Porie SAIKIA, FAIA, FCIOB, RIBA, Chartered CM
former director for sustainability at MTA New York
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Porie Saikia is a Registered Architect in NY, RIBA Chartered Architect UK, CIOB Chartered Construction Manager, UK. Porie is also the International Ambassador of the CIOB - the world's largest and most influential professional body for construction management and leadership. CIOB has a Royal Charter to promote the science and practice of building and construction for the benefit of society and has been doing so since 1834. Her industry recognition is evidenced by various elected and selected positions as president, board member, governor, trustee and advisor in the design and construction industry globally. Porie has been awarded the FJ Gerstner Medal by CVUT in Prague & Nelson Rockefeller Excelsior Award in New York and has been made Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and of the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB). Currently as the Senior Director, Environment, Energy, Sustainability & Industrial Hygiene policies, compliance & initiatives at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York (MTA NY), Porie was responsible for taking forward the vision for sustainability leading its Climate Adaptation program, Carbon Action priorities, Energy Efficiency initiatives, Renewables programs as well as environmental policies, compliance and mandates - with MTA’s trillion-dollar asset and $54b capital program.
Svetlana Hristova
South-West University, Bulgaria
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Svetlana Hristova is cultural sociologist and anthropologist, co-founder of the Department of Cultural Studies at the Faculty of Arts at the South-West University, Bulgaria; founder of the Center for Intercultural Dialogue and Integration Sofia, initiator and chair of the Thematic Area Urban Management and Cultural Policies of the City at ENCATC (2008-2014); Vice-President of the Selection Panel of the European Capital of Culture for Bulgaria (2013-2014); member of the international expert panel of European Heritage Label (2019-2021); board member of the Research Network 07 Sociology of Culture within European Sociological Association. Her research interests in the cross-field of sociology of culture, urban studies and visual anthropology are exemplified in national and international projects devoted to public space, cities and their cultures. Author and co-editor of publications in Bulgarian, Russian, English, and French, the most important of which are: Public Space: Between Re-Imagination and Occupation. (Routledge 2018) with MariuszCzepczińsky and Culture and Sustainability of European Cities: Imagining Europolis, Routledge Studies in Culture andSustainable Development. (Routledge 2015) with Milena Dragićević Šešić and Nancy Duxbury.
Prof. Dr. Eng. Abdulnasir Hossen
Sultan Qaboos University in Oman
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Prof. Dr. Eng. Abdulnasir Hossen got his Ph.D. from the Ruhr-University in Bochum-Germany in 1994 and has completed his postdoctoral requirements from the university of Kiel-Germany in 1997, both in the area of digital signal processing. Since July 1999, Dr. Hossen is at the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman. On June 2013, he became a full professor and currently he is the UNESCO Chair on Artificial Intelligence at the Communication and Information Research Center at the same university. His main topics of interests are signal processing in general with emphasis on biomedical signal processing, telemedicine, artificial intelligence and machine learning. Prof. Hossen is a senior member of IEEE, a member of the Advanced Artificial Intelligence Organization, and the university’s representative at the Artificial Intelligence and Digital Transformation Center of the Association of Arab Universities. He is the chairman of the organizing committee for AIAIE-2025 held February 2025 and FOSSC2019 and the International Symposium on Telemedicine and AI in Medicine held at SQU Feb. 2020 and the International Symposium of Adoption of FOSS for Intelligent Education and Digital Economy held at SQU Feb. 2022. Prof. Hossen has about 100 publications in international journals and conferences. He got the DAAD research scholarship award in 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2015, and 2018. Prof. Hossen was a keynote speaker in different international conferences and representing SQU in events of different national universities and international universities in Germany, Finland, Turkey, Spain, Holland, Malaysia, India, Jordan, Iraq, UAE, Bahrain.
Sebastian Heise
COO & Co-Founder, Graphmasters
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Sebastian Heise is Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Graphmasters, a technology company specializing in AI-based traffic management, collaborative routing, and large-scale mobility optimization. Since founding the company, he has been driving the development and deployment of data-driven solutions that actively manage traffic flows across entire transport networks. With a background in computer science and digital media from the University of Bremen, Heise combines strong academic expertise with extensive industry experience, including roles as software architect on large-scale projects in automotive and energy sectors. His work focuses on transforming mobility systems from reactive navigation towards proactive, system-level optimization. Through Graphmasters’ “collaborative routing” approach, vehicles are dynamically distributed across the network based on real-time data and predictive models, enabling more efficient use of infrastructure, reduced congestion, and improved sustainability. Heise’s vision of mobility emphasizes connected, cooperative, and increasingly automated transport systems, where digital platforms, AI, and infrastructure integration play a key role in orchestrating traffic rather than simply responding to it.
