Plenary Speakers

Ossama has co-managed over $1 billion of international technology funds in diverse leadership roles including EVP of Berkeley International in San Francisco, Chairman of Technocom Ventures in Paris, President of Newbridge Networks Holding in Canada, Senior managing Director of Newbury Ventures, and Chairman of the Rising Tide Fund in Silicon Valley. In the eighties, Ossama had the opportunity to co-lead the mezzanine financing of 80+ Silicon Valley based IT companies that became spectacular successes, including: Adaptec, Cirrus Logic, Atmel, PMC-Sierra, LSI Logic, Linear Technologies, and Oracle. Their combined market value today exceeds $200 billion. In the last 25 years, Ossama was chairman or co-founder of seven cutting-edge startups in the U.S., UK, France and Switzerland including ACC in Santa Barbara (routers, acquired by Ericsson), Algety in Lannion (soliton transmission, acquired by Corvis), HighDeal in Caen (rating engines, acquired by SAP), HighWave in Bretagne (fiber optic amplifiers, Listed on Euronext), NetCentrex in paris (VolP, acquired by Comverse), nCipher in Cambridge (encryption, listed on LSE), and Zong in Menlo Park (acquired by eBay). Currently, Ossama serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Bank of the West in San Francisco. On the social entrepreneurship side, he is a charter member of the C100, a Silicon-Valley based association dedicated to mentoring and angel financing Canadian entrepreneurs. Ossama also served on the Board of Directors of the nonprofit Relief International, a nonprofit, focusing his efforts on social entrepreneurship and development of women in the Middle East. He was chairman o f the board of TechWadi and the Egyptian American Society in Silicon Valley and vice-chairman of the Board of PSD, an NGO focused on providing one laptop per child for up to 130,000 Palestinian children in need of education. On the academic side, Ossama served on the Board of Advisors of Harvard University Center for Middle Eastern Studies and of UCSF Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine in San Francisco. He was appointed as the Willard Brown Distinguished Professor at the American University in Cairo School of Business, where he remains a member of the Board of Advisors. Ossama lectured on Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University and the University of San Diego, and on international business at UC Berkeley and Santa Clara University. He was also a guest speaker on entrepreneurship in diverse venues including the White House, the State Department, MIT, Harvard University, and the Commonwealth Club.

Dr. Yacov A. Shamash is a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Stony Brook University where he was the founder of the New York State Center for Excellence in Wireless and in Information Technology, and New Your State Center for Excellence in Advanced Energy Research and Technology (AERTC). He has previously served as the Vice President for Economic Development, the Dean of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Dean of the Harriman School for Management and Policy. Prior to joining Stony Brook University, Dr. Shamash developed and directed the National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for the Design of Analog/Digital Integrated Circuits and also served as Chairman of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Washington State University. He serves on the Board of Directors of Comtech Telecommunications Corp., KeyTronic Corp., and Applied DNA Sciences, Inc. Dr, Shamash holds a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Imperial College of Sciences and Technology in London, England.

Ryuichi Yokoyama received the degrees of B.S., M.S., and Ph.D in electrical engineering from Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan in 1968, 1970, and 1974, respectively. After working in Mitsubishi Research Institute, from 1978 through 2007, he was a professor in the Faculty of Technology of Tokyo Metropolitan University. Since 2007, he had been a professor of the Graduate School of Environment and Energy Engineering in Waseda University. His fields of interests include planning, operation, control and optimization of large-scale environment and energy systems, and economic analysis and risk management of deregulated power markets.
Now, he is a Professor Emeritus of Waseda University, a Life Fellow of IEEE, a Senior Life Member of IEE of Japan, a member of CIGRE. He is also Chairmen of Standardization Commissions of Electric Apparatus in METI Japan. He is a President of Consortium of Power System Technology of Japan and CEO of the Energy and Environment Technology Research Institute.

Title: Resilient and Expandable Distribution Network for Smart Community in Asian Countries and Islands
A paradigm shift has been taking place toward reorganizing the energy management practice in Japan and many projects started to study the “Smart Grid and Smart Community” which utilize renewable energy from solar and wind sources.
Due to the widespread shortage of electricity occurred by the East Japan Earthquake in March of 2011, we are keenly aware of the need for households, offices, factories, and local governments to maintain their own power sources that are not completely dependent on electric power companies. In constructing such power sources, locally generated and consumed renewable energy from solar and wind sources would be mainly utilized. However, such power sources would affect the power grid through fluctuation of power output and the deterioration of power quality. Therefore, a new social infrastructure to supply electric power would be required. As a countermeasure of the problem, it would be suitable to create resilient and expandable distribution networks that are of appropriate scale for their respective regions instead of large-scale networks all at once. The network will add new clusters when needed and have them collaborate with each other where regional governments are the main entities. In this presentation, the current status and features of the government driven developments for smart grids and communities in Japan are introduced, and cluster-oriented expandable networks are discussed focusing on resiliency of the grid against natural disaster. Vital lifelines could be secured even during large-scale natural disasters, if such administrative agencies, hospitals, police stations, schools, evacuation centers, communication bases, and elderly housing facilities were completed centering on the Cluster-Oriented Expandable Network operated by regional governments. This concept is known as “resiliency”, and it will one day be the guideline for building the social infrastructure.