IEEE Industry Engagement Committee

Costas Stasopoulos was born in Cyprus, a European Union member State. Then he moved to the United States where I studied Electrical Engineering at the University of Rutgers, New Jersey, USA. He received my B.Sc in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and received a Master in Business Administration (MBA), from the Maastricht Business School of Management, Netherlands. Upon completion of his  studies he worked for three years for SITA, the world's leading service provider of integrated IT business solutions and communication services of the air transport industry. Then he moved on to the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC), the major electricity provider of Cyprus with more than 2500 employees, where he held various Engineering Specialist and Management positions. He currently holds the position of Transmission Director one of the four major independent units of EAC with an annual budget of over 35 million dollars being responsible for all its operations and its management. His main interests include Renewable Energy, Electric vehicles, Smart Grids, Smart Metering, Energy Storage and Drones.

Stasopoulos served in the IEEE Board of Directors for two years and for five years in the MGA Board. He was also an MGA Vice Chair head of the MGA GUOS Committee for 2017 and 2020-2021. He held many and different positions in numerous IEEE committees like Member Benefits Committee, Industry Engagement Committee, R8 Awards and Recognitions Committee, IEEE Public Policy Committee, European Public Policy Committee, Continuous Improvement Committee, Region Realignment Committee, two Sections Congress Committees and many others.

Stasopoulos is currently the Chair of the Industry Engagement Committee  and the Local Groups Committee.

David Durocher (SBM '77 M '97 SM '99) received a BSEE at Oregon State University. He served as Global Mining, Metals, and Minerals Industry Manager during his 41 year career with Eaton serving in various product engineering, sales, and marketing roles. He has authored papers presented at conferences around the world, published in the IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, IEEE Industry Applications Magazine, World Cement, Engineering & Mining Journal, Plant Engineering, and EC&M Magazine.

Mohamed Amin is an IEEE member & volunteer serving currently as IEEE R8 Careers subcommittee chair.

Amin is a professional telecommunication engineer working for Nokia as Senior Account manager. Previously he was working for Alcatel-Lucent as Services Business Development Manager on EMEA region with focus on IP routing services.

He served in several leading positions in IEEE Region 8 & IEEE Egypt section, starting by IEEE volunteer in Egyptian Engineering Day in 2006 till he was appointed by IEEE GOLD Egypt board as EED Chairman to lead one of the biggest IEEE engineering exhibition & conferences in its 10th round in 2011. Amin is also previous elected board member of IEEE Egypt Young Professionals Affinity Group.

In 2016, Amin received IEEE MGA Achievement Award due to his contribution among his IEEE R8 Action for Industry team for planning and implementing the IEEE Action for Industry Initiative, which has successfully increased member engagement and strengthened the relationship between IEEE and industry in Region 8 (EMEA).

In 2017, Amin has been awarded the highest award for sales professional in Nokia named as "President's Club Award" due to his professional leadership and business achievements.

In 2020, Amin was selected by Nokia as one of the 15 Global Ambassadors for Nokia.

Dr. Jessica Bian is an internationally recognized executive leader with decades of success proven through novel transformation strategies that have improved electrical power production, championed regulatory bodies' complex energy challenges, and repositioned agencies in the public sector through integration of renewable energy and deployment of new technologies. In addition, she has established and strengthened relations with stakeholders, partners, boards, and steering committees.

Dr. Bian is also a visionary technical leader and architect, has spearheaded electric industry's reliability metrics and grid risk assessment. Currently she is the Vice President of Grid Services at Grid-X Partners. Before that, she was with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Washington, DC. Previously, she was the Director of Performance Analysis at North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) in Atlanta, Georgia.

Under her leadership, a total of 18 industry-wide reliability indicators were established to determine grid reliability, adequacy, and associated risks. She is widely recognized as a pioneer and trusted world leader in the field. Before joining NERC, Dr. Bian was with PJM, ERCOT and Westinghouse Electric. She earned her Bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering from the Taiyuan University of Technology, China; Master of Science from the Electric Power Research Institute, Beijing, China; and Ph.D. from Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Dr. Bian is the President-Elect (2020-2021) of the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES). She is an IEEE Senior Member, and was the PES Secretary from 2016 to 2019.

