Keynote Speaker
Gonzales, Kari
President and CEO, MxV Rail
Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines
MBA from Regis University, Denver
About MxV Rail:
MxV Rail, formerly Transportation Technology Center, Inc (TTCI), is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Association of American Railroads established to support the development and safe deployment of innovative technologies to increase the safety, reliability, and efficiency of the nation’s railroads.
In service to the rail industry, MxV Rail provides a unique testing environment backed by a level of specialty knowledge and experience not easily duplicated. With a team of more than 300 employees, including 110 mechanical, civil, industrial, and electrical engineers and metallurgists, MxV Rail works to advance the scientific research of railroads with objective intelligence and thoughtful diligence.
Technical Session Speakers and Panelists
Ahmadian, Mehdi
J. Bernard Jones Chair and Director, Center for Vehicle Systems & Safety
Mehdi Ahmadian is J. Bernard Jones Chair in Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech. He also holds the position of Director of Center for Vehicle Systems and Safety (CVeSS), and the Railway Technologies Laboratory (RTL). He has authored four book chapters, more than 150 archival journal papers, and more than 400 conference publications and presentations, including numerous major keynote and plenary lectures, and invited presentations. He holds 11 U.S. and international patents. Mehdi is a Fellow of American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Society of Automotive Engineers, International Society for Condition Monitoring (ISCM), and International Institute of Acoustics and Vibration (IIAV).
Aragona, Ivan
Product Manager/Automated Maintenance Advisor/Virtual Track Walk, ENSCO Inc.
Originally from Brazil, living in the United States since 2008, Ivan Aragona is a Railroad Researcher with Master’s degree in Railroad Engineering. He is an active member of the AREMA Track Measurement and Assessment Systems (Committee 2) with research experience on wheel performance, ties, fasteners, rail wear, track geometry and rail neutral temperature. Part of the ENSCO team since 2019, Ivan is a Product Manager leading two of the ENSCO Solutions: Automated Maintenance Advisor and Virtual Track Walk helping the railroads across the World to alleviate maintenance planning challenges through centralized data management and reporting tools that integrate all information and provide intelligent decision making.
Attoh-Okine, Nii
Professor, University of Delaware
Nii O. Attoh-Okine, Ph.D., P.E., F. ASCE, Snr Member IEEE, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is also served as the Interim Academic Director of the UD Cybersecurity Initiative. Also, NEDO Visiting Professor, University of Tsukuba-Japan. His work in neural networks and graphical probability models in pavement engineering goes far back into the mid-1990s. His work on empirical model decomposition – was among the most groundbreaking work in Civil Engineering. In the last couple of years, he has authored two books: Resilience Engineering: Models and Analysis [Cambridge Press] and Big Data and Differential Privacy in Railway Track Engineering [John Wiley]. His professional activities have included participation in ASCE, IEEE and TRB committees. He is a founding associate editor for ASCE/ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty Analysis. He has served as an Associate Editor on the following ASCE Journals: Journal of Infrastructure Systems; Journal of Computing; Journal of Bridge Engineering; Journal of Pipeline Systems Engineering and Practice. He has also served on IEEE Transactions on SMC. Currently, he is serving as a member in the National Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine committee on: Safe Transportation of Liquefied Natural Gas by Railroad Tank Car.
Craft, Michael
Principal Investigator/ Vehicle-Track Interaction Group, MxV
Michael is currently a Principal Investigator at MxV Rail in the Vehicle Track Interaction group, providing technical support to various customers- focusing on multi-body simulations, dynamic analysis, data processing of sensor data, vehicle testing, track inspections, and derailment investigations. He previously was Principal Engineer of Track Geometry at Amtrak, where he focused his efforts on railroad track condition assessment, automated inspection techniques, and developing data analysis tools.
Efemuai, Martins
System Requirements Audit Manager/Technical Risk Manager,California High-Speed Rail Authority
Martins O. Efemuai, System Requirements Audit Manager (Cordoba Corporation, USA) is a core railroader having previously worked with Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway. He is currently the System Requirements Audit Manager and doubling as a Technical Risk Manager for Network Integration and Program Compliance, California High-Speed Rail Operations Delivery Program. Previously, he worked with AECOM and Government of Saskatchewan, Canada, and has experience in railway track design, construction management and maintenance. He is also experienced in design, integration and management of NextGen signals and communication systems: including advanced train control, wayside inspection and positive train control systems. He holds a B.Eng. in Electrical-Electronics Engineering (Ambrose Alli University, NG), M.Eng in Electrical Engineering (University of Windsor, ON), M.Eng. in Engineering Management (University of Alberta, AB) and currently undertaking a PhD study in Industrial Systems Engineering (University of Regina, SK). He is a Professional Engineer (P.Eng., Canada) and is certified by Project Management Institute (USA) as a Project Management Professional (PMP) and Risk Management Professional (RMP).
Kerchof, Brad
Senior Track Engineer, Advanced Rail Management
Director Research & Tests, Norfolk Southern Railway (retired)
Brad Kerchof retired from NS in 2019 as Director Research and Tests, in Roanoke, VA, a position he held for nine years. Previously, Brad spent 33 years in maintenance-of-way, working as Division Engineer in Birmingham for NS and in Pittsburgh and Indianapolis for Conrail. Post retirement, Brad is working part time as senior track engineer for Advanced Rail Management. Brad has a BSCE from the University of Virginia and is a registered Professional Engineer in Pennsylvania.
