Bio
Christopher W. Gibson is Vice President - Trimble's Survey, Geospatial, Geographic Information System (GIS), Infrastructure, Rail, Land Administration and Environmental Solutions businesses of Trimble Navigation Limited. Mr. Gibson joined Trimble in 1998 as European finance and operations director. In 2009, he was appointed to serve as vice president responsible for Trimble’s Survey Division, and in December 2010, those responsibilities were expanded to include oversight of geographic regions and divisions, including Building Construction, Construction Tools, and the Hilti joint venture. From 2008 to 2009, Mr. Gibson served as the general manager for the Survey Division, and from 2005 to 2008, he was general manager for the Global Services Division. Mr. Gibson received a BA in Business Studies in 1985 from Thames Polytechnic, now the University of Greenwich, and was admitted as a Fellow to the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants in 1994.

Abstract
How Geospatial Solutions Improve Infrastructure Development
Geospatial based information is at the heart of all major construction and infrastructure development projects. From the concept, through the construction phase and into the maintenance phase the utilisation of geospatial data is critical not just for building the physical structure but also for all of the touch points within the enterprise and beyond. The primary benefits of an integrated geospatial solution are improved productivity, quality and workforce safety. Chris Gibson will present an overview of how geospatial information is being integrated into the overall project management and will provide examples of how projects around the world have been completed more productively, with greater quality and enhanced workforce safety.

Bio
Rafael has 12 years of experience in the GIS industry, specializing in transportation GIS, development of custom applications, spatially-enabled enterprise solutions and web-based mapping. His qualifications include a Bachelor’s degree in Geomatics Engineering from the University of Calgary, Canada and an M.Sc. in Geographic Information Management from City University London. His experience in applying GIS spans across a wide range of disciplines including numerous rail projects, transport planning, urban planning and road asset management. Rafael has worked on numerous high-profile projects which have allowed him to work in a variety of different countries, including a two year assignment with the United Nations in Libya, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland and the UAE. Currently, Rafael is acting as GIS Manager at Qatar Rail and has been involved in building and developing the company’s GIS capabilities.

Abstract
The Role of GIS in Qatar Rail
Throughout Qatar Rail’s short existence, geospatial data has played a critical role in data dissemination and general project awareness among staff and stakeholders. Geographic Information Systems are extensively used at all levels of the company, primarily due to the simplicity of how the data is made available. The Qatar Rail GIS department has made it a priority to ensure that all critical datasets, some of which can change on a daily basis, are available to the people who need them, when they need them. This presentation will describe the efforts that Qatar Rail has made over the last year to make GIS accessible and relevant to the masses. The talk will aim to demonstrate how principles such as user interface familiarity, agile software development, senior management buy-in, rapid software delivery and above-all, innovation, can help GIS to achieve a high level of success and visibility within an organization. Finally, Qatar Rail’s future vision of GIS and geospatially enabled technology will be revealed.

Bio
Dr. Khaled El Nabbout is the business development manager at FARO Europe for EMEA region. He is a PhD in Geo-Sciences with specialisation in geo-visualisation for urban planning as joint research between Dresden University of Technology-Germany and the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation/ ITC (Enschede-The Netherlands). From 1995 until 2008, Dr. Khaled has been involved in different geomatics businesses through various international projects including land and border line surveying and urban planning. He is a member of the urban remote sensing special interest groups (SIG) of the European Association of Remote Sensing Laboratories (EARSeL) since 2005 and is also a member of commission 3 at the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) and the national delegates for the Lebanese Order of Surveyors. He has served as chair of the Geo-Sciences commission at the European Arabic Engineers Union.

Abstract
Terrestrial Laser Scan for Geospatial Information Management
Terrestrial Laser Scan technology nowadays is highly developed and the request for cloud data is getting more and more accepted everyday in different applications. The presentation will focus on how Terrestrial Laser Scan (TLS) can be used for Geospatial Information Management. The steps of such process will be presented from data capturing, data registration and finally data converting from cloud data to vector data. The advantage of such tools will be presented, based on urban projects to showcase how objects can be recognized automatically; each object will be in vector format and ready to be imported into any GIS software. The presentation will discuss if Terrestrial Laser scan is developed enough already that it can support Geospatial Information Management?

