Final Program
The I3M 2025 conference will be held as an Hybrid Conference. All the I3M Sessions will be both in person and online through Microsoft TEAMS. Within the Program you will find a link to each I3M Session
Preliminary Program
The I3M 2025 conference will be held as an Hybrid Conference. All the I3M Sessions will be both in person and online through Microsoft TEAMS. Within the Program you will find a link to each I3M Session
Keynote Talks
Tillal Eldabi
Professor
University of Bradford
UK
When AI Meets Simulation: Towards Complementary Intelligence
As AI evolves from a tool to an active teammate – in both digital and physical forms – it is reshaping the way people work together in complex environments. From intelligent decision support systems to collaborative robots and humanoid assistants, AI is becoming an integral part of teamwork. But how can we design and validate these human-AI interactions to ensure efficiency, trust, and true human-centricity? I will explore the future of human-AI collaboration, focusing on both virtual and physical AI agents, while highlighting the critical role of simulation in shaping these interactions. I will discuss key challenges, including trust, adaptability, and ethics, as well as practical approaches for using simulation to create AI teammates that augment human strengths. By bridging AI, simulation, and human-centered design, we can build more resilient, efficient, and collaborative teams for the future.
Biographical Sketch
Professor Tillal Eldabi is Head of the Department of Business Analytics, Circular Economy, and Entrepreneurship at the University of Bradford’s School of Management. He holds a PhD and MSc in Simulation Modelling and a BSc in Econometrics and Social Statistics. With over 25 years of academic and research leadership, he has published more than 100 papers in leading international journals and conferences and supervised 20 doctoral researchers. He is widely recognised for his work in simulation modelling and hybrid simulation to support decision-making in complex systems, particularly in healthcare and service operations. Professor Eldabi has played a leading role in academic innovation and programme development. He established the PhD without Residence programme at Ahlia University (Bahrain) and has led the design of forward-looking programmes including the MBA in Healthcare Management and the BSc in Business Analytics. He also leads the Bradford Forum for the Responsible Use of AI, promoting interdisciplinary dialogue on ethical, inclusive, and sustainable AI adoption. Currently, his research focusses on AI-enhanced simulation and its role in advancing decision-making.
Stephan Winkler
Professor
University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria
Austria
Explainable Artificial Intelligence: Interpretability vs. Explainability
Due to the increasing complexity of machine learning (ML) models, in numerous applications (such as, e.g., medicine and industry) we need to ensure that the results are understandable and transparent; this shall increase trust and accountability of ML as well as the models trained using ML. In this talk, we will discuss the differences between closed box (a.k.a. white box) modeling and closed box (black box) modeling. Through the application of open-box models, such as symbolic regression, we demonstrate that it is possible to achieve high interpretability without sacrificing model performance. Further, we discuss an overview of methods to measure the explainability and interpretability of machine learning results; this addresses the challenges posed by closed-box models, which lack transparency in their decision-making processes and evaluates techniques used to make these models more understandable. Additionally, we highlight the necessity for robust and unified evaluation metrics for explainability and interpretability, evaluating complexity and fidelity scores as a comprehensive measure. This work aims to contribute to the advancement of responsible and transparent artificial intelligence systems.
To underpin the practical relevance of these research questions, we discuss several applications from medicine and industry, in which the use of explainable AI by symbolic regression has lead to interpretable high quality results.
Biographical Sketch
Stephan M. Winkler received his Ph.D. in Engineering Sciences from Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria, in 2008. Since 2009, he has been a Professor at the Department of Medical and Bioinformatics at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria (UASUA), Hagenberg, where he has also led the Bioinformatics Research Group since 2010. His research focuses on genetic programming, nonlinear model identification, and machine learning, with a strong emphasis on interpretable and transparent AI systems for applications in medicine and industry.
Simaan AbouRizk
Professor
University of Alberta
Canada
Building Smarter: leveraging AI and Simulation for Better Engineering Decisions
Over the past three decades, we’ve witnessed the parallel evolution of simulation and artificial intelligence—two technologies that, when used together, have proven uniquely powerful in solving complex problems in construction engineering and infrastructure systems. This keynote shares a practitioner-researcher’s journey of building simulation models and decision support tools, beginning with early process-based systems and integrating AI from its formative years to today’s data-driven approaches.
