DAY ONE • Climate Resilience

OPENING KEYNOTE [ 1:10 PM ]

Dr. Ben Kirtman

William R. Middelthon Endowed Chair of Earth Sciences
Professor, Department of Atmospheric Sciences | UM Rosenstiel School
Director | NOAA Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS)
Deputy Director | UM Institute for Data Science and Computing (IDSC)

In recent years, Miami has taken center stage as ground zero for climate change. At the forefront of studies on the predictability and variability of the Earth’s climate system, University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science professor of atmospheric science Dr. Ben Kirtman is known worldwide for using atmosphere-ocean general circulation models to bring unprecedented detail to climate change measurement. An engaging and entertaining speaker, Dr. Kirtman is often asked to share his expertise in the public eye and behind the science and we are thrilled to have him keynote this year’s Smart Cities MIAMI Conference on climate resilience in smart cities.

(Read more about Dr. Kirtman)

PANEL 1 Smart and/or Resilient [ 1:40 PM ]

MODERATOR

Pete Martinez

Pete Martinez is Chairman and CEO of the SIVOTEC family of companies; high tech and scientific innovators at the massive intersection of Health, Sports, Technology, Big Data Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence. Martinez is also the Chairman of RaiseLink a FinTech platform for advanced investor-startup matching, engagement, and related services.

An international entrepreneur, he has led numerous high impact initiatives in the areas of high technology, business consulting, healthcare, and education. Martinez is a 32 year veteran of IBM, where he was Vice President of Global Business Services and Senior Executive for IBM South Florida. He is also a research affiliate at MIT, and a visiting professor at Florida Atlantic University and Florida International University.

With over 30 patents and publications he is a frequent international speaker while consulting to leading edge companies. He is a graduate of the University of Miami College of Engineering and past Chairman of the Florida Research Consortium. June 22, 2007 was proclaimed ‘Pete Martinez Day’ by the City of Boca Raton.

PANELISTS

David R. Chapman, PhD

Associate Professor | UM Department of Computer Science

Dr. Chapman has had three years of industry experience with Oceaneering International, where he developed a novel dynamic programming algorithm for edge detection for the purposes of subsea robotic navigation. Dr. Chapman’s present research emphasizes computer vision and image processing algorithms primarily with applications to medical imaging analytics. Recent research results include a novel semi-supervised image classification algorithm with applications to lung cancer screening as well as COVID19 classification, a novel algorithm for CT-scan image deep denoising, as well as an approach for domain invariant feature learning to reduce algorithmic bias for X-ray image screening for Tuberculosis.

Dr. Chapman is actively collaborating with RAD-AID International (they bring radiology to low-resource areas), Carestream Health (a worldwide provider of X-ray imaging systems), and the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security, to create the largest ever medical imaging dataset for Tuberculosis screening. He is also collaborating with RAD-AID International and Google Foundation to address and overcome issues of algorithmic bias that may affect clinical translation of diagnostic screening to low- and middle-income countries. Furthermore, he is collaborating with the National Alliance against Disparities in Public Health (NADPH) to improve AI infrastructure for minority-serving institutions. Finally, Dr. Chapman is working on the development of core computer vision and machine learning algorithms, including a novel methods for semi-supervised learning and edge detection.  (Read the recent article in IDSC Magazine on Dr. Chapman:  Meet the Scientist Fast-Tracking Improvements in Digital Image Diagnostics.)

Tony Cho

CEO & Founder | Future of Cities

Tony Cho is a real estate pioneer, impact entrepreneur, and the CEO & founder of the Future of Cities—a mission-driven consortium and multi-pronged platform invested in transforming the built environment by adopting environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategies to improve the quality of urban living.

Influenced by his work as founder and chairman of Metro 1—an award-wining, forward-thinking real estate investment and development firm—Cho’s career has focused on shaping neighborhoods and developing sustainable cities. Cho is also a co-founder of the Magic City Innovation District Little Haiti and he has played an influential role in shaping other emerging neighborhoods, including Wynwood, as a founding member of the Wynwood Business Improvement District (BID) championing the progressive rezoning of the area, which transformed blighted streets into a diverse, 24-hour, mixed-use, arts-and-innovation district.

