Bio
Helena Margarida Ramos achieved her MSc degree in 1987, her PhD degree in 1995, and her Habilitation degree in 2005. She is a Full Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico (University of Lisbon) in 15 different courses. She has more than 400 publications, with 7 published books, 182 international scientific papers in journals with a referee, and 156 scientific papers in international conferences. She has participated in 32 scientific research projects. She has been Editor-in-Chief of the journal Water (MDPI), Guest Editor of six Special Issues in the Water and Energies (MDPI) journals, an invited speaker of webinars, and has been engaged in scientific activities as a member of editorial teams and as a reviewer of different scientific journals. She has received four awards from scientific societies and has been a member/collaborator of several International Scientific Committees. She has had nine IST Management positions at IST. She has been invited as a supervisor and evaluator of several examinations (projects, PhD, and MSc), and asked to develop/participate in projects and proposals (covering contacts across the EU, Latin America, Canada, Hong Kong, China, and the USA).

Talk
Title of his presentation: Unsteady Mixed Flow Conditions Applying SWMM: Evaluating Modeling Setup Strategies

Bio
Jose Vasconcelos is the leader of the Hydraulic Research Group at Auburn University, focusing on unsteady flows in closed conduits, air–water interactions, stormwater management, and extreme flows in urban water systems. He has interests in numerical and laboratory-scale hydraulic modeling, as well as field investigations on urban and undeveloped headwater watersheds. At Auburn, he teaches undergraduate and graduate-level classes on water resources and leads student researchers in areas linked to hydraulics, hydrology and sustainability, as well as serving on the university’s Stormwater Committee. He serves as an associate editor in the Journal of Hydraulic Engineering (ASCE), Journal of Water Management Modeling (CHI), and Water (MDPI). Dr. Vasconcelos also chairs the ASCE EWRI Task Committee for Two-phase Flows in Urban Water Systems. He also serves as a mentor to the Auburn University student chapter of Engineers Without Borders, having developed projects in Rwanda and Guatemala.

Talk
Title of his presentation: Challenges in Modeling Transients in Pipe Flows

Bio
Kamil Urbanowicz is an associate professor at the West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin, Poland. He obtained his B.Sc. and M.S. degrees at the Szczecin Polytechnic University in 2004, and his Ph.D. degree at the West Pomeranian University of Technology in 2009, in the field of fluid transients. At the beginning of 2019 (April), based on the series of publications titled “Effective modelling of unsteady liquid flows in pressure pipes”, he started his habilitation thesis and later the same year (October 2019) was elected as an associate professor of numerical fluid mechanics at the West Pomeranian University of Technology at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics. He has been a member of the Polish Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics since October 2008 and a member of the Polish Academy of Science since February 2021. By himself or with coauthors, he has published 85 papers in scientific journals and proceedings at various international and domestic scientific conferences. He is also a co-author of five patents (five others under review). He has carried out research in the field of fluid transients and related phenomena, column separation, and unsteady friction. He has participated several times in specialized international conferences, for example, the Pressure Surges or Fluid Mechanics Conference. He was involved in two large research projects entitled “Models and calculation methods for the water hammer including cavitation and unsteady friction” (he was a member of a working team with Adamkowski, Lewandowski, and Zarzycki) and “Modeling of the dynamics of electromechanical microsystems” (leader of the working team). Nowadays, he actively cooperates with experienced scientists from all over the world. He is a reviewer for 45 top world-class scientific journals (indexed with a high impact factor). He has been awarded multiple times by the Rector of West Pomeranian University of Technology for his achievements and contributions to the development of scientific research.

Talk
Title of his presentation: Air Management Strategies for Pressurized Water Pipelines

Bio
Dr. Elias Tasca specializes in researching air–water interactions in pressurized water pipelines, with a particular focus on the effects of entrapped air on system transients and the role of air valves in surge mitigation. He has published his work in the following journals: the Journal of Hydraulic Engineering (ASCE), Water, and Sustainability. In recognition for his work, Elias was awarded the 2022 Orin Flanigan Scholarship at the annual conference of the Pipeline Simulation Interest Group (PSIG) in San Diego, California. He earned his doctorate from the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) in 2023 under the supervision of Professor Edevar Luvizotto Junior and completed an exchange program in 2020 at the University of Toronto, supervised by Professor Bryan W. Karney. Elias is currently working on two forthcoming monographs related to two-phase flows in pipeline systems, titled 'Two-phase Flow in Urban Areas,' to be hosted by the Hydraulic Structures Committee of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and a monograph on transient flows, to be hosted by the International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR).