Digital Transformation - A Prerequisite for Sustainability in all Economic Sectors and for Society

Adrian FLOREA obtained his MSE (1998) at Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu and his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the ’Politehnica’ University of Bucharest, Romania (2005). At present he is Professor in Computer Science and Engineering at the ’Lucian Blaga’ University of Sibiu, Romania. Adrian is an active researcher in the fields of High Performance Processor Design and Simulation, Dynamic Branch and Value Prediction. He has worked over 20 years in interdisciplinary national and international research projects dealing with issues such as optimization problems in different engineering domains (microprocessors systems, suspension design and reliability, energy efficiency in buildings, smart electricity), embedded systems with applicability in Smart City (smart parking, urban mobility, smart traffic), creating digital tools for supporting communities of practice, mobile computing. He has published over 7 (didactic and scientific) books and 89 scientific papers in some prestigious journals (ISI Web of Science) and international top conferences in Romania, USA, UK, Italy, Germany, China, Slovenia, Korea, Latvia, Spain, India, Poland etc. He received ‘Tudor Tanasescu’ Romanian Academy Award 2005, for the book entitled ‘Microarchitectures simulation and optimization’ (in Romanian) and ‘Ad Augusta Per Angusta’ Award for young researcher, received from ‘Lucian Blaga’ University of Sibiu in June 2007, for special results obtained in scientific research. Since 2012 he is HiPEAC affiliate member and, since 2013 he is ACM Professional member. He is researcher in the European Union’s Horizon 2020 innovation programme under grant agreement No 731724, “Infrastructure and integrated tools for personalized learning of reading skill – iRead” and is the technical coordinator of the Erasmus+ KA2 strategic project “The FoF-Designer: Digital Design Skills for Factories of the Future”. Since 2019 professor Florea is leading the HPI Knowledge Transfer Centre at ULBS.

Ramona Samson is currently working for the Chief Economist Unit at the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, European Commission. Previously, she worked as Deputy Head of Unit for 'SMEs, Financial Instruments and State Aid', providing advice as regards the design of ways to increasing private finance and closing market gaps in research and innovation investments. Until 2012, she held various positions at the Directorate-General for Trade. She holds a PhD from Copenhagen Business School

Innovation director, entrepreneurship coach and theoretician of the evolution of the innovation models and tools for practice. His scientific work gained worldwide recognition and put in light the emergence of a new innovation French model but also completed the theories of two Nobel Prize Winners (Stiglitz, J., Sen. A) after having applied and adapted them to the highly collaborative processes like innovation.

His professional experience includes being the founder of Agilising Innovation, Innovation Director at AKKA Group, Deputy Innovation Director at ONERA, French Aerospace Lab, and Strategy and Development Director at the Competitive Pole SAFE – PACA region in France. Currently entrepreneur and Business Angel, Dr. Florin Paun is a founder of the Start-up and CELIDEA Consultancy.

Dr. Paun teaches his own innovation methods in International MBA and Master programmes at ISAE, Ecole de l'Air, ENAC, ESEO, Toulouse Business School. His strategies and tools aim to support the creation of the shared value between research laboratories, SMEs, multinationals, clusters and regions.

Alexandru Costescu has been for more than ten years a Scientific Policy Officer in the Directorate Health, DG Research & Innovation, European Commission. He has been working on various health policy areas and has managed research projects in the fields of paediatric medicines, medical diagnostics, health data, rare diseases, cancer, model organisms, etc. He is a graduate of the University of Medicine "Carol Davila" Bucharest, the NSPSPA Bucharest and College of Europe in Natolin.

Senior executive in engineering, delivery and IT-compliance.Experienced in project management, delivery management, process management and strategy.

Bojan joined NTT DATA Romania in 2016. Since then he was engaged and leading several projects including Car Connectivity and Smart City Infrastructure/IoT platforms. His expertise encompasses a wide range of embedded devices and software with emphasis on digital signal processing, edge computing, sensor fusion, data mining and pattern recognition techniques for the past 15 years. Bojan has completed his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees at the Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad in Serbia and he is currently an Assistant Professor within the Department of Mechatronics, Robotics and Automation.