Cho and his wife, Ximena, founded the Cho Family Foundation, focused on environmental, wildlife, and indigenous culture awareness and preservation as well as mental, physical, and spiritual wellbeing. The Foundation has supported organizations such as the Chopra Foundation, Amazon Watch, and Path of the Panther. Leveraging the principles of social capitalism, the pair have also founded and grown several other pioneering businesses, including ChoZen Retreat, a sustainable eco-retreat and sanctuary in Central Florida, and they are investors in companies such as Dance, OpenSeed, and CARAVANA.

Kenneth W. Goodman, PhD, FACMI, FACE

Director | UM Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy (a World Health Organization Collaborating Center in Ethics and Global Health Policy, one of 13 in the world and the only one in the U.S.)
Director | UM Ethics Programs
Director | UM Institute for Data Science and Computing, Data Ethics + Society

Dr. Goodman is also a Professor of Medicine at the University of Miami with appointments in the Department of Philosophy, School of Nursing and Health Studies, and Department of Public Health Sciences. He is immediate past chair of the Ethics Committee of the AMIA (American Medical Informatics Association), for which organization he co-founded the Ethical, Legal and Social Issues Working Group. He has been elected as a Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics (FACMI).  He is also a Fellow of the American College of Epidemiology (FACE), and past chair of its Ethics Committee, and of the Hastings Center.

Dr. Goodman is a co-founder of the North American Center for Ethics and Health Information Technology, a partnership with the Center for Bioethics at Indiana University. He also directs the Florida Bioethics Network and chairs the UHealth/University of Miami Hospital Ethics Committee and the Adult Ethics Committee for Jackson Memorial Health System.

Dr. Goodman’s research has emphasized issues in health information technology and in epidemiology and public health. His most recent book, Ethics, Medicine, and Information Technology: Intelligent Machines and the Transformation of Health Care (Cambridge University Press 2016) identifies and analyzes a number of issues in biomedical informatics. He has edited a book on the Terri Schiavo case for Oxford University Press, published a book about ethics and evidence-based medicine for Cambridge University Press, co-authored a book of case studies in ethics and health computing for Springer-Verlag and co-authored another volume of case studies in ethics in public health for the American Public Health Association. He has also co-authored a book on artificial intelligence, edited a book on ethics and medical computing, co-edited a volume on artificial intelligence, and published and presented numerous papers in bioethics, including end-of-life care, the philosophy of science, and computing.

Matt Haggman

Executive Vice President, Opportunity Miami | Miami-Dade Beacon Council Board of Directors

Matt Haggman is Executive Vice President, One Community One Goal at the Miami-Dade Beacon Council. In this role he leads the efforts of this community-wide strategic initiative focused on shaping Miami-Dade’s economic future. Relaunched in 2012 as a roadmap for long-term economic development success, One Community One Goal (OCOG) convenes a broad spectrum of Miami-Dade businesses, anchor institutions, and organizations in both the private and public sectors, collaborating to advance the goal of a thriving, inclusive, and diverse community. Haggman served as Co-Chair of One Community One Goal from 2015 to 2017.

Haggman is an ardent believer in entrepreneurship as a way to transform communities from the ground up. Previously, as Miami Director at the Knight Foundation, he created and built the Foundation’s program focused on propelling high-growth entrepreneurs and civic innovators as a way to drive innovation, expand opportunity, and stir greater community engagement. Numerous efforts funded and supported under Haggman’s leadership are now pillars of Miami’s rapidly growing entrepreneurial ecosystem. This includes Endeavor Miami, The Idea Center at Miami Dade College, eMerge Americas, Center for Black Innovation, 500 Startups Miami, and Babson’s Women Innovating Now Lab, among many others. Several Harvard Business School case studies have cited the work. In The Miami Herald, Haggman was called “the cornerstone of a renaissance in Miami tech” and “a pioneer in Miami [who] has spearheaded the entrepreneurial movement.”

