Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019
H.H. Sheikh Sabah H.H. Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah Amir of the State of Kuwait Crown Prince of the State of Kuwait The Report This Annual Report summarizes Kuwait College of Science and Technology’s (KCST’s) progress and achievements in the Academic Year 2018-2019, our third year in operation. It reviews our activities and highlights some of the key mile- stones reached. It outlines our priorities for 2019-2020. Contents Page Board of Trustees 7 KCST Management 9 Message from the President 10 Our Vision and Mission 11 KCST Board of Trustees Achievement in the year 2018-19 12 KCST Operations Committee 14 University goals for the Academic Year 2019-20 15 Our Students • Admissions Policies and Procedures 22 • Foundation Program 23 • Admissions and Registration statistics 24 • PAAET Diploma Holders and Transfer Students 29 • Student Funding, Sponsorships and Scholarships 31 • Special Needs Students 32
Our Faculty • KCST Faculty Research Projects and Scientific Publications 38 • Faculty Recruitment 2018-19 48 • Faculty Development 50 • Faculty Department 52 • Department of Computer Science and Engineering 52 • Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering 53 • Department of Basic Sciences and Mathematics 54 • Department of Languages, Social Sciences and Business Studies 55 Our Programs: Evaluation and Modifications
• Academic Programs 58 • Role of English Language and Management teaching at KCST 59 • Student Assessment and Progress 59 • Academic Awards 61 • Grades and GPA for 2018-19 –statistics 61 • Grades for Foundation program –statistics 64 • Academic Programs Reviews and Proposed Modifications 65 • Proposed change to current Programs 65 • Course and Faculty Evaluation 66 Quality Control, Student Outcome and Accreditation • Program Quality Assurance and Continuous Improvement 68 • Student Outcomes Assessment 69 • Assessment Strategy (COs, PIs and SOs) 71 • Course Level Assessment 73 • Programs ABET Accreditation 77 • KCST 18-month Accreditation Plan 78 Student Life • Competitions, Workshops, Seminars and Projects 80 • Youth Empowerment Society (YES) 83 • The Arts Club 84 • Community and Social Responsibility 86 Community Engagement and Collaboration • Community Engagement 88 • KCST Objectives and Strategies for Collaboration 88 University Support Departments and Units • Student Affairs and Registration Department 92 • Information Technology (IT) Department 97 • Human Resources (HR) Department 102 • Marketing and Public Relations(PR) Department 104 • Finance Department 106 • Campus Management Unit 106 Organizational Structure • KCST Management Organizational Structure 108 • Office of the President 109 • Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science 110 • Department of Languages, Social Sciences and Business Studies 111 • Support Departments 113 • Committees 115 Appendix • CVs of Board of Trustees 118 • CVs of KCST Management 124 • CVs of Faculty Members 130
6 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Mr. Abdlatif Yousuf Al-Hamad (Chairman) Former Minister of Finance Chairman of Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development
Mr. Minoo Framroze Patel (Vice-Chairman) Ms. Nabeela Al Mulla CFO of Al Mulla Group Kuwait Former Ambassador to the UN, EU and NATO
Dr. Nada Sulaiman Al-Mutawa Mr. Jhangiani Tony Naraindas Jashanmal Former Director of Centre of Global Studies, CEO of Jashanmal Chain Kuwait University
Professor Sachindra Nath Maheshwari Professor Khalid Al-Begain IIT-Delhi Representative President of KCST
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 7
KCST Management
Professor Khalid Al-Begain President of KCST
Professor Faris Malhas Professor Rodrigo Magalhaes Dean of Faculty of Engineering Dean of Student Affairs
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 9 Message from the President : It is of my greatest pleasure to introduce the Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018/2019. That was the third year of the life of Kuwait College of Science and Technology. The depth of content and the size of the report show how fast KCST come in this short period had. Practically, 2018/19 has been the year of building the steady operation and the strong foundation for the successful future of the university. It has been the academic year where all administrative departments have experienced and Professor Khalid Al-Begain President of KCST capable heads. This resulted in several major developments including the acquisition and configuration of the new Student Information System with its student and staff portals. This allowed a fully online admission and registration process in the Spring semester 2018/19. Also, during this year, we established the HR Department and acquired the MenaiTech HR system and significantly improved recruitment and boarding procedures. The campus has seen many improvements, and I mention in particular the beautiful Palm row that made the campus more welcoming. Our IT Department achieved a few important milestones with the activation of the single sign-on platform and the appointment of a senior IT security officer and the development of the IT security policy and procedures. Our financial position has reached a very stable and solid financial position and operations. The new student recruitment over the year was one of the best since inception, thanks to the endless and innovative effort of the marketing team. The number of new students exceeded 340 new students despite having only 3 programs — a remarkable achievement. Having said that the biggest developments and achievements happened on the academic side in 2018/19. The appointment of Professor Faris Malhas has proved to be a great decision. Prof Malhas has made a significant impact immediately, and he, with all academic colleagues have embraced on organising the teaching process to match the highest international standards. This year also saw the establishment of the Office of Quality Assurance and Accreditation (OQAA) led by Professor Marcel Karam. The Office worked with the Dean on starting the preparation for submitting the Readiness report for the ABET Accreditation in Fall 2019 in order to ensure that all KCST graduates are included in the accreditation. Our distinguished faculty continued the strong research performance in 2018/19. Over 30 research grant applications were submitted. Out of which 11 were successful. The report also gives details of the impressive research publication performance this year. There has been no week without notification from a faculty member about acceptance or a publication of an article in a reputable journal which is mostly Q1 or Q2 journals. I was extremely pleased in 2018/19 with the achievements of our students. In their first time participation in many scientific or programming competition in Kuwait and abroad, they achieved advanced positions. I particular, I was pleased the achievement in innovation, programming and cybersecurity. These are the areas of key importance at KCST. Finally, KCST can pride itself with a positive and happy environment led by its students. The Student Support Committee and the Clubs have excelled with a wide range of activities all over the year, and they made the atmosphere of the university a very enjoyable and pleasant one. Overall, 2018/19 was a successful year, as shown in the report. Therefore, I am very grateful to the Board of Trustees, the members of the Operations Committee and all my colleagues old and new, academic and administrative, and most importantly to our students who all contributed to the success of the year and gave me the opportunity to lead such a wonderful organisation. Special thanks are due to Mrs Sulekha Uthaman for the excellent effort in compiling this report.
Professor Khalid Al-Begain President - KCST
10 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Our Vision and Mission KCST’s vision is: To be among the leading universities of science and technology in the Middle East, through the pursuit of academic excellence guided by human, social and environmental values.
Our mission is: To provide Science and Technology Education with a socially responsible and entrepreneurial mind. We seek to empower exceptionally talented students with an ability to discharge life duties with competence, integrity, reputation and responsible leadership while being committed to establishing our College as a leading research centre that promotes ground-breaking scientific and technological innovations that impact the world
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 11 KCST BOARD OF TRUSTEES (BoT) KCST Board of Trustee consists of high profile individuals who are leaders in the perspective domains but all have significant passion towards education. The Board of Trustee had the meeting in the beginning of the Academic year on 12 November 2018 to approve, review and set the agenda for the management for the academic year. In order to create a closer follow-up of the actual operation, the BoT formed the Operations Committee as per the Charter of the College. The operation committee has a membership that gives appropriate representation from the BoT and the shareholders of the Company of Science and Technology for Higher Education (COSTHE). KCST Board of Trustees Achievements in the Year 2018/19 The Board of Trustee held it meeting in the Board Room of Kuwait College of Science and Technology on Monday, 12th November 2018. The main achievements:
I. Financial Controls 1. Approval of the updated Financial Authorisation Matrix for 1 January 2019 The Board approved the new Financial Authorisation Matrix to be effective from the date of the meeting and valid for two years from 1 January 2019. 2. Approval of the Audited Accounts till 31 August 2018 The Board approved the Audited Accounts for the financial year ending 31 August 2018 3. Approval of the KCST Budget 2018/19 The Board approved the budget for the financial year 2018/19 4. Appointment of Auditors for academic year 2018/19. The Board approved the appointment of Auditors M/s Ernst & Young for academic year 2018/19
II. Recruitment of Senior Staff and Faculty members 1. Confirmation of the appointment of the Dean of Engineering. The Board reviewed the process of the appointment of the new Dean of Faculty of engineering following the retirement of Prof George Papadopoulos, the former Dean due to family health issues and end of contract. The appointment of the new Dean was conducted to the highest standards. 55 applications received, 7 candidates interviewed over skype and 3 were selected for face-to-face interview in Kuwait (based on the consultation with the Professors of the IIT Delhi). Based on the presentation and meeting with management and Faculty, the Appointment Committee recommended Professor Faris Malhas who has the right experience for the position and that this experience will benefit the expansion plans of the university. The Board approved the appointment of Professor Faris Malhas as the Dean of Engineering.
2. Confirmation of the appointment of Faculty members. The Board confirmed the appointment of the new faculty for the Academic Year 2018/19.
III. Review Academic Progress The BoT reviewed a presentation by the President on the progress and the latest development in the university since the last meeting:
12 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 a) Student Numbers The student population in the university has grown steadily: September 2016: 343 students September 2017: 501 students September 2018: 743 students
The university has a rigorous Entrance Tests and therefore only 10% of students get directly to the degree. Student who do not pass the tests are directed to a Foundation Program which may take 1 or 2 semesters. In case of very weak student, they are directed to other institutions who may work as feeders after finishing two years diploma degrees. b) KCST Reputation: Despite the short period since the start of the college, KCST is gaining reputation its quality educations and seriousness. c) Research: Prof Al-Begain presented statistics on the research outputs of the KCST faculty during the last two years. The report showed that the faculty submitted over 24 research project funding application out of which 9 were successful and many are still under evaluation. In addition to grants, the faculty members published large amount of research articles including over 128 journal papers. Therefore, KCST is building high reputation for being different than all other universities with its quality of teaching but also with its growing research activities. d) Quality Assurance and Accreditations Office The BoT approved the establishment of the Office of Quality Assurance and Accreditations (OQAA). The Office is tasked with revisiting all academic process and forms to be compliant with accreditation standards.
IV. Development and Expansion in Academic Programs. The Board reviewed the proposals submitted by the President and the Operations Committee regarding the expansion plans of the engineering programs and the establishment of the Faculty of Business Management.
1. Approval of revision of currently offered programs in collaboration with IIT Delhi The Board approved the revision of current programmes so that the degree requirement will be 132 credit hours in line with Kuwait University and major international universities. The revision will be conducted with the expert professors from IIT Delhi. 2. Approval in principle on the introduction of new engineering programs in collaboration with IIT Delhi for curriculum development. The Board approved the introduction of the following programmes. • BEng Civil Engineering • BEng Electrical Engineering • BEng Mechanical Engineering • BEng Industrial Engineering
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 13 3. Approval of the establishment of the Faculty of Management in collaboration with City, University of London, CASS Business School for the design of the curriculum of the following programs: • BSc in Accounting and Finance • BSc in Business Management • BSc in Business Management, Entrepreneurship and Digital Innovation • BSc in Business Management with Marketing • BSc in Business Management with Energy Management • Master of Business Administration (MBA) The Board approved the establishment of the Faculty of Management and the introduction of the above programmes subject to the approval of the PUC.
V. Extra Curricula and Community oriented Activities The Board approved the establishment of the International Foundation Year Centre to be hosted by the university and the Introduction of the International Foundation Program in collaboration with NCUK VI. Policies and Regulations The Board discussed the policies recommended by the Operations Committee. The President listed the following operational policies for ratification by the Board. Policies in use, approved by Operations Committee • Travel and annual air ticket allowance policies. • IT policies which include security and user access policies • HOTO policies • Bad debt policy • Students refund policy • Faculty conference attendance policy KCST Operations Committee: The operation committee was formed by the Board of Trustees, and has a membership that gives appropriate representation from the BoT and the shareholders of the Company of Science and Technology for Higher Education (COSTHE) as follows:
Mr Minoo Patel, OC Chairman Dr Nada Al Mutawa Mr Talal Al Mulla (KCST BoT Vice Chairman and Founder) (KCST BoT member) (CEO of Al Mulla Group, COSTHE shareholder)
Mrs Danah Al Mulla Professor Khalid Al-Begain (CSO of Al Mulla Group, COSTHE shareholder) (KCST President and BoT member)
14 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 The Operations Committee had two meetings during the Academic Year 2018/2019. The OC ensures: 1. Follow-up on the recommendations of the Board of Trustee during the period between the BoT Meetings 2. Review the monthly “Progress and Financial Report” submitted by the President. 3. Provisionally approve the Budget prepared by KCST Management subject to final approval by the BoT. 4. Review and approve operational Policies and Procedures to be recommended to the BoT. 5. Ensure proper and accurate implementation of Financial Authority Matrix and Approved Policies and Procedures 6. Review the recommendations of the Annual Internal Audit Process. University goals for the Academic Year 2019/20. Building on the success of the initial phase of the university development as demonstrated in this report, the university has set very ambitious targets for itself:
1. Achieve a significant increase in the student population as the student population approaches the one-thousand student benchmark. 2. Carry out a successful first set of final year project and establish the correct formats to ensure the successful conclusion of the studies for the first cohort of graduating students 3. Initiate the process of academic program accreditation with ABET. This includes submitting the Academic Accreditation Readiness Report by 1 October 2019 and the Self-study Report by July 2020. 4. Consolidate the support systems and complete the full automation and integration of all IT systems for all departments and in particular the Student Information System 5. Improve the utilisation of high-quality classroom technology. 6. Ensure a high level of security within the campus IT system and seek high-speed connection to the Internet via Fibre Optics. 7. Seek collaborations with International and national organisations in order to organize and host high profile international conferences and event that are relevant to the scope of the University. 8. Establish centres for innovation on the campus in order to encourage creativity and entrepreneurship among students. 9. Engage with national initiatives and organisations to create and organize programs for the community. 10. Make all necessary preparation for expanding the university offering of academic programs, including the introduction of new engineering programs and the establishment of the Faculty of Business Management subject to receiving the approvals from the Private Universities Council.
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 15 Academic Year 2018-19 Engagements at a Glance September 2018 • Dr. Marcel Karam, was tasked with the role of leading the Quality Assurance and Accreditation Unit to ensure that our academic operation and documentation are compliant with the criteria of ABET, PUC and others. October 2018 • The process of appointing a new Dean of Engineering Faculty underway. The first candidate Professor Faris Malhas (USA) gave a talk that was attended by KCST Faculty and Staff November 2018 • The Makeathon and GameJam events • Meeting with PUC Officials: Mrs Danah Al Mulla’s and Prof. Khalid had a meeting with Dr Habib Abul (Gen Secretary of PUC) and Eng Mohamed Al Maraghi (Head of Engineering Dept at PUC), to discuss and get first-hand advice regarding KCST expansion plans. December 2018
Talks on the occasion of International day of A talk by an official from IEEE Kuwait Section People with Disabilities
Prof. Khalid was a member of the Executive Meeting with the IIT Professors: from Delhi: Committee at the Gulf Heavy Oil Conference Prof. Maheshwari, Prof. NJ Jain and Prof. Sanjiva Prasad
16 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 January 2019
• Welcoming Professor Faris as the new Dean of the Faculty of Engineering
Visit by the Deputy and Cultural Attaché of Prof Khalid with KCST student at the Maker Fair French Embassy
Prof. Khalid with the founder of the Maker Movement at the Maker Fair –Kuwait February 2019
• Visit by the Head of Scholarships and PR colleagues from PUC • Certificate of Best Paper awarded to Rabih Ghostine, Craig Kapfer, Viswanathan Kannan, Ibrahim Hoteit at International Research Conference ICFMA 2019 : International Conference on Fluid Mechanics and Applications Amsterdam, The Netherlands February 2019 ,08-07 • KCST signed a Memorandum of Understanding with California State University, Chico
Agreement signed with Kuwait Boursa National Day Celebrations
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 17 April 2019
• The opening ceremony of the Youth Empowerment Society and signing the Memorundum of Understanding was attended by a number of VIPs including the UK Ambassador,HE Mr. Michael Davenport, Dr. Khaled Mahdi, Kuwait Supreme Council for Planning and Development . Fatima Almousawi from the Diwan–Al- Amiri and representatives fromthe Public Authority for Youth and Sport. • The Programming Club’s first workshop under the title” Create your first website ” • The Mathematics Department organized a workshop in Survey and Questionnaire Analysis using SPSS and LISREL software. • Youth Public Authority signed a Memorandum of Understanding with KCST
Dr. Khaled Mahdi, Kuwait Supreme Council for Planning and Development May 2019
• “Integrative Nutrition and Chronic Diseases” talk by Dr. Emran Dawoud • KCST signed a Memorandum of Understanding with French Embassy of Kuwait
June 2019
• KCST signed an Articulation Agreement with Kuwait Technical College
Agreement signed between Big Brains Co and Visit by the Director of UNHCR Kuwait Office KCST Fab Lab
18 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Prof Khalid participated in the UN Day Cele- Prof. Khalid was awarded the Manager of the bration with the Ambassadors of Korea, USA, Year in Higher Education at the Summit of UNHCR, UK and Germany Leaders in Oxford, UK
July 2019
• Talk : 7th Kuwait Collegiate Programming Contest (KCPC) Presenters: the student Nasser Alsuqoubi (President of the Programming Club) & the student Mohammad Alkhalify (vice president of the Programming Club)
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 19 20 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Our Students
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 21 Our Students The students of Kuwait College of Science and Technology are the true ambassadors of its Mission and Vision and the reason why it exists. At KCST we provide a distinctive and relevant education in science and technology that prepares students to be leaders in the development and use of multidisciplinary approaches to solve critical problems innovatively and creatively. Socially responsible leadership and entrepreneurship are built into the curricula. In addition, a significant amount of hands-on experience and the opportunity to conduct research as an undergraduate student are inserted in the curricula. The University is committed to student success, and endeavours to serve as a platform to create and propagate knowledge, to nurture free and open inquiry, to broaden outlooks through an academic environment, to advance modern scientific thinking and to develop lasting bonds amongst students and faculty and community. Admission Policies and Procedures a. At KCST, applicants are considered on the basis of their merit, regardless of race, colour, gender, religion, age, disabilities or national origin. b. Students seeking admission to KCST programs must have successfully completed 12 years of schooling leading to the award of a diploma or certificate considered to be at par with Shahadat Al-Thanawiya-Al-A’ama from Kuwait. Other qualifications will be considered on a case-by-case basis. c. Students must have taken Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology as core subjects for 3 years in the last 4 years of high school for the B.Sc. or Engineering. Programs. d. The following indicative criteria are considered in the decision regarding student admission:
High School System Equivalency Minimum Requirement
Government System (Percentage) Not Required 65%
Government System (Modular) Not Required 2.25
Arabic Private Not Required 65% or equivalent 2.25
Bilingual System Required 2.25
American System Required 2.25
British System Required Six IGCSE
Higher Secondary School Certificate (Part II) required with Pakistani System Required a minimum average of 42 or 2.25 GPA equivalent
Completion with a minimum cumulative average of 65% or equivalent for : Indian System Required All India Senior School Certificate Exam conducted by Central Board for Secondary School in India
Completion of Baccalaureate with 6 subjects (at least 3 at International Baccalaureate Required the higher level) and a minimum score of 24
Note – For any high school systems not covered in the above table, admissions will be decided on a case-by-case basis and will require at least a passing grade as well as Kuwait Ministry of Education equivalency.
22 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Application Process a. The Student Affairs & Registration Department receives applications for the new academic year as per the deadlines published on the University website. b. An application fee pre-determined and approved by the Board of Trustees is collected for each application. c. The application fee is a non-refundable one-time fee. d. Admissions Officers are available at the University to assist the students with any questions regarding the application process. e. The complete application, including all supporting documents required by the application, must be submitted to the Student Affairs & Registration Department, online or offline within the deadlines for submission. f. Applications submitted after the deadline will be kept on hold, and the respective application fee will not be refunded. g. Submission of inaccurate and/or intentionally misleading information on the admissions application may result in the student’s acceptance into the University being cancelled. h. Medical and health information should be disclosed along with the application with the required medical certificate from the doctor. Entrance Test
a. All applicants must provide proof of proficiency in English, in one of the following ways: Exam type Minimum score (Indicative) IELTS Academic 5.5 or TOEFL iBT 72 or CEPT English Test 50
b. All applicants will be required to sit KCST’s entrance tests in Mathematics, Physics and English (CEPT English Test) c. From time to time, KCST may change the qualifying marks for the entrance tests. Foundation Program All applicants are required to take the KCST Entrance Test at the admission stage. If an applicant does not obtain the minimum required scores in the Entrance Test for direct entry into the degree program, he/she will need to attend Foundation Program, at the Level determined by the University. The Foundation Program is offered at two levels, each with the duration of one semester. Each Foundation Program level has four courses: English, Math, Physics and Introduction to IT. A student admitted to the Foundation Program is required to pass all the assigned courses with a satisfactory grade in order to be eligible to enroll in the BSc or BEng programs. The goal of the Foundation Program is to help a student achieve a level of proficiency that is expected for starting the BSc or BEng programs. It provides an opportunity for the student to catch up on material that may not have been included in his/her high school curriculum, and to review material included in the best high school curricula. The Foundation program also provides an opportunity for students who have a weak background in English to improve their language skills. In Foundation Semester 1 a 4-hour pre-foundation English course (LA 001-Pre-Foundation English) is offered to students who have scored poorly in the English
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 23 Entrance Test. These students are required to take this course in addition to the 8-hour English per week. Each Foundation semester typically has a 16-week duration, and consist of 14 weeks of instruction and 2 weeks set aside for a mid-term exam and a final exam, Admissions and Registration Statistics:
24 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Registration Statistics
Fall 2018/2019 Spring 2018/2019 Overall Average 14.90 15.6 Morning Students Average 15.14 15.7 Evening Students Average 12.98 15.04 Number of Registered Students 510 572 Total Credit Hours Registered 7613 8908 Number of Lectures Sections 170 127 Number of Tutorials Sections 86 74 Number of Labs Sections 66 60
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 25 Changing Major Programs Changing major will be allowed only once throughout the student’s stay at KCST. All students who are changing to a different major have to meet the additional financial burden resulting from the transfer. This means that after the change, the student has to take and pay for those courses in his/her new Program that he/she did not take in the earlier semester. The following conditions apply: The GPA should not be less than 2.67 The number of credits successfully passed in the enrolled Program must not be less than 24 and not more than 75. Statistics for Changing major programs
Fall 2016/2017 Spring 2016/2017
To To
CS CE ECE CS CE ECE
From CS X 0 0 From CS X 0 0
CE 0 X 0 CE 0 X 5
ECE 0 0 X ECE 0 0 X
26 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Fall 2017/2018 Spring 2017/2018
To To
CS CE ECE CS CE ECE
From CS X 0 0 From CS X 0 0
CE 0 X 2 CE 0 X 2
ECE 0 0 X ECE 0 0 X
Fall 2018/2019 Spring 2018/2019
To To
CS CE ECE CS CE ECE
From CS X 0 0 From CS X 3 3
CE 0 X 1 CE 0 X 3
ECE 0 0 X ECE 0 1 X
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 27 28 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Student Retention for the Academic Year 2018-19 Withdrawn 11 Dismissed 2 Discontinued 5 Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET Diploma Holders KCST welcomes applications from graduates from PAAET Colleges. The rules and regulations that govern the admission process based on their degree are as follows: Admission Rules: a. The diploma must be from the College of Technology in PAAET in one of the programs relevant to the programs applied for at KCST b. The date of the diploma is not older than 10 years c. The final GPA is not less than 2.25 d. All applicants must take the KCST Entrance Tests in English, Math, and Physics and follow the same admission process as regular applicants. Transfer credit for PAAET Diploma holders KCST has a clear policy of exempting Diploma holders from a certain number of credits, based on their achievements. The policy takes into account the following considerations: a. KCST will not give exemption of any upper-level major core course within the program of study given that such courses are crucial for the final quality of the degree b. In case there is no exact match between the courses taken previously and the courses offered at KCST, credits may be given in non-core areas and encompassing broader areas of scientific knowledge. c. The actual courses to be included in the exemption will be decided by the University and cannot be negotiated. d. The above rules are aimed at protecting the quality of KCST graduates and meeting the regulations of the accreditation bodies e. KCST will aim at maximizing the number of exempted credits for students who meet the exemption criteria
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 29 Transfer Students KCST accepts students who have studied at other universities accredited in Kuwait. These applicants will follow the general admissions policies and procedures. The University policy regarding Transfer Credit, i.e. acceptance of credits for courses taken at other approved institutions, is done on a case-by-case basis. Courses must be similar to their equivalents at KCST, in terms of content, depth, difficulty, length and evaluation procedure. The University will accept transfer credit only for work done at those institutions recognised by the Ministry of Higher Education, Kuwait. The university will normally accept to transfer up to 25% of the total credits from any approved institution while 75% has to be earned at KCST. Grades of transferred credits will not be considered in the KCST grade point average; however, the credits will be counted toward the graduation requirement. Transfer credit for other universities’ degrees Courses studied at other universities accredited in Kuwait will be considered on a case-by-case basis maintaining the same above principles.
Transfer Students by Nationality, Admission Semester and Previous College *
CE EC Grand Total Semester Academic Institute Egyptian Kuwaiti Non Kuwaiti Saudi Iranian Kuwaiti Non Kuwaiti College of Technological Studies 6 6 Spring 2016/2017 6 14 20 Spring 2015/2016 College of Technological Studies 6 13 19 Kuwait University 1 1 American College of the Middle East 1 1 Box Hill College Kuwait 1 1 Business Studies College 2 2 Fall 2016/2017 College of Health Sciences 1 1 College of Technological Studies 45 2 1 39 87 Kuwait University 5 1 6 American College of the Middle East 1 1 2 Business Studies College 3 3 Fall 2017/2018 College of Technological Studies 27 13 1 41 Kuwait University 3 1 4 Other U 1 1 American College of the Middle East 3 1 4 Spring 2017/2018 College of Technological Studies 4 10 14 Kuwait University 1 1 Algonquin College 1 1 American University of the Middle East 1 1 2 College of Technological Studies 21 16 37 Fall 2018/2019 Kuwait Technical College 3 3 Kuwait University 1 1 Other U 1 1 Business Studies College 1 1 Spring 2018/2019 College of Technological Studies 1 20 1 22 Kuwait University 2 1 3 Totals 1 145 2 1 1 133 2 285
30 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Student funding & Sponsorship
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 31 Partial/Full Scholarship Students in the Undergraduate programs receiving partial/full scholarship at the time of admission Academic year Academic Year Academic year 2016-2017 2017-2018 2018-2019 Fall Spring Fall Spring Fall Spring Ministries Scholarship 2 3 5 5 7 7 KCST Merit Scholarship 6 3 6 9 13 15 Others ( Sultan Scholarship) 3 3 3 3
Special Needs Students: PUC special needs scholarship rules apply to all special needs applicants in KCST. Special needs Students and Applicants are assisted with high priority. Wheelchair ramps and wide elevators are available for all campus facilities. During the exam period, special needs Students can be given extra time and can be permitted to use the restroom or clinic. The list of special needs Student is sent to the invigilators in advance.
Sponsor Type Special Needs Category PUC Others Total No. Mobility Impairment 7 0 7 Slow Learning 1 0 1 Visual Impairment 2 0 2 Medical Conditions: Students with medical conditions are assisted through academic and non-academic means. Depending on the severity of the condition, Students can be permitted to use the restroom or visit the clinic at any time during classes and/or exams. The Student counselor must be fully informed of all Student medical cases and in return the counselor must inform the Students’ Faculty members and relevant staff members of the medical cases present at the College. Until Spring 2018/2019 Until Fall 2019/2020 Medical Condition PUC Other PUC Other Asthma/Respiratory Disease 1 0 3 3 Hematology Disease 1 0 1 0 Orthopedic Disease 1 0 1 0 Diabetes 1 0 2 1 Gastrointestinal Disease 1 0 1 0 Respiratory Disease 1 0 1 0 Heart Disease/Blood Pressure 0 0 0 0 Kidney Disease 0 0 0 1
32 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Admission of Students with Special Needs KCST serves the educational need of all its students and as such the University is equipped for students with special needs in the following two areas: • Mobility impairments • Learning disability such as dyslexia The admission criteria and a minimum requirement in the case of special need student are decided by an Admissions Committee on a case by case basis. The admission process provides an environment where students with special needs will feel comfortable and be able to attend College on an equal footing with other students a. Procedure at the application stage In order to ensure that students with special needs who are admitted to KCST are able to cope with the curriculum and complete the program successfully, the following steps will be taken at the pre-regis- tration stage: • A meeting will be arranged between the student and his/her parent/guardian to discuss the level of disability and the support that is needed. This meeting will be with an academic advisor and the Student Counsellor or a senior admission staff. • The meeting has a dual purpose. First, it is to advise the student and his/her parent/guardian about the programs offered by KCST. The second purpose is for the admission staff to evaluate the level of disability as one of the inputs into the admission decision. • After this meeting, the application will follow the normal admission process. a. Provision made for students with mobility impairments The following facilities are made available at KCST in order to allow students with special needs to come to the University and attend classes unaided. • Car park ▸▸Specially allocated and accessible car parking space. • Access Routes ▸▸Continuous and wide enough corridors free from obstructions for the easy movement of wheelchair users. ▸▸Proper access to approach, enter or leave the building, as well as to reach and use the facilities such as lifts, toilets, cafeteria etc. without undue difficulty. • Lecture halls, labs and auditorium ▸▸These areas are accessible to wheelchair users, and wheelchair spaces are provided in lecture halls, labs and auditorium. • Accessible Toilets ▸▸All functional floors are provided with accessible toilets with sufficient fittings for disabled students. ▸▸A conveniently accessible emergency call button is provided in the accessible toilets, which when activated emits an audible alarm signal for summoning assistance. • Lifts ▸▸Students will be able to access all functional floors, including lecture halls and auditorium conveniently and independently. b. Provision made for students with a learning disability such as dyslexia The following arrangements are made at KCST in order to help students with special needs cope with normal University activities without undue stress.
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 33 • Allowing students to record lectures. • Regularly checking to ensure that the student has understood. • Allowing students to submit work done on a computer rather than handwritten. • Giving sympathetic feedback with suggestions about how the work submitted could be improved. • Ensuring that students have clear guidance and know what to expect in an exam. • Giving students extra time and allowing them to use a computer to type exams. • Depending on the performance of the student, he/she may be advised to take fewer credits in each semester
KCST will make provision for a special advisor for students with special needs whose task will be to provide moral and emotional support in addition to academic guidance.
34 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 35 36 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Our Faculty
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 37 Our Faculty KCST Faculty has been the strength behind our development from the time of our inception in Spring 2015. Our faculty members are highly qualified and well experienced with strong background in their research areas. They are selected from all corners of the world. This ensures that our students benefit from a diversified pool of scientific knowledge and skills.
KCST Faculty, Research Projects, Scientific Publications and Conferences Academic Year 2018 -2019 KFAS Funded Research Projects 15 Externally Funded Research Projects 7 Authored/Edited Books 7 Book Chapters 7 Journal papers 100 Conference Papers 41
38 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 39 Research Projects, Research Grants Funded by Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science ( KFAS) (2017 – 2019) Name of Research Project Funded by Budget Year PI Prevention of Appliance Enslavement for an KFAS KD 17,500 2019 Prof. Khalid Al Begain Internet of Things Based DDOOS Attack” Micro movement maximization of Video 2019 KFAS KD 4,400 Dr. Gamal Fahmy Signals in different Medical Applications Development of Real-Time Emotion Recog- nition System using only Facial Expressions based on Machine Learning and Deep Neural KFAS KD 4,500 2019 Dr. M. Murugappan Network Methods to assist physically disabled people”, Brain Connectivity Patterns based Emotional Impairment Analysis in Parkinson’s disease KFAS KD 9,600 2019 Dr. M. Murugappan Patients using Wireless EEG Signals and Deep Learning Methods” Vision based Activity Monitoring for Human Dr. Ehtesham Hassan KFAS KD 8,000 2018 Behavior Modeling”
Development of Deep Learning Based Tech- Dr. Ehtesham Hassan niques for Text Recognition in Augmented KFAS KD 3,000 2019 Reality Applications” Optical nanosensors with integrated flexi- 2017 Dr. Nader Aly Shehata ble printed nanoantennas for water quality KFAS KD 49,900 monitoring, Aligned PVDF nanofibers embedded with KD 9000 Dr. Nader Aly Shehata KFAS 2017 carbon nanotubes for energy harvesting Efficiency enhancement of perovskite solar 2019 Dr. Nader Aly Shehata KFAS KD 34,900 cells with plasmonic nanostructures, .KD 5,000 Free vibration of composite layered cylindri- KFAS 2018 Dr. Viswanathan K.Kannan cal shells filled with fluid under shear theory’.
