Speakers 2021

Keynote Speakers

Mardeni Roslee

Multimedia University, Malaysia

Chair, IEEE Malaysia Communication Society & Vehicular Technology Joint Chapters

The Future Trend of Telecommunication Networks: D2D Communication of 5G/6G Networks

Lately, there has been a lot of interest in the future trend of telecommunication networks which is the fifth generation (5G) and sixth generation (6G) on this series of wireless communication. As everyone know, in a conventional cellular networks, devices are not allowed to directly communicate with each other in the licensed cellular bandwidth and all communications take place through the base stations. This aim of this keynote is to introduce the concepts of 5G/6G wireless network which is Device-to-Device (D2D) communication in cellular networks, which is defined as direct communication between two mobile users without traversing the Base Station (BS) or core network. D2D communication is generally non-transparent to the cellular network and it can occur on the cellular frequencies such as inband or unlicensed spectrum such as outband. Furthermore, the 6G communication system is expected to be a global communication facility. The 6G system is expected to provide simultaneous wireless connectivity which is 1000 times higher than 5G. Moreover, ultra long range communication network is less than 1ms latency is become the interest.

Short biography

Mardeni Roslee is a Chairman of Research Centre of Wireless Technology, Multimedia University, Cyberjaya, Malaysia. At international level, he is a Chairman of IEEE Malaysia Comsoc/VTS and Vice Chair of Malaysian Radar & Navigations, Malaysian Society for Engineering & Technology. He is the CEO and main founder of Armada Smart Tech MR Sdn. Bhd. and registered Chartered Engineer with Engineering Council United Kingdom, and Member with The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), UK. His experiences include consultation, professional institution and academic sectors. His current research interest are 5G/6G wireless networks, satellite and Internet of Things. He has involved as international consultant of private and government sectors and as the principle investigator of research grant of industry, local and international level. His contributions to academic and the engineering professional over the years have earned him recognitions nationally and internationally, he is the recipient of University Excellent Researcher Award for 2016 and 2018 from MMU, Excellence in European Creativity Special Award 2018 from Romania, World Invention Special Award 2019 from World Invention Intellectual Property Associations (WIIPA) and Outstanding Researcher Award 2020 from IEEE VTS, USA.

Achieving Smart Grid Security with Digital Twins
The exponential growth of the Internet of Things in recent years has created an ever larger cyber attack surface, introducing new security vulnerabilities for all computerized systems. Among the most significant of those systems are industrial control systems (ICS) consisting of many cyber physical components, and smart grids are a prominent example of ICS, whose failures have potential to cause major disruptions in all aspects of our daily lives. In this talk, we will review major threats against smart grid environments and discuss a digital twins based approach for the security evaluation of the complete life cycle of a smart grid, by accurately modeling the functioning of the physical grid and avoiding service disruptions caused by running security tests on the actual grid.

Short biography
Dr. Pelin Angın is an Assistant Professor of Computer Engineering at Middle East Technical University. She completed her B.S. in Computer Engineering at Bilkent University in 2007 and her Ph.D. in Computer Science at Purdue University, USA in 2013. Between 2014-2016, she worked as a Visiting Assistant Professor and Postdoctoral Researcher at Purdue University. Her research interests lie in the fields of cloud computing and IoT security, distributed systems, 5G networks and blockchain. She is among the founding members of the Systems Security Research Laboratory and an affiliate of the Wireless Systems, Networks and Cybersecurity Laboratory at METU. She serves on the editorial boards of multiple journals on IoT and mobile computing. Her work in security has been published at high impact journals including IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, Computers & Security and IEEE Access among others.