Prior to joining the Knight Foundation, Haggman was an award-winning journalist with The Miami Herald and the Daily Business Review. He covered business, government, and investigative stories of local and national importance. Results of his and his colleagues’ work include consumer protection reforms in Tallahassee, an overhaul of Miami-Dade County government, and changes to voting systems in Florida. Haggman has won numerous local and national awards, including a Gerald Loeb Award, the highest honor in business journalism. In his last two years at The Miami Herald he twice won the President’s Award, honoring the best work in the McClatchy Newspaper chain. In his last year as a reporter, he was named Best Miami Herald Reporter in Miami New Times’ annual “Best of Miami” awards.

With a long-held passion for Miami, Haggman has been active in numerous organizations across the community. He currently is a founding Board Member of Endeavor Miami, a Trustee at New World Symphony and advisor to national nonprofit, Right to Start. Haggman previously served as co-chair of One Community One Goal. He has been a mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Miami for more than a decade. Several years ago, Haggman joined with friends to launch TEDxMiami, which continues today under a new generation of leaders. Originally from Boston, Haggman has degrees from Tulane University and Vermont Law School. He and his wife Danet Linares live in Coconut Grove.

Cyrus Hodes

Cofounder | World Climate Tech Summit
Cofounder | Duckweed Bio
Partner | FoundersX Ventures
Cofounder | AI Initiative (The Future Society)

Cyrus is a co-founder of the World Climate Tech Summit and is the co-founder of Duckweed Bio, an Agtech/climate tech startup based in south Florida. He is a Contributor with Blockchain Web Services (BWS) a Web3 P2P cloud computing platform for Machine Learning which enables resilient and more sustainable computation on a distributed network.

Cyrus is a Partner at FoundersX Ventures, a cross-stage Silicon Valley VC firm focusing on AI, biotech, digital healthcare, enterprise SaaS, quantum computing, Fintech and Foodtech.

He was the co-founder and Chair of the AI Initiative of The Future Society, a think and do tank incubated at the Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he led global governance of AI projects such as the Global Data Access Framework with the Executive Office of the UN Secretary General Office and global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company. He served as Advisor to the UAE Minister of Artificial Intelligence where he convened for 2 years the Global Governance of AI Roundtable at the World Government Summit.

Besides volunteering with the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI) on AI for climate action, he is a member of the International Advisory Board of the EU Parliament STOA, a member of the OECD Expert Group on AI (ONE AI) and a member of the AI Ethics Board of Smart Dubai.

Cyrus was educated at Sciences Po Paris, where he later was a Lecturer in International Security, holds a M.A. (Hons) from Paris II University in Defense, Geostrategy and Industrial Dynamics and a M.P.A. from Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Ingrid Vasiliu-Feltes, MD, MBA

CEO | Softhread.com
Chief Quality & Safety Officer and Chief of Compliance | UHealth
Director, Clinical Research Trials Program | University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
Lecturer | Miami Herbert Business School

Dr. Ingrid Vasiliu-Feltes s a healthcare executive, futurist, and globalist who is highly dedicated to digital and ethics advocacy. She is a Forbes Business Council member, digital strategist, passionate educator, and entrepreneurship ecosystem builder, known as an expert speaker, board advisor, and consultant. Throughout her career, she has received several awards for excellence in research, teaching, or leadership. Most notably: WBAF World Excellence Award-Social Entrepreneurship 2021, Top 10 Quantum, Top 10 HealthTech, Top 10 Privacy, Top 20 Digital Twins, Top 50 Global Ecosystem Thought Leaders. Additionally, she serves as an Expert Advisor to the EU Blockchain Observatory & Forum, is leading the Government Blockchain Association Global’s Smart Cities Working Group, serves as Chair of the World Metaverse Council’s Ethics Working Group, and is the Co-Founder of the WBAF World Smart Cities Economic Development Council.