Femtosecond laser induced sub-micron Dr. Sharafudeen Valappil structuring of semiconductors, glasses, and KFAS KD 8,950 2018 polymers, Nanomaterials for Ultra-High Magnetic stor- Dr. Junais Habeeb Mokkath age application: Microscopic theory of the KFAS KD 25,225 2019 fundamental interactions”, Applications Submitted Application Development of lanthanide ions-doped Dr. Sharafudeen Valappil transparent nanocrystalline glass ceramics for KFAS Submitted solar cell applications Quark-Gluon Plasma: From Melting Quark to Application KFAS Dr. Mushtaq Loan Boiling Hadrons – KFAS Grant Proposal Submitted Cancer Treatment with Hadrons and Light Application KFAS Dr. Mushtaq Loan Ions Submitted
Optical fluorescent nanocomposites for Application KFAS Dr. Ishac Kandas different optical conversions Submitted
40 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Research projects/ Research grants Overview (Funded by KFAS and other organizations /institutions) Dr. Gamal El-Din Fahmy Associate Professor Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering Research Projects/Research Grants • “Micro Movement Magnification in Video Signals in different Engineering applications”, funded from Kuwait Foundation for Advancement of Sciencer, Oct 2019-Oct 2020. • “Micro Movement Magnification in Video Processing applications”, funded from Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz Univ., Saudi Arabia (budget 25,000 SAR, 2017-2018) • “Bspline Wavelets for Image Processing”, funded from University of Majmaah, Saudi Arabia (budget, 30,000 SAR, 6/2013-6/2014) • “Implementation of Hardware Digital Image and video coders and decoder”, funded from European Union. (budget 25,000.00 EUR, 9/2008-9/2009) • “Implementation of Watermarking Image coders on FPGA/DSP boards”, funded from the ministry of communications (ITIDA), Egypt (budget 100,000 EGP, 2009-2011). • Automatic Dental Identification System, (9/2002-8/2006, budget 1,9 Millon USD) funded from the United State National Science Foundation • Non- Ideal Iris Identification and Recognition, (1/2004-12/2006, budget 220,000 USD) funded from the Center of Identification Technology (Government NSF funded Research Center),USA • Facial Image Quality Assessment System, (7/2004-12/2005, budget 80,000 USD) funded from the Center of Identification Technology (Government NSF funded Research Center), USA • Ear Identification System, (9/2005-12/2007, budget 222,000 USD) funded from the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Quantico Virginia, USA Dr. Mohamed Trabelsi Associate Professor Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering Research Projects/Research Grants • 1-MW PV Power RD&D Using SiC-based qZS Cascaded Multilevel Inverter and Battery Energy Storage, Principal Investigator, Qatar National Research Fund, $4,599,726.96, 2013-2019. • Enhanced Monitoring using Statistical Fault Detection Methods and Applications to Photovoltaic Systems and Genomic Data, Principal Investigator, Qatar National Research Fund, $714,753.60, 2017-2020. • Integration of Solar Generation and Electrical Vehicles into the Smart Grid, Principal Investigator, Qatar National Research Fund, $788,993.00, 2016-2019. Dr. M. Murugappan Associate Professor Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering Research Projects/Research Grants • Investigation of Brain Functional Connectivity Patterns based Emotional Impairment Analysis in Parkinson’s disease Patients using EEG Signals, FRGS, Fundamental Research Grant Scheme, Phase 1, 2015-2017, Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia, 2015-2017. • Investigation on Developing Electrocardiogram (ECG) Signals based Risk Markers for Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) Prediction, Fundamental Research Grant Scheme, Phase 1, 2015, Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia, 2015-2017.
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 41 • Development of Real-Time Emotion Recognition System using only Facial Expressions based on Machine Learning and Deep Neural Network Methods to assist physically disabled people”, Kuwait Fund for Advancement of Sciences (KFAS), Kuwait, 2019-2020. • Brain Connectivity Patterns based Emotional Impairment Analysis in Parkinson’s disease Patients using Wireless EEG Signals and Deep Learning Methods”, Kuwait Fund for Advancement of Sciences (KFAS), Kuwait, 2019-2020. Dr. Ishac Kandas Assistant Professor Department of Physics Research Projects/Research Grants • Co – PI in the project tilted as “Efficiency enhancement of perovskite solar cells with plasmonic nanostructures,” ID: PN18-14SP-01, awarded by KFAS KuwaitJan. 2019. • Research Associate in the project titled as “Optical Nanosensors with Integrated Flexible Printed Nanoantennas for Water Quality Monitoring, ID: PR17-15EE-01”, awarded by KFAS Kuwait, Dec. 2017. • Research Associate in the project titled as “Innovative electrospun conductive spider silk nanofibers for human nerve regrowth”, awarded by QNRF, April 2015. • Co – PI in the project titled as “Fluorescent electrospun nanofibers with embedded nanoparticles”, awarded by ALEX REP-Alexandria University Egypt, July 2014. Dr. Viswanathan Kannan Associate Professor Department of Mathematics Research Projects/Research Grants • Free vibration of composite layered cylindrical shells filled with fluid under shear theory’. (Amount KWD 5,000).Period of project: Jan’ 2018 – Feb’ 2019. Dr. Junais Habeeb Mokkath Assistant Professor Department of Physics Research Projects/Research Grants • Nanomaterials for Ultra-High Magnetic storage application: Microscopic theory of the fundamental interactions”, KFAS grant: PR18-14SP-05. Dr. Nader Aly Shehata Assistant Professor Department of Physics Research Projects/Research Grants • Optical nanosensors with integrated flexible printed nanoantennas for water quality monitoring, awarded by KFAS Kuwait, Funded budget: 49,500 KD, December 2017-December 2019. • Aligned PVDF nanofibers embedded with carbon nanotubes for energy harvesting, awarded by KFAS Kuwait, Funded budget: 9000 KD, August 2017-August 2018. • Co-PI, Solar cells efficiency improvement using optical nanostructures coating layers, accepted by KFAS Kuwait, Funded budget: 8000 KD, August 2017-August 2018. • Efficiency enhancement of perovskite solar cells with plasmonic nanostructures, awarded by KFAS Kuwait, Funded budget: 34,900 KD, January 2019-June 2020.
42 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Dr. Rabih Ghostine Assistant Professor Department of Mathematics Research Projects/Research Grants • Environmental impact assessment of the Pristine and NEOM projects, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, 500K USD, 2018−2020. • Precipitation and flash flood prediction in the city of Jeddah, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, 300K USD, 2014−2016. • Numerical and experimental study of flow at open-channel junctions, University of Strasbourg, 2011−2013. Dr. Sharafudeen Valappil Assistant Professor Department of Physics Research Projects/Research Grants • Femtosecond laser induced sub-micron structuring of semiconductors, glasses, and polymers, KFAS, 2018-2021. (PR18-13SP-01) • Development of lanthanide ions-doped transparent nanocrystalline glass ceramics for solar cell applications, 2019-2022, (PR18-14SP-11) Dr. Mubarak A. F. Alenezi Assistant Professor Department of Business Studies & Social Sciences Research Projects/Research Grants • The Waqf and Social Science in Damascus during Ayyub period 1174 – 1259 AD, Kuwait Awqaf Public Foundation, 3100 KD, 2012–2016. Dr. Samrajesh Mault Lecturer Department of Computer Science and Engineering Research Projects/Research Grants • Kuwait University, project dates: Jan-2016 to Aug-2017, Performance evaluation of Arabic speech recognition implementation techniques Dr. Mushtaq Loan Assistant Professor Department of Physics Research Projects/Research Grants • Quark-Gluon Plasma: From Melting Quark to Boiling Hadrons – KFAS Grant Proposal • Cancer Treatment with Hadrons and Light Ions – KFAS Grant Proposal
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 43 Percentage of PhD, MSc and Bachelor Degree holders - Faculty members and Teaching Assistant:
KCST employees’ distribution as of August 2019
44 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Faculty and Staff by Departments
KCST Faculty & Teaching Assistants as of August 2019
# Employee Name Ranking Department Qualification Contract Type
1 Khalid Al- Begain Professor Faculty of Engineering PhD Full Time
2 Faris Malhas Professor Faculty of Engineering PhD Full Time
Faculty of Business Man- 3 Rodrigo Magalhaes Professor PhD Full Time agement
4 Mohamed Ahmed Professor Faculty of Engineering PhD Full Time
5 Carlos Martins Da Fonseca Professor Faculty of Engineering PhD Full Time
6 Ioannis Avaritsiotis Professor Faculty of Engineering PhD Full Time
Associate 7 Abolfazl Mehbod Niya Faculty of Engineering PhD Full Time Professor Associate 8 Ali S. A. Yousef Faculty of Engineering PhD Full Time Professor Associate 9 Fatma Bozkurt Faculty of Engineering PhD Full Time Professor Associate 10 Gamal El-Din Fahmy Faculty of Engineering PhD Full Time Professor Associate 11 Marcel Karam Faculty of Engineering PhD Full Time Professor Associate 12 Mohamed Trabelsi Faculty of Engineering PhD Full Time Professor Associate 13 Murugappan Murugappan Faculty of Engineering PhD Full Time Professor Associate 14 Mushtaq Ahmed Loan Faculty of Engineering PhD Full Time Professor Associate 15 Viswanathan Kl Kannan Faculty of Engineering PhD Full Time Professor
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 45 Assistant 16 Ehtesham Hassan l Hasan Faculty of Engineering PhD Full Time Professor Assistant 17 Hazem Mohamed Elalfy Faculty of Engineering PhD Full Time Professor Assistant 18 Ishac Lamei Nagiub Kandas Faculty of Engineering PhD Full Time Professor Assistant 19 Ismaeel Al Ridhawi Faculty of Engineering PhD Full Time Professor Assistant 20 Junais Habeeb Mokkath Faculty of Engineering PhD Full Time Professor Assistant 21 Mohammed Khader Faculty of Engineering PhD Full Time Professor Assistant 22 Nader Aly Shehata Faculty of Engineering PhD Full Time Professor Assistant 23 Omar Khattab Faculty of Engineering PhD Full Time Professor Assistant 24 Omer Adam Mohamed Faculty of Engineering PhD Full Time Professor Assistant 25 Rabih Ghostine Faculty of Engineering PhD Full Time Professor Assistant 26 Sharafudeen Valappil Faculty of Engineering PhD Full Time Professor Assistant Faculty of Business Man- 27 Bekir Emre Kurtulmus PhD Full Time Professor agement Assistant Faculty of Business Man- 28 Mubarak Falah Jazea PhD Full Time Professor agement Assistant Faculty of Business Man- 29 Nouf M B Alyaseen PhD Full Time Professor agement Assistant Faculty of Business Man- 30 Abrar Al Enzi PhD Part Time professor agement
31 Ahmed Elwakeel Lecturer Faculty Of Engineering PhD Full Time
32 Deepa Vijayaraghavan Lecturer Faculty Of Engineering MSc Full Time
33 Jihad Sadeddin Lecturer Faculty Of Engineering MSc Full Time
34 Samrajesh Devakadacham Lecturer Faculty Of Engineering PhD Full Time
Faculty of Business Man- 35 Abdullah S A ALFarhan Lecturer MA Full Time agement Faculty of Business Man- 36 Alban Beqiri Lecturer MA Full Time agement Faculty of Business Man- 37 Fares H A Awadh Lecturer MA Full Time agement Faculty of Business Man- 38 Huda AbuAisha Lecturer MA Full Time agement Faculty of Business Man- 39 Randa Diab Lecturer DBA Full Time agement Faculty of Business Man- 40 Rawan A H ALKandari Lecturer BSc Full Time agement
46 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Faculty of Business Man- 41 Reem M A AlQenai Lecturer MA Full Time agement Faculty of Business Man- 42 Ruba Najia Lecturer MA Full Time agement Faculty of Business Man- 43 Shumaila Waqar Zaidi Lecturer MSc Full Time agement Faculty of Business Man- 44 Yousef Al Otaibi Lecturer MSc Part Time agement Faculty of Business Man- 45 Ahmad Bakri Lecturer PhD Part Time agement
46 Sally Hassrouny Lecturer Faculty of Engineering MSc Part Time
47 Tareq Al-Zayyat Lecturer Faculty Of Engineering MSc Full Time
48 Manar Alamat Lecturer Faculty Of Engineering MSc Part Time
49 Iman Mohammed Lecturer Faculty Of Engineering MSc Part Time
50 Hana Ghatasha Lecturer Faculty Of Engineering BSc Part Time
51 Sawsan Zaghir Lecturer Faculty Of Engineering MSc Part Time
Teaching 52 Abdalla Abbi Mohamud Faculty Of Engineering MSc Full Time Assistant Teaching 53 AlAmera Alquennah Faculty Of Engineering MSc Full Time Assistant Teaching 54 Joicy John Faculty Of Engineering MSc Full Time Assistant Teaching 55 Lekshmi Pillai Devi Faculty Of Engineering MSc Full Time Assistant Teaching 56 Ozden Yurtseven Dogan Faculty Of Engineering MSc Full Time Assistant Teaching 57 Priya Nikhil Babu Faculty Of Engineering MSc Full Time Assistant Teaching 58 Remya Nair Faculty Of Engineering MSc Full Time Assistant Teaching 59 Sameer Ahmad Bhat Faculty Of Engineering MSc Full Time Assistant Teaching 60 Tariq Mohedat Faculty Of Engineering MSc Full Time Assistant Teaching 61 Wael Raef AlKhayri Faculty Of Engineering MSc Full Time Assistant Teaching 62 Nour El Islam Boukortt Faculty Of Engineering PhD Full Time Assistant Lab Assis- 63 Aly Ibrahim Yasin Faculty Of Engineering BSc Full Time tant Lab Assis- 64 Fadi Sameh Faculty of Engineering BSc Part Time tant
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 47 Academic Staffing and Recruitment
Recruitment of Faculty and Teaching Assistants for the academic year September 2018- August 2019 Contract Sr. Faculty Name Rank Department Qualification Major Type
1 Carlos Da Fonseca Professor Mathematics (MA) PhD Mathematics Full Time
Associate Computer Science 2 Marcel Karam PhD Computer Science Full Time Professor and Engineering (CSE)
Gamal El-Din Associate Electrical and Elec- Electrical Engi- 3 PhD Full Time Fahmy Professor tronics Engineering neering
Associate Electrical and Elec- Power Electronics 4 Mohamed Trabelsi PhD Full Time Professor tronics Engineering and Automation
Associate 5 Fatma Bozkurt Mathematics (MA) PhD Mathematics Full Time Professor
Assistant Business Manage- 6 Bekir Kurtulmus PhD Philosophy Full Time Professor ment
Assistant Business Manage- 7 Nouf M B Alyaseen PhD Philosophy Full Time Professor ment
Assistant Languages and Social 8 Mubarak AJazea PhD Arts Full Time Professor Sciences (LSS)
Hazem Mohamed Assistant Computer Science 9 PhD Computer Science Full Time Gabr Elalfy Professor and Engineering (CSE)
Electrical and Assistant Computer Science 10 Ismaeel Al Ridhawi PhD Computer Engi- Full time Professor and Engineering (CSE) neering
Assistant Computer Science Communication 11 Omar Khattab PhD Full time Professor and Engineering (CSE) and Network
Assistant Business Manage- Business and Man- 12 Abrar Al Enzi PhD Part Time Professor ment agement
Business Manage- 13 Shumaila Zaidi Lecturer MA Economies Full time ment
Languages and Social 14 Alban Beqiri Lecturer MA Translation Full Time Sciences
Languages and Social Linguistics and 15 Huda AbuAisha Lecturer MA Full Time Sciences Arts
Electrical and Elec- Electrical Engi- 16 Ahmed Elwakeel Lecturer PhD Full Time tronics Engineering neering
48 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 17 Manar Alamat Lecturer IT MSc Computing Part Time
18 Sally Hassrouny Lecturer Biology MSc Pharmacology Part Time
19 Yousef Al Otaibi Lecturer English MA Teaching English Part Time
20 Sawsan Bakkar Lecturer English MA Education Part Time
21 Hana Ghatasha Lecturer Math BSc Mathematics Part Time
Business Adminis- 22 Iman Gamal Lecturer Math MA Part Time tration
23 Ahmad Bakri Lecturer Arabic PhD Arabic Language Part time
Electrical and Elec- Teaching 24 Nour Boukortt tronics Engineering PhD Physics Full Time Assistant (EEE)
Teaching Computer Science Computer Engi- 25 Abdalla Mohamud MSc Full Time Assistant Engineering (CSE) neering
Computer Graph- Teaching Computer Science 26 Priya Nikhil Babu MSc ics, Client Server Full Time Assistant and Engineering (CSE) Application.
Teaching Computer Science Computer Infor- 27 Tariq Mohedat MSc Full Time Assistant and Engineering (CSE) mation Systems
Wael Raef AlKhayri Teaching Computer Science 28 MSc Computer Science Full Time Assistant and Engineering (CSE)
Electrical and Elec- AlAmera Alquen- Teaching Electrical Engi- 29 tronics Engineering MSc Full Time nah Assistant neering (EEE) Electrical and Elec- Lab As- 30 Aly Ibrahim Yasin tronics Engineering BSc Electronics Full Time sistant (EEE)
Lab As- 31 Fadi Sameh Physics BSc Physics Part Time sistant
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 49 Faculty Development KCST encourages all its faculty members to regularly attend conferences and training courses for the purpose of ongoing professional development and maintaining strong networks among other academics internationally. It also recognizes the value of research and publication in the academic and professional development of its faculty, therefore faculty members are actively encouraging to conduct research and represent the College in international educational and scientific events. Conferences & Training courses attended by the faculty during the 2018-2019 academic year Conference/Program Location/ Internal or # Name Date Description Venue External Smart Materials 2018, DR. Nader Abdelmonem 23-25 October 1 Nanomed 2018, joint SEC- Venice Italy External Aly Shehata 2018 TOR conference 4-7 November 2 All Faculty members Labview and USRP KCST Internal 2018 Professor Ioannis Avar- SPE International Heavy Oil 10-12 December 3 Kuwait. AUM Internal itsiotis Conference 2018 Dr. AbolFazl Mehbod 11 - 12 December 4 IEEE GLOBECOM 2018 Abu Dhabi-UAE External Neya 2018 Research collaboration visit Dr. Mohamed Abdallah 23- 27 December 5 to the Smart Grid Center at Qatar External Trabelsi 2018 Texas A&M University IEEE International Sympo- sium on Signal Processing 6 Dr. Gamal Eldin Fahmy Louisville, USA, External December 2018 and Information Technolo- gy (ISSPIT) 21th International Confer- 7 Dr. Rabih Ghostine ence on fluid Mechanics Amsterdam External 7-8 February2019 and Applications TESOL Kuwait 5th Interna- 14-16 February 8 Mr. Alban Beqiri tional Conference, Togeth- Kuwait Internal 2019 er Toward Tomorrow, GESS Dubai, Bright Ideas – 27 Feb. -1 Mar 9 Dr. Ali S. A. Yousef Dubai External Dubai World Trade Center 2019 6thInternational Confer- DR. Nader Abdelmonem 10 ence on Multifunctional, Spain External 11-15 March 2019 Aly Shehata Hybird and Nanomaterials. International Conference on Applied Analysis and 11 Dr. Ali S. A. Yousef Istanbul -Turkey External 10-13 March 2019 Mathematical Modeling (ICAAMM-2019) International Conference on Applied Analysis and 12 DR. Fatma Bozkurt Istanbul -Turkey External 10-13 March 2019 Mathematical Modeling (ICAAMM-2019) Discussion about Japan’s Latest Advancement in 13 All Faculty members KCST Internal 20-Mar-2019 Communication Engineer- ing Featuring Survay Design and Analysis 14 All Faculty members using SPSS and LISREL KCST Internal 15-17 April 2019 software.
50 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Professor Ioannis Avar- 15 20th IEEE GCC conference Kuwait Internal 18-20 April 2019 itsiotis Dr. Mohamed Abdallah 16 10th IEEE GCC conference Kuwait Internal 19-23 April 2019 Trabelsi
17 Dr. Yehya Hassan Ghallab 10th IEEE GCC conference Kuwait Internal 19-22 April 2019
4th International confer- ence on computational 18 Dr. Ali A. Yousef Antalia-Turkey External 20-22 April 2019 mathematics and engi- neering sciences Dr. Mohamed Abdallah IEEE 13th International Sonderborg, Den- 19 External 23- 25 April 2019 Trabelsi Confereance mark The 5th International Conference o Matrix 20 Prof. Carlos Da Fonseca Guilin,China External 7-10 June 2019 Inequualities and Matrix Equations-MIME2019 Dr. Ishac Lamei Nagiub Tech Connect World Inoo- 21 Boston, USA External 17-20 June2019 Kandas vation Tech Connect World In- DR. Nader Abdelmonem Massachusetts, 22 oovation Conference and External 17-19 June2019 Aly Shehata United States Expo DR. Sharafudeen Kani- SPIE Optical Metrology 23 Munich, Germany. External 24 -27June2019 yarakkal Valappil Conference 26 International Con- Dr. Viswanathan Kodak- 24 ference On Sound and Canada External 7-11 July 2019 kal Kannan Vibration International Conference Dr. Samrajesh Mault on Recent Innovations in 25 New York, USA, External 16-17 July 2019 Devakadacham Engineering and Technolo- gy (ICRIET Fellowship - Alexander von 3 June -31 July 26 Dr. Gamal Eldin Fahmy Humboldt Foundation - Germany External 2019 Renewed research Medical Imaging Deep 27 Dr. Gamal Eldin Fahmy London External 8-10 July 2019 learning The 8th International Con- 28 Prof. Carlos Da Fonseca ference on Matric Analysis USA External 15-18 July 2019 and Application(ICMAA) IEEE CSE 2019, IEEE EUC Dr. Samrajesh Mault 29 2019 and ICTE Confer- New York, USA External 1-3 August 2019 Devakadacham ences Clute International Aca- Dr. Samrajesh Mault demic Conference on Ed- 30 New York, USA External 4-8 August 2019 Devakadacham ucation - Technology Track (Best Paper Awarded) KOC Cyber Security Sum- 24-25 August 31 Dr. Mubarak Al Jazea mit, Hosting Kuwait CTF Kuwait Internal 2019 Competition
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 51 DEPARTMENTS
Department of Computer Science and Engineering Name Academic Rank
Dr. Marcel Karam Associate Professor
Dr. Ehtesham Hassan Hasan Assistant Professor
Dr. Omer Adam Mohamed Assistant Professor
Dr. Hazem Mohamed G. Elalfy Assistant Professor
Dr. Ismaeel Al Ridhawi Assistant Professor
Dr. Omar A A.Khattab Assistant Professor
Dr. Samrajesh Devakadacham Lecturer
Mr. Tareq A A Al-Zayyat Lecturer
Ms. Lekshmi Vijayamohanan Pillai Teaching Assistant
Mr. Abdalla Abbi Mohamud Teaching Assistant
Ms. Priya Nikhil Babu Teaching Assistant
Mr. Tariq A.N. El-deen Mohedat Teaching Assistant
Mr. Wael R.A. AlKhayri Teaching Assistant
Ms Manar Alamat Lecturer(Part-Time))
52 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering Name Academic Rank
Prof. John Avaritsiotis Professor
Dr. M Murugappan Associate Professor
Dr. Abolfazl Mehbod Niya Associate Professor
Dr. Gamal El-Din Fahmy Associate Professor
Dr. Mohamed Abdallah Trabelsi Associate Professor
Dr. Ahmed Elsayed I.A. Elwakeel Lecturer
Dr. Nour El Islam Boukortt Lecturer
Ms. Deepa Vijayaraghavan Lecturer
Mr. Sameer Ahmad Bhat Teaching Assistant
Ms. Alamera N.Nader M Alquennah Teaching Assistant
Mr. Aly Ibrahim Yasin Lab Assistant
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 53 Department of Basic Sciences and Mathematics Name Academic Rank
BASIC SCIENCES -PHYSICS
Prof. Mohamed Abdelkarim Ahmed Professor
Dr. Mushtaq Ahmed Loan Associate Professor
Dr. Sharafudeen Naduvil Valappil Assistant Professor
Dr. Nader Abdelmonem Shehata Assistant Professor
Dr. Ishac Lamei Nagiub Kandas Assistant Professor
Dr. Junais Habeeb Mokkath Assistant Professor
Ms. Remya Ramakrishnan Nair Teaching Assistant -
Ms. Joicy John Menachery Teaching Assistant -
BASIC SCIENCES -BIOLOGY
Ms.Sally Hassrouny (Part-time) Lecturer
MATHEMATICS
Dr. Carlos Martins Da Fonseca Professor
Dr. Ali S. A. Yousef Associate Professor
Dr. Viswanathan K. Kannan Associate Professor
Dr. Fatma Bozkurt Associate Professor
Dr. Rabih Ghostine Assistant Professor
Mr. Jihad M.S. Sadeddin Lecturer
Ms. Ozden Yurtseven Dogan Teaching Assistant -
54 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Department of Languages, Social Sciences and Business Studies Name Academic Rank BUSINESS MANAGEMENT AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Prof. Rodrigo Magalhaes Professor
Dr. Nouf M B Alyaseen Assistant Professor
Dr. Bekir Emre Kurtulmus Assistant Professor
Dr. Mubarak Ashwy Falah Jazea Assistant Professor
Ms. Randa N Diab Lecturer
Ms. Shumaila Waqar Zaidi Lecturer
Dr. Abrar Alenezi ( Part-time) Assistant Professor
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 55 LANGUAGE - ENGLISH Ms. Reem M A AlQenai Lecturer
Ms. Ruba Najia Lecturer
Ms. Rawan A H Kandari Lecturer
Mr. Abdullah Saoud A AL Farhan Lecturer
Mr. Fares H A Awadh Lecturer
Mr. Alban Beqiri Lecturer
Ms. Huda M. I. Abu Aisha Lecturer
Mr. Yousef Al Otaibi ( Part-time) Lecturer LANGUAGE - ARABIC Dr. Ahmad Bakri Asleh (Part-time) Lecturer
56 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Programs: Evaluation and Modifications
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 57 Programs: Evaluation and Modifications Academic Programs The structure and contents of KCST’s initial programs, developed by the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IITD), are carefully designed based on a synthesis of a variety of high-quality programs in computer science, computer engineering, electronics and communication engineering. The curricula are of international standard, designed to conform to the philosophy, recommendations and detailed contents endorsed by ACM and IEEE-CS, as well as the ABET accreditation requirements for engineering programs With English as the medium of instruction, the following programs are currently being offered by KSCT: • Bachelor of Computer Science - BSc CS • Bachelor of Computer Engineering – BEng CE • Bachelor of Electronics and Communication Engineering – BEng ECE
These programs differ in their objectives, content, duration and emphasis. Each program is described in terms of: • Program Mission • Program educational objectives • Student outcomes • The list of core courses that a student is required to complete successfully • The list of elective courses available to students • The semester-wise schedule for the program as a whole • Contents of various courses identified as core or elective
** Program Requirements and Typical Study plans of all three programs are given in the KCST Catalogue
58 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 The role of English Language and Management teaching at KCST In line with ABET requirements, our engineering graduates have the ability to: 1. Identify, formulate, and solve complex engineering problems by applying principles of engineering, science, and mathematics 2. Apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors 3. Communicate effectively with a range of audiences 4. Recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments, which must consider the impact of engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts 5. Function effectively on a team whose members together provide leadership, create a collaborative and inclusive environment, establish goals, plan tasks, and meet objectives 6. Develop and conduct appropriate experimentation, analyze and interpret data, and use engineering judgment to draw conclusions 7. Acquire and apply new knowledge as needed, using appropriate learning strategies. At KCST we take these requirements seriously and do everything we can in order to translate them into our teaching and learning programmes. Thus, in order for our graduates to communicate effectively with a range of audiences, they need to be proficient in English, the working language of all engineering disciplines. To this end, we give our students two core courses and several elective courses in English, over and above the foundation courses, also in English. As regards the Management and other Social Sciences courses, we consider that they are essential in fulfilling ABET requirements 4, 5 and 6 above. Thus, in order to: • make informed judgments in today’s global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts • meet organizational objectives and establish realistic plans • function effectively in teams and provide collective leadership • create collaborative and inclusive environments • be able to analyze and interpret data in managerial or entrepreneurial contexts students need to have a good background in Economics, Management, Entrepreneurship and Leadership. In order to achieve this, we provide our students with a series of four integrated core courses in these subjects, starting in their first year of study. Additionally, we offer students a number of supplementary elective courses, which include Project Management, Financial and Managerial Accounting, Philosophy and Ethics and History of Arab Civilization.
Student Assessment and Progress The University follows a system of assessment based on: • Continuous assessment. • An internal assessment by lecturers. • Assessment of students in absolute terms and relation to the performance of others in the class. Continuous assessment refers to the fact that each student is expected to demonstrate his/her learning throughout the semester. The instructor will communicate clearly the assessment policy for the class to all enrolled students. To that end, a student will be expected to: • Take one mid-term exam and a final exam. • Submit “home assignments” on their due dates.
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 59 • Submit reports on hands-on activity. • Each exam, assignment, and report will be evaluated, and the outcome made known to the student promptly. These evaluations will be counted towards the final grade in a course.
The instructor is expected to consider the performance of all students in his/her course and award grades to ensure that the grade assigned to each student truly reflects his/her performance vis-à-vis the performance of all other students in the class. Each student is expected to be responsible for the completion of all required work in each course for which he/she has enrolled. The grades students score indicates the students’ achievement with respect to the objectives of the course. Grading System a. Passing grades are “A,” “B,” “C,” and “D” . The qualities of performance associated with the different grades are explained in the table below. b. A student will be given credit only once for any course passed at KCST and counting toward their degree or in the calculation of their GPA. Repeated courses will be marked in order to distinguish them from other courses. c. The grading system is based on the following definitions: Letter Percentage GPA Letter grade description grade approximation Outstanding. An “A” grade reflects outstanding 4.00 A 95-100 performance in exams, assignments, and projects, as well as attendance and conduct. 3.67 A- 90-94 Excellent
3.33 B+ 87-89 Very Good 3.00 B 83-86 Good. A “B” grade represents good achievement, demonstrating an understanding of concepts and a 2.67 B- 80-82 presentation of work with high standards. 2.30 C+ 77-79 Satisfactory. A “C” grade represents satisfactory work, demonstrating a basic comprehension of the 2.00 C 73-76 material and the basic achievement of the proposed 1.67 C- 70-72 learning outcomes.
1.33 D+ 66-69 Pass 1.00 D 60-65 A”D” grade represents a marginal pass.
0.00 F Below 60 An “F” grade represents failing performance.
OTHER CODES APPEARING IN THE TRANSCRIPT CODE DESCRIPTION DF Deferment accepted FA Failure due to lack of class attendance I Incomplete grade (missing components from the grade) R Repeat course S Satisfactory Completion (for extramural optional courses) T Transfer grade W Withdrawal from the course
60 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Earning Credits A student is deemed to have earned the corresponding number of credits once he/she successfully completes a course with a letter grade of “D” or better. A student needs to repeat a course if he/she is given a grade of “F”, and she has to successfully complete the same course before he/she can use the credits towards graduation requirements. Cumulative earned credits are simply the total number of credits earned by a student in a given semester or summer term or his/her entire program. Calculation of SGPA and CGPA a. The calculation of SGPA (Semester Grade Point Average) and CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average) refer to the weighted average of points awarded in courses taken in a given semester or summer term or during his/her entire program (but up to the current time). b. SGPA is calculated as follows: (Course Credit X Grade Overall courses for which ∑ point) registered in given semester SGPA = Overall courses for which ∑ (Course Credit) registered in given semester
c. CGPA is calculated as follows: ∑ (Course Credit X Grade Overall courses successfully point) completed thus far CGPA = Overall courses successfully (Course Credit) completed thus far
d. W and I grades are not included in the calculation of GPA. Academic Awards President’s List & Dean’s List The President’s list and the Dean’s lists are meant to reward the students with the best academic results, measured in terms of GPA. The President’s list and the Dean’s lists are awarded per Faculty and include only degree students. At the conclusion of each academic year, the Registrar shall indicate which students are scholastically eligible to be included in the President’s list and the Dean’s lists. The awards include all students who have been registered at KCST for at least two semesters and completed a minimum of 30 credits, excluding transferred credits. They do not include students on deferment. The award ceremony is organized by the President’s Office and takes places at the end of September of each year, with reference to the results achieved in the previous academic year. However, at the end of each semester the lists will be displayed in the University’s electronic noticeboards. These academic awards are defined as follow: (a) President’s list This award is bestowed on 10 students who have achieved the highest cumulative GPA in the Faculty,
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 61 with reference to the previous academic year’s grades. It includes also the grades obtained in the summer semester. (b) Dean’s lists This award is bestowed on 20 students ranked according to the last two semesters’ GPA, 10 per semester. Therefore, there will be a Dean’s list for the Fall semester and a Dean’s list for the Spring semester. The Dean’s lists exclude students who are already included in the President’s List,
62 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 63 64 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Academic Programs Review and Proposed Modifications
Proposed Changes to Current Programs As shown in the Table below, the current Study Plan for the BSc in Computer Science has 126 credits and will remain 126. The current Study Plan for the BEng in Computer Engineering has 144 credits. This document presents the proposed B Eng in Computer Engineering and BEng in Electronics and Communication Engineering with 132 credits hours Study Plans for each, and the related revised course descriptions.
