NYUAD
Regional Day
Participants
Dr. Ali Rashid Al-Noaimi is the Vice Chancellor of the UAE University, the main federal university in the United
Arab Emirates. Dr. Al-Noaimi oversees the pursuit of the university’s vision and mission as well as the
implementation of university policies and procedures, including all academic, financial and administrative
operations of the University. In addition, he is a key member of the UAE University Council and the Chairman of
the Academic Affairs Council, as well as other specialized University committees.
In his capacity as Advisor to the Minister of Education, Dr. Al Noaimi made a significant contribution to the
development of tertiary education in the UAE. As a Provost in the UAE University, he proved to be a
distinguished scholar and senior administrator who helped establish sound and innovative organizational and
management systems in University education, promoting effective teaching philosophies and approaches that
meet international benchmarks and standards. Dr. Al Noaimi has led major initiatives to reorganize and shape
the University academic development, which is now a model for other colleges and universities in the region.
Dr. Al Noaimi has also held other academic, research and administrative positions in the University and the
College of Education where he has lectured in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction.
Dr. Al Noaimi holds a Ph.D. from Imam Mohammed Bin Saoud University, Saudi Arabia; an M.Sc. from
Portland State University, USA; and a B.Sc. from Portland State University, USA. His work has been published
widely in scientific journals and he has participated in numerous regional and international conferences.
Aliya Alkindi has a B.Sc Computer Science and Masters in Information Security. She is planning to start Ph.D
in 2016 majoring in Information Security. Her current position is as a PA to the Director General of Abu Dhabi
Education Council.
Amal Al Hadabi serves as an Advisor to the Director General of Abu Dhabi Education Council in the UAE.
Arafat Awajan serves as the Dean of IT at Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT) in Jordan.
Ayman Ahmed serves as IT Faculty at HIGHER COLLEGES OF TECHNOLOGY in the UAE.
Dr. Basheer Al-Duwairi is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Network Engineering and
Security at Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST). He obtained his MS and PhD degrees in
Computer Engineering from Iowa State University in 2002 and 2005, respectively, and the BSc degree in
Electrical and Computer Engineering from JUST in 1999. His research interests are in the area of network
security focusing mainly on DDoS attacks, Botnets, SDN and smart grid security. He has coauthored several
research papers in these fields and he held several administrative positions while at JUST since 2005.
Dr. Basil AsSadhan an assistant professor at the Electrical Engineering Department at King Saud University,
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He also works as a cyber security consultant at Taqnia Cyber. His research interests are
in the areas of network security, network traffic analysis, anomaly detection, and pattern recognition.
Dr. Chan Yeob Yeun serves in the position of Assistant Professor at the University; a position which he has
held since 2008. Assigned to the Electrical Computer Engineering Department and Information Security
Research Center, Dr. Yeun's primary areas of expertise lie in the area of Information Security. Working closely
with the students, he performs research and is a prolific author, having written eighty six publications including
Journals and Conferences and the chapters of several book compilations. Gathering a broad expanse of
experience and qualifications, Dr. Yeun achieved his Master's degree in Information Security, and later
obtained his PhD in the same subject from Royal Holloway, University of London in 1996 and in 2000,
respectively. Actively representing the University, he is a member of several professional organizations,
including SIMEEE, MIMA and MBCS. Prior to his current position, Dr. Yeun joined as the Wireless Security
Team Leader of Toshiba TRL for researching and developing 4G and Ubiquitous Security. He also served as
the Vice President of LG Electronics for developing the World First Mobile TV 3G handsets such as DVB-H,
TDMB and MediaFLO with CAS/DRM and as an Invited Professor at KAIST as well as a Visiting Professor at
NTUST and KAU.
Davor Svetinovic is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Masdar Institute of Science and
Technology, UAE. He received his PhD and MMath degrees from University of Waterloo, Canada. His research
interests include systems security and privacy, software engineering, smart grids energy trading, and digital
currencies.
Debdeep Mukhopadhyay is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Computer Science and
Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur, India. At IIT Kharagpur he initiated the Secured
Embedded Architecture Laboratory (SEAL), with a focus on Embedded Security and Side Channel Attacks
(http://cse.iitkgp.ac.in/resgrp/seal/). He has also incubated a start-up on Hardware Security, ESP Pvt Ltd at IIT
Kharagpur (http://esp-research.com/).
Dr. Dimitrios Serpanos is a Principal Scientist in the QCRI cyber-security team. He has a depth of experience
in embedded systems and security, ranging from hardware to application and service security. His areas of
research include security systems, computer architecture, real-time embedded systems and industrial systems.
He has published extensively in books, scientific journals and conferences; he holds 6 inventions and 2 US
patents. His research work has been funded by industry in Europe and the USA, by the Greek government, and
the European Commission. Dr. Serpanos has served as President of the University of Western Greece (20102013) and as Director of the Industrial Systems Institute in Patras (2008-2013). Dr. Serpanos has been a
Research Staff Member at IBM Research, T.J. Watson Research Center (1990-1996), where he worked on
high bandwidth network systems, multimedia systems and security systems. In 1996, he became a faculty
member in Greece, first within the Department of Computer Science of the University of Crete (1996-2000) and
then at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the University of Patras. Dimitrios Serpanos
holds a PhD in Computer Science from Princeton University, USA and an Engineering Diploma in Computer
Engineering from the University of Patras, Greece.