Dr. Vasiliu-Feltes completed her resdiency and fellowship training at Columbia University in NYC and her Executive MBA at the Miami Herbert Business School. She is member of numerous prestigious professional organizations and holds several executive certifications, such as Bioethics from Harvard; AI and Business Strategy, and, Blockchain Technology and Business Innovation from MIT Sloan; Finance from Harvard Business School; Negotiation from Harvard Law School; and Innovation and Entrepreneurship from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Dr. Vasiliu-Feltes holds numerous leadership roles in the commercial and not-for-profit arenas, and continues to teach at the WBAF Business School and the Miami Herbert Business School. She is also acting as the Chief Innovation Officer for Government Blockchain Association and is an Ambassador for Women in AI. Most recently, she served as President of Detect Genomix, and Chief Quality and Safety Officer Chief and Innovation Officer for Mednax, and Chief Quality and Safety Officer and Chief of Compliance for the UHealth System. Additionally, Dr. Vasiliu-Feltes is an Honorary Advisory Board Member of several companies, entrepreneurship incubators or accelerators, as well as an Editorial Board Member for several international publications, an author, keynote speaker, and TV/Media partner.

Yelena Yesha, PhD

Director | UM IDSC AI + Machine Learning Program and IDSC Innovation Officer
Knight Foundation Endowed Chair of Data Science and AI
Founding Director, NSF CARTA

At the University of Miami, Dr. Yelena Yesha is the Knight Foundation Endowed Chair of Data Science and AI at the Institute for Data Science and Computing (IDSC). At IDSC, Dr. Yesha is also the Innovation Officer and Head of International Relations. In this role, Dr. Yesha assists faculty in engaging government and industrial partners to collaborate with the University and consults with faculty on developing research ideas into innovations.

Dr. Yesha was the Founding Director of the National Science Foundation Center for Accelerated Real Time Analytics (CARTA), an NSF-funded Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) that aims to develop long-term partnerships among industry, academia, and government. CARTA partners with Rutgers University New Brunswick, North Carolina State University, the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), Tel Aviv University, and the University of Miami.

Dr. Yesha received her B.Sc. degrees in Computer Science and in Applied Mathematics from York University, Toronto, Canada, and her M.Sc. degree and Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from The Ohio State University. She has published 11 books as author or editor, and more than 200 papers in prestigious refereed journals and refereed conference proceedings, and she has been awarded external funding in a total amount exceeding 45 million dollars. She is currently working with leading industrial companies and government agencies on new innovative technology in the areas of blockchains, cybersecurity, and big data analytics with applications to electronic commerce, climate change, and digital healthcare. Dr. Yesha is a Fellow of the IBM Centre for Advanced Studies.

Forbes magazine highlighted Dr. Yesha’s accomplishments in technology in a two-part profile:
Part I: Dr. Yelena Yesha: Meet The Tenacious Pioneer Pushing Innovation To Address Real World Problems
https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2018/12/12/dr-yelena-yesha-meet-the-tenacious-pioneer-pushing-innovation-to-address-real-world-problems/?sh=d4e5e444e9a3
and Part II: Dr. Yelena Yesha: Pushing Technology Boundaries To Solve The World’s Biggest Problems
https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2019/02/20/dr-yelena-yesha-pushing-technology-boundaries-to-solve-the-worlds-biggest-problems-part-ii/?sh=467e23e5224a

PANEL 2 Resilient Networks [ 2:45-3:30 PM ]

