Program

• Keynote Speakers and Plenary

  From Blue-Sky to Reality: How Simulation Shapes Next-Generation Theme Park Experiences

  

  Asli Akbas, Ph.D. 
  Assistant Director  
  Universal Destinations & Experiences 

  Monday May 4, 2026 

  Asli Soyler Akbas is a modeling and simulation specialist with extensive experience in complex system and process simulation for large-scale theme park environments. Her work spans discrete-event simulation, agent-based modeling, capacity and throughput optimization, and geospatial and transportation network simulation. She holds a Ph.D. in Modeling & Simulation from the University of Central Florida, where she also earned an M.S. in Industrial Engineering, as well as a Master’s in Engineering Management from the Rochester Institute of Technology. She currently works as an Assistant Director for Universal Destinations & Experiences. Her work helps transform early attraction concepts into operationally feasible guest experiences through rigorous simulation-based engineering analysis and extends into sustaining digital twin models throughout a venue’s lifecycle. 

  Before her role at Universal, she worked with Siemens Energy in both IT and Gas Turbine business units, developing automated performance reports, optimizing R&D processes, and supporting quality assurance and deployment planning. Earlier in her career, she served as a Research and Development Team Leader for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, where she conducted hazard and disaster modeling, earthquake damage assessment using Hazus and ArcGIS, and software development for research applications. 

  Her work emphasizes the integration of engineering analysis, simulation tools, and real-world system performance, enabling safer, more efficient, and more immersive experiences in large-scale environments. 

  New Methodological Challenges in Stochastic Simulation

  

  Barry L. Nelson, Ph.D. 
  Walter P. Murphy Professor Emeritus 
  Department of Industrial Engineering & Management Sciences 
  Northwestern University 

  Tuesday May 5, 2026 

  Barry Nelson studies the design and analysis of computer simulation experiments, particularly issues of statistical efficiency (such as variance-reduction techniques), multivariate output analysis (such as multiple-comparison procedures and simulation optimization), model risk (such as uncertainty quantification due to input modeling), input modeling (such as modeling and generation of nonstationary arrival processes and frequentist model averaging), metamodeling (such as stochastic kriging) and simulation analytics (such as virtual statistics). His application areas include financial engineering, computer performance modeling, quality control, manufacturing, and transportation systems. He is a Fellow of INFORMS and IISE, received the 2019 IISE David F. Baker Distinguished Research Award and the 2022 Lifetime Professional Achievement Award from the INFORMS Simulation Society. 

  Nelson teaches courses on computer simulation and statistical learning. He was named McCormick teacher of the year in 1998, 2007 and 2022, was elected to the 2002, 2003 and 2007 ASG Faculty Honor Rolls, received the 2003 Northwestern Alumni Association Excellence in Teaching Award, was given the 2004 IISE Operations Research Division Award and the 2019 Modeling and Simulation Division Award for Excellence in the Teaching, and was a Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence at Northwestern. https://users.iems.northwestern.edu/~nelsonb/  

  Abstract: New Methodological Challenges in Stochastic Simulation

  Given rich enough data, modern machine learning answers lots of questions by predicting the outcomes for cases that did not actually appear in the data. But if, for instance, you want to explore the financial viability of offering a hypothetical air taxi service in a city then there is no relevant data (at least not yet) from which to predict profits, much less to design an optimized version of the service. As attendees of the Annual Modeling and Simulation Conference know, this is where computer simulation comes in. Computer simulation combines whatever useful data that exists with careful modeling to generate “fake data” that is relevant to the new scenario. Computer simulation is data analytics for systems that do not yet exist.  

  In this talk I present two current methodological challenges in the field: How to effectively exploit modern computing to optimize large-scale simulated systems, and how to adapt simulation to support real-time, data-driven decision making. The former topic is motivated by the availability of cheap, high-performance, and ubiquitous parallel computing, and the latter by the emerging use of simulation as a “digital twin” to manage or control the real system it mimics. In both challenges I emphasize the new computational and statistical issues that they imply (but without a lot of math). 