Ernesto Damiani is currently the Director of the Information Security Research Center at Khalifa University of
Technology, Abu Dhabi. He is the leader of the Big Data Initiative at the Etisalat British Telecom Innovation
Center (EBTIC). Ernesto is on extended leave from the Department of Computer Science, Università degli Studi
di Milano, Italy, where he leads the SESAR research lab (http://sesar.di.unimi.it) and has served the Head of
the Ph.D. Program in Computer Science for many years . Ernesto's research interests include secure cloudbased architectures, privacy-preserving Big Data analytics and Cyber-Physical Systems security.
Ernesto holds/has held visiting positions at a number of international institutions, including George Mason
University in Virginia, US, Tokyo Denki University, Japan, LaTrobe University in Melbourne, Australia, and the
Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA) at Lyon, France. He is a Fellow of the Japanese Society for
the Progress of Science.
He is/has been Principal Investigator in a number of large-scale research projects funded by the European
Commission, the Italian Ministry of Research and by private companies such as British Telecom, Cisco
Systems, SAP, Telecom Italia, Siemens Networks (now Nokia Siemens) and many others.
Ernesto serves in the editorial board of several international journals; among others, he is the EIC of the
International Journal on Big Data and of the International Journal of Knowledge and Learning. He is Associate
Editor of IEEE Transactions on Service-oriented Computing and of the IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy
Systems. Ernesto is a senior member of the IEEE and served as Vice-Chair of the IEEE Technical Committee
on Industrial Informatics. In 2008, Ernesto was nominated ACM Distinguished Scientist and received the
Chester Sall Award from the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society. Ernesto has co-authored over 350 scientific
papers and many international patents and books, including "Open Source Systems Security Certification"
(Springer 2009).
Dr. Ezedin Barka is currently an Assistant Professor at the United Arab Emirate University and he serves as an
Adjunct professor at George Mason University. He received his Ph.D. in Information Technology from George
Mason University, Fairfax, VA in 2002, where he was a member, and still associated, with the Laboratory for
Information Security Technology (LIST). His current research interests include Access Control, where he
published some papers addressing delegation of rights using RBAC. Other research areas include Digital
Rights Management (DRM), Large-scale security architectures and models, Trust engineering, B2C ecommerce, and Network “Wired & Wireless” and distributed systems security. Dr. Barka is an IEEE member,
member of the IEEE Communications Society and member of the IEEE Communications & Information Security
Technical Committee (CISTC). He serves on the technical program committees of many international IEEE
conferences such as ACSAC, GLOBECOM, ICC, WIMOB, and WCNC. In addition, he has been a reviewer for
several international journals and conferences.
Dr. Barka has over 10 years of industry experience in the area of information security. As a member of the
Lockheed Martin team, he served as a senior network security engineer to protect DoD's unclassified network,
and later became the Information security advisor for the Director of Security of the Network infrastructure
agency (NISA) at DoD. Dr. Barka also was a member of the General Dynamic’s Information s Security team.
Dr. Fadi Aloul is a Professor of Computer Science & Engineering and the Director of the HP Institute at the
American University of Sharjah (AUS), UAE.
Website: www.aloul.net
Faisal Shah Khan is an Assistant Professor in the Applied Math & Sciences department at Khalifa University
Abu Dhabi. His research involves optimizing quantum information processes, such as quantum computations
and quantum communication protocols, using game-theoretic models. He was the senior researcher from the
UAE side on a Swedish international collaboration grant awarded in 2014, and is currently an investigator on
a multidisciplinary Khalifa University internal grant which will explore the implementation of
cybersecurity infrastructure in the UAE which is safe from quantum computer attacks. He also supervises a
graduate student at Khalifa University on minimizing noise in camera images using quantum information
models.
Farkhund Iqbal works at the College of Technological Innovation at Zayed University in the UAE.
H.E. Younis Haji Al-khoori holds a bachelor degree in Computer Engineering from University of Boston-USA
as well as holding a master degree in Engineering Management from Northeastern University at Boston- USA
and has concluded an Executive Management program from Harvard Business School.
H.E. has served the government for 20 years in the public services field and he is currently the Under Secretary
of the Ministry of Finance since January 2007 as he has extensive experience and multiple skills in the field of
information technology, finance and project management.
H.E. is on the board of several entities such as: Abu Dhabi Investment Council (since 2007), the General
Pension and Social Security Authority (since 2007), Central Bank (since 2008), Al Etihad Credit Bureau- Deputy
Chairman (since 2012) and Arab Monetary Fund (since 2013).
