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Monday Opening Plenary Speaker, Mr. Kuldeep Kumar Gharatya
Engineering Directorate, London Underground Ltd
Kuldeep was born in London, England. His Undergraduate degree is in Mechanical Engineering and he went on to study a Post Graduate Masters degree in Systems Engineering at University College London, which he achieved with distinction. His Masters project was titled ‘SE — From Business Case to Organisational Implementation’.
Kuldeep is a Chartered Engineer and a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and a member of the Institution of Engineering
and Technology. He is also an active member of the International Council on Systems Engineering, and serves on the UK Chapter’s Railway Interest Group. His INCOSE Intelligent Transportation and Transit Systems Working Group (ITTSWG) involvement has led to London Underground
entering into an agreement with New York City Transit Authority on sharing knowledge and good practice in Systems Engineering.
Kuldeep joined London Underground in 1997 and has worked in the various departments of the company. This was an experience which led
him to subsequently promote a Systems Engineering approach. He is now the professional head for systems engineering and human factors.
London Underground has begun an unparalleled level of upgrade work as part of a 30 year Public Private Partnership (PPP). Systems Engineering (SE) will play a vital role in ensuring these large programmes deliver in the challenging timescales set. For SE professionals the challenge is not ‘doing’ SE but embedding systems engineering as part of the delivery process.
In the past few years there has been an increasing recognition of the value of Systems Engineering and Kuldeep has overseen the development of a new team within the Engineering Directorate. He continues to work hard at embedding and raising the profile of Systems Engineering in London Underground and its delivery partners. |
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Tuesday Plenary Speaker, Professor Lui Pao Chuen
Chief Defence Scientist, Ministry of Defence (MINDEF)
Professor Lui Pao Chuen graduated from the University of Singapore in 1965 with a degree in Physics. He joined the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) in 1966 as the Officer-in-Charge of Tests, Evaluation and Acceptance Section. In 1970 he established the Science and Management Group, reporting directly to the Second Permanent Secretary of Defence for the planning and management of major development projects.
In 1971, he was awarded the first MINDEF fellowship for postgraduate education and elected to pursue his studies at the United States Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California. In 1973, after graduating with a Master’s degree in Operations Research and Systems Analysis he was appointed acting Director, Logistics Division, MINDEF.
In 1975, he was appointed Special Projects Director and was made responsible for the planning, system engineering and management of
the implementation of major weapon systems for the SAF. As he was responsible for both operational and technical matters he could adopt
a “Conception to Retirement” systems approach which later became standard practice in MINDEF.
In 1984, he held the appointment of acting Director, Joint Operations and Plans Directorate of the Ministry of Defence concurrently with his appointment as Director, Special Projects Organisation. In 1986 he was made Senior Director to set up the Defence Material Organization
through the merger of the Material Management Organization and the Special Projects Organization. He was also appointed to the newly
created post of Chief Defence Scientist to provide advice to the Ministry and the Singapore Armed Forces.
He has been on the board of directors of various Government-linkedcompanies, Government agencies and University of Singapore and the
recipient of many service awards. Currently, he is holding appointments on the management boards of research institutes and corporations, and in the universities. |
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Thursday Closing Plenary Speaker, Dr. M. Elisabeth Paté-Cornell
Professor and Chair, Stanford University
Dr. M. Elisabeth Paté-Cornell was born in Dakar, Senegal. Her academic degrees are in mathematics and physics (BS, Marseilles, France, 1968), applied mathematics and computer science (MS and Engineer Degree, Institut Polytechnique de Grenoble, France, 1970; 1971), operations research (MS, Stanford, 1972), and engineering-economic systems (Stanford, PhD, 1978). She was an Assistant Professor of Civil
Engineering at MIT (1978 to 1981). In 1981, she joined the Stanford Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management,
where she became Professor (1991), then Chair (1997). In 1999, she was named the Burt and Deedee McMurtry Professor in the Stanford School
of Engineering. She oversaw from 1999, the merger of two Stanford departments to form a new department of Management Science and
Engineering, which she currently chairs. She is a Senior Fellow (by courtesy) of the Stanford Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.
Dr. Paté-Cornell was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1995, to its Council (2001–), and to the French Académie des Technologies (2003). Her current memberships include the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (2001-2004; 2005–), the Advisory Council of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab. (2002-), and the Boards of Trustees of the Aerospace Corp. (2004–) and of InQtel (2006–). She is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Naval Postgraduate School, which she chaired from 2004 to 2006.
Dr. Paté-Cornell is a world leader in engineering risk analysis and management and more generally, the use of Bayesian probability to process incomplete information. Her research and that of her Engineering Risk Research Group at Stanford have focused in recent years on the inclusion of both technical and management factors in probabilistic risk analysis models with applications that include the NASA shuttle tiles, offshore oil platforms, medical systems, and since 2001, terrorist attacks on the US, and the assessment of intelligence information. |
Systems Engineering: 