Program Current # of Credits Proposed # of credits Computer Science (CS) 126 126 Computer Engineering (CE) 144 132 Electronics and Communication Engineering (EC) 144 132
Justification The above revisions were made based on benchmarking made with the main public university in Kuwait, namely: Kuwait University, and international universities (many Ivy League ones), the ABET, ACM/IEEE guidelines, as well as the recommendations made by our expert partners at IIT Delhi. Computer Engineering Degree Requirements Summary The following Table shows a summary of the Graduation Requirement and associated major categories. Total number of Required/ Core Elective Category credits credits credits Engineering Sciences 21 21 0 Math 18 18 0 Science 14 8 6 Languages 6 6 0 Business Management 9 6 3 Social Sciences 9 3 6 Computer Engineering (Core + Electives) 55 46 9 Total credits 132 108 24
Electronics and Communications Engineering Graduation Requirements Summary The following Table shows a summary of the Graduation Requirement and associated major categories. Total number of Required/ Core Category Elective credits credits credits General Engineering Technology 21 21 0 Math 18 18 0 Science 14 11 3 Languages 6 6 0 Business Management 9 6 3 Social Sciences 9 3 6 Electronics & Comm. Engineering (Core + 55 46 9 Electives) Total credits 132 111 21
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 65 Course and Faculty Evaluation Upon discussions with faculty and lead administrators, it was concluded that in order to improve course delivery and pedagogy using student ratings of instruction requires programs to design evaluation instruments that are aligned with the following good, scholarly teaching criteria: offer 10-20 rating scale questions, ensure that students understand what the questions are asking, use a standardized form for evaluating all faculty members, allow for additional tailored questions to be added to the form, and employ a four- or five-point rating scale with a “not applicable” option. Offer the evaluation at the end of the term; offer the evaluation during scheduled class time; and allow for voluntary, anonymous student participation. Finally, all programs should create an assessment plan that outlines the results’ release timeline, a list of who will receive result summaries, and how the results will be used. Programs should also encourage faculty reflection, offer mentoring in results interpretation, coach faculty members to summarize and quantify comments and longitudinally track results using tables, and create an accountability action plan to address deficiencies. Recently, to insure the quality of content and delivery of all courses, KCST has started to implement a policy to obtain feedback from all students about the quality of the courses and the performance of the faculty. In the summer of 2019, a course evaluation form has been developed and has been formally adopted for use. The new course evaluation form will be used for the first time in the fall of 2019. The form is shown below: Course Evaluation Form Course Title/Number : Name of Instructor : Department : Semester/year : Use the scale to answer the following questions below and make comments 1-Strongly Disagree, 2-Disagree, 3-Somewhat Agree, 4-Agree, 5-Strongly Agree Instructor: A. The instructor is prepared for each class. 1 2 3 4 5 B. The instructor demonstrates knowledge of the Subject. 1 2 3 4 5 C. The instructor has completed the whole course. 1 2 3 4 5 D. The instructor provides additional material apart from the textbook. 1 2 3 4 5 E. The instructor gives citations regarding current real life cases 1 2 3 4 5 F. The instructor communicates the subject matter effectively. 1 2 3 4 5 G. The instructor shows respect towards students and encourages class participation. 1 2 3 4 5 H. The instructor maintains an environment that is conductive to learning. 1 2 3 4 5 I. The instructor arrives on time. 1 2 3 4 5 J. The instructor leaves class on time. 1 2 3 4 5 K. The instructor is fair in examination. 1 2 3 4 5 L. The instructor returns the graded scripts etc. in a reasonable amount of time. 1 2 3 4 5 The instructor was available during the specified office hours and for after class consulta- M. 1 2 3 4 5 tions. Course: N. The subject matter presented in the course has increased your knowledge of the subject. 1 2 3 4 5 O. The syllabus clearly states course objectives, requirements, procedures and grading criteria. 1 2 3 4 5 P. The course integrates theoretical course concepts with real-world applications. 1 2 3 4 5 Q. The assignments and exams covered the materials presented in the course. 1 2 3 4 5 R. The course material is modern and updated. 1 2 3 4 5
Comments Course: Instructor:
66 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Quality Control, Student Outcome & Accreditation
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 67 Quality Control, Student Outcome & Accreditation Programs Quality Assurance and Continuous Improvement Benefits and Purposes of Quality Assurance for KCST Quality assurance (QA) enables KCST to: • bring internal benefits to the university and the staff; • bring external benefits to the students and the reputation of the institution; • continuously improve themselves, the students and the work of the university. Continuous improvement is both the medium and outcome of quality assurance; • serve accountability and accreditation requirements; • enhance the reputation of the university, and meet external demands for demonstrating quality, quality assurance and quality enhancement. QA enables KCST to: • formulate, clarify and articulate its mission, vision, goals, objectives and its relation to those elsewhere in the university; • identify the unique and/or distinctive features of the university (which can help to position itself for student and staff recruitment and orientation), and for publicity. QA is developmental; it enables relevant parties within KCST to: • receive feedback and to take action as a consequence of the feedback, setting collective priorities, and disseminating good practice; • identify needs and resources; • develop and implement action planning; • monitor and evaluate themselves, each other, students and the work in the university; • identify strengths and weaknesses in its work; • address staff needs for ongoing professional development and enhance their professionalism through regulation, self-regulation, and self-organized development; • know where to intervene to make effective and sustainable, continuous improvements; • improve the quality of the work, the staff and students, the learning and achievement of the intended outcomes of the work. From a procedural perspective at KCST, QA enables relevant parties to: • develop a systematic, rigorous mentality/mindset towards, and way of looking at, planning, delivering and evaluating its work, and to do this methodically, collaboratively and collegially; • conduct systematic inquiry into the nature and impact of the work of members the university as academic, researchers and teachers; • understand the processes that led to the outcomes, so that these can be improved where necessary, i.e. quality assurance has a clear formative agenda; • contribute to the ongoing processes of assurance and enhancement of quality in the work of the university, its teaching, learning, student assessment, evaluation and student outcomes over and above the other mechanisms and their reporting cycles that may exist for reviewing and improving the work; • improve, develop and ensure that the quality of the work undertaken is at the highest level, and that the processes for this exist in the university, that they are operating effectively, and are impacting on the quality of the work undertaken. • to establish whether there are appropriate and effective procedures and mechanisms for quality assurance, and that these are working, to ensure that the intended features of the work of the university are being achieved, to serve accountability, and to identify good practice within the faculty/department/school/university.
68 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 From KCST leadership and management perspective QA enables relevant parties to: • cultivate and conduct evidence-based decision-making and leadership; • develop collaborative and collegial practices and improve morale. • identify what the university stands for and where it is going; • know and to understand the distinctive strengths, accomplishments, needs, and future plans of its work, and this also serves accountability purposes; • identify areas of common interest in the faculty/department/school/university, to link individual members of staff or entire faculties/departments/schools with relevant resources on- and off-campus, and to meet identified resource needs; • ensure that the work in question is aligned not only to its own aims, objectives and intended learning outcomes, but also that, these, in turn, are aligned to the strategic direction of the university. • identify where the work in practice is, and is not, matched to its declared intentions; • enhance communication, improve morale and a sense of working towards a common aim of the best performance and operation of the work in the university, by enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the work; • compile thorough and complete documentation of the work undertaken, such that new members of staff can understand, and, indeed fit into, the university with maximum ease and minimum time; this can be useful if staff turnover is an issue.
KCST has initiated a quality assurance program aimed at enhancing institutional effectiveness and at developing a sustainable continuous improvement program in all university divisions, with emphasis on enhancing academic planning and academic programs.. This would entail the development of a systematic data collection processes and robust assessment tools. For purpose of illustration, the assessment process for academic programs is presented next. QA of Academic Programs and through Continuous Improvement and Course Assessment
Figure 1 shows the process that engineering program uses to regularly assess and evaluate the extent to which the student outcomes are being attained. We will describe next each major block in the Student Outcome assessment.
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 69 Figure 1: The process of regularly assessing and evaluating the extent to which the student outcomes are being attained Performance Indicators: The academic program identifies, in consultation with the appropriate constituents, Performance Indicators (PIs) that represent the knowledge, skills, attitudes or behaviour students should be able to demonstrate by the time of graduation that indicate competence related to the outcome. Assessment Methods: The program uses relevant direct, indirect, quantitative, and qualitative measures appropriate to the outcome. The direct quantitative assessment instruments at the course level include in-class quizzes, Midterms, and Final exams. The indirect assessment instruments include Indirect qualitative assessment instruments include faculty feedback. These assessment instruments are used periodically as appropriate. Conducting Assessments: The program conducts the assessment by periodically administering the appropriate assessment instruments at the course level to obtain data about the attainment of Course Outcomes (COs). Collecting and Assembling Data: The program performs systematic and consistent (every semester) data collection using a central repository system where faculty teaching courses place the data needed. The data comprises of the results of the direct and indirect assessment instruments. Compiling and Analysing Data: The program performs systematic and consistent (every semester) data compilation that is focused on SOs assessment related to the identified performance indicators identified. Appropriate sampling methods are used in the analysis. Interpreting the results: The program performs a systematic and consistent interpretation of the data and evidence accumulated through the previous phase to determine the extent to which student outcomes are being attained. A dashboard-like view of the SOs attainment and their PIs will be produced. Identify needed improvements: The program performs the essential systematic and consistent evaluation of findings to ensure that decisions and actions taken as a result of the assessment process will lead to program improvement. Implement Improvements: The program implements the approved decisions and actions and starts the cycle of conducting assessment again. This ensures that our program stays relevant to the professions it serves, supports the highest quality student experience, and confirms that our graduates are well prepared for their careers. Please note that the same cycle/process in Figure 1 is used to assess the Program Educational Outcomes. Assessment Strategy: We shall next describe the assessment strategy used by the academic program by explaining the essential information found in the major blocks of our process, as illustrated in Figure 2
70 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Figure 2: The assessment Strategy used by the academic program Developing Performance Indicators: The academic program develops Performance Indicators (PIs) out of our Student Outcomes (SOs). The following SO1 –> PIs mapping in Table 1 is an example. Table 1: SO1 –> PIs mapping. Student Outcome Performance Indicators 1- Ability to mathematically describe a system using scientific principles 2- Ability to Develop and Analyze mathematical models for a system 1. Ability to identify, formulate, and 3- Ability to synthesize components/systems using mathematics and engineer- solve complex engineering prob- ing knowledge lems by applying principles of engi- 4- Apply basic mathematical knowledge to solve basic problems appropriate neering, science, and mathematics to the discipline 5- Apply principles of physics and Chemistry to solve simple, practical prob- lems appropriate to the discipline. Developing Assessment Descriptors associated with a CO and linked to PI: The academic program develops Assessment Descriptors out of a CO and links them to PI. Table 2 illustrates an example of an SO, its PIs and the associated assessment descriptors.
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 71 Table 2 : CO in a course, its assessment descriptor and performance indictor (SO1.1) that is linked to an SO1.
Student Outcome Performance Indicators Assessment Description COs Course SO1. Ability to identify, SO1.1- Ability to mathematically AD1- Exhibit through technical de- CO1, CO2 CE xyz formulate, and solve describe a system using scientif- tails found in the Project, technical complex engineering ic principles reports, or technical presentations CO1, CO3 CE zyx problems by applying AD2- Find the frequency response principles of engi- of an RLC circuit. neering, science, and mathematics AD3- Develop a mapping function from an autocorrelation function estimate to echo gain.
4- Develop an energy band diagram of a semiconductor and calculate the carrier concentration
Identify Problems in Assessment Instruments and associate them with a specific assessment description: The faculty in the academic program identifies, for each course, and for each assessment, the instrument used to assess students attainment of COs in the course, a mapping between a problem in the assessment instrument and an assessment descriptor. Table 03 shows how a hypothetical example of a problem in an assessment instrument (Quiz) in a course (CE xxx) is mapped to a CO which is in turn mapped to an assessment descriptor, and to a PI and then finally an SO.
Table 3: A Quiz in a course is mapped to a CO which is in turn mapped to an assessment descriptor, and to a PI and then finally an SO. Course Student Performance Assessment Course Assessment Name and Problem Outcome Indicators Description Outcome Instrument Number
SO1 PI1 AD1 COx CE xxx Quiz Px
Data Collection from Identified Homework and exams: The CE program systematically collects data obtained from students scores in all the assessment instruments used to assess the attainment of COs PIs and SOs Scoring System: The CE program uses the EAMU when computing the PI attainment. In Table 4 we illustrate.
Table 4: EAMU scoring system
category General Description level Points The student applies knowledge with virtually no conceptual or pro- Excellent > 90% 3 cedural errors The student applies knowledge with no significant conceptual error Adequate > 75% 2 and only minor procedural errors The student applies knowledge with occasional conceptual and/or Minimal > 66% 1 procedural errors The student makes significant conceptual and/or procedural errors Unsatisfactory < 66 % 0 when applying knowledge
72 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Course level mapping: Course assessment in the academic program is performed regularly (every semester) using both formative and summative approaches for the purpose of considering different goals of course assessment methods. A “score” is a formative assessment of an exercise and can be mapped, if linked properly to a specific CO, PI and related SO, respectively. A “grade” on the other hand is a summative assessment of the student’s aggregate performance within the context of a particular course. The grade represents the extent to which the student has successfully met the requirement of the course. Our formative assessment thus uses different items of classroom activities, such as quizzes, exams, presentations, and reports. Each item contains multiple questions focused on a specific topic that is mapped by the instructor to the COs, and the COs will be mapped to the PIs. This means that the score of each question will be used in the measurement of COs and SOs achievements. We shall next describe the course level mapping strategy used by the CE program by explaining the essential information found in the major blocks of our process which is illustrated in Figure 0.3.
Figure 3: Course Level Assessment.
Map all classroom activity items to COs: The CE program, maps for each course, all classroom activity (assessment instruments) items to the course’s COs. Table 05 illustrates such a mapping for a fictitious course.
Table 5: mapping classroom activity items to a course’s COs. Course Outcomes Quizzes Midterm Final
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 CO1 x x CO2 x x CO3 x x x x CO4 x x x CO5 x x x x CO6 x x x CO7 x x
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 73 Mapping Student Scores with COs: The CE program takes the average scores (out of 10) of students in a classroom activity item such as a quiz and maps it to the corresponding COs. For example, the following Table shows how the class average (7.43) for Quiz 1 is placed for CO1, CO2, and CO3, as indicated in Table 05.
Average: Table 6 shows the average (out of 10) for the 4 quizzes, Midterm, and Final. The averages are placed in accordance with the xs in Table 5.
Table 6: Mapping the class Average of COs out of 10 to Table 05.
COs Quizzes Midterm Final Overall Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Average Average Average Average CO1 7.43 7.43 8.25 7.84
CO2 7.43 7.43 6.61 7.02
CO3 7.43 8.13 7.78 7.72 7.43 7.64
CO4 8.13 8.34 8.23 8.34 8.27
CO5 8.13 8.34 8.39 8.28 8.26 8.27
CO6 8.34 8.39 8.36 7.17 7.76
CO7 8.39 8.39 8.86 8.62
Threshold: Table 7 shows the number of students above the threshold (set by the CE Program). Table 7: Number of students above the threshold (set by the Academic Program) COs Quizzes Midterm Final Overall Average
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Average Average Average
CO1 21 7 20 6.5 6.75
CO2 22 7.5 18 6 6.75
CO3 23 19 7 19 6.5 21 7 6.83
CO4 21 24 7.5 22 7.5 7.5
CO5 18 23 19 7 19 6.5 6.75
CO6 25 20 8 23 9 8.50
CO7 26 9 25 8.5 8.50
Performance Vector for the COs: The performance vector is based on the EAMU and is calculated for each CO based on the following equalities: Number of students performing at: • Excellent level ( above 9/10) (E) • Adequate level ( 7.5-9) ( A) • Minimal level (6.6-7.5) (M) • Unsatisfactory level ( Less 6.6) (U)
74 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Table 8 shows the CO performance vector for CO1 in the Quizzes. Table 8: Performance vector for CO1 in the Quizzes CO Performance Vector for Quizzes COs E A M U CO1 8 11 8 3 CO2 Faculty Course Assessment Report: At the end of the semester, each faculty prepares a course report. The course report includes many components. The most important is the dashboard in Table 9.
Table 9: The Faculty Course Assessment Report dashboard CO Achievement Achievement Performance Improvement COs of COs based of COs based Vector Met Reasons PI Action on Average on Threshold E A M U
SO1.1; SO1.4; CO1 78.4 67.5 4 15 8 3 NO Reason x Action a SO2.3; SO2.4 SO4.2; SO4.4; CO2 70.2 67.5 7 14 4 5 NO Reason y Action b SO4.6; SO5.3; SO5.3; SO3.2; SO3.3; CO3 76.4 68.3 9 15 3 3 NO Reason z Action c SO3.6; SO6.1; SO6.3; SO2.1; SO2.3; CO4 82.7 75.0 14 10 4 2 YES SO2.6; SO4.3; SO4.4; SO1.1; SO1.4; CO5 82.7 67.5 11 13 4 2 YES SO3.2; SO3.5; SO2.2; SO2.4; SO2.6; CO6 77.6 85.0 10 12 6 2 YES SO5.3; SO5.5; SO5.6 SO3.2; SO3.5; CO7 86.2 85.0 16 10 3 1 YES SO7.1; SO7.4; SO7.6; Columns 4, 5, 6, and 7, of Table 9 show the EAMU performance vector for all COs. This is the average of all the vector performances of all the assessment instruments. Column 8 show if our criterion is met (attainment in a course). Column 9 shows what type of action is needed to address the lack of attainment of a particular CO. Column 10 shows the SO (Please see the mapping between the CO, AD and PI in Table 03.
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 75 When all Faculty Course Assessment Reports (FCARs) for all courses taught during an academic term are obtained, and their data are obtained. Table 10 shows the average attainment of each PI for SO1 and the overall average attainment of SO1. SO1 has 5 PIs, as indicated in Table 10.
Table 10: The average attainment of each PI for SO1 and the overall average attainment of SO1 Course PIs Score PIs Score PIs Score PIs Score PIs Score CE 1 SO1.1 2.12 SO1.2 2.4 SO1.3 1.8 SO1.4 N/A SO1.5 3 CE 2 SO1.1 2.67 SO1.2 2.14 SO1.3 N/A SO1.4 2.4 SO1.5 2.78 CE 3 SO1.1 2.4 SO1.2 3 SO1.3 3 SO1.4 2.1 SO1.5 2.23 CE 4 SO1.1 1.67 SO1.2 2.45 SO1.3 2.45 SO1.4 2.15 SO1.5 2.71 CE 5 SO1.1 1.65 SO1.2 N/A SO1.3 1.67 SO1.4 2.48 SO1.5 N/A CE 6 SO1.1 2.67 SO1.2 2 SO1.3 2 SO1.4 N/A SO1.5 2.69 CE 7 SO1.1 1.67 SO1.2 3 SO1.3 N/A SO1.4 N/A SO1.5 N/A CE 8 SO1.1 1.67 SO1.2 2.33 SO1.3 2.33 SO1.4 N/A SO1.5 1.78 CE 10 SO1.1 2.34 SO1.2 2 SO1.3 2.4 SO1.4 1.43 SO1.5 2.51 Average 2.10 2.42 2.24 2.11 2.53 SO1 average 2.28
Continuous Improvement The results of the evaluation process are used on a regular basis by the department to decide on the course of actions. Starting from the dashboard view provided in Table 9 and ending with the SO attainment (example in Table 10). Actions (remedy) approved by the department are deployed the next time a course is taught. Then the results are compared with the previous year in terms of attainment to ensure that the remedy is the right one and that no further actions are required.
76 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Programs ABET Accreditation. KCST has embarked on pursuing ABET accreditation in July 2019, so that all graduates from KCST will be graduates of ABET accredited engineering programs. This includes the first cohort of students, who will be graduating in January 2020. Both Computer Engineering and Electronics and Communication Engineering programs will be seeks ABET accreditation. ABET accreditation is proof that a collegiate program has met standards essential to produce graduates ready to enter the critical fields of STEM education. Graduates from an ABET-accredited program have a solid educational foundation and are capable of leading the way in innovation, emerging technologies, and in anticipating the welfare and safety needs of the public. The degree is a significant achievement and perhaps the largest investment students will make toward their future. The quality of education received makes a big difference in career success. ABET accreditation: • Verifies that the educational experience meets the global standard for technical education in the profession. • Enhances employment opportunities—multinational corporations require graduation from an accredited program. • Supports entry to a technical profession through licensure, registration and certification—all of which often require graduation from an ABET-accredited program as a minimum qualification. • Paves the way for you to work globally, because ABET accreditation is recognized worldwide through international agreements. The ABET accreditation review process is an intensive team effort, and program accreditation is voluntary. The process yields data and insights; that can be used to deliver the best educational experience for students. ABET accreditation tells all prospective students, peers and the professions that the program: • Has received international recognition of its quality. • Promotes “best practices” in education. • Directly involves faculty and staff in self-assessment and continuous quality improvement processes. • Is based on “learning outcomes,” rather than “teaching inputs.” • Can more easily determine the acceptability of transfer credits. ABET promotes excellence in technical education by focusing on continuous quality improvement processes, not by prescribing methods. With technological change occurring so rapidly, institutions seeking to ensure their programs are dynamically evolving participate in the ABET accreditation process. ABET accreditation: • Ensures that graduates have met the educational requirements necessary to enter the profession • Provides opportunities for the industry to guide the educational process to reflect current and future needs • Enhances the mobility of professionals
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 77 KCST -18Month ABET Accreditation Plan 1. Complete the Readiness Review by October 1-2019 1 YEAR BEFORE ON-SITE VISIT • Collect samples of student work, syllabi, textbooks and sample assignments. • Complete your Readiness Review by October 1 2019. 2. Submit your Request for Evaluation by January 31-2020 3. set a visit date and form a review team between April and May 2020. 4. Complete and submit your Self-Study Report by July 1-2020 5. The review team assigned to program begins reviewing your Self-Study Report. 6. Attend the Institutional Representatives Day at the July Commission Meeting. Program’s institutional representative is invited to meet the review team chair at this annual event. 7. The On-Site Visit takes place September – December- 2020 ON-SITE VISIT • Prepare for On-Site Visit. Finalize the visit schedule, arrange student and faculty interviews, and, finally, set up rooms with display materials for the review team. This requires planning and preparation months in advance. • On-Site Visit typically lasts three days (usually Sunday through Tuesday). It includes a review of your materials; interviews with students, faculty, staff, and administrators; and concludes with an exit meeting, when the team will convey its findings. 8. Due Process and the Accreditation Decision 1 WEEK AFTER THE VISIT • KCST will provide the review team with any errors of fact resulting from the exit meeting. 2-3 MONTHS AFTER THE VISIT • KCST will receive the Draft Statement, a formal communication of your review team’s findings. 3-4 MONTHS AFTER THE VISIT • During the 30-Day Due Process period KCST must respond to any shortcomings identified in the Draft Statement. JULY-2021 • The ABET commissions meet to decide Accreditation Actions in July. At this meeting our program’s accreditation is discussed and determined. BY AUGUST 31-2021 • Your program is formally notified of the accreditation action via the Final Statement to the institution.
78 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Student Life
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 79 Student Life Competitions, Workshops, Seminars and Projects 11. Participation in the 6th Kuwait Collegiate Programming Contest (KCPC) hosted by K-Tech in October, 2018. • KCST team selected within the top ten teams and qualified for the semi-finals Sharm El Sheikh – Egypt. KCPC press release published in Kuwait Times
22. Participation in the Arab Collegiate Programming Contest (ACPC) Sharm El Sheikh – Egypt. November, 2018.
80 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 33. Under the Patronage of His Highness the Amir of Kuwait Shaikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jabber Al-Sabah, KCST hosts and participation two functions of the annual Global Information forum which are the Makeathone and the GameJam. November, 2018. • Awarding first, second and third place (Makeathone). • Awarding second and third place (GameJam).
44. Under the patronage of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, a group of students from Kuwait College of Science and Technology (KCST) were invited to the Bayan Palace to attend the ceremony honoring the winners of the 18th year of HH Sheikh Salem Al Ali Al Sabah, To highlight Kuwaiti personalities who have excelled in modern technology as well as technology developers worldwide and the Arab world. November, 2018.
55. Participation Agility Hackathon with MIT Media Lab at Niu Collaborative Community in Kuwait City. March 2019. • Our KCST team built a machine learning model that predicts next year demand with an accuracy of %95. • Awarding team for the ‘Most Outstanding Solution’.
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 81 66. Participation of our students in the opening ceremony of the Kuwait Innovation Center Company under the auspices of Sheikh / Duaij Khalifa Al-Sabah. May, 2019.
77. KCST Programming Club organized Website Development Workshop titled “Create your first website”. April, 2019.
88. KCST Programming Club presented the KCPC seminar to introduce this contest to the students as of 7th edition of the contest will be held in KCST. The talk was about what this contest, its format is and how it would benefit the contestant. August, 2019.
99. KCST faculty members and students participation in the presence of the Cyber Security Summit organized by the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) under the auspices and presence of the CEO of Kuwait Oil Company Mr. Imad Sultan. In the city of Kuwait Oil Company tent. August, 2019.
82 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 1010Kuwait College of Science and Technology won the third place in the Kuwait Cyber Security Competition (Capture the flag) represented by student Nasser Al-Saqabi organized by the Kuwait Oil Company under the patronage and presence of the CEO of Kuwait Oil Company Mr. Imad Sultan and a number of Deputy CEO and officials of the company. The finals of the Arab competition held in Egypt on 22 September 2019. August, 2019.
Youth Empowerment Society (Yes) The Youth Empowerment Society of Kuwait College of Science and Technology is a university-run, non-profit group consisting of young, passionate students who are committed to discovering their best selves & reminding youth that empowerment starts from within. VISION At YES, our goal is to empower the youth by reminding them of their abilities. Through a series of activities & workshops, we aim to harbor desirable social & professional skills and shed light on their power to find strength from within. We believe that everyone is already hardwired to be successful; it is only a matter of realizing it. MISSION To push the youth to realize their full potential by believing in themselves through focusing the spotlight on their potential. OBJECTIVES ▸▸ Create future leaders with confident & competitive personalities. ▸▸ Develop the appreciation for innovation, hard work & leadership. ▸▸ Provide collaborative partnership programs with organizations. ▸▸ Encourage youth to proactively be involved in the community. ▸▸ Arranging symposiums, workshops & seminars which encourage growth. CREATIVITY - Expressing our inner excellence 11. YOU ARE THE FUTURE (Feb 2019) : An event aimed to show off students’ achievements and their ability to balance student life and their creative side/business. Around 30 students participated and over 400 attended. The top three winners were invited by the Diwan Al Amiri to attend “Kuwait is Proud” event at Bayan palace and received golden coins as a reward from HH The Amir Sheikh Sabah. Academic Relevance: Encouragement, confidence-building, assessment & feedback.
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 83 22. YOUTH WEEK (April 2019) : An event which took place from the 14th to the 18th of April. Aiming to raise awareness among students and finding out ways to help them engage with the community and cope with life successfully. Guest speaker included the HE Mr. Michael Davenport (British Ambassador), Dr. Khaled Mahdi (Ministry of Planning/UNHCR), Dr. Fatima Almousawi (Diwan Al Amiri).
Academic Relevance: Exploring opportunities for growth, highlighting local government & community support for youth.
33. YES TALK (May 2019): In YES’ version of “TED Talk”, successful people from the young local community were invited to share their successstories & what they’ve learned/gained along the way with a full-house of students and faculty members. Guest speakers included pioneers in our like Abdulwahab Al-Eissa from boutiqaat.com & KCST’s very own students who run personal businesses. Academic Relevance: Education beyond the classroom, motivation & connection. Confidence booster. ACTIVITY – Proactively implementing our core values SEASON 2 (2019-2020) In our upcoming second season, we vow to continue to be committed to our youth empowerment initiatives. Our calendar of events is quickly filling up with exciting seminars and possibly even a nation-wide symposium for youth. We will continue to make strategic alliances in the community which will enable us to further our commitment to the cause. Day by day, we strive to make not only our university great, but also the world as a whole. The Art Club The Art club opened in February 2018. It was the first of its kind in KCST in the field of art with the aim of discovering the talents in students and developing their skills. The club focuses on many areas including Arabic calligraphy, painting, debate and literature. It was initially called Calligraphy Club but when the activities increased the name was changed to Art Club. A team students holding positions of president, vice president, secretary manage the club. Academic Relevance: ▸▸ This club aims to build the confidence of students who rely on art to express their emotions. This will help students have a better control their stress levels and contribute to their success academically. ▸▸ Improving Arabic calligraphy helps students academically. It means their calligraphy in English will improve and become clear and tidy during their studies. The Art Club conducted many activities inside and outside the KCST campus: Calligraphy Course ▸▸ The first calligraphy course was from March to May 2018. ▸▸ The second calligraphy course was from October to December 2019 .
Students Improved their skill of calligraphy, enjoyed the training and spent time usefully while on campus
84 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Drawing Competition This community- oriented competition was held in February 2019, in the KCST cafeteria. It was open to both children and adults. All the children were honored and given gifts. The best panting was won by Ms. Lolwa Alansari.
Debate Competition Two teams from KCST participated in the Debating Competition organized by Kuwait Law College in December 2018. This competition helped develop students’ debating skills and stimulated their minds to produce new ideas.
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 85 Programs aiming at community participation 11. GUINNESS WORLD RECORD ATTEMPT: The first of it’s kind in Jahra, students and their families were invited to participate in attempting to build the largest temporary structure made from recycled materials. More than 1000 students, staff and community members participated. Academic Relevance: Applying engineering techniques, team-work, and motivation. 22. WEEKLY EMPOWERMENT TALKS: Talks & podcasts hosted by students from KCST which aim to raise awareness about a local/global issue, and to educate students and hear their opinions on social issues. Academic Relevance: A sense of community & belonging, a controlled, open-mic point of contact with the students. 33. Student Field Trips: trips that aims to educate students in different fields and to appreciate the architecture of our society. Academic Relevance: Seeing beyond the book, making the connection from classroom problem solving to 3-Dimensional buildings. SERVICE – Our commitment to social responsibility 11. Ramadan – Prepared meals, collected donations of food/clothes/ money for distribution in the local community. 22. Blood Donation – Paid a visit to the local blood bank to give blood. 33. Volunteering – Club members become national ambassadors for ‘New Kuwait 2035’ in collaboration with Diwan Al Amiri. 44. Collaborations – Supported other clubs throughout the year in their respective activities and events.
86 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Community Engagement and Collaboration
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 87 Community Engagement and Collaboration Community Engagement KCST committed itself to “scholarship, outreach and service that extend our human talent and technological capacity to serve the people of Kuwait At the heart of that commitment are the values of engagement and communication, and the specific goal to “improve and enhance the health and well-being of our community and environment through outreach programs and in collaboration with our constituents and partners For KCST to develop more effective, sustainable, and equitable relationships with our communities to address the complex challenges facing Kuwait, we identify the following eight action items that will be used to develop a strategic plan for community engagement: 11. Strengthen KCST’s Culture of support for community engagement and outreach practices, integrate this work with institutional initiatives, and reward this activity within the KCST community. 22. Develop practices and structures to expand mutually beneficial Relationships with community partners across Kuwait. 33. Develop robust connections between engagement and Student Learning and student success measures. 44. Seek Recognition for KCST’s engagement and outreach strengths through benchmarks, such as the American Carnegie Foundation’s Classification for Community Engagement, which model best practices in community engagement. 55. Assess community engagement and outreach activities and use results to drive future decisions. 66. Communicate regularly and effectively about engagement and outreach. KCST Objectives and Strategies for Collaboration Through extensive discussions within the KCST community, primarily faculty, staff and administrators, a set of objectives and strategies have been developed: KCST is to: • Stimulate, coordinate and support collaborative initiatives • Ensure that collaboration is included in planning, developing and evaluation of research and education • Encourage and develop incentives for collaboration • Establish and develop strategic partnerships • Further the international exchange of learning and experience OBJECTIVE AND STRATEGIES
Objective Collaboration with the private, public and non-profit sectors will engage all parts of the university and contribute both to societal development and to the University’s vitality. Strategies • Collaboration will be developed in partnership with external partners by formulating challenges and implementing joint projects and educational elements. • The academic staff’s work to convey ideas and research results from the entire University and to make them available for societal benefit and commercialization will be strengthened. • Collaboration will be a more highly valued part of the work of all academic staff. • External contract assignments in research and education, especially in continuing professional training, will increase through initiatives at all levels within the University.
88 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 • The exchange of expertise between the University and society will be encouraged and help provide opportunities for the University’s employees. • Funds donated by individuals and organizations will increase through the development of fundraising activities for education, research and collaboration. • Society’s knowledge of, and access to, the University’s educational and research offerings will increase through improved communication, and new activities and arenas for dialogue. Proposed Principles for Engaged Partnerships: 11. Engaged partnerships are mutually beneficial. Both to the university and its partners agree on related goals and strategies, and work to ensure the needs of both partners are met. 22. Partners must work to build and maintain respect and trust. All projects will maintain the highest standards of ethics, integrity and sensitivity, and recognize the valuable skills and capacities of each partner. 33. .Collaboration is critical to effective partnerships. While all partners may not contribute equally at all stages of a partnership, all partners should have the opportunity to influence a project’s design, implementation, evaluation and dissemination. 44. Communication must be clear and regular, and should flow in multiple directions with partners reporting regularly on all activities and developments relating to the partnership. 55. Partnerships must be innovative in ways that recognize that each partnership is unique and dynamic. Engaged partnerships mean developing innovative responses to the barriers and challenges that emerge. 66. Partnerships should contribute to a culture of engagement. Research results and teaching experiences from partnerships will be of high quality and will contribute to creating new partnerships from existing ones. Proposed Guidelines for Engaged Partnerships: 11. Maximize partnerships. Those involved in creating and maintaining partnerships should strive to leverage the relationships for multiple purposes. Partners should be encouraged to incorporate scholarship and research, teaching and learning, and service goals into their objectives, and they should seek to be interdisciplinary. When appropriate, research partnerships should be leveraged into teaching partnerships and vice versa. 22. Establish common ground. The most enduring partnerships are those that have clearly defined objectives. Partners determine benefits together, and agree on who will contribute what resources, what products/activities will result, and how such products/ activities will be disseminated. 33. Define milestones. Milestones should include both short and long-term goals, understanding that the completion of short-term action plans can boost partner morale, improve involvement, and demonstrate the effectiveness of the partnership. 44. Assess and report regularly. All partners should engage in a self-assessment of progress, difficulties and barriers. They should identify the partnership’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT), and then jointly revise the partnership plans as necessary. 55. View partnerships as dynamic. Partnerships rarely unfold as planned, so strategies should be dynamic. As the environment evolves, strategies and priorities should be adapted to meet both long and short-term goals. 66. Enhance opportunities for colleagues. Whether engaging as individuals or collectives, members of academic or administrative units are all part of a broader university community. Partnerships and engagement should enhance the institutional reputation and ideally open up possibilities for others to benefit and collaborate. 77. Ensure all partners feel equal. All partners need to possess the ability to act. External partners appreciate meetings taking place off campus and university partners making the effort to come to them. This helps to address issues of intimidation and power imbalances, and creates greater trust and openness.
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 89 90 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Support Units
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 91 University Support Units Student Affairs & Registration Department The Academic year of 2018/2019 was the period where dramatic changes have successfully been made. The strategic objectives set for the Academic years of 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 were to improve the capacity and profile of the Student Affairs & Registration department and to develop administrative structures and systems that will enhance the essential services provided to Students. Student Affairs & Registration staff number increased from five to nine members; each assigned to handle different tasks that serve Students’ needs.