Dr. Harry Manifavas’ research area is cryptography, network and information security. His current areas of
interest include embedded systems security and dependability, lightweight cryptography, security metrics,
security composition, and the challenges that arise with the wider adoption of ambient intelligence/ubiquitous
computing applications. Such challenges also include the various privacy and trust issues that must be
addressed in the context of the Internet of Things and smart infrastructures, as well as the pertinent security
management issues. He has published more than 50 papers in international journals and conferences and has
attracted more than 600 citations to his research work.
Dr. Manifavas is involved in security assessment and ISMS (information security management). He enjoys
working on industry-related tasks being an IRCA certified ISMS auditor. He has received training by Terena on
how to implement and run a CSIRT (Computer Security Incident Response Team). He has worked with ENISA
(European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) for two position papers and participated in the
Greek CyberWar exercise “PANOPTHS 2011”. He has spent time in the banking sector working as a security
engineer and consultant. Finally, he has worked as technical manager or senior researcher in a number of EU
funded research projects.
Dr. Ibrahim Kamel got his Ph.D. degree in computer science from the University of Maryland, College Park,
USA in 1994, M.Sc. and B.Sc. from University of Alexandria, Egypt in 1984 and 1988 respectively. Dr. Kamel
was a lead scientist and a group leader at Panasonic Research, Princeton, NJ, USA where he managed
several research projects in multimedia retrieval, smart spaces, and VoIP. Dr. Kamel has 21 US patents in
information storage and retrieval. He published more than seventy papers in international journals and
conferences. He co-chaired several international conferences and workshops. Dr. Kamel is serving as an editor
for several international journals; he also served as PC members in many international conferences in the area
of database indexing, multimedia systems, and smart spaces. His research interests include database indexing,
multimedia information retrieval, information security, and smart appliances. Dr. Kamel is currently an associate
professor at University of Sharjah; he is also an associate adjunct professor at Concordia University, Canada.
Dr. Kamel is a senior member of IEEE.
Ibrahim Lari is the Chief Executive Officer of Injazat Data Systems where he is directing the next stage of the
company’s growth. Lari was instrumental at the inception of Injazat where he oversaw the expansion of the
company to its current position as a leader in the IT Managed Services market.
Backed by a degree in electronic engineering, Lari started his career as an IT & Automation Engineer at the
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC). He occupied various senior positions in a number of ADNOC
Group companies, the last of which was as IT & Automation Vice President for petrochemical plants company
BOROUGE.
Lari played a key role as the VP of IT and Automation at Dolphin Energy, a joint venture among Mubadala,
TOTAL of France and Occidental Petroleum of the US. During his term he successfully orchestrated the
Dolphin project, one of the largest multi-national gas production and transportation projects in the Gulf.
Dr. Jamal Al-Karaki is an accomplished Information security and technology expert with 15+ years of versatile
IT experience and expertise in corporate systems and network security architecture and management along
with IT projects management, network and IT infrastructure design and implementation, and change
management throughout the project life cycle in public and private sectors. He has also been working with
various governments helping them identifying their security needs concerning sensitive assets and national
manpower. Understanding these responsibilities he has taken the role of security evangelist to spread the
awareness about information security and its importance. He actively participates in all major security events
regularly. Dr. Al-Karaki is the Co-Founder and Division Head of information Security Engineering TechnologyAbu Dhabi Polytechnic (ADPoly), Abu Dhabi, UAE. Before Joining ADPoly in 2012, He served as the Dean of
Information Technology College, at the Hashemite University, Zarka – Jordan. He also worked for faculty of
computing, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia With knowledge comes a responsibility towards
the society. Dr. Al-Karaki obtained his Ph.D. from Iowa State University where he was awarded the research
excellence award on his pioneering work on wireless ad hoc networks. He has also received the best paper
award from IEEE ISCC 2006. Dr. Al-Karaki has more than 50 published refereed technical articles in scholarly
international journals and proceedings of international conferences. He also served on the Editorial Board of
some international journals and as publicity chair and technical program committee member of several
International conferences and workshops. He has also attended large number of international conferences and
workshops that spans all areas of his interest. He has also given some keynote speeches in local and
international venues. His main research interests include all aspects of Network Computing including wireless
networking and mobile computing with special emphasis on wireless LANs, Mobile Ad hoc Networks, and
Wireless Sensor Networks, Network security, Cyber security, and web-based education and e-learning.
Dr. Khalid Khawaja, the Vice President for Academic Affairs at RIT Dubai, believes in the creation of a quality
education environment through the recognition of education’s core pillars and values. He identifies with RIT
values that recognize the student as the center for all efforts pivoted on strong foundation of scholarship and
professionalism, ethics and integrity, diversity, innovation, and collaboration. He has an academic career that
focused on establishing systematic quality assurance standards that are learning outcomes centric leading to
sustainable improvement in the quality of university academic programs utilizing the latest technology whenever
feasible.
Khawla Abdulla Alghafli has a PhD in Computer Engineering, and an M.Sc. in Information Security from
Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research. Her research lies in Information Security and Digital
Forensics.
