Category: 2017 Speaker

Professor José Daniel Melo

Professor Melo has been Rector of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte since May 2019. Before that, he held the positions of Vice Rector (2015-2019) and Dean of the School of Engineering and Architecture (2011-2015). Prof. Melo received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Colorado State University (2002), M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maine (1993), and B.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering (1990) and in Civil Engineering (1997) from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte. He was Visiting Scholar at the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics of Stanford University from 2008 to 2019. Prof. Melo has worked in the field of Composite Materials for over 30 years. His main research interests and contributions are in design and mechanical characterization of polymer composites. In this area, he advised many graduate students, published three books and numerous papers in peer-reviewed journals and international conference proceedings. Prof. Melo is also Associate Editor of the Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites.

Shane McHugh

Shane McHugh is Head of International Activities at the Royal Academy of Engineering, and is responsible for Responsible for developing international strategy, and developing, overseeing and delivering the Academy’s £9m annual portfolio of international grant programmes, including major individual and institutional capacity building programmes under the Newton Fund and Global Challenges Research Fund. Achievements in the role include designing and delivering the Leaders in Innovation Fellowship Programme, which has now provided entrepreneurship training to 500 innovative researchers in 14 emerging economies, and delivering the first ever Global Grand Challenges Summit in London 2013. He has been a member of the UK-South Africa Research and Innovation Council and UK-India Research and Innovation task force, and has served as a reviewer for major EPSRC and British Council international grant programmes.

Professor Dr Fazal Ahmad Khalid

Fazal Ahmad Khalid (born 31 December 1957), SI, PhD, CEng, is a Pakistani metallurgical engineer .

Professor Khalid has extensive experience of industry, teaching and research. His research interests are in the field of nanotechnology, automotive and engineering materials, in the interfacial and nanostructures in composites and alloys, development of orthopedic implants and prostheses and shape memory alloys, in the deformation and mechanical behaviour of tungsten, metallic alloys and composites at high strain rate, and high temperature oxidation behaviour of stainless steels and superalloys and processing of Al-diamond, Al-C60 Cu-CNT nanocomposites and Al-TiO2 mechanically alloyed nanomaterials.

While working as Research Fellow and Visiting Professor at Universities of Oxford and Leeds and Empa Swiss Federal Institute he has been involved in the research related to high strain rates deformation and hydocode modeling and structure/property relationships in metals and alloys and processing of composites for thermal management applications and nanotechnology. Earlier he worked as AXEN and Senior Engineer in Pakistan Steel Karachi and PCSIR Lahore, respectively.

Currently he is the vice-chancellor of University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore. He holds bachelor and advanced degrees of Metallurgical Engineering. He is a graduate of the same university.

Dr Robert Haché

Dr. Robert Haché is Vice-President Research and Innovation at York University, where he is responsible for promoting and overseeing the strategic development of research.  Haché has been instrumental in building research collaborations and partnerships with international universities.  He also oversees institutional supports for research, such as Innovation York, which provides services to York researchers, government and industry partners within five service streams including: commercialization, industry liaison, agreements, entrepreneurship and the internationally award-winning Knowledge Mobilization stream, which has been increasingly recognized for its leadership in social innovation.

Dr. Haché has driven the institutional strategic research priorities forward with the development and implementation of the University’s Strategic Research Plan, Building on Strength 2013-2018, and the University’s Plan for the Intensification and Enhancement of Research, while working to strengthen the University’s research profile both nationally and internationally

Prior to York, he served as the Associate Vice-President Research at the University of Calgary. He has also served as Vice-Dean Research for the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa.

A molecular and cellular biologist and biochemist with a substantial record of publications, Dr. Haché has made invaluable contributions to the understanding of how steroid hormone signaling takes place in cells and how cells respond to DNA damaging agents. He has received research grants and awards from the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR), National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC), National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and other organizations.

Dr. Haché holds a BSc (biochemistry) from McGill University and a PhD (biochemistry) from Queen’s University.

Professor Richard Greene

Professor Greene graduated in medicine and also holds a PhD in Pharmacology and an MBA. He was a research fellow at the University of Oxford for six years before being appointed to a Lectureship in Biomedical Science at the University of Sheffield in 1998. In 2001 he became a Senior Lecturer at the University of Bristol and was appointed Chair in Anatomy at University College Cork in 2008. He moved to the University of Bradford in 2010 as Dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences and in 2016 took up his current role as Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange at Manchester Metropolitan University. He has held non-executive directorships at the Company of Anatomists and Incanthera Ltd and was elected recently to serve as a Councillor for the North West Region of the CBI.

Mike Hulett

Mike is the Head of Operations for the National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU), part of the National Crime Agency, responsible for leading the UK’s Law Enforcement response to cyber crime. The NCCU has around 250 officers based at 4 sites , with a range of investigation, intelligence, technical, digital forensics, data analysis and financial investigation skills.