Celia Desmond is President of World Class – Telecommunications, providing telecommunications management training. Celia established and ran the PMO for Echologics. Her team managed all proposals, contracts and project management processes, She has lectured internationally on programs for success in today’s changing environment.  As Director at Stentor Resource Center Inc., she was instrumental in establishing governance, culture and service/product development processes. At Bell Canada, Celia provided strategic direction to corporate planners, ran technology/service trials, standardized equipment, and supported large business clients. 

Celia was 2016-1017 IEEE Division III Director. She has held numerous IEEE positions including, Secretary, IEEE VP – Technical Activities, ComSoc President, IEEE Canada President, VP Technology and Engineering Management Society and Project Director for ComSoc’s Wireless Engineering Certification.

Celia holds MSc. Engineering,  B.Sc. Mathematics & Psychology, Ontario Teaching Certificate and PMP certification. Celia has taught kindergarten, high school, and at 5 universities. She is author of 2 Project Management books. 

Dr. Robert S. Fish is a faculty member in the Department of Computer Science at Princeton University. He is also President of the IEEE Standards Association, a member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc), and President of NETovations, LLC, a consulting company focused on the creation of communications and networking technology innovation. From 2007 to 2010, he was Chief Product Officer and Senior VP at Mformation, Inc. a company specializing in carrier software for mobile device management. From 1997 to 2007, Rob was Vice President and Managing Director of Panasonic US R&D laboratories. Prior to this, he was Executive Director, Multimedia Communications Research at Bellcore/Telcordia after starting his career at Bell Laboratories. Besides his many publications, Dr. Fish has been awarded 17 patents. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University. Dr. Fish is Steering Committee chair and Co-founder of ComSoc’s Consumer Communications and Networking Conference. He is the former chair of ComSoc’s GLOBECOM and ICC Management and Strategy Committee. Dr. Fish was the recipient of ComSoc’s MMTC Distinguished Service Award. Rob has also been Chair of IEEE SA’s Global Committee, and was a founding member of the IEEE SA Corporate Advisory Group. He co-edited a series in IEEE Communications Magazine on IEEE standards in communications and networking. Dr. Fish and his organizations have initiated and managed standards development activities in IEEE, ISO/IEC JTC1, 3GPP, OMA, IETF, ATSC, CableLabs, OSGi, etc. In 2016, Dr. Fish was awarded the Standards Medallion of the IEEE Standards Association.

Dr. Rakesh Kumar is a semiconductor industry veteran with a distinguished technical industry career, is an entrepreneur, and an educator. He is the founder of two start-ups and made many technical and leadership contributions at Cadence, Unisys, and Motorola. He developed leading semiconductor technologies. As VP&GM at Cadence he built a successful Silicon Technology services business championing the integration of silicon, design and EDA in chip and system design. He enabled the Fabless industry revolution and authored "Fabless Semiconductor Implementation". He is an IEEE Life Fellow, was inducted into the Technical Activities Hall of Honor. His many IEEE contributions include Chair of the Roadmaps Committee, Co-Chair of DataPort, past President of SSCS, TA Chair for 3 Sections Congress events. He teaches Entrepreneurship at UC San Diego.

He received the Ph.D. M.S. and B.S. diplomas in EE in 1974, 1971 and 1969 respectively, and an Executive "MBA" from UCSD in 1989.

Dr. Kumar is well respected in the industry, and is well connected to industry executives as well as technical contributors. In addition he works well with and understands the needs of researchers. He will be an excellent contributor to the IEEE Industry Engagement Committee.

Timothy Lee, currently a Boeing Technical Fellow, is responsible for the development of RF and digital electronics for advanced communications networks and sensor systems, Al/ML applications and edge processing at The Boeing Company (1998- Present). He is leading the development of state- of- the- art hardware which are based on CMOS/SiGe, GaAs, lnP and GaN integrated circuits and devices. Current interests include techniques to overcome the End of Moore's Law which includes novel semiconductor device technologies, 2.5D/3D heterogeneous integration, hardware designs for 5G millimeter- wave systems and trusted microelectronics. He has 38 years of professional experience with broad technical and managerial responsibilities. As Design Manager, he was responsible for design, production, and facilities. He created a fabless Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) design center that delivered MMIC products for insertion into many commercial and government programs including the US Air Force's Wideband Global SatCom (WGS) satellites. While at MACOM (1983- 1998), he led the development of millimeter- wave MMIC commercial products. At COMSAT Laboratories (1978- 1993), he designed MMIC components, and co- developed a 0.2- micron T- gate PHEMT foundry process. Tim holds SB EE and SM EE degrees (1981) from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a M.S. degree (2008) in Systems Architecture and Engineering from the University of Southern California.