Luigi Garibaldi is a Full Professor of Applied Mechanics at the “Politecnico di Torino”, since 2002, he is
teaching Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Mechanical Vibrations and System Identification. Research fields
are: mechanical vibrations, dynamics, system identification, diagnostic. SInce june 2015 he also covers the role
of Research Director at the new INSA Euro Mediterranean in Morocco. At Politecnico di Torino, he is the
coordinator of PhD in Mechanics, which counts about 60 PhD students. He has settled many collaborations
with first class Universities such as Sheffield, Manchester, Liège, KUL, ENPC, SUPMECA, Georgia Tech and
many others.
Luxman Dua serves as a Manager of Technology Risk & Security Solutions at ADIA (Abu Dhabi Investment
Authority) in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Malik Qasaimeh is an assistant professor of software engineering in Princess Sumaya University for
Technology, Jordan. He received his PhD degree in software engineering form University of Quebec (Canada,
2012). He has a master’s degree in information systems security from Concordia University (Canada, 2007),
and a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Jordan University of Science & Technology, (Jordan, 2003).
He has published several papers in reputed journals and international conferences. His research interests
include, secure software development, cryptography and network security, agile software processes and
compliance, software process and product improvement, software engineering ISO standards,
Manindra Agrawal is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering & the Dean of
Faculty Affairs at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India.
Prof. Martina Newell- McGloughlin, DSc, is the new head of research for the Abu Dhabi Education Council
(ADEC) where she is working on research support and promotion for the Higher Education sector. Prior to this
she was the Director of the UC Davis International Biotechnology Program and Director of the UC Systemwide
Biotechnology Research and Education Program (UCBREP) which covered all ten University of California
campuses and the three affiliated national laboratories, Lawrence Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore and Los
Alamos. The founding director was Nobel Laureate Paul Boyer “Mr. ATP”. She was co-director of an NIH
Training Program in Biomolecular Technology, one of only three in California, and also co-director of the NSF
CREATE IGERT program. Previously she was the inaugural director of the UC System Life Sciences
Informatics Program, and the UC Davis Biotechnology Program. She also directed Life and Health Sciences
Research Initiatives for UC Davis. Her discipline at UC Davis is ranked number one in the World QS
International University Rankings. She contributed to the formation of Science Foundation Ireland and was a
member of its Board of Directors and chair of its sub-board on grants awarding over €1 billion in support. SFI
is credited with establishing a reputation for excellence in research and Ireland was named by Nature as one
of the five countries to watch in this space.
She has broad experience in developing novel research, training and education programs and experience in
managing large multidisciplinary grants programs and supporting same. At UC Davis she developed the transdisciplinary Designated Emphasis in Biotechnology, the Advanced Degree Program for industry researchers
and cutting edge immersive short courses in evolving technologies. She has been selected by the former
Director of NSF and the former president of the NAS to review cross-disciplinary science programs at other
institutions. She served on the Chancellor’s Blue Ribbon Committee on technology transfer. Prof. NewellMcGloughlin has published and edited numerous papers, articles, book chapters, five books on biotechnology
including “The Evolution of Biotechnology: From Natufians to Nanotechnology” and “Food and You: Feeding
the World with Modern Agricultural Biotechnology”.
She has won numerous awards including the highest UC Academic Federation award, the James H. Meyer
Distinguished Achievement Award. She received the Irish American Science Award as one of the top
contributors to Irish American science. She has received the Hamilton Medal and been nominated for the
Boyle Medal, the highest award in Irish Science.
Maurice Danaher is an Associate Professor in the College of Information Technology at Zayed University, Abu
Dhabi. He received his PhD in Computing and Information Systems from Swinburne University of Technology,
Melbourne, Australia, in 2003. Dr. Danaher’s research interests include various aspects of Information Security.
Dr. Danaher has extensive experience in industry and academia and has published widely. He has held
academic positions in Australia and Singapore. Dr. Danaher has worked with industry in the USA, Canada,
England and Ireland.
May El Barachi is the SMART Lab Director and Associate Professor at Zayed University, College of
Technological Innovation and has 10 years’ experience in the Computer and Telecommunication Engineering
field with a strong focus on Smart and Resource Efficient Systems. Some areas of expertise are:
• Internet of Things (IoT)
• Smart Systems and Cities
• Network Function Virtualization (NFV)
• Enhanced Cloud Computing Models
• Network and Cyber Security
• Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing
• Mobile Computing and Mobile Apps Development
• System Analysis and Design
• IT Project Management
• IT Service Management
Michail Maniatakos’s scholarly interests span from abstract computer science to hardware manufacturing.
Maniatakos has published in several key research areas, such as computer architecture, design and test,
microprocessor reliability, and hardware security. He has received the IEEE TTTC Gerald W. Gordon Award for
exceptional service to the community, and won the Embedded System Challenge at CSAW VIII and CSAW X,
in 2011 and 2013 respectively.