• Technical Program Committee

  • Abdolreza Abhari – Ryerson University
  • Mohamed-Amine Abrache – LITL Laboratory
  • Leticia Abrica – Universidad del Mar
  • Petra Ahrweiler – Johannes Gutenberg University
  • Ajla Aksamija – School of Architecture, University of Utah
  • Maksudul Alam – Oak Ridge National Laboratory
  • Raid Al-Aomar – Industrial Engineering, German Jordanian University
  • Sara Alsaadani – AASTMT
  • Haşim Altan – Prince Mohammad bin Fahd University
  • Mohamed Aly Etman – SUNY University at Buffalo
  • Anastasia Anagnostou – Brunel University London
  • Philipp Andelfinger – Nanyang Technological University
  • Matteo Anedda – University of Cagliari
  • Patricia Arroba – Universidad Politecnica de Madrid
  • Kuldip Singh Atwal – George Mason University
  • Michel Audette – Old Dominion University
  • Danielle Azar – Lebanese American University
  • Roger Azevedo – University of Central Florida
  • Ahmad Bany Abdelnabi – School of Modeling Simulation and Training
  • Souvik Barat – Tata Consultancy Services Research
  • Ankica Barisic – Universite Cote d’Azur
  • Simon Barner – Fortiss
  • Fernando Barros – University of Coimbra
  • Chad Bates – George Mason University
  • Peristera Baziana – University of Thessaly
  • Logan Beaver – Old Dominion University
  • Stijn Bellis – University of Antwerp
  • Gisele Bennett – MEPSS LLC
  • Anamaria Berea – George Mason University
  • Rajinder Bhandal – Leeds University Business School
  • Raheleh Biglari – PhD student
  • Paul-Antoine Bisgambiglia – CNRS – University of Corsica
  • Biswajit Biswal – South Carolina State University
  • Maria Blas – Instituto de Desarrollo y Diseño INGAR (UTN-CONICET)
  • Dominique Blouin – Telecom Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris
  • Paolo Bocciarelli – University of Rome Tor Vergata
  • Biayna Bogosian – Arizona State University
  • Guillermo Botella – Complutense University of Madrid
  • Frédéric Boulanger – Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, LMF, CentraleSupélec
  • Alexandros-Apostolos Boulogeorgos – University of Western Macedonia
  • Johannes Braumann – Robots in Architecture | UfG Linz
  • Andrés Bravo – Eviden
  • Samira Briongos Herrero – NEC Laboratories Europe
  • Alessio Bucaioni – Mälardalen University
  • Michael Budig – Singapore University of Technology and Design
  • Annetta Burger – Oak Ridge National Laboratory
  • Rajkumar Buyya – University of Melbourne
  • Lorena Cadavid – Universidad Nacional de Colombia
  • Carmen Caiseda – Inter American University of PR
  • Mert Canatan – University of Florida
  • Roman Cardenas – Universidad Politecnica de Madrid
  • Gustavo Carneiro – Regulatory Agency for Water, Energy and Sanitation (ADASA)
  • Rodrigo Castro – Universidad de Buenos Aires
  • Ana Cavalcanti – University of York
  • Deniz Cetinkaya – Bournemouth University
  • Ayush Chopra – Media and Data Science Research Lab, Adobe
  • Angelos Chronis – Austrian Institute of Technology
  • Franco Domenico Cicirelli – ICAR-CNR
  • Thomas Clemen – Hamburg Univ. of Applied Sciences
  • Andrew Collins – Old Dominion University
  • Walter Commerell – THU
  • Ugo Maria Coraglia – Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna
  • Milan Cornelis – University of Antwerp
  • Drury Crawley – Bentley Systems
  • Maximiliano Cristia – Universidad Nacional de Rosario
  • Gabriele D’Angelo – University of Bologna
  • Ron Dahlgren – University of Central Florida
  • Andrea D’Ambrogio – University of Rome Tor Vergata
  • Joy Datt – MITRE Corporation
  • Juan De Anton Heredero – University of Valladolid
  • Robson De Grande – Brock University
  • Francesco De Luca – Tallinn University of Technology
  • Paul De Meulenaere – University of Antwerp
  • Pieter de Wilde – Lund University
  • Benjamin De Witte – ETHICS 7446 laboratory
  • Julien Deantoni – I3S, Université Cote d’Azur
  • Alberto Antonio Del Barrio Garcia – Complutense University of Madrid
  • Joachim Denil – University of Antwerp
  • Stephen Dipple – Carnegie Mellon University
  • Clement Dluzniewski – Université Catholique de Lille
  • Sazana Dragicevic – Simon Fraser University
  • Raphael Duboz – CIRAD
  • Jamal El Hachem – University of South Brittany
  • Mariane El Kassis – IMT – Mines Alès
  • Mohaiad O. Elbasheer – University of Calabria
  • Joaquin Entrialgo – Universidad de Oviedo
  • Elif Erdine – Architectural Association (AA) School of Architecture
  • Yasamin Eslami – Associate Professor
  • Joeri Exelmans – Universiteit Antwerpen
  • Alberto Falcone – University of Calabria
