Mariam Kotachi who is completing her Ph.D. dissertation under the supervision of Prof. Ghaith Rabadi has attended the 2016 Winter Simulation Conference held from the 11th-14th of December, 2016 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel in Washington, DC. Her participation in the conference included a podium presentation of a published paper in that year's proceedings with the title: "A Discrete Event Simulation for the Logistics of Hamad's Container Terminal of Qatar", as well as attending the Ph.D. Colloquium session and showcasing a poster with the title: "A Modeling and Simulation Platform for Evaluating Optimization Methods in Container Terminals".
Mariam's research has been funded by Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) of Qatar Foundation for the past two years. Her attendance was facilitated through her receipt of the following awards:
- SIGSIM Travel award provided by SIGSIM: to support the professional development of Ph.D. students working in the field of modeling and simulation.
- Diversity Awards provided by INFORMS Simulation Society: to increase outreach and diversity among young researchers in the simulation community and assist eligible graduate students to attend the Winter Simulation Conference.
"Attending this conference was an excellent experience for me where I had the opportunity to meet other students, professors, and professionals in the modeling and simulation field. The various events and activities at the venue combined with the very relevant content of presentations, seminars, workshops and poster discussions made my trip exceedingly fruitful."