On June 2, 2026, Yara Salloum successfully defended her dissertation titled “Advanced Predictive Analytics for Simulations of Mechanized Tunneling Using Real-Time Data and Artificial Intelligence.

Her research explores a new approach to combining machine learning and deep learning models with agent-based simulation to improve predictions of the total duration of mechanized tunneling projects. By linking real-time data with simulation-based approaches, her work helps make project forecasting more accurate and better suited to the complex conditions of tunneling operations.

The dissertation was supervised by Prof. Markus König (Ruhr-University Bochum) as first supervisor and Prof. Markus Thewes (Ruhr-University Bochum) as second supervisor. Prof. Rüdiger Höffer (Ruhr-University Bochum) chaired the defense.

We congratulate Yara Salloum on this achievement and wish her all the best and every success in her future personal and professional endeavors.