MODERATOR

Pratim Biswas, PhD

Dean | UM College of Engineering

Professor Biswas is the Dean of the University of Miami College of Engineering. He is a faculty member in the Dept of Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering, with an affiliated appointment in the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. Dean Biswas is a pioneer in his field recognized for applying aerosol science and engineering to multiple areas, such as energy and environmental nanotechnology, solar energy, air pollution control, and medicine. He is a Member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest scientific society, for his pioneering contributions to aerosol science and engineering. Prior to joining the University of Miami, he was the Lucy and Stanley Lopata Professor and Chair of the Department of Energy, Environmental, and Chemical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis (Missouri). He also served as the Asst. Vice Chancellor for International Programs, and as the Director of the McDonnell Academy Global Energy and Environmental Partnership (MAGEEP). Pratim Biswas received his PhD from the California Institute of Technology; MS from the University of California, Los Angeles, and his BTech degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

Professor Biswas’s research and educational interests include aerosol science and engineering, nanoparticle technology, air quality engineering, environmentally benign energy production, combustion, materials processing for environmental technologies, environmentally benign processing, environmental nanotechnology, public health, and the thermal sciences. His work is conducted through the world-renowned Aerosol and Air Quality Research Laboratory (AAQRL). His research is funded by the National Science Foundation, US Department of Energy, National Institutes of Health, US Environmental Protection Agency, and by industry. He has graduated and advised 60 PhD students, and, with them, published more than 450 refereed journal articles.

PANELISTS

Guillermo Aleman

Manager, Technology and Innovation |  Florida Power & Light

Guillermo Aleman is Manager of Technology and Innovation on the Smart Grid and Innovation Team for Florida Power and Light. In this role, he leads multiple teams responsible for the development and testing of new technologies, predictive algorithms, and applications for situational awareness and intelligence, with the goal of improving productivity and cost reduction.

Prior to his current role, Guillermo was the Outlier Reliability Manager. In this role, he was responsible for core reliability programs and processes designed to improve the reliability of the worst performing devices. His team was responsible for some of FPL’s core indicators including CEMI, MAIFI, CEMM, and CME. Before this, he was the Manager of Lateral Reliability for Power Delivery and led a team responsible for the performance of lower level devices including laterals and transformers. He previously also served as a lead at the Equipment Repair Center where he oversaw the testing, repair, and failure mode investigations for distribution equipment. He also ran the field operations for the thermal inspection program and the vault inspection program. He started his career at FPL as a Protection and Control engineer in Dade County.

Guillermo earned a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering graduating Magna Cum Laude from Florida International University. He is certified as a Six Sigma Black Belt.

Mingzhe Chen, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | UM College of Engineering

Dr. Mingzhe Chen received his Ph.D. degree from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications in Beijing, China, in 2019. From 2016 to 2019, he was a Visiting Researcher at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech, working with Prof. Walid Saad. From 2019 to 2021, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Princeton University, working with Prof. H. Vincent Poor. In 2022, he worked as an AI Researcher at Ericsson Research, USA.

His research interests include: machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) for wireless networks, distributed/dederated learning fundamentals, distributed/federated learning over real-world wireless networks, virtual reality over wireless networks, unmanned aerial vehicle over wireless networks, and age of information. (Read the recent article in IDSC Magazine on Mingzhe.)

Carlos Cruz-Casas, P.E.

Chief Innovation Officer | Transportation and Public Works, Miami-Dade County

Carlos is the Chief Innovation Officer at Miami-Dade County’s Department of Transportation and Public Works. His primary focus is to introduce mobility innovation and plan for a fully integrated transportation system. His career includes both public and private sector experience ranging from conceptual design to implementation of pedestrian, bicycle, transit, and traffic projects. As a professional engineer dedicated to the development of Livable Transportation, Carlos seeks to achieve the right balance between mobility and livability.

Carlos received his Master’s degree in urban transportation planning from University of Florida’s College of Engineering, and his Bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Puerto Rico. He now serves as a Board Member for the Open Mobility Foundation.