As an engineer and scientist, Mastilovic is passionate about ICT technologies, research, and science in the field of modern telecommunications, but also about developing product-market placement strategy and business models. Aside from that, sometimes, Mastilovic also introduces himself as a politician and businessman agitate for smart technologies and smart society, building bridges between everyday processes and activities, and new solutions based on modern devices and algorithms.

As a result of his professional network connections globally and experience in different sectors: Government, Academia, Business, and Industry, Mastilovic is active in making global policy (ITU, G20, IEEE). Mastilovic focuses on how to enable modern technologies and set of services as Smart Cities, Smart Grid, Green ICT, and all other services aligned with the UN 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The role in IEEE has helped him to expand his knowledge and network with experts from all over the world and to collaborate with them on transforming our world by following the goals defined in UN Agenda 2030 for a Sustainable Development.

In the last several years, Mastilovic actively promotes the concept of the Smart Society in the 21st century what understands the idea of Technology for Humanity, Sustainable Development, and Smart Society and agitating for the change leadership. Mastilovic believes that leading by example is the most successful way to effectively influencing society. Mastilovic launched several initiatives in the region. Mastilovic drove a few international experts working groups in the IEEE and ITU on Cybersecurity and Smart Cities standardization and implementation. Through his international experience, Mastilovic got familiar with the digital transformation processes in other more developed countries and the ecosystem required for their successful implementation. Having that in mind, the biggest challenge after moving back to Bosnia and Herzegovina was to launch the process of reformation in the local ecosystem and society.

Mastilovic joined the Communications Regulatory Agency Bosnia and Herzegovina (CRA BH) as the national authority body for electronic communications. From the perspective of the government institution, Mastilovic has significantly contributed to launching significant projects in the country as the 4G mobile systems, DVB-T national terrestrial TV transmitting, signing the Roaming Agreement for the Western Balkans moving this region closer to the single digital market, all in 2019. Mastilovic led a group of engineers in the EU Interreg MED Esmartcity initiative in developing the product specifications, architecture, designs, schedules and cost references, management to maintenance of the first fully-operational smart city service in the Western Balkans region: ”Smart Lights of East Sarajevo” implemented in May 2019 in East Sarajevo in the municipality of East Ilidza.

These initiatives have strongly depended on his political and engineering connections from all around the world. Through development phases it always became clear how the technology and politics should join forces and pursue common goals and vision. Mastilovic's goal is to find the best way for the successful Digital Transformation on a more acceptable and understandable way for a wider population without technical education, and he's honored and delighted to work on his goal step by step through the EU Digital Agenda 2020 and the Digital Agenda for the Western Balkans. Mastilovic finds that technology is not the purpose of itself. However, also it is an opportunity to build an affirmative business and entrepreneurship ecosystem, make this society happier, enhance education, and teach each other tolerance and respecting the speech and all forms of freedom.

Living, traveling, and working abroad made him an open-minded person adaptable to the new working environment and different business ecosystems, but also very familiar with different working cultures and mentalities in general. Working in fundamentals engineering research in the academic community, in the industry, and working for the National Regulatory Authority for Telecommunication in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the authority established by the Government, helped him to understand the problems from very different perspectives and taught him to find a multi-stakeholder approach and solution.

Ana Cigarán Romero is currently the Head of Cooperation & Compliance at the Digitalization System Operations Division of the German TSO 50Hertz. Previously, Ana worked as a Senior Policy Advisor at the System Operations Division of 50Hertz and was the Convener of the Steering Group Operational Framework under the ENTSO-E System Operations Committee. With her deep knowledge on existing and upcoming European electricity regulations, Mrs. Cigaran Romero advises her company while actively contributing to the design of the operational framework necessary for a safe operation of the energy system in Europe.  Furthermore, Ana currently focuses on establishing the necessary cooperations with other system operators (TSOs and DSOs), in Europe and in Germany, to contribute to a resilient energy system and carbon-free future.

Ana is a Senior Member of IEEE and has been an elected and appointed volunteer with special focus on Women in Engineering (WIE) since 2015, holding several leadership positions. She is currently a member of the IEEE IEC Committee.

In 2010, Ana received her degree in electrical engineering from the Comillas University-ICAI in Madrid. In her diploma thesis, Ana analyzed the competitiveness indicators in the Iberian Electricity Market.  She conducted her diploma thesis while doing an internship in the Energy Management Direction of Iberdrola.

