Marco obtained his PhD in computer science and engineering from the University of Genoa. With over 12 years of experience in building distributed systems, he now teaches Blockchain Systems and Cryptocurrencies at KAUST. Marco held research positions at various corporate and academic institutions including Cambridge, EPFL, Deutsche Telekom Innovation Labs, TU Berlin, and the Université Catholique de Louvain. Previously, he also held positions at Intel Research and Google. Marco loves making pizzas at home.

Yousef is an avid techie with experience in robotics, IoT, web development, and more recently blockchain systems. He is pursuing an MS degree in CS from KAUST for his work on fair reputation systems based on a blockchain backbone. He has previously worked on building automated systems at Tesla and Apple that combine hardware and software technologies to reduce manual labor. He received his bachelors from MIT in Physics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Yousef is a lover of chocolate, kittens, and is eagerly waiting for the new God of War to come out.

Usman is deeply passionate about Software Development, UX, Product Design, Startups, Business and Technology. His been working in the industry for over 13 years, developing solutions, managing project and teams. His prior experience includes running a design studio along with a in-house startup incubator. And, working as an adviser and consultant for startups. Though, he has been coding since the age of 13. When, he taught himself how to program. He's also an open-source contributor. With one of his projects having been included in the Debian and Ubuntu OS, along with a tool by Microsoft. He also Leads Facebook Developer Circle Jeddah. Where he organizes monthly events for the local tech community.

Andrew is a renewable energy researcher during the day and an avid developer in the evening. He participated at hackathons in Hong Kong, Dubai, Beirut, Tallinn, and the Vatican. Andrew leads the Facebook Developer Circle in Jeddah and recently hosted the Chatbot IoT Hackathon and Blockchain Workshop at KAUST. An IBM Blockchain Foundation Developer, he is eager to explore use cases for blockchain in the region and build communities to bridge enthusiasts and developers. Previously, he studied mathematics and economics and worked in executive search. Andrew loves playing with data and designing boardgames.

Hassan is a masters student at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. As a computer scientist, he seeks to find the best possible way to increase the quality of human life by using current technologies and creating new ones. He is interested to discover and implement methods in which the blockchain can yield novel solutions to improve the privacy of sensitive data.

James is a Full Stack Software Engineer. Currently doing Machine Learning research at KAUST, he is using Convolutional Neural Networks to detect earthquakes. He is also a Blockchain, Python, Docker, and Ultimate Frisbee enthusiast.

Osayd is a computer science masters student at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. Currently working on applying machine learning solutions on biological data to associate genes with diseases as part of his masters thesis. He is also interested in finding innovative solutions for blockchain technology.