PUC Scholarship Plan: • A successful plan has been created and implemented for the PUC admission period of Fall 2019/2018. • All departments involved in this period are well trained on how to assist Students in filling the KCST online application and PUC online application. • A queuing system has been installed and utilized to serve the Applicants in all stages of their application. • Revision classes have been offered by KCST Faculty members. • Civil ID cards of Applicants have been captured by civil ID readers to guarantee the accuracy of Students’ information. • High school data and information (School name, location, student GPA etc.) were linked to Applicants’ civil ID numbers. • Online application was developed to cover all Students’ information and documents, including bank information. • A bilingual guideline was created for Students and parents to track their applications. • PUC plan, steps, and tasks are all documented and revised at the end of the PUC period to avoid all possible shortcomings and accordingly improve them. • New plans and forms were created to serve the other types of available scholarships. These include: PUC transfer Students, honour scholarships, PUC scholarships for Diploma holders, re- joining scholarship. • Online Application: • The online application has significantly changed. All information fields are bilingual, and cover all the Applicant’s details both personal and academic. Bank details are also included for the purpose of facilitating the social allowance reports. • All personal and academic documents are scanned. This is an essential step of completing the online application.
92 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 • Selecting the entrance exams and revision classes dates is also a part of the online application.
Entrance Exams: The method of administrating the entrance exams has changed to online. The content of the Math and Physics exams were revised and updated and some of the questions have become bilingual. Cambridge English practice tests are being used. The grading scheme has been modified according to the performance of Applicants in previous semesters. A fully equipped lab is allocated for all entrance exams during registration periods. Applicants are able to view their scores right after they complete the three entrance tests by logging into their online application. Grades of the three entrance exams are automatically saved to the Students’ records, and in case of repeating the entrance exams, the higher scores are automatically overwritten.
Student Portal and Official Documents: The Student portal has become more user friendly and provides access to academic and financial services: • Student profiles • Course registration, timetable, transcript, Study plan, plan by levels, absence summary, and course evaluations • Financial services: statement of account, online payment, E-learning, and library • Other forms: justification for absence from class or exam, College withdrawal, semester withdrawal, deferment, grade appeal, and evaluation module.
Faculty Portal:
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 93 Sponsor Portal This portal allows sponsor institutions to track Students Academic performance and status. This includes schedules, transcripts, attendance, study plans and final grades. Updating Student Information The department continuously strives to update Student personal information using the civil ID card reader which in turn syncs with the University system. Electronic Documents: Previously, all official documents were prepared manually by the department and issued to the Student which was not time effective. Currently these forms are generated and printed directly from the system. This applies to the following: • Official transcripts • To whom it may concern letter (TWIMC) • Official schedules Considerable effort was invested into verifying all Student information (civil ID numbers and sponsors etc.) and making sure the letters cover all information Students may require (eg. the type of sponsor, the study shift (morning/evening etc.). Most of the forms are automated however, the remaining ones have been revised and modified according to instructions and updates. Clearance Report: This is an electronic report that indicates the study plan, transferred credits, and registered courses of each Student. The purpose of this report is to ensure that Students do not register for courses that are out of scope and to avoid credit overload. Credit Hour Transfer: The credit hour transfer process is currently automated and linked to the Student’s clearance form (mentioned above). Class Management: The number of classrooms, halls and labs has been integrated into the system. This includes the capacity of each classroom and the facilities mentioned below: Classrooms Halls and Labs with Equipment Video re- Data Smart White # Capacity PC’s Area M2 Area M2 cording Show Boards Boards Large Class 4 256 4 Yes 6 0 8 575.12 Rooms 2261.88 Small Class 22 656 21 Yes 22 22 44 1686.76 Rooms* Halls 2 400 2 Yes 2 0 4 580.9 Computer Labs 8 240 169 Yes 8 8 8 700.15 Other Labs 7 134 49 Yes 7 7 4 776.135 Exam Halls 2 170 0 No 1 1 0 1132.68 Total 1856 245 46 38 68 5451.745 All classrooms and labs are connected to the network. • The average area for small class rooms is around 70 M2 (larger than 30M2). • All large classrooms area is around 144M2 • Percentage of small class rooms = %79 (More than %60 of the capacity of the classrooms around 30 students) • Percentage of capacity small class rooms = %72
94 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 • Percentage of area small class rooms = %75 • All Computer labs are larger than 80 M2 (bigger than 60M2) • Labs to students ratio is 1 lab for every 98 students (less than 1 to 500) We applied many standards to occupy the classrooms and labs, also we followed the design principles in these rooms such as the minimum area of classroom is 30 M2 , with at least 2M2 (2.17M2)for each student as a space. More than 60% of the capacity of the classrooms for theory courses is 30 students, for computer labs the student’s space is (3.94) around 4M2, with no more than 30 students as a condition to use this lab. Moreover, for other labs the capacity is 24 students.
Exam Unit: Invigilators from KCST academic departments were assigned in the exam rooms. Male and female security guards were hired to check Students with security wands to ensure that Students are not carrying mobiles phones and/or any items or materials not permissible in the exam room. Disciplinary action measures were enforced. Warning letters were sent, and Students caught for misconduct were required to appear before the Academic Committee. The procedures and process for collecting and posting grades in the SIS system were streamlined. The grade appeal process following examinations were organized in a timely manner. Meetings were held with all special needs Students individually to receive feedback on their progress and to hear and resolve any difficulties they faced in the classrooms or exam halls. Improvements 2017/2018 2018/2019 Timetable is used for both Midterm & Final Midterm & final Exams were separated into two Exams with slight differences related to some different timetables. Timetable courses. Timetable was sent to Students one week Timetable is posted on Student portal at least before the exam period. one month before the exam period. Faculty members assigned as invigilators. All Faculty members are the only assigned invig- names were requested and received by the HR ilators. The use of external hires is no longer Invigilator department. used. External invigilators were hired (4) a day. Faculty names are retrieved from the system. Specific classrooms allocated for final exams: Final Exam Rooms Any classroom was allocated for final exams. J-017, J-109, J-201, H-110, F-104, and F-204. Final Exams- 3 hours. Final Exams- 2 hours. Duration Grade appeal process- 1 week. Grade appeal process- 2 days. Automated through system with 100% accu- Conflicts Done manually with large room for errors. racy. Invigilator checklist-includes exam informa- tion and other invigilators present. No Checklist form. Submission form- must be filled out by lead No Submission form. invigilator upon submitting final exams to Grade appeal form filled out by student man- examination officer. Forms ually. Grade appeal retrieved from the Student por- Absence from class and exams form was manu- tal. form is automatically filled by system. ally filled by the Student and submitted to Absence from class and exams form is re- examination officer. trieved from the Student portal. Absence from class form is submitted to Faculty and exam form is submitted to examination officer. Final grade submission completed by Student Final grade submission is completed by Fac- Grades Affairs & Registration department. ulty members.
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 95 The below table is an overview of final exam statistics in the last 4 semesters.
Final Exams 4 Exams In Two 2 Exams Per 3 Exams Per # of Days # of Students # of Courses Consecutive Day Day Days Fall 2018/2019 9 2926 43 31 0 0 Spring 2018/2019 7 3249 48 219 1 0 Summer 2018/2019 3 1331 27 208 1 0 Fall 2019/2020 6 4388 56 383 1 6 The below table outlines the amount paid to the external invigilators in the previous exams period. KD / Total Hours for Amount / Exams # of Invigilators hour all invigilators KD Midterm Spring 2017/2018 (March 2018) 4 10 94 940 Final Spring 2017/2018 (May 2018) 5 10 159 1590 Midterm Fall 2018/2019 (Nov 2019) 4 10 162 1620
As of the Fall of 2018/19, external invigilators have not been requested to invigilate the final exam period. Currently, KCST Faculty members are assigned to invigilate all exams. This method is highly cost effective and efficient. If external invigilators are hired for the upcoming exams, total cost will be higher as the number of Students has increased and will continue to increase every semester Principles of Generating Timetables: A certain procedure is followed before determining and generating the semester timetable. Halls, classrooms and labs are checked according to the following: room capacity, the courses that can be offered according to the class equipment and study plan of the Student. This maintains an effective and efficient use of all classrooms and halls. The process post registration also tracks the time, class and instructor’s timetable conflict etc. Key Performance Indicator (KPI): We have established an assessment system for staff to maintain a certain level of professionalism in terms of performance, meeting deadlines, punctuality, formal attire etc. Meetings are held on a regular basis to discuss staff assessment and performance. Suggested Improvements for the Academic Year 2019/2020: The below have been suggested after the year of 2018/2019 has successfully passed: • The department started planning for the first graduation ceremony and its processes. • Job fair event hosted by KCST in collaboration with the relevant companies in the industry. • Creating an alumni portal has been discussed. This will provide access to all alumni information and other possible needed data e.g. Linked In profile, Facebook, twitter, and other social media accounts. This will enable us to track KCST alumni in their professions and as a result, know how KCST competencies are assessed in both public and private sectors. • Alumni ID cards will remain active to give them a full access to the campus and to communicate with KCST staff. • Applying further modifications to the system such as online fees payment, including Student Affairs & Registration fees. • All credit hour transfer letters will be automated and linked to the payment receipt of the 75KD fee. • Providing portal access to Student guardians. This will allow them to track attendance, view grades and schedules.
96 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Information Technology Department (It) IT Structure
The 2019 – 2020 Division of Information Technology Annual Report provides an overview of the major accomplishments of the division from July, 2018 through June, 2019, as well as goals for fiscal Year 2019 – 2020.
MISSION STATEMENT
The Division of Information Technology is committed to delivering a strategic advantage Kuwait College of Science and Technology by fostering creative and innovative use of technology to achieve the university’s objectives. The division promotes effective stewardship of information assets and provides a secure, highly reliable technology infrastructure along with high quality, customer-oriented services and support, to meet the ever- changing needs of students, faculty and staff.
DIVISION HIGHLIGHTS ▸▸ Information Security protects the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the university’s computer systems, electronic data and networks. ▸▸ IT Infrastructure provides a secure and highly reliable server and network infrastructure. ▸▸ Printing Services produces high quality printed materials for the university community. ▸▸ Technology Support Services provides high quality, customer-oriented technology support for the instructional, research and business needs of the university community. ▸▸ Web and Mobile Technologies provides technical development, support, integration and maintenance of the University’s web presence and other web applications. ▸▸ Empower current and prospective students with responsive Self-service access to personalized information and resources.
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 97 ▸▸ Support student recruitment, retention and success strategies with robust technologies, integrations, portals and data analytics. ▸▸ Integrate administrative systems to reduce duplication of data, enhance functionality and streamline user access to services. ▸▸ Moodle Learning Management System for technology assisted face-to-face, hybrid, and online courses. Moodle gives class groups a secure and robust online environment for files and documents, delivery of online instructional media, digital submission of student work, forum discussions, online quizzes, and more. ▸▸ Library Management System, the academic platform for providing e-learning resources for the students and researchers. Students gain the skills they need to creatively and effectively manage, analyze, and preserve information. ▸▸ Promote IT security awareness and training to minimize security threats and incidents. ▸▸ Implement and adhere to security policies and standards and security best practices. ▸▸ College Physical security revision including but not limited to CCTV Cameras, Fence and revision for Physical access control list rights for staff. ▸▸ Smart Classrooms with, lecture recording and distribution ▸▸ Recording in the lecture hall and Auditorium. ▸▸ Creation of Computer Labs and Electronics Lab with latest technology (IP Enabled) ▸▸ Digital Signage System to provide information, building maps, emergency alerts and other notification to the campus community. ▸▸ Student Information System enhanced with integration to e-learning library management, government resources and private university council verification. ▸▸ IT Security policy and infrastructure policy development completed. Major Accomplishments A tremendous amount of effort went into completing technology installations in the College. We provide a variety of technology to meet the needs of the college. Some of the technology installed in the college which are intuitive, informative and intelligent are mentioned below.
Information Technology Infrastructure Unified IP communication infrastructure with Phones, Clocks, and networks. Voice, video & data enabled unified communication. Video conferencing & tale presence. Campus wide Wi-Fi zone deployment Backbone connectivity. IP surveillance (Physical Security) Digital media signage solution implementation Network management & role based access control implementation. Secured virtual private network (IPSEC, SSL, and GRE). WAN bandwidth, physical connectivity & management. (10GBPS)
DIGITAL SIGNAGE SYSTEM 10 GBPS Managing Digital signage throughout the building to provide information, college news update, emergency alerts and other notifications to the campus community. MULTIMEDIA CLASSROOMS 20 classrooms equipped with the latest audio/video equipment, Touch enabled Smart boards, Lecture Capturing Devices, Blue ray Players and more have been installed
98 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 LABS (Computer Labs, Physics Lab & Electronics Labs) A total of 12 labs outfitted with multimedia classroom equipment and PCs to allow for instruction and student use.
Standard Classrooms There are in all 26 Nos of Classroom each with Touch enabled Smart Boards that uses interactive methods for teaching and Writing with Digital Ink that can be stored in PC’s and shared with students.
Lecture Halls 2 Lecture Halls with 200 seating capacity each having High end projectors, motorized screens, Speakers, Audio/Video Recording facility, Wireless Microphones, have been managed and monitored daily to provide Uninterrupted delivery of Lectures as well as Other Events.
Auditorium A Large Auditorium with 500 seating capacity having high end projectors, motorized screens, Speakers, Audio/Video Recording facility, Wireless Microphones is provided with support for Events.
User Accounts Managing thousands of User accounts for All Academic staffs, Administration staff as well as students and integrating with most Of the services like Microsoft windows account, Microsoft Office 365 Account, Wi-Fi access Accounts as well as Moodle Account.
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 99 Help Desk Service Easy to use Web-Based Helpdesk service is used for query management. A ticket is being generated for each query raised and this ticket is closed once the issue is resolved.
E-Learning Platforms Our primary goal in designing the E-Learning Program was to increase student engagement and promote active Learning and classroom models that better fit the learning style of our students. E-Learning has become firmly Established as an integral part of the educational culture and a vehicle for innovation on campus. Enhanced education to Students and Faculties through MATLAB, IEEE, Moodle and Library.
100 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Information Technology Solution Architecture Kuwait College of Science & Technology’s network is an enterprise’s communications backbone that helps connect computers and related devices across departments and workgroup networks, facilitating insight and data accessibility. This enterprise network reduces communication protocols, facilitating system and device interoperability, as well as improved internal and external enterprise data management.
Goals of 2020 Goal 1 Enhancement of Security. Goal 2 Cyber Security and Awareness program. Goal 3 Implementation of Security policy. Goal 4 Enhanced security to adhere ISO27001 Standards. Goal 5 Establish of development division in IT department for the Mobile and Application development for integration and futuristic needs. Goal 6 Continue to develop new features and functionality in the ERP system and other Ancillary systems to improve efficiencies and provide information for strategic decision- making. Goal 7 Continue to enhance and upgrade IT infrastructure to support information systems and services in a secure, highly available and high-performing environment. Goal 8 Continue to enhance the functionality and support of classroom technologies. Goal 9 Implementation of virtual lab providing cloud-based access to common computer lab Software.
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 101 HR Department KCST HR department support the university’s strategic imperatives by attracting, recruiting, developing and retaining the best qualified employees whose work advances the vision, mission and strategy of KCST. We are committed to cultivating a superior service oriented and a culture of professionalism and respect for all faculty and administrative staff to ensure a highly engaged workforce and increase the efficiency, effectiveness, and value of our HR systems, processes and services. In all areas of work, the Human Resources department firmly upholds the tenets of confidentiality, accountability, and trust. Below are the main responsibilities for the Human Resources Department at KCST:
• Recruitment and staffing Team: Assists applicants and employees with all phases of the employment process. We oversee planning, recruitment, interviewing, testing, background checks, selection and evaluation of administrative staff while also assisting the Deans office with faculty hiring. • Employee Relations: Responsible for the development and review of policies and procedures, organization charts, job descriptions, conducting performance reviews, pay scale, grading structures, grievances and disciplinary issues and offering assistance to staff through HR helpdesk. • Payroll Team: administer payroll, absence management and separation processes- in 2019/2018 the HR team established an automated Payroll and Employee self-service system that fulfills all internal and external regularities.
Nationalities at KCST 2018/2019 Nationalities at KCST Kuwaiti British Jordanian Australian Canadian Lebanese Indian Egyptian Turkish Greek French Iraqi Non-Kuwaiti Syrian Pakistani Portuguese Somali Algerian Tunisian Albanian Armenian Gender Classification
102 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Management and Administrative staff as of positions
Department President Deans Human Information Admission Finance Marketing Total No Position Office Office Resources Technology Registration
President 1 1 Dean 2 2 Manager 1 1 1 1 1 5 Registrar 1 1 Exec Secretary 1 1 Head of Admission 1 1 Consultant 1 1 Supervisor 2 2 Chief Accountant 1 1 Senior Officer 1 2 1 4 Officer 3 3 1 7 Admin. Assistant 1 1 2 4 Accountant 1 1 Analyst 1 1 2 Representative 1 1 Software Engineer 1 1 Network Admin. 1 1 Graphic Designer 1 1 Staff Nurse 1 1 Sports Coordinator 1 1 Receptionist 1 1 Total 3 3 10 6 8 5 5 40 Employee Relations: • 33 Forms where drafted and/or revised and shared with Staff members to view. • 53 Academic and administration job descriptions have been reviewed, discussed and shared with the relevant staff. • Finalized the HR Department Policies and submitted for the Operation committee for approval Training & certification courses attended by the Administrative staff 2019-2018 Location/ Internal or # Name Program Description Date Venue External 10- 12 Novem- 1 Markeza Alqunneh ACPC Contest Egypt External ber 2018 10- 12 Novem- 2 Tareeq Al-Zayyat ACPC Contest Egypt External ber 2018 20-23 February 3 Elias Barcha College Counsellors Conference 2019 Scotland External 2019 Sankaranarayana 27-28 February 4 IDCs CIO Excellence Awards 2019. Dubai External Iyer Suresh 2019 5 Bashayer AlQattan Annual Investment Meeting Startup Dubai External 7-10 April 2019 Kuala Lum- 6 Salim Malik HP Flex Network Fundamentals External 13-15 May 2019 pur 7 All Staff Programming Club KCST Internal 4/10/2019
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 103 Marketing and PR Department
Name of Staff Position Mr. Ibrahim B A AlMutawa Marketing & PR Manager Mr. Abdulwahab A AlFarhan Graphic Designer Ms. Loulwah AlEnezi Marketing & PR Officer Ms. Ruba R AlSayed Receptionist Ms. Asmaa AlHaroon Receptionist
The Public Relations, Marketing, and Student Recruitment Unit department is one of the most important departments in KCST, as it tends to several aspects of the development of the college, externally and internally. It caters to the continuous promotion of the KCST brand by creative and strategic means, further exposes it to potential students, staff, and faculty members. It also works on the internal machine of communication between the students and all the departments. Furthermore, caters to students need to expand and explore extracurricular endeavors via Student Clubs, Student Support Committee, and Volunteer Groups. Social Media has become a prominent way of communication for the youth and the KCST Marketing team has been developing and applying various strategies to employ social media platforms to the benefit of its students and employees, by posting interactive posts on Instagram as a means to get through to the students and keep them updated and in the loop consistently. The posts include inspirational quotes, latest news from inside and outside of the campus, events organized by students, faculty and staff, updates of the academic achievements of our faculty, achievements of our students and employees, so as to show the college’s support and encouragement, reminders of holidays and national events, announcements of our sports team’s involvement in university level tournaments, along with educational posts that enrich their knowledge and boost their minds. The response to those posts has been considerable, and has proved a fruitful way of communication. Also, the department has made sure to link the main Instagram account with those sub-accounts created by the SSC and the multiple Student Clubs that have been recently established. The Marketing department has also started a student volunteering initiative called: [Ahlan Team], with which we give the students a platform to employ their skills, energy and passion to work, in a constructive way that helps them build their characters, hone their social skills and give them an increasing sense of responsibility and self-sufficiency, along with a means to serve their community and work for its evolvement as well as theirs. The team members work hand in hand and seek guidance from the employees of the Marketing Team. Regular meetings are held between those two entities to discuss the yearly event calendar and devise an appropriate schedule that splits the tasks between the members, with regard to the absolute priority of their classes and education. The tasks include the help of the team’s members in organizing and participating of School Conventions and Exhibitions, educational forums, and sponsored high school graduation ceremonies. In addition, the team helps our staff with internal events such as conferences, seminars, workshops and orientations. The Marketing team, along with volunteers from Ahlan Team have attended a sizable amount of Career Opportunity Fairs in various High schools on the span of the two semesters of the academic years. The main mission of attending those fairs is to provide students from all schools and of both genders with the necessary information about KCST and ample guidance that helps those students to navigate their educational and career options. The team distributes gift bags that contain notes/folders/pens and a guidebook branded with KCST logo and theme. The guidebook contains all the information the students and their guardians need to know about the college, and the team further explains verbally to the crowds of students, and opens space for questions and inquiries. Along with taking contact information of any potential applicants.
104 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Some of the Events arranged and hosted by the Marketing and PR department: • Signing an MOU between Boursa and KCST, that involves the opportunity of hosting training courses at KCST Campus. • Hosted math festival for high school students, that included tutoring sessions preparing them for math standardized tests. • Attended an Innovation and Ideas event, entitled “Take Off”. • Arranged and Hosted NCUK expo to give the program further exposure. • KCST Sponsored the High School Bowling Tournament held in Cozmo Bowling Club in Salmiya City Center • Signing an MOU with the General Authority for Youth. • Hosted a Seminar presented by The Youth Authority. • Shot an advertisement for the Promotion of KCST with the participation of Students and Staff on KCST campus. • The Marketing Team visited the ministry of interior and presented an introductory presentation about KCST. • The Marketing Team visited Saad AlAbdullah Academy and presented an introductory presentation about KCST. • Signed an MOU with the company “Big Brains” • Signed an MOU with the French Embassy. List of Expos attended by the Marketing Team: • Career Opportunity Expo at Raita Bint AlHarith High School for girls. • Expo at Latifa Alshamali High School for girls. • How to Plan my Future Expo at Jumeira. • Educational opportunities Exhibition at Amra Bint Rawaha High School for girls. Community Engagements: List of graduation ceremonies sponsored by KCST and attended by the Marketing Team: School name ballroom graduates attendees Sherefa al awady Courtyard maryot 5/6/2019 90 800 Ajial bilingual school Four seasons 8/6/9019 74 800 Alyarmok Courtyard maryot 8/6/2019 130 800 Al asma bint al harith Four seasons 9/6/2019 130 1000 Muneera al sabah Four seasons 10/6/2019 175 1000 Ruzainah Four seasons11/6/2019 180 1000 Aljahra( girls) Four seasons 12/6/2019 190 1000 Jasem al-khorafy Jumairah 13/6/2019 100 800 Bayan Four seasons13/6/2019 220 1000 Tahraa bint al hareeth Four seasons14/6/2019 190 1000 Nes Murqab ballroom Four seasons17/6/2019 53 500 Farea bint abi sult Al raya 18/6/2019 240 1100 Abraq khaitan Jumairah 19/6/2019 110 900 Jomana bint abi taleb Courtyard maryot 19/6/2019 130 800 Fatima al hashemya (badriya ballroom) Jumairah 20/6/2019 120 900 Lubna bint al hareth (badriya ballroom) Jumairah 21/6/2019 200 110 Fatima alsarawi Four seasons 22/6/2019 220 1000 Khalda bint al aswad Four seasons23/6/2019 210 1000 Al Esraa Four seasons 26/6/2019 115 1000 Maria al qubtiya Four seasons 29/6/9019 220 1000
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 105 Finance Department The Finance Department at Kuwait College of Science and Technology (“KCST”) provides professional financial support services and advice in relation to the College’s Academic objectives and regulations of the college. The department supports to the students with high quality service and professionalism. The department consists of Core Finance and Student Accounts with strong Leadership. Student accounts team within the Finance Department are accurate in processing transactions, prompt in all dealings with students, responsive and helpful of student’s queries and approachable in assisting with problems. We function based on well-defined policies and procedures. The staffing of Finance Department can be precisely understood through below stated Organization structure.
Campus Mangement Unit During the Academic 2018-2019 the focus of this Unit was mainly on four main areas: • Energy Conservation and redesigning existing space • New classroom layout • Planting trees and improving the environment • Infrastructure Development • Additional 100 car park sunshades were added to the existing 315 sunshades. • Improving Security • additional CCTV cameras are being installed externally and internally for surveillance
106 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Organizational Structures
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 107 Organizational Structures KCST Management Organizational Structure
oar o ru tee Operations Committee
re ent
Academic Student Administrative Quality Center of Studies & Functions Support Support Assurance & Continuing Education Functions Functions Accreditation
Dean of Faculty Dean of Registrar of Engineering & Student Computer Science A airs
Learning Manager Manager Manager Manager Manager Resources Student A airs Finance Human Resources IT Department PR, Marketing & Center & Registration Department & Administration SRU Department Department Department
108 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Office of the President
re ent ro al Al e a n
Executive Secretary s n o sen
Dean of Faculty of Engineering Dean of Student A airs o a is al as o o i o a al aes
Quality Assurance & Accreditation Registrar a el Ka a s S le a t a an
Student Support and Administrative Support Functions
OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT Name Position Prof. Khalid Al-Begain President Prof. Faris Malhas Dean, Faculty of Engineering Prof. Rodrigo Magalhaes Dean of Student Affairs Ms. Sulekha Uthaman Registrar Dr. Marcel Karam Quality Assurance & Accreditation
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 109 FacultyO ce of Engineering of the andPresident Computer Science
Dean of Faculty of Engineering & Computer Science o a is al as
Dean’s O ce Administrative O cer Academic Admin Assistant s Sa a a i s Na een a is l ata ne
Department of Computer Department of Electronics Department of Basic Sciences Science and Engineering & Communications Engineering & Mathematics
Physics & Biology Mathematics
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
Name Academic Rank Qualification Nationality Dr. Marcel Karam Professor PhD Canadian Dr. Ehtesham Hassan Hasan Assistant Professor PhD Indian Dr. Omer Adam Mohamed Assistant Professor PhD Australian Dr. Hazem Mohamed Gabr Elalfy Assistant Professor PhD Egyptian Dr. Ismaeel Al Ridhawi Assistant Professor PhD Canadian Dr. Omar Abd Alraheem Khattab Assistant Professor PhD Jordanian Dr. Samrajesh Devakadacham Lecturer PhD Indian Mr. Tareq A A Al-Zayyat Lecturer MSc Jordanian Ms. Lekshmi Vijayamohanan Pillai Teaching Assistant MTech Indian Mr. Abdalla Abbi Mohamud Teaching Assistant MSc Somali Ms. Priya Nikhil Babu Teaching Assistant MSc Indian Mr. Tariq Anwar Noor El-deen Mohedat Teaching Assistant MSc Jordanian Mr. Wael Raef Ahmad AlKhayri Teaching Assistant MSc Jordanian Ms Manar Alamat Lecturer(Part-Time)) MSc British
110 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Department Of Electronics And Communication Engineering Name Academic Rank Qualification Nationality Prof. John Avaritsiotis Professor PhD Greek Dr. M Murugappan Associate Professor PhD Indian Dr. Abolfazl Mehbod Niya Associate Professor PhD Canadian Dr. Gamal El-Din Fahmy Associate Professor PhD British Dr. Mohamed Abdallah Trabelsi Associate Professor PhD Tunisian Dr. Ahmed Elsayed Ismail Abdelmonem Elwakeel Lecturer PhD Egyptian Dr. Nour El Islam Boukortt Lecturer PhD Algerian Ms. Deepa Vijayaraghavan Lecturer MTech Indian Mr. Sameer Ahmad Bhat Teaching Assistant MSc Indian Ms. Alamera Nourah Nader M Alquennah Teaching Assistant MSc Jordanian Mr. Aly Ibrahim Yasin Lab Assistant BSc Egyptian Department Of Basic Sciences And Mathematics
Name Academic Rank Qualification Nationality BASIC SCIENCES -PHYSICS Prof. Mohamed Abdelkarim Ahmed Professor PhD Canadian Dr. Mushtaq Ahmed Loan Associate Professor PhD Australian Dr. Sharafudeen Naduvil Valappil Assistant Professor PhD Indian Dr. Nader Abdelmonem Shehata Assistant Professor PhD Egyptian Dr. Ishac Lamei Nagiub Kandas Assistant Professor PhD Egyptian Dr. Junais Habeeb Mokkath Assistant Professor PhD Indian Ms. Remya Ramakrishnan Nair Teaching Assistant - MSc Indian Ms. Joicy John Menachery Teaching Assistant - MSc Indian BASIC SCIENCES -BIOLOGY Ms.Sally Hassrouny (Part-time) Lecturer MSc Lebanese MATHEMATICS Dr. Carlos Martins Da Fonseca Professor PhD Portuguese Dr. Ali S. A. Yousef Associate Professor PhD Jordanian Dr. Viswanathan Kodakkal Kannan Associate Professor PhD Indian Associate Professor Dr. Fatma Bozkurt PhD Turkish
Dr. Rabih Ghostine Assistant Professor PhD French Mr. Jihad Mahmoud Saeed Sadeddin Lecturer MSc Jordanian
Ms. Ozden Yurtseven Dogan Teaching Assistant - MSc Turkish
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 111 Department of Languages, Social Sciences and Business Studies
o o i o a al aes ( Dean of Student A airs) Dean’s O ce Administrative O cer s Sa a a i
Department of Languages Department of Business Management & Social Sciences
Department Of Languages, Social Sciences And Business Studies Name Academic Rank Qualification Nationality BUSINESS MANAGEMENT AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Prof. Rodrigo Magalhaes Professor PhD Portuguese Dr. Nouf M B Alyaseen Assistant Professor PhD Kuwaiti Dr. Bekir Emre Kurtulmus Assistant Professor PhD Turkish Dr. Mubarak Ashwy Falah Jazea Assistant Professor PhD Kuwait Ms. Randa N Diab Lecturer MSc Lebanese Ms. Shumaila Waqar Zaidi Lecturer MA Pakistani Dr. Abrar Alenezi ( Part-time) Assistant Professor PhD Kuwaiti LANGUAGES ENGLISH Ms. Reem M A AlQenai Lecturer MA Kuwaiti Ms. Ruba Najia Lecturer MA Lebanese Ms. Rawan A H Kandari Lecturer BSc Kuwaiti Mr. Abdullah Saoud A AL Farhan Lecturer MA Kuwaiti Mr. Fares H A Awadh Lecturer MA Kuwait Mr. Alban Beqiri Lecturer MA Albanian Ms. Huda Mohammed Ibrahim Abu Aisha Lecturer MA Palestinian Mr. Yousef Al Otaibi ( Part-time) Lecturer MA Jordanian LANGUAGES - ARABIC
Dr. Ahmad Bakri Asleh (Part-time) Lecturer PhD Syrian
112 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 S o t e a t ents
St ent S o t inist ati e S o t
Student A airs Learning Resources Finance Human IT Department PR & Registration Center Department Resources & Marketing Administration & SRU Student Affairs & Registration Department Name Position Mr. Amjad Mohd Mutlaq Al Wehsheh Manager Ms. Taiba Yassin Taha AlZamil Head of Admission & Scholarship Ms. Naela Mohammad Ahmed Bahar Examination Officer Ms. Abir Mohamed Hassan Elshebiny Admission Officer Mr. Mohammad Sweilem Abukashef Timetabling & SIS Administrator Mr. Bader ALi Haji Administrative Officer Mr. Mahmoud Mohamed Shaker Allam Administrative Assistant Ms. Mona O Kh Alwadaini Administrative Assistant
Ms. Nour Al Mousa Student Counsellor
Learning Resources Center Name Position Ms. Meena Guruvayurappan Librarian
Finance Department Name Position Mr. Venkat Raman Patnaik Manager Ms. Sonali Jagath Prasad Chief Accountant Ms. Puja Oberoi Inder Financial analyst Mr. Preetesh Panchal Mohan Accountant Mr. Romany Botros Henin Abdallah Student Accounts Officer
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 113 Human Resources And Administration Department Name Position HUMAN RESOURCES Ms. Sonar Talal Al Hajj Manager
Ms. Gursimar Kaur Senior Human Resources Officer
Ms. Amira Samir Barsoum Girgis HR Payroll Officer
Ms. Safna Usman HR officer
Mr. Husain Mohammad Alrefai General Representative ADMINISTRATION Mr. Rajesh William Arawattigi Campus Maintenance Supervisor
Mr. Abdel Rahman Ali saleh Yousef Admin. & Procurement Assistant
Mr. Nasser Matar Al Shammari Shammari Government Relations Officer
Ms. Siji Vargheese Staff Nurse
Mr. Tareq Mohammed Mansour AlMallah Campus Security Supervisor It Department
Name Position Mr. Sankaranarayana Iyer Suresh Manager
Mr. Ishtiaq Ahmed Senior IT Security Administrator
Mr. Vesley Joa Fernandes Senior Infrastructure Administrator
Mr. Rajeshkumar Nagaraj Software Engineer
Mr. Salim Haqiqullah Malik Network Administrator
Mr. Abin Kuriakose Vattakkattu Programmer Analyst
Pr, Marketing & Student Recruitment(Sru) Department Name Position Mr. Ibraheim B A Al Mutawa Manager Ms. Al Markeza Y. N. M. Alqunneh Senior PR, Marketing and SRU Officer Mr. Abdulwahab A.S.M AlFarhan Graphic Designer Mr. Mohammad H A Jaber Sports Coordinator Ms. Ruba Rabie Abdelhakim Elsayed Receptionist
114 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Committees
KCST General Board
Academic A airs Student A airs Planning & Resources Committee Committee Committee
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 115 Admin staff
116 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Academic Staff
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 117 Appendix Board of Trustees Mr. Abdalatif Y. Al-Hamad Mr. Abdalatif Y. Al-Hamad is Director General and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development; Trustee, Arab Planning Institute; Member of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Banking Advisory Board Group (World Bank); Member, the Board of the Kuwait Investment Authority; and Chairman, Development Committee Task Force on Multilateral Development Banks.” [1] He studied in the USA, graduating from Claremont College (Honors, 1960) and the Harvard International Affairs Program (1962). Following his studies, Mr. Al-Hamad served as a member of the Kuwaiti delegation to the United Nations during its application for admission to this organization in 1962. Since the early 1960s, he has been highly active in promoting economic and social development, particularly in the Arab world. In this capacity, Mr. Al-Hamad has held several important posts. Among these, he served as Director, The South & Arabian Gulf Society (1963-1981); Director, The Assistance Authority for the Gulf and Southern Arabia (1967-1981); Chairman, the United Bank of Kuwait (1966- 1981); and Executive Director, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (1972-1981). He was Minister of Finance and Minister of Planning, Kuwait (1981-1983). Mr. Al-Hamad has also served on numerous commissions and boards. To mention but a few, these include the Brandt Commission (1977-1980); Deputy Chairman of the International Institute for Environment and Development (1976-1989); Member and Chairman, United Nations Committee for Development Planning (1982-1991); Member of the South Commission (1987-1989); and Member of the Commission on Global Governance (1992 to present). He has recently arranged the printing of the CGG report, Our Global Neighborhood, in Arabic.