Bojan’s research activities have resulted in over 60 scientific papers published in prestigious journals and conference proceedings, including 6 national patents. In addition, Bojan is an active member of IEEE community, as well as of IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics; IEEE Robotics and Automation; IEEE Sensors and IEEE Smart Cities societies. He has also reviewed scientific journals, such as “Elsevier’s Sensor and Actuators A: Physical” and “IET Electronics Letters”. Furthermore, he was appointed member of technical committees for international scientific conferences, such as ZINC, Telfor, Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (MUM) and IEEE Consumer Electronics (EU chapter).

Lasse Berntzen is a Professor in the School of Business, University of South-Eastern Norway. Since 2003, his research has focused on the Information Society and ICT in public sector, with emphasis on e-government and e-democracy. During the last years his research has focused on smart cities and smart communities. He has been involved in several research projects on national and international level, author and co-author of several conference papers and articles, and program committee member and reviewer for some of the most important conferences within his field of research.

His current research interests include automatic assessment of e-government services, different aspects of e-participation, and the use of geographic information systems to improve public decision-making and democratic participation, and the development of smart city concepts and technology.

In 2007 and 2008, he worked on regulatory aspects of e-democracy as an expert for the Council of Europe’s Ad-hoc Committee on e-democracy. He has also been a reviewer for the European Commission. Lasse Berntzen received his Cand. Scient. degree in Computer Science from the University of Oslo. His thesis work focused on object-oriented modeling of workflow processes. Since then, he has worked both as an academic and as a computer professional. During his professional career, he has written textbooks on computer networks, systems development, and web technology. In 2009, he was appointed fellow of the International Academy, Research and Industry Association (IARIA). He has been on the steering committee of ICDS since 2007, Cyberlaws since 2010, and COLLA since 2011, CENTRIC since 2013, and SMART since 2015. He is currently a member of IFIP WG 8.5: Information Systems in Public Administration. He is also a member of AIS, ACM, and IEEE.

Marius George Linguraru, D.Phil., M.A., M.Sc., is principal investigator in the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation at Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C., where he directs the Precision Medical Imaging Group. Dr. Linguraru is also professor of Radiology and Pediatrics and secondary professor of Biomedical Engineering at George Washington University. He co-founded PediaMetrix Inc., a company focused on infant well-being by creating AI solutions to improve the management of conditions of early childhood. He joined the Sheikh Zayed Institute from the National Institutes of Health, completed his doctorate at the University of Oxford and held fellowships at the French National Institute of Research in Computer Science (INRIA) and at Harvard University.

Dr. Linguraru is the recipient of numerous awards, including a prize for Excellence in Engineering by a Younger Engineer at the Houses of Parliament in London, UK. He has served on boards and committees of the of the Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI) Society, the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, the IEEE Signal Processing Society, and the Foundation of the International Society of Medical Information Processing and Analysis (SIPAIM). He founded and chairs the MICCAI Career Development Program. He was the general chair of the IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging 2019 in Venice, Italy, co-chair of SIPAIM 2020 in Lima, Peru (virtual) and will be the program chair of MICCAI 2024 in Marrakesh, Morocco. .

With experience in a wide range of work areas, from IT Management to Electrical Engineering Power Plant Technologies and even Research and Development in Automotive Industry, I have constantly focused on developing innovative and sustainable partnerships. Identifying efficient ways and methods of training and working with others I have aimed to build knowledge networks between stakeholders from both private and institutional areas.
Only driven by great ideas one can obtain sustainable development.

I have been an electronic engineer for more than 30 years. I have worked in the medical, military and automotive fields. I also have experience as a system engineer. For the last 16 years I have dedicated myself almost exclusively to the automotive field. I am open to new challenges and I want to use my experience gained in new and challenging projects.

