Strategic Research Specialist, Space Mission Department, UAE Space Agency (UAESA)

Head of Green Solutions Division
ESA

Dr. Inge Jonckheere is a Belgian Environmental Engineer and obtained a PhD in Applied Bioscience Engineering in 2005, at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium). She worked at the Università degli Studi di Milano (Italy) and was Guest Lecturer of the Geomatics Group at the KULeuven, combined with a mandate as Science Programme Manager for Environment at the European Science Foundation, Strasbourg (France).

Since 2010, she has been working as Thematic Lead of Remote Sensing in the Forestry Department of the FAO (of the UN), leading the support to developing countries to set up national monitoring systems based on Earth Observation data with main research interest on carbon monitoring and land/forest/ocean applications. She is an official reviewer at the UN Framework of Climate Change and is Lead Author in the International Panel of Climate Change including the last (Sixth) Assessment Report published in 2022. She is co-editor of scientific books and high impact journals and has (co-) authored more than hundred scientific and mainstream articles. She joined ESA in the Esrin facility (Frascati, Italy) in March 2024 as Head of the Green Solutions Division and she is in charge of EO4Society including earth system science, applications, digital innovation and industrial competitiveness, with main actual interest the use of earth observation for sustainable environmental applications.

Associate Sr. Engineer, JAXA and Deputy Executive Secretariat of Sentinel Asia
JAXA

Goro Takei joined National Aerospace Development Agency: NASDA (Former organization of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency: JAXA) in 2001. He has more than 20 years of experience in development, test, operation and application of earth observation satellites with optical sensor and synthetic aperture radar sensor (SAR). His current duty is to provide satellite data of area affected by natural hazards to Disaster Management Organications, when emergency observation is requested by member organizations of Sentinel Asia. He is the deputy executive secretariat and technical lead of Sentinel Asia and the board member of International Disaster Charter promoting utilization of space related assets in the international disaster management community.

Deputy Director for Science,  Center for Ecological-Noosphere Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia

Dr. Sh. Asmaryan was born in 1978, received her education in Yerevan State University, Department of Geography and defended her PhD thesis in Geography in 2008. Since 2009 she has been leading the department of GIS and Remote Sensing technologies of the Center for Ecological-Noosphere Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia (CENS NAS RA) and since 2020 is a Deputy Director of CENS. Her research interests cover the issues of GIS and Remote Sensing technologies application for remote observation of the ecological state of environmental compartments (soil, water, agricultural plants, crops), land use planning (rural and urban), land cover monitoring and modelling, and the main factors of land degradation mostly by erosion. She also quite interested in Spatial Data Infrastructures – distributed GIS and Earth Observation Data Cube Infrastructures.
She has been coordinating the activities of Armenia in the Group on Earth Observation (www.earthobservations.org) since
She has been leading and participating in the number of national and international research projects: EU FP7 EcoArm2ERA [Coordinator] (2011-2014), SNF Swiss-Armenian ARPEGEO (2011-2013), EU H2020 Connecting Nature (www.connectingnature.eu) (2017-2022), SERI Swiss-Armenian ADC4SD (2018-2020), DTRA Atlas (2020-2023); Erasmus+ MENVIPRO (2019-2022), BMBF SEVAMOD2 (2020-2022), ML4GEO (2020-2022), Acti4Env (2023-2028) etc.
Since 2010 Dr. Asmaryan is a lecturer of the “Environmental Protection and Nature Management” educational department of the International Scientific and Educational Center of the NAS RA. She is an author and co-author of more than 80 research publications: ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6538-9171; Scopus Author ID: 56029764700.