Matt Denesuk, PhD

Senior Vice President | Data Analytics & AI, Royal Caribbean Group

Matt Denesuk has devoted his life to using math & data to make the world work better.  He is currently SVP of Data Analytics & AI at Royal Caribbean Group, and leads the development and deployment of data- and data-science-driven capabilities across the company, in such areas as revenue management, industrial operations, customer experience, marketing, sales, hotel operations, and supply chain. He previously was Chief Data Science Officer and a founder of Noodle.ai, which provides AI-as-a-Service to enterprise and industrial firms. Prior to that, he was the Chief Data Science Officer of General Electric, leading the data, analytics, and Data Science functions across GE’s industrial business units.  He also led Smarter Planet Modeling & Analytics at IBM Research, and was a Partner in IBM’s Venture Capital Group. Matt has B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. Degrees from MIT and the University of Arizona.

Brian Freed

Chief Operating Office | Eagle Aerospace

Brian Freed, the CEO of Eagle Aerospace Ltd., has had a diverse career path that started on Wall Street and then transitioned to digital airfield solutions, with stints in HPC and connected pharmaceutical solutions along the way. Throughout his journey, Brian has maintained a strong focus on the data lifecycle, including point of capture, data storage, data networking, data analysis, and cloud-to-edge solutions for closed-loop response.

At Eagle Aerospace, he’s responsible for leading the product and go-to-market strategy for the company’s digital solutions portfolio. Prior to his current role he was the COO at Phizzle, an IoT software provider that specializes in digital transformation in the pharmaceutical manufacturing space. Additionally, Brian held the position of General Manager of the High-Performance Data Analytics (HPDA) business unit at SGI.

Before SGI, Brian spent 13 years on Wall Street, where he worked as a Chartered Financial Analyst. During his time there, he focused exclusively on industry research, financial modeling, and investment recommendations for companies that used Data Analytics and Data Lifecycle technology.

Raimundo Rodulfo

Director of Innovation and Technology | City of Coral Gables Innovation and Technology Department

Raimundo Rodulfo started his career in the early 1990s as an engineer in the telecommunications industry. He joined the City of Coral Gables in 2004 and currently leads strategic planning, oversight and management of citywide IT operations, infrastructure, and smart city initiatives. Under his leadership, the City has received numerous awards including IEEE Smart Cities Jury Award in 2022, first place in the Digital Cities 2018 for cities of up to 75K population, first place in the U.S. Open Cities Index in 2019 and 2020, Smart 50 Award in Urban Infrastructure in 2020, Smart Cities Council Innovation Excellence Award in 2022, and being recognized as one of the 8 Smart Cities to Watch in 2020 by State Tech Magazine and as one of the 12 finalists worldwide in the Gartner Eye on Innovation Awards for government in 2021.

Prior to joining the City, he spent ten years in the private sector working for various Fortune 500 companies such as Bellsouth, Siemens, and NCR in varying capacities. During this time, he also assisted on technology projects for Motorola and Lucent Technologies in Chicago, and Agilent Technologies in Silicon Valley.

He volunteers as Co-Chair of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Global Cities Team Challenge (GCTC) Superclusters, as a member of the World Business Angel Imvestment Forum (WBAF) Miami Board of Directors and the Cities Today Institute (CTI) Leadership Forum, and as an advisory member of international nonprofit professional committees and engineering standard development organizations. He has been a guest speaker at numerous conferences and events, and has also authored multiple research papers, articles, technical book chapters, and other publications in the areas of smart cities, engineering, and technology.

Rodulfo has received numerous awards and recognition throughout his career. Most recently, he received the Globant Digital Disruptor award and the CyberTrust Pioneer award in 2021, was named to State Tech Magazine’s list of 30 State and Local Government IT Influencers Worth a Follow in 2020, and received the Key to the City from the Mayor of Coral Gables.

He holds a Master of Science in Engineering Management and a Graduate Certificate in Enterprise Systems from Florida International University, and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from National Polytechnic University. He is a Licensed Professional Engineer (P.E., Florida and National NCEES Record), a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE), a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and Six Sigma Black Belt (CSSBB), and a certified professional in PCI, HIPAA, Incident Management, Virtualization, SAP, and ITIL.