Kleman, Daniel
Assistant Director of Data Engineering, BNSF Railway in Fort Worth, Texas
He started his career with BNSF as a track laborer on the California Division, and has held an array of roles including Track Supervisor, Roadmaster, Manager of Quality Assurance and Manager of Maintenance Scheduling. Daniel will be completing his bachelor’s degree in business management this term. Outside of work, he enjoys traveling with his wife Stephanie and son Carter.
Kaseko, Mohamed
Professor, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Dr. Mohamed Kaseko is an Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV). He holds a Ph.D. degree from the University of California at Irvine. His M.S. thesis was on railway operations. Dr Kaseko’s has over 30 years of teaching and research experience in Tanzania and in the USA. in the area of transportation engineering. His research interests include traffic safety, transportation operations, traffic engineering, and intelligent transportation systems. Dr Kaseko has also taught a class on railway transportation focusing on train operations and geometric design of railways. He has twice been awarded Civil Engineering Teacher of the Year by the TBP honor society at UNLV.
Lor, Rikkito
Senior Director, WSP USA inc.
Rik Lor is the Certification Manager for the California High-Speed Rail Project. His experience includes design and integration management, systems certification, and construction of transit projects. His most recent projects include the RTD Eagle P3 Project (the Nation’s first P3 rail transit project) and the RTD North Metro Rail Project in Denver, Colorado. Rik currently resides in California and received his B.S.C.E. from UW Madison and M.S.C.E. from the UI at Chicago and is a certified Professional Engineer (CO, WA, and OR).
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Palese, Joe
Research Scientist, University of Delaware
Dr. Palese is a Senior Scientist and Program Manager: Railroad Engineering and Safety Program at the University of Delaware. Throughout his 30 year career, Dr. Palese has focused on acquiring and utilizing large amounts of track component condition data for planning railway maintenance activities through development of new inspection technologies and analytic software. Dr. Palese has a Bachelor’s and PhD of Civil Engineering, from the University of Delaware, along with a MBA from Rowan University, and is a registered professional engineer in the state of NJ.
Radmehr, Ahmad
Research Scientist, Center for Vehicle Systems & Safety, Virginia Tech
Ahmad Radmehr is a research scientist at the Center for Vehicle Systems & Safety. He earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in December 2020 at Virginia Tech, where he worked on analyzing the contact mechanics and dynamics using the experimental data coming from the VT-FRA Roller Rig. His current projects include experimental analysis of wheel-rail contact under various conditions and evaluating track stability using unsupervised machine learning methods.
Rini, Guy
President at GTR Development, LLC
Guy Rini has 4 decades of progressive career accomplishments in the heavy vehicle electronics industry. His career focus is on new technologies for the advancement of heavy-duty powertrains and vehicle control systems. He is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and the Technology and Maintenance Council (TMC) of the American Trucking Association. He has nine (9) U.S. Patents, all relevant to commercial and military vehicles. He is the recipient of the distinguished Silver Spark Plug Award provided by the Technology and Maintenance Council. His resume is posted on LinkedIn.
Tajaddini, Ali
Track Division Manager, FRA
Ali Tajaddini is a Program Manager in Office of Research and Development of Federal Railroad Administration. He manages research activities in the Wheel/Rail interface, vehicle /track interaction safety and development of new inspection technologies for improvement railroad safety by reducing track caused derailments. He received his B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering in 1980 and M.S. in Structural Engineering and M.S. in Engineering Mechanics in 1984 from University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is registered as Professional Engineer in states Maryland and Wisconsin. He has been working in FRA since 1999. Prior to working at FRA he worked as structural engineer and analyst for Auto industry and he worked for 10 years at research and test Department of Association of American railroads in Chicago Technical Center and Transportation Technology Center and two years at ENSCO, Inc doing research in area of vehicle track interactions, Track geometry and wheel Impact loads. He has managed activities to develop Visual joint bar inspection system, initiated and managed the development of the first FRA ATGMS, FRA-VT wheel Rail contact Roller load Machine, Managed research to support development of rules for high speed and High Cant deficiency operation, supports FRA research in the area of wheel/rail contact, friction, and improving simulation capabilities.
Tian, Yiqun
Product Engineer/Clearance Measurement System (CMS), ENSCO Inc.
Yiqun (Yi) is a product Engineer at ENSCO with a Master degree in Business Analytics from the University of Texas at Austin. He leverages analytical tools to perform data cleaning and data engineering and helps ENSCO improve the data and software quality. Yi manages Clearance Measure System aiming to help clients make data driven decision to support their operations.
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Woody, Sean
Track Division Chief, FRA
Sean Woody is Chief of the Track Research Division in the FRA Office of Research, Development, and Technology. The Track Research Division’s team of Program Managers initiate and develop projects that address the most pressing safety needs in the railroad industry and also oversee FRA’s Transportation Technology Center. Sean joined FRA in 2020 following a twenty-nine-year career at Norfolk Southern. He held various positions in NS’s Research and Test Department, primarily focusing on safety, inspection, and operations issues in the Transportation, Engineering, and Mechanical Departments.
Wang, Zhiyong
Professor, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Dr. John (Zhiyong) Wang has years’ hands on experience and over 70 publications on 3D printing, advanced manufacturing and Lean manufacturing. He also teaches manufacturing processes and system related courses.