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Keynote Speakers

PROFESSOR KHALIL ARSHAK
B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D., D.Sc., C. Phys, FInstP, MSPIE, MIEEE, MIEE, C.Eng
 
Prof. Khalil Arshak is a Visiting Professor to Athlone Institute of Technology and also the Professor of Microelectronics in the Electronics and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department, in the Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Limerick (UL). He lectured(s) in microelectronics, solid-state electronics, VLSI technology, design for reliability and digital electronics, and electronic properties of materials. He was a director of AMT Ireland from 1997 to 2003, and also the director of the Microelectronics and Semiconductor Research Centre since 1987 and Assistant Dean of Research of Informatics and Electronics in UL from 1997 to 2003. He has secured over €3.322 million from various research agencies, both national and international.
Prof. Arshak was awarded "Excellence in Research 1995" by UL; C.Eng and Fellow of Institute of Physics 1998; he received his D.Sc. award from the University of Brunel, West London, U.K. in July, 1998.
Prof. Arshak has authored and co-authored more than 400 research publications, among them 2 patents, 1 book (Artech House) and 3 book chapters (American Scientific Publishers), 160 papers in peer reviewed Journals and over 240 in refereed Conferences.
 
Prof. Arshak's current research interests and expertise include:
  • Lithography process modelling
  • Top Surface Imaging processes characterization
  • nanopatterning using optical and FIB lithography
  • Polymers and mixed oxide thin- and thick-film sensor development
  • AC-DC transformers
  • application specific integrated circuit design
  • Numerous sensors developed up to date include: humidity, temperature, pressure, strain gauge, optical, radiation, gas sensors.
  • with integration to electronic nose systems with the focus on miniaturised sensors for medical applications and wireless sensing.
  • VLSI design and process technology.
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    ADVANCES IN REAL TIME DETECTION OF PATHOGENS FOR FOOD & WATER QUALITY MONITORING
    Abstract
    In recent years, there has been greater recognition of the importance of real time pathogen detection in food and water. The presence of micro-organisms especially in food is a natural and unavoidable occurrence. Cooking generally destroys most harmful bacteria, but undercooked foods, processed ready to eat foods, and minimally processed foods can contain harmful bacteria that are serious health threats. Meat, dairy, and poultry products are important reservoirs for many of the foodborne pathogens, including salmonella, campylobacter, listeria, bacillus cereus and escherichia coli o157:h7. Infectious doses of many of these pathogens are as low as ~10 bacterial cells, increasing the vulnerability of the elderly, infants, and people with immunological deficiencies or organ transplants.
    So far a major constrain in pathogen monitoring for food and water safety is the speed of detection. The current methods engaged in tracing the presence of various bacteria in food and water are based on the usage of bulky laboratory equipment and are time consuming. Thus, the question of real-time food and water quality monitoring needs immediate action and it is a matter of both national and international health and safety. In recent years, numerous research efforts are being made for fast, accurate, and even ultra sensitive biosensors for real-time detection of pathogenic micro-organisms. Currently, developing such tools for instant pathogen recognition has been considered as one of the top issues on emerging bio threats prevention. This talk presents an overview of state-of-the-art methods and devices used for point-of-access food and water quality monitoring and suggest further developments in this area.
    DR JAMES CUNNINGHAM (B.B.S., M.B.S. PhD)
    Director of Center for Innovation and Structural Change
    Senior Lecturer, Strategic Management
    National University of Ireland, Galway
     
    Dr. James previously held the positions as the Executive MBA Programme Director and the Head of the Strategy Group. Prior to joining NUI, Galway James held a lecturing position in the Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business at University College Dublin. Prior to this James worked as a strategy consultant. He has published extensively and his publications include books, book chapters, journal papers, case studies and refereed conference papers. James has presented, given key note presentations and chaired sessions at academic and practitioner national and international conferences. He has received a number of awards for his research including two best paper awards at the British Academy of Management Conferences (2002 and 2005), a best paper award at the Irish Academy of Management Conference (2003) and his co-authored case studies have won national and international competitions.
    His main research interests focus on strategy as practice and technology transfer. He has also completed consultancy projects, acted as mentor for start-up businesses and in 2002 held a visiting Professorship at the Department of Management and Organization at Penn State University. James has published four co-authored books. His research on technology transfer has been cited in the Government’s major strategy document entitled, Strategy for Science Innovation and Technology published in 2006. His co-authored book entitled the Strategic Management of Technology Transfer: A New Challenge on Campus was described in a Business and Finance review in December 2006 as: “This book should be part of the policy library our entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and top manager in ICT and R&D oriented sectors.” His latest co-edited book entitled Irish Management 2.0: New Managerial Priorities in a Changing Economy combines articles, case studies and management reflections from a range of academics and practitioners which provide a compelling commentary on the future of management practice and business education in Ireland. His latest publication is an international strategy book entitled Strategy and Strategists published by Oxford University Press.
     
