Speakers

Prathap Valale Prasannakumar is an antenna engineer in the Reality Labs at Meta Platforms, Inc. He has worked on Oculus Quest 2 VR devices. His current research is focused on Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz), Bluetooth, and UWB antennas and improving the isolation between collocated antennas in AR/VR consumer electronics devices. His Ph.D. thesis focuses on the design of monostatic, quasi-monostatic, and bistatic simultaneous transmit and receive (STAR) or In-Band Full-Duplex (IBFD) antenna systems and wideband isolation enhancement techniques. He has over 7.5 years of experience in numerical EM simulations – Method of Moments (MoM), Finite Element (FEM), Time-domain (FIT), hybrid solvers, and other 2D and 2.5D solvers. Dr. Prathap received his MS and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Previously he has worked as a deputy engineer in Bharat Electronics, India.

He has 5 patents and won 2^nd prize in the student paper competition at the 2018 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and USNC-URSI Radio Science Meeting. He is honored with the Raksha Mantri award from the Ministry of Defense, Govt. of India.

Shams Arifeen is the Electronic Packaging Technical Lead for Google's Platform and Devices team, specializing in product design. His expertise lies in Finite Element Analysis, which he has consistently applied throughout his career to simulate chip, package, board, and system-level performance for various microelectronic products. A notable contributor to the field of microelectronic packaging, Mr. Arifeen holds 18 U.S. patents and has authored numerous journal and conference publications. He earned both his bachelor's and master's degrees in Mechanical Engineering.

Bala Shanmugam received his master’s degree in 2011, specializing in electromagnetic systems. In the last 13+ years, he has designed custom antennas for various electronic device form-factors such as smart-phone, tablet, smart-watch, trackers, hearables, smart-home accessories, streaming media devices, LTE nano/femto-cell, water-meter, OBD-II auto-accessory. He has five approved patents, five technical papers, and has used CST Studio Suite for over ten years for advanced antenna/RF simulations with applications ranging from a few MHz to mm-Wave frequencies. At Google, he leads the antenna design for head-worn devices with a focus on optimizing wireless performance for body-worn use-cases. His research interests include highly integrated antenna sub-assemblies, body-immune antenna design, optimal human phantom modeling, novel EM materials and emerging communication technologies.

Chris is a Senior Industry Process Consultant at Dassault Systemes, with over 15 years specializing in finite element analysis.Before coming to DS, Chris also has past industry experience working for Boeing, NASA, and Johnson & Johnson.He also has a BS and MS in Engineering Mechanics from Virginia Tech.

In his current role, he is responsible for demonstrating and developing solutions on Abaqus, the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, and other SIMULIA tools.

Somen received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in July 2021, specializing in computational electromagnetics. He became a part of the Dassault Systèmes North America team as a SIMULIA Industry Process Consultant in 2022. His expertise lies in supporting solution to complex electromagnetics problems in High-tech consumer devices, and life sciences industries.

Dr. Hicham Farid has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Quebec, Canada, where his research focused on Fracture Mechanics. His primary interests are material modeling and calibration, fracture mechanics, plastics and composites, and fatigue and creep interaction. Before joining Dassault Systèmes, Hicham spent 12 years working as R&D Engineer/Scientist at leading organizations in the aerospace, nuclear, and renewable energy industries. He is passionate about new technology and enjoys sharing this passion with others by helping businesses and industry professionals challenge the status quo and navigate new, technological horizons.

