Speakers

Dr. Christian Heinzemann is a senior expert for verification of autonomous systems at Bosch Research. He started to work on verification in the context of autonomous cyber-physical systems during his doctoral studies at the University of Paderborn, Germany. His main research interest is leveraging model-based and formal methods for verifying software in autonomous systems in an industrial context. At Bosch Research, Christian leads a team of researchers working on verification of automated driving applications.

Lounis Adouane has been a Full Professor since September 2019 at Heudiasyc – UTC (Université de Technologie de Compiègne, France), and he was Associate Professor between 2006 and 2019 at the Institut Pascal (IP) – Polytech Clermont-Ferrand. In IP, he led between 2018 and 2019 the ISPR group (80 persons, Images, Perception Systems and Robotics). Dr. Adouane is an active member of the international community of mobile robotics/autonomous vehicles, he is a member of the Technical Committee of Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles – IFAC (as Industry Vice Chair) and he serves as a Senior Editor Board Member of the Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems. He has participated in more than 80 program committees of international conferences and workshops. Further, Dr. Adouane supervised (or currently supervising) 19 PhD Thesis (all linked to mobile robotics and/or intelligent vehicles). Dr. Adouane’s current research focuses on Intelligent Vehicles, more specifically; he is working on two main topics: 1. Autonomous navigation of mobile robots/vehicles in complex environments with a focus on safety and 2. Cooperative control architectures for multi-robot/vehicle systems to fluidify intersections/round-about (application to smart cities and/or on-ramp highways). He is the author/coauthor of more than 150 publications and 2 books on these topics.

Dean Thomas received his Batchelor of Science Degree in Engineering from the University of Southampton and went on to complete a PhD in Signal Processing and Acoustics at the same university. After periods as a university Lecturer at the University of Sussex and a development engineer in the automotive industry, Dr. Thomas joined Roke Manor Research. His work there touched on a very wide range of technologies and applications from baseband signal processing for comms systems to gun sound ranging systems and computer vision solutions. Dr. Thomas was head of the Sensor Systems Technology Centre at Roke for 5 years. In 2018, he was seconded into the UK Space Agency to act as Chief Systems Engineer on the UK GNSS programme and then stayed on to act as the Technical Director of the Space-Based PNT Programme. Dr. Thomas continued to be the technical lead for PNT in the UKSA until 2025, when he joined the Satellite Applications Catapult as the head of PNT.

Nicolas Rebierre is an R&D Manager at Technology Research Institute IRT SystemX, based in Paris-Saclay. He is setting up the European Trustworthy AI Foundation, a nonprofit international association on a mission to empower enterprises with state of the art, open source methodology and tools for Trustworthy AI engineering. Nicolas is leveraging years of experience as engineer, product manager, entrepreneur, and industrial R&D leader, to bootstrap the foundation in cooperation with a strong international ecosystem.

Member, Board of Governors, IEEE Standards Association (IEEE SA); IEEE SA Representative, IEEE Educational Activities Board; VP Industry & Standards Activities, IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society (ITSS); Chair, IEEE ITSS Standards Committee; Member, IEEE Conferences Committee. Previously, Strategic Innovation Manager at Peek Traffic (NL), Program Manager International at the Dutch Institute of Advanced Logistics (NL), and Visiting Professor at the National Laboratory for Automotive Safety and Energy, Tsinghua University (CN). Since 2002, has been actively involved in R&D and innovation projects in Europe. Since 2016, has contributed to standardisation activities of IEEE and ISO/TC 204 – Intelligent transport systems (also Head of Delegation (NL) 2021-2023). PhD at Lund University, Sweden; Master’s title and degree of Engineering in The Netherlands and P.R. China.

Igor Passchier heads Product Management for Simcenter Autonomy at Siemens Digital Industries Software. Igor brings over 25 years of experience in innovation and R&D, with particular expertise in Intelligent Transport Systems and autonomous vehicles. He has had leading roles in developing large-scale test facilities and simulation platforms that are advancing the field of autonomous mobility. Igor co-founded Simulytic, a Siemens venture focused on safety assessment of autonomous vehicles for insurance companies. In his current role, Igor leads Siemens’ strategy for simulation and testing solutions for autonomous vehicles and advanced driver assistance systems. Here, he balances technological innovation with business relevance and societal impact, driving the transformation towards safer autonomous mobility.

Dr.-Ing. Ahmed Hussein is a leading expert in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) with over ten years of experience in both academia and industry. He earned his PhD from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) in 2018, where he led the Intelligent Campus Automobile (iCab) project. Currently, Dr. Hussein serves as the Project Manager for Vehicle Solutions & Automated Driving at IAV GmbH in Berlin, where he oversees several R&D projects in automated driving and also holds the role of Chief Product Owner for Localization and Mapping. In addition to his industry work, Dr. Hussein is a Visiting Professor at multiple universities in Berlin, where he teaches postgraduate courses in computer science and mechatronics. His achievements have been recognized with several awards, including the 2nd Prize in 2019 Dubai World Challenge For Self-Driving Transport, 2nd Prize in the 2018 IEEE ITSS Shaping the Future Competition, among others best (student) paper awards. With deep expertise in sensor fusion, robotics, and computational intelligence, he has made significant contributions to the advancement of intelligent vehicle technologies. Dr. Hussein is also actively involved in the IEEE community as the Vice President for Conference Activities of IEEE ITSS and the Program Chair for IEEE ITSC 2025.