Maniatakos directs the Modern Microprocessor Architectures Lab (MoMAlab) at NYUAD and his research
focuses on homomorphically encrypted general-purpose computation, hardware security, industrial control
system security and heterogeneous microprocessor architectures. In 2014, he received a $400,000 grant from
Consolidated Edison, New York, for research on smart-grid cybersecurity. Maniatakos received his B.Sc. and
M.Sc. from the University of Piraeus, Greece and his M.Sc., M.Phil., and Ph.D. from Yale University.
Dr. Mohamed Baka is the information technology advisor to the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority
(ADWEA). Dr. Baka has more than 20 years of experience in the field of technology management and led
numerous ICT programs as part of the European Strategic Program on Research in Information Technology
(ESPRIT). Dr. Baka is a co-founder of the 'Abu-Dhabi ICT Summit', a major international conference that was
launched in 2004.
Mohammed Al-Saleh was born and grew up in Irbid city where he was also educated. In 2003, he got his
Bachelor degree from Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST) from the Computer Science
Dept. In August 2007, he got his Masters degree in Computer Science from New Mexico State University
(NMSU). Mohammed started his Ph.D. at NMSU but decided to transfer to the University of New Mexico
(UNM), where he got his Ph.D. under Dr. Crandall's supervision (July 2011). He currently serves as an
Assistant Professor at Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST).
Mohammed Arif Amin received his Bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering from Near East University,
1994. He received his Master in Information, Networks and Computer Security from New York Institute of
Technology, USA in 2007 and PhD in Computer Science from Universiti Technologi Malaysia in 2012. He
received his Master in Information Systems Management from HCT in 2013. He is currently working as an
Academic Coordinator for the Information Systems Security and Forensics program at the department of
Computer and Information Science at Higher Colleges of Technology; U. A. E. He has published various papers
on cloud computing, mobile could computing, security and wireless networks. He has also published chapters
on mobility, network security and cloud computing in various books.
Monther Aldwairi is an associate professor at the College of Technological Innovation at Zayed University
since the fall of 2014. He received his B.S. in electrical engineering from Jordan University of Science and
University (JUST) in 1998, and his M.S. and PhD in computer engineering from North Carolina State University
(NCSU), Raleigh, NC, in 2001 and 2006, respectively. Prior to joining ZU, he was an Assistant and then
Associate Professor of Computer Engineering at Jordan University of Science and Technology. Dr. Aldwairi’s
research interests are in network and web security, intrusion detection and forensics, cloud computing,
reconfigurable architectures, artificial intelligence and pattern matching.
Moustafa Youssef is the founder and director of the Wireless Research Center at Egypt-Japan University of
Science and Technology (E-JUST). His research interests include mobile wireless networks, mobile computing,
pervasive computing, and network security. He is an associate editor for the ACM TSAS, a previous area editor
of the ACM MC2R, and served on the organizing and technical committees of numerous prestigious
conferences. Prof. Youssef is the recipient of the 2003 University of Maryland Invention of the Year award, the
2010 TWAS-AAS-Microsoft Award for Young Scientists, the 2012 Egyptian State Award, the 2013 and 2014
COMESA Innovation Award, multiple Google Research Awards, the 2013 ACM SIGSpatial GIS Conference
Best Paper Award, among many others. He is also an ACM Distinguished Scientist.
Muataz Al Barwani is the director for High Performance Computing and Research Support at NYU Abu
Dhabi. He holds an MSc. in Physics from Brown University, USA (1995) and a PhD. in Theoretical Physics from
Bristol University, UK (2000), with over 20 research publications in the areas of computational physics,
mathematical physics and theoretical physics and over ten years. Over the past 9 years he has established and
managed HPC centers and facilities at two academic institutions and has over 15 years experience in Research
Computing Leadership, Management and Support.
Dr. Muhieddin Amer is a professor and head of Electrical Engineering and Computing division at Rochester
Institute of Technology, Dubai. He received his MSc and PhD degrees from the University of Texas at Arlington
and the BSc degree from the University of Baghdad, all in Electrical Engineering. Before joining RIT-Dubai, Dr.
Amer was an associate adjunct professor at the University of Texas at Arlington and Dallas and the University
of North Texas. Between 1995 and 2009, Dr. Amer was with Nortel Networks in Dallas, Texas, where he held
several technical leadership roles within the Wireless Network Engineering division. While with Nortel, Dr. Amer
made significant contributions related to the development of 2G, 3G and 4G cellular wireless products and
solutions that have influenced the company's technology evolution path and the product portfolio in addition to
changes to 3GPP LTE specifications. In his recent role as leader of 4G RF Design and Engineering Solutions,
Dr. Amer and his team used analytical and simulation methods to create performance characterization of LTE
MAC/PHY algorithms and advanced engineering solutions such as MIMO and SDMA.
Dr. Amer has championed dozens of research projects in wireless engineering, holds three patents in wireless
product development, and has published extensively in IEEE journals and wireless engineering forums. Dr.
Amer was recognized by Nortel as a subject matter expert in engineering conferences and forums and in
resolving customer's critical design and performance issues. He was recognized as top talent by the president
of Wireless Networks and was identified as a member of a very limited group of key employees in recognition of
the importance of retaining them with the company.
