WFSF Middle East and North Africa Chapter

Dr. Hussein received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering in 2005 from Jordan University of Science and Technology, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from University of Central Florida in 2008 and 2011, respectively.  
Dr. Hussein is an Energy Conversion and Storage expert with over eight years of combined experience in research, teaching and industry. He is currently an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia. He is also a Research Associate with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Florida Solar Energy Center at the University of Central Florida, Orlando, USA. He has been awarded multiple Research Excellence awards, successfully competed for a number of research grants totaling around $0.4 M and published over 50 papers in leading refereed journals and conference proceedings.
Dr. Hussein is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and a member of Jordanian Engineers Association (JEA).

Dr. Alexander Soldat received his Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and his research has focused on various aspects of the decision making process. Dr. Soldat’s area of expertise extends from social and applied psychology to research design and statistics.

Dr. Amer Tabbara is a Lebanese qualified lawyer and academic specialized in commercial law with a focus on construction law, commercial Law, AI Law and dispute resolution. "I am the winner of the LexisNexis Middle East Author Award 2019. My professional and academic experience is grounded in a theoretical and practical understanding of many aspects of construction law, international litigation and arbitration and investment arbitration. I am fully trilingual and I have gained a mixture of civil and common-law culture through my education in Lebanon, France and the United Kingdom."

Dr. Aparna Das is a physicochemist with extensive international research and teaching experiences. Dr. Das obtained her Ph.D. degree in material science/nanophysics from Joseph Fourier University based upon the work on semiconductor quantum dots for Opto-chemical sensor application at Commissariat à l'énergieatomique (CEA), France. Dr. Das’s postdoctoral experiences include working as a scientist at the California Nano Systems Institute and Electric Engineering Department, University of California, Los Angeles, USA, and as an experienced researcher at the Nanowiring-Marie Curie Initial Training Network, Georg August Universität Göttingen, Germany. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor at Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University, Saudi Arabia. She is the author of a book and she had written several book chapters published by internationally reputed publishers. She is also the author of many publications.
Dr. Das’s research interests include Computer-assisted Physico-chemical methods, interdisciplinary science (biology, chemistry, and physics) for drug development, computer-aided drug design, microwave applications, III-Nitride based chemical sensors, solar cells, optoelectronic devices, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and Spectroscopy, thin layers and nanostructures (Quantum wells, quantum dots, nanowires).

Bimal Krishna Banik conducted postdoctoral research at Case Western Reserve University, USA and Stevens Institute of Technology, USA. Professor Banik was a Tenured Full Professor and First President’s Endowed Professor at the University of Texas and the Vice President of Research & Education Development of Community Health Systems of South Texas for many years. At present, Dr. Banik is a Professor of the Deanship of Research Development & College of Natural Sciences and Human Studies at the Prince Mohammed Bin Fahd University in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Professor Banik has conducted chemical and medicinal research on cancers; bacterial infections; catalytic reactions; green & sustainable approaches; and microwave-induced exploratory processes. As the Principal Investigator, he has been awarded over seven million USD grants from several funding societies including Kleberg Foundation of Texas, US NIH and US NCI. Importantly, he has published more than 452 peer-reviewed papers. Moreover, he has approximately five hundred presentation abstracts. His research contribution and recognition has resulted in media exposure approximately 200 times. He has presided over 20 research sessions at the American Chemical Society National Meetings and over 2 dozen conferences at the State and International level, including 1 at the Nobel Prize celebration in Germany. In the capacity of chair at these conferences, he has introduced more than 300 speakers.  He is a reviewer of 93, editorial board member of 28, editor-in-chief of 12, founder of 4, associate editor of 4 and guest editor of 6 international journals. He has recruited approximately 200 Ph. D. level associate editors, regional editors and editorial board members from different countries. He has served as an examiner of US NSF, US NCI, ACS and International grant applications; reviewer of promotion & tenure of faculty members of national and international universities; examiner of doctoral theses; and panel member of NSF and NCI/NIH grant study sections. Over the years, he has served as the chair or member of more than 100 scientific committees.
Professor Banik has taught B. S. and M. S. students in class in USA universities and Saudi Arabian universities for the past many years. His He has mentored over 200 students, 20 postdoctoral fellows, 7 Ph. D. level research scientists and advising 21 university faculty members in research.  Dr. Banik has acted as the advisor of two major societies that had more than thousand young students.
Professor Banik has received Indian Chemical Society Life Time Achievement Award; Mahatma Gandhi Pravasi Samman medal from UK Parliament; Indian Chemical Society’s Professor P. K. Bose endowment medal; Dr. M. N. Ghosh gold medal; Best advisor award in USA by the National Society of Collegiate Scholars; American Chemical Society Member Service award; Best researcher award by the University of Texas-Pan American; and chosen as the best mentor by the University of Texas-Pan American.