118 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Mr. Minoo Patel Mr. Minoo Patel is Chief Financial Officer & Member of the Board of Directors of the Al Mulla Group. The Group is Kuwait’s preeminent conglomerate, with 12,000 employees, operations in 8 countries & revenues exceeding $1bn. Mr. Patel serves on the Group Executive Committee & on the Credit Committee of Al Soor Financing & Leasing–the Group’s commercial lending arm. Mr. Patel brings to the fore over four decades of strategic management & executive leadership experience, across industries & under varied operating environments. As CFO, Mr. Patel is responsible for the Group’s corporate governance, treasury, legal, risk management, capital raising & M&A initiatives. In addition to serving these corporate functions, he has helped shape the Group’s strategic vision, architected its corporate governance structure, driven global expansion and incubated new ventures.
Over the course of his tenure, while concurrently serving as CFO, Mr. Patel, backed by the Board, established the Group’s financial services vertical. He founded & led businesses in industries ranging from insurance to commercial lending. Mr. Patel served as Managing Director of Al Soor Financing & Leasing from 1993 to 2010 & as its Deputy Chairman until 2013. While at its helm, Mr. Patel profitably multiplied the size of the company’s lending portfolio & in 2005, negotiated a partial divestiture, realizing significant value for the Group. In 2001, Mr. Patel’s vision inspired the founding of the Al Mulla Exchange–Kuwait’s leading international remittance business. He served as its Managing Director until 2009 & led the acquisition of Modern Exchange Company, Oman.
Previously, Mr. Patel was CFO of pharma giant Boots India & held executive positions at Yusuf Alghanim & Sons and Murphy, India.
Mr. Patel is a Founding Trustee of the Kuwait College of Science & Technology, a university established in collaboration with IIT Delhi. He has attended the World Economic Forum, Davos, is a qualified Chartered Accountant & holds a B.Com from Mumbai University.
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 119 Ms. Nabeela Al-Mulla Ms. Nabeela Al-Mulla was the Ambassador of the State of Kuwait to the Kingdom of Belgium and the Ambassador-designate to the European Union and to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Between 1977 and 1994 she served in the Permanent Mission of the State of Kuwait to the United Nations in New York. She was named Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the State of Kuwait to the Republic of Zimbabwe (1994-95) and South Africa (1996-1999), as well as the states of Namibia, Mauritius and Botswana on a non-residency basis. She became Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Austria in 2000, with responsibility for the Republics of Hungary, Slovenia, and the Slovak Republic on a non-residency basis. In 2003 she returned to the UN as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Permanent Representative of the State of Kuwait to be the first Arab woman Ambassador to the UN. She also represented her country in Mexico, Cuba and the Bahamas. Ms. Nabeela Al-Mulla was the first woman from the Middle East and South Asia region to chair the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (2002-03). She has represented her government at OPEC Extraordinary Ministerial meetings (2002-03). She has also served as Kuwait’s representative to the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). In 2004, Ambassador Al-Mulla was presented with the Austrian Grand Golden Decoration of Honour for First Class Merit “Grosses Goldenes Ehrenzeichen am Bande für Verdienste um die Republik Österreich”). In 2005, she was nominated by “the Association 1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize” to be part of 1000 Peace Women Across the Globe. Her nomination was in recognition of her work within the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) during the Korean and Iranian crises.
120 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Dr. Nada Sulaiman Al-Mutawa Dr. Nada S. Al Mutawa is the former Director of Centre of Global Studies at Kuwait University. She received her PhD, in International Relations from the American University of London (2006) and MBA in Global Strategic Management from Maastricht School of Business (2011). She was lecturer at the Arab Open University from 2003 to 2005 and Teacher Assistant in the Political Science Department at Kuwait University for 8 years. Her research, scholarly and professional interests are GCC related topics: Globalization, Comparative Politics, Theories of International Relations and International Organizations She has presented lectures covering a wide range of interests: • Women Empowerment in the GCC –at a workshop in Sana’a, Yemen future forum 2006 • Economic Diplomacy and GCC –Asia Relations, - at. Kuwait University 2009. • Global Politics, Modernization and Competitiveness in Higher education at the center of Emirates studies Abu Dhabi 7 Feb. 2010 • Public Diplomacy and Humanitarian Aid, -at Kuwait Journalist Association 2012 • The Arab Spring and the role of social media –at the French Institute 2012. She has chaired several Forums and was the invited Key note speaker at several conferences, including the International Conference on NATO and Gulf Countries, co-sponsored by the Government of Kuwait and the NATO Public Diplomacy Division. Some of the topic she addressed as Key note speaker are: • Modernization, Reform and the Role of the Youth • Facing Common Challenges through ICI – • Education and Requirements of the GCC Labor Market • Civil Society Engagement with the Government for Development She was a member of the Kuwaiti women delegation who met leading US officials, journalists and academics in Washington to talk about women empowerment in Kuwait and the GCC. She participated in the Round Table discussion on Democracy and Development with former USA President George W. Bush and other Kuwaiti Women Activists. In 2010 she completed a program titled: “Leading for The Future: The Middle East In A Changing World”, - Harvard University
She is considered as one of few Kuwaiti Women who take part in political debates on Kuwait’s national TV as a political analyst. Her current interests are: leadership theories and development of leadership skills, conflict management, organizational behavioral theory and practice.
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 121 Mr. Tony Jashanmal Mr. Tony Jashanmal is the Executive Director and a member of the Board of Directors of the Jashanmal Group. He was born in Kuwait and educated in India and Switzerland. After completing his degree at the Hamburg School of Economics, he joined the group in 1973 as Managing Director of the Kuwait operations. During his career at Jashanmal he established several new businesses within the company in sectors such as print media, men’s accessories, tobacco and fashion. He rebuilt the Kuwait operations following the Gulf War in the early 90s, drove the Group’s expansion into India and established many of the joint ventures that the Group is a part of today. Tony Jashanmal is the former President of Distripress. In addition, he is a frequent speaker and panelist at conferences and seminars on topics such as Family Business, Private Equity investing, Retail and Corporate Governance. He believes strongly in the value of education, having previously been on the board of the Indian School in Kuwait and presently is on the Board of Trustees of Aiglon College in Switzerland.
Professor Sachindra Nath Maheshwari ProfessorS.N. Maheshwari (born August 17, 1947) received the B.Tech. Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi in 1969, and Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Sciencein1971 and 1974 respectively from Northwestern University, Illinois USA. After spending two years in the Department of Computer Science at University of Colorado at Boulder he returned to India in 1976. He was at the Indian Institute of Technology at Bombay and Kanpur before joining Indian Institute of Technology Delhi in 1979 where he initially helped in setting up the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. He was appointed as a Professor there in 1984, He headed the Department from 1989 to 1992, and was the Dean for Undergraduate Studies at IIT Delhi from 1996 to 1999. He formally retired from IIT Delhi in 1992. For the next five years he was an Emeritus Professor. He now continues his academic, research, and other professional engagements as an Honorary Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Delhi. His research interests have ranged from Combinatorial Algorithms, Theory of Data Bases and Information Systems, Computational Geometry, Computational Biology to Mathematical Optimization. Apart from advising the government and its agencies on issues relating to Information Technology education and scientific research, professionally he has and currently consults on Information Systems Design and Strategic Planning of Information Technology Adaptation and Adoption in Indian public sector undertakings and governmental organizations.
122 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Professor Khalid Al-Begain Professor Khalid Al-Begain is the first President of Kuwait College of Science and Technology (KCST). Established in 2015, KCST is a highly ambitious private university in Kuwait offering pro- grams in engineering and management. In less than three years, he led the development of KCST to become one of the most successful private universities in Kuwait with around 800 students.
Professor Al-Begain has occupied a number of leading positions in international organisations. He is currently the President of the European Council for Modelling and Simulation (ECMS) and Past Pres- ident of the Federation of European Simulation Societies (EuroSim). He was an advisor for the Welsh Government on major national projects such as the National Cybersecurity Academy and member of the WG Ministerial Advisory Steering Group for ICT in Schools. He is UNESCO Expert in network- ing, British Computer Society Fellow and Chartered IT Professional, Fellow of German Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Senior Member of the IEEE, and member of the UK EPSRC College. He is on the Advisory Board of the Leadership Foundation for “Finances for Senior Managers in HE”. He also acted as an Expert Witness in the major mobile IPR court cases between Nokia-InterDigital and Nokia-HTC. He was the founder and chairman of the first National Welsh Industrial Cyber Security Summit, held in the prestigious Celtic Manor in Newport, UK in 2014 organised jointly with Airbus, General Dynamics and the UK Cyber Security. He also worked as consultant for Telekom Malaysia where he led the development of the planning tool for the first 3G network in Malaysia. Between 2010 and 2015, he was the founder and director of the Centre of Excellence in Mobile Appli- cations (CEMAS), rated as best managed centre in Wales in 2014. Till 2017, he was a Professor and the Director of the Centre of Excellence in Mobile and Emerging Technologies at the University of South Wales, UK.
He received his PhD in Communications Engineering in 1989 from the Budapest Technical University, Hungary, and Postgraduate Diploma in Management from University of Glamorgan, UK in 2011. He also received the prestigious “Senior Strategic Leadership” certificate from the UK Leadership Founda- tion.
Prof Al-Begain won numerous awards including the John von Newman Computer Award in 1986 and the 2013 Inspire Wales Award for Science and Technology. In October 2006, he received Royal Recognition from Her Majesty The Queen for his contributions to the British scientific community. In 2018, he was awarded the “Manager of the Year in HE” Award.
Professor Al-Begain has a distinguished research and academic track record. He registered two granted patents, co-authored 2 books; edited 18 books, and authored more than 200 papers in refereed journals and conferences. He is the co-inventor of MOSEL: The Modelling, Specification and Evaluation Language. He supervised 28 successful PhD projects and over 150 MSc projects. He secured over £20 million of research and development grants.
He founded two international conference series (International conference on Next Generation Mobile Applications, Services and Technologies –NGMAST) and (Analytical and Stochastic Modelling Techniques and Applications –ASMTA) and was the General Chair for over 25 international conferences. In particular, he was the General Chair of the 8th European Congress on Modelling and Simulation held in Cardiff, UK in 2013.
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 123 KCST ACADEMIC MANAGEMENT Professor Faris A. Malhas
EDUCATION PhD Structural Mechanics & Engineering University of Wisconsin- Madison 1988 MS Engineering Mechanics University of Wisconsin- Madison 1987 MSE Structural Mechanics & Engineering University of Michigan- Ann Arbor 1978 BSE Civil Engineering University of Michigan- Ann Arbor 1977 EXPERIENCE Dean of the Faculty of Engineering- Kuwait College of Science & Technology Doha Kuwait. 2019-present Dean and Professor School of Engineering, Science, & Technology Central Connecticut State University- New Britain, Connecticut (2013-2018) Dean & Professor College of Architecture, Applied Engineering & Technology Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green Ohio (2011- 2013) Dean & Professor Leonard C Nelson College of Engineering & Sciences West Virginia University- Institute of Technology (2009-2011) Chair and Professor Department of Civil Engineering, Engineering Mechanics University of Dayton – Dayton Ohio (2005-2009) Founding Coordinator-Civil Engineering Program Associate Professor of Structural Mechanics & Engineering School of Engineering- University of North Florida (2000- 2005) Program Coordinator-Civil Engineering Associate Professor–Structural Mechanics & Engineering Bradley University- Department of Civil Engineering & Construction (1995-2000) Engineering Associate Consultant ACE Inc. Peoria IL. (1997-1999) Participated in the development of a number of models using ABAQUS. Contribution related to nonlinear material constitutive models and plasticity. Founding Director- Civil Engineering Graduate Program Assistant/Associate Professor University of Bahrain- Department of Civil Engineering (1989-1995) Consultant Structural Engineer Modern Architect & Assoc.- Bahrain (1991-1995) Assistant to the Dean- Budget and Outreach Affairs College of Engineering- University of Bahrain (1989-1993) Visiting Assistant Professor Bradley University -Civil Engineering & Construction. (1987-1989) Adjunct Lecturer/ Doctoral Candidate
124 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 University of Wisconsin- Madison. (1985-1987) Teaching Assistant University of Wisconsin- Madison (1981-1985) Structural Engineer Engineering Office- Yarmouk University. (1978-1981) TEACHING EXPERIENCE Taught the following courses over my academic career Undergraduate Courses: 11. Statics 22. Dynamics 33. Engineering Mechanics( Statics & Dynamics)) 44. Mechanics of Materials 55. Engineering Materials 66. Construction materials and methods 77. Introduction to Engineering Design 88. Structural Analysis-I 99. Structural Analysis -II 1010 Design of Reinforced Concrete Structures 1111 Design of Steel Structures 1212 Temporary structures 1313 Mechanical Vibrations Graduate Courses: 11. Matrix Methods of Structural Analysis 22. Advanced Structural Design 33. Advanced Steel Design 44. Advanced Concrete Design 55. Prestressed Concrete Design 66. Elastic Stability 77. Theory of Elasticity 88. Advanced Mechanics of Materials 99. Introduction to Finite Element Analysis 1010 Composite Mechanics 1111 Structural Dynamics PAST AND PRESENT RESEARCH INTEREST • Experimental and theoretical investigation of reinforced and prestressed concrete. • Dynamic response of concrete structures • Repair and rehabilitation of reinforced concrete structures. • High performance concrete • Finite element modeling of reinforced concrete structures • Assessment and evaluation of old and/or deteriorating concrete components • Genetic algorithm in structural design • Durability of reinforced concrete in severe environment • Vibrations of Pool Cues • High Performance Steel MMFX • Web-Based Concrete Teaching Tools. • Bridge Assessment for safety and security. • Damage tolerance Models for assessing aging steel bridges. • Validation of steel design for stability.
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 125 PUBLICATIONS Books 11. Bischoff, P and Malhas, F. ”Deflection and stiffness Issues in FRC & Thin Concrete Structural Elements” ACI-SP248, American Concrete Institute, Detroit, MI (ISBN: 2007 ,)9780870312571 11. Salmon, C.G. Johnson, J.E., and Malhas, F.A., Steel Structures: Design and Behavior, Fifth Edition, Prentice Hall. (ISBN2008 )0131885561-978 :13- 11. Mahmaid, M. & Malhas, F. “Development in Reinforced Concrete Slab Analysis, Design, and Serviceability” “ ACI-SP287, American Concrete Institute, Detroit MI, (ISBN: ,)7-763-87031-0-978 2012 11. Glisic, B. Saksawang, N. Malhas F., “ Recent Technologies in Structural Health Monitoring,” ACI SP292-, American Concrete Institute, Detroit MI, (ISBN: 2013 ,)7-846-87031-0-978 11. Wang C.K., Salmon C.G. and Malhas, F.A. Introductory Structural Analysis, Second Edition, under contract with Prentice-Hall, 11. (ISBN-0135015698-978 :13- First Edition) projected publication Forthcoming May 2018. 11. Salmon, C.G. Johnson, J.E., and Malhas, F.A., Steel Structures: Design and Behavior, Sixth Edition, Prentice Hall. Forthcoming December, 2017. Recent Articles • Hawileh, R., Naser M, Malhas F. “Finite Element Modeling of the Punching Shear Response of Two-Way Slabs Reinforced with High-Strength Steel” Proceedings of the ASCE- Structural Engineering Institute Congress 2013. Pittsburgh May 2013 ,4-2 • Hudyma, N. and Malhas F. A. “Ultrasonic Characterization of Cylindrical Specimens of Concrete and Rock using Compression Waves” International Journal of Engineering Research & Innovation, Vol.5, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2013. • Wehbe, N. and Malhas, F. A. “ Characteristics of Self-Consolidating Concrete for Bridge Girders”. International Journal of Engineering Research & Innovation, Vol.5, No.1, Spring/Summer 2013. • Mahamid, M, Malhas, F & Rahman, A, “Structural Integrity for Structural Steel Buildings-Design and Detailing Requirements” International Journal of Engineering Research & Innovation, Vol.6 , No1, Spring/Summer 2014 • Hudyma, N. & Malhas, F. “Assessment of the Weathering State of Limestone Specimen using Thermal Imaging” International Journal of Modern Engineering, Vol. 6, No. 1, Fall/Winter 2015 • Mahamid, M., Rahman, A., & Malhas, F. “Non-Linear and Buckling Analysis of Transmission Steel Towers” International Journal of Modern Engineering, Vol. 6, No. 1, Fall/Winter 2015 • Malhas, F., Mahamid, M. & Rahman, A., “Serviceability Performance of Concrete Beams Reinforced with MMFX Steel” International Journal of Modern Engineering, Vol. 17 No. 1, Fall/Winter 2016 • Mahamid, M., Al-Hijaj, M. Rahman, A., Malhas, F. , “Skewed Extended Shear Tab Connections: Behavior, Analysis and Parametric Study” , EUROSTEEL 2017, September 2017 ,15–13, Copenhagen, Denmark
126 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Professor Rodrigo Magalhaes
ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS • PhD (Management) from the London School of Economics, London, United Kingdom. Title of thesis: The Organizational Implementation of Information Systems: Towards a New Theory. Concluded in September 1999. Supervisor: Prof. Ian Angell. External examiner: Georg Von Krogh, Professor of Management, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. • MBA (Master of Business Administration) with electives in Information Management from the University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom. Concluded in October 1990. • MA (Information Science) from Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, United Kingdom. Concluded in December 1981. • BA (Psychology) from University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Concluded in 1972. • Secondary education under the Portuguese system at the Liceu Pero de Anaia, Beira, Mozambique. Concluded in 1968. OTHER QUALIFICATIONS • Six Sigma Master Black Belt certificate awarded by Six Sigma and Advanced Controls, Louisville, KY 40252, USA. Concluded in May 2009. PROFESSIONAL CAREER Current affiliations: • 2017 Dean of Student Affairs – Kuwait College of Science and Technology, Kuwait • 2015 Professor of Management – Kuwait College of Science and Technology, Kuwait • 2010 Researcher, CIEO - Centre for Spatial and Organizational Dynamics, Universidade do Algarve, Faro, Portugal • 2006 Researcher, CODE - Center for Organizational Design and Engineering, INOV, Lisboa, Portugal Past affiliations:
• 2014-2013 Dean, Kuwait-Maastricht Business School, Kuwait • 2008-2005 Academic Director, Kuwait-Maastricht Business School, Kuwait • 14-2005 Professor of Information Systems and Organization, Kuwait-Maastricht Business School, Kuwait • 10-2005 Visiting Associate Professor - Department of Computer Engineering, IST, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal • 04-1999 Visiting Professor – Faculty of Social Sciences, Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Catholic University of Portugal), Lisbon, Portugal (part-time) • 04-1999 Managing Partner - T2C: Tecnologias, Conhecimento, Competitividade Lda, Lisbon, Portugal (own small consultancy enterprise specializing in the strategic management of technology, human resources and knowledge management) • 95-1991 Director of the MBA programme (Information Management stream) – Faculty of Economics and Management, Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Catholic University of Portugal), Lisbon, Portugal • 99-1990 Assistant Professor – Faculty of Economics and Management, Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Catholic University of Portugal), Lisbon, Portugal PUBLICATIONS (last five years)
Articles in peer-reviewed journals
11. Magalhães, Rodrigo & Abouzeid, Mohamed A. (2018). Does Effectuation Apply Across Cultures? A Study Amongst Entrepreneurs in Kuwait. Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, 8:22
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 127 22. Magalhães, Rodrigo (2018). Design Discourse for Organization Design: Foundations in Human- Centered Design. Design Issues, 16-6 :)3( 34 33. Magalhães, Rodrigo (2018). Human-Centered Organization Design. Design Journal, -227 :)2( 21 246 44. Magalhães, Rodrigo & Proper, H. A. (2017) Model-Enabled Design & Engineering of Organisations and their Enterprises. Organisational Design & Enterprise Engineering, vol 1, nº 12–1 ,1 55. Magalhães, Rodrigo; Musallam, Basim (2014).. Investigating Electronic Word-of-Mouth Motivations in the Middle East: Twitter as Medium and Message. Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, 3( 12) Jul-Sep Books and Chapters in Books 66. Magalhaes, Rodrigo (2020). Designing Organization Design: a human-centric design approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press (forthcoming) 77. Magalhaes, Rodrigo; Tribolet, Jose & Zacarias, Marielba. (2019) “Organizational Identity and Self- Awareness: creating convergence between Enterprise Engineering and Organizational Design”. Paper submitted as a book chapter in Digital transformation: concepts and definitions, edited by Bas van Gils and H.A. (Erik) Proper. Forthcoming 88. Aveiro, David; Pergl, Robert; Guizzardi, Giancarlo; Almeida, João Paulo; Magalhães, Rodrigo; Lekkerkerk, Hans (Eds) (2017). Advances in Enterprise Engineering XI: 7th Enterprise Engineering Working Conference, EEWC 2017, Antwerp, Belgium, May 2017 ,12-8, Proceedings, (Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing) 99. Magalhães, Rodrigo (Ed) (2014). Organization Design and Engineering: coexistence, cooperation or integration? London: Palgrave Macmillan 1010 Magalhães, Rodrigo (2014). An Explanatory Framework of the Dynamics of Organization Design and Engineering (ODE), in Rodrigo Magalhães (ed), Organization Design and Engineering: coexistence, cooperation or integration? London: Palgrave Macmillan Conference Papers 11. Magalhães, Rodrigo (2017). Human-Centred Organization Design: identity as enabler of transformation and change. 7th Global Innovation and Knowledge Academy (GIKA 2017), School of Economics and Management, University of Lisbon, Portugal, 30 - 28 June 2017 22. Magalhães, Rodrigo (2014). A Reconceptualization of Business Value: Value and Values as Recursion. Fifth LAEMOS Conference, 5-3 April 2014, Havana, Cuba EDITING OF ACADEMIC JOURNALS • Founding Co-Editor-in-Chief of the of Organizational Design and Enterprise Engineering (Springer) SUPERVISION AND EXAMINATION OF MASTERS AND PhD THESES • Supervised more than 100 MSc and five PhD theses. PARTICIPATION IN CONFERENCES, SEMINARS AND TALKS (last five years) • Track Chair at the Seventh Enterprise Engineering Working Conference, May 12-8th 2017, Antwerp, Belgium (Track on Organization Design) • Program Committee Member of Towards Organization 2.0: Advancements in Enterprise Social Networks in conjunction with the 15th International Conference on Web Information System Engineering, 13 October 2014, Thessaloniki, Greece • Scientific Committee Member of EUMMAS 2014 – International Conference on Marketing, Management and Economics, 31-29 August 2014, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Hersegovina • Reviewer for the EURAM 2014 Conference (European Academy of Management) held in Valencia, Spain, 7-4 June 2014 PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE HIGHLIGHTS
128 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Research Over the last 30 years of academic activity, my research interests have been centred on design theory, organizational design, organization theory and the organizational and strategic consequences of in- formation technology. My key research interests are as follows: • Design theory and organizational design • Forms of IS/IT strategic alignment with special emphasis on business innovation • The practical application of IS/IT strategic planning frameworks and models • The application of business process modelling techniques to IS/IT needs assessment • The impact of specific IT applications on a variety of organizational issues (e.g. the impact of an ERP organizational productivity, the impact of an intranet on the organization’s communication patterns or the evaluation of the organization’s office productivity tools in terms of the development of individual competencies) • The evaluation of the change management process following the implementation of a new business intelligence tool (e.g balanced scorecard system) Graduate and Post-Graduate Teaching In a nutshell, I have taught the following courses as part of graduate and undergraduate programmes in business or management: Information Systems Management, Strategic Management (including Innovation Management), Organization Behaviour, Strategic Performance Management, E-Business, Entrepreneurship, Management of Change, Introduction to Economics, Organization Theory, Research Methods for Management and Business.
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 129 FACULTY CVs
Professor Mohamed AbdelKarim Ahmed Professor Department of Physics
Professor Ahmed held leadership positions in several institutions. He was Vice-President for Academic Affairs at Kuwait University & acted in advisory capacity to Ministers of Education & Higher Education in Kuwait. He held the positions of Professor at Khartoum, Kuwait & Qatar universities & Visiting Pro- fessor at Cornell & Carleton universities. He was a senior Inter-University Council Fellow at the Imperial College & Visiting Scientist at CERN.
Teaching areas • Classical Mechanics • Quantum Mechanics • Statistical Mechanics • Electrodynamics • Mathematical Methods • General Relativity • Particle Physics Research Agenda One of the fundamental challenges in theoretical physics is to construct a quantum theory of gravity. Understanding the laws of black hole mechanics is an important constraint on the theory of quantum gravity. These laws have an intriguing resemblance to the laws of thermodynamics. The deep thermo- dynamic origin of gravitational dynamics is highlighted by the ability to derive Einstein equations from thermodynamic considerations. This has led to the emergent gravity paradigm. We intend to carry out investigations that shed some light on these issues particularly in higher order gravity.
130 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Professor John (Ioannis) Avaritsiotis Professor Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering
Professor at KCST since September 2016. He also served as Professor of Microelectronics Technology in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). He has published over 90 technical articles in various scientific journals, and has presented more than 30 papers at international conferences. His research interests concentrated on the development of surface micro-machining processes for the production of micromechanical sensors and design and prototyping of various types of multi-sensor systems for various applications. He was the Director of three R&D Laboratories: a) the Microelectronics Lab, b) PV Systems Lab and c) the Electronic Sensors Lab of NTUA. He is the Co-Editor of the Journal Active and Passive Electronic Devices, Guest Editor of IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology, Senior Member of IEEE and Member of IOP and ISHM. He served as Head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, for four (4) years and as Vice Rector of NTUA for another four (4) years up to 2014. Teaching Areas Analog Electronics, Power Electronics, Industrial Instrumentation, Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS), Photovoltaic Systems Research Areas Solar applications in arid areas, Energy harvesting for Wireless Sensor Nodes, Thermo-electric cooling systems, Tidal Energy Systems design and simulation. Publications • John Avaritsiotis, SOLAR ENERGY ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY: A CASE STUDY FOR KUWAIT, presented at the SPE International Heavy Oil Conference and Exhibition held in Kuwait City, Kuwait, 12-10 December 2018. Proceedings SPE-193801-MS, pp.12-1, Copyright 2018, Society of Petroleum Engineers.
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 131 Professor Carlos Martins da Fonseca Professor Department of Mathematics
Professor Fonseca is a mathematician with a long teaching experience in Portugal and Kuwait. He pub- lished more than 100 research publications in pure and applied mathematics, collaborating with many international researchers. He participated in many conferences, some as invited speaker, and seminars around the world. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of Special Matrices, a journal on structured matri- ces by the reputable publisher De Gruyter. He is editor of Open Mathematics, The Australian Journal of mathematical Analysis and Applications, and IMAGE - The Bulletin of the International Linear algebra Society. He also served as an invited editor in many high-ranking mathematical journals. He is a mem- ber of the European Mathematical Society. Teaching Areas • Matrix Theory * Discrete Mathematics • Combinatorics Research Areas • Spectral Graph Theory * Trigonometric Sums • Combinatorial Graph Theory * Matrix Inequalities Edited Journals • Special Matrices, De Gruyter – Editor in Chief • Open Mathematics, De Gruyter – Editor • The Australian Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications – Associate Editor • Advances and Applications in Discrete Mathematics – Associate Editor Edited Journals Invited · A Panorama of Mathematics: Pure and Applied, Contemporary Mathematics, 658 American Mathematical Society, 2016 · Linear Algebra and its Applications 436, no. 4, 2012 · Electronic Journal of Linear Algebra 24, 2012 Publications • M. Anđelić, Z. Du, C.M. da Fonseca, S.K. Simić, Tridiagonal matrices and spectral properties of some graph classes, Czechoslovak Mathematical Journal, to appear • Z. Du, C.M. da Fonseca, The number of P-vertices for acyclic matrices of maximum nullity, Discrete Applied Mathematics, to appear • Z. Du, C.M. da Fonseca, On the Bruhat rank of a Boolean F-matrix, Bulletin Mathematique de la Societe des Sciences Mathematiques de Roumanie, to appear • C.M. da Fonseca, E. Kilic, A new type of Sylvester-Kac matrix and its spectrum, Linear and Multilinear Algebra, to appear • C.M. da Fonseca, E. Kilic, An observation on the determinant of a Sylvester-Kac type matrix, Analele Universitatii Ovidius Constanta, Seria Matematica, to appear. • M. Anđelić, F. Ashraf, C.M. da Fonseca, S.K. Simić, Vertex types in some lexicographic products of graphs, Linear and Multilinear Algebra, to appear • Z. Du, C.M. da Fonseca, On the continuity of the maximum size of P-sets of acyclic matrices, Discrete Mathematics 2282-2278 ,)2019( 342
132 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 • A. Alazemi, M. Anđelić, C.M. da Fonseca, V.V. Sergeichuk, Lipschitz property for systems of linear mappings and bilinear forms, Linear Algebra and its Applications 36-26 ,)2019( 573 • M. Anđelić, C.M. da Fonseca, Some comments on tridiagonal (p,r)-Toeplitz matrices, Linear Algebra and its Applications 50-46 ,)2019( 572 • C.M. da Fonseca, On some conjectures regarding tridiagonal matrices, Journal of Applied Mathematics and Computational Mechanics, 17-13 ,)2018( 17 • C.M. da Fonseca, M. Lawrence Glasser, V. Kowalenko, Generalized cosecant numbers and trigonometric inverse power sums, Applicable Analysis and Discrete Mathematics -70 ,)2018( 12 109 • D. Dimitrov, Z. Du, C.M. da Fonseca, The minimal-ABC trees with B-1branches, PLoS ONE 13 2018(), no.4, e0195153 • D. Dimitrov, Z. Du, C.M. da Fonseca, Some forbidden combinations of branches in minimal-ABC trees, Discrete Applied Mathematics 182-165 ,)2018( 236 • C.M. da Fonseca, V. Futorny, T. Rybalkina, V.V. Sergeichuk, Topological classification of systems of bilinear and sesquilinear forms, Linear Algebra and its Applications 5-1 ,)2017( 515 • C.M. da Fonseca, M. Lawrence Glasser, V. Kowalenko, Basic trigonometric power sums with applications, The Ramanujan Journal 2017( 42), no.428-401 ,2 • D. Estévez-Schwarz, C.M. da Fonseca, On singular values related to DAEs in Kronecker canonical form, Mediterranean Journal of Mathematics 2826-2813 ,)2016( 13 • Z. Du, C.M. da Fonseca, The real symmetric matrices of odd order with a P-set of maximum size, Czechoslovak Mathematical Journal 1026-1007 ,)2016( 66 • A. Dmytryshyn, C.M. da Fonseca, T. Rybalkina Classification of pairs of linear mappings between two vector spaces and between their quotient space and subspace, Linear Algebra and its Applications 246-228 ,)2016( 509 • C.M. da Fonseca, T. Rybalkina, V.V. Sergeichuk, Topological classification of sesquilinear forms: Reduction to the nonsingular case, Linear Algebra and its • Applications 589-581 ,)2016( 504 • D. Dimitrov, Z. Du, C.M. da Fonseca, On structural properties of trees with minimal atom-bond connectivity index III: Trees with pendent paths of length three, Applied Mathematics and Computation 290-276 ,)2016( 282 • Z. Du, C.M. da Fonseca, On a family of trees with minimal atom-bond connectivity index, Discrete Applied Mathematics 202
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 133 Dr. Abolfazl Mehbodniya Associate Professor Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
Dr. Abolfazl Mehbodniya is a resourceful and innovative professional with a 10+ year experience in electrical and wireless engineering and project management. He has worked with international teams in several projects showing strong adaptability and competence. He is highly articulate, demonstrat- ing refined interpersonal skills across all levels and backgrounds. He is confident, positive and profes- sional and always energized for new challenges. Teaching Areas Electrical Engineering courses with emphasis on communication engineering courses. Recent taught courses: • EE 101 Introduction to electrical engineering • EE 201 Signals and systems • EE341 Communication systems • EE 352 Digital communications • EE342 Data Communications Research Areas Signal processing, 4G/5G Design, Radio Resource Management, Energy-Efficiency Improvement for Next Generation Wireless Networks, Interference Mitigation, Short-Range Communications, WLAN, OFDM, SC-FDMA, HetNet. Artificial Intelligence, Fuzzy Logic and machine learning techniques with applications to algorithm and protocol design in wireless communications. Publications -Journals • [1] J. Webber, N. Suga, A. Mehbodniya, K. Yano, Y. Suzuki, “Study on Channel Prediction for Automated Guided Vehicle using a Probabilistic Neural Network”, IEICE Communications Express, Article ID 2019XBL0061, May 2019 ,24, Online ISSN 0136-2187, https://doi.org/10.1587/ comex.2019XBL0061 • [2] Hajijamali Arani, M. J. Omidi, A. Mehbodniya and F. Adachi, “Minimizing Base Stations’ ON/OFF Switchings in Self-Organizing Heterogeneous Networks: A Distributed Satisfactory Framework,” in IEEE Access, vol. 5, pp. 2017 ,26278-26267. • [3] A. Hajijamali, A. Mehbodniya, J. Omidi, F. Adachi, “Distributed ON/OFF Switching and Dynamic Channel Allocation: Decreasing Complexity and Improving Energy Efficiency”, in Transactions on Emerging Telecommunications Technology, 8 AUG 2017 | DOI: 10.1002/ett.3222. • [4] A. Hajijamali, J. Omidi, A. Mehbodniya, F. Adachi, “A distributed learning–based user association for heterogeneous networks”, Transactions on Emerging Telecommunications Technology, 2017; e3192. https://doi.org/10.1002/ett.3192 • [5] K. Vasudeva, S. Dikmese, I. Guvenc, A. Mehbodniya, W. Saad, F. Adachi, “Fuzzy Logic Game- Theoretic Approach for Energy Efficient Operation in HetNets”, in IEEE Access, doi: 10.1109/ ACCESS.2017.2689061 • [6] Hajijamali, A. Mehbodniya, M. J. Omidi, F. Adachi, “Distributed Learning for Energy-Efficient Resource Management in Self-Organizing Heterogeneous Networks”, in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, vol. 66, no. 10, pp. 9303-9287, Oct. 2017. • [7] G. Lee, W. Saad, M. Bennis, A. Mehbodniya, F. Adachi, “Online Ski Rental for ON/OFF Scheduling of Energy Harvesting, Millimeter Wave Base Stations”, in IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 2990-2976, May 2017.
