Plenary Speakers

Prof Simona Sacone

Speaker Presentation Title:

Physics-informed data-based techniques for freeway traffic modelling and control

Speaker Bio:

Simona Sacone is a Professor of Automatic Control at the Department of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics, and Systems Engineering of the University of Genova in Italy. There, she teaches Systems Theory, Identification and Estimation Techniques, and Sustainable Systems Modelling within Master degrees in Computer Engineering and Management Engineering. She also coordinates the PhD Course on Systems Engineering.

Her research activity is devoted to optimization and control of complex physical processes through discrete-event and hybrid modelling and control approaches. The main application fields are freeway traffic control and logistics network planning. About these themes, she has authored and co-authored one book (A. Ferrara, S. Siri, S. Sacone, “Freeway Traffic Modelling and Control”, Advances in Industrial Control Series, Springer, 2018), and more than 150 papers published in international journals, international books and international conference proceedings.

She has been the Chair of the Technical Committee on “Planning and Control of Transportation and Logistic Networks” of the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society.  From 2019 to 2024, she has been a member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society. Presently, she serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems. 

Dr Joonwoo Son

Speaker Presentation Title:

Software-Driven Autonomy: Architecture, Real-World Experience, and Ground-Up Roboshuttle Development

Speaker Bio:

Dr. Joonwoo Son is the Founder and Chairman of Sonnet.AI, Korea’s leading robotaxi startup. He leads research, development, and innovation in autonomous driving technologies across academia and industry. With over 29 years of experience, he has served as a Principal Research Engineer at the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST), a Senior Research Engineer at Daewoo Precision Industries and SiemensVDO, and a Visiting Engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA.

Dr. Son’s primary research interests include autonomous vehicle development, artificial intelligence, and automotive human factors. He holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical and Intelligent Systems Engineering from Pusan National University. He has published more than 37 research papers and holds over 28 patents related to intelligent vehicle technologies, contributing significantly to the advancement of autonomous driving and human-centered automotive systems.

Prof François Pomerleau

Speaker Presentation Title:

Autonomous driving on snow and ice

Speaker Bio:

François Pomerleau, Senior Member IEEE, received the Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from the Autonomous Systems Lab at ETH Zurich (Switzerland) in 2013 and the M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from Université de Sherbrooke (Canada) in 2009.

He has been a professor at Université Laval since 2017, where he is the Director of the Northern Robotics Laboratory. His research interests include 3D reconstruction of environments using laser data, autonomous navigation, search and rescue activities, environmental monitoring, trajectory planning, and scientific methodology applied to robotics.

Prof. Pomerleau is the Canadian Research Chair in Field Robotics, a professional Member of the Order of Engineering of Quebec (OIQ), a member of the Research Center of robotics, vision, and artificial intelligence (CeRVIM), a member of the Strategic Center of distributed intelligent and shared environments (REPARTI), and a board member of the Canadian Robotics Council.

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