Matt Scott is the CEO and co-founder of Malong Technologies, a VC-backed, award-winning computer vision company. Malong produces leading product recognition technologies for the retail industry. Established in 2014, Malong now has 150+ employees, is an Accenture portfolio company and a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. Malong was named a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum and a Gartner Cool Vendor for AI in Computer Vision.

Matt started Malong’s Research group. The group actively publishes state-of-the-art research, open source, collaborates with university and commercial research organizations, sponsors conferences, has a postdoc program, and launches open datasets and competitions to help advance computer vision research in the scientific community.

Matt has 15+ years R&D experience in computer vision and machine learning. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE (SMIEEE), has published 100+ international patents and 25+ academic papers, including coverfeatured articles in IEEE Computer and The Proceedings of the IEEE. In IEEE CVPR’17, Matt and his team won first place in the WebVision Challenge.

Prior to Malong, Matt was at Microsoft for 10 years, working in Microsoft Research as an R&D lead on computer vision, machine learning, and NLP. At Microsoft, he received the Gold Star Award, Engineering Excellence Award, Microsoft Research Asia Collaborator of the Year, and 18 Research to Product Technical Transfer Awards. In 2018, Matt won Fast Company’s MCP100 award. His work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The New York Times, and The Discovery Channel, among other outlets.

Mayumi Suzuki is working on areas of healthcare infomatics at Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, as a researcher from 2011 April. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from Tokyo University of Science, Tokyo, Japan, in 2009 March and also received a Master of Engineering degree from Tokyo University of Science, Tokyo, Japan, in 2011 March. She received the IEEE Region10 Young Professionals Affinity Group Award in 2017 as a Tokyo Young Professionals Chair and IEEE Region10 Young Professionals Volunteer Award - Industry in 2018. She was the Japan Council Educational Activities Coordinator, managing events and strategy for the Japan Council Educational Activities and 9 Sections in Japan. She organized the Japan SYWL workshop twice as Japan SYWL Workshop committee leader as Tokyo YP Chair.

Tiziana Tambosso, (M’94, SM’02) received the Laurea degree with honors in Electronic Engineering and the PhD in Optoelectronics from University of Pavia, Italy, in 1983 and 1988. 

She is a Consultant and a Technical Expert for European Commission, H2020-SME Instrument program and Horizon Europe (2021-2027) program. She was co-founder of Tambosso and Associates carrying out projects and market analysis for small and medium companies. She has been Visiting Professor at Da Yeh University, Taiwan, teaching master courses on Green Photonics and Laser Instrumentation.  

She has been head of Research Group and Project manager at CSELT-TILAB (1993 to 2005), Head of fiber optic devices group at SIRTI, R&D (1989-93), designer of integrated circuits at SGS Microelectronics (now ST Microelectronics) (1983-1985). She was author of about 80 journals and conference papers and hold twelve patents. 

Tiziana’s technical interests include photovoltaic systems, LED technologies, Fiber optic sensors, Laser and Optoelectronics Instrumentation, Wireless sensors networks, Internet of Things, technologies for millimeter waves generation and detection. 

From 1993 to 1997 she acted as Secretary and Vice-Chair (1996-1997) of IEC-SC86B international standardization Committee. 

For IEEE she has been a volunteer since 1998 serving in different roles. She was co- founder of IEEE Photonics Society Italy Chapter, serving as Secretary, Treasurer and Chair (2002-2012); 

For IEEE Photonics Society Membership Council she was AVP for Global Strategy. 

For IEEE Italy Section (more than 5000 members) Tiziana was Vice-Chair, Chair (Sept. 2016-Jan. 2019) and Past-Chair; Awards & Recognitions Committee Coordinator, N&A Committee Chair, Chapter Activity Coordinator, Electronic Communication Coordinator, Program Committee Chair, Entrepreneurship Committee Coordinator (2023-2024).

For Region 8 she contributed to the following subcommittees: Chapter Coordination, Action for Industry, Conference, N&A. She is Conference Coordination Committee Chair (2023-2024). 

She was member of IEEE N&A Committee and IEEE MGA N&A Committee. She acted as TPC Chair, Steering Committee Chair, General chair or co-chair for many IEEE Conferences (to name a few: General co-chair of RTSI2017 and 2018, MELECON 2020 and 2022). She is member of IEEE Award Board N&A Committee (2023) and of IEEE IEC.