Vlad Toncian has graduated in 2012 from the “Hermann Oberth” Engineering Faculty of ULBS, majoring in Computer Science. Since then, he has activated in the Automotive Industry both in Research and Development, as Software System Test Engineer, as well as in Industrialization, as a Test Equipment Requirements Engineer.

With a strong R&D background and more than four years’ experience in Industrialization, the skill-stack acquired by Vlad allowed him to efficiently organize the daily work in projects, assuring a cohesive and stable interface between SW development and automatic industrial equipment development, designed specifically for testing and validating embedded automotive products. As side projects, for the last two years, Vlad organized the internship program for the university student and also prepared various workshops designed specifically for High School pupils inside his department.

Completing the skill stack, Vlad also has acquired the Lean Six Sigma – Green Belt Certification by IASSC and the Project Management Certification by Romanian Ministry of Labor: two additional qualifications and knowledge sources that offer a high positive impact in the daily project work activities within the Marquardt Group

Stealth leader with a creative and expansive mindset, Razvan has over 20 years of experience in the IT industry, over 14 of which were spent holding various management and entrepreneurial roles.

In his belief system, culture is the main driver of teams, the unseen “red wire” that connects us together and creates synergies bigger than ourselves.

People say he has a sixth sense when it comes to reading personalities and assessing people.

All in all, his strategies and ability to flex around opportunities, brought him to co-found and develop the biggest alternative education platform in Romania: The Informal School of IT.

Remus Brad received an Engineer Diploma degree in Computer Science from the “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu (ULBS), Romania, in 1993, a M.S. degree from Université “Pierre et Marie Curie” Paris, France, in Artificial Intelligence in 1995 and a PhD. from Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, in 2003. Since 1994 he has joined the Department of Computer Science and Automation at the “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, Romania, where he is actually a Professor. His current research interests include Image Processing, Motion Estimation and Biomedical Imaging. As Head of the Data Communication and Marketing Department of ULBS since year 2000, he has managed and maintained the university core network and server infrastructure, developing in-house software and web-based applications. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE.

Claudiu Vasile Kifor is currently a professor at “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, Romania, and also director of the Research center in sustainable products and processes. Since February 2021 he is adjunct professor in the Faculty of Information Technology at Victoria Institute of Technology, Australia. He has a PhD (2000) in industrial engineering and M.Sc. (1994) in mechanical engineering from “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu. Over the period 2012-2020, he was vice-rector in charge of research and doctoral activity, and during the period 2004-2012 he was Head of the Research & Development (R&D) Department of LBUS. He was a member of National Council for Scientific Research in Romania (2015-2016), and of National Council for awarding academic titles and degrees (Commission Production Engineering and Management) - period 2012 – 2013, and from 2020. His research interests are in scientific research management, quality engineering and management. Professor Kifor has published over 70 scientific research papers and 11 books, and Kifor was invited by such universities as Aalborg University (for the programme Master of Problem Based Learning in Engineering and Science), Ling Tung University, Taiwan, Rennes University, France, Riga Teacher Training and Educational Management Academy, Riga, Latvia for lectures on quality engineering, education management and scientific methods in engineering. He served as editor of Knowledge science engineering and management conference proceedings (2014 edition), associate editor of International Journal of Quality Assurance in Engineering and Technology Education, Australia and over 30 international conferences. Professor Kifor has coordinated more than 20 international and national research projects in various fields: quality improvement, process management and sustainable development of products and processes.

Christoph Meinel (Univ. Prof., Dr. sc. nat., Dr. rer. nat., *1954) is CEO and Scientific Director of the Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Engineering gGmbH (HPI) at the University of Potsdam.

Christoph Meinel is CEO and Scientific Director of the Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Engineering gGmbH (HPI). He is also Vice Dean of the Faculty of Digital Engineering at the University of Potsdam. Christoph Meinel holds the chair of Internet Technologies and Systems. He is engaged in the fields of cybersecurity and digital education. He has developed the MOOC platform openHPI.de, supervises numerous Ph.D. students, and is a teacher at the HPI School of Design Thinking, where he is also scientifically active in research. Earlier scientific work concentrated on efficient algorithms and complexity theory.