  • Jesus Felez – UPM
  • Keegan Fernandes – University of Waterloo
  • Samuel Ferrero-Losada – Universidad Complutense de Madrid
  • Nicolas Ferry – Université Céte d’Azur
  • John Fitzgerald – Newcastle University
  • Katherine Flanigan – Carnegie Mellon University
  • Richard Flournoy – MITRE Corporation
  • Pau Fonseca – Universitat Politènica de Catalunya
  • Claudia Frydman – AMU
  • Francisco Garcia-Herrero – Universidad Complutense de Madrid
  • Alfredo Garro – University of Calabria
  • Marjan Ghobad – Independent Researcher
  • Adriana Giret – UPV
  • Ryan Glasby – ORNL
  • Rhys Goldstein – Autodesk Research
  • Leo González – UPM
  • Ross Gore – Old Dominion University
  • Mohammad Goudarzi – Faculty of Information Technology, Monsah University
  • Navid Goudarzi – Cleveland State University
  • Valdemar Vicente Graciano Neto – Federal University of Goiás
  • Eric Guiffo Kaigom – Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences
  • Helen Haase – HAW Hamburg
  • Saimun Habib – The University of Edinburgh
  • Khatereh Hadi – GTRI
  • Nohra Hage – Institut Catholique de Lille
  • Olaf Hagendorf – University of Applied Science Wismar
  • Navid Hatefnia – BuroHappold Engineering/Technical University of Munich
  • Brandon Haworth – University of Victoria
  • Mohammad Heidarinejad – Illinois Institute of Technology
  • Joerg Holtmann – Digital Rail for Germany
  • Xiaolin Hu – Georgia State University
  • Edward Hua – MITRE Corporation
  • Jianxiang Huang – The University of Hong Kong
  • Yilin Huang – TU Delft
  • Amjad Iqbal – Carleton University
  • Joseph Jabbour – ICL, Junia, Université Catholique de Lille, LITL
  • Amel Jaoua – National Engineering School of Tunis
  • Moath Jarrah – Eastern Illinois University
  • Jason Jaskolka – Carleton University
  • Na Jiang – University at Buffalo
  • Erik Johnston – Arizona State University
  • Nathaniel Jones – Arup
  • Charbel Kady – IMT – Mines Alès
  • Masoud Kahalimoghadam – University of Melbourne
  • Eduard Kamburjan – University of Oslo
  • Omar Kammouh – Delft University of Technology
  • Hamdi Kavak – George Mason University
  • Naomi Keena – McGill University
  • William Kennedy – George Mason University
  • Inki Kim – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Stefan Klikovits – Johannes Kepler University Linz
  • Odysseas Kontovourkis – University of Cyprus
  • Antonios Kontsos – Rowan University
  • Martin Krammer – Knorr-Bremse Rail Vehicle Systems
  • Madhuri Kumari – Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Noida
  • Yao-Ming Kuo – UTN, Monolithic Power Systems
  • Vladimir Kuts – TalTech
  • Jesús Omar Lacruz – IMDEA Networks Institute
  • Blanca Larraga – Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
  • Allen Lee – Arizona State University
  • Dr. Anas Lila – University of the West of England
  • Luis Lopera Gonzalez – FAU
  • Adolfo Lopez – University of Málaga
  • Giovanni Lugaresi – KU Leuven
  • Christiane M Herr – Southern University of Science and Technology
  • Pedro Malagon – Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
  • Avleen Malhi – University of Warwick
  • Maxim Malikov – George Mason University
  • Nick Malleson – University of Leeds
  • Carla Martin Villalba – UNED
  • Andrea Matta – Politecnico di Milano
  • Steve McKeever – Uppsala University
  • Joost Mertens – University of Antwerp
  • Sermet Mir – Bournemouth University
  • Saurabh Mittal – The MITRE Corporation
  • Emmanuel Montanez-Navarro – Dewey University
  • Il-Chul Moon – KAIST
  • Jose Manuel Moya – Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
  • Paula Munoz – University of Malaga
  • Alexandre Muzy – CNRS
  • Hyeong Suk Na – University of Missouri
  • Andreas Naderlinger – University of Salzburg
  • Sina Namaki-Araghi – Associate Professor
  • Taro Narahara – New Jersey Institute of Technology
  • Eva Navarro – Rochester Institute of Technology
  • Martin Neumann – University of Southern Denmark
  • Hoa Nguyen – The University of Melbourne
  • James Nutaro – ORNL
  • Bentley Oakes – Polytechnique Montreal
  • Mohammad Obeid – Shenandoah University
  • Halit Oguztuzun – Middle East Technical University
  • Mohammed Olama – Oak Ridge National Laboratory
  • Bertug Ozarisoy – London South Bank University
  • Jose Padilla – VMASC/ODU
  • Josue Pagan – Technical University of Madrid
  • Randy Paredis – University Of Antwerp
  • Marco Parente – FEUP
  • Thorsten Pawletta – Wismar University of Applied Sciences
  • Ezequiel Pecker Marcosig – University of Buenos Aires