Drawing on real-world applications—from optimizing construction operations to modeling infrastructure resilience—we’ll explore how simulation has served not just as a sandbox for testing AI, but as a critical foundation for embedding intelligence into engineering workflows. Along the way, we’ve learned that no single technology holds all the answers; instead, progress comes through hybrid systems that combine model-based reasoning, data analytics, and deep domain knowledge.
This presentation reflects on key lessons from decades of academic research and industry collaboration, and looks ahead to a future where integrated, explainable, and adaptable systems will be central to managing the growing complexity of the built environment. For academics and practitioners alike, the message is clear: simulation and AI are not parallel paths, but converging forces shaping the next generation of infrastructure innovation.
Biographical Sketch
Simaan AbouRizk, PhD, PEng is a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and currently serves as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Alberta. Following the completion of his PhD at Purdue University in 1990, Dr. AbouRizk joined the University of Alberta, where he has made enduring contributions to construction engineering and management. Internationally recognized as a pioneer in construction simulation, his research has advanced key methodologies in project planning, productivity enhancement, and risk analysis. His work has significantly influenced construction practices and earned him numerous prestigious honours, including the King Charles III Coronation Medal, the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal, Excellence in Education Award (APEGA); Peurifoy Construction Research Award (ASCE); Steacie Memorial Fellowship (NSERC); Thomas Fitch Rowland Prize (ASCE); Killam Professorship; Walter Shanly Award (CSCE); E. Whitman Wright Award (CSCE); and fellowships in CSCE, The National Academy of Construction (USA), The Canadian Academy of Engineering, and The Royal Society of Canada.
Eleonora Bottani
Full Professor
University of Parma
Italy
Invited speech: “Building effective simulation research papers - a scientometrics perspective of discrete event simulation studies in logistics”
When writing and publishing a research paper, the general goal is to demonstrate adequate knowledge of a problem, contribute to the scientific literature on a topic, to be recognized as an expert in the field, attract citations, and ultimately advance in the academic career. These behaviours, together with the mechanisms behind the research, have attracted the interest of the scientific community and led to the development of a relatively new discipline called scientometrics, i.e., literally, a field of study concerning measuring and analyzing scholarly literature.
Simulation studies, obviously, are not an exception to this trend; on the contrary, these aspects are particularly important as the research field is quite mature and the scientific community is wide. This speech takes the example of discrete-event simulation (DES) studies applied to logistics and, using scientometrics techniques, tries to shed light on the following points: 1) how rigorous is the usage of this technique in literature? 2) Is there any relationship between the rigour of the simulation model and the scientific impact of a paper in terms of citations received or outlet chosen for the publication? 3) is there any relationship between the way the paper is presented (i.e., its metadata) and the scientific impact of the paper?
To answer these questions, a sample of 164 studies using discrete-event simulation in logistics and published from 2009 to 2020 has been examined and reviewed for completeness as regards the methodological approach followed. Then, studies are classified in terms of scientific relevance, using scientometric techniques for evaluating the author, paper, and journal impact. The proposed classification models go beyond the more traditional analysis of journals and authors based on the number of publications and citations, and as such, it offers interesting insights for authors when preparing a simulation-based study for publications.
Biographical Sketch
Prof. Eleonora BOTTANI is Full professor of Industrial Logistics at the Department of Engineering and Architecture of the University of Parma since November 2019. She held the classical high school diploma in 1997 (mark: 60/60). She graduated in Industrial Engineering and Management in 2002 at the University of Parma (mark: 110/110 cum laude) and got her Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering in 2006 at the same university, where she also acted as a lecturer (2005-2014) and associate professor (2014-2019). Currently, she is the coordinator of the Master’s degree course in Engineering management, the Delegate of the Department Head for Quality of Teaching and Research, the Director of the Future Technology Lab research center, and the Rector’s delegate for University Rankings.
Her research activities mainly concern logistics and supply chain management; secondary topics encompass safety of industrial plant and sustainability. She is the author (or co-author) of more than 200 scientific papers, with 189 of them indexed on Scopus (citations>3200; H-index=29); she is referee for more than 60 international journals, editorial board member of five scientific journals, Associate Editor for one of those journals, and editor-in-chief of a scientific journal.