Christoph Meinel is author or co-author of more than 25 books, anthologies, as well as numerous conference proceedings. He has had more than 550 (peer-reviewed) papers published in scientific journals and at international conferences and holds a number of international patents. He is a member of the National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech), director of the HPI-Stanford Design Thinking Research Program, honorary professor at the TU Beijing, visiting professor at Shanghai University, concurrent professor at the University of Nanjing, and member of numerous scientific committees and supervisory boards.

Tudor Gorcia comes from the entrepreneurial area, being the founder of the company TNT Computers in 2001 - a concern that currently brings together 5 companies focused on technology, IT and innovation.

With a complex portfolio of services, products and an emphasis for SMART CITY and SMART VILLAGE, the entire team supports the modernization of Romania and the development of communities.

From e-government solutions, integrated remote management systems, mobile applications, IoT, Docubox and the delivery of customizable projects, the TNT Computers concern provides a wide range of technology experts. Tudor is a highly active businessman, eager for lifelong learning.

He is also a ULBS graduate and is currently involved in the development of the community in Sibiu.

Mrs. Mayor Astrid Fodor graduated from the University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Law, specializing in economics and administrative sciences.

She started her career as a lawyer, and later worked as an economist, head of service, commercial director and economic director at large enterprises and companies in Sibiu.

Since 2004 she has held the position of local councilor, and between 2008 and 2016, Mrs. Fodor was the deputy mayor of Sibiu, managing the economic-financial and patrimony operations of the city administration, coordinating various public services.

Between December 2014 and June 2016, she was interim Mayor, after the position was vacated by His Excellency, Mr. Klaus Werner Iohannis, currently President of Romania. In June 2016, Mrs. Astrid Fodor was elected Mayor by vote of the city of Sibiu, and in 2020 she was elected by the people of Sibiu with a second term as mayor.

From a political point of view, Mrs. Mayor Astrid Fodor is a representative of the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania, a political organization representing the German minority in a multiethnic Sibiu, the city giving this organization the confidence to lead the city administration since 2000.

Employee of Continental Sibiu since 2008 member of the "Manufacturing Innovation" department. The presentation will focus on the innovation side in the production process and the work environment. Continental INNOHUB SIBIU aims to improve existing processes using the latest technologies. The technologies used in this innovation process vary depending on the needs from "Deep Learning-Based image inspection", "Digitalization", "Collaborative Robotic Environment" to "Software Innovation".

More than 15 years in HR field, mainly involved in learning, training and organizational development activities. With a psychology background, I’m passionate about human behavior and how can we change our future by using a very special tool – the learning tool

WILFRID UTZ received his PhD from the University of Vienna, Research Group Knowledge Engineering in the field of metamodel design and conceptual structures. He has been involved in international research and innovation projects and gained experience in the field of modeling method conceptualization, meta-model design and implementation of modeling tools using ADOxx in various application domains. His research and professional interest relates to knowledge representation using metamodeling concepts and platforms. Currently he serves as the managing director of OMiLAB NPO (www.omilab.org), a non-profit organization that aims to supports the conceptual modelling community through common tools, methods and platforms, as Digital Innovation Environments (DIEn).

Born 1980, Diploma in telecommunications at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. He started with the international automotive supplier Continental AG in 2004. In his current position, Mr. Gruian is the head of Production Software Solutions within Automotive Manufacturing (AM) and has a strong electrical test background being a senior expert in this field. The Automotive Manufacturing is a cross-divisional organization within Continental Automotive Technologies Group, that includes dedicated central departments. His department, AM Manufacturing Innovations, is responsible for equipment software standardization, globalization of new solutions, as well as piloting emerging technologies through specific innovation projects focused on manufacturing.

We discuss how the digital transformation of the entire process of operating a building creates benefits for both those who use them and for owners and how this transformation, extended to a city has a significant contribution to increasing the quality of life of citizens.