Dr. Federico Fusco is an Italian national, working as Assistant Professor of Law in the College of Law at PMU, KSA.
He received his Master degree in Law from University of Napoli Federico II, Italy, in 2010, a post-master specialization degree in EU Law from the same university in 2011, and his PhD. in Law and Economics from the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa and Florence, Italy, in 2015.
In addition, he has passed the bar exam in Italy and he has been working as a lawyer from 2010 to 2019, becoming partner of an Italian law firm.
Dr. Fusco has several years of experience in teaching, research and curriculum development at graduate and undergraduate levels. From 2017 to 2019, he has worked as a post doc in business law at the EQUIS accredited School of Economics and Management of Lund University, Sweden. In this context, he has completed several pedagogical courses, strengthening his abilities as a teacher.
In his career, Dr. Fusco has thought law related subjects in numerous courses, from bachelor to master and post-master levels in both Italian and Swedish universities.
His research interests include labour law, privacy law, comparative law, gig economy and industrial relations. Dr. Fusco is the author of a wide number of scientific publications in refereed journals and international conference proceedings. In 2018, he has created an international study group, which organizes university professors, ILO officers and lawyers from Brazil, Cambodia, Italy, South Africa and Sweden and has already presented his findings during two world labour law conferences.
Dr. Fusco speaks Italian (native speaker), English and French (proficiency level) and Spanish and Swedish (elementary).

Ghazanfar Latif is research coordinator (Deanship of Graduate Studies and Research) and teaching for College of Computer Engineering and Sciences at Prince Mohammad bin Fahd University, Saudi Arabia. He holds Ph.D. degree from University of Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia. He earned his MS degree in Computer Science from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia in 2014 and BS degree in Computer Science from FAST National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences in 2010 by remaining in Dean’s honor list. Throughout his educational carrier, he got a number of achievements like full scholarship for FSc, BS-CS and MS-CS. He is very active researcher in the field of Deep Learning, Image Processing, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Cloud Computing and Internet of Things. He had over 50 publications since 2017.

Education
Ph. D., Oxford University, UK
MSc, ICTP, Trieste, Italy
BSc, University of Khartoum, Sudan

Work places
Postdoc, University of Groningen, Netherlands
Research Associate, University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA
Ass. Prof., Hamilton College, NY, USA
Ass. Prof., Brock University, Canada

Hiren K Mewada is Assistant Research Professor at Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University, Al Khobar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and held other previous position as Associate Professor in Electronics Engineering Department at Charotar University of Science and Technology, Gujarat, India. He has more than 18 years of academic and research experience.
Hiren has completed his Ph. D. and Master’s degrees in Electronics Engineering at S.V. National Institute of Technology – Surat, Gujarat, India. His research interest lies in the area of Signal/Image Processing ranging from Software simulation to hardware implementation including FPGA and ARM processor based design.  He has completed many funding projects sponsored by Government of India and Government of Gujarat. He has focused on implementation of signal processing and Image segmentation algorithms using FPGA or ARM cortex A8 processor; and Video analysis and summarization applications. He is a life member of IETE and ISTE.

He has published more than 60 papers, including peer reviewed international journals and conferences. He supervised five Ph.D. students. He has guided more than 33 post graduates students and 40 under graduates students.
He has been invited as an expert in various institutes. He has served as reviewer in various international journals, including IET Signal Processing, IET-Computer Vision, Applied Mathematics and Information Science Journal, circuit word. He had also served as a reviewer in national conferences held at Nirma University, S R Patel Engineering College and Parul University. He has organized various workshops in the field of Image Processing, Embedded System and LaTex. Hiren has taught various subjects related to Embedded System design, Digital Image Processing and Digital Communication at post graduates level and under graduates level.