Giuseppe Vignali
Associate Professor
University of Parma
Italy
Simulation and modeling in the food industry: Past, Present and Future research
Biographical Sketch
Shaun West
Full Professor
Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts
Switzerland
SimCity for the Real World: Harnessing Model Trains, Simulations, and Digital Twins for Dynamic Decision-Making
Biographical Sketch
Currently, Shaun is a Professor of Product-Service System Innovation at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. His research focuses on helping industrial firms create and implement new services and service-friendly business models. He also serves on the advisory board for the ASAP Service Management Forum and is a member of the Swiss Alliance of Data-Intensive Services. Shaun lives near Zurich with his wife and two children. In his free time, he enjoys climbing, skiing, and running.
Juan Albino Méndez Pérez
Full Professor
University of La Laguna
Spain
Modelling and management of Energy Communities
Biographical Sketch
Plenary Panel
The convergence of Modelling & Simulation with Artificial Intelligence is transforming how complex systems are designed, analyzed, and managed across industry, government, and science. By combining simulation with machine learning and generative models, organizations can accelerate exploration, improve predictive capabilities, and enable new forms of hybrid intelligence where humans and AI collaborate in decision-making. This plenary panel brings together experts from academia, industry, and institutions to explore both the opportunities and the critical challenges of this integration, including transparency, validation, ethical considerations, and trust, highlighting how to ensure responsible and robust use of AI in advanced simulation environments.
Antonio Padovano
Professor
University of Calabria
Italy
Biographical Sketch
Antonio Padovano is Associate Professor in Industrial Mechanical Plants (IIND-05/A) at the Department of Mechanical, Energy and Management Engineering (DIMEG), University of Calabria, where he leads the Human-Systems Symbiosis Laboratory (USS Lab, https://www.uss-lab.it/) and the LEONARDO Learning Factory — recognized among UNIDO’s Global Smart Learning Factories. His research spans human-centered manufacturing systems, smart and symbiotic human-robot collaboration, advanced training solutions for industrial operators, digital twin-based production management, and supply chain resilience and sustainability. He has conducted research abroad at the Zaragoza Logistics Center (MIT Global Scale Network) and Harvard Medical School, and has delivered speeches at institutions across Europe, North America, and Asia.
Padovano serves as Principal Investigator and scientific coordinator of several funded projects, including EU Erasmus+ (LEONARDO), PRIMA (CERERE), PRIN 2022 (RESILIENCE, DESDEMONA), and MIMIT (IoTWINS). He has authored over 80 papers in high-impact international journals and conference proceedings, he is Area Editor of Computers & Industrial Engineering (Elsevier) for Human-Centric Systems, Associate Editor of IET Collaborative Intelligent Manufacturing, and serves on the editorial boards of several international journals.
Daniel Viassolo
Leading Data Scientist
Amazon
USA
Biographical Sketch
Daniel Viassolo is a distinguished leader in data science and engineering, currently serving as a Group Manager and Principal Data Scientist at SLB in Houston. With a career spanning more than twenty years, he has established himself as a specialist in machine learning, prognostics and health management (PHM), and advanced control systems. His academic foundation includes a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Purdue University, which he has complemented with business leadership training from Texas A&M University. Throughout his professional journey, which includes a significant tenure at GE Global Research, he has focused on bridging the gap between complex analytical models and industrial applications, particularly within the energy and power generation sectors. Beyond his executive leadership, Dr. Viassolo is a prolific researcher and innovator, holding 27 granted US patents and having authored over 40 technical publications. His work is primarily centered on improving the reliability and performance of industrial assets through analytics, optimization and digital fleet management. He is an active and recognized figure within the international PHM community, frequently contributing his expertise to technical journals and global conferences. Today, he leads multidisciplinary teams in developing cutting-edge digital solutions for well construction and asset health, driving innovation at the intersection of traditional engineering and modern data science.