Bogdan-Constantin Pîrvu este în prezent conferențiar la facultatea de inginerie din cadrul Universității „Lucian Blaga” din Sibiu. El asigură de asemenea coordonarea inițiativei centrului de inovare digitală SmaS/LAB4COM dar și a asociației non-profit Smart Factory România. În trecut a fost cercetător la German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) în departamentul Sisteme Inovative de Producție din Kaiserslautern.

Manager with more than 20 years’ experience in the telecom industry, with expertise in a broad range of technologies, product development and innovation management. At the moment he is the Development and Innovation team manager in the Engineering department, coordinating multiple research projects in various fields such as: 5G & networks of the future, cyber security, smart cities, APIs exposure and monetizing, cloud technologies & IoT/M2M..

With more than 10 years' experience in the tech startups ecosystem, Monica facilitates Orange's relationship with innovative startups and the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Romania, through the Orange Fab acceleration program.

A Computer Science graduate with a passion for building products, she worked in startups in roles like software tester or product manager and has lead multiple startup support programs.

39 years old, In Continental Sibiu since 2005I have been working at Continental since 2005.
2005 - present: Tool developer for Test Tools (SW tools and Test Equipment).
2014 - present: Team Lead for Test Equipment Platform in the Vehicle Networking and Information Central Engineering department.
2018 - present: Software toolchain architect used in testing (Expert at company level). 2021 ->: Lead of “Vector VTSystem based Test equipment” community

46 years old, 1994 graduate of Technical University of Timisoara, specialized in applied electronics. Worked 13 years as automation engineer, switching to automotive industry in 2011. Responsible for communication system activities within Continental Vehicle Network and Infrastructure business area.

Entrepreneur with interest in software and hardware engineering focused on personall identification and security systems based on RFID(radiofrequnecy identification) and biometrics. Over 20 years of experience and partnership with European and Asian leaders in the mentioned activity areas. Severall participation to Romanian and European industry events as company exhibitor or visitor. Security systems integrator for CCTV, burglary, acces control and time&attendance systems with expertise in BMS (Building Management Systems) and Smart Home solutions.

Birgit Morlion is an engineer (PhD) with a mission to make digital health come true. Over the last 15 years she has been actively involved in eHealth research and facilitating the adoption of digital innovation in health care in Belgium. She was part of the start-up team of the Flemish digital research and innovation institute iMinds; helping to bridge the gap between research and exploitation of results. She also occupied strategic advisory roles for the Flemish and the Belgian Ministers of health in the domain of medical data-exchange and patient access to his electronic medical records. In May 2017 she joined the eHealth, well-being and ageing unit of the European commission (DG Connect) where she works on the digital transformation of health and care in the Digital Single Market more specifically with a focus on mobile health (mHealth), integrated care and active and assisted living.

Radu Orghidan is a Computer Vision PhD from the University of Girona, Spain, and holds an Executive MBA from the University of Hull, UK. He is currently the VP of Cognitive Computing in Endava and deals with strategic innovation through cloud and on-premise cognitive computing systems.
He has a technical and business driven focus on Machine Learning, 3D sensing and Mobile Robotics. During his carrier, Radu co-founded 2 startups and managed cross-functional teams to achieve research and development objectives for customers from different industries. In his free time, Radu loves running outdoors, skiing and motorcycling..

Sergiu Stefan Nicolaescu obtained double MSE degree in Embedded Systems (2011) and Industrial Business Management (2013), Ph.D. in Engineering and Management (2019) at Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu. At present he is a senior computer scientist at Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu and Software Group Leader in a R&D automotive company. He has in-depth knowledge of project management; software development; data analytics; knowledge management and organizational leadership. He has published in some prestigious journals (ISI Web of Science) and international top conferences over 15 scientific papers in the fields of Quality, Automotive Industry and Data Science. He was manager or senior researcher in more than 10 R&D projects, in both private and public sector.

