Dr. Maged Elaasar
MBSE Expert, CEO of Modelware
Research Scientist at NASAJet Propulsion
- President of INCOSE MENA
Laboratory, CS Professor at UCLA
- Dr. Maged Elaasar is a principal engineer, technology leader and research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), managed by the California Institute of Technology. He serves as the lead for JPL's flagship Integrated Model-Centric Engineering (IMCE) initiative, where he has pioneered the development of openCAESAR—a cutting-edge platform that enables mission-critical systems to be engineered with agility, precision, and data-driven rigor.
- With over two decades of experience driving innovation at the intersection of software engineering, systems engineering, and mission assurance, Dr. Elaasar brings deep expertise in designing and scaling engineering organizations for technical excellence.
- As Principal Investigator of the Rigorous, Agile, and Automated Systems Engineering (RAISE) Lab, he leads a portfolio of strategic R&D efforts that extend openCAESAR's capabilities to support high-assurance, high-complexity systems—directly applicable to aerospace and defense sectors.
- Dr. Elaasar is also the founder of Modelware, a consulting firm that advises industry leaders on modernizing their engineering practices to achieve organizational agility, engineering discipline, and compliance with industry standards.
- Previously, Dr. Elaasar held senior technical leadership roles at IBM, where he advanced system modeling and engineering tools for global clients. He is also an active academic, teaching at UCLA and Northeastern University, and contributing to the global systems engineering community through research, open source initiatives, and international standards development.
- Dr Elaasar is also the president of INCOSE MENA chapter, where he is spearheading the efforts of spreading the principles of rigorous, agile and intelligent systems engineering in the region. He also represents JPL (and before that IBM) at the Object Management Group (OMG) where he helps define standards of software and systems engineering like UML and SysML.
- Dr. Elaasar holds a Ph.D. in Computer and Systems Engineering from Carleton University and has a strong academic foundation in computer science.