Lorenzo Motta
Senior Product Development
Hitachi Rail
Italy
Biographical Sketch
Lorenzo Motta is a highly experienced senior engineering and cybersecurity professional with more than 30 years of expertise in telecommunications, railway systems, network infrastructure, and cyber resilience for critical environments. He currently serves at Hitachi Rail as Product Development Senior Professional, where he focuses on cybersecurity systems analysis and innovation in transport technologies. Throughout his career, he has held senior technical and innovation roles, combining strong engineering capability with advanced cybersecurity competencies, supported by specialized training in cybersecurity, including CompTIA CySA+ and ISC2 CISSP preparatory courses. Lorenzo is also a valuable partner of Strategos, contributing to the Liophant Simulation and Simulation Team initiatives, where his strategic technical vision, reliability, and multidisciplinary experience make him a great partner for complex projects involving simulation, security, and critical infrastructure development.
Javier Faulin
Professor
Public University of Navarre
Spain
Biographical Sketch
Dr. Javier Faulin is a Full Professor of Statistics and Operations Research at the Department of Statistics, Computer Science, and Mathematics in the Public University of Navarre-UPNA (Pamplona, Spain). Similarly, he develops his research activities in Sustainable Transportation and Smart Logistics at the Institute of Smart Cities at the UPNA, being part of his steering committee since 2017, and Director of the Chair of Logistics of the aforementioned university. He also collaborates as Instructor-Tutor at the UNED local center in Pamplona. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics and Business from the University of Navarre (Pamplona, Spain), a M.Sc. in Operations Management, Logistics and Transportation from UNED (Madrid, Spain) and a M.Sc. and BSc in Applied Mathematics from the University of Zaragoza (Zaragoza, Spain). He has extended experience in distance and Web-based teaching during the last 20 years in different European universities. Moreover, his teaching has been developed in the following centers: Public University of Navarre (Pamplona, Navarre, Spain), University of Navarre (Pamplona, Navarre, Spain), UNED (Madrid, Spain), the Open University of Catalonia (Barcelona, Spain), the University of Rennes 1 (Rennes, France), and the University of Surrey (Guilford, Surrey, UK). Similarly, he is involved in assessment activities developed in well-known institutions such as the University College of Dublin (Ireland) or the FWO-Flanders Research Foundation (Belgium).
His research interests include transportation and logistics, vehicle routing problems and simulation modelling and analysis, especially in the practical resolution of logistics and delivery problems of companies. Similarly, he has developed a research line of evaluation of environmental impact of freight transportation and its relationship with vehicle routing problems. In order to model the previous problems, he has collaborated in the development of the simheuristics methodology as a way of imbrication of simulation with optimization (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221471601500007X). He has published more than 150 papers in international journals, books and proceedings about logistics, routing and simulation. Similarly, he has taught many courses on line about Operations Research (OR) and Decision Making, and he has been the academic advisor of eight PhD students and more than 60 graduate and master students. Furthermore, he has been the author of more than 200 talks in OR conferences. Moreover, he has been an editorial board member of the journal Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review (TRE).
Regular & Invited Sessions
Regular sessions cover the topics of the conference and mainly group the papers that fall within a specific research subject and submitted to the regular program.
Invited Sessions consist of papers collected within the scope of an Open Track proposed by one or more organizers. Papers are mainly based on personal invitation by the Open Track organizer(s) but may also include papers submitted to the regular program.
Regular and Invited Sessions will last about 1 hour and 30 minutes and may include between 4 and 5 papers. Contributions can be either regular papers or short papers (min 3 pages length) and they will appear in the conference proceedings.
Reviewing Process
Each paper submitted to the conference will be individually peer-reviewed taking into consideration scientific quality, originality and relevance. At the discretion of the IPC and considering the reviewers’ comments, individual papers may be accepted for inclusion in the conference proceedings. The revised paper will then undergo a second round of reviews to check whether the authors have carefully addressed the reviewers’ comments and the paper is fully acceptable for publication. At the discretion of the program committee, individual papers may be removed from an invited session and placed in the regular program, as well as appropriate contributed papers may be moved to an invited session.
Presentation Formats and Speakers' Instructions
- Each session lasts 1.5 hours, and may includes from 4 to 5 papers. Depending on the number of the papers in the session, you’ll have about 12-15 minutes for your presentation, plus some time at the end for the Q&A. The chair/co-chair of your session is responsible for keeping the time, but we recommend you to adhere with the allotted time.