    RESEARCH INTERESTS
  • Strategy as Practice
  • Strategists and Strategy Practitioners
  • Commercialisation and Technology Transfer
  • Academic Entrepreneurship
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    Name : Ali Hussain Reshak
    Designation : Assoc. Prof. Dr. Senior Scientist
    Qualification : M. Sc Laser Physics, Ph.D
    Present Occupation : Group Leader of Computational workgroup-Condensed Matter Physics
      : Group leader of Laser & Optical
      Microscopy laboratory,
      Institute of Physical Biology – South Bohemia University
      Zamek 136, Nove Hrady 37333, 
      Czech Republic
    Contact Address : Institute of Physical Biology - South bohemia University
      Zamek 136,
      Nove Hrady 37333,
      Czech Republic
    Email : maalidph@yahoo.co.uk / reshak@greentech.cz
    Mobile Phone No. : 00420 777 729 583
     
    Brief idea of research interest
    The world is made of materials; our quest is to explore it. The exploration of dimensionality aspects of phase transitions as well as all advanced production of devices requires good knowledge of materials. That knowledge is our mission. Theoretical physics and experimental physics are challenging fields that require a lot of background. For these reasons:
    I do Theoretical and Experimental research in these topics;
  • Condensed Matter Physics (Theoretical and Experimental); calculate the electronic structure, optical (linear and nonlinear) properties and the other properties, searching the promising materials for Li-ion rechargeable batteries. Also calculate the properties of low dimensional nanoscale materials such as nanotubes, nanowires, and thin-films, etc, by using the density functional theory (DFT). In these calculations I have used Full-Potential Linear Augmented Plane Wave (FP-LAPW) method as embodied in the WIEN2K code. Also I have used The Linear Muffin-tin orbital (LMTO) method, VASP code, and some other codes. Also I am Editor of three international journals, and reviewer for some others; Phys. Rev. B, Phys. Rev. Letts,..etc.
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  • Laser, Microscopy & Spectroscopy; Design and construction laser systems and study the electrical and optical properties of these systems in order to use them as tools for laser applications, e.g. for human treatment, Lidar to detect the vegetation area, forest, mountains, roads,……etc and pollution in air and water …
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  • Designing and constructions Two photon / multi-photon laser-scanning microscopy which is the latest technique to be introduced in the filed of fluorescence laser scanning microscopy and Second Harmonic Imaging.
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  • Designing and constructions Multi-functional Two/multi-Photon Laser Scanning Microscopy (MF-TPLSM) by combing three platforms of laser scanning microscopy; the fluorescence microscopy, harmonic generation microscopy and polarizing microscopy for detecting the Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) signals in the forward and backward directions as well as the two photon excitation fluoresce (TPEF).
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  • Confocal laser scanning microscopy
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  • Wide-field fluorescence microscopy
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  • Scanning electron microscope and Transmission electron microscope
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  • Design and construction Microscope systems
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  • Laser & Spectroscopy
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  • Designing Optical Tweezers for any kind of Microscopy to trap the moving object
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  • Photonic Crystals & Biophotonics
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  • Nonlinear crystal (nanocrystal and Bulk crystal)
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  • Second, third and fourth Harmonic Generation
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    Prof Dr Ali Yeon Md Shakaff
    Head Of Sensor Material Cluster
    UniMAP, Malaysia
    Keynote Title : Nurturing Multidisciplinary Research – Outcome of a 5-year Initiative at UniMAP
     
    Dr. Ali Yeon Md.Shakaff is currently a Professor at the School of Mechatronic Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis. His academic career has spanned over a period of 23 years, throughout which he has been thoroughly involved in teaching and research in various areas of electronic engineering. He has also spent a considerable time in academic management, notably in the development of new engineering schools for Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) and before that, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). Prior to joining UniMAP in 2002 (as part of the founding team), he was the Dean for the School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, USM (1996-2002). He was formerly UniMAP’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Academic and International Affairs (2002-2009).
    He has actively participated in research since the early days of microprocessor-based embedded systems development, including those involving the early use of DSPs, parallel processors and FPGAs, for a broad range of applications.
    Since the late 80’s, he has been engaged in multidisciplinary work building electronics for chemical sensing systems. Together with colleagues from diverse backgrounds including chemistry, physics, biology, pharmacy, materials and agriculture, they have built numerous sensing systems, especially those based on the electronic nose and tongue concepts. Over the years, many novel applications have been successfully implemented such as in the quality assessments of food & beverages, herbals and tropical fruits.
    Realising the need for an enhanced multidisciplinary effort to ensure better success in research for a new university, especially in exploring issues in areas such as nanotechnology, biosensors, ‘bio-inspired systems’ and other emerging fields; he helped to initiate the multidisciplinary cluster-based research at UniMAP in 2005. The formation of these clusters has essentially enabled UniMAP to compete more favourably with other more established institutions in the country. He himself is an active member of the ‘Sensor Technology and Applications’ research cluster.
    Prof Ali Yeon was born on 10th Oct 1959 in Kulim, Malaysia. He received his early education at Sultan Abdul Hamid College in Alor Setar and Grimsby College of Technology, England; before continuing for his B.Sc and Ph.D in Electronic Engineering at Newcastle University.