134 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 • [8] S. mahmoodi, M.J. Omidi, A. Mehbodniya, F. Adachi, “Sparsity Enhancement for Sparse Channel Estimation Using Non-Orthogonal Basis”, Wireless Pers Commun (2016). Book Chapter A. Mehbodniya and F. Adachi, “Decentralized Radio Resource Management for Dense Heterogeneous Wireless Networks”, at Key Technologies for 5G Wireless Systems, Cambridge University Press, 2017, ISBN: 9781107172418. Patent • 1] A. Mehbodniya, J. Webber, K. Yano, T. Kumagai, “Throughput Improvement by Balancing the Load on WiFi Channels Using Gibbs Sampling”, Filed in Japan #AT-P180143JP, 2018. • [2] J. Webber, N. Suga, A. Mehbodniya, N. Egashira, K. Yano, T. Kumagai, “Prediction of Fading Waveform using Probabilistic Neural Network and Improvement with Multiple-Receivers”, Filed in Japan 2018/3/4 • [3] J. Webber, A. Mehbodniya, N. Egashira, K. Yano, T. Kumagai, “System to Estimate the Upcoming Idle Period of a Communications System (using a PNN)”, Filed in Japan 2017/12/4
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 135 Dr. Ali Yousef Associate Professor Department of Mathematics
Dr. Yousef is an associate professor of mathematics, who obtained his Ph.D. degree from the school of mathematics, the University of Southampton, UK. His primary research area is in sequential esti- mation, a branch of mathematical statistics that requires a substantial knowledge in several areas of mathematics. He established the Department of Basic Sciences at Middle East University, in Jordan which serves all colleges. Moreover, he was the manager of the center of statistical analyses. He taught several undergraduate courses in mathematics and statistics for science, engineering and business students. Furthermore, he supervised several MBA students in their projects using SPSS. Recently, he is a member of the department and acts as a mathematics coordinator and course developer. Teaching Areas · Mathematics-Calculus (I, II, III), Discrete Mathematics, Linear Algebra, Engineering Mathematics, Differential Equations, Financial Mathematics, Numerical Methods for Engineers, Business Mathematics. · Statistics – Probability Theory, Statistical Inference, Mathematical Statistics, Sequential Estimation, Multivariate Statistical Analysis, Probability and Statistics for Engineers, Bio-statistics, Business Statistics. Research Areas • Sequential Estimation, • Asymptotic Theory • Bio-Mathematics • Density Estimation • Financial Mathematics • Mathematical Education Publications • Yousef, A. and Bozkurt, F. (2019). Mathematical Modeling of HIV with Contact Tracing according to the Changes in the Infected Classes. Accepted to Springer proceeding • Yousef, A. and Bozkurt, F. (2019). Bifurcation and Stability Analysis of a System of Fractional Order Differential Equations for a Plant-Herbivore Model with Allee Effect. Mathematics, 454 ,7; doi:10.3390/math7050454 • Yousef, A. and Hamdy, H. (2019). The Performance of Multistage Sequential Sampling Procedures for the Mean of a Normal Population: Monte Carlo Simulation Study. Accepted, May 2019 ,21, Sigma Journal of Engineering and Natural Sciences • Yousef, A., Bozkurt, F. (2018). A Monoclonal Growth of GB (Glioblastoma) Tumor and Stability Analysis with Allee Effect. Wulfenia, Volume 25, Issue. 12, pp.68-53 • Bozkurt, F., Yousef, A., Imreizeeq, E. (2018). Flip and Neimark-Sacker Bifurcation for a Monoclonal Brain Tumor Population with Allee Effect. Wulfenia, Volume 25, Issue. 12, pp.19-2 • Bozkurt, F., Yousef, A. (2018). Oscillation and Global Stability of an Impulsive Delay Logistic Equation. Int. J. Appl. Math. Stat.; Vol. 57; Issue No. 6. • Yousef, A. (2018). A Note on a Three-Stage Sequential Confidence Interval for the Mean When the Underlying Distribution Departs away from Normality. Int. J. Appl. Math. Stat.; Vol. 57; Issue No. 4; pp. 69-57, ISSN 1377-0973 (Print), ISSN 7545-0973 (Online) • Bozkurt, F., Yousef, A. (2018). Oscillation and Global Stability of an Impulsive Delay Logistic Equation. Int. J. Appl. Math. Stat.; Vol. 57; Issue No. 6.
136 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Dr. Fatma Bozkurt Associate Professor Department of Mathematics
Dr. Bozkurt obtained her Ph.D. degree in mathematics from Erciyes University in 2010 and her master degree in education Med from Hacettepe University in 2005, both in Turkey. Furthermore, she did her postdoc at UAE University in 2014, where she worked on Glioblastoma (GB) and Glioblastoma Multi- forme (GBM) tumour growth. Her primary research area is in mathematical modelling like the brain tumours growth GB and GBM or epidemical case analysis like HIV infections. She worked as a senior lecturer at IAT-Abu Dhabi and involved to the curriculum development studies at MOE-Dubai. She taught several undergraduate courses in mathematics (Calculus I-III, Statistics and Probability, Linear Algebra, Algebra, Assessment, History of Education) and graduate courses in mathematics (Bio- Math- ematics) as well as mathematics education (STEAM Education, Comparative Education Systems). Teaching Areas • Mathematics – Calculus (I, II, III), Linear Algebra, Engineering Mathematics, Statistics and Probability, Biomathematics. • Mathematics Education- STEAM Education, Comparative Education Systems, Assessment, Alternative Assessment in Mathematics, History of Education Research Areas • Differential and Difference Equations • Fractional Order Differential Equations • Bio-Mathematics • Mathematical Education Publications • Bozkurt, F., (2016), A Survey Study about the Interest of High School Students to Some Courses and Jobs in Turkey, Wulfenia, Vol.7, Issue 18-1 ,23. • Bozkurt, F., Hajji, M.A. (2016). Stability and Density Analysis of Glioblastoma (GB) with Piecewise Constant Arguments, Wulfenia, Vol. 23, Issue 14-1 ,2. • Bozkurt, F. (2018). A Stability and Density Analysis of a Monoclonal Population Growth with Piecewise Constant Arguments, International Journal of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Vol. 57, Issue 79-70 ,4. • Bozkurt, F., Yousef, A. (2018). Oscillation and Global Stability of an Impulsive Delay Logistic Equation, International Journal of Applied Mathematics and Statistics; Vol. 57; Issue 9-1 ,6. • Bozkurt, F., Yousef, A., Imreizeeq, E. (2018). Flip and Neimark-Sacker Bifurcation for a Monoclonal Brain Tumor Population with Allee Effect. Wulfenia, Vol. 25, Issue 12, pp.19-2 • Yousef, A., Bozkurt, F. (2018). A Monoclonal Growth of GB (Glioblastoma) Tumor and Stability Analysis with Allee Effect. Wulfenia, Vol. 25, Issue. 12, pp.68-53 • Yousef, A., and Bozkurt, F. (2019). Mathematical Modeling of HIV with Contact Tracing according to the Changes in the Infected Classes. Accepted to Springer proceeding • Yousef, A., and Bozkurt, F. (2019). Bifurcation and Stability Analysis of a System of Fractional Order Differential Equations for a Plant-Herbivore Model with Allee Effect. Mathematics, Vol. 7, Issue 454; DOI:10.3390/math7050454
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 137 Dr. Gamal El-Din Fahmy Associate Professor Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
Gamal Fahmy received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt, in 1996 and 1998, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Arizona State University, Tempe, USA in 2003. From 2003 to 2005, he was a Research Assistant Professor with West Virginia University, where he worked on several Biometric identification and recognition projects, from 2006 to 2012 we was with the German University in Cairo and an annual summer Senior Researcher at the Institute of Image and Computer Vision at RWTH Aachen, Germany. Dr Fahmy won the Egypt National State award in Engineering Sciences 2012-2013. His research interests include image super-resolution, Com- puter vision, biometric identification and image forensics. Teaching Areas Electric Circuit Analysis, (I, II), Digital Design Fundamentals, Signal and Systems, Digital Control Systems, Electronic Circuits, (I,II, III), Digital System design, System on Chip, Micro Computers, Advance Speech Processing, Multidimensional Signal Processing, advanced VLSI signal processing, Random Signal The- ory, Source Coding and Compression, Digital Forensics, Biomedical Imaging, Computer Architecture/ Organization, Electronic Imaging, Video Coding, Satellite communications, Information Theory, VLSI Architecture Research Areas Hardware Signal Processing, Computer Vision applications in Nanotechnology, Digital Systems, Image Coding and Compression, Digital Signal Processing, Biometrics, Feature Extraction, Computer Vision, Media Processing, Video Architecture. FPGA and DSP technology, Security and Watermarking Research grants/Research Projects • “Micro Movement Magnification in Video Signals in different Engineering applications”, funded from Kuwait Foundation for Advancement of Sciencer, Oct -2019Oct 2020. • “Micro Movement Magnification in Video Processing applications”, funded from Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz Univ., Saudi Arabia (budget 25,000 SAR, 2018-2017) • “Bspline Wavelets for Image Processing”, funded from University of Majmaah, Saudi Arabia (budget, 30,000 SAR, 2014/6-2013/6) • “Implementation of Hardware Digital Image and video coders and decoder”, funded from European Union. (budget 25,000.00 EUR, 2009/9-2008/9) • “Implementation of Watermarking Image coders on FPGA/DSP boards”, funded from the ministry of communications (ITIDA), Egypt (budget 100,000 EGP, 2011-2009). • Automatic Dental Identification System, (2006/8-2002/9, budget 1,9 Millon USD) funded from the United State National Science Foundation • Non- Ideal Iris Identification and Recognition, (2006/12-2004/1, budget 220,000 USD) funded from the Center of Identification Technology (Government NSF funded Research Center),USA • Facial Image Quality Assessment System, (2005/12-2004/7, budget 80,000 USD) funded from the Center of Identification Technology (Government NSF funded Research Center), USA • Ear Identification System, (2007/12-2005/9, budget 222,000 USD) funded from the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Quantico Virginia, USA Publications • O.Fahmy, G. Fahmy, and M. F. Fahmy,” Fast Discrete and Complex Wavelets Based Video
138 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Magnification Technique”, Signal, Image and Video Processing, submitted, August 2019. • O. Fahmy, G. Fahmy, and M. F. Fahmy,” A New Video Magnification Technique Using Complex Wavelets with Radon Transform Application”, Signal, Image and Video Processing, November 2018. • G. Fahmy, M. F. Fahmy and O. Fahmy, “Micro Movement Magnification in Video Signals using Complex Wavelet Analysis”, IET Image Processing, November. 2017.
Dr. Mohamed Trabelsi Associate Professor Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
Dr. Trabelsi received his Ph.D. in Energy Systems form INSA Lyon, France in 2009. His research interests include Systems Control with applications arising in the contexts of Power Electronics, Renewable Energies Integration, and Smart Grids. Dr. Trabelsi has been participating as Principal Investigator in several collaborative research projects for the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), resulting in more than $6 Million of funding in collaborative research over the last three years. Dr. Trabelsi was recipient of the prestigious French MENRT Scholarship from the Ministry of Highest Education for postgraduate studies (2006-2009), the Research Excellence Award, and the Best Research Award for the Academic Years 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 in recognition of his research achievements and exceptional con- tributions to the Electrical and Computer Engineering Program at Texas A&M University at Qatar. He obtained in June 2016 a Professional Certificate of “PV System Designer and Installer” from the PV Tech- nology Lab of the University of Cyprus. Dr. Trabelsi is a senior IEEE member. He has published more than 70 journal and conference papers, and he is author of one book and one book chapter Teaching Areas • Electric Circuits, Systems Control, Power Electronics Research Areas • Smart Grids; Renewable Energy Integration; Fault Detection, Advanced Control Techniques; Advanced Multilevel Converter topologies: Design, Modeling, Control, and Applications; Energy Management Research grants/Research Projects • -1MW PV Power RD&D Using SiC-based qZS Cascaded Multilevel Inverter and Battery Energy Storage, Principal Investigator, Qatar National Research Fund, 2019-2013 ,4,599,726.96$. • Enhanced Monitoring using Statistical Fault Detection Methods and Applications to Photovoltaic Systems and Genomic Data, Principal Investigator, Qatar National Research Fund, ,714,753.60$ 2020-2017. • Integration of Solar Generation and Electrical Vehicles into the Smart Grid, Principal Investigator, Qatar National Research Fund, 2019-2016 ,788,993.00$. Publications - Journals • H. Makhamreh, M. Trabelsi, O. Kukrer, H. Abu-Rub, “An effective Sliding Mode Control Design for a Grid-Connected PUC7 Multilevel Inverter”, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Early Access, 2019. • R. Fezai, M. Mansouri, M. Trabelsi, M. Hajji, H. Nounou, M. Nounou, “Online Reduced Kernel GLRT Technique for Improved Fault Detection in Photovoltaic Systems”, Energy, vol. 179, pp. -1133 2019 ,1154.
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 139 • M. Mansouri, M. Hajji, M. Trabelsi, M.F. Harkat, A. Al-khazraji, A. Livera, H. Nounou, M. Nounou, “An Effective Statistical Fault Detection Technique for Grid Connected Photovoltaic Systems based on an Improved Generalized Likelihood Ratio Test”, Energy, vol. 159, pp. 2018 ,856-842. • M. Mansouri, M. Hajji, M. Trabelsi, A. Al-khazraji, M.F. Harkat, H. Nounou, M. Nounou, “Enhanced Generalized Likelihood Ratio Test for Failure Detection in Photovoltaic Systems”, International Transactions on Electrical Energy Systems, e2018 ,2640. • M.A. Fnaiech, M. Trabelsi, S.S. Khalil, M. Mansouri, H. Abu-Rub, H. Nounou, “Robust Sliding Mode Control for Three-Phase Rectifier Supplied by Non-Ideal Voltage”, Control Engineering Practice, vol. 77, pp. 2018 ,85-73. • M. Trabelsi, L. Ben-Brahim, A. Gastli, K.A. Ghazi, H. Abu-Rub, “Enhanced low-voltage ride-through capability of flying capacitors inverter using model predictive control”, International Transactions on Electrical Energy Systems, pp. e2017 ,2430. • S. Bayhan, M. Trabelsi, H. Abu-Rub and M. Malinowski, “Finite-Control-Set Model-Predictive Control for a Quasi-Z-Source Four-Leg Inverter Under Unbalanced Load Condition,” in IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 64, no. 4, pp. 2569-2560, April 2017. • M. Trabelsi, M. Ghanes, M. Mansouri, S. Bayhan, and H. Abu-Rub, “An original observer design for reduced sensor control of Packed U Cells based renewable energy system,” International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, vol. 42, pp. 2017 ,17916-17910. • M. Trabelsi, L. Ben-Brahim, H. Abu-Rub, “High Performance Deadbeat Control for Cascaded H-Bridge Inverter based Variable Frequency Drive”, International Journal of Industrial Electronics and Drives , Vol. 3, No. 2017 ,3. • M. Trabelsi, S. Bayhan, H. Abu-Rub, and L. Ben-Brahim, “Performance enhancement of cascaded qZS-HB based renewable energy system using Model Predictive Control,” International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, vol. 42, pp. 2017 ,17927-17917. Conference Papers • H. Makhamreh, M. Trabelsi, O. Kukrer, H. Abu-Rub, “A Simple Sliding Mode Controller for PUC7 Grid-Connected Inverter using a look-up Table”, IECON 45 – 2019th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, Lisbon, Portugal, October 2019. • K. Rayane, M. Bougrine, A. Benalia, M. Trabelsi, “Self-Balanced Operation of a Standalone PUC5 Multilevel Inverter Based on its Averaged Model”, IECON 45 – 2019th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, Lisbon, Portugal, October 2019. • S. Biricik, H. Komurcugil, M. Trabelsi, “Three-Phase Two-Leg T-Type Converter based Active Power Filter”, IECON 45 – 2019th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, Lisbon, Portugal, October 2019. • H. Makhamreh, M. Trabelsi, O. Kukrer, H. Abu-Rub, “Model Predictive Control for a PUC5 based Dual Output Active Rectifier”, CPE-POWERENG 2019, Sonderborg, Denmark, April 2019. • I. Chihi, L. Sidhom, M. Trabelsi, H, “Nonlinear Hammerstein-Wiener Model based Fault Detection Approach for a Grid-Connected Cascaded H-Bridge Inverter”, 10th IEEE GCC conference, Kuwait City, Kuwait, April 2019. • L. Sidhom, I. Chihi, M. Trabelsi, H, Abu-Rub, “Dynamic Gains Robust Differentiator based Fault Detection Approach for Cascaded H-Bridge Multilevel Inverters”, IECON 44 – 2018th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, Washington DC, USA, September 2018. • M. Trabelsi, H. Vahedi, H. Komurcugil, and H. Abu-Rub, K. Al-Haddad, “Low Complexity Model Predictive Control of PUC5 based Dynamic Voltage Restorer,” 2018 IEEE International Symposium on Industrial Electronics (ISIE 2018), Cairns, Australia, June 2018. • S. Bayhan, M. Trabelsi, H. Abu-Rub, M. Rivera, “Open-Circuit Fault Diagnosis and Fault-Tolerant Model Predictive Control of SubMultilevel Inverter”, 2018 IEEE International Symposium on Industrial Electronics (ISIE 2018), Cairns, Australia, June 2018. • M. Trabelsi, H. Komurcugil, and H. Abu-Rub, “Mitigation of Grid Voltage Disturbances using Quasi- Z-Source based Dynamic Voltage Restorer,”12th International Conference on Compatibility, Power Electronics and Power Engineering (CPE-POWERENG), Doha, Qatar, April 2018. • P. Kakosimos, M. Trabelsi, and H. Abu-Rub, “Model Predictive Control With Non-Linear Feedback for
140 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor Drives,”12th International Conference on Compatibility, Power Electronics and Power Engineering (CPE-POWERENG), Doha, Qatar, April 2018. • M. Trabelsi, H. Komurcugil, S. S. Refaat, H. Abu-Rub, “Model Predictive Control of Packed U Cells based Transformerless Single-Phase Dynamic Voltage Restorer,” 2018 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Technology (ICIT), Lyon, France, February 2018 • S. S. Refaat, A. Mohamed, M. Trabelsi, H. Abu-Rub, “Reliability Evaluation of Smart Grid System with Large Penetration of Distributed Energy Resources,” 2018 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Technology (ICIT), Lyon, France, February 2018. Books/Books Chapters • H. Vahedi, M. Trabelsi, “Single-DC-Source Multilevel Inverters”, Springer Nature Switzerland AG, ISBN 2019 ,9-15252-030-3-978. • Trabelsi, M., et al., Grid Integration of Quasi-Z Source Based PV Multilevel Inverter, in Impedance Source Power Electronic Converters, 2016, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. p. 389-362.
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 141 Dr. M. Murugappan Associate Professor Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
Dr. M. Murugappan received the B.E (Electrical & Electronics Engg) (Distinction) from Madras University, India, M.E (Applied Electronics) from Anna University, India and Ph.D (Mechatronic Engineering) from Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Malaysia, 2002, 2006 and 2010, respectively. Prior joining to KCST, he worked as a Senior Lecturer in School of Mechatronics Engineering, University Malaysia Perlis, Malaysia from 2010-2016. He has published more than 110 research articles in a peer reviewed conference proceed- ings/ journals/book chapter. He has got a maximum citation of 2725 and scored the H index of 28 and i10 Index of 56. He produced nearly 11 postgraduate students (7 Ph.D and 4 M.Sc). He also servings as Editorial board member in several internationally peer reviewed journals (ISI) and committee mem- bers in international conferences Teaching Areas Electric circuit theory, Electronic Devices and Systems, Signals and Systems, Digital Electronics, Intro- duction to Electrical Engineering. Research Areas Bio-signal/image processing applications, Affective computing, Computational Neuroscience, Brain computer interface, Human Machine Interaction, and Vision System. Research Grants • Investigation of Brain Functional Connectivity Patterns based Emotional Impairment Analysis in Parkinson’s disease Patients using EEG Signals, FRGS, Fundamental Research Grant Scheme, Phase 2017-2015 ,1, Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia, 2017-2015. • Investigation on Developing Electrocardiogram (ECG) Signals based Risk Markers for Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) Prediction, Fundamental Research Grant Scheme, Phase 2015 ,1, Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia, 2017-2015. • Development of Real-Time Emotion Recognition System using only Facial Expressions based on Machine Learning and Deep Neural Network Methods to assist physically disabled people”, Kuwait Fund for Advancement of Sciences (KFAS), Kuwait, 2020-2019. • Brain Connectivity Patterns based Emotional Impairment Analysis in Parkinson’s disease Patients using Wireless EEG Signals and Deep Learning Methods”, Kuwait Fund for Advancement of Sciences (KFAS), Kuwait, 2020-2019. Publications - Journals • Bhurane A, Dhok S, Manish S, Yuvaraj R, M Murugappan, U Rajendra Acharya, Diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease from EEG Signals using Linear and Self-Similarity features, Expert systems, Wiley Publisher (IF: 1.505). (Accepted on 16 Sep 2019) • Zhemin Zhuang, Alex Noel Joseph Raj, Atyant Jain, Nersisson Ruban, Saksham Chaurasia, Nan Li, Lakshmanan M, M Murugappan, Nipple Segmentation and Localization using Modified U-Net on Breast Ultrasound Images, Journal of Medical Imaging and Health Informatics, American Scientific Publisher, 2019. (IF: 0.549). (https://doi.org/10.1166/jmihi.2019.2828) • Anuja N, Alex Noel J R, Ruban N, Zhemin Z, M Murugappan, Rda-Unet-Wgan: An Accurate Breast Ultrasound Lesion Segmentation Using Wasserstein Generative Adversarial Networks, Arabian Journal of Science and Engineering, Springer, 2019. (Under Review) (IF: 1.515) • Shu L O, Yuki H, Rahavendra U, Yuvaraj R, Arunkumar N, M Murugappan, U Rajendra Acharya, A
142 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Deep Learning Approach for Parkinson’s Disease Diagnosis from EEG Signals, Neural Computing and Applications, 2018. (https://doi.org/10.1007/s5-3689-018-00521) (IF: 4.213) • Bong Siao Zheng, Wan Khairunizam, Murugappan Murugappan, Shahriman AB, Zuradman M Razlan, I Zunaidi, Choong Wen Yean, Effectiveness of Tuned Q-factor Wavelet Transform in Emotion Recognition among Left-brain Damaged Stroke Patients, International Journal of Simulation, Systems, Science and Technology, DOI 10.5013/IJSSST.a.19.03.02. (SCOPUS) • W. Y. Choong , W. Khairunizam, M. I. Omar, M. Murugappan, A. H. Abdullah, H. Ali, and S. Z. Bong, Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (DFA) for Emotional Assessment of Stroke Patients Using EEG Signals, Journal of Telecommunication, Electronic and Computer Engineering, Vol 10, No ,13 2018 ,109-105. (SCOPUS) • Seyed Alireza Khoshnevis; Ravi Sankar; Murugappan Murugappan, Identifying Stages of Parkinson’s Disease from EEG Signal with Higher Order Moments, Biomedical Signal Processing and Control, Elsevier. (Under Review) (IF: 2.943)
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 143 Dr. Mushtaq Loan Associate Professor Department of Physics
Dr. Mushtaq Loan is an accomplished educator with over 16 years of teaching experience. Most of his research accomplishments to the date set the scope of and open directions, new insight and under- standing of particle world. As an academic he has demonstrated ability in developing standards-based curriculum, instructional design and creating a student-centered environment while maintaining high interest and achievement. Throughout his academic career, he has been committed to the provision of high-quality teaching and learning by redesigning and reforming learning systems. He has facilitated and implemented policies to see through the development of an interdisciplinary express course aimed to connect STEM Education in a multidisciplinary arrangement and how the in- dustry engages with the issues related to the subject while engaging the students to the experiences that shape their future interests, employment options and desire for further learning. He possesses a strong track record of 28 peer-reviewed research publications in various international journals of high impact factor, over 30 national and international conference contributions, and 12 non-referred publications. He has demonstrated track record to initiate, co-author, and secure exter- nal funding, expertise, and experience to lead new projects with realistic research plans, timeline, and budget. Teaching Areas Taught several physics and mathematics courses including Complex Motion and Wave Motion (PH101), Electrodynamics and Modern Physics (PH102), Solid State Physics and Semiconductor Devic- es (Ph103), Calculus (MA102), and Critical Thinking and Research. Research Areas Lead and secure funding for independent as well as collaborative research programs, successfully ad- ministered several research projects, including finite temperature QCD on the lattice using dynamical two flavour QCD with improved anisotropic quark actions; Investigated the role of multiquark had- rons, tetra-quark mesons and dibaryonic states built from six valence quarks; Supervised and co-su- pervised a number of honours and graduate students; Collaborated with various LQCD groups on a number challenging and infamous problems in particle physics; Organized seminars and workshops on Non-perturbative methods and Lattice QCD Research Grant Proposal Submitted • Quark-Gluon Plasma: From Melting Quark to Boiling Hadrons – KFAS Grant Proposal • • Cancer Treatment with Hadrons and Light Ions – KFAS Grant Proposal Publications – Journals/Symposium • M. Loan, B. Freeman, A. Bhat, M. Tantary, M. Brown and K. Virk, [KCST – CVMC Collaboration], Monte Carlo Simulations of DNA Damage and Cellular Response to Hadron Irradiation, Phys. Med. Biol. 2019( ,47) • 2. M. Loan, N. Demir and B. Freeman, Static Potential in 2D Supersymmetry on Improved Anisotropic Lattice, to appear in Phys. Rev. D (2019) • M. Loan, Impact of PBL in Interdisciplinary Semester-long projects in STEM Disciplines, Page 40, International PBL Symposium, ACK, 2018.
144 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Dr. Viswanathan K.Kannan Associate Professor Department of Mathematics
Dr. Viswanathan K.K. is currently working as Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Kuwait College of Science and Technology, Kuwait since November 2016. In addition to that he is a Research Fellow of UTM Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (UTM-CIAM) at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia. His journey started as a Post doc Researcher in IISC Bangalore, India, and received BK21 scientist award for three years to work as Post-Doctoral in the Division of Mechanical Engineering, Inha University and Department of Mathematics, Seoul National University at South Ko- rea. He was in the position of Foreign Professor to teach Engineering Mathematics and Mechanics in the Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering at Inha University, South Korea for three years and as Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia for six years. He published many research articles in reputed International Journals and visited many countries for his research presentation as well as Invited Speaker. His area of interest includes vi- bration of composite plates and shells, fluid structure interactions, fluid mechanics and the numerical methods and analysis. Teaching Areas Engineering Mathematics, Calculus I &II, Liner Algebra, Partial differential Equations, Integral Trans- forms, Discrete Mathematics, probability and Random Process, Engineering Mechanics, Theory of Plates , Theory of Shells, Finite Element method. Research Areas Vibration of Plates and Shells, Fluid -Solid Structure Interaction, Numerical Analysis, Composite Struc- tures. Research Grants/Research Projects • Received Grant from Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS), Kuwait, to carry out the research in project titled “Free vibration of composite layered cylindrical shells filled with fluid under shear theory’. (Amount KWD 5,000). Period of project: Jan’ 2018 – Feb’ 2019. • Role: Principle Investigator, Status: Completed. • Received Grant from Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE), Malaysia-GUP project (Tier 1) through Research Management Centre (RMC), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia to carry out the research in project titled “Magneto-Rheological Semi-Active Suspension System – A Mathematical Model”. (Amount MYR 50,000). Period of project: Nov’ 2015 ,15–Nov’ 2017 ,14. • Role: Project Leader, Status: Completed. Publications – Journals/Conference • M.D. Nurul Izyan, Z.A. Aziz, Rabih Ghostine, J.H.Lee, K.K. Viswanathan, Free vibration of cross-ply layered circular cylindrical shells filled with quiescent fluid under first order shear deformation theory , Int. J. Pressure Vessels and Piping, 2019, Vol. 170, pp. 81-73. (IF 2.41, Q2) • M.D. Nurul Izyan, K.K. Viswanathan, Vibration of symmetrically layered angle-ply cylindrical shells filled with fluid, PLoS ONE Journal, 2019, Vol. 7(14), pp. 18-1. (IF 2.776, Q2) • K.K.Viswanathan, J.S. Tang, Z.A. Aziz, P. Sampath, Mathematical modeling of magneto rheological fluid damper in the semi-active suspension system, AIP Conference Proceedings, 2019, Vol. 2112, pp. 11-1( 020023). (Scopus).
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 145 • D.S. Sankar and K.K. Viswanathan, FDM Analysis of Pulsatile Two-phase MHD Rheology of Blood in Tapered Stenotic Blood Vessels, Journal of Physics: IOP Conference Series, 2019, Vol. ,1170 012002: pp. 6-1 (Scopus) • D.S.Sankar, A.K. Nagar, K.K. Viswanathan, A.V. Kumar, CFD analysis on MHD flow of two fluid model for blood rheology in constricted arteries, IET Digital Library (7th Brunei Internation Conference on Engineering and Technology 2018 ,)2018, pp. 75-71. DOI:10.1049/cp.2018.1568 (Scopus) • M.D. Nurul Izayn, Z.A. Aziz, K.K.Viswanathan, Free vibration of anti-symmetric angle ply laminated cylindrical shells with quiescent fluid under shear deformation theory, Composite Structures, 2018, Vol. 193, pp. 197-189. (IF 5.39, Q1). • A.K. Nor Hafizah, K.K. Viswanathan, Z.A. Aziz, J.H. Lee, Vibration of antisymmetric angle-ply annular plates of variable thickness, J. Mech. Sc. & Tech., 2018, Vol. 5(32), pp. (IF 1.194, Q3) • Saira Javed, K.K. Viswanathan, Z.A. Aziz, J.H. Lee, Free vibration of cross-ply laminated plates based on higher order shear deformation theory, Steel and Composite Structures, 2018, Vol. 4(26), pp. 484-473, (IF 3.594, Q1) • D. Chinnadurai, A.R. Selvaraj, R. Rejendran, G. Rajendra Kumar, H.J. Kim, K.K. Viswanathan and K.Prabakar, Inhibition of radox behaviors in hierarchically structured manganese cobalt phosphate super capacitor performance by surface trivalent cations, ACS Omega, 2018, Vol. 2(3), pp. 1725-1718.(Web of Science) • A.K. Nor Hafizah, J.H. Lee, Z.A. Aziz and K.K. Viswanathan, Vibration of antisymmetric angle-ply ply laminated plates of higher order theory with variable thickness, Mathematical Problems in Engineering, 2018, Vol. 2018, Article ID: 7323628, pp. 15-1. (IF. 1.145, Q3). • A.N. Kashif, Z.A. Aziz, Faisal Salah, K.K. Viswanathan, An appication of algorithms of Adams and Gear method on boundary layer convective heat transfer with pressure gradient using homotopy perturbation method (HPM) over a flat plate, Jurnal Teknologi, 2018, Vol. 3( 80), pp. 53-47. (Scopus). • K.K. Viswanathan, A.K. Nor Hafizah, Z.A. Aiz, Free vibration of angle-ply laminated conical shell frusta with linear and exponentioal variation in thickness, In. J. Acoustics & Vibration, 2018, Vol. 2(23), pp. 276-264. (IF 0.375, Q4). • A.N. Kashif, Z.A. Aziz, Faisal Salah, K.K. Viswanathan, Convective heat transfer in the boundary layer flow of a Maxwell fluid over a flat plate using an approximation technique in the presence of pressure gradient, Engineering Letters, 2018, Vol 1( 26), pp. 9-1.(Scopus) • Sara Zergani, J.H lee, Z.A. Aziz, K.K. Viswanathan, KDV and FKDV model for the run-up of tsunamis vis Lattice Boltzman Method , Int. J. Applied Eng. Research, 2017, Vol. 24( 12), pp. 14347-14338. (Scopus) • A.K. Nor Hafizah, K.K. Viswanathan, Z.A. Aziz and J.H. Lee, Free vibration of antisymmetric angle- ply composite laminated conical shell under classical theory, Int. J. Applied Eng. Research, 2017, Vol. 15( 12), pp. 4937-4928. (Scopus) • K. Karthikh, K.K. Viswanathan, Z.A. Aziz, Y.V.S.S. Sanyasiraju and J.H. Lee, Comparative study of free vibration of cross-ply laminated plates under first order shear theory, Int. J. Applied Eng. Research, 2017, Vol. 16( 12), pp. 5926-5916. (Scopus) • Faisal Salah, K.K. Viswanathan and Z.A. Aziz, On accelerated flow of MHD powell-eyring fluid via homotopy analysis method, Journal of Physis: Con. Series, 2017, Vol. 890, pp.7-1 :012006. (Scopus) • M.D. Nurul Izayn, K.K.Viswanathan, Z.A. Aziz and J.H. Lee and K. Prabakar, Free vibration of layered truncated conical shells filled with quiescent fluid, Composite Structures, 2017, Vol. 163, pp. -385 398. (IF 5.39, Q1). • Saira Javed, K.K.Viswanathan, Z.A. Aziz, K. Karthik and J.H. Lee, Vibration of anti-symmetric angle- ply laminated plates under higher order shear theory, Steel and Composite Structures, 2016, Vol. 6(22), pp. 1299-1281. (IF 3.594, Q1). • Saira Javed and K.K.Viswanathan, Free vibration of anti-symmetric angle-ply laminated conical shell frusta of sinusoidal variation in thicknessunder shear theiry, Structural Engineering and Mechanics- An International Journal, 2016, Vol. 6(58), pp. 1020-1001. (IF 2.191, Q2). • Sara Zergani, Z.A. Aziz and K.K. Viswanathan, Exact solutions and Lattice Boltzmann method modelling for shallow water equations, Global Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, 2016,
146 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Vol. 3(12), pp. 2266-2243.(Scopus). • Sara Zergani, Z.A. Aziz and K.K. Viswanathan, Elastic and Seismic model for generation of tsunamis via Lattice Boltzmann method, Global Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, 2016, Vol. 3(12), pp. 1999-1979. (Scopus). • Sara Zergani, Z.A. Aziz and K.K. Viswanathan, Modelling of Propogation of tsunami waves via Lattice Boltzmann method, Int. Journal Applied Engineering and Research, 2016, Vol. 15(11), pp. 8500-8483. (Scopus). • Nurul Izyan Binti Mat Daud, K.K. Viswanathan, Z.A. Aziz and K. Prabakar, Vibration of cylindrical shells filled with fluid, Applied Mathematics and Mechanics-English Edition, 2016 , ,2016, Vol. 6(37), pp. 820-803 (IF. 1.538, Q1) • K.K.Viswanathan, J.H Lee, M.D. Mohamad Hapiz and Z.A. Aziz, Free vibration of laminated truncated conical shell structure using spline approximation, Global Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, 2016, Vol. 6(12), pp. 4655-4637.(Scopus). • K.K.Viswanathan, Saira Javed, Free vibration of anti-symmetric angle-ply cylindrical shell walls under shear theory, J. of Vibration & Control, 2016, Vo. 7(22), pp. 1768-1757. (IF. 2.197, Q2) • Saira Javed and K.K.Viswanathan, Z.A. Aziz and J.H. Lee, Vibrational analysis of non-uniform thickness of anti-symmetric angle-ply cylindrical shells including first order shear deformation theory, Steel and Composite Structures, 2016, Vol. 5(20), pp. 1102-1087 (IF. 3.594, Q1).