VP of Research and Development
Space42

Dr. Prashanth Marpu is the Chief Technology Officer of Bayanat Smart Solutions/Space42 in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Prior to joining Bayanat/Space42, he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Manager of YahSat Space Lab at Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, UAE. His specialization is in space systems, remote sensing, AI, environmental monitoring and internet of things. Before coming to the UAE, Dr. Marpu worked as a researcher at the University of Iceland and at the University of Pavia, Italy, where he was a Marie Curie Fellow working on developing advanced methods for earth observation data analysis. He holds a PhD in Remote Sensing from TU Freiberg, Germany, and MSc in Wireless Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark. He was involved in designing and building small satellites as a supervisor of various missions and worked as an advisor and reviewer for several other satellite programs. He has also actively contributed to the development of novel approaches for processing remote sensing data for a wide range of applications. Dr. Marpu has been part of several international committees related to Earth Observation technologies over the years. He has contributed to more than 150 publications in various journals and conferences and has been actively involved in the space and remote sensing activities globally.

Technical Consultant Lead/ Principal
ESRI

Ahmed Awady is the Solution Engineering Lead for GeoAI and Geospatial Analytics, specializing in Geospatial strategies, business solutions, proof of concepts, and technology demonstrations. With over 18 years of experience in Spatial Data Management, Remote Sensing, Geospatial Analysis, GIS consultancy, and advanced analytics across domains such as Public Safety, Defense, Space, Maritime, and Aviation, Ahmed has led numerous geospatial technology projects in the Middle East, Africa, and West Asia. Ahmed was part of Esri’s core development team globalizing ArcGIS software, including the release of the first Arabic ArcMap in 2011. His expertise spans Remote Sensing, Spatial Analysis, Spatiotemporal Analytics, Machine Learning, Desktop GIS, Web GIS, and Spatial Data Infrastructure development.

Director of GIS Department
Dubai Municipality
UAE

The director of the GIS Center department at Dubai Municipality, Maitha is Dubai’s first female Emirati drone pilot specialized in 3D mapping. She obtained her professional license as a drone pilot from the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority after going through intensive training. She graduated with distinction from the UAE University in 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in geographic information system (GIS). And holding two master’s degrees in city science and big data and business analytics. In 2019, she graduated from the National Program of Artificial Intelligence and She has been chosen as one of the top 20 young individuals from emerging talents in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries for the year 2021, who are under the age of 35.

Co-Founder STAR.VISION Aerospace Group Limited
China

Mr. Noor Fan, as the co-founder of STAR.VISION, has demonstrated forward-thinking insights in space computing and the integration of AI with space technology. He advocates for equal access to space technology and actively promotes collaboration and resource sharing between industry and academia, driving innovative applications and advancing the space field. He led STAR.VISION market expansion and investment across the Greater China, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa regions in the last 3 years.

Chief Commercial Officer
Urbi

Amr Elenein, MEng. As the Chief Commercial Officer at Urbi, Amr Elenein, brings an unparalleled wealth of experience, a global perspective, and a history of transformative leadership in the ICT & Digital Transformation industry. With a career that has spanned continents, Amr has consistently navigated the forefront of the technology landscape. Prior to joining Urbi, Amr held the distinguished position of Senior Director of Sales at Huawei Technologies, where he orchestrated global strategies and propelled sales initiatives to new heights. Amr’s prior leadership roles at Ericsson were equally remarkable, including serving as Head of Sales and Business Development, Head of Strategy and New Areas, and Key Account Director. Here, his innovative thinking and strategic acumen shaped the direction of the organization and fortified Ericsson’s presence in the market. He held the position of Senior Manager at Etisalat (e&), where he was entrusted with the vital government sector in the UAE. Before conquering the international technology arena, Amr established his leadership credentials at home in Canada. Amr is a distinguished alumnus of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, holding a Masters Degree in Wireless Communications, a testament to his commitment to academic excellence and a deep understanding of the technological foundations of the industry. At Urbi, Amr is entrusted with driving global sales and business development, a role that leverages his rich history of visionary leadership and his innate ability to recognize and harness market opportunities. His strategic leadership and commitment to delivering innovative solutions have positioned Urbi as a leader in the geo-spatial and location intelligence industry. With Amr leading the way, Urbi continues to redefine the boundaries of what location technology can achieve, propelling the organization to global prominence and unlocking new horizons for clients and partners across the world.