Research Interest

• FPGA based Signal Processing                      
• Image Processing and Machine Learning
• Digital Communication         
• Embedded System Design

Google Scholar profile URL
Orcid ID

Prof. Izharul Haq has been working in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Social services since 1991 straight after completing his Ph.D.
His first major project was at King’s College, University of London. The project was called HIPPS (Holographical Interconnected Parallel Processing Systems). The aim of the project was to develop a hardware AI device for feature extraction and face recognition using optical reconfigurable weights using SLM (Spatial Light Modulators) and CGH (Computer Generated Holograms). Prof. Izharul Haq worked on number of AI related projects with real-life applications such as speech recognition, data clustering, optimization techniques, robotics, fluid dynamics. He was also the founder of a popular newsletter on Neural Networks at king’s College London which had a wide circulation in many universities in the UK.
Recently he was working with the UNDP as a curriculum developer for the underprivileged. Prof. Haq developed a unique curriculum that is currently being used to ensure equity, quality and accountability in education. The curriculum was based on various types of pedagogies that could be implemented in the event of natural or manmade crisis. Prof. Haq is very passionate about providing education support for poor and destitute children so that they can improve their future. He is in particularly interested in helping with the UNSDG 4 for the Out-of-school-children (OOSC) worldwide. Recently he has published 4 papers on OOSC.
In 2014, Prof. Haq invented the ROFSET (Real-time Objective Feedback System for Effecting Teaching) Framework. The ROFSET Framework extensively uses Deep learning, Machine Learning and AI in data analysis and inferences from which reports can be generated automatically. He has developed a number of prototype applications based on the ROFSET Framework including PowerTeach, GBL (Group Based Learning), SME (Subject Matter Expert) that he hopes to bring to the market after trial runs. His recent publications are given below. He has over 40 publications. He has been teaching Physics, Computer Science and Mathematics since 1991.
Prof. Haq holds a Ph.D. in Physics (Computational) from the University of Cambridge, UK, a M.Sc. in Physics from Imperial College, university of London and a B.Sc. in Theoretical Physics also from University of London. Prof. Haq has held several senior positions including, Head of department, Dean of College, Head of Research, Head of Accreditation, University President. He has worked in KSA, UK, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, China, Pakistan, Canada.

Recent Selected Publications

https://ijaedu.ocerintjournals.org/issue16/abstracts/a13-214.html
https://ijaedu.ocerintjournals.org/issue16/abstracts/a14-238.html
https://www.ocerints.org/adved19_e-publication/abstracts/a71.html
https://icrpe.aiou.edu.pk/

A young and active researcher, who has been a recipient of the PMFCFS-WFSF First Futures Research Grant. She maintains a keen interest in issues related to antibiotics in the community of Saudi Arabia, such as antibiotic misuse and antibiotic resistance. Her current and major research interest focuses on the occurrence and fate of antibiotics in the environment with a particular concern in wastewater aiming to find innovative and sustainable wastewater treatment solutions for the removal of antibiotics as an emerging contaminant.

Maura A. E. Pilotti is a cognitive psychologist whose research interests include learning and memory processes across the lifespan. Currently, her research focuses on the interrelations of memory, language, and emotion. She received her Ph.D. in cognitive psychology at the City University of New York (USA).

"I have received my MS & Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from INSA de Lyon, France. I have diversified experience of Industrial Production, R & D and Academia which spans over 15 Years. My research mainly encompasses Machining Modeling & Simulation area. I also keep research interests in FEM, Materials Behavior Modeling, Manufacturing Processes Modeling, Tribology and Micro Machining. "

Dr. Patricia Marybelle Davies received her Doctorate from the University of Manchester in the UK. Her area of specialization is Educational Technology. Prior to joining PMU, she was a Senior Lecturer in Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Wolverhampton in the UK. Between 2002 and 2014 she headed the Computer Science department at ACS Cobham, an American curriculum college in southeast England. Davies’ research interests include developing Educational Technology (ED Tech) applications. She collaborates with researchers at Penn State University in Pennsylvania and Columbia University in New York on building Ed Tech applications using natural language processing. In collaboration with a technology-industry partner in the UK, she was recently awarded funding through the PMFCFS–WFSF First Futures Research grant to develop an educational augmented reality simulation using KSA Open-Data. See Full Bio...