Cu o experienta de peste 15 ani in domeniul dezvoltarii de sisteme informatice medicale, a participat in proiecte de mare anvergura in domeniul E-Health, iar solutiile dezvoltate de compania pe care o reprezinta sunt implementate in peste 40 de spitale si clinici si sunt folosite de peste 13.000 de utilizatori.

Entrepreneur with interest in the software engineering focused on European nearshore business model, exploiting innovative technologies and agile software methodologies, blended with strong ethics.With over 18 years’ experience in management and implementation of commercial and research projects rooted in fundamental research in artificial intelligence and information technology.Successfully made key-note speeches in several Business IT and Computer Science conferences in the Europe and United States.Serial entrepreneur and technology angel investor I’m interested working with creative teams delivering beautiful highly performing products and services.

Spectro:o Smart City and Digital Signage

Marius Pãtroi graduated from Lucian Blaga University and optained his diploma in Industrial Affairs Management.
So far Marius managed to accumulate more than 11 years of experience in direct sales, in the field of telecommunications working with Vodafone Romania and UPC Romania.
For more than 9 years he has been an antrepreneur, managing several direct sales teams composed of 5 to 30 people distributed in 5 counties ( SB,MS,HR,AG,BUC ).
During all this time, Marius has been active in sales on all customer segments, SOHO (0-9 ang), SME (10-49 ang), Corporate (> 50 ang), Strategic (with contractual values over 200,000 euros / year) .
Marius Pãtroi toghether with Paul Bozan are the founders of Spectroo a software development company, that since 2018 delivers on the Romanian market a digital signage platform embraced by some of the biggest retailers on the market such as Carrefour Romania. The goal is to become an international player with our product.

Currently full professor in intelligent robotics and innovation management at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Stelian Brad comes up with a complex background of about 20 years in software industry, as product or project manager, CEO, innovation manager, entrepreneur and mentor.

Stelian holds a PhD in robotics and a PhD in economics. Till now, he had the chance to lead or to be involved in 150+ research and innovation projects, as well as many institutional development initiatives. His current technological focus is on disruptive IT product-service systems, industry 4.0 and robotic intelligence. On the academic side he has published over 200 papers in journals and international conferences.

On the entrepreneurial side, Stelian led and is leading various initiatives towards collaborative and polycentric innovations, business internationalization, and international and cross-industry strategic alliances. He is also reporting contributions in consultancy projects for communities and companies on lean agile design thinking, innovation management, competitive engineering, shared value, smart specialization, and digital transformation. He was invited as speaker in many events in the fields of IT, robotics and innovation.

Antonio is an ex-entrepreneur, corporate and VC with more than two decades of experience in leading implementation and growth in new business technologies, while driving sustainable revenue and profit development in multiple industries on a global scale. Having served as Department Head of Innovation at a publicly listed multinational corporation, he was also the co- founding Managing Director of a deep tech venture which eventually IPOed. Antonio focuses on health, food & deep tech while currently connecting the dots in the European tech landscape as a Venture Diplomat and seasoned dealmaker.

Cătălin Viorel VACON graduated Lucian Blaga University with a Degree in Psychology. As a student he found subjects like experimental psychology, organisational development, career counseling, and advertising very interesting.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to be member in the NGO ASPS (Psycholoy Students Association in Sibiu) he organized and led teams in Marketing, Events Planning and Experimental Research. After graduation he wanted to learn more about organizations and became Recruitment Consultant in a local Recruitment Agency. Across the 12 years of experience he was named Managing Partner, coordinated small teams of recruiters, managed, and developed the local portfolio of clients.

His last 5 years were focused on the digital transformation of the agency, learning more about Digital Product Management. In 2020 Catalin created Talent Pipeline, a new project started together with his wife, Aida CIUBOTARU, and Ciprian CANDEA (CEO of Ropardo). Built to reshape the recruitment landscape, Talent Pipeline helps agencies collaborate efficiently to place more candidates, while incorporating a candidate-first recruiting strategy.