Bio
Heegu Park began his career at an IT company as a software engineer and developed some web programs for a famous Korean fashion company. After a short period of time as a software engineer, he moved to the gaming industry, which was booming at that time in South Korea and gained experience in technical production and coordination of several online games at leading online gaming companies. His 5-year working experience drove him to get higher degree in business and management, and thus he went to KAIST (Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) where he obtained an MBA degree. During his time at the graduate schools, he mainly focused on IT and the creative industry. He now works at Gaia3D, a geospatial company based in South Korea, and takes charge of marketing and business development. His goal at Gaia3D is to make Gaia3D a global GIS company.

Abstract
Development of efficient DEM generation software using large volume of Laser scanning datas acquired from mobile mapping system
Recently, Mobile Mapping System (MMS) has been an efficient method to acquire data for generating 3D navigation maps. RTF (Recursive Terrain Fragmentation) algorithm was developed for ground/non-ground classification for airborne laser scanning data. This research aims at improving the accuracy and precision of 3D road maps from airborne LiDAR data or MMS data by removing obstacles existing on roads, such as cars, trees and so on, using the modified RTF algorithm. Gaia3D has released a LiDAR processing software using RTF algorithm, significantly increasing the performance of classification.

Bio
Dr. Fethi Filali is a Senior R&D Expert and Technology Lead at Qatar Mobility Innovations Center (QMIC) with more than fifteen years of experience in distributed intelligent systems and communication networks including wireless networking, mobile applications and services, and end-to-end large-scale smart services and solutions. He is the ITS technology lead at QMIC responsible for developing advanced technologies, algorithms, and protocols, for the innovative ITS MasarakTM and Connected Cars platforms and services. Prior to this, from September 2003 to December 2010, he was Associate Professor at EURECOM, France where he was coordinating several European and national research projects in the area of wireless networks and intelligent transportation systems. He was the Ph.D. Supervisor of eight Ph.D. students in the area of computer networking, wireless sensor and mesh networks, vehicular communications, and mobility management. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis (2002). In 2008, he was awarded the Habilitation degree for his extensive research in wireless networks and services. He has published more than 100 journal and conference papers and holds several patents.

Abstract
Smartening Masarak™ Services with National Geographic Information
Masarak™ is a suite of Intelligent Transport, Logistics Management and Road Safety services made in Qatar by Qatar Mobility Innovations Center (QMIC). Masarak relies on collecting real-time traffic data from various input sources like GPS devices fitted in vehicles, Bluetooth sensors, smartphones and other sources, and then passes the traffic raw data through the M2M QMIC Labeeb™ platform for cleaning, analysis, and storage. Location-based real-time traffic information is then provided through multiple delivery channels including web and mobile applications, voice, and sms. Masarak is empowered with up-to-date Qatar GIS layers which are contributing in significantly improving the accuracy of the delivered traffic and safety information.

Bio
Dr. Rabi Mohtar is currently the Executive and Founding Director of Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI). Dr. Mohtar has held numerous senior positions including Full Professor at Purdue University in the US and Inaugural Director, Global Engineering Programs in the US. Dr. Mohtar focused on conserving natural resources that face global challenges such as increasing food and water supplies for a growing population. He developed environmental and natural resources conservation engineering programs that evaluate the environmental impacts of land use and water management; developed innovative soil and groundwater remediation technologies; applied numerical methods to biological engineering systems; characterized the soil water medium at the pedon, field, and watershed scales. He also designed and evaluated international sustainable water management programs that deal with population growth and water shortage conditions in arid climates. His research has resulted in improved methods for environmental and natural resources engineering, many of which have been adopted by other professionals and agencies internationally.

Abstract
Geospatial technology in the service of advanced research themes on environment and energy in Qatar
QEERI’s position and contribution starting from Qatar Foundation’s vision for excellence towards human capital raising the quality of living, and preparing the people of Qatar to meet the challenges of a changing world, the Qatar Environment and Energy Institute (QEERI) is focusing on environment and energy to contribute to Qatar’s sustainability. QEERI tackles different themes that are inherently linked to natural resource. Such scientific investigations must depend on, and are using, the advanced spatial and information manipulation techniques of remote sensing and geographic information systems. QEERI’s aim of hosting research programs serving multidisciplinary research, would make it at the forefront in supporting Qatar achieve water security, reduce carbon emissions, increase energy efficiency, reduce risks threatening the marine-terrestrial habitats, thus securing Qatar’s sustainable development. The scope of work will extend to the GCC region, and all of the Middle East area. Research projects where spatial analysis forms an important part are: Air Quality monitoring and modelling in Doha – a joint project with the Ministry of Environment; Soil modelling in Qatar; Solar energy mapping in Qatar; Biodiversity mapping and spatial distribution of species, in Qatar; Groundwater pollution in Qatar; Soil pollution in Qatar; and Soil salinity mapping using remote sensing and GIS in Qatar, using Landsat & SPOT images.

