The Speakers

Simona Sacone received a master’s degree in electronic engineering in 1992 and a Ph.D. degree in electronic engineering and computer science in 1997. She is currently an Associate Professor of automatic control with the Department of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics and Systems Engineering, University of Genova, Italy, where she teaches systems theory, identification and estimation techniques, and optimization and control of logistic systems and where she acts as the Coordinator of the Ph.D. course on systems engineering. She has authored and co-authored over 150 papers published on international journals, international books, and international conference proceedings.

She is a member of the IFAC Technical Committees 7.4 on Transportation Systems and 1.3 on Discrete Event and Hybrid Systems. She is the Chair of the Technical Committee on Logistics of the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society. She currently serves as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems and for the IEEE Control Systems Magazine. She has acted as an Associate Editor in the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems, in the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in the IFAC Symposium on Control in Transportation Systems, and in the IFAC/IEEE Workshop on Discrete Event Systems.

Ana Alanis is Program Manager Smart Mobility at Brainport Development in the Netherlands, where she leads large-scale public-private innovation programs that accelerate the deployment of connected, cooperative, and automated mobility solutions. Her work focuses on bridging the gap between research and real-world implementation by bringing together industry, governments, knowledge institutes, and infrastructure operators to develop scalable mobility ecosystems.

She currently coordinates the Digital Infrastructure for Future Mobility (DITM) program, a €52 million national initiative developing the digital infrastructure required for connected and automated driving, including trusted data exchange, HD maps, intelligent traffic services, and validation environments. Her expertise lies in ecosystem development, stakeholder engagement, and translating emerging technologies into deployable mobility solutions.

Ana holds a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico), including studies at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). She obtained an M.Sc. in Sustainable Urban Planning and Design from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden) and completed her master's thesis at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). Her multidisciplinary background in engineering, urban planning, and innovation management shapes her systems-level perspective on future mobility.

At the IEEE ITS Workshop, she will share lessons learned on moving beyond technical silos to enable the successful deployment of intelligent transportation systems.

Max Dorna is a project lead at Brainport Development, working in the fields of smart mobility and defence. He specializes in stakeholder management, ecosystem building, and establishing public-private partnerships between industry, government, and knowledge institutions. He is also involved in the CCAM Proving Region project, a cross-border initiative with Flanders aimed at establishing a centre of excellence for connected, cooperative and automated mobility (CCAM).

Max holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s degree in Innovation Management from Eindhoven University of Technology. He also spent a semester studying at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST) in Taipei. His combined background in engineering and innovation management provides a strong foundation for critically analysing complex challenges and creating effective collaborations.