Research Interests

• Educational data mining using machine learning algorithms
• Natural language processing, with a focus on semantics and pragmatics
• Building numerical simulations using open source and open data
• Educational technology leadership, policy and management

"Graciously accomplishing two significant achievements, my name is Roxane Mallouhy and I’ve attained two master degrees during my college years; telecommunication engineering degree from my former school Antonin University in Lebanon, followed by mobile & distributed computing degree from Franche-Compté university in France; my latter degree. This journey opened a door to join PMU College of computer engineering and science in 2016 until present days, which consistently pushes me to challenge myself and prove my leadership will, hard-working skills and loyalty for my job. "

Samar Dernayka has joined PMU from 5 years as a Lecturer in the Core College. She is teaching various courses of Math and Physics and supervising Engineering Lab Sessions. She has a Bachelor in Civil Engineering and Master of Engineering Science from Western University, Canada. She has a wide experience in the industry as she previously worked for many Consultancy offices. Her main interests are the building Envelope, Wind Engineering, Building Modeling and Renewable Energy.

Dr. Shaili Vadera, with specialization in Economics, Marketing & Entrepreneurship has over 14 years of teaching experience including Doctoral, Post-Graduate & Under-Graduate Programmes. She was awarded Ph. D in Economics from University of Lucknow, India in 2012. She has also completed Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management with specialization in Marketing & Sales.  Dr. Shaili have number of publications in International peer reviewed journals as well as articles in magazines. Her researcher areas include Growth prospects of Millennial entrepreneurship, women entrepreneurship, Reverse Innovation in Emerging Economies, Digital Marketing, Eco-tourism, Environment and Sustainability including Plastic Replacement Alternatives.
Passionate as an entrepreneurship educator, she was the Head of Entrepreneurship Cell in her previous organization where she conducted Mentoring and Design Thinking workshops with a focus on building entrepreneurial spirit among aspiring student entrepreneurs. Her focus is to demonstrate academic excellence with quality research collaborations to enable holistic development of students that effectively prepares global leaders.

Tasneem Alsaati is a management, marketing and communications individual with over 10 years of expertise in for-profit and ‎non-profit organizations. Visiting over 25 countries worldwide, she is culturally diverse and is keen on finding the valuable cultural connections and global interests, as she believes the sustainability and prosperity of this earth relies on the efforts of its citizens, individually and at a personal level.
Currently, Tasneem is a Lecturer at the College of Business Administration, Prince Mohammed bin Fahd University, Saudi Arabia. “I intend to be an empowering professor and to deliver the finest quality of education and integrated market knowledge to contribute in developing the next generation of future workforce and leaders” says Tasneem.
Tasneem earned her Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University. She continued her graduate education in the U.S. and earned her Master’s degree in Business Administration in 2013 from St. Mary’s University of San Antonio, Texas. In 2014, Tasneem began her Ph.D. in International Education and Entrepreneurship at the University of the Incarnate Word of San Antonio, Texas. During her Ph.D., she presented her dissertation proposal titled “Cultural Affiliation, Customer Service and Independently Owned Ethnic Restaurants”.
Tasneem’s recent publication for the Sustainability Journal, 2020 and her ongoing papers merely focuses on sustainability and sustainability education. Her research interests include but not limited to the topics of: Entrepreneurship, Sustainability, Marketing, International Business, Business Education, Cultural Affiliations, Management, Human Resources Management, Consumer Behavior, Organizational Behavior and Culture, E- Commerce and Advertising.

Thomas F. Connolly is Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences at Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University. He is the author of three books: George Jean Nathan and the Making of Modern American Drama Criticism; Genus Envy: Nationalities, Identities, and the Performing Body of Work; and British Aisles: Studies in English and Irish Drama; and dozens of articles. He serves on the editorial boards of several scholarly journals. He has been a consultant and commentator for the BBC, CBS, PBS, NPR, and The New Yorker. Professor Connolly has also worked in journalism, state government, and for the Department of State’s United States Information Service. A two-time Fulbright Senior Scholar, Dr. Connolly is the recipient of the Parliamentary Medal of the Czech Republic, awarded for “the educational improvement of the nation.”
In 2020 he was awarded a Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd Center for Futuristic Studies (PMFCFS) and World Futures Studies Federation (WFSF) grant for his project: “The Future of the Legacy of Anti-Technology Intellectualism.”

Prof. Dr. Waqar Khan is working as a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University, KSA. Dr. Khan received his B.E. degree from NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan, in 1982, an M.E. degree from the Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, in 1996, and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada, in 2004. Dr. Khan has several years of experience in teaching, research, and curriculum development at graduate and undergraduate levels. His research interests include nanofluids, energy, thermal power plants, modeling, and optimization of forced convection heat transfer using entropy generation minimization and several Metaheuristic Algorithms. Dr. Khan has published more than 250 scientific papers in refereed journals and international conferences.