Bios:

Mahdi M. Najafabadi has received his PhD degree in Information Science from University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY) and will be joining the State University of California, Northridge as an Assistant Professor of Information Systems starting Fall 2022. Dr. Najafabadi’s research is at the intersection of evidence-based data analysis and informed decision-making. He studies how new Information Technology (IT) capabilities and analytical tools and techniques enhance decision processes at different levels, in cities, communities, at corporations and organizations, and at the individual level. His research interests include impact of IT and IT decisions on sociotechnical ecosystems; social network analysis; and simulation modeling for education and decision support.

Mohammadali Tofighi received a B.S. degree in civil engineering from Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran, in 2001, the M.S. degree in civil engineering from K.N.T. University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 2006, and Ph.D. in civil engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 2013. He is currently a Post-Doctoral Fellow at ADERSIM, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, York University. He has worked as an adjunct assistant professor at the Sharif University of Technology and assistant professor at Ale-Taha Institute of Higher Education, Tehran, Iran. He is an expert in water resources management and modelling. His research interests lie in simulation, water resources engineering, numerical modelling, and machine learning methods. Dr. Tofighi has recently participated in several multidisciplinary projects in disaster management, health care, and risk analysis. LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/2OEBPao

Jalal Possik is a research associate at York University. He is an Engineer and a PhD holder in Computer and Industrial Engineering. He was born in Lebanon in 1986. He received his Computer and Communication Engineering degree from the Holy Spirit University - Lebanon in 2010. He finished his PhD in Computer and Industrial Engineering at the University of Bordeaux - France in 2019. Throughout his career, he acquired a rich and valuable experience in virtualization, cloud computing, servers’ high availability and failover clustering, as well as a high knowledge in IT infrastructure and security, especially for the banking and educational sectors. He conceived and developed a Java/HLA-based distributed simulation system allowing data exchange, interoperability, and time synchronization between different heterogeneous manufacturing systems. In 2018, he participated as a Team Leader in the SEE (Simulation Exploration Experience) project led by NASA. His research interests are mainly focused on Modeling and Simulation, Distributed Simulation, Interoperability, IT Solutions, Process Modeling, Optimization, Mathematical Modeling, Smart Manufacturing, Industry 4.0, Lean Management, and Artificial Intelligence. On a personal level, Jalal enjoys sports and music. He plays the piano. He has studied music composition, arrangement, and orchestration. His interest in the field has led him to design and develop the first "Automated Music Arranger" capable of transforming a melody in MIDI format file into an arranged file with different music genres (Classical, Jazz, Pop, Oriental, etc.) while adopting the classical music harmony rules