His research interest includes LTE systems, carrier synchronization for CDMA and OFDM systems, MIMO
systems, wireless propagation, interference control in cellular systems, and performance evaluation of PHY and
MAC algorithms for 4G broadband systems. Dr. Amer is a senior member of IEEE since 2003.
Nasir Memon is a Professor in the Computer Science and Engineering department in the Tandon School of
Engineering at NYU. His research interests include information security and forensics.
Mr. Nasser Salim has over 24 years of experience in IT and Telecommunication field. Joined Etisalat
(Emirates Telecommunication Corporation) in 1990. He has been responsible for many MEGA projects within
Etisalat such as introducing the first Internet in the region in 1994, building all IP networks for Etisalat in 1996,
state of the art Data Centers services in 1998, in charge and responsible for the design and rollout of FTTH
nationwide in 2005. Head of IT from 2010 until 2012. Currently he is the head of network technology strategy in
Etisalat Group. Some of the executive roles during his carrier are as follows:
• CNAR Telecom Board Member from 2005 to 2012 (Etisalat Telecom Company in Sudan)
• Technologia Board Member from 2009 to 2013 (Etisalat IT development Company in India)
• EBTIC (Etisalat and BT Innovation Center) from 2013 until now
• ICT Fund Board Member from 2009 to 2011
• Network Security Advisory Board Member for NYUAD (New York University – Abu Dhabi) since 2013
until now
• Etisalat Academy Advisory Board Member from 2013 until now
Nick Freris joined NYUAD as an assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2014. He also
serves as faculty in CRISSP (Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Security and Privacy), since 2015. He
received the Diploma in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens
(NTUA), Greece in 2005 and the M.S. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering, the M.S. degree in
Mathematics, and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering all from the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign in 2007, 2008, and 2010, respectively.
His research lies in cyberphysical systems. For more details check here.
Dr. Freris has published in several top-tier journals and conferences on Electrical Engineering, Computer
Science and Applied Mathematics, held by IEEE, ACM and SIAM. His research was recognized with two IBM
invention achievement awards, a Vodafone fellowship and the Gerondelis foundation award.
Previously, Dr. Freris was a senior researcher in the School of Computer and Communication Sciences at
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, where he was the project manager of a longstanding collaboration with Qualcomm, San Diego, conducting research on sparse sampling and wireless
sensor networks, as well as supervising several M.S. and Ph.D. students. From 2010-2012, he was a
postdoctoral researcher in IBM Research – Zurich, Switzerland, where he was involved in a 5-year ERC project
on Big Data, as well as the IBM Operations Research Group. During his graduate years, he also worked as an
intern in Deutsche Telekom and Xerox Research labs. Dr. Freris is a member of IEEE, SIAM and ACM.
https://wp.nyu.edu/cpslab/people/freris/
Nourah Al Suwaidi works at the National Electronic Security Authority.
Ozgur Sinanoglu is an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at New York University Abu
Dhabi. He earned his B.S. degrees, one in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and one in Computer
Engineering, both from Bogazici University, Turkey in 1999. He obtained his MS and PhD in Computer Science
and Engineering from University of California San Diego in 2001 and 2004, respectively. He has industry
experience at TI, IBM and Qualcomm, and has been with NYU Abu Dhabi since 2010. During his PhD, he won
the IBM PhD fellowship award twice. He is also the recipient of the best paper awards at IEEE VLSI Test
Symposium 2011 and ACM Conference on Computer and Communication Security 2013.
Prof. Sinanoglu’s research interests include design-for-test, design-for-security and design-for-trust for VLSI
circuits, where he has more than 140 conference and journal papers, and 15 issued and pending US
Patents. Sinanoglu has given more than a dozen tutorials on hardware security and trust in leading CAD and
test conferences, such as DAC, DATE, ITC, VTS, ETS, ICCD, ISQED, etc. He is serving as track/topic chair or
technical program committee member in about 15 conferences, and as (guest) associate editor for IEEE TCAD,
ACM JETC, Elsevier MEJ, JETTA, and IET CDT journals.
Prof. Sinanoglu is the director of the Design-for-Excellence Lab at NYU Abu Dhabi. His recent research in
hardware security and trust is being funded by US National Science Foundation, US Department of Defense,
Semiconductor Research Corporation, and Mubadala Technology.
Prof. Qutaibah Malluhi is the Director of the KINDI Lab for Computing Research at Qatar University. He
served as the Head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Qatar University between 2006
and 2012. He was a professor at Jackson State University and a research faculty at Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory. Dr. Malluhi was the co-founder and CTO of Data Reliability Inc. He served as a consultant
for several telecommunication companies where he built networks, designed distributed applications and
developed telecommunication management software. Prof. Malluhi has received several honors and awards
including the QU research award, the JSU Technology Transfer award, the Mississippi MURA, and the JSU
faculty Excellence award. He has received MS and PhD degrees in computer science from the University of
Louisiana, Lafayette, and BS and MS degrees in Computer Engineering from KFUPM, Saudi Arabia.
