Faculty & Experts

Prof. Dr. David Romero is a Professor of Advanced Manufacturing at the Departments of Industrial Engineering and Mechatronics of the Tecnológico de Monterrey University in Mexico and the Scientific Vice-chairman for the World Manufacturing Foundation. His research interests include: Circular Manufacturing, Service Engineering and Product-Service Systems, Cyber-Physical Systems and Human Systems, Advanced Production Management Systems, Green Virtual Enterprises, and Technology and Engineering Management in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. He is a member of the Society of Collaborative Networks, the IFAC TC5.3 on Enterprise Integration and Networking, the IFIP WG5.7 on Advances in Production Management Systems, the IFIP WG5.12 on Architectures for Enterprise Integration, the IEEE Technology and Engineering Management Society, and the IEEE Internet of Things Community. Furthermore, he is an Agenda Contributor at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Council on “Shaping the Future of Advanced Manufacturing and Value Chains”, and a World Manufacturing Forum (WMF) Ambassador. He has published more than 200 journal and international conference articles. He serves on different technical and scientific committees and advisory boards in academia, industry, and government in the disciplines of business and industrial engineering. Nowadays, he is focused on promoting the concepts of the “Operator 4.0/5.0” and “Digital Lean Manufacturing”; the father of both terms.

Prof. Dr. Dimitris Kyritsis (Kiritsis) is Professor Emeritus of ICT for Sustainable Manufacturing at EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland, Academic Director of the EPFL Extension School program on Sustainable Resilient Value Chains, Senior Adviser at the Department of Informatics of the University of Oslo, Norway and Senior Adviser at the Swiss Smart Factory, Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. His research interests are Closed Loop Lifecycle Management, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Industrial Ontologies, Knowledge Graphs and Cognitive Digital Twins for industrial applications. He served as Guest Professor at the IMS Center of the University of Cincinnati, and Invited Professor at the University of Technology of Compiègne, the University of Technology of Belfort-Montbéliard and at ParisTech ENSAM Paris. Dimitris is actively involved in EU research programs in the area of Connected Factories of the Future, Zero Defect Manufacturing, Circular Manufacturing, Twin (Green and Digital) Transition etc. He has more than 250 publications. Dimitris served as Director of the Doctoral Program on Robotics, Control and Intelligent Systems of EPFL from 2019 t0 2021. From 2013 to 2019 Dimitris was the Chair of IFIP WG5.7-Advances in Production Management Systems. He is founding member of the International Society for Engineering Asset Management and co-founder of the Industrial Ontologies Foundry (2016) and of the Knowledge Graph Alliance (2023). Dimitris was Member of the Advisory Group LEIT-NMBP of the European Commission from 2013 to 2017 and Member of the WEF Global Future Council on Advanced Manufacturing and Value Chains from 2019 to 2022. Since 2022 he is Editor-in-Chief of the Open Access journal Frontiers in Manufacturing Technology and since 2023 Member of the WEF Impact Circle: Digital Transformation of Industries.

Dominic Gorecky, a partner and executive board member at Switzerland Innovation Park Biel/Bienne AG, is a driving force in the world of Industry 4.0. His multifaceted roles paint a vivid picture of his impact: 1. The Pioneer of Swiss Smart Factory: Dominic co-founded and now leads the Swiss Smart Factory, Switzerland’s premier test and demonstration platform for Industry 4.0. Here, innovation thrives, and industry players collaborate to push boundaries. 2. Educator and Visionary: He founded the International Smart Factory Academy (IFSA), equipping professionals with the skills needed for the smart manufacturing revolution. He shares his expertise by teaching various technology topics, including digital twins, Cobotics, and IIoT in manufacturing. 3. Championing Collaborative Robotics: As the President of the Swiss Cobotics Competence Center (S3C), Dominic spearheads with other experts the national hub where experts from industry and academia jointly develop and test cutting-edge cobotic solutions. 4. A Global Perspective: Before his Swiss endeavors, Dominic served as the head of research at the Innovative Factory Systems department within the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) in Kaiserslautern. His role extended to coordinating R&D efforts for the living lab SmartFactoryKL. He also supported the design and operation of Smart Factory hubs around the globe, including the Malaysia Smart Factory 4.0 in Selangor, Malaysia. 5. Impact Beyond Borders: Dominic actively contributor to global manufacturing community, e.g. contributing to the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences (SATW), World Economic Forum (WEF) and EIT Manufacturing. 6. Nurturing Start-ups: An entrepreneur at heart, Dominic advises and supports start-ups in the exciting landscape of Industry 4.0. 7. Researcher and Industry 4.0 Advocate: Dominic has an impressive track record, having authored over 40 publications. His work actively contributes to the early emergence of Industry 4.0 in Germany. His Ph.D. research delved into the application of semantic technologies within the context of digital factories. 8. Digital Shaper Recognition: In 2022, Dominic received well-deserved recognition as a Digital Shaper in Switzerland.

