Keynote Speakers

Prof. Mohammad Osman Tokhi received the B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from Kabul University, Afghanistan, in 1978, and the Ph.D. degree from Heriot-Watt University, U.K., in 1988. He is currently a Professor with the School of Engineering, London South Bank University, U.K. His main research interests include active control of noise and vibration, adaptive/intelligent control, assistive robotics, soft computing techniques for modeling and control of dynamic systems, and high-performance real-time computing. He has published extensively and has executed numerous research projects to successful completion in these areas. He is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), and a member of International Institute of Acoustics and Vibration (IIAV) and of Climbing and Walking Robots (CLAWAR) Association. He has worked in various academic positions and in the industry.

Dr. Saat Shukri Embong obtained his first degree in Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from University of Hartford, Hartford, CT, USA on 1994. In 1995, he was awarded with Master of Engineering in Mechatronics and later in 2015, he obtained his Ph.D in Electrical Engineering from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Among the renowned companies that Dr Saat Shukri worked for are STATSChipPAC Inc, Infineon Technologies AG, Texas Instrument Inc, Freescale Semiconductor Inc from 2002 until 2008. In 2009, he joined the Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT) as Head of Technology for Technology Evaluation and Transfer activities under Technology Nurturing division. He later joined MIMOS Berhad (2010) as the Director of Research. He also led various collaboration programs with local and international industries, universities and research institutions during his tenure in this position. Later in 2013, he was assigned to lead the Technology and Product Portfolio Development and Management Group where he supervised various aspects of strategic activities such as to provide market intelligence, identify technologies and products to be developed by R&D Group as well as to bring those outputs to market. In 2016, he was tasked to lead MIMOS Strategy Office whereby he is currently providing the overall strategies for the company’s way forward related to Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) in line with national strategy to position Malaysia in top 20 countries by 2050. Throughout his tremendous tenure of career, he has successfully developed various new technologies, products and solutions as well as securing various intellectual properties in the field which qualified him to be included in the 16th Edition MARQUIS’ Who’s Who In The World.

Assoc . Prof. Dr. Zulkifli Zainal Abidin is a roboticist, obtained his B.Eng Computer and Information Engineering from IIUM in 2003, MSc. and Ph.D from USM, Penang in 2007 and 2013, respectively. He then joined the Mechatronics Engineering Department at IIUM, and has been a member of the faculty there ever since. He is actively engaged with industries and government agencies as a consultant and a subject expert. Among them are; PDRM, PROTON, MARA, Petronas, Petrosains, Temasek Engineering, Delloyd R&D, Jabil, Prostrain Technologies, MARii, HGIS, SIRIM, Altus Oil & Gas Malaysia, and many more. He is presently the director and co-founder of the Center for Unmanned Technologies (CUTe), a Competence Centre Programme under Industry@University by MITI and KPT. He has acquired a number of research projects and grants as a principal worth more than RM5 millions which is mainly from industry funding with more than 10-Research Agreement signed. He was awarded with the Chartered Engineer (C.Eng) status from the Engineering Council UK (IMarEST), an exco member of IEEE Ocean Engineering Society and SAE International Malaysia as well. He has authored/reviewed/the editorial board member of publications in international and local refereed journals and conference proceedings. His research projects are mainly in the area of underwater, ground and space robotic platform development for fieldwork operation, new sensing device and mechanisms, and intelligent control algorithms. Apart from academic activities, he is also actively involved in off-road motorsport as a trainer.

Dr. Rini Akmeliawati is currently an associate professor at the School of Mechanical Engineering, the University of Adelaide. She is a Fellow in Engineers Australia (FIEAust) and Senior Member of IEEE. She is the coordinator of Robotics and Automation Research Group at the University of Adelaide, the Program Coordinator for Mechatronics and Robotics program (a major of Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering (honours) program), and she is co-director of Engagement for the School of Mechanical Engineering. She has been an academic for more than 20 years. She obtained her PhD in Electrical and Electronic Engineering (major: Control Engineering) from the University of Melbourne in 2002, and Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (honours) from RMIT University in 1997. She was a full Professor in the Department of Mechatronics Engineering at the International Islamic University Malaysia in 2012-2018 and Associate Professor in 2008-2012 in the same department. She was a lecturer at School of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering, Monash University (2004-2008) and School of Mathematics and Geospatial Sciences, RMIT University (2001-2004). She was the Vice President of the Malaysian Society of Automatic Control Engineers (MACE) 2016-2018. She was the Chair of IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society – Malaysia Chapter 2007-2009, the treasurer of the same society in 2010, and the educational executive committee in 2016 and secretary of IEEE Control Systems Society – Malaysia Chapter in 2010. She was the chair of Intelligent Mechatronics System Research Unit at the International Islamic University Malaysia in 2010-2018. She has been invited to be Keynote speaker and invited speaker on her research outcomes in International and National Conferences/Symposiums/Colloqiums/Seminars. She has published in total more than 200 research papers in journals, conference proceedings and book chapters. Her research interests are on Control Systems Design (Theory and Applications), Space Robotics, Preicision Agriculture, System Modelling and Identification, and Intelligent Mechatronics Systems. She is currently supervising 8 PhD students and more than 15 honours project students.

Dr. Mohammad F. Obeid received his BS in Industrial Engineering, German-Jordanian University. He pursued his PhD in Modeling and Simulation Engineering from Old Dominion University. Before that, he obtained MS in Modeling and Simulation Engineering from the same institution. Dr. Mohammad joined Shenandoah University in Fall 2019. Prior to that, he was a lecturer at Old Dominion University and a co-investigator at ODU’s Research Foundation. His research revolves around synthetic environments and medical-oriented simulations. In a general sense, his interests encompass extended reality platforms, interactive and predictive surgical and medical simulation, computer-assisted interventions, and multi-dimensional immersive environments to support decision making. His involvement in various multi-institutional research projects in those areas has led to many publications in the field. Other areas he is excited to explore include augmented reality in the OR, tele-medicine and its implications with respect to fidelity and latency, haptic-interactive surgical training, and robotic-assisted surgery.