Dr. Ben Amaba holds a PhD. degree in Industrial & Systems Engineering, a M.B.A./M.S. degree in Engineering and Operations, and a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering. Dr. Amaba is a registered and licensed Professional Engineer in several states with International Registry; certified in Production, Operations, and Inventory Management by APICS ®; LEED® Accredited Professional (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design); and certified in Corporate Strategy by Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is responsible for industrial manufacturing, infrastructure, engineering, and supply chain solutions. Dr. Amaba is the Chief Technology Officer for the Industrial Sector, IBM Data Sciences and Artificial Intelligence Team Elite. Dr. Amaba’s focus and interest is in artificial intelligence, data sciences, and cloud technology. Dr. Amaba holds a copyright for Process Activity Flow Framework®, framework for requirements, design, architecture, simulation, and application development techniques. Dr. Amaba is prominently featured in “Giving 2.0,” by Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen with Stanford Business School, which details contributions to bolster and promote STEM education and careers, and is an Alexis de Tocqueville Society/United Way Member, which recognizes local philanthropic leaders. Dr. Amaba holds positions as Industry Council Advisor to Project Production Institute, Board of Director of Whoop Wireless Corporation, UCX Corporation, and RANCS Group LLC, Executive Board Member of Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (AHFE) and Editorial Board Member to IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) IT Professionals, Board Member to the Council on Industrial and Systems Engineering, founding member to the Institute of Advanced Systems Engineering, Founding member to the Center of Advanced Supply Chain Management, Editorial Board of The Open Cybernetics and Systemics Journal, and Executive Advisory Board Member to the University of Miami, University of Houston, and University of Central Florida.

Dr. Carrie Beam holds a Ph.D. and an M.S. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, and a B.S.E. degree in Civil Engineering and Operations Research. She is a Teaching Associate Professor in the fully online Master of Science in Operations Management Program at the University of Arkansas, where she teaches courses in statistics, risk management, operations management, data analytics, and other quantitative methods to online graduate and undergraduate students. She has been teaching online for over a decade, and has spoken widely on how to move face-to-face classes online. Two of her most popular talks are “Moving Online: How Exactly to Repackage a Face to Face Class into an Awesome Online Experience,” given at the INFORMS Annual meeting in 2018, and “Moving Online in a Weekend: Distance Education in the Nick of Time,” given in March 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded. She is also the chair of the 2021 Franz Edelman Award committee.

Ken Buxton, Principal Director with Accenture Strategy, has over 35 years of experience and leadership helping clients become more competitive and profitable by applying the appropriate tools and concepts to identify, diagnose, and solve supply chain, manufacturing, and service problems. Ken is a leader in Prime Value Chain (PVC), Lean Six Sigma (LSS), Constraint Management (TOC), Maintenance & Reliability, and Intelligent Supply Chain Transformation. Ken holds a bachelors degree in industrial engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and an MBA in operations management from Georgia State University. He is a trained Lean Master, TOC Jonah, and Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt.

Dr. Chen-Fu Chien is Tsinghua Chair Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering & Engineering Management, National Tsing Hua University (NTHU), Hsinchu, Taiwan. He is also a Micron Chair Professor sponsored by Micron Foundation, USA. Dr. Chien is the Director of Artificial Intelligence for Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (AIMS) Research Center, which is one of four national AI centers sponsored by Ministry of Science & Technology (MOST), Taiwan. He is the founder and chairing professor for the Decision Analysis Laboratory (DALab), the NTHU-TSMC Center for Manufacturing Excellence, and the Semiconductor Technologies Empowerment Partners Consortium (STEP Consortium), Taiwan. He received B.S. with double majors in Industrial Engineering and Electrical Engineering with the Phi Tau Phi Honor from NTHU in 1990. He received M.S. in Industrial Engineering and Ph.D. of Decision Sciences and Operations Research at UW-Madison, in 1994 and 1996, respectively. He was a Fulbright Scholar in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, UC Berkeley, from 2002 to 2003. From 2005 to 2008, he had been on-leave as the Deputy Director of Industrial Engineering Division in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). He received the Executive Training of PCMPCL from Harvard Business School in 2007. He was a Visiting Professor at the Institute for Manufacturing, Cambridge University (sponsored by Royal Society, UK), Visiting Professor in Beijing Tsinghua University (sponsored by Chinese Development Foundation), Visiting Professor in Waseda University (sponsored by Japan Interchange Association Young Scholar Fellowship), and Visiting Professor in Tianjin University and Zhejiang University, China. His research efforts center on decision analysis, big data analytics, modeling and analysis for semiconductor manufacturing, manufacturing strategy, and manufacturing intelligence. Dr. Chien and his DALab Associates have conducted in-depth university-industry collaborative research projects with the leaders of different industrial segments to validate developed solutions and served as senior consultant for leading companies including TSMC, MediaTek, Delta, and AUO. Dr. Chien has received 12 USA invention patents on intelligent manufacturing and published 6 books, more than 170 journal papers (1 HiCi) and 12 case studies in Harvard Business School. He has been invited to give keynote speech in various conferences including APIEMS, C&IE, FAIM, IEEE, IEEM, IML, ISMI, ISSM, leading universities and international companies worldwide. He is a Fellow of APIEMS, CIIE, and CSMOT. Dr. Chien received the National Quality Award, the Executive Yuan Award for Outstanding Science & Technology, three Distinguished Research Awards and Tier 1 Principal Investigator (Top 3%) from MOST, Distinguished University-Industry Collaborative Research Award from the Ministry of Education, University Industrial Contribution Awards from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the TECO Award, the 2011 Best Paper Award of IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, and the 2015 Best Paper Award of IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing. He is a member of the Board of Directors for BoardTek (TWSE: 5349) and Uniflex (TWSE: 3321) and Just College UNISON Foundation.

Dr. Diallo is a scientist and educator in the domain of innovation and equal access to technology. He is VMASC’s lead researcher in Human Simulation and Simulated Empathy where he applies Modeling, Simulation and Analytics to study the connection between people on all spectrums and artificial beings. Dr. Diallo works with a multidisciplinary team of artists, scientists, humanities scholars and engineers to tackle societal issues that transcend disciplines. His current work involves modeling religion, culture and civilizations and the use of artificial intelligence to improve independent living. He is also involved in developing platforms and solutions to promote an inclusive us of technology across all spectrums. Dr. Diallo graduated with an M.S. in Engineering in 2006 and a Ph.D. in Modeling and Simulation in 2010 both from Old Dominion University. He is the current President of the Society for Modeling and Simulation International (SCS) and serves on several boards in the United States. Dr. Diallo has over one hundred publications in peer-reviewed conferences, journals and books.