Samarth Deo
Chair – Sweden Section
Head of MACH Control & Protection, Hitachi Energy Sweden
Samarth Deo works at Hitachi Energy in Sweden as the Head of MACH Control and Protection design organization. He began his career as an R&D Software Engineer at ABB AB in 2014. He has held multiple management and leadership positions since 2018, and in his current role leading teams in Sweden, Poland, and India. His teams are responsible for developing a high-performance control platform integrating hardware, embedded software, and FPGA systems—delivering mission-critical solutions for HVDC and renewable grid applications. He has also held multiple leadership roles in IEEE, including Chair of the EPICS in IEEE committee and IEEE Sweden Section in the past. He is appointed as the Chair of the Humanitarian Activities Committee within Region 8 for 2025.
Theodoros Chatzinikolaou
Past-Chair – Greece Section
Chair, IEEE R8 SAC
Researcher & PhD(c), DUTH
Theodoros is a researcher and PhD Candidate in the ECE Dept of the Democritus University of Thrace, where he has received his Engineering Diploma with Integrated Master. His research interests focus on future and emerging computing systems and cutting-edge technologies with a focus on memristive circuits. As an active volunteer, he is currently serving the IEEE Region 8 as Vice-Chair, Student Activities, SAC Chair and HTAC Past-Chair. He has served various IEEE units, including MGA SAC, Region 8, and his local Student Branch. He has received the IEEE MGA Young Professionals Achievement Award, the IEEE CASS Pre-Doctoral Grant, and the IEEE MGA Larry K. Wilson Regional Student Activities Award, among others.
George Papadimitriou
Member -Switzerland Section
IT Product Owner Cloud Network & Security, Hilti Switzerland
Georgios (George) Papadimitriou studied at the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at the National Technical University of Athens. Currently, he is working for HILTI, Global IT in Switzerland as an Enterprise Network Engineer. Previously he worked for Nokia Research & Development at their Technology Center in Athens, Greece. Since 2012, he volunteered as the Chair of the National Technical University of Athens IEEE Student Branch, the IEEE Greece Section’s Student Representative and the Region 8 Projects and Initiatives Coordinator fostering student collaboration and leading fruitful projects across the Region. In 2018 he was appointed to his second role in the Student Activities Committee as the Regional Student Representative and as a member of the Region 8 Strategic Planning Committee.
Lucija Brezočnik
Slovenia Section
Vice-chair, IEEE Slovenia Section
Teaching Assistant, UM FERI, University of Maribor, Slovenia
Lucija Brezočnik received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of the University of Maribor, Slovenia. She is a teaching assistant and Ph.D. candidate. She works on several projects in the industry and is the author of a few journal papers, more than 20 conference papers, one book chapter, and is a reviewer for more than 40 recognised peer-reviewed journals. Her research interests include machine learning, computational intelligence, data science, swarm intelligence, software engineering, and agile software development. For her work, she received several international and local awards and grants for her research activities. She is also the current IEEE Slovenia Vice-Chair and past IEEE WiE Slovenia chair.
Nour Sbaoulji
Member – Tunisia Section
Vice-Chair – IEEE Tunisia Section SIGHT Group
Software Engineer & Data Analyst
Omar Salameh
Member – Jordan Section
Product Application Engineer, Schneider Electric UK
Omar has been an active IEEE member since 2016, he has held several leadership roles, including Chair of major IEEE congresses and founder of his branch’s SIGHT Group. He joined the IEEE Region 8 HTAC in 2023 and became a full member in 2024. He also contributes to climate advocacy through YOUNGO and UNFCCC youth initiatives.
He holds a BSc in Electrical Power Engineering from Al-Balqa Applied University and an MSc in Electrical Engineering and Renewable Energy Systems from the University of Leeds. Passionate about energy transition, he is committed to enabling technologies that support net-zero goals.
Professionally, Omar is an electrical engineer with 7 years of experience in power systems and generation, currently working at Schneider Electric UK as a Product Application Engineer. He focuses on designing MV switchgear and supporting the digitalisation of distribution networks to drive sustainability.
Abdulla Al-Kaff
Corresponding Member – Spain Section
Associate Professor, UC3M – CBDO, Seevia
Ahmed Ayman
Corresponding Member – Egypt Section
Software Engineering Lead, PodMedia Network
Fayrouz Fattoum
Corresponding Member – France Section
Project Manager, Oil & Gas
Kai Goodall
Corresponding Member – South Africa Section
Committee Member, EPICS in IEEE
AI Researcher at University of Cape Town
Dr Resala A.Al Adraj
Corresponding Member – Bahrain Section
Assistant Professor
IEEE Computer Society Chapter Chair
IEEE Educational Activity Officer
IEEE EPICS Ambassador
Dr. Resala A. Al Adraj is an Assistant Professor and seasoned academic with over 20 years of experience in the field of computer science. She holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Warwick (UK), a Master’s degree in Technology Management, and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science.