PANEL 3 Design and Policy for Coastal Resilience [ 3:50-4:30 PM ]

MODERATOR

Ana Peralta Chammas

Director of Innovation | Miami-Dade County

With an eye for innovation, strategic vision, and multidisciplinary experience, Ana has helped advance IT strategy and the organizational transformation that drive the customer experience in Miami-Dade. By cultivating competencies in innovation infrastructure and digital strategy, she has the vision for what a Future Ready government needs to make community impact. With over 20 years in the field, Ana bridges gaps between creative and development teams, business users, and C-level executives to provide effective, customer-centric solutions.

Her experience includes directing the functions and programs related to the County’s information channels (miamidade.gov, 311 Answer Center, and Miami-Dade TV) as well as the development of civic engagement and customer service strategy for customers. Ana has cultivated long-standing relationships with public and private partners to enhance the customer experience tackling a municipal-wide open data platform, building a cross-municipal strategic alliance as well as the evolution of the County’s omnichannel presence. Ana is a long-standing member of the FIU Kopenhaver Center Leadership Council in CARTA’s Innovation Labs + Incubators. In this role, she has contributed valuable input in modernizing student curriculum and directly mentoring graduate students fighting to find a place in the Digital and Communications space in the private sector. In addition, as a Government Community of Interest leader, she is initiating global dialogue and crafting content as a Technology contributor in the BRMBOK for the BRM Institute. As a founding member of the Vizcaya Tech Advisory Committee, Ana worked with the museum’s IT team to establish its independent systems, network and security to tackle its digital footprint. This includes resilience and preservation projects using new media and tech like AR, VR and 3D exhibit experiences. Ana is passionate about community engagement and philanthropic causes providing outreach support for Pediatric and Breast Cancer, Habitat for Humanity, Alzheimer’s disease, and expanding government reach in the Miami Tech movement with opportunities such as eMerge Americas, Miami Tech Month (April 2023), and local hack events. It is with bold tenacity and a passion for making community impact that she leaves an imprint as she moves full speed ahead as a driver in the digital revolution and renaissance that we are experiencing today.

PANELISTS

Esber Andiroglu, PhD

Associate Professor of Practice, Dept. of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering | UM College of Engineering

Dr. Andiroglu is an Associate Professor of Practice in Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering with a secondary appointment at School of Architecture. In addition, he is the Director of MS in Construction Management Program offered by College of Engineering. He is a registered Professional Engineer and a LEED AP accredited educator with academic focus on building environmental systems, water resources and sustainability areas. His research area of interest is aimed at development of engineered solutions related to smart water-energy infrastructures in response to climate change challenges in urban community settings. He is currently engaged in a U-LINK (Laboratory for Integrative Knowledge) research project with focus on development of next generation of coastal structures in response to climate change impacts in our community and beyond.

Dr. Andiroglu’s other work includes development of virtual fan/pump flow meters and their application towards operational efficiency optimization of air/water conveyance systems. He has recently started a new pilot project in the local community in partnership with Miami-Dade County Water and Sewer Department to apply virtual flow metering technology to improve operational efficiencies of wastewater pump stations.

Brian Haus, PhD

Professor and Chair, Department of Ocean Sciences | UM Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atomospheric, and Earth Science

Dr. Haus is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Ocean Sciences at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. His research focuses on experimental studies of air-sea interactions, ocean surface currents, radar remote sensing of oceanographic processes, shelf and estuary dynamics and wave-current interactions. Key to these efforts are laboratory studies of air-sea interactions and turbulence in the SUSTAIN Laboratory.

Landolf Rhode-Barbarigos, PhD

Assistant Professor | UM College of Engineering

Dr. Rhode-Barbarigos is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering with secondary appointments at the School of Architecture and the Department of Ocean Sciences at the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science.

He is an expert in structural morphology, which investigates the relationship between structures, as well as their form, function, material and forces. He focuses on lightweight structures, such as tensegrity systems, as well as coastal applications, including ecofriendly solutions for shoreline protection.

