Manuel Gimenez | Innovation | Best Innovator Award

Published on by Best Paper Awards

Dr. Manuel Gimenez | Innovation | Best Innovator Award 

Chief Innovation Strategy Officer | Ayesa | Spain

Dr. Manuel Giménez Medina is eminently suitable for the Best Innovator Award based on the exceptional breadth, depth, and real-world impact of his career at the intersection of technology, research, and industry-led innovation. With over two decades of sustained leadership in innovation strategy, technology transfer, and applied research, he has consistently transformed advanced scientific knowledge into scalable digital solutions with measurable economic and social value. As Chief Innovation Strategy Officer at Ayesa and former Innovation Director at Emergya Group, he has led multinational innovation ecosystems, managed high-impact R&D portfolios exceeding tens of millions of euros, and coordinated complex international projects across artificial intelligence, smart cities, cybersecurity, digital agriculture, blockchain, and industrial IoT. His academic excellence is evidenced by a PhD in Software Engineering and Technology with cum laude distinction, Q1 publications in Expert Systems with Applications, and recognized scientific awards for best research articles, demonstrating both thought leadership and methodological rigor. What strongly enhances his candidacy is his rare ability to bridge academia, industry, and public administration through open innovation frameworks, enabling effective knowledge transfer, commercialization, and capacity building. As coordinator and principal investigator of multiple national and European projects such as AgrarIA, D-Rural, AI4Dev, and TIMBERTRACK, he has delivered innovations that directly support sustainability, digital transformation, and regional development. His advisory roles in strategic innovation committees and his trusteeship at a major ICT research foundation further validate his influence on innovation policy and ecosystem development. In education, mentoring, and doctoral supervision, he contributes to nurturing the next generation of innovators. Overall, his combination of scientific excellence, industrial impact, leadership credibility, funding success, and sustained societal contribution clearly positions him as a highly deserving candidate for the Best Innovator Award.

Profiles: Google Scholar | LinkedIn | ResearchGate

Featured Publications

Giménez Medina, M., González Enríquez, J., & Domínguez Mayo, F. J. (2023). The innovation challenge in Spain: A Delphi study. Expert Systems with Applications, 230, 120611.

Giménez Medina, M., González Enríquez, J., & Domínguez Mayo, F. J. (2023). A systematic review of capability and maturity innovation assessment models: Opportunities and challenges. Expert Systems with Applications, 213, 118968.

González Enríquez, J., Giménez Medina, M., & Domínguez Mayo, F. J. (2023). A systematic review of capability and maturity innovation assessment models: SMS. In Proceedings of the XXVII Jornadas de Ingeniería y Bases de Datos (JISBD), Spain.

Giménez Medina, M., González Enríquez, J., & Domínguez Mayo, F. J. (2020). Towards an agile innovation capability maturity framework to enhance investments on ICT organizations. In Proceedings of the 32nd International Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering (CAiSE), Spain.

 

Dr. Manuel Giménez Medina’s work drives global innovation by transforming advanced research in artificial intelligence and digital systems into high-impact, real-world solutions for smart cities, cybersecurity, and sustainable agriculture. By bridging academia, industry, and public institutions, his leadership strengthens technology transfer, accelerates digital transformation, and delivers measurable social and economic value at regional, national, and international levels.

Naghi Rostami | Engineering | Best Researcher Award

Published on by Best Paper Awards

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Naghi Rostami | Engineering | Best Researcher Award 

Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering | University of Tabriz | Iran

Dr. Naghi Rostami is an accomplished academic and researcher in electrical power engineering, currently serving as Associate Professor and Head of the Electric Power Engineering Department at the University of Tabriz, Iran, where he has held leadership responsibilities from 2018 to 2024. He completed his B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering at K. N. Toosi University of Technology in 2006, his M.Sc. at the University of Tehran in 2008, and earned his Ph.D. from the University of Tabriz in 2013. He also gained international exposure through a research opportunity at Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland, in 2012 under the supervision of Prof. Juha Pyrhönen. His primary research interests include permanent magnet machine design, particularly axial flux and radial flux configurations, hybrid electric vehicle energy management, modeling and optimization of electrical machines, and the integration of renewable energy systems with electric vehicles and storage technologies. Dr. Rostami’s research skills span analytical and numerical design methods, genetic algorithms, particle swarm optimization, and advanced co-simulation approaches, which he has applied to the design and performance improvement of permanent magnet machines and energy systems. He has an impressive record of publications in reputable journals such as IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, IET Electric Power Applications, Sustainable Cities and Society, and COMPEL, with many works indexed in Scopus and IEEE Xplore. His Google Scholar profile records more than 1,500 citations with an H-index of 19, highlighting the international recognition of his work. While his CV does not list specific awards and honors, his achievements in leadership, international collaborations, and sustained scholarly contributions stand as testaments to his professional excellence. In conclusion, Dr. Rostami is a dedicated scholar whose expertise, impactful publications, and leadership in academia and research make him a strong candidate for recognition through distinguished awards and honors in the field of electrical power engineering.

Profiles: Google Scholar | LinkedIn | ResearchGate

Featured Publications

  1. Jalilzadeh, T., Rostami, N., Babaei, E., & Maalandish, M. (2018). Nonisolated topology for high step-up DC–DC converters. IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics, 11(1), 137–150.(Cited 137 times)

  2. Rostami, N., Feyzi, M. R., Pyrhonen, J., Parviainen, A., & Niemela, M. (2012). Lumped-parameter thermal model for axial flux permanent magnet machines. IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, 49(3), 1178–1184.(Cited 136 times)

  3. Zeynali, S., Rostami, N., Ahmadian, A., & Elkamel, A. (2020). Two-stage stochastic home energy management strategy considering electric vehicle and battery energy storage system: An ANN-based scenario generation methodology. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments, 39, 100722.(Cited 104 times)

  4. Marzang, V., Hosseini, S. H., Rostami, N., Alavi, P., & Mohseni, P. (2020). A high step-up nonisolated DC–DC converter with flexible voltage gain. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 35(10), 10489–10500.(Cited 96 times)

  5. Zeynali, S., Rostami, N., & Feyzi, M. R. (2020). Multi-objective optimal short-term planning of renewable distributed generations and capacitor banks in power system considering uncertainties. International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems, 119, 105885.(Cited 93 times)