She served in the College of Information Technology at the University of Bahrain, where she specialised in e-business, human-computer interaction (HCI), and entrepreneurship. Dr. Al Adraj has taught a wide range of courses, mentored student innovation teams, and delivered numerous workshops on digital transformation, interface design, and startup development.
A dedicated IEEE volunteer, Dr. Al Adraj currently serves as Chair of the IEEE Computer Society Chapter in Bahrain, Educational Activity Officer (IEAO), and Corresponding Member of the IEEE Bahrain Section. She is also an IEEE EPICS Ambassador, where she promotes engineering service-learning projects that integrate technical knowledge with community impact.
Her work reflects a strong commitment to empowering students, advancing technical education, and supporting interdisciplinary collaboration across the Gulf region and beyond..
Ex-officio from the IEEE Humanitarian Technologies Board
Past Committee Members
2023-24 Committee Members
- Chair: Theodoros Pananagiotis Chatzinikolaou (Greece)
- Past-Chair: Abdulateef Aliyu (Nigeria)
- Members:
- George Papadimitriou (Switzerland)
- Lucija Brezočnik (Slovenia)
- Omar Salameh (Jordan)
- Lavender Ndunya (Kenya)
- Corresponding members:
- Miriam Cunningham (UK & Ireland)
- Neemat Abdelrahim (Sudan)
- Nour Sbaoulji (Tunisia)
- Jan Verveckken (Benelux)
- Ex-officio from IEEE Humanitarian Technologies Board:
- Lwanga Herbert (Uganda)
- Simay Akar (Turkey)
- Magdalena Salazar-Palma (Spain)
- Mohamed Essaaidi (Morocco)
- Maxwell Addison (Ghana)
2021-22 Committee Members
- Chair: Abdulateef Aliyu (Nigeria)
- Past-Chair: John Funso Adebayo (Nigeria)
- Members:
- Lavender Ndunya (Kenya)
- Fairouz Fattoum (Tunisia) (SAC Liaison)
- Corresponding members:
- Manuel Ballesteros (Spain)
- Heba Qadoomi (Jordan)
- Miriam Cunningham (UK & Ireland)
- Walid Bin Habib (Germany)
- Ex-officio from IEEE Humanitarian Activities Committee:
- Simay Akar (Turkey)
- Lwanga Herbert (Uganda)
The IEEE International Humanitarian Technology Conference (IEEE IHTC) is a Multi-Regional Conference Series rotating between R7 (Canada), R8 (Africa, Europe and Middle East), and R9 (Latin America and Caribbean). This inter-disciplinary conference series focuses on showcasing challenges, success stories, lessons learnt, case studies and technological innovation related to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), ICT4D and the application of Humanitarian Technologies (including Disaster Relief and Disaster Recovery) and facilitating engagement by stakeholders from the public, private, education and research and societal sectors around the world.
The IEEE PES/IAS PowerAfrica Conference is the leading conference on the African continent focused on addressing its power and energy challenges. The conference provides a forum for researchers, engineers, policy makers and practitioners from Africa and beyond to share and discuss research findings, innovative ideas, emerging technologies and solutions to pressing challenges in the African energy sector. All researchers who work outside of the continent are invited to come learn from the energy innovations emanating from Africa and share innovations and experience from other regions of the world.
EPICS in IEEE empowers students to work with local service organizations to apply technical knowledge to implement solutions for a community’s unique challenges. In this way, EPICS in IEEE not only assists communities in achieving their specific local community improvement goals but also encourages students to pursue engineering for community improvement as a career.
IEEE Smart Village (ISV) has a unique approach to support the world’s energy-impoverished communities by providing a comprehensive solution combining renewable energy, community-based education, and entrepreneurial opportunities. ISV provides seed-funding to carefully selected community entrepreneurs based upon a credible business plan that will impact significant number of people with electricity, education and jobs.
IEEE Empower a Billion Lives is a global competition aimed at fostering innovation to develop solutions to electricity access. Solutions are expected to be scalable, regionally relevant, holistic, and leverage 21st century technologies with exponentially declining prices.
MOVE Community Outreach is an emergency relief program committed to assisting victims of natural disasters with short-term communications, computer, and power solutions. Natural disasters can severely impact individuals, families, and communities around the world. The restoration of electricity and communications is often of primary importance during these challenging times—because when power and connectivity is lost, people have no lights, no means to recharge mobile phones, and no way to reach out.