Dr. Chua Wen-Shyan is currently the Head of Malaysian Smart Factory 4.0 under the Selangor Human Resource Development Centre (SHRDC). His key area of expertise lies mainly in the area of Control and Automation Systems, Fault Detection and Identification (FDI), and Predictive Maintenance Strategies; which are widely used in Industry 4.0 applications. As the Head of Malaysian Smart Factory 4.0, Dr. Chua and his team are focused in delivering high impact technology and talent development programs to accelerate the growth of talents who would be the workforce in supporting the growth of Industry 4.0. He is also currently one of the Certified Consumer Sustainability Readiness Index (COSIRI) Assessor (CCA) and Smart Industry Readiness Index (SIRI) Assessor (CSA) in which him and his team are passionate in supporting companies to achieve sustainable smart factories. The programs developed by his team at the Malaysian Smart Factory 4.0 are also able to support the industries and community towards achieving sustainable digital transformation through a unique people-focused strategy and training to implementation methodology. The Malaysian Smart Factory 4.0 team currently focuses on development of applications related to Digital Factory, Digital Twin, Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) and Digital Process Optimization.

Professor Duck Young Kim is a full professor with the Department of Industrial and Management Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, South Korea. He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Industrial Engineering from POSTECH and the Ph.D. degree from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, in 2006. He has solid industrial and academic experience as a Research Fellow with the DAEWOO Institute for Advanced Engineering, Yongin, South Korea, Warwick Manufacturing Group, Coventry, U.K., and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland. He is currently an associate editor of Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing and the director of the POSTECH-APPLE Manufacturing R&D Accelerator (https://accelerator.postech.ac.kr/). His current research interests include industrial AI and autonomous manufacturing systems for the factories of the future.

Foivos Psarommatis is a passionate engineer and a highly active researcher in the area of quality management in manufacturing systems. Currently, he is the founder and CEO of Zerofect, a company based in Switzerland and focusing on providing digital technologies for sustainable manufacturing. Additionally, he is a researcher at the University of Oslo (UiO). More specifically is a pioneer in the area of Zero Defect Manufacturing (ZDM), as is the first who modernized and set the foundation of modern ZDM. His scientific interests, motivation and vision are around Industry 4.0 and on how ZDM can be applied efficiently to production systems, focusing on the decision making, scheduling and design of a system or a product, with ultimate goal to achieve true sustainable manufacturing. Regardless the young if his age he was listed in world’s top 2% of Scientists for 2022. He is actively involved in EU research programs in the area of Factories of the Future and Enabling ICT for Sustainable Manufacturing. Foivos holds a BSc and an MSc in Mechanical engineering with specialization on design and manufacturing engineering from the University of Patras. He has also a second MSc from National University of Athens in Automation systems with specialization on manufacturing and production systems. He did his PhD around the topic of Zero Defect Manufacturing École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne ‐ EPFL. Foivos is the chair on a CEN/CENELEC working group responsible for standardizing ZDM.

Dr. Siller is an educator and researcher with experience in fundamental research, administration of academic programs, teaching, and applied and industry-funded research. He is Associate Chair and Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of North Texas. His research areas include advanced manufacturing processes, additive and sustainable manufacturing. During his career, he has advised more than 30 graduate students and published around 60 research papers in international journals. He is an editorial board member and guest editor for different journals and conference proceedings. He has received funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, NASA, the Department of State, and the British Council, among other agencies.

Dr. Milan Kumar has a wealth of experience as a Global Chief Digital and Information Officer (CDIO) and a distinguished figure in the field of global technology, renowned as a TEDx speaker, educator, international author of CIO Series, startups mentor. He currently serves as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of ZF Commercial Vehicles (CVS) based in Switzerland. Dr. Kumar is a former Global Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Chief Digital Officer (CDO) with WABCO (NYSE: WBC). Before this, he has held several Senior Global IT leadership positions within the VOLKSWAGEN Group, including as Director and Board Member of VOLKSWAGEN IT Services IPL and CIO/ COO of the VW ITS. Throughout his career, Dr. Kumar had supported Fortune 500 companies, such as BMW Group, General Motors, British Airways, Reliance etc. Dr. Kumar actively contributes as a Member of the Forbes Technology Council, Evanta Gartner CIO Governance Body, Swiss CxO Forum and World Economic Forum (WEF). He is a winner of several Global “CIO Awards”, “Global Digital CIO” etc. and Holds a Ph.D. in the area of “Artificial Intelligence” and completed the Harvard Business School’s “Driving Growth Through Innovation” executive program.

Eng Mohamed Taher MOUNI, is an industrial engineer with a background of Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. He held several positions as head of Performance and Industry 4.0 in Aerospace, Automotive and Pharma. With a decade of experience in deploying IIOT for real time monitoring, digital transformation assessments and Cobots in several industries. He’s also a founding expert of the Alliance for Industry 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing in Africa (AISMA), an initiative launched by UNIDO.