Vice President of Geospatial Platforms at Space42

Yuliya Tarabalka is Vice President of Geospatial Solutions at Space 42. She obtained a European PhD degree from the Institut Polytechnique of Grenoble and the University of Iceland in 2010. In 2017, she defended her Habilitation to supervise research (HdR) from the University Côte d’Azur, on the topic Learning approaches for classification of remote sensing images. Between 2007 and 2018, she has been leading research on the development of the AI tools for both reconstruction and update of the Digital Earth at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishement FFI, the USA space agency NASA, French space agency CNES and Inria Sophia-Antipolis in France. During the last 6 years, she has been Head of the R&D team at LuxCarta. She co-authored more than 150 international scientific publications with over 10000 citations.

Atsushi Takata serves as the Executive Vice President for Global Strategy and Space Utilization at SpaceData, Inc. He is responsible for SpaceData’s business development and strategy planning to achieve the company’s mission “Make Space Accessible Like the Internet”.

In September 2023 at his previous career at Kanematsu Corporation, he achieved a significant milestone by serving as a co-lead investor in the Series B funding round of the aforementioned U.S.-based space startup, which successfully raised $290 million.

His career is characterized by a steadfast commitment to fostering international partnerships, shaping business strategies, driving innovation in the aerospace sector, and managing the complexities of cross-border business and investment initiatives.

Engineer Sattam Al-Otaibi holds a Master’s degree in Surveying and Mapping Engineering from Curtin University, Australia (2007) and graduated from the College of Engineering at King Saud University in 1999. With over 26 years of experience in surveying sciences, geospatial data, and geographic information systems (GIS), he has established himself as a leading expert in the field.

Professional Experience

General Authority for Survey and Geospatial Information:Currently serves as the Executive Director of the National Center for Remote Sensing.
General Authority for Civil Aviation:Director General of Properties and Lands and Supervisor of Geographic Information Systems (2020–2022).

Certifications & Memberships

• PMP Project Management Certificate from the Project Management Institute (PMI), USA (January 2021).
• Consultant Member of the Saudi Council of Engineers.
• Member of the International Society for Aerial Surveying and Remote Sensing (ISPRS).

Arturo Intelisano currently holds the position of Director of Research, Innovation and Advanced Projects in the Observation & Navigation domain in Thales Alenia Space . He earned a Master’s degree in Physics from the University of Rome La Sapienza, specializing in the Structure of Matter and Quantum Field Theory.

Since 2000, he has being a full-time employee at Thales Alenia Space Italia, where he has covered leading roles in various space programs related to Earth Observation, Telecommunication and Navigation satellites, mainly involved in Satellites’ design projects, Avionics, Attitude & Orbit determination and advanced technologies. In the current role, he oversees product architectures, research funding, and advanced projects, focusing on Earth observation and navigation satellite technologies, quantum technologies, Artificial Intelligence, and Cybersecurity. He also contributes to Academia through teaching and scientific publications, and he serves on the board of the Italian National Quantum Science & Technology Institute.

Salman Khan is an Associate Professor at Mohamed Bin Zayed University of AI (MBZUAI) and an honorary faculty member at the Australian National University (ANU). He works on multimodal learning algorithms for various applications, with a specific focus on earth observation and climate science. He has served as a program committee member for several premier AI conferences where he has won multiple outstanding reviewer awards. He was the guest editor for IEEE TPAMI, MDPI Remote Sensing and acts as area chair for premier AI conferences such as NeurIPS, CVPR, ICML and ICCV. He, alongside his collaborators and students, won the best paper award in ICPRAM 2020, best paper honorable mention at ACCV 2024 and top ranks in CVPR-NTIRE 2019 and 2021 challenges on image enhancement. He has published over 100+ technical papers in top AI journals and conferences.