  • Paolo Pedrazzoli – SUPSI
  • Carlos E. Pereira
  • Kenneth Pierce – Newcastle University
  • Nathalie Pinede – University of Bordeaux Montaigne
  • Bianica Pires – The MITRE Corporation
  • Gary Polhill – The James Hutton Institute
  • Jalal Possik – Université Catholique de Lille
  • David Poza – University of Valladolid
  • Vishnu Prabhu – University of Central Florida
  • Francesco Quaglia – DIAG – Sapienza Universita’ di Roma
  • Ghaith Rabadi – University of Central Florida
  • Adrian Ramirez-Nafarrate – Tecnologico de Monterrey
  • Marina Rantanen Modeer – Saab AB
  • Dhananjai Rao – Miami University
  • Danda Rawat – Howard University
  • Maria Read – The University of Melbourne
  • Jose L. Risco-Martin – Universidad Complutense de Madrid
  • Óscar David Robles Sánchez – Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
  • Guilherme Rodrigues – IFSUL
  • Alexander Roman – Universität der Bundeswehr München
  • Scott Rosen – MITRE
  • Andreas Rowald – Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
  • Jerzy Rozenblit – University of Arizona
  • Ivan Ruchkin – University of Pennsylvania
  • Cristina Ruiz Martin – Carleton University
  • Soheil Sabri – University of Central Florida
  • Md Nazmus Sakib – University of Texas at Arlington
  • Kathleen Salazar-Serna – Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Cali
  • Johannes Sametinger – JKU
  • Hessam Sarjoughian – Arizona State University
  • Gulesin Sena Das
  • Moon Gi Seok – Dongguk University
  • Mani Sharifi – Visiting Assistant Professor
  • Ashwin Shashidharan – Esri
  • Yuzhong Shen – Old Dominion University
  • Ahmed Sherif – The American University in Cairo
  • Sachin Shetty – Old Dominion University
  • Pratishtha Shukla – Oak Ridge National Laboratory
  • Georgios Ch. Sirakoulis – Democritus University of Thrace
  • Stuart Slattery – Oak Ridge National Laboratory
  • Przemysław Śliwiński – Wrocław University of Science and Technology
  • Samuel Sohn – Rutgers University
  • Vittorio Solina – University of Calabria
  • Bulent Soykan – University of Central Florida
  • Joshua Stadlan – Tufts University
  • Mirko Stoffers – RWTH Aahen University
  • Rudi Stouffs – National University of Singapore
  • Carmen Paz Suarez-Araujo – Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
  • Aarthi Sundaram – TU Delft
  • Eugene Syriani – University of Montreal
  • Paul T – NYU
  • Prasad Talasila – Aarhus University
  • Austin Tapp – SimLife Solutions
  • Khaled Tarabieh – Associate Professor
  • Simon Taylor – Brunel University London
  • Casper Thule – Vestas Wind Systems A/S
  • Daniel Tish – Harvard University
  • Ange Lionel Toba – Idaho National Laboratory
  • Andreas Tolk – The MITRE Corporation
  • Okan Topçu – METU NCC
  • Toan Tran – Emory University
  • Mamadou Traore – University of Bordeaux
  • Enrico Tronci – Sapienza University of Rome
  • Adelinde Uhrmacher – University of Rostock
  • Alfonso Urquia – UNED
  • Bert Van Acker – University of Antwerp
  • Koen H. van Dam – Imperial College London
  • Andrea Vandin – Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies
  • Yon Vanommeslaeghe – University of Antwerp
  • Alexander Verbraeck – TU Delft
  • Harko Verhagen – Stockholm University
  • Peter von Buelow – University of Michigan
  • Christoph Waibel – ETH Zurich
  • Gabriel Wainer – Carleton University
  • Haifeng Wang – Mississippi State University
  • Rufei Wang – Atelier Ten
  • Xin Wang – University of Illinois Chicago
  • Martijn Warnier – Delft University of Technology
  • Ramon Weber – University of California, Berkeley
  • Thomas Wiedemann – University of Applied Sciences Dresden
  • Nanda Wijermans – Stockholm University
  • Mike Wise – Oak Ridge National Laboratory
  • Sarah Wise – University College London
  • Dr Helena Wisniewski – University of Alaska Anchorage
  • Bernd Wolfinger – University of Hamburg
  • Gabriel Wurzer – TU Wien
  • Xu Xie – National University of Defense Technology
  • Charles Yaacoub – Université Catholique de Lille
  • Bing Yao – University of Tennessee Knoxville
  • Levent Yilmaz – Auburn University
  • Srikanth Yoginath – ORNL
  • Greg Zacharewicz – IMT – Mines Alès
  • Cecilia Zanni-Merk – INSA Rouen Normandie
  • Marina Zapater – University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland (HES-SO)
  • Andrzej Zarzycki – New Jersey Institute of Technology
  • Xin Zhao – Seattle University
  • Kashif Zia – University of Glasgow
  • Dmitry Zinoviv – Suffolk University
  • Sisi Zlatanova – UNSW, School of Built Environment, GRID

Program At-a-Glance