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 147 Dr. Ehtesham Hassan Assistant Professor Department of Computer Engineering
Dr Ehtesham Hassan is a PhD in Computer vision and machine learning from IIT Delhi. His research interests include Computer Vision, Machine Learning, Image Processing, Augmented Reality, and Data Science. Teaching Areas • Computer engineering and basic Electrical engineering related courses. Research Areas • Computer Vision • Machine Learning • Augmented Reality • Multimedia Systems • Time-Series Analysis Research Grants • Vision based Activity Monitoring for Human Behaviour Modelling, KFAS, KWD2019-2018 ,8000. Conference Papers • Archie Gupta, Shreyash Mohatta, Jitender Maurya, Ramakrishna Perla, Ramya Hebbalaguppe, Ehtesham Hassan, “Hand Gesture based Region marking for Tele-support using Wearables” , published in the Proceedings of the Embedded Vision Workshop in IEEE CVPR2017-, held in Honolulu, USA, in July, 2017. • Ramya Hebbalaguppe, Gaurav Garg, Ehtesham Hassan, Hiranmay Ghosh, Ankit Verma, “Telecom Inventory management via object recognition and localisation on Google Street View Images” , published in the Proceedings of 2017 IEEE Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision, held in Santa Rosa, USA, in March, 2017, pp. 733-725.% Electronic ISBN – -5090-1-978 9-4822. • Shreyash Mohatta, Ramakrishna Perla, Gaurav Gupta, Ehtesham Hassan, Ramya Hebbalaguppe, “Robust Hand Gestural Interaction for Smartphone based AR/VR Applications” , published in the Proceedings of 2017 IEEE Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision, held in Santa Rosa, USA, in March, 2017, pp. 335-330 • Ankit Verma, Monika Sharma, Ramya Hebbalaguppe, Ehtesham Hassan, Lovekesh Vig, “Automatic Container Code Recognition via Spatial Transformer Networks and Connected Component Region Proposals “ published in the Proceedings of 15th IEEE International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications, held in California, USA in December, 2016, pp. 723-728. %ISBN – 9-6167-5090-1-978 • Ramakrishna Perla, Gaurav Gupta, Ramya Hebbalaguppe, Ehtesham Hassan, “InspectAR: An Augmented Reality Inspection Framework for Industry” , in the Proceedings of 2016 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR2016-), held in Mexico, in September, 2016, pp. 356-355. %ISBN 7-3740-5090-1-978. • Ramakrishna Perla, Ramya Hebbalaguppe, Gaurav Gupta, Geetika Sharma, Ehtesham Hassan, Monika Sharma, Lovekesh Vig, Gautam Shroff, “An AR Inspection Frame-work: Feasibility Study with Multiple AR Devices” , in the Proceedings of 2016 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR2016-), held in Mexico, in September, 2016, pp. 226 – 221.% ISBN 7-3740-5090-1-978.
148 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 • Srinidhi Hegde, Ramakrishna Perla, Ramya Hebbalaguppe, Ehtesham Hassan, “GestAR: Real Time Gesture Interaction for AR with Egocentric View” , in the Proceedings of 2016 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR2016-) ISMAR2016- held, in Mexico, in September, 2016, pp. 267-262.% ISBN 7-3740-5090-1-978. Book Chapters Santanu Chaudhury, Lipika Dey, Ishan Verma, Ehtesham Hassan, “Mining Multimodal Data” , in Pattern Recognition and Big Data, pp. 581-604, 2017, Published by Springer Patents • Ehtesham Hassan, Puneet Agarwal, Gautam Shroff, “Detecting an Event from Time- Series Data Sequences” • US Patent Number: 20150378963 • EU Patent Application Number: EP15174139 • Japan Patent Application Number: JP128117-2015 • Australia Patent Publication Number: AU2016204509B2 • Ehtesham Hassan, Surya Yadav, Puneet Agarwal, Gautam Shroff, “Method and System for fusing business information for distributional queries” • US Patent App. 192,215/15 • Canada Patent Publication Number: CA2,934,802C • Ehtesham Hassan, Mohit Yadav, Puneet Agarwal, Gautam Shroff, Ashwin Srinivasan, “Methods and Systems for searching for Logical Patterns” • US Patent Application Number: 185,980/15. • Australia Patent Application Number: AU2016201689 • EU Patent Application Number: EP16174956.9 • Canada Patent Application Number CA2923908A1 • Ehtesham Hassan, Anurag Saran, Preeti Johri, Shilpa Yadukumar Rao, “Visual Analysis for Planogram Compliance” • US Patent App. 154,337/15 • EU Patent Application Number: EP16169591 • Canada Patent Application Number CA2930190A1 • Gaurav Gupta, Ehtesham Hassan, “Systems and Methods for Detecting and Tracking a Marker” • US Patent App. 465,471/15 • Ramya Sugnana Murthy Hebbalaguppe, Ehtesham Hassan, Hiranmay Ghosh, Gaurav, “System and method for telecom inventory management” • US Patent App. 922,572/15 • Canada Patent Application Number CA2998164A1
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 149 Dr. Hazem Mohamed Elalfy Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Hazem El-Alfy received his Ph.D. and MSc degrees in Computer Science from the University of Mary- land, College Park, USA. He holds another MSc degree in Engineering Mathematics and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, both from Alexandria University, Egypt. Right after earning his Ph.D. in 2009, he held a lecturer position for four years at Alexandria University, Egypt. Then, he moved to Osa- ka University, Japan for a two-year postdoctoral position. As a result of his distinguished work, he was recommended for a one-year senior researcher position at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Japan, then for a research fellow position at Idea Front Inc., To- kyo. Hazem moved back to academia, holding a postdoctoral researcher position at Osaka University, then finally, an Assistant Professor position in Kuwait. Combining between academia and industry has notably carved his professional experience. Teaching Areas Object Oriented Programming, Data Structures Research Areas Computer Vision, Machine Learning, Video Analysis Publications - Journals Hazem El-Alfy, Ikuhisa Mitsugami and Yasushi Yagi, “Gait Recognition Based on Normal Distance Maps,” IEEE Trans. on Cybernetics, Vol. 48, Issue 5, pp. 1526-1539, IEEE, May 2018. Conference Papers • Hazem El-Alfy, Chi Xu, Yasushi Makihara, Daigo Muramatsu and Yasushi Yagi, “A Geometric View Transformation Model using Free-form Deformation for Cross-view Gait Recognition,” Proceedings of the 4th Asian Conf. on Pattern Recognition (ACPR 2017), pp. 934-929, Nanjing, China, Nov. 2017 ,29-26. • Hazem El-Alfy, Daigo Muramatsu, Yuuchi Teranishi, Nozomu Nishinaga, Yasushi Makihara and Yasushi Yagi, “A Visual Surveillance System for Person Re-Identification,” Proceedings of SPIE 13 ,10338th Int. Conf. on Quality Control by Artificial Vision (QCAV’17), pp. 7-1, No. 103380D, Tokyo, Japan, May 2017 ,16-14. • Hazem El-Alfy, Chi Xu, Yasushi Makihara, Daigo Muramatsu and Yasushi Yagi, “A Geometric View Transformation Model using Free-form Deformation for Cross-view Gait Recognition,” Proceedings of the 12th International Workshop on Robust Computer Vision (IWRCV 2018), p. 19, Nara, Japan, Jan 2018 ,7-6. • http://www.am.sanken.osaka-u.ac.jp/IWRCV2018/program.html • Hazem El-Alfy, Ikuhisa Mitsugami and Yasushi Yagi, “Exploiting Silhouettes Contours for Human Gait Identification,” Proc. of the 12th International Workshop on Robust Computer Vision (IWRCV 2018), p. 4, Nara, Japan, Jan 2018 ,7-6. • http://www.am.sanken.osaka-u.ac.jp/IWRCV2018/program.html • Hazem El-Alfy, Chi Xu, Yasushi Makihara, Daigo Muramatsu and Yasushi Yagi, “A Geometric View Transformation Model using Free-form Deformation for Cross-view Gait Recognition,” the 7th Symposium on Biometrics, Recognition and Authentication (SBRA 2017), pp. 57-56, Tokyo, Japan, IEICE, Nov 2017 ,14-13. • http://www.ieice.org/~biox/sbra2017/?cmd=program
150 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 • Hazem El-Alfy, Ikuhisa Mitsugami and Yasushi Yagi, “Gait Recognition Based on Normal Distance Maps,” the 7th Symp. on Biometrics, Recognition and Authentication (SBRA 2017), pp. 74-73, Tokyo, Japan, IEICE, Nov 2017 ,14-13. • http://www.ieice.org/~biox/sbra2017/?cmd=program • Hazem El-Alfy, Daigo Muramatsu, Yasushi Makihara and Yasushi Yagi, “Performance Evaluation of Person Re-identification for Elderly People Monitoring,” the 207th Information Processing Society Research Meeting on Computer Vision and Image Media (IPSJ SIG-CVIM), Nagoya, Japan, IPSJ, May 2017 ,11-10. • http://cvim.ipsj.or.jp/index.php?id=cvim207p
Dr. Ishac Kandas Assistant Professor Department of Physics
Dr. Ishac kandas is an Assistant Professor of Physics, Department of Engineering Mathematics and Physics, Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University, Egypt, where he has been a faculty member since 2013. He is now on leave to the Kuwait College of Science and Technology. Ishac received a scholarship from Egyptian government for post-doctoral researcher position, Faculty of Science, Utah State University from December 2015 to May 2016. Ishac completed his Ph.D. at Virginia Tech., USA and his undergraduate studies at Alexandria, Egypt. He is Co-founder of center of Smart Nanotechnology and Photonics (CSNP), Smart CI Research Center of Excellence; Alexandria University. His research in- terests lie in the area of optics especially optical fiber and optical nonlinear applications, ranging from theory to design. The teaching interest is including Engineering physics (from fundamentals to mod- ern physics), solid state physics, electromagnetics, optical fibers, and physical optics. Teaching Areas Engineering physics (from fundamentals to modern physics), Solid state physics, Electromagnetics, Quantum mechanics, Optical fibers, Physical optics. Research Areas • Optical fibers, Optical resonators, Fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs), Nonlinear optics, Gain flattening of optical amplifiers, Up conversion enhancement, Optical sensors Research Grants • Co – PI in the project tilted as “Efficiency enhancement of perovskite solar cells with plasmonic nanostructures,” ID: PN14-18SP01-, awarded by KFAS KuwaitJan. 2019. • Research Associate in the project titled as “Optical Nanosensors with Integrated Flexible Printed Nanoantennas for Water Quality Monitoring, ID: PR15-17EE01-”, awarded by KFAS Kuwait, Dec. 2017. • Research Associate in the project titled as “Innovative electrospun conductive spider silk nanofibers for human nerve regrowth”, awarded by QNRF, April 2015. • Co – PI in the project titled as “Fluorescent electrospun nanofibers with embedded nanoparticles”, awarded by ALEX REP-Alexandria University Egypt, July 2014. Publications - Journals • S. A. Elrafei, I. Kandas, N. Shehata, E. Samir, A. Okaz , and M. Rizk,” Impact of plasmonic nanoparticles on up-conversion luminescence and efficiency of Erbium-doped ceria nanoparticles under 780
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 151 nm excitation,” J. of Luminescence 204, pp. 2018 ,588-581. • H. A. Okda , E. A. Elzahaby , I. Kandas, M. H. Aly , and M. E. Osairy, “Plasmonic Enhancement to Second-Order Nonlinearity in Optical Fibers,” J. Light. Technol. 20( 36), pp. 2018 ,4842 -4834. • S. Elrafei, I. Kandas, N. Shehata, and E. Samir, “Efficiency improvement of up-conversion process of plasmonic-enhanced Er-doped NaYF4 nanoparticles under IR excitation”, Opt. Express 19( 26), pp. 2018 ,25506 -25492. • A. Hajjiah, I. Kandas, N. Shehata, “Efficiency Enhancement of Perovskite Solar cells with Plasmonic Nanoparticles: A simulation study,” Materials 2018 ,1626 ,)9(11. • John A. Bebawi , Ishac Kandas , Mohamed A. El-Osairy, and Moustafa H. Aly, “A Comprehensive Study on EDFA Characteristics: Temperature Impact,” Appl. Sciences 8, pp. 2018 ,8-1. • N. Shehata, E. Samir, I. Kandas, “Plasmonic-Ceria Nanoparticles as Fluorescence Intensity and Lifetime Quenching Optical Sensor,” Sensors, 2018 ,2818 ,)9(18. • N. Shehata, I. Kandas, I. Hassounah, P. Sobolciak, I. Krupa, M. Mrlik, A. Popelka, J. Steadman, R. Lewis, “Piezoresponse, Mechanical, and Electrical Characteristics of Synthetic Spider Silk Nanofibers,” Nanomaterials 2018 ,585 ,8. • I. Kandas, N. Shehata, I. Hassounah, P. Sobolčiak, I. Krupa, R. Lewis, “Optical fluorescent spider silk electrospun nanofibers with embedded cerium oxide nanoparticles,” J. of Nanophotonics ,)2( 12 2018 ,026016. • Hesham A. Okda, Ishac Kandas, Moustafa H. Aly, And M. EL Osairy,” Solution of dispersion relations of multilayer optical fibers: a comprehensive study” Appl. Opt. 14(57), pp. 2018 ,3795-3788. • E. Samir, N. Shehata, I. Kandas, Fluorescence intensity and lifetime quenching of ceria nanoparticles as optical sensor for tiny metallic particles, Journal of Nanophotonics 2018 ,016007 ,)1( 12. • E. A. Elzahaby, I. Kandas, and M. H. Aly,” Amendment performance of apodized TFBG for quasi- distributed-based sensor,” Appl. Opt. 2017 ,)19(56 • E. A. Elzahaby, I. Kandas, and M. H. Aly, “Second harmonic generation in thin optical fibers via cladding modes,” Opt. Express 11( 24), pp.2016 ,11446 -11335. • N. Shehata, I. Kandas, E. Samir, K. Meehan, M. Aldacher,” Parametric study of up-conversion efficiency in Er-doped ceria nanoparticles under 780 nmexcitation,” J. of Luminescence, vol. ,176 2016 ,380-372. • E. Samir, N. Shehata, M. Aldacher, and I. Kandas, “ Parametric study of upconversionefficiency in Er-Doped Lanthanide hosts under 980/780 nm excitation wavelengths,” Journal of Electronic Materials 6(45), pp. 2744,2016-2732. • I. Kandas, N. Shehata, C. Daengngam , I Ashry, and Y. Xu, “ Measurement of chromophores density using high Q-factor silica microspheres,” J. of Nanophotonics 2016 ,)1(10. Conference Papers • N. Shehata, H. Badran, I. Kandas, A. Hajjiah, Enhancement of optical properties of Perovskite solar cells through added plasmonic nanostructures, Techconnect World 2019, Nanotech, Boston MA, June 2019. • I. Kandas, E. Samir, N. Shehata, A.K. Mahmoud, Nonlinear optical nanocomposite : Electrospun PVA nanofibers embedded with PCBS, Techconnect World 2019, Nanotech, Boston MA, June 2019. • S. A. Elrafei, I. Kandas, N. Shehata, E. Samir, A. Okaz, and M. Rizk, “Temperature impact on upconversion efficiency and luminescence of Erbium-doped ceria-plasmonic nanostructure ,” Proc. SPIE 10927, Photonic and Phononic Properties of Engineered Nanostructures IX, 109271A (4 March 2019). • N. Shehata, E. Samir, I. Kandas,“ Plasmonic-ceria nanoparticles for automated optical fluorescence-quenching of dissolved oxygen,” SPIE Nanoengineering and photonics conference, Nanoengineering: Fabrication, Properties, Optics, and Devices XV, San Diego, California, US (August 2018). • E. A. El-Zahaby, I. Kandas and M. H. Aly, “Efficient Apodized-TFBG for DWDM Systems,” Proceeding of the 6th International Conference on Digital Information Processing and Communication (ICDIPC), pp. 209-205, Beirut, Lebanon (2016).
152 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Dr. Ismaeel AlRidhawi Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Dr. Ismaeel Al Ridhawi received his BASc, MASc, and Ph.D degrees in Electrical and Computer Engi- neering from the University of Ottawa, Canada, in 2007, 2009, and 2014 respectively. He is an Assistant Professor of Computer Engineering at Kuwait College of Science and technology and a researcher in the field of wireless communications. He has also worked at the American University of the Middle East in Kuwait as an Assistant Professor from 2014 to 2019. He’s a Senior IEEE member with many peer-reviewed publications in highly ranked magazines, journals and conference proceedings. He is an associate and guest editor in many journals and has organized a number of IEEE conferences over the years. He has also served as session chair for a number of symposiums and was part of the techni- cal program committee for numerous journals and conferences. His current research interests include service delivery and provisioning in fog and cloud computing, quality of service monitoring for wire- less networks, MEC network management, and service-specific overlay networks. Teaching Areas • Computer Architecture and Design • Digital System Design • Computer Networks • Software Engineering • Object-oriented Programming • Database Management • Professional Practice for Engineers Research Areas • Wireless Network Management. • Fog/MEC/Cloud Network Management. • Internet of Things (IoT). • Data Replication in cloud networks. • Service Specific Overlay Networks. • Policy-based Management. • Location Tracking and Prediction Systems. • Autonomic Systems and autonomic management. Publications - Journals • . B. Salameh, S. Otoum, R. Derbas, M. Aloqaily, I. Al Ridhawi and Y. Jararweh, “Intelligent Jamming- aware Routing in Multi-hop IoT-based Opportunistic Cognitive Radio Networks,” in Ad Hoc Networks, 2020. • I. Al Ridhawi, M. Aloqaily, and A. Boukerche, “Comparing Fog Solutions for Energy-Efficiency in Wireless Networks: Challenges and Opportunities,” in IEEE Wireless Communications Magazine, 2020. • V. Balasubramanian, S. Otoum, M. Aloqaily, I. Al Ridhawi, Y. Jararweh, “Low-Latency Vehicular Edge: A Vehicular Infrastructure Model for 5G,” in Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory, 2020. • I. Al Ridhawi, Y. Kotb, M. Aloqaily, Y. Jararweh and T. Baker, “A Profitable and Energy-Efficient Cooperative Fog Solution for IoT Services,” in IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, 2019. • Y. Kotb, I. Al Ridhawi, M. Aloqaily, Y. Jararweh, T. Baker, and H. Tawfik, “Cloud-Based Multi-Agent Cooperation for IoT Devices Using Workflow-Nets,” in Journal of Grid Computing, pp. 2019 ,26-1. • M. Aloqaily, I. Al Ridhawi, H. B. Salameh and Y. Jararweh, “Data and Service Management in Densely Crowded Environments: Challenges, Opportunities, and Recent Developments,” in IEEE
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 153 Communications Magazine, vol. 57, no. 4, pp. 87-81, April 2019. • M. Aloqaily, S. Otoum, I. Al Ridhawi, and Y. Jararweh, “An Intrusion Detection System for Connected Vehicles in Smart Cities,” in Ad Hoc Networks, 2019. • I. Al Ridhawi, M. Aloqaily, B. Kantarci, Y. Jararweh, and H. T. Mouftah, “A Continuous Diversified Vehicular Cloud Service Availability Framework for Smart Cities,” in Computer Networks, vol. 145, pp. 2018 ,218-207. • I. Al Ridhawi, M. Aloqaily, Y, Kotb, Y. Al Ridhawi, and Y. Jararweh, “A collaborative mobile edge computing and user solution for service composition in 5G systems,” in Transactions on Emerging Telecommunication Technologies, June 2018. • I. Al Ridhawi, Y. Kotb and Y. Al Ridhawi, “Workflow-Net Based Service Composition using Mobile Edge Nodes”, in IEEE Access, vol. 5, pp. 2017 ,23735-23719. • I. Al Ridhawi and Y. Kotb, “A Secure Service-Specific Overlay Composition Model for Cloud Networks,” in Journal of Software Networking, vol. 2017, no. 1, pp. 2017 ,240-221. Conference Papers • M. Daraghmeh, I. Al Ridhawi, M. Aloqaily, A. Agarwal and Y. Jararweh, “A Power Management Approach to Reduce Energy Consumption for Edge Computing Servers,” in Proc. 4th IEEE International Conference on Fog and Mobile Edge Computing (FMEC 2019), Rome, Italy, 2019. • V. Balasubramanian, F. Zaman, M. Aloqaily, I. Al Ridhawi, Y. Jararweh, and H.B. Salameh, “A Mobility Management Architecture for Seamless Delivery of 5G-IoT Services,” in Proc. 2019 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC 2019), Shanghai, China, 2019. • M. Aloqaily, V. Balasubramanian, F. Zaman, I. Al Ridhawi, and Y. Jararweh, “Congestion Mitigation in Densely Crowded Environments for Augmenting QoS in Vehicular Clouds,” in Proc. 8th ACM International Symposium on Design and Analysis of Intelligent Vehicular Networks and Applications (DIVANet’18), Montreal, QC, Canada, 2018. • M. Al-Hammouri, B. Madani, M. Aloqaily, I. Al Ridhawi, Y. Jararweh, “Scalable Video Streaming for Real-Time Multimedia Applications Over DDS Middleware,” in Proc. 15th ACS/IEEE International Conference on Computer Systems and Applications, Aqaba, Jordan, 2018. • N. Moustafa, I. Al Ridhawi, M. Aloqaily, “Fog Resource Selection Using Historical Executions,” in Proc. IEEE 3rd International conference on Fog and Mobile Edge Computing (FMEC 2018), Barcelona, Spain, 2018. • M. Al Ja’afreh, M. Aloqaily, I. Al Ridhawi, N. Moustafa, “A Hybrid-based 3D Streaming Framework for Mobile Devices over IoT Environments,” in Proc. IEEE 3rd International conference on Fog and Mobile Edge Computing (FMEC 2018), Barcelona, Spain, 2018. • I. Al Ridhawi, N. Moustafa, Y. Kotb, M. Aloqaily, I. Abualhaol, “Data Caching and Selection in 5G Networks Using F2F Communication,” in Proc. 28th IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC 2017), Montreal, Canada, 2017. • M. Aloqaily, I. Al Ridhawi, B. Kantarci, H. Mouftah, “Vehicle as a Resource for Continuous Service Availability in Smart Cities,” in Proc. 28th IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC 2017), Montreal, Canada, 2017. • I. Al Ridhawi and Y. A. Ridhawi, “A cache-node selection mechanism for data replication and service composition within cloud-based systems,” in Proc. 9th International Conference on Ubiquitous and Future Networks (ICUFN), Milan, 2017, pp. 731-726. • W. Masri, I. Al Ridhawi, N. Mostafa and P. Pourghomi, “Minimizing delay in IoT systems through collaborative fog-to-fog (F2F) communication,” in Proc. 9th International Conference on Ubiquitous and Future Networks (ICUFN), Milan, 2017, pp. 1010-1005. • I. Al Ridhawi, Y. Kotb, M. Aloqaily and B. Kantarci, “A probabilistic process learning approach for service composition in cloud networks,” in Proc. IEEE 30th Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering (CCECE), Windsor, ON, 2017, pp. 6-1. • I. Al Ridhawi and Y. Kotb, “A Secure Workflow-Net Model for Service-Specific Overlay Networks,” in Kim K., Joukov N. (eds) Mobile and Wireless Technologies 2017, ICMWT 2017, Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, Springer, vol. 425, pp. 399-389. • I. Al Ridhawi, N. Moustafa, and W. Masri, “Client-Side Partial File Caching for Cloud-Based Systems,” in Proc. 2016 IEEE Smart World Congress, 21-18 July 2016.
154 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Dr. Junais Habeeb Mokkath Assistant Professor Department of Physics
Dr. Junais Habeeb Mokkath is Assistant Professor at Kuwait College of Science and Technology. He received his PhD in Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics from Kassel University, Germany in Febru- ary/2012, his MSc in Physics from Cochin University of Science and Technology in June/2005, and BSc in Physics from Calicut University in May/2003 He has gained experience working at Chalmers Uni- versity of Technology, Sweden, as Researcher, from 2016-2017, National Institute for Material Science, Japan, from 2015-2016, King Abdullah University of Science And Technology, KSA as Post-doctoral fellow from 2012-2015 and Kassel University, Germany, 2012-2012 Teaching Areas Solid state physics, mathematical physics, computational modelling, quantum mechanics Research Areas • Quantum plasmonics • Nanophotonics • Mathematical physics Research Grants • Nanomaterials for Ultra-High Magnetic storage application: Microscopic theory of the fundamental interactions”, KFAS grant: PR14-18SP05-. Publications - Journals • Plasmons of Hollow Nanobar Oligomers, New Journal of Chemistry, 10.1039/C9NJ02575H • Probing subnanometric-scale hotspots in metallic interfaces, Plasmonics, 10.1007/s-019-11468 -01001z • Electric field amplification of plasmon molecule hybrids revealed by first principles time dependent density functional theory calculations, International Journal of Quantum Chemistry, 10.1002/qua.26021 • Charge-transfer excitons of metal intercalated pentacene dimers, Chemical Physics Letters, 10.1016/j.cplett.2019.05.017 • Electric field hotspots of all-inorganic off-stoichiometric APbX3 (A= Cs, Rb and X= Cl, Br, I) perovskite quantum dots, Physica E: Low-dimensional Systems and Nanostructures, 10.1016/j. physe.2019.04.027 • Temperature-dependent electronic structure of bixbyite Mn2O3 and the importance of a subtle structural change on oxygen electrocatalysis, ChemRxiv, doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv.7716590.v1 • Optical properties of nanodisk heterodimers using quantum chemical calculations, Physica E: Low-dimensional Systems and Nanostructures, 10.1016/j.physe.2019.03.023 • Optical Properties of Aluminum Intercalated Magnesium Nanoparticle Square Array: A Computational Study, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 10.1039/C9CP00867E • Probing the role of capping ligands, ligand loss and solvent effects on the optoelectronic properties of CdS quantum dots, Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids, 10.1016/j.jpcs.2019.03.005 • Plasmons of magnesium nanodisks and their interactions with a dipole-carrying molecule, Physica E: Low-dimensional Systems and Nanostructures, 10.1016/j.physe.2018.11.036 • Probing role of shell thickness in the optical response of core-shell nanorods, Chemical Physics Letters, 10.1016/j.cplett.2019.01.023
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 155 • Optical excitations of boron and phosphorous doped silicon nanoparticles: a computational study, Chemical Physics Letters, 10.1016/j.cplett.2019.01.019 • Optical Response Tuning of Compositional Heterodimers: a TDDFT Study, Plasmonics, 10.1007/ s1-0832-018-11468 • Band Edge Optical Excitation of Pyridine-Adsorbed CuAg Nanoparticles, The Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 10.1021/acs.jpca.8b03058 • Optical Properties of Bimetallic Compositional Heterodimers, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 10.1039/C8CP03346C • Aluminum nanorods subject to bending and twisting distortions: Optical response modulations using quantum mechanical simulations, Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids, 10.1016/j. jpcs.2018.07.006 • Band Edge Optical Properties of Defected MoS2 Nanotubes, Chemical Physics Letters, 10.1016/j. cplett.2018.07.017 • Competing plasmonic and charge-transfer excitations in pyridine adsorbed silver and aluminum nanoparticles, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, DOI: 10.1039/C8CP02549E • Strain Induced Plasmon Tuning in Planar Square-Shaped Aluminum Nanoparticles Array, DOI: 10.1016/j.cplett.2018.05.001 • Optical Properties of Core-shell and Multi-shell Nanorods, DOI: 10.1016/j.cplett.2018.03.061 • Evolution of the Magnetic and Optical Properties in Co core Au shell and (CoRh) core Au shell Core-Shell Nanoparticles, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 39(121), October 2017, DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b08146 • Ultraviolet Plasmon Resonance in Transition-Metal Doped Aluminum Nanoparticle Arrays, Journal of Materials Chemistry C, 2018, DOI: 10.1039/C8TC00274F • Chemical ordering patterns and magnetism of NiAl nanoclusters, Materials Research Express 015010:)1(4 · January 2017, DOI: 1591-2053/10.1088/aa575f • One-Dimensional Aluminum Nanoparticle Chains: the Influence of Interparticle Spacing and Chain Length on the Plasmon Coupling Behavior, Journal of Materials Chemistry C · January 2017, DOI: 10.1039/C7TC00603A • Plasmon Coupling Behavior in Aluminum Nanoparticle Arrangements, Journal of Materials Chemistry C 45(4), October 2016, DOI: 10.1039/C6TC04072A • Computational Study of Magic-Size CdSe Clusters with Complementary Passivation by Carboxylic and Amine Ligands, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 18(120), May 2016, DOI: 10.1021/acs. jpcc.5b10908
156 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Dr. Mohammed Khader Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Dr. Mohammed Khader is an Assistant Professor in the CSE Department at KCST. Previously was an As- sistant professor at Fahd bin Sultan University, where he worked from 2015 to 2017. During 2013-2015 he was an Assistant Professor at Applied Science University/Jordan. He received a B.S. in computer science from Hashemite University in 2001, and an M.S. in computer science from the University of Jordan in 2004. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Concordia University/Canada in 2013. From 2012 to 2013 he worked at Nakisa/SAP Software Company in Montreal Canada, as a Senior Soft- ware Developer. He also, worked from 2001 to 2004 as a software developer at AlliedSoft which is a German software company provides leading IT solutions. During 2004-2008 he was a lecturer at Isra private university. His research interests focuses on medical image processing, image registration and image fusion, Steganography and digital Watermarking. Teaching Areas • Object Oriented Programming and design • Databases • Computation Theory and Automata Research Areas • medical image processing • image registration • image fusion • Steganography and digital Watermarking Publications - Journals • M. Khader, E. Schiavi, and A. Ben Hamza, “A multicomponent approach to nonrigid registration of diffusion tensor images”, The International Journal of Artificial Intelligence, Neural Networks, and Complex Problem-Solving Technologies, Springer US, ISSN 7497-1573, pp 2017 ,13–1.