Mike is responsible for leading the highest level and most complex investigations into cyber crime in the UK, utilising support from across UK & international law enforcement agencies, other UK Government departments and a range of industry partners. NCCU Operations also coordinate and support cyber crime investigations undertaken by police Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs) and local police forces across the UK.

The majority of Mike’s career has been spent leading serious organised crime investigations across a variety of sectors including drugs, firearms, money laundering, corruption, kidnap, organised immigration crime and now cyber crime. Mike holds a Master’s degree in criminology from the University of Cambridge, and lives in the home counties with his wife and two young children.

Professor Kevin Hall

Professor Kevin Hall has had a distinguished academic career holding senior academic leadership roles in universities in Australia and Canada. Professor Hall studied a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science at Queen’s University in Canada and completed his PhD in Civil Engineering at the University of New South Wales, Australia. Professor Hall has spearheaded UON’s entrepreneurship and innovation initiatives, leading the establishment of the Integrated Innovation Network (I2N) of five innovation incubators across the Hunter region. He was also instrumental in state funding for the Hunter Innovation Project, including UON’s new Innovation Hub. A highly respected leader in the Australian higher education sector, Professor Hall has been appointed to the Australia Research Council Advisory Council. He has also taken on a national role in developing industry and innovation policy, serving as an invited member of the Australian Research Council’s steering committee for Industry Engagement and Impact Metrics. He is also a founding board member of the Sydney School of Entrepreneurship and a member of the NSW Minister for Health’s China Advisory Committee. Professor Hall has been a board member on 18 state and national corporations and not-for-profit entities.

Dr Olivia Feng

Dr. Olivia Feng is Founder & CEO of ICAN Future Star ltd., a young but ambitious edtech company disrupting the international student recruitment market with innovative mobile solutions to empower universities and applicants worldwide.

Originally from China, Olivia studied in the U.K. for 10 years completing her PhD in Behavioural Accounting.

Olivia is proud to employ team members from all over the world and champion women in technology building open and honest company culture and welcoming diversity. The team have extensive experience studying or working abroad and feed their first hand challenges into product development. Our vision is to make studying abroad an easier and more rewarding experience for ambitious young people. Our long-term plan is to be a streamlined end-to-end platform for all study abroad application needs.

The company is the official provider for the University of Glasgow’s HelloUofG app and Coventry University’s HelloCoventry app for engaging and attracting its prospective applicants. ICAN is the market leader providing application and conversion solutions for universities and prospective applicants worldwide. Our HelloUni B2B2C platform is a customisable cloud-based enterprise solution which uses machine learning to connect applicants with universities and help universities optimise applicant engagement and conversion. hellouni were awarded a SMART R&D grant for a machine learning university finder app.

Kersten England

Kersten took up post as Chief Executive of Bradford Council in August 2015. Bradford has one of the youngest populations of any City in the UK and an ethnically diverse and entrepreneurial population. The District is enjoying a period of economic growth; growth of indigenous companies and inward investment, major capital schemes and opening of the regions 3rd largest retail centre. Her key challenges are to ensure that growth in the Bradford economy is sustained and that there is a significant uplift in levels of educational attainment within the District.

This takes place against a backdrop of dramatic reductions in central government funding for local government, devolution to City Regions and huge pressures in the delivery of social care and health.

Prior to taking up post in Bradford, Kersten was Chief Executive of York for six years. In this time the city, recovering after recession, experienced strong growth, with ‘functional full employment’ and high levels of business start up. Key highlights of the six years included the introduction of the living wage by many employers in the city, development of the first ‘gigabit city infrastructure’, designation of the city as a UNESCO ‘City of Media Arts’ and hosting of a stage start of the Grand Depart of the Tour de France in 2014.

Kersten is the lead Chief Executive for innovation and growth in the Leeds City Region, a trustee of Nesta (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), a member of the Council of the University of Bradford and of the National Media Museum’s Advisory Board.

Kersten’s career has included work in the voluntary sector, higher education, central government as well as 21 years in local government. She is passionate about community capacity building, diversity and equality, supporting civic leadership and sustainable urban growth.

David Docherty

David Docherty is Chief Executive of the National Centre for Universities and Business, and Chairman of the Digital Television Group, the industry body for digital television in the UK.  He was the first BBC Director of New Media and Deputy Managing Director of BBC Television.  He led cable company Telewest’s (now Virgin’s) drive into broadband content and services as MD Broadband, and has been Chief Executive of two television and interactive media companies.  In the public sector, he was Chair of Governors of the University of Bedfordshire, and a member of various government advisory panels on new media, technology, and higher education. He serves on the Research Excellence Framework Panel and the Strategically Important and Vulnerable Subjects Committees for the Higher Education Funding Council of England (HEFCE) as well as HEFCE’s Enterprise and Skills Committee. He is on the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC’s) Digital Economy Panel, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC’s) Creative Economy Board and the Technology Strategy Board (TSB’s) Interim Advisory Board for the Digital Economy Catapult.

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