Bio
Mansoor Al Malki is the Director of Information Technology (IT) Department at the Qatar Statistics Authority (QSA) and heading all GIS and IT activities in QSA. He was also the Deputy Chief of Qatar Census 2010 and in-charge of all IT and GIS activities related to census operations. He has been quite instrumental in application of PDA in census data collection, combining GIS and GPS capabilities. He was heading the National Strategy for the Development of Statistics group. He is a computer graduate and with vast GIS experience and expertise in GIS. He has participated in many national and international GIS conferences and workshops and presented papers and delivered lectures. He has been associated with Qatar GIS for almost two decades. He has been the key person in implementing GIS at QSA and making it popular amongst the data producers as well as the data users. Under his overall supervision, QSA GIS has published three Atlases in print and CD format and won ESRI-UC second and third best publication awards during ESRI-UC 2007 and 2008 in San Diego-CA besides ESRI- SAG award in 2010. Recently Mr. Malki has shown his active participation in the United Nations initiatives on geospatial information development and organized the Second High Level Forum on Global Geospatial Information Management at Doha.

Abstract
Advancing Global Geospatial Information Management- UNGGIM Second High Level Forum Recommendations
The Second High Level Forum on Global Geospatial Information Management (UNGGIM) was held in Doha Qatar in February 2013. The issues of Global Geospatial Management were discussed at large in a three days Forum meet attended by 300 delegates from 60 member countries of the United Nations. Many aspects of the geospatial information development useful from regional and global perspective were discussed. The discussion was aimed at briefing the outcome of this important event highlighting the issues and methodologies discussed and recommendations by the participants. The discussion put forth many of the local, regional or global issues pertaining to the development of geospatial information that are considered significant in dealing with social and economic development programmes initiated by the UN and other regional bodies besides the need for geospatial information felt during the emergencies of wars or disasters that involve more than one country.

Yousuf Al Jaidah is the Manager of Electricity Network Planning at KAHRAMAA, State of Qatar. He has been instrumental in implementing new strategies in the Planning Department. He completed B.S. in Electrical Engineering from University of Arizona, USA. He has more than 10 years of experience in the field of Power System Engineering and has worked on a variety of power engineering projects including consultancy studies for transmission and distribution networks, strategic developments and engineering design. His presentation titled ‘A Path breaking Technology for Network Maintenance and Optimization’ looks at how GIS technology can be adapted for an optimum utilization of assets and reduce the outages in the electrical network.

Electric utility should keep comprehensive and accurate information about their electrical assets so that they can track and maintain service information for the assets. Tracking the assets helps in knowing where and when the equipment is used and comprehensive service information will help in reducing equipment failure, which is the main cause for outages in the network. An Enterprise GIS solution will not only help in maintaining the asset database but it can also be used for complex power system analysis like fault analysis, load forecasting and outage scenarios. It has been found that the legacy asset management systems lack the ‘Electrical touch’ where the system will not be electrical aware unlike a modern GIS system. An electrical aware GIS system can handle the complexities of Electrical Distribution System which poses a challenge not only to a novice but also an expert in the field of Electricity. An Enterprise GIS solution is the only system that can digest the intricacies of such a complex system and it can help the electrical personnel in spending more time in ‘Electrical Engineering’ than in collecting, collating and making the data meaningful before using it for analysis.

Hossam Sayed is the manager of solution engineering at Esri for the Middle East and Africa region. He has over 17 years of experience consulting with Esri clients in the fields of geographic information systems and information technology. He has been working at Esri headquarters in Redlands for the last 6 years and recently moved to Dubai to support the Middle East and Africa out of the Esri Dubai office. Sayed's primary role is educating and consulting with clients, distributors, and partners about the latest technology from Esri. Sayed's career includes a diverse set of experience composed of working in the full life cycle of implementing GIS/IT projects. He has worked in such roles as technical support, training, application development, consulting, project management, and technical marketing.