Roland I. Samimy, PhD

Chief Resilience and Sustainability Officer | Village of Key Biscayne

Dr. Roland Samimy holds the position of Chief Resilience and Sustainability Officer (CRSO) for the Village of Key Biscayne, FL.  Dr. Samimy is responsible for the development, oversight and delivery of initiatives targeted towards advancing resilience and sustainability across the Key Biscayne community to address chronic and acute impacts from climate change and sea level rise.  Dr. Samimy is currently leading the launch of the Village-wide Resilient Infrastructure Upgrade Program that will be executed over a 10-15 year period and focus on shoreline protection, stormwater system enhancement, roadway improvement, and hardening of critical utilities (electrical, telecom, water, sewer). Prior to taking the position of CRSO, Dr. Samimy was a Senior Scientist and Water Resources Technical Manager for Atkins Global, a large international engineering – environmental consulting firm. Before joining Atkins in 2018, Dr. Samimy was a full time Hydrologist and Senior Research Manager for the Coastal Systems Program within the Department of Estuarine and Ocean Science at the School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) of the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth (UMD). During that time he was also a visiting scholar at Florida International University in the Applied Research Center. Dr. Samimy is a Fellow member of the Explorers Club and completed a Ph.D. in Coastal Systems Science at UMD-SMAST. Receiving his M.S. (Water Resources Systems Engineering) and M.A. (Urban and Environmental Policy) from Tufts University, Dr. Samimy served as the Technical Coordinator and Technical Lead in Hydrology for the Massachusetts Estuaries Project (MEP), one of the largest on-going estuarine restoration programs in the United States.

Prior to joining the University of Massachusetts Coastal Systems Program Team Dr. Samimy worked as a water resources scientist for CDM-Smith. During that time Mr. Samimy was engaged in numerous scientific assignments such as completion of a water supply assessment for the Republic of Palau through a contract with the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA).  Additionally, while a contract scientist to a research program run out of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Dr. Samimy also spent two field seasons (1994 and 1995) in Antarctica as a member of a small science team completing the two final years a whole ecosystem research grant issued by the National Science Foundation.  On his spare time, he relaxes by farming lychees in south Florida, deep decompression wreck diving, sailing, and kite surfing as hard as the wind will blow, and spending as much time as possible with his 21-year old son Perry and wife Ellen of 27 years.

CLOSING KEYNOTE [ 4:30-5:10 PM ]

The Honorable Daniella Levine Cava

Mayor, Miami-Dade County

Daniella Levine Cava was elected Miami-Dade County’s first-ever woman Mayor in November 2020. She entered the Mayor’s office following a 40-year career as a relentless advocate for South Florida families in public service and elected leadership. As Miami-Dade County’s Mayor, she oversees a metropolitan government with nearly 30,000 employees serving nearly 3 million residents, managing an annual budget of approximately $10 billion. Since taking office, she has worked to protect lives and livelihoods by deploying a countywide operation to distribute coronavirus vaccines efficiently and equitably across Miami-Dade; appointing the County’s first Chief Medical officer; and working closely with city leaders and the business community to spread a unified pandemic response message. In collaboration with the Board of County Commissioners, she is working to distribute millions of federal dollars in American Rescue Plan relief funds to support small businesses and residents impacted by the pandemic, invest in critical infrastructure projects, and kickstart long term recovery.

Mayor Levine Cava’s administration is focused on building a stronger, more inclusive, more resilient Miami-Dade: prioritizing reforms to make our county safer and prevent gun violence through the Peace and Prosperity Plan; restoring and reinvigorating a thriving economy that delivers economic security for Miami-Dade businesses and families and attracts new industries; saving Biscayne Bay and building and protecting our environment; and directly engaging with residents to make local government more responsive, transparent, and accountable. Learn more about the Mayor’s key priorities and progress.

(Read more about the Mayor)

Networking Reception—Exhibits Open [ 5:12-7:00 PM ]

DAY TWO • Miami/Medellin