Ramesh Karri is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Tandon School of Engineering, New
York University. He has a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering, from the University of California at San
Diego. His research interests include trustworthy ICs and processors; High assurance nanoscale IC
architectures and systems; VLSI Design and Test; Interaction between security and reliability.
He has over 200 journal and conference publications in these areas. These include tutorial articles in IEEE
Computer and Proceedings of IEEE on Trustworthy Hardware. His groups work on hardware cybersecurity
was nominated for best paper awards (ICCD 2015, DFTS 2015) and received awards at ACM Computer and
Communication Security (CCS 2013, DFTS 2013, VLSI Design 2012) and at other competitions (ACM Student
Research Competition at DAC 2012, ICCAD 2013, DAC 2014, and the Grand Finals 2013).
He was the recipient of the Humboldt Fellowship and the National Science Foundation CAREER Award. He is
the area director for cyber security of the NY State Center for Advanced Telecommunications Technologies at
NYU-Poly; Co-founded the Center for research in interdisciplinary studies in security and privacy -CRISSP
(http://crissp.poly.edu/), co-founded the Trust-Hub (http://trust-hub.org/) and organizes the annual red team blue
team event at NYU, the Embedded Security Challenge (http://www.poly.edu/csaw2014/csaw-embedded).
He cofounded the IEEE/ACM Symposium on Nanoscale Architectures (NANOARCH). He served as program
and general chair of several conferences including IEEE International Conference on Computer Design (ICCD),
IEEE Symposium on Hardware Oriented Security and Trust (HOST), IEEE Symposium on Defect and Fault
Tolerant Nano VLSI Systems (DFTS) NANOARCH, RFIDSEC 2015 and WISEC 2015. He serves on several
program committees.
He was the Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security (2010-2014), IEEE
Transactions on CAD (2014-present), ACM Journal of Emerging Computing Technologies (2007-present), ACM
Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems (2014-present), IEEE Access (2015-present), IEEE
Transactions on Emerging Technologies in Computing (2015-present) and IEEE Design and Test (2015present). He is an IEEE Computer Society Distinguished Visitor (2013-present). He is on the Executive
Committee of IEEE/ACM Design Automation Conference leading the Security@DAC initiative (2014-.)
He has organized/delivered invited tutorials on Hardware Security and Trust (VLSI Test Symposium 2012,
2014, International Conference on Computer Design 2012, IEEE North Atlantic Test Workshop 2013, Design
Automation and Test in Europe 2013, IEEE International Test Conference 2014, IEEE/ACM Design Automation
Conference 2014, and IEEE LATW 2014). He is an IEEE Computer Society Distinguished visitor (2012-2014).
Dr. Ranendra Narayan Saha is Shri B K Birla & Shrimati Sarala Birla Chair Professor (Senior Professor of
Pharmacy) and Director of BITS Pilani Dubai Campus. In 2011 he has been awarded Shri B. K. Birla and
Shrimati Sarala Birla Chair Professorship at BITS Pilani for contributions in teaching and research. He has vast
experience in the field of Pharmacy especially in Pharmaceutics, novel drug delivery systems and
Pharmacokinetics. He received “Pharmacy Professional of the Year 2013” Award given by Indian Association of
Pharmaceutical Scientists and Technologists. He is also recipient of “The Best Pharmacy Teacher Award” for
the year 2005, awarded by Association of Pharmaceuticals Teachers if India (APTI), in recognition of his
contribution in teaching and research in the field of Pharmacy.
He has more than 33 years of teaching, research and administrative experience. He is also a Senate and
Research Board Member of BITS, Pilani. Has hold several administrative position before being appointed
Director of BITS Pilani Dubai Campus. He was Head, Dept of Phramcy, In-charge of Doctoral Programme,
Dean of Faculty, Dean of Educational Development Division, Deputy Director (Administration) of BITS Pilani,
Pilani Campus, Deputy Director (Research and Educational Development) of BITS Pilani (university) and
driving research agendas for all 4 campuses of BITS Pilani.
He has successfully completed several projects funded by industries and government funding agencies. He has
transferred 5 product technologies to Pharma industries. One controlled release product designed by Dr. Saha
has been granted Indian Patent and commercialized and launched to Indian market from 2005 by Ipca
Laboratories limited, Mumbai by the name Zerodol CR and Movon CR. Presently he is working on projects
sponsored by Industries and Government agencies.
He has already guided 16 doctoral students and is currently supervising 8 doctoral candidates. He has guided
about 100 M.Pharm Dissertation Projects and many project students in various laboratory oriented, study
oriented, and special projects in the undergraduate and post graduate level.
He is on advisory board and selection committee member of a number of Universities in India and abroad. He
has published more than 90 papers in international, national journals and presented more than 100 papers in
Conferences/ Seminars/ Symposiums. He has also delivered several invited lectures at Seminars and
Conferences, Universities in India and abroad.
He has visited abroad on several occasions on invitation from universities and associations to deliver lectures.
