design, a Master in Geography from University College London, and a Bachelor of Architecture from American University of Beirut.

Saleh Al Hashemi

CEO of Algorythma and KryptoLabs

In his role as CEO of Algorythma and KryptoLabs, Dr. Saleh Al Hashemi brings  a wealth of experience from having worked in senior leadership positions across academia, government and business. As one of the founding team members of The Petroleum Institute, Dr. Saleh has been instrumental in the development of its central lab facilities, through the formation of unique partnerships with elite research organizations, including the University of Minnesota and Cornell University. 

Having contributed to 30 Documents covering peer reviewed journals and conference proceeding in the fields of chemistry, engineering and energy, Dr. Saleh is a published author in one of the world’s top academia journals, Science.
He is also a patented inventor with multiple U.S patents. Dr. Saleh holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Tufts University in the United States.

Duane S. Boning

Professor of EECS at MIT, Director of the MIT/Masdar Institute Cooperative Program

Dr. Duane S. Boning is the Clarence J. LeBel Professor in Electrical Engineering, and Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in the EECS Department at MIT. He is affiliated with the MIT Microsystems Technology Laboratories, and serves as MTL Associate Director for Computation and CAD. From 2004 to 2011, he served as Associate Head of the EECS Department at MIT, and from 2011 through 2013 as Director/Faculty Lead of the MIT Skoltech Initiative. He is currently Director of the MIT/Masdar Institute Cooperative Program.

Dr.  Boning received his S.B. degrees in electrical engineering and in computer science in 1984, and his S.M. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering in 1986 and 1991, respectively, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was an NSF Fellow from 1984 to 1989, and an Intel Graduate Fellow in 1990. From 1991 to 1993 he was a Member Technical Staff at the Texas Instruments Semiconductor Process and Design Center in Dallas, Texas, where he worked on semiconductor process representation, process/device simulation tool integration, and statistical modeling and optimization.

Nadine Zerrini

Business Development Executive at StratX Simulations

Nadine Zerrini is a Lebanese-American mid-career Master of Liberal Arts Graduate in Business Management from Harvard University. Nadine's professional experience and expertise lie in Education Technology, Marketing Strategy and Professional Education. Serving clients spanning from the Middle East to the North America region, she provides them with digital strategy learning and user experience design.

Nadine is also the President of the Harvard Arab Student Association and represents a strong Arab student community from across all 12 schools of Harvard University.