Tony Gasseling is a French engineer specializing in RF and microwave systems. In 2004, he co-founded AMCAD Engineering, a spin-off from the XLIM laboratory, focusing on advanced RF measurement and modeling services. Under his leadership, AMCAD developed innovative software tools like IVCAD, streamlining RF measurement, modeling, and simulation workflows. These tools have been instrumental in enabling engineers to design energy-efficient and high-performance wireless communication systems. In May 2024, AMCAD Engineering was acquired by Dassault Systèmes and integrated into its SIMULIA brand, where Tony Gasseling now serves as R&D Technical Director, in the Electromagnetics team of Peter Hammes (SIMULIA R&D Technology Senior Director)

Dr. Ashwani Goel is working as a senior specialist in High Tech Enablement team at Dassault Systèmes with over 14 years of experience in analytical and computational mechanics, specializing in fatigue analysis, fracture mechanics, and material modeling. He is recognized as a North America technical expert in fatigue capabilities and has led numerous customer engagements across aerospace, automotive, life sciences, and high-tech sectors. Dr. Goel has taught a wide range of basic and advanced courses in finite element analysis, including fracture mechanics and user subroutine development in Abaqus. Dr. Goel holds a Ph.D. in Engineering Mechanics and recently completed the Harvard Business Analytics Program, where he deepened his expertise in data-driven decision-making, leadership, and business strategy. This business acumen complements his technical leadership in advancing next-generation simulation technologies.

Juan has been working in the SIMULIA R&D organization for over 20 years. During that time he has made many contributions to the mechanics technology in Abaqus, especially in the area of constitutive modeling of materials. As leader of Materials Technology, Juan is directly involved in the long term planning and development of functionality needed to address our customers’ needs in the area of materials modeling. Currently Juan manages the Nonlinear Mechanics development team, responsible for advanced nonlinear mechanics capabilities in the Abaqus solvers.

Dr. Ramji Kamakoti is the North America Modelling and Simulation Director at Dassault Systemes. He has over 20 years of experience in computational modelling and simulation focusing in areas such as fluid dynamics, structure dynamics and multi-physics in general. His team is currently responsible for leading and providing technical solutions that involves integrated simulation-based design for a variety of industries. He received his masters and PhD in Engineering Mechanics from the University of Florida.

Ross MCLENDON serves as the product manager for the Abaqus FEA structural solvers and Abaqus/CAE interactive product within the SIMULIA Structures R&D organization in Johnston, Rhode Island (USA). He joined Dassault Systemés in 2013 as a member of the back-end mechanics support team after completing his Ph.D. in aerospace engineering at Texas A&M University where he studied composite mechanics. During his time in support he led the development of the Micromechanics Plugin for Abaqus/CAE, after which he moved into the R&D organization as a developer for materials and then material calibration before taking on the Product Manager role. He works closely with the Abaqus development teams while collaborating with customers and the field and sales organizations to help ensure that the Abaqus FEA structural solvers at the heart of all DS structural simulation continue to deliver the class-leading capabilities needed to solve DS customer’s most challenging engineering mechanics problems.

Harikrishnan Murali works as an Industry Process Consultant supporting the Transportation & Mobility, and High Tech industries within North America. He has been with Dassault Systemes for the last 7 years during which he has provide pre-sales & after sales support on software deployment for aerodynamics & thermal management. He has a Master’s degree in Aeronautics and has over 9 years of experience in the field of computational fluid dynamics.

Dinesh Panneerselvam is an Industry Process Consultant Director at Dassault Systèmes with the SIMULIA brand. He has been with the company for over 15 years and his background is structures with a Ph. D in Engineering Mechanics. Dinesh and his team in the technical sales organization lead technical execution of customer engagements starting from lead generation to opportunity qualification to successful implementation of simulation solutions with a focus on Hi-Tech, Aerospace & Defense and Electric Vehicle industries.

Nivedita received her PhD degree in electrical engineering from Santa Clara University, where she specialized in antennas for Bio-Electromagnetics applications at RF and mm-wave frequencies. She is currently an Industry Process Consultant with SIMULIA Dassault Systemes focusing on electromagnetic simulation solutions for various applications in the High-Tech, Healthcare and Transportation & Mobility industries.

Fei (Alex) Tao get his Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering at Purdue University. He has expertise in Finite element analysis, Mechanics of Composites, and Machine Learning. Dr. Tao is working as an industry process solution consultant at Dassault Systemes SIMULIA since 2022.