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 157 Dr. Nader Aly Shehata Assistant Professor Department of Physics
Dr. Nader Shehata is currently an physics associate professor at Kuwait College of Science and Tech- nology (KCST) and founder of Nanotechnology Research Lab at same college. Meanwhile, he is an associate professor in the department of Engineering Mathematics and Physics in Faculty of Engi- neering, Alexandria University, Egypt. In addition, he is the associate director and co-founder of Center of Smart Nanotechnology & Photonics (CSNP) inside SmartCI research center, Alexandria University. Also, he is currently an adjunct assistant professor in Faculty of Science at Utah State University. He was awarded his PhD degree in the Bradley Department of electrical and computer Engineering at Virginia Tech in 2012. Then, he continued as a post-doc researcher and adjunct instructor in the same department till 2013. In 2005, he received his BSc in Electrical Engineering and MSc in Engineering Physics in 2010 both from Alexandria University in Egypt. Currently, his research is mainly in nanotech- nology field related to the development of different nanostructures applied in optical processes, solar cells, biomedical engineering and gas sensing. Dr. Shehata has a strict background in semiconductors, modern physics, solid state physics, and nanomaterials. He has currently 35 accepted peer-reviewed publications in high reputation journals, more than 15 conference presentations/proceeding papers, one book as editor and three book chapters. Currently, he has been awarded three grants from Kuwait Foundation for Advancement of Science (KFAS) in topics of nanostructures’ characterizations and its applications in environmental monitoring and energy harvesting with total funds around 102,000 KD. Also, he had four awarded research grants from Egyptian and international funding agencies with total amount more than 250,000$. In addition, Dr. Shehata has been selected as a reviewer in different peer-review journals and funding agents. Teaching Areas Engineering Physics, Solid state Physics/Devices, Nanomaterials Research Areas Nanotechnology, Nanomaterials characterizations, Optical nanostructures, Environmental sensors, Electrospinning, Solar cells Research Grants • PI, Optical nanosensors with integrated flexible printed nanoantennas for water quality monitoring, awarded by KFAS Kuwait, Funded budget: 49,500 KD, December -2017December 2019. • PI, Aligned PVDF nanofibers embedded with carbon nanotubes for energy harvesting, awarded by KFAS Kuwait, Funded budget: 9000 KD, August -2017August 2018. • Co-PI, Solar cells efficiency improvement using optical nanostructures coating layers, accepted by KFAS Kuwait, Funded budget: 8000 KD, August -2017August 2018. • PI, Efficiency enhancement of perovskite solar cells with plasmonic nanostructures, awarded by KFAS Kuwait, Funded budget: 34,900 KD, January -2019June 2020. Publications - Journals • A Mansour, AF Tayel, A Khames, M Azab, SI Rabia, N Shehata, Towards software defined antenna for cognitive radio networks through appropriate selection of RF-switch using reconfigurable antenna array, AEU-International Journal of Electronics and Communications 3-25 ,102 ,2019
158 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 • ZA Alhasssan, YS Burezq, R Nair, N Shehata, Polyvinylidene Difluoride Piezoelectric Electrospun Nanofibers: Review in Synthesis, Fabrication, Characterizations, and Applications, Journal of Nanomaterials 2018 • S. Elrafei, I. Kandas, N. Shehata, E. Samir, Efficiency improvement of up-conversion process of plasmonic-enhanced Er-doped-NaYF4 nanoparticles under IR excitation, Optics Express, ,2018 25506-25492 ,)19( 26. • N. Shehata, E. Samir, I. Kandas, Plasmonic-Ceria Nanoparticles as Fluorescence Intensity and Lifetime Quenching Optical Sensor, Sensors, 9(18 ,2018), pp. 2818 • A. Hajjiah, I. Kandas, N. Shehata, Efficiency Enhancement of Perovskite Solar cells with Plasmonic Nanoparticles: A simulation study, Materials, 9(11 ,2018), pp. 1626. • S. Elrafei, I. Kandas, N. Shehata, E. Samir, A. Okaz, M. Rizk, Impact of plasmonic nanoparticles on up-conversion luminescence and efficiency of Erbium-doped ceria nanoparticles under 780nm excitation, Journal of Luminscence, 2014 ,2018, pp. 588-581. • N. Shehata, I. Kandas, I. Hassounah, P. Sobolciak, I. Krupa, M. Mrlik, A. Popelka, J. Steadman, R. Lewis, Piezoresponse, Mechanical, and Electrical Characteristics of Synthetic Spider Silk Nanofibers, Nanomaterials, 585 ,8 ,2018. • N. Shehata, E. Elnabawy, M. Abdelkader, A. Hassanin, M. Salah, R. Nair, S. Bhat, Static-Aligned Piezoelectric Poly (Vinylidene Fluoride) Electrospun Nanofibers/MWCNT Composite Membrane: Facile Method, Polymers, 965 ,)9( 10 ,2018. • N. Shehata, M. Abdelkader, Impact of Electro-Magneto Concave Collector on the Characterizations of Electrospun Nanofibers, Journal of Electronic Materials, 4779–4772 ,)8( 47 ,2018. • I. Kandas, N. Shehata, I. Hassounah, P. Sobolčiak, I. Krupa, R. Lewis, Optical fluorescent spider silk electrospun nanofibers with embedded cerium oxide nanoparticles, Journal of Nanophotonics, 026016 ,)2( 12 ,2018 • E Samir, M Salah, A Hajjiah, N Shehata, M Fathy, A Hamed , Electrospun PVA Polymer Embedded with Ceria Nanoparticles as Silicon Solar Cells Rear Surface Coaters for Efficiency Improvement, Polymers 6( 10 ,2018). • E. Samir, N. Shehata, I. Kandas, Fluorescence intensity and lifetime quenching of ceria nanoparticles as optical sensor for tiny metallic particles, Journal of Nanophotonics 016007 ,)1( 12 ,2018. • A. Hajjiah, E. Samir, N. Shehata, M. Salah, Lanthanide-Doped Ceria Nanoparticles as Backside Coaters to Improve Silicon Solar Cell Efficiency, Nanomaterials 357 ,)6( 8 ,2018. • J. M. Habeeb, N. Shehata, Optical properties of core-shell and multi-shell nanorods, Chemical Physics Letters 193–188 )2018( 699 • A. Hamed, N. Shehata, M. Elosairy, Investigation of Conical Spinneret in Generating More Dense and Compact Electrospun Nanofibers, Polymers 1( 10 ,2017). • N. Shehata, E Samir, S Gaballah, A Hamed, M Saad, M Salah, Fluorescent Nanocomposite of Embedded Ceria Nanoparticles in Electrospun Chitosan Nanofibers, Journal of fluorescence 772-767 ,)2( 27 ,2017. • S. Gaballah, N. Shehata, M. Shaaban, S. Nosier, A. Hefnawy, A. Hamed, E. Samir, Corrosion inhibition of aluminum in Hydrochloric acid solution using ceria doped polyvinyl chloride nanofiber, International Journal of Electrochemical Science, 12 ,2017, pp. 1105-1094. Conference Papers • Invited Talk: N. Shehata, Optical characterization and related applications of cerium oxide nanoparticles, Nanotech / Biotech / Surtech Middle East 2017, Dubai, UAE, December 2017. • N. Shehata, H. Badran, I. Kandas, A. Hajjiah, Enhancement of optical properties of Perovskite solar cells through added plasmonic nanostructures, Techconnect World 2019, Nanotech, Boston MA, June 2019 • I. Kandas, E. Samir, N. Shehata, A.K. Mahmoud, Nonlinear optical nanocomposite : Electrospun PVA nanofibers embedded with PCBS, Techconnect World 2019, Nanotech, Boston MA, June 2019 • A. Mansour, N. Shehata, M.R.M. Rizk, M. Abdelazim, Cognitive Band Manipulations using Twistable Paper-based Antenna for IoT Applications, 2018 IEEE 9th Annual Information Technology,
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 159 Electronics and Mobile Communication, Vancouver, BC, Canada, Nov. 2018. • S.A. Elrafei, I. Kandas, N. Shehata, E. Samir, A. Okaz, M. Rizk, Temperature impact on upconversion efficiency and luminescence of Erbium-doped ceria-plasmonic nanostructure, SPIE Photonic and Phononic Properties of Engineered Nanostructures IX 109271 ,10927A, February 2019. • N. Shehata, E. Samir, I. Kandas, Plasmonic-ceria nanoparticles for automated optical fluorescence-quenching of dissolved oxygen, SPIE Nanoengineering and photonics conference, Nanoengineering: Fabrication, Properties, Optics, and Devices XV, San Diego, California, US (August 2018). • A. Hajjiah, N. Shehata, Optical up-conversion coatings of erbium-doped low-phonon hosts nanoparticles for enhancing solar cell efficiency, SPIE Nanoengineering and photonics conference, Nanoengineering: Fabrication, Properties, Optics, and Devices XV, San Diego, California, US (August 2018). Books/ Book Chapters Edited Books • Nader Shehata, Cerium: Chemical Properties, Applications and Environmental Impact, 2017, Nova Publisher, New York, United States, ISBN: 7-434-53612-1-978. • Nader Shehata, Flexible Inkjet-Printed Antennas: Design, Fabrication, and Applications, Pan • Stanford, Singapore (Agreement has been signed and the book is in preparation). • Book Chapters • Nader Shehata and Kathleen Meehan, Potential Applications of Samarium As a Dopant Element (pp. 136-111) , in “Samarium: Chemical Properties, Occurrence and Potential Applications”, Kaitlyn R. Danford, 2014, Nova Publisher, New York. • Ibrahim Hassounah and Nader Shehata, Designing and testing single tablet for tuberculosis treatment through electrospinning, in “Applications of NanoBioMaterials (Volume I-XI)”, Bioactive Glasses Springer, December 2016 • N Shehata, I Hassounah, P Sobolciak, I Krupa, R Lewis, I Kandas, Spider silk fibers: Synthesis, characterization, and related biomedical applications, Materials for Biomedical Engineering, Elsevier, 307-289 ,2019.
160 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Dr. Omar Khattab Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Omar Khattab is currently an Assistant Professor at the Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering, Kuwait College of Science and Technology, Kuwait. He has over than ten years of progressively responsible in, Computer Networks, Security, System Engineering, System administration and Information Technology, between teaching, researching and supervision, in several countries. He has authored twelve refereed journals and five conference papers, as sole author and first author. He got fully sponsored to attend lots of international conferences and prestigious events. He was awarded lots of prizes and apprecia- tion letters in recognition of his outstanding research work, teaching and achievements either locally or globally. He obtained over than twelve professional certificates in his field, from Cisco, Microsoft and INFOSEC. Teaching Areas • Data Communications and Networking • Computer Network Protocols and Applications • Computer Network Systems and Protocols • Network Security • Computer Security • System Administration • Programming Research Areas • Heterogeneous Wireless Networks • Mobile Networks • Mobility Management • Computer Networking and Security Publications - Journals • O.Khattab.;, «A Comprehensive Survey on Vertical Handover Security Attacks during Execution Phase «, International Journal of Advanced Trends in Computer Science and Engineering (IJATCSE), Accepted on Sep 2019, and to be published soon. • O.Khattab.;, «Vertical Handover Study on 4G Category vs. 5G Category for 3GPP Generation Mobile Systems and Non3-GPP Wireless Network «, Transactions on Networks and Communications, vol. 6, no. 2, Apr 2018, pp. 9-1. • O.Khattab.;,» An Overview of VHO Security vs. VHO Non-Security in Mobile Networks: Approaches», IOSR Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering. , vol. 13, no. 2, Ver. I, Mar-Apr 2018, pp. 75-72. • O.Khattab.;,» Performance Analysis of Reducing Signaling Cost for a Roaming User in Vertical Handover Algorithm for Mobile Networks», IOSR Journal of Computer Engineering, vol. 19, no. 6, Ver. II, Dec 2017, pp. 99-94. • O.Khattab.;, “An Overview on ANS Methods: Who Is a Dominant for the Seamless Vertical Handover Decision through Heterogeneous Networks?,” International Journal of Engineering
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 161 Dr. Omer Y. Adam Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science and Engineering Dr. Omer Adam earned his PhD in information technologies from the School of Information Technolo- gies at the University of Sydney, Australia. He holds a Bachelor degree in Computer Science and a Mas- ter of Science degree in Computer Engineering from the Engineering College at Kuwait University. He has joined the KCST as an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering in 2018. His research interests include the area of distributed and high performance computing sys- tems with particular interest in resource allocation and management in cloud computing. Teaching Areas • Data Structures and Algorithms • Digital Logic Design • Databases • C++, Java, Python Programming languages • Operating Systems • Computer Networks and Protocols Research Areas • Resource Allocation and Management in Cloud Computing • Resource Efficiency • System Modelling and Simulation • Performance Analysis and Evaluation • Applications and Big Data Processing Publications - Journals • Adam , Y. C. Lee and A. Y. Zomaya, ”Stochastic Resource Provisioning for Containerized Multi-Tier Web Services in Clouds,” in IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems (TPDS) , vol. 28, no. 7, pp. 2073-2060, July 2017 1. doi:10.1109/TPDS.2016.2639009. • Omer Y. Adam , Young Choon Lee, Albert Y. Zomaya, ”Constructing Performance-Predictable Clusters with Performance-Varying Resources of Clouds,” in IEEE Transactions on Computers (TC) , vol. 65, no. 9, pp. 2724-2709, Sept. 2016 1,doi:10.1109/TC.2015.2510648. Conference Papers • O. Adam , Y. C. Lee and A. Y. Zomaya, ”CtrlCloud: Performance-Aware Adaptive Control for Shared Resources in Clouds,” 17 2017th IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Cluster, Cloud and Grid Computing (CCGRID) , Madrid, Spain, 2017,pp. 119-110. doi: 10.1109/CCGRID.2017.78.
162 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Dr. Rabih Ghostine Assistant Professor Department of Mathematics
Dr Rabih Ghostine is PhD qualified in Applied Mathematics from the University of Strasbourg (2006- 2009). He was lecturer at the University of Strasbourg and the National Institute of Applied Sciences for five years. He went on to a three years research post in flood modelling at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (2013-2016). He joined the department of Mathematics in 2016. Dr Ghostine’s research interests include development of numerical methods for partial differential equations in par- ticular the discontinuous Galerkin and finite volume methods, computational fluid mechanics, flood modelling in urban areas, flow in porous media, sediment and pollutant transport, data assimilation, and uncertainty quantification. His work crosses the boundaries of many disciplines and activities, with the interface between numerical analysis and hydraulic engineering. He has developed a variety of advanced numerical models to simulate water and flood events in urban areas to assess flood risk. Teaching Areas • Mathematics • Applied Mathematics Research Areas • Partial Differential Equations • Discontinuous Galerkin and Finite Volume Schemes • Numerical Modeling and Simulation • Flood Modeling in Urban Areas • Flow in Porous Media • Sediment and Pollutant transport • Data Assimilation and Uncertainty Quantification Research Grants • Environmental impact assessment of the Pristine and NEOM projects, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, 500K USD, 2020−2018. • Precipitation and flash flood prediction in the city of Jeddah, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, 300K USD, 2016−2014. • Numerical and experimental study of flow at open-channel junctions, University of Strasbourg, 2013−2011. Publications - Journals • Ziliani M, Ghostine R, Ait-El-Fquih B, McCabe M, Hoteit I. Enhanced flood forecasting through ensemble data assimilation and joint state-parameters estimation. Journal of Hydrology ()2019 577 (In Progress). • Ghostine R, Kapfer C, Viswanathan K K, Hoteit I. Flood modeling in urban area using a well- balanced discontinuous Galerkin scheme on unstructured triangular grids. International Journal of Mathematical and Computational Sciences (29−19 ,)2(12 )2019. • Nurul Izyan M D, Aziz Z A, Ghostine R, Lee J H, Viswanathan K K. Free vibration of cross-ply layered circular cylindrical shells filled with quiescent fluid under first order shear deformation theory. International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping (81−73 ,170 )2019.
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 163 Dr. Sharafudeen Valappil Assistant Professor Department of Physics
Dr. Sharafudeen is a physicist. He earned his Ph.D. in the department of Physics at the National Insti- tute of Technology Calicut, India in 2011 and has conducted postdoctoral research at the Institute of optical communication materials at South China University of Technology in Guangzhou, China (from 2011 to 2013) and at the Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos/ Instituto de Fisica de Sao Carlos at University of Sao Paulo in Sao Paulo, Brazil (from 2014 to 2015). He is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics at Kuwait College of Science and Technology. He is as a visit- ing researcher in July 2019 at Leiden Institute of Physics (LION), University of Leiden, the Netherlands. His research interests are in the field of optics and photonics. He studies the behaviour of materials under ultrafast laser excitation, and explores how we can utilize it for practical applications. He is also interested in lasers and cold-atom experiments. His research work spans the topics such as; femto- second laser induced phenomena, luminescence spectroscopy, glass science, fiber laser, atom clocks, precision lasers, ultra-stable lasers etc. He published many research articles in reputed international journals with high impact factors and collaborates with many international universities/institutes for his research works. Teaching Areas • Undergraduate Physics • Solid State Physics • Optics, and Photonics Research Areas • Ultrafast laser-matter interaction • Luminescence spectroscopy • Laser and photonics • Optics Research Grants • Femtosecond laser induced sub-micron structuring of semiconductors, glasses, and polymers, KFAS, 2021-2018. (PR13-18SP01-) • Development of lanthanide ions-doped transparent nanocrystalline glass ceramics for solar cell applications, 2022-2019, (PR14-18SP11-) Publications - Journals • Sharafudeen Kaniyarakkal N. V., Siji Narendran N. K., Shiju E., Vijayakumar S., Chandrasekharan K., 2019, Intensity favored switching of nonlinear optical absorption mechanism in silver nanoparticles under nanosecond pulsed laser excitation, Proc. of SPIE Vol. 110601 ,11060H. • J De Martin Júnior, S K N Valappil, S T Müller, P W Courteille ,V S Bagnato, D V Magalhães, 2018, Development of an ultrastable laser at 1550 nm , IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 975,012069. • P. Sudheesh, Mallikharjuna Rao, K. N. Sharafudeen, K. Chandrasekharan, , 2017, “The role of imine derivatives in enhancing the third order optical nonlinearity in PMMA films for photonic applications”, Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials, 19, no. 250 – 246 ,4 - 3. • Xixi Qin, Yang Li, Ruili Zhang, Jinjun Ren, Mindaugas Gecevicius, Yiling Wu, Kaniyarakkal Sharafudeen, Guopig Dong, Shifeng Zhou, Zhijun Ma, Jianrong Qiu, 2016, “Hybrid coordination-
164 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 networkengineering for bridging cascaded channels to activate long persistent phosphorescence in the second biological window”, Scientific Reports 9-1 ,20275 6 • Xixi Qin,Yang Li,Yiyang Li, Yiling Wu,Ruchun Chen, Kaniyarakkal Sharafudeen, Zhijun Ma, Shijian Liu, Dakun Wu, Jianrong Qiu, 2016, “Inducing NIR long persistent phosphorescence in Cr-doped perovskite titanate via redox”, Journal of Alloys and Compounds 391-387 ,666 • Zhi Chen,Hong Jia, Kaniyarakkal Sharafudeen, Wubin Dai, Yangbiao Liu, Guoping Dong, Jianrong Qiu, 2016 , “Up-conversion luminescence from single vanadate through blackbody radiation harvesting broadband near-infrared photons for photovoltaic cells”, Journal of Alloys and Compounds 210-204 ,663. • • Teng, Yu ; Zhou, Jiajia ; Sharafudeen, Kaniyarakkal ; Zhou, Shifeng ; Miura, Kiyotaka ; Qiu, Jianrong , 2014, Space-selective crystallization of glass induced by femtosecond laser irradiation. Journal Of NonCrystalline Solids, v. 383, p. 2014 ,96-91. • Cao, Renping ; Sharafudeen, Kaniyarakkal N. ; Qiu, Jianrong , 2014, Enhanced luminescence in srmgalxo17 δ:ymn+4 composite phosphors. Spectrochimica Acta. Part A, Molecular And Biomolecular Spectroscopy (Print), v. 117, p. 405-402 • Xi Du, Liaolin Zhang, Guoping Dong, Kaniyarakkal Sharafudeen, Jian Wen,Dongdan Chen, Qi Qian andJianrong Qiu,2014, Coloration and Nonlinear Optical Properties of ZnTe Quantum Dots in ZnO–TeO2– P2O5 Glasses, Journal of the American Ceramic Society,v. 1 ,97, p. 188–185 • Yang Li, Zhijun Ma, Kaniyarakkal Sharafudeen, Guoping Dong and Jianrong Qiu, 2014, Bidirectional Energy Transfer in Bi-Tm-Codoped Glasses, International Journal of Applied Glass Science, v. 5,1, p. 30–26.
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 165 Dr. Bekir Emre Kurtulmus Assistant Professor Department of Business Studies & Social Sciences
Bekir Emre Kurtulmuş is Assistant Professor at Kuwait College of Science and Technology, Kuwait. He has teaching experience in the UK, Turkey and Kuwait. Having previously studied at Cardiff Metropol- itan University, UK, he has published several chapters and articles on international outlets. His current research involves institutional theory, the dark side of leadership and the toxic work environment. He is an organisational scholar researching strategy and organisational behaviour. His studies focus on institutions and institutionalisation process that influence and impact organisations and individuals. The primary aim of his research so far was to understand how in certain limitations organisations and individuals behave, how certain norms, values and practices establish and create a framework through enforcement or voluntary participation of members. Teaching Areas • Strategic Management • Organisational Behaviour • Organisational Theory • Leadership and International Business Research Areas • Leadership • Personality • Institutional Framework • Entrepreneurial Orientation Publications - Articles • Kurtulmuş B. E., Özarı Ç. & Warner B. (2016). Research or teaching oriented? Game theoretic models for the strategic decision-making process of universities with the external environment held neutral, Electronic Journal of Applied Statistical Analysis, 490-469 ,)3(9. (ESCI/Scopus) • Kurtulmuş, B.E. & Warner, B. (2016). Informal institutional framework and entrepreneurial strategic orientation: the role of religion, Int. J. Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, ,)4-3( 20 173-160. (Scopus) • Kurtulmuş B. E., Katrinli A and Zap D. (2016). Exploration and exploitation activities and organisational commitment: The mediating role of culture, European Journal of Business Research, 78-69 ,)2(16 (Ebsco) Conference Papers • Çiğdem Ö. & Kurtulmuş B. E. (2017) Choosing the Right Employee: an Application of MAUT Method and GREY Relational Analysis on Academic Staff Selection Process , 4th International Conference on Business and Economics Studies, December 10-8, Istanbul, Turkey Books/ Book Chapters Books Kurtulmuş B. E (2019) The Dark Side of Leadership: An Institutional Perspective, UK: Palgrave Macmil- lan, ISBN: 978-3-030-02037-8 Book Chapters • Kurtulmuş B. E (2019) Institutionalising Work Place Spirituality to Create an Ethical Climate, in
166 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Marques D. (ed.) Routledge Companion to Management and Workplace Spirituality, Routledge • Kurtulmuş B.E. (2018) Coping with Workplace Bullying Through Workplace Spirituality and Spiritual Traditions. In: Dhiman S., Roberts G., Crossman J. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Workplace Spirituality and Fulfilment. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham • Kurtulmuş B. E. (2017). The Dark Side of Leadership: The Role of Informal Institutional Framework on the Negative Moral and Ethical Behaviours of Leaders in Organisations, in McMurray A. and Muenjohn N. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Leadership in Transforming Asia’,(pp.123-109) UK: Palgrave Macmillan • Katrinli A. & Kurtulmuş B. E. (2017). The change story of crown university, in Anderson D. L. (ed.) Cases and Exercises in Organization Development & Change, Second edition, (pp. 273-266) USA: Sage Publications • Kurtulmuş B. E. (2017). AMD’s struggle for survival: A technology giant’s restructuring and changing process to win competition, in Anderson D. L.(ed.) Cases and Exercises in Organization Development & Change, Second edition, (pp.77-68) USA: Sage Publications • Kurtulmuş B. E.(Forthcoming) Toxic leadership and Workplace Bullying: The Role of Followers In: Satinder D. Palgrave Handbook of Workplace Wellbeing: Reimagining Human Flourishing, UK: Palgrave Macmillan
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 167 Dr. Mubarak A. F. Alenezi Assistant Professor Department of Business Studies & Social Sciences
Dr Mubarak completed his PhD in Islamic History and Civilization at Minia University (2017). He worked in many scientific centres in Kuwait. He was a Social Sciences teacher at Al-Refaa School and lecturer at the Public Authority for Applied Education & Training (Japer University) where he taught History of Arab Civilization. In 2017, he joined Kuwait College of Science and Technology as an Assistant Pro- fessor where he is responsible of History and Arab Civilization course. He published a book and two scientific papers in History of Arab Civilization. He is also interested in Islamic arts. He established the Calligraphy Club at Kuwait College of Science and Technology in 2017 to improve our students’ skills and participated in many calligraphy events. Teaching Areas • Islamic History and Civilization in Ayyub and Mameluke period. • Islamic Arts. Research Grants • The Waqf and Social Science in Damascus during Ayyub period 1259 – 1174 AD, Kuwait Awqaf Public Foundation, 3100 KD, 2016–2012. Publications - Journals • Mubarak A, Alenezi, Reviving Abbasid caliphate at Cairo during Mameluke period, Manuscripts and Papyrus Journal, Egypt, 2017. • Mubarak. A, Alenezi, The scientific movement during Mameluke period, Arabic Studies Journal, Egypt, 2017. • Mubarak A, Alenezi, The role of the head of Mameluke army ALzainy Abdul Basit bin Khalil through the Waqf arguments, in progress. Conference Papers Cyber Security Summit, 24th & 25th August 2019, Kuwait Oil Company Books/ Book Chapters • Mubarak A. Alenezi, History of Arab Civilization, Grow More book Store, Kuwait 2017. • Mubarak A. Alenezi, The Waqf and Social Science in Damascus during Ayyub period 1259–1174 AD, Kuwait Awqaf Public Foundation, Kuwait, 2017. • Mubarak A. Alenezi, philosophy of science, in progress. • Mubarak A. Alenezi, Randa. Diab, Etiquette in Kuwait, in progress.
168 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Dr. Abrar Al-Enzi Assistant Professor Department of Business Studies & Social Sciences
Dr. Abrar Al Enzi is an Assistant Professor at Kuwait College of Science and Technology (KCST), Ku- wait. She earned her PhD from Lougborough University, UK, in the School of Business and Economics. During her PhD studies at Loughborough university, she held few teaching positions and published few papers. Also, she previously obtained her BSc Degree in International Business from Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST), Kuwait, and worked for three years at Kuwait Direct Investment Promotion Authority (KDIPA), Kuwait. While working at KDIPA, she completed her MSc Degree in MBA from GUST, Kuwait. Her main research interest includes organizational behavior in terms of Human Resource Management practices, career development, networking, knowledge sharing, innovation, and commitment. Teaching Areas • Human Resource Management • Introduction to Management • Strategic Management • Introduction to Marketing • International Business Operations • Management and Organizational Behavior • International Management • Leadership Publications • Al-Enzi, A. (2016) The Influence of Wasta on Organizational Practices in Kuwait. In: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Human Resources Development and Management, Zurich, July 2016. International Science Index, Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol. 3, No. 7, p. 1817. • Al-Enzi, A. (2016) The Influence of Wasta on Employees and Organizations in Kuwait. In: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Human Resources Development and Management, Paris, July 2016. International Science Index, Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol. 3, No. 7, p. 6. • Al-Enzi, A., Cooke, L., and, Rothwell A. (2017) The Influence of Wasta on Knowledge Sharing in Kuwait. In: Proceedings of the 18th European Conference on Knowledge Management (ECKM). 8-7 September 2017, International University of Catalonia, Spain. Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited, pp. 29-23. (Print Version ISSN: 8963-2048, ISBN: -911218-1-978 7-48). Papers presented • Al-Enzi, A., Cooke, L., and Rothwell, A. (2015) The influence of Wasta on Employees in Kuwait. In: Proceeding of SBE Doctoral Conference. 2015, Loughborough University, UK. • Al-Enzi, A., Cooke, L., and Rothwell, A. (2016) The Influence of Wasta on Organizations in Kuwait: Exploring the Impact on Human Resource Management Practices, Knowledge Sharing, Innovation and Organizational Commitment. In: Proceedings of Thriving in Turbulent Times. 8-6 September 2016, Newcastle University, UK: British Academy of Management. Developing Papers for publication • Book chapters: Three book chapters (an author in one chapter and a co-author in two chapters). • Journal paper: The Invasion of E-Commerce in Kuwaiti Market: the verge of extinction of Brick- and-Mortar.
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 169 Dr. Samrajesh Mault Lecturer Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Dr. Samrajesh has a rich blend of Academic, Research and Software Industrial experience in the field of information technology. He was the past Secretary of Computer Society of India (CSI), Kochi Chapter. He has around 20 years of total IT experience. He has conducted research on various fields in comput- er science and engineering and disseminated the research results in various international conferences and in scientific journals. He has received best paper awards for the work done in the area of grid computing, energy savings in cloud computing. Moreover, have received many best teacher awards on his earlier academic assignments. He was advisor in syllabus revision at for Mahatma Gandhi (MG) University, was Chief Examiner and Member of the Board of Examiners in MG University. Moreover, was expert consultant in various Government of Kerala IT programs Teaching Areas • Database Management Systems (DBMS) • Artificial Intelligence & Expert System • Distributed Systems & Cloud Computing • Problem Solving with Structured Programming in C++ • Object Oriented Programming and Modelling, design with UML Research Areas • Virtualization • Energy Efficient Systems • Modelling and Simulation • Performance Evaluation • Computer Security • Software Engineering Research Grants/Research Projects • Kuwait University, project dates: Jan2016- to Aug2017-, Performance evaluation of Arabic speech recognition implementation techniques Publications - Journals • Mohammad H. Alshayeji, Yousef Sharaf, Sa’ed Abed and M.D. Samrajesh, An Enhanced VoD Streaming Model for P2P Cloud Computing Systems, Journal of Telecommunication, Electronic and Computer Engineering, Vol 2017 ,)2(9 • Mohammad H. Alshayeji, Sa’ed Abed and M.D. Samrajesh, Energy Efficient Virtual Machine Migration Algorithm, Journal of Engineering Research, Vol 2(5), pp.2017 ,42-19 • M.D. Samrajesh, Gopalan, N.P. and Suresh. S , “A Scalable Component Model for Multi-Tenant SaaS Application”, International Journal of Advanced Intelligence Paradigms, Inderscience Publishers, Switzerland. Vol 2( 8),pp 2016 ,206-191 • M.D. Samrajesh, and Gopalan, N. P. “Towards Multivariable Architecture for SaaS Multi-tenant Applications”, International Journal of Software Engineering and its Applications, SERC, South Korea, Vol 4( 10), pp 2016 ,26-13 Conference Papers • M.D. Samrajesh and K.K Viswanathan, Reliable Component Instance for Multi-Tenant Software as a Service Application, The 22nd IEEE International Conference on Computational Science and
170 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Engineering (IEEE CSE 2019), New York, USA, Aug 2019 • M.D. Samrajesh, Unique Input Output based Teaching and Assessment Methodology for Computer Programming Courses, Clute International Academic Conference on Education - Technology Track (ICTE),New York, USA, Aug 2019 (Best Paper Awarded) • S.J. Adrin Matthew, M.D. Samrajesh, Electromagnetic Field (EMF) Radiation and its Impact on our Health and Eco-System, International Conference on Recent Innovations in Engineering and Technology (ICRIET) New York, USA, 16th - 17th July, 2019 • S.J. Adrin Matthew, M.D. Samrajesh, T. Ravichandran and J.E. Merlin Sasikala, Environmental Impact of Electromagnetic Field (EMF) Radiations and its Awareness, Proceedings of the State level Seminar on Impact of Education on Sustainable Environmental Management, Pudukottai, India April 2019
Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 171 Dr. Nour El Islam Boukortt Lecturer Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
Dr. Nour has a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Messina, Italy, in 2017. After his Ph.D., he moved as a Research Associate in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Kuwait University in one project which was conducted in collaboration with IMEC (Leuven, Belgium). He is now sharing his skills as a faculty member at the Kuwait College of Science and Technology (KCST). He has always considered excellence in research and excellence in education important in his role at KCST, and he has been ac- tive in both over the years. Teaching Areas • Circuit Theory; • Digital Electronics; • Electronic Devices and Systems; • VLSI Design, Tools, and Technology; • Introduction of Electrical Engineering; • Physics of Semiconductor Materials and Devices; Research Areas • Photovoltaics and Photonics; • Electronic & Optoelectronic devices; • Semiconductors: Materials, Physics, and Devices (Micro/Nano Technologies); Publications - Journals
• Boukortt “Numerical Optimization of -0.5µm-thick Cu (In-1xGax) Se2 Solar Cell” Optik - Elsevier (2019). • N. Boukortt, S. Patanè, and G. Crupi “3D Investigation of -8nm Tapered n-FinFET Model” Silicon - Springer (2019). • N. Boukortt, S. Patanè, and F. Bouhjar “Design, optimization and characterisation of IBC c-Si (n) solar cell” Silicon - Springer (2019). • N. Boukortt “Optimization of IBC c-Si (n) solar cell using 2D physical modeling” Optik - Elsevier (2019). • N. Boukortt and B. Hadri “Bifacial n-PERC Solar Cell Characterization” Indian Journal of Physics - Springer (2018). • N. Boukortt and B. Hadri “Simulation of Electrical Characteristics of PERC Solar Cell” Journal of Electronic Materials - Springer (2018). • N. Boukortt, S. Patanè, and B. Hadri “Development of High Efficiency PERC Solar Cells Using Atlas Silvaco” Silicon - Springer (2018). • A. Benallou, B. Hadri, J. Martinez-Vega, and N. Boukortt “A percolation approach to study the high electric field effect on electrical conductivity of insulating polymer” European Physical Journal B (2018). • N. Boukortt, S. Patanè, and B. Hadri “Electrical Characterization of n-ZnO/c-Si 2D heterojunction Solar Cell by Using TCAD Tools” Silicon - Springer (2018). • N. Boukortt, B. Hadri, S. Patanè, A. Caddemi, and G. Crupi, “Investigation on TG n-FinFET parameters by varying channel doping concentration and gate length” Silicon - Springer (2017). • N. Boukortt, B. Hadri, A. Caddemi, G. Crupi, and S. Patanè, “Temperature Dependence of Electrical Parameters of Silicon-on-Insulator Triple Gate n-Channel Fin Field Effect Transistor” Trans. Electr.
172 Annual Report of the Academic Year 2018-2019 Electron. Mater. 2016( 334-329 ,17). • N. Boukortt, B. Hadri, S. Patanè, A. Caddemi, and G. Crupi, “Electrical Characteristics of -8nm SOI n-FinFETs” Silicon - Springer (2016). • N. Boukortt, B. Hadri, and S. Patanè, “Effects of high-k dielectric materials on electrical characteristics of DG n-FinFETs” IJCA (2016). • N. Boukortt, B. Hadri, and A. Caddemi, “Simulation of a Nanoscale SOI TG nFinFET” IJCA (2016). Conference Papers
• N. Boukortt and S. Patanè “Cu (In-1xGax) Se2 Solar Cell Investigation with Single Layer Antireflection nd Coating of MgF2 ”2 International Conference on Smart Grid and Renewable Energy, IEEE Proceeding Conference (2019).
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