Profile
Dr. Maged Elaasar is the Founder and CEO of Modelware, the company behind OML Code, the intelligence-centric engineering platform.
With over 25 years spanning industry, government, and academia, he brings rare depth to systems engineering. He has led large-scale model-centric engineering initiatives in aerospace, most notably the Integrated Model Centric Engineering (IMCE) program, a strategic effort to make systems engineering more rigorous, agile, and data-driven across complex space programs. He is a lecturer at UCLA and Northeastern University, and previously spent 13 years at IBM leading R&D on flagship modeling tools, earning 12 US patents and the distinction of IBM Master Inventor.
He is the lead developer of openCAESAR, the open-source platform for ontological modeling and analysis proven on demanding engineering programs, and has shaped international standards at the OMG as UML co-chair and SysML contributor. He has authored over 85 peer-reviewed papers, serves as President of the INCOSE MENA Chapter, and chairs the onto:Nexus Forum.
Through Modelware Labs and openCAESAR, he has spent more than a decade turning foundational research and mission-grade engineering experience into OML Code, bringing that rigor to any organization engineering complex systems.
Education
- Ph.D. in Systems and Computer Engineering, Carleton University, Canada, 2012
- M.Sc. in Computer Science, Carleton University, Canada, 2003
- B.Sc. in Computer Science, American University in Cairo, Egypt, 1996
Leadership Roles
- President, INCOSE MENA Chapter (2025–now)
- Chair, onto:Nexus Forum (2024–now)
- Primary Investigator, Modelware Labs (2020–now)
- Lead Developer, openCAESAR Project (2020–now)
Selected Awards
- CRITICAL Funding — ConOps Modeling and Analysis (2025)
- SURP Funding — Developing OML CoPilot (2025)
- SRTD Funding — Autonomica: V&V of Autonomy (2022–2024)
- Best Paper Award, MODELSWARD Conference (2018)
- IBM Master Inventor, Plateau 3 (2012)
Selected Publications
- Elaasar, M., Rouquette, N., Wagner, D., et al.: “openCAESAR: Balancing agility and rigor in model-based systems engineering,” Systems Analysis and Modeling (SAM), 2023.
- Elaasar, M., Rouquette, N., Feather, M., et al.: “Autonomica: Ontological Modeling and Analysis of Autonomous Behavior,” INCOSE International Symposium, 2023.
- Wagner, D., Chodas, M., Elaasar, M., et al.: “Ontological Metamodeling and Analysis Using openCAESAR,” Handbook of Model-Based Systems Engineering, 2023.
- Bock, C., Elaasar, M.: “Reusing metamodels and notation with Diagram Definition,” Software & Systems Modeling, 2018.
- Elaasar, M., Rouquette, N., Jenkins, S., Gerard, S.: “The Case for Integrated Model Centric Engineering,” Model-Based Enterprise Summit, 2019.
Standards & Patents
- Author, Diagram Definition (DD) 1.0, OMG Specification (2012)
- Contributor, UML 2.5 Diagram Interchange and BPMN 2.0 Notation, OMG Specifications
- Holds 12+ granted US patents in modeling and software engineering, including US 8,966,437, US 8,689,173, and US 8,386,997.