He has organized several national and international conferences. He organized one International Symposium
on Advances in Drug Delivery Systems at Damascus, Syria on invitation from ASST (Arab Societies of Science
and Technology, Syria).
He is also member of many scientific associations and societies like Association of Pharmaceutical Teachers of
India (APTI); Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA); Indian Society of Technical Education (ISTE); Controlled
Release Society Inc., USA; American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS), USA; American
Chemical Society, USA; Controlled Release Society, Indian Chapter.
Ronnie Rahman is the Director of Critical Infrastructure Protection for Honeywell in the Middle East.
Honeywell are well known for their expertise and insight into creating and deploying security and protection
solutions across all critical operational environments.
UAE based for the last 6 years, Ronnie has worked across the middle east in both strategy and security,
gaining an in depth knowledge and understanding of the needs of critical infrastructure whilst working with the
region’s government, multi modal transportation providers, utilities, telecommunications, education, police and
civil defense entities.
Prior to arriving in the region he worked extensively within the UK government advising upon and delivering
major critical infrastructure security projects.
His areas of expertise are cyber security, secure
communications, surveillance and physical security. He also has a technical background which developed in
network architecture and consultancy.
Ronnie has a Masters in International Security from Macquarie University, Australia and has particular interest
in the fields of cyber security, insider attack, the protection of critical infrastructure and related government
policy and strategy.
Saif Al Nuaimi is currently the Chief of Regulatory and Strategic Affairs at the National Electronic Security
Authority of the United Arab Emirates, with a mandate to issue and enforce Information Security Policies and
Standards to government and critical entities within the nation.
Samer Madanat, Dean of NYUAD’s Engineering Division, is the Xenel Distinguished Professor of Engineering,
former Chair of the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and former Director of the Institute of
Transportation Studies at the University of California at Berkeley.
He received a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from the University of Jordan in 1986, and a M.S and Ph.D. in
Transportation Systems from MIT in 1988 and 1991, respectively. Madanat’s research and teaching interests
are in the area of Transportation Infrastructure Management, with an emphasis on modeling facility
performance, the development of optimal management policies under uncertainty, and developing solutions for
improving the sustainability of transportation systems.
From 2001 to 2011, Madanat served as the Editor-in-Chief of the ASCE Journal of Infrastructure Systems. He
is currently Associate Editor of the European Journal of Transportation and Logistics, and an editorial board
member of Transportation Research C, Transportation Research D, and Computer-Aided Civil and
Infrastructure Systems. He serves on several advisory committees, including for the National Research Council,
and has served as external reviewer of Civil Engineering departments at MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, and
Tongji University. Several of his former students and post-doctoral researchers are currently faculty members at
universities in the US and around the world.
Sandeep Shukla serves as the Co-PI, Cyber Security Center, Professor Department of Computer Science and
Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India.
Dr. Saqib Ali is an associate professor at Sultan Qaboos University, Sultanate of Oman. He has over 15 years
of experience in industry, teaching, research and consulting in academia and business in Asia, Australia and
the Middle East. He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. qualifications from Australia. His research interests include
Information Systems Security, IT Audit and Control, and Cyber Security for Cyber Physical System.
Mr. Shadi Akour is head of IT at Tamkeen, a subsidiary of the Executive Affairs Authority (EAA). He is tasked
with overseeing all IT operations within Tamkeen, identifying business IT requirements, and offering appropriate
solutions to support internal processes. He is also responsible for preparing long-term strategic and short-term
operational plans for the IT functions of the New York University Abu Dhabi project. He has over 10 years of
experience in IT, with a proven record of developing and supporting successful technology infrastructure
initiatives and solutions and integrating a wide range of applications and technologies. He has previously
worked at North Star Aviation as ICT director and at Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) as ICT
infrastructure specialist.
Dr. Sobeeh Almukhaizim is the Director General of the National Center for Education Development (NCED) in
Kuwait, and a member in the Board of Trustees of the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR). He
previously held the position of Dean of Admission & Registration in Kuwait University, and was an Associate
Professor in the Computer Engineering department. He received a PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from
Yale University in 2007.
Sri Parameswaran is a Professor in the School of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of New
South Wales. He also serves as the Postgraduate Research and Scholarships coordinator at the same school.
Prof. Parameswaran received his B. Eng. Degree from Monash University and his Ph.D. from the University of
Queensland in Australia. He has held visiting appointments at University of California, Kyushu University and
Australian National University. Sri Parameswaran is the incoming Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Embedded
Systems Letters.
Sultan Omran Al Owais serves as the Information and Cyber Security Director for Emirates Nuclear Energy
Corporation in the UAE.
Taha Sencar serves as an Associate Professor of TOBB at TOBB University Ankara in Turkey.
Thomas Martin has 15 years experience in Information Security Research. His research interests include:
Cryptography, Multi-party communications, Digital Rights Management, Penetration Testing, and Computer
Forensics. At Khalifa University, he helped established the M.Sc. in Information Security, developing courses
on Cryptography, Forensics, and Penetration Testing. He has supervised several research students, at Masters
and Ph.D. levels, and has authored many published papers.