Dr Kettani’s Research Profile
Driss Kettani holds an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. degrees from the computer Science Department
of Laval University, Canada. He also holds a Certificate in Business Administration from
the Business School of the same University and a Certificate in Geomatics from the
Environmental System and Research Institute (ESRI) Montréal.
After his Master, he worked in a Research and Development project (OCTOPUS, 4
millions Can$) as a Research Professional for two years. This project aimed at designing
and building an embedded system to intelligently assist truck drivers in terms of
guidance, optimal delivery itinerary, mechanical state checking, paperless management,
EDI, etc. His main task was to design and implement the geographical information
system that is the heart of the whole system. During this project, Driss Kettani owned a
good expertise in Geographical Information System (theory, techniques and tools) and in
Artificial Intelligence applied to the transport domain (Dynamic planing; intelligent
Diagnosing, Natural language processing, intelligent interfaces, etc.). He has built a
software that visualises in real time a truck fleet in a given territory and allows direct
interactions with any member of the fleet by a simple mouse click. In term of technology
enablers, he used GIS software, GPS infrastructure, Mobile phones, FM radio waves and
embedded computers. This system is being used now in Canada by at least 2 big transport
companies (Cabano transport, Thibodeaut Transport )
Driss Kettani started his Ph.D. on 1996. It was about the design and implementation of an
efficient spatio-temporal system that is based on qualitative premises. At the end of his
Ph.D. on 1999, Driss Kettani has been hired by the Canadian Department of Defence and
worked for two years as a Defence Scientist. He led two major projects:
1. Intelligent Situation Assessment and in Data Fusion:
Data Fusion DF process is required within any application where a large amount
of data is to be collected and processed as in military intelligence gathering,
command and control, weather prediction applications. Data are remotely sensed
by different techniques (radar, sonar, satellite, etc.). Today, the automation of
such a process is becoming more and more crucial, especially in military
applications for different reasons (the ever-increasing difficulty to identify and
track targets, permanent technological improvement, Situations and Threats are
increasingly complex, the distributed character of sensed data, etc.). In general,
the DF process can be divided into two processing levels: at the first level, we
deal with numerical processes and products (linear and non-linear estimation
techniques, pattern recognition, and statistical operations). At the second we must
perform a Situation and Threat Assessment (STA) that are more complex and
more abstract. Since almost all research in DF focus on the first level, there is a
misunderstanding of the STA processes and a real need to study it and to
elaborate a common view of it. This is why I started a research that aims at
elaborating a formal model of STA. This model is based on OODA (Observe,
Orient, Decide, Act) approach and is of a cognitive savour. This model has been
formally described in a Defence technical report and is I have implemented an
advanced prototype of it (QSS) that is now being tested in Defence Research
Establishment Valcartier (DREV), Canada.
2. Intelligent Search and Rescue:
A typical example of using spatial reasoning is that of the delimitation of the
search area of a missing object (a plane for example). Generally, the controller
uses a map to manually delimit the extent of the search area according to
predefined rules. He/She studies thereafter the topology of the terrain and the
nature of the spatial objects it contains in order to possibly extend the search area
to include other landmarks such as highways, ocean coasts or some lakes near the
initial search area. In order to find the craft1 in distress, the controller makes
some hypotheses and tries to validate them by confronting them with information
received from various sources (the rescue team conducting the search in the field,
information from the pilot's relatives, information from the control tower, from
weather agencies, etc.) and spatial constraints that he/she observes on the map.
On September 2000, Driss Kettani joined Alakhawayn University in Ifrane as an assistant
professor. Further to his teaching duties, he is leading two major projects:
1. An e-Tourism project funded by Alakhawayn and CadTech, a Moroccan company
specialized in GIS and GPS: this project aims at developing a set of software
tools to render a variety of services such as guidance, landmarks identification,
Way finding, SOS support, tracking, to tourists in big cities and remote regions of
Morocco. The projects contains four main tools TID (Tourist Information
Desktop), RTT (Remote Tourist Tracking), OTID (Online Tourist Information
Desktop) and Geo-GSM.
2. An e-Government project funded by the British Government, the city of EL-Hajeb
and the Canadian IDRC: this a Pilot E-Government project aunched in the eTechnology lab on fall 2002. It is meant to be the reference in Morocco for
local/national governments and to demonstrate the feasibility of e-Government in
Morocco with clear guidelines and benchmarks. The goal of the project is to
develop a pilot E-Government system for the city of Ifrane in Morocco that will
allow citizens to request and receive governmental services in an easy and
efficient way. It will significantly contribute in: simplifying procedures to request
and receive services, speeding up the delays of requesting and receiving services,
achieving an equal opportunity for processing requests and delivering services,
Increasing transparency/Visibility of administrative procedures, allowing online
access to general information about Ifrane city regarding a variety of domains
(tourism, economy, history, architecture, weather, etc.) and making an efficient
use of the government human resources by simplifying/reorganizing tasks.
Driss Kettani has also supervised a number of master projects/thesis both in Laval
University and in Alakhawayn University in Ifrane. He has published many papers in
international journals and in conferences.
1
It could be a craft or any other military resource that is reported in distress.