- We recommend you to be in your session’s room at least 10 minutes before the scheduled starting time, in order to upload your presentation on the laptop. As a general rule, speakers will not be allowed to use their own laptops, tablets or other devices to give their presentations, unless previously communicated to the conference organization team.
- When you enter the session room, introduce yourself to the chair/co-chair, so they can take note of your presence.
- Provide your presentation in either PowerPoint or PDF format. We suggest you to always bring a PDF copy of your presentation in order to minimize any format issue.
Special Sessions
Special sessions offer a 90-minute venue for the presentation of topics of special academic, social or industrial interest, such as emerging research areas or most recent trends. A Special Session can be also devised to include project presentations, panel discussions or non-technical talks on topics such as research funding, entrepreneurship, or technology transfer, and can receive a wide interest across different themes of the conference. As such, special sessions do not include presentation of scientific papers submitted to the conference and the session agenda will be defined by the Special Session Chair. All scheduling of special sessions is completed by the conference organisation committee. Requests may be submitted to the committee for a special accommodation but cannot be guaranteed, as the committee decisions are made with the full scope of the conference in mind.
List of I3M 2026 Special Sessions
In memoriam of Prof. Agostino Bruzzone, I3M 2026 launches a new initiative celebrating his pioneering contributions to Modeling & Simulation and their strategic applications in engineering and complex decision-making. This special session invites papers dealing with Modeling, Simulation and other enabling technologies applied to strategic engineering and complex problem solving. A total of four papers will be selected and presented in an interactive panel format, where authors act as “Animators” engaging in discussion and exchange. A dedicated scientific committee will evaluate the session and select two outstanding papers, each receiving one free registration for the following I3M edition and a commemorative Award. Each free registration will be valid for a paper featuring mixed co-authorship between the affiliations of the two winning papers, promoting international collaboration, which is a value deeply embodied by Prof. Bruzzone. The STRATEGOS Special Session thus aims to honor his vision of simulation as a catalyst for innovation, collaboration, and strategic foresight across disciplines.
Description:
The accelerating complexity of global agri-food supply chains, driven by rising demand, environmental uncertainties, and shifting consumer preferences, calls for innovative approaches to decision-making and operations optimization. This special session focuses on the integration of advanced simulation methods with human-centric AI systems to enhance visibility, resilience, and sustainability across agri-food supply networks. In this session, promoted by the consortium of the project CERERE (https://www.uss-lab.it/
- Simulation-driven optimization of production planning, inventory, distribution, and demand forecasting under uncertainty
- Human-AI collaboration models: interfaces, trust, explainability, and shared decision-making
- Digital twin frameworks for real-time monitoring and adaptive control in agri-food systems
- AI-augmented scenario analysis for risk assessment (e.g., climate impacts, supply disruptions)
Case studies and real-world applications demonstrating tangible benefits in efficiency, sustainability, traceability, and waste reduction. Ethical, social, and organizational implications of deploying simulation and AI tools in agri-food contexts.
Chairs and Speakers
Special session chairs or speakers are not required to submit a paper. The special session chair is the individual who submits the proposal to the conference committee, acts as the leader and coordinator for the session development, defines the agenda of the session, is in charge of promoting the session and ensures the successful and timely execution of the session.
Presentation Formats and Speakers' Instructions
- Each session lasts 1.5 hours in total. Please ask the chair/co-chair of your special session for preliminary information about the session agenda and the time at your disposal for the presentation.
- We recommend the speakers to be in the session’s room at least 10 minutes before the scheduled starting time, in order to upload the presentation on the conference laptop. As a general rule, speakers will not be allowed to use their own laptops, tablets or other devices to give their presentations, unless previously communicated to the conference organisation team.
- If you are a speaker, when you enter the session room, introduce yourself to the chair/co-chair, so they can take note of your presence.
- Provide your presentation in either PowerPoint or PDF format. We suggest you to always bring a PDF copy of your presentation in order to minimize any format issue.
Submit a Special Session Proposal
Are you willing to organize a special session at I3M focusing on a specific subject? Fill the form and send it to f.longo@unical.it and massei@itim.unige.it.
Organized by
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