Conversion of Biomass waste to value added feedstock for solid biofuels and green energy production

The exploitation of alternative, green fuels such as the lignocellulosic (woody and herbaceous) biomass waste in energy production, offers the advantages of: i) improved waste management, ii) resource efficiency, iii) reduced dependence on imported energy and iv) increased renewables usage in power production. Low carbon thermochemical processes such as pyrolysis and gasification, in combination with exploitation of biomass waste can reduce the carbon footprint of the energy production sector and offer an additional source of income to farmers and agro industries. When woody and herbaceous waste (e.g. empty fruit bunches and kernels, rice straws) are fed in raw form into fluidised bed technologies (FBGs) such gasifiers for bioenergy production, operational problems like ash fusion and bed agglomeration appear. To ensure a sustainable and efficient operation of such technologies fed on biomass waste, raw material needs to be pre-treated in order to ensure long term operation of bioenergy systems without disturbance as well as optimize the economics of these new fuels by solving logistic issues. As a result these optimised biomass fuels will accelerate the decarbonization of the energy production sector. In this way any underestimated biomass ‘waste’ sources produced locally will be upgraded to a highly desirable and sustainable feedstock for further bioenergy related uses and innovation which is brought by a multidisciplinary approach in the field.

Short Bio

Dr V. Skoulou is the Director of Research of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Departments at the University of Hull, Kingston Upon Hull, UK and Senior Lecturer (Assoc. Professor) in Chemical Engineering-Bioenergy.  She completed her UG studies in Chemical Engineering at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh), Greece, acquiring a BSc and Integrated Master in Chemical Engineering (2002). She acquired a PhD in Chemical Engineering-Energy production from biomass waste via the thermochemical route (Chem. Engineering Dep, AUTh, 2009) and an MSc in Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development (2010, Civil Engineering Dep. AUTh). After 5 years’ as a PDRA researcher and consultant in UK (ICL, London) and abroad, she joined the UK academia. Today, she is an active researcher leading the B³: Biomass Waste – Bioenergy H₂ – Biochars Challenge Group of PGRs and PDRAs, be guest editor in Sustainability and Energies Journals (MDPI) while participated as PI/CoI in more than 20 research grants in the field of waste to energy solutions. Her expertise covers the advanced thermal/ thermochemical treatments (mainly pyrolysis and gasification) of lignocellulosic biomass waste, solid fuels, waste and their blends as well as designing of thermochemical reactors for waste to energy and chars- activated carbons production.

Green Energy Adoption by Design: Change Drivers, Exploration & Enablers

The development of energy sector is dynamic and strongly interconnected with the aspects of economy, social, and environment. Viewing back, the use of steam energy has really transitioned the world from manual human- and animal-based labours into machines that can mass produce goods and services. This industrial revolution has really upgraded the socioeconomic of the world, but also has accelerated some major threats such as global warming due to the extensive release of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. To re-establish the balance, serious change is required within the energy sector to shift the current trend towards the use of resources that are more sustainable and low carbon in nature. This includes the aggressive adoption of clean and green energy sources to replace the existing non-renewable sources such petroleum-based fuels. Although this is the general rules of thumb, it is very important to tackle the issue on the ground based by taking consideration on the real context of a problem and the available options. The real drivers of change in the energy sector shall be explored in depth before identifying the values that are potentially associated with the change initiated towards a new investment. The solution provided shall be by design rather than simply playing catch-up based on reports on the literatures. The exploration into the green energy spectrum takes into consideration the real demand, favour of the market and environmental impacts. This is then merged with the advancement of technology that is available as an enabler to achieve the goal of adopting green energy into practical utilisation.

Short Bio

Dr Ng is the Head of Research and Development at Sarawak Energy, a horizontal electrical power utility company that serves the state of Sarawak, Malaysia. He is driving the technology innovation for the company that focuses on the key areas of clean energy exploration, energy management, grid solutions, environmental sciences, and autonomous and robotic technology. Prior to this appointment, he is the Associate Professor and Executive Director at the School of Research, Swinburne University of Technology, Sarawak Campus. His technical research interests are in the field of sensors and remote monitoring, where he develops novel sensing materials and nanomaterials, integrating portable sensor devices, and correlating array of sensing signals into new application. Besides technical interest, he is also passionate in the subject of translating research into application, research area of leading organisation towards innovation and strategy in the age of technology disruption.