Giuliano Punzo is a Lecturer in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Sheffield. He earned his PhD at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, and held postdoctoral appointments, at the University of Glasgow, Strathclyde and Sheffield.

An aerospace engineer by training, after leaving the industry, Giuliano’s interests grew in the broad area of control theory and complex systems. His current research aims at understanding complex dynamics at the interface between social and technical systems. These include the use of public services such as transportation or water systems, how these impact the demographic and the resilience of both the infrastructure and the community they serve.

Mehmet Mercangöz is the ABB Reader in Autonomous Industrial Systems within the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London. He earned his PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 2007, focusing on distributed model predictive control and real-time optimization of process systems. Following his graduate studies, Mehmet joined ABB Corporate Research in Switzerland, where he held key positions, including Senior Principal Scientist, Group Leader for Control and Optimization, and Technology Manager for Artificial Intelligence.